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Phirewriter

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Everything posted by Phirewriter

  1. Why? If someone feels they can be dismissive and rude it doesn't mean you can't call them out for it. Why shouldn't you be able to point out their comments or responses are not acceptable. The HL store closest to me had a manager that was quite the repugnant little jerk. He was beyond rude when I questioned the availability of some art supplies I previously purchased there. When I told him his response was unbecoming for someone in his position he actually kicked me out of the store. A call to HL corporate fixed that very quickly although I've never returned, instead patronizing the other 2 stores relatively close to me. If you encounter rude behavior from HL management don't hesitate to call their corporate office. At least in my experience they took it very seriously.
  2. Sintra has been used in the sign industry for many years. Our company buys 4'X8' and 5'X10' sheets on a weekly basis. We generally shape it with table routers and can be printed on and painted very easily. It makes great lightweight, rigid bases for dioramas. If you're thinking about using it for scratch building it does have some issues not discussed at any length in the video. Once the surface is opened either through scribing or sanding it will need to be sealed as it will soak paint up much like wood. The upside it can take solvent based paint and adhesive without breaking down like foam core. Despite the fact that it's ABS it is harder to bond together with universal plastic adhesive and super glue and definitely requires ABS specific adhesive. I would definitely seek out online tutorials before spending any money on sheets. Instead of buying some that may or may not work for your purposes seek out a local sign shop and see if they will give or sell you cut offs. We throw out lots of scrap or cut offs every week. Just be aware that you may not be able to get thinner sheets unless the shops make indoor signs, most of the outdoor signs we manufacture are 3/4" to 2" thick, indoor thickness usually is 1/4" to 1/2" thick. One more thing to consider is much like colored styrene, colored Sintra will bleed color through solvent based paint so unless you're using white you'll have to seal the surface.
  3. The Amphicat is a new tool/mold that was in a Space 1999 Eagle accessory kit. No connection to the Aurora Banana Splits kit. If the original Banana Splits mold exists it would probably be with Atlantis. Wouldn't be surprised if figures will be available at some point from aftermarket casters or 3d designers.
  4. Very nice, our club also had the Broncos as a club build for our December meeting as well. Unfortunately, as usual work came before fun and was unable to attend.
  5. That's Classic's Manta Ray. Probably one of the most common of the "thingy" style slot cars back in the day but popular enough that numerous people have made replacement copies of that body over the years. I don't think it was meant to represent Jefferies creation but Classic did some of the wildest looking bodies after they came out with this.
  6. As a Hot Wheels collector I've seen issues with switched contents for years. Hot wheels has premium line cars that average $5 on up they put in multi car sets. Sad to see returned sets with common mainline $1 cars switched into to the package, there's always obvious factory seals that are easily identified if they've been tampered with. Apparently the people working the service desk are either lazy or ignorant and clearly don't check to see if there's any nonsense going on. Sad to think people who aren't familiar with these premium line cars purchase these thinking they have or are gifting something special and end up being a victim of greedy dirt bags. Unfortunately I know who some of them are within my local collecting community. I have called some of them out for this practice as well.
  7. The Mantaray slot car and body was made by MPC. It was blow molded vs vacuum formed to be able to have the undercuts in the body design. It also has separate styrene details and engine plus a clear styrene driver's canopy. It's fairly accurate at first glance but is lacking proper shape on the lower body and rear end to fit MPC's chassis. These bodies become very brittle with age and finding a good one that isn't cracked or warped isn't easy or cheap. The one I have isn't in great shape and appears to be butyrate given it's yellowed and is thicker than some of the bodies then currently available but MPC was using lexan for some of its RTR cars by this time so who knows. With Revell's Roth's creations, AMT's Silhouette, Monogram's Starbird cars being made back then I'm kinda surprised and disappointed none of the model companies decided to make a kit of this car.
