jbwelda

Hyundai's are cheap to buy and to run, good use of taxpayers dollars if you ask me especially compared to some 12 mpg amerikan sled. and face it, its a far better car by most any measure, will probably run twice as long as that Chrysler. One of these days we have to get over this notion that we are the best and so is anything we build, its just not true by a long shot anymore. jb

Love that Nanker Phelge reference (early writing credit for Jagger/Richards songs and supposedly their roommate at one time). jb

aren't those trees in the near background evergreens? cause the ones in the far background don't have leaves. jb

if I do not know what is in a kit, I will not buy it if the box art contains only fanciful drawings or paintings. I want to see a real buildup, no matter how dorky it looks, and it usually does. and I don't want the buildup to contain stuff that isn't in the box. I would like to see the contents of the kit not some artists idea of a kool scene incidentally featuring something resembling what I am going to put down money for. call me old fashioned but I been sucked in by that mcdonalds burger poster one too many times and I think the same ad agency works for some of these model manufacturers, not necessarily all from the USA. jb

I cut a thin strip of Tamiya masking tape, colored it silver with a sharpie, wrapped it around the top and bottom of the chain drive and called it good. its not anywhere near perfect and it doesnt have the dimensionality of a real chain, but I would have no luck with photo etched chain that size jb

I put manageable amounts of Future into an old garlic container. Now its scented. jb

wow that's a nice engine, had to set you back a hundred each? how much does it weigh? that's one thing to consider, you are going to have to use epoxy and maybe a lot of pinning and reinforcing to handle the weight of the bigger scale. I have found superglue to be almost worthless in big scale unless its to hold either very unstressed parts or just for temporary adhesion. otherwise stuff comes apart at the most inopportune times. and also remember the weight will take an eventual toll on the tires too and maybe the frame itself if it is not adequately reinforced. I found there was a lot more to building big than just the size difference, which typically works in favor of people like me who are losing their ability to focus on small stuff due to approaching seniority (that's a kind euphemism). maybe I will bring my 1/8 scale offy engine and the beginnings of my big scale rod to hold it to NNL too seeing as I will have some company on the workbench so to speak jb

don't cotton balls leave shreads of cotton in the Future? I have a couple of foam kinda paddle things I plan on one day using to apply Future but so far mostly I just use it for smaller areas where a q tip or small brush is appropriate. have airbrushed it a couple times but typically I use Tamiya or lacquer clear for bodies. jb

some old fat dude on his equally overweight hardly worthitson take a dive off the exit ramp to my ferry boat, after taking off with his likewise handicapped bunch of buddies. slo mo flop into the slough, followed by his bike. maybe he should ride a Suzuki. jb

shot thin it dries very quickly, I would say maybe 10 minutes between thick coats. jb

theres always the "Big" kits from monogram, all are full of very usable parts though there is a lot of overlap between them. that exterminator is among the worst of them if you ask me, aside from the spoked front wheels and the drag slicks, every thing is kinda wonky. but I know you will be able to make the silk purse curt. jb

I never really cared for the looks of the SM, it looked to Euro "evolved" to me and really kind of co-opted. unless I am mistaken they were available here in the states used in the past 10 years for not much more than 3000$ typically which if true and if you were willing to sink a bunch of money into repairs, that's a lot of car for the money. but design wise, I think the DS23 Palais was about the pinnacle of the design. jb

kool, that's a great mag too. this reminds me I have to order up the newest issue. I think they really got the right idea with the print on demand thing. wave of the future for serious magazine publishing. great looking build too! jb

yeah I will second that, I found it very clumsy to work with and to focus through at first but now I pretty much cannot live without it. think I even started a thread somewhere about that. jb

as someone once said: "the envious cry out: 'it can't be done!'" jb

you know Harry, that's the kind of BS response that is all too common around here these days. so know what? just keep it the way it is or the way it makes sense to YOU, the hell with your readers. and I bet NO ONE asked for a separate section for pickups, combined with everything else you could imagine that could possibly be a truck or commercial vehicle. but like I said, go ahead on big man, do it your way. jb

please remove that distinction between pickup trucks and regular automobile models. as it is, build a bucket t with a turtledeck and its a "car" but put a shortened bed on it and its off to the "truck" category/ghetto. I bet a good percentage of your readers never even go to that Trucks section and probably wonder why no one builds hot rod pickup trucks. for chrissakes "trucks" should be just that: big trucks. that's a category that makes sense. pickups, panels, commercial van sort of vehicles...are not "Trucks" in my opinion. jb

have they outlawed sarcasm in North Korea too? jb

I totally think no one should post end of year threads. totally. jb

I don't think Future (really not called that anymore) has ammonia in it. ammonia REMOVES Future and I tried thinning Future with ammonia one time and the result was not pretty. aircraft modelers dip canopies and other large items into it all the time. I have dipped 1/32 scale bodies into it and then let it all run down to one corner where I wicked off most of it and let it dry. worked pretty darn perfect though I did remove a bit of it with ammonia after it had dried. so I don't see why you couldn't do it with 1/24, though as you say airbrushing might be a better choice. now about the lifting problem, I think maybe you aren't getting adhesion with your paint? cause it shouldn't lift the paint, acrylic or not. I don't recall precisely ever using it on an acrylic paint because I don't use acrylic much, but I never heard of this problem either. well best of luck, I guess if its happening to you its a big problem. if you cant find another reason you might think about how you prep surfaces for paint. jb

interesting to note that on ebay right now there are multiples of the Falcon in all its guises for about 22$ and a couple right at 20$. so I wasn't that far off...unfortunately not worth it still when I include shipping. maybe on the ranchero though. that's a kool vehicle. edit to add: now that I look at it further, all the cheap ones are from China. the normal price seems to be more like around 35. but to me brings up the question: from China? does that mean out the back door of the production facility or what? or maybe a Chinese exporter is buying them there real cheap and distributing them via ebay? jb

that has to be the stupidest thing I have seen all year, and I am pretty sure that title is going to hold through next January. absolutely stupid, not even a glimmer of hope, a dim bulb. jb

just started a new project: a Suzuki Cappuccino Mola Sports version (with A-Site!, yeah like I know what that means), a Honda Beat RS-Mach and a Copen Active Top, all Aoshima kits, all curbside. ought to be fairly quick builds, doing them all together for an assembly line efficiency. the Honda has body kit to fit and all need to be lowered. I need some fly wheels and tires and hopefully I can find some that are wider but not a lot taller than whats in the boxes. a quick tour through the tire packs didn't come up with much appropriate, all too wide to fit in the wheel wells without tubbing the chassis (which might be in the offing). the idea is to replicate a diorama I did a long time ago using vintage mini cars like a Honda S800, Toyota S800 and, it turned out, a Suzuki SS360. all had fairly realistic pilot figures fitted and these current three will too. should be fun and a fun diversion from more nose-to-the-grindstone projects. heres a pic of the original: heres a poor lighting pic of the kits for the new one: thanks for looking! jb

well as soon as Steve Scott comes through with his plans to reissue the Uncertain T (ahem), I won't really have any kits I am specifically after, so I will pretty much restrict myself to surprise gotta-have kits that will hopefully be issued this year (starting with the ebbro Citroen DS19 and the announced Mobieus stuff). Other than that I am going to try to whittle down the kit stash I already got going. jb

nice work so far, it would look great cruzin down east LA! jb