clovis

Wow!!!! That model is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was in the basement, but I had no idea that it was there. Somehow, it got lost in a move, and ended up in a box that was mostly her stuff. She says she found it during the move, wondered why it wasn't with my tools, packed into the car...and then the car got totaled in a wreck. I was interested in clearing the car out before the insurance company towed it off, and she carried that box downstairs, where it has been sitting all these years. What is crazy is that we have exactly two boxes from that move that never got unpacked, both of those boxes were hers, filled with desk junk, like cute coffee cups and college pictures. Who would have thunk that my Dremel was packed away between a "Your Special" coffee cup and decoupaged bulletin board?

I don't know why everyone is so worked up about the yellow hot rod. The dude built it with his own money, used his own time...why should I care what he built? I have friends that have nice 1:1 classic muscle cars, but won't take them to car shows. At any car show or meet that is open to the public, you will find: 1. Nitpickers 2. Dreamer/criticizer type ("If I owned that car, I'd put a new rag top on it, repaint it in apple green, install a custom interior, put a 'vette engine in it, hang NOS quarters on it, and definitely get Foose rims after I lowered it 3 inches. No way would I be seen in those Rally II rims with radials!") 3. The Mine-Is-Way-Better-Than-Yours type. ("I spent my entire inheritance and maxed $58,000 in credit cards to have this frame-off car, so I am so much better/smarter/more gifted/wiser/talented/arrogant than you are with that piece of junk.") 4. The Sell-Me-Your-Car type. These jokers typically are trying to buy a $20,000 car for $2,500. These range from "will you take $500 down and $50 a week?" to the "I'm gonna insult you by offering you $3,000, just so you know what I think of your car." 5. The I-Had-One-Of-Those-Back-Then type ("but mine had the Hemi/409/Hi-Po with the SS/RS/GT/GTX/GTO package and 4 speed with _________ (insert high end option) special ordered from the factory") 6. The I-Bought-A-$10-Pontiac-T-Shirt-And-Now-I'm-An-Expert-On-All-Old-GM-Cars guy. (There are more of these folks that you might imagine.) I'm sure there is more to the list, but I'm guessing this list covers about 90% of them. Nonetheless, spend 2 hours listening to these people, you'll wanna either vomit, or shake your head in disgust and bewilderment. Possibly both. One car meet is enough to last a life time.

Thank you for the replies!!!!! Can anyone else add to the farm tractor kit list?

Thank you again for the replies. I'm still shopping for a 1/24 scale plane, but would consider one of the 1/32 models suggested in this thread. Has anyone built a vintage Airfix kit?

Thank you for the continued replies!!!! I still haven't had a chance to have the can shaken on a professional shaker, but I'll report back on this thread when I do.

Thank you for the replies!!!! The Glosscote looks right, and smells right, so I already put the bottle in my 'box'. I really doubt that I'll ever need it, but if I tossed it...I would need it sometime next week. Again, thank you all for your replies.

Ain't that the truth? There were scads of AMT '95 GMC Sonoma kits on ebay last year. I could have filled the bed of a 1:1 Sonoma with these kits for $10 each, including shipping. Now they are double that!!!!

Art, Let's say a model company wanted to make a brand new model. Do those companies try to find original blueprints? Do they ever contact the manufacturers, like GM, for detailed information? It seems that a set of blueprints, or the equivalent in CAD, would make designing models so much easier. Also, I always envisioned that model companies used giant, but lightweight calipers to measure body width at certain points on 1:1 examples. Does this ever happen? Do model companies always use 1:1 examples for measurements, or do they SWAG it sometimes?

Thank you for your kind comments!!! I've caught myself picking the dremel up, just to admire the thing...It is good to have it back in my hands again.

I am returning to the hobby after a 25 year hiatus, and trying to build up my model 'box'. Late last week, I was able to pick up a very large handful of used artist brushes for less than $1. Most of these are round brushes, and vary in size from super fine to big round. Some are super stiff, and others are super soft. All brushes are high quality. Which brushes do I want to keep, aside from the super fine ones for painting details? I use almost all enamel paints, with the exception of a few craft acrylics. Currently building cars, but want to build and weather at least one tank and one airplane in the near future. Thanks in advance!!!!

Wow...very stunning!!! Thank you for sharing!

A cool thread...but why is it that whenever I want to built one of these once plentiful kits, they seem to skyrocket in price just a few weeks before I want to buy one?

Back in about 1983 or so, my dad bought me a Dremel tool. It came with a handful of accessories, and a black storage box. I was beaming with pride to own that Dremel. I loved it because I knew that it was a significant investment for my dad. I have no idea what it cost back then, but I knew that money wasn't growing on trees at the time, and that poor Dad of mine worked every second of overtime that he could get. Since my dad was a lineman for a utility, I often wondered if that Dremel had been paid for during one of the many nights that he would get called out, drive to Tim-buck-too, and climb a 40 foot pole in the pitch black at 2:45 AM, in the pouring rain or driving sleet, to repair a snapped electric line. And yet, down deep, I knew he was proud to give it to me, and that made me even prouder to own it. Somewhere along the line, back 20 years ago, the Dremel tool got separated from the storage box. I looked high and low for it, and looked in every crevice in Indiana and half of Kentucky, and could never find it. Secretly, I blamed an old college buddy for walking off with it. He loved using it on a 1:1 resto/fix up, and I would find the Dremel in the trunk of his car, or wherever he had left it last. I had kept the storage box over the years because of sentimental reasons. I almost bought another Dremel last week at a thrift store, but for whatever reason, I backed out of the transaction just before the cashier rang it up. Maybe it was my sixth sense kicking in, but it just didn't feel right. I was lamenting to my wife about the loss and lack of the Dremel. I hated it that I could be so careless, losing something that meant so much to me. "Jeff, I think it is downstairs. I think that I saw it" she repeatedly said, even though I didn't believe her for a second. Low and behold, she grabbed it, and brought it to me today. I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is mine because it still has traces of Luftwaffe blue caked into the sanding wheel. A 1/24 Me-109 was my last significant build, some 27 years ago. It has been a happy reunion, albeit a lonesome jubilee, and I can't wait to use it again. Just having it here on the desk brings back so many memories, and the smell...I had forgotten the smell of the plastic in the Dremel. I feel like I've been transported back to the summer 1986.

