B Squared Mfg

Ace Combat 8 is probably the 2nd best Ace Combat game, second only to Unsung War. Definitely the best game mechanically though. Top tier gameplay. Project Aces, please remake Unsung War. PLEASE.

Things with the M90 kits are well under way. At this point, it's an exercise in waiting for me. Been working on the BR55 RDB kit in the meantime, but also trying to wrap up the purpose built MA5C. I need to get some hard chrome plated pistons. The gas system has been revamped to be completely custom. The rifle went from being a short stroke system to a long stroke. The gas block is more or less done, machined out of 4140 and nitrided. The piston and mount where the piston attaches will be directly affixed to the bolt carrier.

These turned out beautifully! Xometry always delivers incredibly high quality 3d prints and are ITAR compliant. The shops in their network always produce exceptional results.

Hey everybody! Just dropping an update on the M90 kits. Bit of a long read. So, some good news and some bad news. I'll start with the good. When I made the M90 kit, I was expecting to sell maybe 20-30 kits. If I was really fortunate, 40 or so. My following here on X is quite small relatively speaking and I'm a relative unknown. And that's not being self deprecating, that's just the reality of my sphere of influence based on the number of people who see my content. Well, you guys proved my expectations wrong several times over. To say I was blown away is something else. I sold far more than 20-30 kits. And all of those kits have been paid for and are currently in production! I've received a first article of inspection to make sure it all looks good, and boy does it. So, that's the good news. What's the bad? Despite opening orders on August 29th, I didn't receive any money in my bank account until early October. I know many of you reached out to me expressing concerns that you orders had been cancelled because the charge disappeared off your credit card statement and there was no sign of the transaction. Well, this is why. My sales volume went from basically nothing to an insane amount over the course of a single day. It triggered red flags on the bank's end. Because I deal in firearms accesories, I need to use special payment processors that is 'high risk'. That doesn't mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but it does mean a lot more jumping through hoops. I was in constant communication with my bank over the 5-6 weeks it took for the funds to get unlocked, and they kept requesting more info before they'd release the funds. They wanted things like quotes from the manufacturer, history of transactions, etc. Eventually they deemed the transactions legitimate and released the funds. The downside to this is it put me majorly behind with production. I couldn't even start the process until mid October because of the delay. The 3d print company (understandbly) wasn't ready to extend an obscenely large line of credit my way to begin production and wanted to be paid in full up front, which makes total sense. They have been paid and production HAS been started. There is one final bit of bad news before I share some more good news. My original quote had a 4-5 week lead time based on 50 units. Because we blew well past that, the lead time has jumped a lot. It will take 20 weeks or so to completely fulfill all orders, BUT, that doesn't mean you will have to wait 20 weeks to get your kit. The plan right now is to have them ship the parts to me every 2 weeks or so with an average of 25 kits being in each shipment. It averages to around 50 kits a month going out. If you ordered in the first couple of days (August 29th-August 30th) you'll probably have your kit by the end of November. From there, things stretch out a bit. I apologize for this delay, and to help make up for it, I've decided to include the LED illumination kit in all orders. You'll receiver everything you need to illuminate your M90's iron sights. This saves you around $30 worth of parts and shipping if you wanted to do it yourself (those oversized pogo pins are $4 a piece on Digikey). It's not a lot, but I hope it helps. You'll still need to solder the kit yourself, as my soldering skills are terrible and if you want to cerakote/paint your kit, it'd be better to have it unwired. I will also be including a set of green iron sights if you want a more Halo 2 vibe. If this extended lead time is going to be an issue for you, please reach out to me via e-mail. I can say that I'm not planning on another round of M90 kits, and there is a very long wait list of people who missed out and would love your order if you no longer want it! Now that I'm fully aware of how much demand there is for stuff like this, I can assure you, when I launch the BR55 RDB kit, I will already have a large quantity on-hand so I can ship them out as the orders come in. You guys are are awesome. Like I said, feel free to reach out to me via e-mail if this is going to be an issue and we'll sort it out. I will be posting as parts come in and kits go out. I'm expecting all of the rubberized buttpads to be here in a few days, for instance.

Last month, I got a call from @MartyTheElder 's campaign asking if I would be able to attend his LAN party. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to at the time so I said unlikely. A week or so later, I realized I'd have been able to make it. Realizing I could have attended is the biggest kick in the nuts I've had all year. Feels BAD.

Show of hands, who else 100% this game back in the day?

If Six Flags adds their branding to Cedar Point, I'm going to riot.

Was going to do my yearly re-read of Hunt for Red October when I realized my old man still has my copy. Time for another classic.

I need to get back to learning Japanese so I can freely interact with our Japan Bros here on X again. Anybody have experience on learning the language? Used to know a bit back in my college day when I took it during a slow semester, but that was many moons ago.

It's the final 24 hours for the M90 kit! After pre-orders close, I'll place the order and production will begin.

I really hate soldering and electronics, which is why I'm including glow in the dark sights instead. But, if you're actually competent with soldering, you can wire them up with LEDs. Also, 72 hours left before pre-orders close! Once they're closed, that's a wrap.

Anybody else ever think, "I should make a belt fed 12ga shotgun that shoots Dragon's Breath, then build a Multi Melta frame around it" while mowing the lawn, or is that just me?

Because I don't want to just complain about bad companies when I post about non-gun stuff, I want to shout out @iFixit for their insanely awesome customer support. I daily drive a 14 year old laptop (not as my main system). Battery died last year, so I replaced it with one from them. A couple days ago, it stopped work and my system wouldn't turn on. I e-mailed them about it, and they overnighted me a replacement, no questions asked. They just asked that I recycle the defective unit, which I'll be doing. Thanks for helping me keep this functional relic alive, iFixit.

I still remember that day 25 years ago. It's hard to explain to my younger friends the shift that happened. All of the optimism and hope of Y2K vanished in an instant, replaced by anger and fear. 2,977 lives, gone. Time goes on, but I'll always remember.

I think I've responded to every e-mail I've received. If you e-mailed me but have not received a response, it's either coming soon or somehow got eaten by a spam filter. One incredibly annoying thing is I've received multiple e-mails of people reporting their cards being refunded or the charges canceled. I believe this is because once again @elavon has decided it's a cool thing to keep funds in limbo for no other reason than they think it's funny. All without telling me! I needed to reach out through a BigCommerce support ticket to learn this, and they forwarded information the bank wanted. Last time this happened, some of you reached out to advertise your 2A friendly banking options. Before I launch any future projects, I'll be switching to one of those. I should hopefully know by the middle of next week if your orders were canceled by the bank or not; they certainly weren't canceled by me. Monday is Labor Day, so there will be a delay between that and the weekend. On my end, they're still showing up as active, but I haven't seen a cent deposited into my accounts. Thanks for being patient, everybody. My guests departs on Monday, and after that, I can give this my full attention.

To anybody who has e-mailed me, I'm doing my best to get back to you. I'm currently hosting out-of-country guests and my freetime is stretched THIN. Probably shouldn't have launched the day before they arrived, but it is what it is. I 100% will get back to all e-mails by the end of the week.