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Skip

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Everything posted by Skip

  1. Never heard of this happening. Figure it this way, the market share or percentage of discretionary income spent on model cars is a mere spec in the total scheme of things, income as a whole not individual. Therefore it makes little if any sense that someone would counterfeit model car kits or anything original in the sealed kit. What you have probably noted is a printing error, those happen frequently with high batch printing jobs. It might be worth a little bit more than a non-error what ever that is worth to a collector. now if you're talking resin parts, that's quite common for someone to rip off another's hard work to develope a decent master and bring a part to market. That's a matter of exposing the fraud for what they are, a common thief!
  2. Nope, I have enough to last including two of each '29 Roadster original release, '30 Coupe first and only release still in unopened boxes already built a couple of each so far. Not hoarding them, just waiting for the right inspiration to come along before another one is released from its cardboard prison! Not going to play into the hands of "Chicken Littles" and speculators, every sector of the automotive hobby that I've been involved in has been fraught with one crisis or another. Some Chicken Little running around telling everyone to buy it now or never get it! Funny thing, if you're the least bit patient the item in question either comes back around the same price or lower. Then those morons who bought the stores out stocking up got tired of having money tied up in stuff that wasn't supposed to ever see the light of day flood the store shelves with a vengeance! Happens nearly every time, just be patient!
  3. There is actually another air compressor option http://www.californiaairtools.com/ these are a brand of quiet air compressors, I have a 5 gallon compressor that I use in the house in my hobby room, no complaints from my wife over the noise like my old compressor. Airbrushes, one of the beginner air brushes that I have reccomended is actually the Harbor Freight DeLuxe airbrush. Sure it's cheap, it's a cheap knockoff of the bigger bucks models, it has the adjustments needed to make corrections. Once you get used to working with the Harbor Freight Airbrush and have decided whether you wish to use an airbrush (or not) then decide which airbrush actually fits your needs. Get used to assembling and disassembling the cheap airbrush, then when you graduate to a better one you will already have the habits of keeping one clean and adjusted for a lot less money than an Iwata, Paasche, or other better airbrushes. I've been fooling around with Airbrushes for over 40 years, I've helped a lot of people get started in using one too. My first airbrush was a Badger single action with canned propellant! Then a spare tire for air, a tank then a five gallon compressor (used for other garage stuff). Next was a Badger dual action, then a Paasche I use Iwata and Paasche mostly now for models and custom paint work. You mentioned "zebra striping" sounds like the tip on the brush is a little too small, it might be a "detail" tip where you might need a broader tip to get more coverage. This is something that can be addressed when you graduate up to a better airbrush which will have a wider variety of tips available to correct or address any coverage problems you might encounter. You might want to pick up a copy or two of Airbrush Action magazine, read everything you can about running an airbrush, they also advertise some excellent "quiet" air compressors. The other model car magazine and Fine Scale Modeler have had many Good articles on using an airbrush for models try and see if you can pick up some of the back issues covering the subject. From a former apartment manager; as far as the "old bag" upstairs, you pay your rent the same as she does and are entitled to the use of your rented home the same as any other resident of your apartment complex. I take it that you are able to hear her walking on the floors above your head, maybe her tv, stereo or other noises correct. She has to realize and this should be made clear to her through the apartment management that she is living in a multiple resident apartment and therefore she can and will at times hear, smell or otherwise notice the presence of other residents in the building at times. You should have a long talk with your apartment manager about this, if it still remains an issue request to be moved to another unit, even threaten to move out. Apartment managers don't like the move out because it makes them work to rehab the unit to be rentable so this ploy might work for you. Just make sure you stand up for yourself and establish the bat as the whiner that she is, which the manager probably already knows.
  4. Something to remember with the "low cost" acrylics, rule of thumb is the lower the price the less pigment in the paint. Less pigment = less coverage. Something you can tell right off when you try to brush the acrylic paint over a primed surface. The better brands of model specific acrylics often will cover with one coat, something I've never done with the cheaper Wally World brands. I still use them but realize that they will need multiple coats to cover; something I really notice when using an airbrush with thinned paint. I've used both windshield washer fluid and acrylic specific reducers, each have their place; wouldn't topcoat a body or other large surface with washer fluid as a reducer though.
