Pete J.

I had forgotten about tourch cleaning bits. It has been years since I've had them. Harry, they are tapered and you use them for cleaning the tips of acetylene torches. They get a carbon buildup and you have to lightly ream them. They could be useful in model building.

Got to agree. Gerald Windgrove. Now that I've voted, I'll have to go pull out the books and see if I can find it.

When you anneal the metal, do you do the whole sheet or just the piece you are going to use?

The Jewler's Saw just arrived but I have to wait. It is my Christmas present. I bought a good one with a supply of 150 blades. I figure I am going to need them. I am not as quick at learning as I once was. Old dog sort of thing you know!

I've ordered a diamond scribe as it sound like a generally good tool to have in the tool chest especially around my lathe. When you mention an inexpensive paper cutter are you refuring to the old gillotine style or the more modern round wheel type? I have the wheel type but am reluctant to use is as it is important for cutting my photos.

Art- Thanks for the response. I am using the K&S and I have been trying to make a radiator shell for a 1:24 scale hotrod. Nothing to fancy, just a brass model T type. I am using .10 sheet. I have tried pounding it flat with a jewelers hammer but that left dents that I couldn’t remove. I tried pressing it in the back side with a cylinder and couldn’t get it flat. I have tried cutting strips as I mentioned in my previous post and edge soldering them. That worked pretty well but it is difficult to make a pair that are the same. I thought that stacking two pieces and cutting them together may work. That is when I hit on the jeweler’s saw since cutting the inside hole may be a challenge. I have worked with jig saws before and it works for wood. Incidentally soldering isn’t a problem. I have become very proficient with soldering photo etched with my resistance soldering unit.

I have started to work more with brass and have been trying to cut some special parts to be soldered up. My main problem is cutting them so they tend to curl behind anything I try to cut them with. I don’t have the hundreds of dollars to buy a metal brake/shear so I have been seeking an alternative. I just ordered a jeweler’s saw and was wondering if anyone here had some tips on using it and if there is an alternative. I have been scribing the metal and flexing it to get a straight line and that is satisfactory but a bit risky. I still get some curling from time to time and it is not straight.

Micro Mark has a panty unbuncher, but it is a bit pricy and you can only use it in conjuntion with a waist band expander(british bands won't work).

Ok, I'm frustrated! It is getting to the point that it is almost impossible to add a post to any topic. Almost Everytime I try the screen gets that silly little green button with the three windows scrolling accross and it just never goes away and I finally give up. I've tried everything. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch and starts blaming my browzer, computer or sevice provider I don't believe it. I have a newer computer with a i7 six core processor and 16 GB of RAM, I am running windows seven pro, I am on cable internet with the fastest speed and use the most current modem on the market. My browser is Internet Explorer in it's most current version. I am on multiple forums one of which uses the same exact format, and I have no problem with them at all. Frankly I will be supprised if this gets posted because of the problems. I really enjoy this forum but I am down to almost never posting anything anymore. I will continue to view the comments, but until something is done I am not going to waste my time joining in the conversation. Ok, ball is in your court. Try #2

Probably the best stuff you get at an art store. It is called Vellum. It is a lot stronger and translucent(you don't want transparent). Stands up well to hot lights.

Agree! My friends and I gather for lunch occationally and the converstion is not topic limited. Some times the tangents are as much fun as the main topic. It is not the destination but the journey that is the joy in life.

As we as a civilization progress, we get further from scratch. I was raised on a farm and my Grandmothers scratch meals ment something differant from when my mother did the same thing and again it is differant from when I do it. To make a cake from scratch, my grandmother milked the cow which she raised, she ground the flour from the wheat my grandfather grew, and used eggs that she gathered from the chickens she raised. She did buy vanilla, sugar and salt from the store. My mother changed it by purchasing the flour but we still milked cow and raised chickens. When I make a cake I buy all the ingredients. So I ask you, who made cake from scratch?

Harry- I think that is what I said.

