Pete J.

I'ma gown agin the tide on this un. Model.

I make these out of foam core poster board and hot glue. The model is held on by blue tack, a kind of sticky putty. I do them pretty much for each model, but they can often be recycled and fit other similar models.

Absolute proof that if you a man enought time and anything with a gas motor, he will eventually try to make it go faster reguardless of the sanity or safety of doing so! :lol:

If I am going to be around when the aution ends, I will snipe but generally I use a differant stratagy. Persistance. I set up searches for the items that I want and then I watch the bids on like items to get a sense of what the market is for them. Then I start biding. I only bid on the last day of the sale and put in the maximum I am willing to pay. If I win, great. If not then I wait for a like item to come up and do it over again. I just keep it up until I get what I want. It may take me a while, but I generally get it for a reasonable price. Having said that my "wants" are generally very limited so I only get a couple of items a year.

Inspite of what a lot of people think, there are a lot of really great inline 6's out there. One of my all time favorites- 71 or 72 Datsun 240Z. Had a 72. New from the dealer $2200. Also love all the BMW 6's. My son has a 328i that runs very strong. Don't forget the E type Jag's either.

Thanks to all for your comments. Well, after I busted the original into little pieces taking it out, I used Evergreen half round strip painted with alcad chrome. I think it came out pretty good if I do say so myself. Sorry I can't post any more photos. These are about the extent of what I kept.

Here is one that I redid a year ago for a customer. Anyone who thinks redoing diecast is easy, has never tried it. The thick paint hid a ton of file marks. It took a lot of work to get rid of those and all the other details that my customer wanted.

I don't think that was the point of this. As long as there are builders who want to go the extra mile, there will be an aftermarket to satisfy them. I think what most people were talking about was what comes in the basic kit. We have all held a new model and looked at some unitentifyable blob and wondered why the manufacture couldn't have spend a little more time an made it a little more refined. Yes, there are full Monte kits out there with hundreds of parts and all the other goodies built in, but as many of us know, if you strart with a blob, it takes some of the fun out of the build, remaking it to look like what it is suppose to be. On top of that, some things just can't be corrected by any but the most skilled modelers, i.e. tires. If we don't let the manufactures know this, they will never fix it. Post on my friends. They may get the message yet!

One of the major issues in the model making world is technology and it applies to the world of manufacturing in general. Wether you know it or not, making the molds for model kits has changed dramatially. Years ago a set of moldes was hand cut by a tool and die maker and the detail that was included was dependant on the skill of the person doing the work. Some were better than others, but generally speaking, there were a lot of those people around and "trade" schools produced them. That day has for the most part passed and there arn't many tool and die makers around with the old hand cutting skills. They have been replaced by CAD, CAM and electrostatic discharge cutters. Now these machines are great for making hightly repeatable mass number of molds, but buying them and the cadre of well educated specialists needed run them has pushed to cost of mold making to new highs. It use to be you could fabricate a piece and turn it over to the tool and die shop and they would wack out a die pretty quickly and inexpensively. Now you have too make a digital image of the part you want, convert it to a cutting plan and then machine it. $500,000 is a pretty common figure for a basic mold and if you add sliding molded to it, the price for the mold and the machine to operatate it go up dramatically. For the mass produced kit, these costs can really get out of hand in a hurry. I am not making excussed for poor quality kits, but model companies are facing costs and needs for skilled workers that did not exist 20 years ago. The world is changing and the good old days of wacking out a bunch of kits in a hurry are gone. Yes, we can demand better kits and should, but we also need to know what goes into those kits. Old molds are much cheaper to haul out and rerun but to "update" them cost as much as an entirely new set any more. The old tool and die makers just arn't around with the skills to do that any more.

Not to much to ask unless a person would expect to get it for the same price. Inflation means that for the exact same thing +20 years you should be paying about 65% more and that is a general price. I think if you factor in the cost of petroleum you are well over that price. I am a believer in getting my bucks worth, but if the quality of a kit is better, then the reasonable expectation would be for the price to go up.

