peteski

In Massachusetts for some time inspection stations had a "treadmill" to run the silly emission tests on pre-OBDII cars. So my '85 Caddy had to be put through the paces. But few years ago they finally got rid of that silly thing, and they no longer test emissions in those cars. The test equipment maintenance costs were probably killing them. I suspect that the only one getting rich was the manufacturer of those treadmills.

Back 30 or 40 years ago most modelers used enamel paints formulated for models (plastic safe). Now there are dozens of brands (with all sorts of chemistries) which are sold for painting plastic models. Mixing brands or even chemistries often results in incompatibility, resulting in ruined paint job. Often touted recommendation on the forums is that wherever you try some new painting method or paint combination, a test should be made on some unimportant plastic item (like a polystyrene disposable spoon) to make sure there are no adverse reactions. And as johnyrotten mentioned, the paint terminology that has crept into the modeling world is often inaccurate and vague. I cringe when modelers use blanket statements as "acrylics" to describe a wide range of paints with different chemistries. There is unfortunately no easy fix for that, but understanding the basics of paint chemistry makes us better modelers.

For plastics I actually hold the drill's 1/8" shank directly in my fingers, but I don't have BFFs. For soft metals yes, I do put them in a pin vise with the free spinning back that rests in the palm of my hand. As for #80 size I suspect you made a typo. It is 0.013" or 0.33mm. Just slightly larger than #85.

Here are my smallest PC board drill bits. I have no problem hand-drilling using #80 and #85 bits in plastic (I do occasionally break a bit), but I only used the #96 bit in my miniature drill press (and broke few even then). When I use a drill press, I can drill #80 and #85 holes in metal. The dimensions in my drill index are in inches. The #96 bit is protected by plastic tube because it will break pretty much even if you gently brush against it.

Mark, chromed parts on 1:1 cars get their mirror-like finish because their surface is glass-smooth. That prevents the reflected light from scattering, resulting in mirror-like reflectivity. Before the chrome layer 1:1 automotive parts are first plated with other metals (like copper) which produce that very smooth surface for the final plating of Chromium. Alclad II Chrome paint (just like 1:1 chrome layer) requires the painted surface to be glass-smooth for the mirror-like effect. You can apply that paint to any surface (without a glossy base coat) and it will end up looking silver, but since the surface is rough, the reflected light will be scattered it will look like silver paint instead of chrome. Your bare 3-D printed parts are already not smooth because unlike injection-molder parts, they are printed in very thin layers which are visible. Alclad II metallic paints go on very thin, so the 3-D painted surface will result in rough finish, making the chrome paint look like silver paint. So yes, you can paint those bare wheels with any Alclad metallic paints, but the result will look like unpolished silver metal. Using the chrome paint might give a slightly brighter finish than just using Alclad aluminum or other metallic paints. It seems like you are ok with that.

If you will be taking the model as a carry-on, make sure it can be easily opened and examined by TSA agents screening you. There is a good chance they will ask you to open the box and examine it. You don't want to stand there in line fumbling to show them your possible "terrorist weapon" inside.

Funny that they (Firehouse, Firestorm or whatever Media) still calls it "Scale Auto's" since that magazine was killed several years ago. But at least they still publish photos from my club's annual contest.

Craig, as mentioned in your other intro post, I suspect that a better place for this request would be in the "wanted" section of the forum. Also, If I may offer a suggestion, using a more informative subject line might be helpful. Something like "Looking for 1:24 '78 Camaro wheels" instead of just "Searching" could give better responses. Subject line is what we all see first when browsing the forum.

In an earlier post Frank mentioned "Theyre only being used for special events 3 of them already got damaged due to lack of experience by their officers", so I don't expect them involved in any high-speed maneuvers.

You probably remember that we had that before the last major reshuffle of the forum. I liked it being separate, but I somehow doubt it will be brought back.

It is not about offense words - those get automatically censored, replaced with "blah, blah, blah". It is about what in my opinion is terrible software design where including words which can be used as a database command language will cause that weird effect you experienced. Instead of giving an informative error about the forbidden words, the forum software just pukes. There are multiple threads in this section of the forum. with more details about this "problem" . EDIT: actually I was going to post few links to those threads related to the problem (some were fairly recent) but they all seem to have disappeared. I found some older thread and here is some useful info from Dave:

Why not just file either the offending edges on the lid or the body openings in those areas? The change in size of the lids or the openings will be tiny - probably not noticeable. I would have to find and dig out my models to see what this is all about. It just looks odd for Tamiya. EDIT: Mike just posted what he found. I guess even Tamiya can have fitment problems like this.

I have couple of those kits but haven't tried to build them yet. That doesn't look like a typical Tamiya kit fitment problem. Is this the original release of that kit, or a newer release (assuming there were multiple runs)? The gaps seem uneven, almost as of there was flash in the openings. Have you done anything to either the hood/trunk or to the body openings, or all the parts are untouched kit parts?

That thing belongs in the "Blade Runner" movie. The paint job also makes it look less like a dumpster.

The PerlEx powders I have seen are not pigments which dissolve in paint but metallic or pearl particles. They will be similar to what is in any metallic or mica paints.