  8. If you're feeling spendy and need a Mantaray on your shelf...
  9. As stated before it was based on a pre-war Maserati chassis which at the time probably wasn't worth much. The various sources of information I have never states the exact model or year. With all the various show rod kits released in the 60's I'm surprised this wasn't one of them. I always thought it was one of the better looking customs. There was a blow molded (to compensate for the undercuts) slot car body made by MPC but is rare and generally not always in the best condition of you can find one. Plus it's not terribly accurate to fit a slot chassis.
  10. Very cool !! Nice job! I've got a few 1:43 kits but this is one car that I'd love to see in 1:24 or 1:25 but unfortunately it will probably never happen. Would be a nice kit to go with the few Pantera kit that have been released over the years. Did you use the Tamiya orange over primer or a base color?
  11. Those look great and they are fun. I'm primarily a Redline collector plus vintage Topper Johnny Lightning and pre '77 MBX but enjoy customizing newer HW's and MBX's. A few years ago I was at a HW's convention and was able to get lots of sets of premium series wheels from a vendor and got me back into customizing. I find it to be good slump buster fun, because I need more hobbies ?
  12. Those look terrific! Did you do the modifications to the Revell Darts or are the bodies resin? I think the Brazilian cars look much better than the North American versions with the elongated c pillars and the modified front ends.
  13. That Ferrari is cool. As far as the most expensive, The Hot Wheels rear board Beach Bomb in Bruce Pascal's collection is valued at $175,000. He bought it some years ago for around half that if memory serves. As much as I love my Redlines if someone offered me that kind of money for one of them I'd probably let it go. Curious to see what a Windgrove build would go for if one came up for sale. One can visit the The Miniature Engineering Craftsmanship Museum website and find the profiles of many builders that I'm sure would command far more money for their work than $40k. Seems like a bunch of hype for a blah SUV regardless of make and who built it. If one had the money to spend on a replica there's a long list of both race and street cars that are far more interesting with much more historical significance.
  14. The car on the the left is a 1965 Plymouth Fury from Johan on the right is the '65 Dodge Coronet from MPC. Good luck with your search. Edit, the box says AMT but the kit was tooled up by MPC and as we all know the chassis was used under numerous kits thereafter.
  15. I haven't finished watching the coverage on my DVR, but when I quit around the 3am point the commentators already where predicting a win for Toyota, no surprise. More interested to see the results for the other classes.
  16. My accident was caused by another driver on the phone, not paying attention and of course the end result was crippling me without a scratch on him despite hitting me at a stoplight going 40 mph. So seeing idiots driving and texting, etc... is an EVERYDAY IRK for me!
  17. I'll agree with you to a point based on what I see on the local bike trails I ride on. In my case I was in a bad car accident over a decade ago that left me with multiple issues including limited use of my left leg and a lifetime of chronic pain issues. Up until recently bike riding was one of the things I could reasonably handle but things have unfortunately got to the point where electrical assist would be helpful dealing with hills and off road excursions. I'm now taking a serious look at electric bikes so I can enjoy one of the few outside activities/exercise I can still do beyond walking. There's numerous bike trails near me both paved and off road and I love to take advantage of them when I'm up to it. I'm also a lifelong motorcycle rider and have had to adjust for that as well, moving from sport and standard bikes to a cruiser style with a lower center of gravity. Riding is one thing I would have a very hard time giving up!
  18. Round2's marketing and production guys aren't picking subjects in a void and the entertainment and Sci-Fi market makes up quite a bit of their customer base. Round2 knows who butters their toast so I'm sure sure they are confident about sales expectations for this kit. I for one am happy to see the Black Beauty coming out, I have a really crummy resin version I bought years ago because that was the only thing available and I was unwilling to cut up any of my kits to replicate it. My friend was set up at Wonderfest this weekend and he said it generated quite a bit of attention, but again, different customer base.
  19. There's one you don't see built everyday, looks excellent!
  20. Not enough details or scale realism? If it's not above the OP's skill set he could bash it with the Revell '67 Vette and whatever small block he'd prefer. Then it would only be partial junk, kinda junk, a little junky, sort of junky...
  21. Monogram's High Performance Series kits from the late 80's had wiring and other details added to a number of kits.
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