Then you stand on my side of this hobby. There is a differance between the thrifty and the cheap. The cheap understand the value of money. The Thrifty understand the value of items.

The pricing side of this discussion drives me nuts. There are a lot of modelers who will say, "I would pay for quality" but when it comes time to put the bucks on the counter they scream like a stuck pig when they see the latest issue from Tamiya is $80 even when it includes photoetched grills and metal transfers for the badging or a aftermarket kit from Scale Motorsport is another $80 to $100. No one here will dispute that both of these companies produce some of the best stuff out there. Quality is available, but it comes at a price. As my grandmother would say, "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Before you say you would pay for quality, think about your last 5 purchases and see if that is really true. Did you go on eBay and buy two or three kits from somebodies old stash or did you go to a LHS and buy a truely quality model. Frankly, I know which way I went and it was for the quality. Old lumps just don't interest me. I would rather build something that is a pleasure to build, not something that fights me every step of the way.

Sliding molds are only require if there are undercuts. Casting each side and the top as separate pieces would eliminate the need for undercuts. The ejector pins could be run off the the back side. Most parts trees are not done on sliding molds. End of statement!

I doubt that the carb would need sliding molds. They could be done with much better detail if they were cast in 5 piece, 4 sides and a top. A little glue and they would look much better.

Just like I thought, rich folk don't have to clean up their own messes?

Only in southern California would you see this going down the road! Get a shovel man!

See above. Edison was the proponant of DC current. It was George Westinghouse and Tesla who avocated AC current. Edison actually lost this one.

Actually, Harry it was the other way around and George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison were the primary protaginsts. Tesla worked for Westinghouse and Westinghouse bought his patents for the transformers to run the system. Later Tesla became much more interested in wireless transmission of power. This was against both Edison and Westinghouse because Tesla saw it as giving power to the masses for free. All you had to do was put up a reciever and you had power, much like a radio reciever.

Tesla had patents on a lot of technologies, and the Tesla coil was only one of the early ones. He should have been credited as the inventor of radio, but that was euserped by a little know student of his-Marconni. He developed the first radio controled boat and demonstated a submersible version. Amazing engineer!

Thanks. As I am sure you can tell, it was comic relief about 3/4s of the way through the 935 build. Sometimes you need a break and just to get something done!

This is one of those models that the more I look at it the more I see. You really took the details over the top. Did you scratch build the floats? The rigging certianly looks right. And the open window is a nice touch.

Now that is some serious skill development and crazy imagination! It really goes togeather well. Love the color. So what was it to begin with, and BF109? Nice piece Scott.

I certainly can't, and won't speak for others, but I really enjoy just letting the creative juices flow with oddball models and other kits. I have done dozens of odd bits that have served as a severe creative outlet. Some of these little beasts have taken as much time to get the design right as some of my super detailed pieces. In all, I have to say that I have never built a model that didn't teach me something. Having said that, the sole conection for all of the models I build is that they all make me smile. I put 100% into each one and love them all when done. I think that makes me a serious modeler by any definition. There is no catagory or type of model that a true serious modeler would shun. I may not like them or want to build them, but if someone puts a good effort on the table, I repect that and admire their craftsmanship. Delving into the reasons for doing a type of model or the modelers motivation to build is a futile exercise. Just enjoy what you see. All of us are creating art and that is what we share. You, with your attention to accuracy are creating the illusion of reality. That is an art the same as the guy who does a Zinger, just a different perspective. All things considered it is all for our own personal amusment and pleasure. Personally, I like to add variety to my building so the skills and imagination don't get stale. Here is some of the diversity in my building. It all helps me keep the thinking out of the box. Variety is the spice of life!

and a pretty increadible model at that! http://www.diamondcars.de/eindex/eModelle1/eAston1/eAston2/easton2.html All working features for the James Bond DB5. Not stupidly priced either considering what it is.

So am I the only one that realized that this is a photo out of a dirigible, AKA blimp? Cool photo.