Nanuq

Bravo for doing your own homework! I had a Big Crown build based on the Raffles case with the Athaya crown, gilt dial and white seconds hand. It came out really good. If you want to go with the Tiger case, I have just the dial for you, it's about 27 mm, tropical brown with gilt text. $100 out the door. If you do a 6538 build, it's supposed to be tall, with a thick case back. Otherwise you're looking at a 6536 build, with a lower profile, and the "wrong" dial. You can't really build a believable 6538 with a low profile. The Raffles case has a peculiar divot where the tube comes out of the case. When you screw in the Athaya tube, it countersinks into the divot, and it's iffy whether the crown will screw all the way down to seal before it hits the case. Ziggy worked mine over, and filled that divot with some metal epoxy, then shaped it and tapped threads so the crown screws down right next to the case without countersinking. In the end mine came out very good, but the Raffles case has the incorrect case back, so it has a lower profile like a 6536. In the end that's what bugged me, so I went Big Gonzo on my next 6538 build, with an MQ case. Here are some pics showing how my Raffles came out.

Woodsmoke and EP-90 gear lube. Hypoid. A little dab behind the ears drives the girls wild. The Alaskan girls.......

Welcome, gnarly!

That's a beauty. I know nothing about IWC, but that's how I got into watches too. My grandfather had an ancient rectangular piece with a high plexi crystal and that got me hooked. Very nice!

Okay gents I cleared up a lot of these, you should be good for another month.

Anyone who was told this by anyone here, please forward that PM to me. There are three people here with the ban button and neither myself, TwoTone nor Admin have made this statement. Something like that is totally unacceptable here at RWG and I won't tolerate it. That's not who we are.

Ahhhh, now I see, thank you.

Hey Billy, I'm with you. I wouldn't wear one of those hideous things if it was given to me. Let the flames begin ... you PAM lovers have all your taste in your mouth!

No, there are some fun loving bears out there!

Hey, countryman! If you need one I can have my buddies here build it, sell it to me and I'll send it "preowned" to save you some Kroner!

That reminds me of a favorite poem by Robert Service. The Quitter By Robert Service When you’re lost in the Wild, and you’re scared as a child, And Death looks you bang in the eye, And you’re sore as a boil, it’s according to Hoyle To cock your revolver and . . . die. But the Code of a Man says: “Fight all you can,” And self-dissolution is barred. In hunger and woe, oh, it’s easy to blow . . . It’s the hell-served-for-breakfast that’s hard. “You’re sick of the game!” Well, now, that’s a shame. You’re young and you’re brave and you’re bright. “You’ve had a raw deal!” I know-but don’t squeal, Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight. It’s the plugging away that will win you the day, So don’t be a piker, old pard! Just draw on your grit; it’s so easy to quit: It’s the keeping-your-chin-up that’s hard. It’s easy to cry that you’re beaten-and die; It’s easy to crawfish and crawl; But to fight and to fight when hope’s out of sight- Why, that’s the best game of them all! And though you come out of each grueling bout, All broken and beaten and scarred, Just have one more try-it’s dead easy to die, It’s the keeping-on-living that’s hard.

Yeah I might freeze something else important to the handlebars and then I'd REALLY be mad.

That was a heck of a thing. It was -25 or so, nice clear cold day so I went riding. I followed a ridge then dropped down into a low wide valley. At the bottom I knew there was a river there somewhere but wasn't sure exactly where. It had been so cold I was sure the ice was good, so I rode out onto it so I could take the "highway" up the valley and went right through the ice. My bike hung up on the handlebars and my armpits caught me so I pushed the bike out on top and used it as an anchor to pull out. I belly crawled to shore then tried to stand up, but I was covered in slush from the snow sticking to my soaked clothes. I broke the ice off and dumped the water out of my boots, then tried to ride out to where I'd left my Rover, but the bike was iced up and wouldn't pedal. I had about 6 miles to go and was getting pretty hypothermic, and my head quit working, so I got out onto the ice again (trying to follow the shore) and fell through again. I fell through three times getting back to the Rover, and was pretty cold when I got there. I lost some skin to frostbite, but not a huge deal. Here's the worst part: early in the ride I ducked beneath a tree and my front tire hit a bump, and my lower lip touched my handlebars for just a second, and tore the skin off! It was pretty cold.

Who is Archie? Hey.... give me a break. We get our news by dogsled here and by the time it reaches us, it's not "news" anymore, it's "olds".

Nonrelativistic, you say? Okay, then.......................

Ah, that's the easy riding. This is the tough stuff. Remember when I fell through the river last winter? This is what it looks like. Who'd think there would be thin ice under that snow cover?

Here's one caught in the act. His next communication... "HAZ JETSKI. WATNZ JETSKI GET SALNOM. LOTZ SALNOM" I think it's the same one.

From this summer... a little peek of Alaska. Try full screen view. http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=01954565-3771-42e5-acac-36924118453e http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=334b0d5c-c29d-4c2e-82d0-babc9875071a http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=f5e2608a-16e4-48e6-aa86-35f5b6ea2951 http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=d52bb1c0-8b9b-41d8-b1c6-713a9c0424a1 http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=2f810384-4ff3-4557-9607-7ee4dd184c9b http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=44acd205-6424-401b-9ee7-fd23c81f0ef3 http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=51d60752-59d7-489e-8ea7-2ec13a92d742 http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=af7eb8f7-e911-4c43-8d79-f5cff291362b http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=9c27ff72-1447-4867-abe4-462156a13ec8

And so do highly detailed tats. Death by 1,000 punctures?

BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA!!! You're right... I knew it was the bear because of the misspellings. I HAZ CAR. F U WANTZ CAR GET SALNOM. LOTZ SALNOM. LEVE BAK DORE. GET CAR. Fricken bears.

You guys are un-fricken-believable. Nicely done! Okay this ought to be an easy one:

He told me he was sending my watch on the 4th, and sent a tracking number. I received it yesterday.

Yes, and with a scope like that, why does this project look no better than a piece thrown together late in a Saturday Night Single Malt binge? This is an anniversary piece! At least a nod to the original would be nice, beyond the big crown. I'd expect a build like this to come from eBay, or from the cargo hold of a widebody carrying dozens of poorly packaged cheap reps, that encountered severe turbulence.