jbwelda

naw this isn't going to be some tawdry story about how I just came out of a 10 year opiate haze or anything like that but it is about something I have found nearly as enticing and just as dangerous. I am talking about a visor. you know those magnifying kind you wear and all of a sudden like 20 years of eye damage goes away? how you can actually see straight lines up close again? how those impossible to assemble PE pieces suddenly snap into clear view that your eyes can now actually see even if your hands cant hold still long enough to thread them together? Yep some time ago I took the plunge and bought one of these from micro-mark (actually found it half their price on ebay so got it there instead...but I SAW it in micro mark first!) Really painful and difficult to use at first: didn't like the constricting feeling of the band around my head and the close up vision kinda made me dizzy. but then slowly I started using it more and more and now the first thing I do when I sit down is reach for the visor and put it on! So I was thinking...I am hooked, there is no going back to my old world anymore. but then I started thinking maybe I need to go back and I tried, tried really hard to kick it. but it only took a few quick seconds to reach over for it for...ah...quick relief from the increasingly swollen feeling in my limbs when I looked at pieces without the crutch. currently I am still really trying to kick it but am slowly giving in to the warm glow of its influence. why cant the world be like this? of course it can...but what will my fellow modelers think when they find out how tightly I am in its grip? this is even worse than when I got my first cordless dremel tool. jb

as I mentioned above, Tamiya makes a karmann ghia of slightly earlier vintage though of course the actual 181 was a throwback in a lot of ways (5 lug wheels in 1975?) so it is probably totally appropriate. and the difference between it and a so-called "bug" (type 1 sedan) is so insignificant it would not need to be addressed in 1/24 scale. note I said 1/24 scale. not that other funny one that somehow americans got stuck with. that's the other thing: get with the world market would ya. try to pretend there is a big world out there not just locals prizing 66 Camaros parked behind their gas stations on blocks. jb

despite a lot of opinions to the contrary, there is almost nothing carries over from a kubelwagen to a 181. they look similar from afar, but far from similar up close. still you would think hasegawa or someone could produce something like that and I am not so sure it would not be a big seller. they were only in the states for three years (two actually, 75 was left over 74s already here) but hey are almost as common in a lot of places (mexico, south America, Europe) as are land rovers and they were made up until the 2000s or late 1990s in mexico and I believe are still made in Europe. so I think there is huge latent interest there, maybe not for "The Thing" (its true and complete name from Volkswagen of America). and with Tamiya having a bug and ghia already I would think it would be a slam dunk for them considering they can use 9/10s of their type 1 tooling and just make a body basically and it would be good. and thanks for that keyser, I figured out later you were talking about video games and I agree with you: there is a huge untapped market out there if only some of these (non-Japanese...they already "got it" to a large degree) model companies would look beyond their noses. I still remember in the 90s telling merchants all over about this "internet" thing and none of them were interested. stupid fad that no one will remember in 2 years was the common response. now those same people freak out when their website goes down for a day. edit to add: and know about the Merit kit in fact built two of those and one of a resin repop with improved body (note the Merit kit, all I have seen have malformed left side headlight area, short shot on the bottom headlight surround, making it a bit of a struggle to make it look good)...I was just hoping maybe someone else brought out one of my favorite cars ever. end edit also the part about how all these young guys are building fords in the "1:1 industry"...might be true but I doubt they build models and really in numbers how many are there nationwide, maybe a thousand? and that's pushing it...not much of a market for a company that requires sales in the millions to say solvent. old guys still monopolize that genre and the "kids" who build that style in general are much more into the true rodding spirit of "rats" than their dads billetted out 32 ford that he drives to the drive in one night a week and parks it the rest of the time in the garage. still that style is the definition of "hot rod" to most people so there will always be some market for it, its just that to a generation raised on drift cars and JDM and wonky little amerikan cars in comparison, those "classics" have less and less appeal. so it would behoove those in decision making positions in the model companies to maybe look outside their comfort zone a bit when considering new models to invest in. Using those Revell Fast & Furious kits as examples of see how little interest there is?, is really pushing it. those things were a mess, you couldn't really build the movie car and you couldn't really build a stock version all they were was some compromised, simplified piece of garbage that most saw through from the beginning...despite that I think they had to have sold pretty well as they hung around for a long time and are common today at swap meets, so there are plenty out there. I would never bother with one myself; would rather have true JDM model like those offered by the Japanese companies. jb