  5. You are doing really well with this one. Two observations from having a Mk III Mini in the garage,. 1. The engine block is the same as the Austin Healey Sprite and MG Midget and should be painted green, the ribbed transaxle and oil pan are a cast aluminum unit and should be left raw aluminum. (Couldn't tell you whether overspray from painting the engine is normal or not, I've never seen that so I think they must have painted the engine and head seperate from the transaxle assembly.) 2. Axles should be black in between flat and glossy, mix flat and gloss together 50/50 and you should have the right color. Minor corrections that will add a whole lot of credibility. Minilites the color combination that I am familiar with is the color you have, then paint the rim portion a more silver aluminum color leaving the spokes the color you already have them! You'll have it nailed then! Free reference pictures of the individual parts can be found at some of the retailers selling Mini parts for the original Mini such as;. minimania.com and their sister site in the UK I think it's Minigarage.com (you can find that on the minimania website). Heritage garage has a website. Look for Mini clubs like the Vancouver and the Victoria B.C. Mini Clubs, the Oregon Mini Society, Seattle Area Mini Owners Association and others which have links to their suppliers and other clubs. Between all those you should find more information than you require to make a pretty accurate Mk I Mini. If you really want to make an accurate Monte Carlo Ralley scene then add a snowy base with a red SAAB 90 and maybe a Volkswagen Beetle racing together.. The SAAB and Mini were pretty much neck and neck most of the times they ralleyed against each other! You already did the other thing right that many modelers get wrong with the window chrome trim its only around a quarter of an inch wide, I've set models with the whole door surround painted silver! Oops!
  6. Thanks for starting this thread. Last weekend there was a listing out of China for the More American Graffiti "Milner's Dragster" for the paltry sum of $24.99 on a buy it now. I tried to buy it now, thankfully it didn't go through. So I tried to contact the scam artist asking what the trouble was and why the sale wouldn't go through blah, blah.. after that I saw this thread, knew what the deal was. So I tried contacting again, telling them that if they didn't make contact within the next 24 hours that I was through dealing with them. Even before the time was up I turned the "Auction" in to eBay as a possible fraud, it was down within an hour or two so they must have thought so too! starting to get like it was in th early days of EvilBay when there were a few stalkers on there who tried to scam people into sending cash instead of money orders. eBay rooted them out pretty quickly too.
  7. That's too bad, really, there is some cool stuff, I was primarily looking for the backdate stuff for the '32 Ford frames. Well I see why he doesn't answer his email now!! Least they coulda told somebody!!
  8. Does anyone know if Early Years Resin is still up and running? I enquired about ordering some stuff on the email address furnished on their website about two plus weeks ago, haven't heard a word. Anyone have a better way to contact Ron Royston at Early Years?? Any help is appreciated. Thanks
  9. Nice your red primer reminded me of painting my own '61 KG cabrio. Years ago I bought a tattered '61 Karmann Ghia Cabriolet, I think it's stock color was Yukon Yellow, which with its black top looked like a bumble bee, when I got it the yellow paint was worn really thin the top tattered. So as was common then, I decided to go with a full color change to '67 Savanah Beige with a darker beige Hartze cloth top. With all the body work done I primed it out with red oxide primer (like yours is) sanded everything squeaky smooth. (Like when your wrinkly fingers squeak acsoss the paint, you know it's clean and smooth enough to topcoat.) Next evening we shot the topcoat, I had a buddy who was a body man and great painter, do the topcoat. I found out years later why my color shifted from Savanah Beige to a perfect Kraft Carmel color, my buddy was an "eyeballer" he could mix paint by feel not so much by manufacturer's formula. I'm pretty sure he mixed too much reducer in to get the consistency he liked to shoot, which reactivated the primer causing the red oxide color to bleed into the beige. It turned out to be a cool color, and the nitro lacquer shined like a brand new car for as long as I owned it. When people would. Ask what the color was I'd tell them it was Karamelle, which is the German spelling of caramel! So it became known to me as the "Karamelle Ghia", it was a fun car lowered 3-1/2 in front and 3 inches rear on chromed 356 Speedster wheels and nipple hubcaps, 15X 4-1/2 and 5-1/2 rear can't remember the size of the rear tires but were 135's up front. I learned my lesson earlier running bonsai/grenade 2180 on the street and went with a much milder 1835 with dual 40 Webbers instead of the 48 IDA floodgates for this one! Back then you could build an extremely nice car for far less than the price of a house!! Sorry to hijack your thread with a backstory on my own car.... I really love the direction you're headed with this one!!!