This brings up the problem with our english speaking breathern on the right hand side of the pond, the English. To them kit is a uniform. One can have a nice piece of kit but they rarely build a kit. We play with this variance on a daily basis. Inspite of the fact that we have a common language and standardized rules of grammer, we still have regional dialects on a world wide basis. If you wish to communicate with others, you need to adjust your language for your audience. After all communication has three parts. The transmission, reception and translation. If any part is defective commuication fails. I would agree that there are very few scratchbuilt model out there, but it is cumbersome to use language such as "mostly or sustantively" scratchbuild rat rod. Techinically, I have never seen a scratchbuild model. That would imply that we went out to the world and created from raw material all of the materials we used to make the model. I doubt that anyone here is capable of making plastic from oil or brass from ore as part of their building process and I know that there is no one here willing to go through the process to do that on such a small scale. I think we can agree that scratch building is the process of taking essentially basic material such as metal or plastic and changing the form into parts that resemble a miniture version of a real vehicle. If we call a model scratchbuilt, it should be made from mostly parts created from materials that do not resemble the original materials. If it is anything else then we should refer to is as having scratchbuilt parts.

I've been an F1 fan since my college days when I saw Frankenhiemers movie Gran Prix. The only time I've seen a race was at Watkins Glen. Personally I am very happy that the Texans created Circut of the Americas just for F1. I would have gone this year but waited too long to make a decision and couldn't get a ticket at a reasonable price. Looks like a great race. Interesting that there were no safety cars. Vettle and Hamiltion just drove way from the rest of the cars. Looks like a good course for passing. I am really going to try to be there next year.

While on the subject of scratch, does anyone else here remember when scratch was a colloquial term for money? If so then we could have a model purchased from annother person as scratch built.

Jantrix said it best. Take your time and do it right and you will have a winner. But, more importanty, you have to have passion for what you are building. That passion will make you do the best job you can. Just picking up any old model and building it will not spark the time and interest that you have to have to get it done right. Oh, and by the way, if you aren't having fun, put it down and set away from the table. Come back when you are. Great models take time and will try your patients. You asked about time, the last contest winner I build took me three years to complete. Trust me, it wasn't about the hardware. It was about the passion.

Today we have had 3 2.0+ and 5 1.5+ earthquakes within a 75 mile radius. Typical day in SoCal. To be honest I don't notice them. Infact I am more likely to tune into the jarheads at Pendelton playing with their big guns than I am the general sismic events that happen around here on a daily basis. The first EQ I felt, I was on the 7th floor of a dormitory at the University of Wyoming in 1968. It was centered someplace in Yellowstone. The second one was in '82 or '83 in Spokane Washington. Northridge was the worst I felt. It woke us up and went on for quite a while. Two years ago there was a big one in Mexico, just over the boarder and it shook SoCal quite hard and for a long time. It is kind of like thunderstorms in the midwest with an occational tornado thrown in. They happen all the time but every once in a while one of them gets really nasty. The good part about them is that to be safe you just need to be in an open field and sit down. Not may other of natures badboys are that easy to get away from.

That would be it! It was always fun to try an spot all the StarTrek referances. I find it intereting that Syler became Spock. It was really hard initially to suspend Syler for Spock.

Reasonable guess, but no.....Not really close.

Can't find an uploadable picture but here is one that may be a bit more obsure- New York plate number NCC-1701 Show and actor

Toothpaste is nothing more than a very mild abrasive with various adititves to do other things in the mouth. Therefore it is a rubbing compound. I use to use it until I discovered that there are rubbing compounds availble in a variety of grits to serve various purposes. I started using them instead and now have a drawer full of them!

Just a suggestion but plastic spoons are really great for practice. Having a curved surface you get a good impression of what is going on with your technique. That and they are cheap!

FYI - The orange peel happened because you were holding the can too far from the model and the paint lost too much of its solvent enroute to the model(simply put it arrived too dry). You could sand it lightly with a sanding stick if the paint is thick enough. The problem with metalics is that the metal flakes sink to the bottom of the layer of paint and sanding may cause them to be more exposed and ruin the evenness of the paint. You could clear coat over it, thick enought to sand the clear flat, without sanding through to the metalic coat, you could polish it out and this may solve the issue. Either way you may wind up in the purple pond starting over which may be the best solution anyway. Good Luck! Pete

Sorry, I actually tried to take this over to a separate thread, but the weird problems I am having with this web site (and it is only this one) wouldn’t let me post the new thread. Just like to post on an active thread I have to start with a quote from someone else and delete their text. I’ve given up reporting it. I don’t have any problems on the IPMS web site and it has the same moderator and the same format. Don’t know what is wrong but it has been ongoing for quite some time. Sorry for the inconvenience.