>Games have old cars too. 40 Deluxe, 57 Belair, old Mustangs, 71 Javelin, etc. Not a one is used greatly, >nor sets lap records for class out of hundreds of thousands of players, many older too. Latest car pack in >Forza 5 had Lotus 11 I have no idea what you are going on about here but I am interested in the Lotus XI you mention...got a link or a photo or something for it? thanks! jb

the thing is, there is no more "surface" international shipping via the post office anymore. it is all air mail, which in reality it was before most of the time...most of the time the package would just be thrown on the same airplane as the air mail was, but there was no guarantee of this and no guarantee that your package might just end up sitting in a rail car on a siding for a month either. at some point they consolidated the whole mess, which of course means we all pay high international postage costs with few options around them. also little known is that if you declare a message in with the package, you will be charged a way higher rate than if there is no communication in the package. so, in short, while fred (sterns probably?) used to be able to do it, and you can still send things surface mail within the usa (though it often does not cost any less), I don't think you will find many deals on international shipping no matter how long you say you are willing to wait for delivery jb

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to have it confirmed they are one and the same. Tim you still have any McIntosh 240 tube amps lying around as doorstops etc? jb

yeah old fords and studes and stuff will sell like hotcakes...to people who will likely be dead in another 15 years. outside that demographic (hic), no one cares a whit about them really. that's not much of a business case there. someone at least do a VW Trekker/181/Thing...lots of possibilities there. jb

that is absolutely beautiful. jb

those who buy cheap, buy often. but HF has been improving in the past decade. even my friends in the real world swear their quality is approaching, fast approaching, well made "made in America" (no guarantee of anything anymore if you ask me) tools and are no longer the "one use if youre lucky" quality of the earlier times. I'm sure there is still junk on their shelves but for instance I've used a 12Vdc compressor I bought there (don't think its available anymore unfortunately) to air up my tires after deflating them for 4X4 travel at least 20 times a year, never failed me and is used way beyond its claimed capacity most of the time. I use their 5 gallon (?) tank 120v compressor all the time and no problems whatsoever. jack stands, hand carts, floor jacks, shovels...all bought there with minimal expectations and they all still work and are used nearly every week if not day. motion detector based lights, and alarms, even got a super strong center stand kind of stool thing for my motorcycle, works like it was made by Yamaha. bought that pseudo dremel back some years ago and it still works fine though I prefer the feel of the real thing more. in fact that is the one thing I find consistently deficient: the actual ergonomics of the tool is sometimes off compared to a more expensive (brand-name) model. like the grips are twisted a few degrees off where they should be. or the switch is slightly difficult to push or located at an inconvenient place vs the brand-name version. or even the packaging: incredibly difficult to remove sometimes (maybe due to the ghetto nature of the stores and their locations, at least around here). makes stuff harder to steal if you cannot get it out of its package. next time I am there I will have to look for some LEDs on magnets...sound great for the paint booth. jb

the thing is, one gallon jug of that stuff is pretty much all you will ever need. I am still using the gallon I bought back in the early 90s, and I just mostly keep a vat of it that I continually dunk into...never seems to wear out. jb

try super glue and/or epoxy. unless you are a total hypochondriac or ultra allergic to everything, you probably wont have a reaction to either of those. jb

excellent! totally love that weird-o engine setup. could you maybe take some close ups of the engine and post them? ive built the engine in the attempt I, which included two complete engines, both the 4 cylinder variant. I think I might build the other one for a hot rod Trabant Universal (station wagon) and use an XR-6 Zed frame for it. been looking at the motor I already built but think I will build the other and this time use a pair of Weber carbs. great build on this, the frame looks like it went together well...any detail under the cowl? I love to see these sort of strange configurations! Your engine looks much better than mine, more refined. looks like you slimmed down the exhaust manifold a bit? looks good. also love that rag stuffed into the blower intake. classic! jb