  10. Quality wise the Delta Ceramcoat craft paints are the best then, Folk Art better, Apple Barrel good, the main difference being the amount and fineness of the pigment. My Mom did craft, tole painting for years, she wouldn't use the Apple Barrel craft acrylics straight out of the bottle, she only used them to mix with better grade acrylics. When I started using acrylic paints on models I ask her about the Apple Barrel paints and that was what she told me. Less pigment = less cost which is why they are cheaper. Don't get me wrong I still use them, just not for stuff,I want to cover in one coat. Just be careful when you need the coverage without the buildup.
  11. Great job! Those Weird-Ohs are hard to build box stock aren't they!?!?
  12. Nice looking beater, like you'd see someone running around at Bonneville during Speed Week!
  13. You're doing a great job on this one, I've built nearly all of the Hawk Weird-Ohs (except this one for some odd reason) at least once. If you look at any of the illustrations Bill Campbell did Hawk Models really did a great job of staying true to Bill's designs which is why some of the parts have a wonky fit in places. According to a book that I was given for my birthday on Bill Campbell, he was very hands on with the production from illustrations to the models. He designed and or illustrated box art for a whole lot of Hawk's aircraft models as well, most of which had pretty normal fits. I've used baking soda and thin superglue to bring the characters seams together a bit more than they fit out of the box and it makes them look a whole lot better. The last couple of Weird-Ohs that I built I was on a rushed time schedule so I ended up using two part Bondo glazing putty which works as well if not better than the superglue does, if you aren't careful with the superglue and soda filler you can oversand the surrounding plastic and end up with more filler to fix it. With the Bondo I used a super light glaze of Tamiya white putty, it's fine grained and gives a good transition from filler to plastic. Don't be afraid to use detail washes of black or other blending darker colors to bring out the highlights. These models all came out around the same time that Revell was doing Ed Roth's Rat Fink and the other monsters, Monogram did Stanley Mouse's Super Fuzz a few years later. The Weird-Ohs really look great with decently scratch built doo dads that fit the theme, as I can see you are doing with your Woodie character already. Yours looks great, have a load of fun building him, these are great modeler's block kits.
  14. I tried contacting the seller through the "ask seller a question" when I hit send I was greeted with the message in red that said the seller doesn't offer combined shipping. Figuring that was the case I paid the invoice. Normally if I win a single auction I pay immediately, multiples I request a combined shipping and pay as soon as the seller replies. Since seller used eBay to automatically reply I paid the invoice. A buyer shouldn't have to go searching for email addresses elsewhere to contact the seller. I used the packing material for example that the second auctions shipping did not go to shipping materials, I've had sellers send stuff in neatly folded paper shopping bags. I don't care as long as it arrives in the same condition the seller sent it in as long as they took reasonable care.
  15. Tom, I've delt with this guy before, each time he combined shipping, this time no combine. I'd call that bit. I do not have to leave fabulous feedback when it isn't deserved, the wouldn't allow email questions to go through, this is less that poor service, I'm not going to reward someone for it. Or do I have to give them a "Participation Trophey" too? I've been on eBay since '98/99 I've worked with a whole lot of buyers and sellers, this one is one of two I'm not trading with again, period.
  16. Update, the seller indeed combined the shipping into one used bubble wrap envelope, blacked out previous addressing, used the opposite side to address to me, postage was less than charged for each auction. Then seller charged for the two auctions shipping per each. Now I would call that being bit! Left feedback as per normal with exception of the shipping line, indicated on just one of the two auctions that the seller's shipping charges were too high. That's OK, they won't be getting any of my business again.
  17. Grand Salami Home Run!! Misha you hit that one out of the parking lot too! Has to be one of the best retro Deuce Chassis that's come around in a while, your interior, top and paint are stunning! Did I mention I really like what you're up to!!! Keep this thing going, no stalling please!