I got to reading the other tractor thread, and wondered what farm tractor models have been manufactured. When I was a kid, we had a locally owned discounter in town. They had an Ertl IH 1466 kit on the shelf, and I wanted that kit bad! But, the kit came with a whopping $7 price tag, which might as well have been $70 or $700. I was pretty young at the time. I never had $7 all at one time, and my parents said that they wouldn't let me buy it even if I did. I can't say that I blame them a bit...my dad probably wasn't making nearly that much an hour. So, Ertl made a line of tractors. The IH 1466, a Massey, a re-boxed Massey as a pull version, and a Deere 4430. Right? What other tractor models have been produced in kit form? What else was in the Ertl line? Etrl re-issued the Deere 4430. Have any others been re-issued? Lastly, If I ever scored one of the IH 1466 at a reasonable price, would it be a crime to build it, or should it be left as an unbuilt kit?

I've never seen a car in a tree like that. The saddest car/tree sighting was a '59 El Camino that had been placed on top of another car, and had a 16 inch tree growing through the bed. "That has been here as long as I can remember" the junkyard owner said, "an will be here longer than I'll be alive." Yet, when I returned to the yard in the next spring, he had cut down the tree and sent the El Camino to the "big scrap yard in the sky". It would have taken $200,000 to have restored that car...but it made me sick to see it sitting there, and even sicker knowing it was now gone forever.

What is your story? When did you start? How long have you been building? Do you build anything other than cars?

I bought a few boxes of stain, spray paints and wood finishing oils at an auction recently. I was surprised to find a bottle of Testors Glosscote Lacquer in one of those boxes. This is an old bottle. It still has an Ed Schock's Toy and Hobby price tag on the lid. I think Ed Shock's was out of business by the early '90's The contents are almost full, but yellowed a bit. Wasn't this stuff crystal clear when new? I don't build many shiny models, but it might come in handy someday...but I have no plans to airbrush with this stuff. Any chance this stuff is still good? Thanks in advance!!!!!

The video quality is very good, but honestly, it is about 10 or 11 minutes too long.

Don't feel bad about not having a workbench full of supplies. I currently own one X-acto knife, no extra blades, a few hand-me-down emery boards from my wife, and about 12 bottles of paint. Oh, and I have some regular sand paper in various grits that I got out of my toolbox. Of course, I am not an award winning builder. I'm just coming back to the hobby after a 25 year hiatus, so I am in the same boat that you are in. Money isn't growing on trees here, so I am using what I have on hand, and buying a little here and there as I need it. I don't own a Dremel, but I do own an airbrush (which I haven't used yet). I would like to have an X-acto saw and a mini drill set. Please just enjoy the build, and don't get carried away with what you don't have in supplies. This hobby is supposed to be about having fun building a model!!!

This is an interesting thread and conversation. We don't have a locally owned LHS. The closest thing is HTU, and I've received mixed results from shopping there. One guy that works there is NOT friendly, especially after he learned that I wasn't buying a $1,000 RC kit. He has NEVER been friendly, and acts as if my $20 paint and supply purchases are a real bother to him. So, I switched to Hobby Lobby, and use the 40% off coupon...and get $20 worth of paint for just $12. I wanted a few colors that HL didn't have, so I went back to HTU, and a new employee bent over backwards helping me find a color match on a single bottle of Testors MM paint. That was a very positive experience!!! Why can't they treat all of their customers with the same level helpfulness? I would have never walked into another store, like HL, had the guy at HTU not been so outwardly rude. I try to support locally owned businesses, but when I've had such horrid experiences at one of those places, I tend not to go back.

I think they have a steel box that holds a rattle can and fits into a full size shaker. Then again, sometimes I dream stuff up and imagine other things...and I don't even drink!!!!!

I'm glad you asked the question, Burt. I learned a few new things from this thread!

I am pretty new to the hobby too, back after a 25 year hiatus. Have you tried any of the Krylon or Rustoleum rattle cans? They would be a step up from brushing the body. I would strongly suggest staying away from the cheap 99 cent spray cans...they are trash IMO. The Krylon and Rustoleum cans aren't going to be as good as the Duplicolor cans that most guys use. I've also used the small Testors cans and had splendid results.

I am going to try to save the rattle can. I know this sounds crazy, but there is a Sherwin Williams store just a mile away. Sometime soon, I am going to swing in there and ask one of the employees to put the can in their shaker. I am 99.9% positive that they have special apparatus to shake a rattle can. I just wonder if that prolonged shaking might break up whatever is clogged inside the can. it probably won't work, but since it is free, (and most S-W employees are happy to shake cans for customers) it is worth a try.