that's great, right on the ground too. killer stance jb

yes, quite well put. thank you. jb

if you like Revell kits you will be pretty astounded at most Fujimi kits, with the exception of the missing motor. but truthfully, even without the actual motor in there, the undersides look very detailed and the oil pan/exhaust pipe areas are well done. what I usually do is make a small black out plate out of styrene to fit above the engine portion of the undercarriage and paint it flat black. here are a Nissan silvia and a skyline I did some time back, both have extensive body kits and mods though. enjoy the kits! note these weren't high hour builds, I probably had about 30 hours each into them. jb

accelerator aka zip kicker is stuff you put on after the CA glue ("super glue") and it causes it to bond right away. makes using the CA a bit easier because you don't have to wait for it to "dry", the kicker makes it dry right now. back to the scratches in the paint though...if they are just surface scratches on the paint don't be too eager to get the rough sandpaper out. get a polishing kit and use from about 5000 to 12,000 and achieve a mirror surface. if it is worse and really deep kinda scratches, use the rougher grades but then finish with the polishing kit cloths. its amazing what they do. jb

These days they use drones jb

ok but the thing is, in most of the websites linked to the photos from that google search, there are a lot of objects that I cannot really tell how big they are, and the ones that you can, like the miniature Eiffel tower, its a subject that lends itself to a straight line sort of process that hides the problems with the three D printers. can you show me an image of a 1/24 scale say engine block with a smooth polished surface, or at least a very subtle only realistic casting look to it? im not saying this isn't possible because I think this technology has a big big promise for the future; I am just saying in my experience I haven't seen really nice small scale detailed parts, particularly not in person where it is easier to judge exactly what it is you are looking at. jb

thanks jesse, so it doesn't have the chrome tree chromed? I guess in these days of alclad that's not a big deal...or if you want to make a blacked out race version. heres something though: do these kits sell for more, less or about the same as the equivalent Revell kit? the few ive looked at (not 914, but Advent) on ebay actually seem to be going for more (eg: actual bids in place, not buy it now wishful thinking) than the Revell versions. That would be muy no bueno, I am looking for cheap! jb

well see now something like a finned flathead cover would be the ideal thing to produce as you could theoretically align the fins with the inevitable stripes that were apparent at least on my copy, caused by the "printing" head moving back and forth as if hoeing a field into rows. so it might be quite possible to produce a finned item in 1/24. but lets see a near-polished surface straight from the printer as most good resin casting these days produces. keep in mind I bought the base motor at least a couple years ago. things have moved on quite a bit since, but still I would like to see what could actually be done in 1/24 but so far what ive seen has been pretty crude compared to a nice casting. jb

Lest anyone take my last post too seriously, I was totally kidding. I would probably just stake her to the ground and let the ants do the rest. KIDDING!!! jb

I am currently attempting to build the Shapeways (?) Offy motor. lots of cleanup necessary even in 1/8 scale. and the material is NOT easy to clean up...and their suggestion to use filling primer is daffy...yeah use it and obscure all the detail...just don't work out. I also bought the upgrade of cast resin parts but I think they sent me seconds because there are gaps and flaws that no good resin caster (i.e.: Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland among others) would let get by. I guess that's what I get for waiting to order the upgrades (note: CAST resin not 3D printed...whats that tell ya?), maybe they were out of the clean ones like my friend Roger showed me. His looked nice; mine not so nice. after this experience I am going to have to see some drastic improvements before I attempt another of these and judging from the roughness of the motor, no way are 1/24 parts going to be on the horizon anytime soon. smooth ones I mean. jb

> Buy It Now at $129.99. they do it just to bother you. you do know you don't have to bid don't you? can't blame a brother for trying jb

know why divorce is so expensive? because its worth it. I woulda shot the bit*h on the spot, d*a*m*n the police jb

so...no info on the 914? jb