  18. I sort of see both sides of this as I've bought from sellers that you can tell prepackaged everything, they write what the item is on the box the put the label on top. So obviously they don't like unpacking an item to combine with another. Big deal if you're that meticulously organized then eBay must be your thing! I never was, sure I had bits in boxes but never sealed the box until it was ready to ship, I hate running around for cartons at the last minute. (Couldn't have been the case here the items were small stuff for my wife, both would fit one small box.) I always tried pleasing every person I did business with, your feedback is only as good as the last person you sold something to. To me as a seller combining is less work, better customer satisfaction and less postage for all. Which in this case I ended up feeling a little used and abused, I'd have never done this to a buyer. Guess that's why I don't sell on eBay anymore, especially after a run in or two with blatantly dishonest buyers. Agreed, it seems like eBay is likely behind the stupid stuff going on lately, more money in their pocket skimming off of everything they can think of. Trouble is that when it comes to looking for some stuff like model parts, old magazines,,, this is the site with the widest audience so everyone gets nicked one way or another.
  19. Cool breed, I've liked them since seeing Spuds in the Bud commercials. We are on our third English Bulldog, rightfully known as "the Clown of the Canine World". Like your Bull Terrier, many people misinterpreted their stubbornness for stupidity. Not so, we've had bullies that sit and you can literally see the wheels turning in their head as they figure it out. Normally it's the easiest, least energetic method but they'll git'er done! Not sure about your brand of bullie, but English Bulldogs because they are so stubborn they tend to obsess about things, sometimes it is something pretty goofy like not wanting to step over something, or just waking the whole house up because they don't like the sound of the neighbors kid's fart can muffler on his ratty Honda! From what I hear nearly all bullie breeds are chewers, read that power chewers, our male stripped a tennis ball of all its fuzz, set that aside then chewed up and ate the rubber ball part, first trip to the emergency vet! Everyone could just imagine a large chunk of tennis ball turning sideways having to go in and unclog plumbing! They ended um making him puke, the vet told us he was very thorough in chewing the whole ball, there was nothing larger than a quarter of an inch! So make absolutely sure that any toy that you give them is "Power Chewer Rated", Kong and a few others like that work well for them, anything light and hollow lasts about five minutes! Make sure that you inspect toys frequently for chunks that could get swallowed. As someone said already, unless you teach a bully breed to relax on a leash they will tug your arm half off. Bully breeds also have a high pain tolerance, probably a carryover from their fighting days, so often when a bully gets hurt they're not going to let you know like a wimpier breed would. Our first girl blew out her ACL playing ball, she never even limped the only reason we found out was her knee was swollen! They are tough compact balls of pure muscle, even the English Bulldog, with their loose skin when they walk you can just see the muscle ripple beneath. I had Boxers before getting my first English Bulldog, thinking that the Boxers were higher energy than I wanted to deal with. I thought that the English Bulldog was a couch tater, well they can be. You don't want them to be otherwise you'll end up with a dog that's so out of shape. That it cannot even go for a walk around the block. Health issues tend to show up on couch potatoe dogs too. They need a walk every day. It takes an English Bully about 2-1/2 years to start transitioning to adult behavior. Their whole life they are mischievous, especially when they want your attention or they think no one is paying enough attention! If you train and socialize any bully breed right, then everyone who comes to visit will visit them before you!!
  20. Wow Chuck, that came out nice!
  21. Like what you're doing here, already shared a ton of cool ideas!
  22. Not for much, but I won two auctions from same seller; when I sent a request for a combined invoice I instantly received an red eBay announcement that stated this seller doesn't offer combined shipping. That's fine, but if that's your policy then state that in your auctions. This one will go on my "Do Not Deal With Again List", they got my first and last business. Seems like most of the time when I hear buyers complaining about getting bit on eBay it's almost always over shipping charges, combined shipping or something else to do with shipping like hefty handling fees or something like that. I've both bought and sold on eBay, so I don't understand the no combined shipping thing especially when it saves both parties a dime or two. Just one more thing to watch out for on eBay.
  23. I'd love to get my hands on a few of these, that Hemi would work great to replace the crude motors in Roth kits, Wierd-Ohs, and other fun builds!
  24. My last order from May arrived in mid December, it struck me too that it was a lot like losing a friend. My last Modelhaus Kit is the '57 Mercury (Canadian Ford) Pickup. I've been haunting eBay for a '60 Ford pickup at reasonable price but never found anything reasonable that was rebuildable without tons and tons of work. Modelhauses price was far less than a glue bomb off of eBay so it was a no brainier. I also ordered a bunch of wheels and tires like always. Quality was just as good as ever.
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