Pete J.

I know that I am highly likely to be the only one to pick this bird. I have a little over 1,000 driving this beauty! Love it or hate it, it was my partner for 9 years! Our motto, NOKAWTG! No-one Kicks A$$ Without Tanker Gas. The longest serving airframe in the USAF and we get no respect!

Yup, saw that after I did the post. unfortunately there in no "Delete" button on this board!

What happened??

Interesting. I had a aircraft canopy that I masked off and left for months. Came off with no issues. Sprayed with Tamiya white primer.

You might want to check the plastic type. The old paint is likely lacquer and sometimes it doesn't play nice with some plastics. Someone did a post some time back about that and gave us a guide for the type of plastics that will work. I can't seem to find it but perhaps someone else can. That is why I use glass jars. Coast Airbrush has some plastic bottles that they have coated to handle lacquers. If you do use these, I would set them in a glass container until you know they will be ok. Also something I am also aware of. I use acetone and lacquer thinner in squeeze bottles like this to squirt in my airbrush to clean it. Over time they get brittle and when you squeeze them, they crack and empty their contents all over the place!

Tamiya 46ml paint mixing jar. I have found that it almost exactly holds one Tamiya rattle can. By the way, after I empty the can, I open it up to pull the mixing marbles out. They are handy in the decanted paint.

I have a complete set of Tamiya Catalogs from 1974 to a couple of years ago. I started buying old ones off of eBay about 15 years ago. Some times I had to buy a set to get one I wanted. When I did, it allowed me to upgrade the ones that were not in the best condition. I do enjoy going through them from time to time. My passion for those catalogs started when I helped people check in at Tamiya/con. Tamiya had several complete sets and it was fun to go through them when we had a few minutes of down time during registration.

Where in SoCal? We have a pretty good model car club in San Diego if you are interested and if we ever meet again.?

One other trick with the reversed cloths pins. I glued a couple of pieces of aluminum plate, one to each jaw and use them as a heat sink when soldering. Works great!

A lot of very nice detail! Congratulations on a great build!

I agree. This thread is about being proud of the work you have done. Every time you try something new or a little more difficult, you should be proud of it. You are moving forward . PE is only a small part of that but progress is always to be commended. I have received some very nice comments on my work in this thread. However the next build I do, I will take the lessons I learned and try to improve on it. My personal competition is the last model I built, not the people I share this wonderful hobby with.

?One can never have too many blades, handles or scribing tools. I have a drawer full of them and I just keep spending money on them. Each is better than the last.?

Ditto on the scalpels and the Excel handle. I also like the hex nut at the end. Darned thing won't roll off the desk into your foot or leg. I've never see a toggle end xacto. Must be rare. When it comes to scalpel handles, I prefer the one used by oral surgeons. The handle is a lot fatter and easier for me to control. Here is an example of one.

Peteski is spot on! All paints are not the same. Each needs it's own specific thinner to coincide with its chemical composition. All paints are made up of basically three things: pigments, solvents and binders. It is the binders that vary and make a difference. Binders are basically a clear glue that holds the whole concoction together when cured. Solvents dissolve the binders to make them liquid. Pigments are the color portion. The most common solvents are alcohol, mineral spirits and lacquer thinner. The last two have a percentage of acetone in them but the other chemicals are significantly different. Mineral spirits is mostly turpentine. Lacquer thinner is acetone with a variety of other chemicals like MEK mixed in. Alcohol is the major component of "acrylic" paint thinner mixed with water. Needless to say they do not all react the same way with all binders. In some cases, they create a gooey mess when mixed. In other cases, they will either delay the curing or prevent it all together. Using the right thinner is critical to a good paint job. Finally, all thinners are not created equal. Lacquer thinners in particular vary widely in their composition. Automotive lacquer thinner is much "hotter" than the stuff you buy at Home Depot. The difference is the active chemicals which can be quite expensive and determine the ultimate price of the thinner. Home Depots thinner MSDS sheet says it can be 100% acetone! If I want acetone I will buy that. That stuff is only good for blowing through an airbrush to clean it out. In short, the right thinner will give you good results. The wrong one or poor quality substitute will only make a mess. Kurt, I am jealous that you said you are using DuPont 3602S. Use it sparingly. DuPont quit making it years ago and you can't buy any more. It was always my favorite thinner. I have been forced to drive to Phoenix to buy PPG automotive Lacquer thinner at $50 a gallon. I guard my cans of lacquer thinner very carefully as top quality lacquer thinner is a black market item here in California.

Lego! ? I suppose it is a model. I "had" to put it together. 8 pieces. Almost OOB but I added a stand for the phoenix.

Interesting how the first 3 are all Japanese cars. I've always had an attraction to the Japanese sports cars. The first car I ever bought was a 72 240Z but I have also found the Toyota Supra, Mazda Miata, and the RX-7 fascinating not to mention the Toyota GT2000 and MR2. My car for the last 18 years was a 92 MR2 Turbo. My preference in autos has always run to sports cars. By that I mean small light weight cars that went around corners really well. That is why my choice for the category has to be the best handling muscle car. Not that any of them do corners in factory stock trim. So my choice is the AAR 'cuda. I like the idea of a smaller engine with better handling. No it was not a great track car without a ton of modification to the suspension, but it was the best of the breed.

Randy, I don't stop by every day, just once in a while. Every time I love the surprises you are showing us. Each picture is like a Christmas present! Thanks for making my day a little better!

In the interest if transparency, it was built some time ago. I did a build thread but it was a very long time ago and I used Photobucket to host the photos. When Photobucket changed to a fee for service company the thread was ruined. This is the second one of these that I built. This one was built under commission for Matthew Wells, owner of Scale Motorsport to highlight his super detail set. It was featured in his "customer builds" section on his web site. It is still there but it seems that section of his site is not working at the moment. I'm sure I have several photos of the interior somewhere. I will post them when I locate them.

Here you go. I will need to do some digging to find the interior photos.

Wow! That is some serious fun! They look like outlaw versions of Star Wars pod racers. Same planet different culture. I really like all the subtle details that make them seem plausible. Stay after it and so me more. I'm hooked!

That is a quality control issue. Scale means nothing if the manufacture doesn't care.

They call it sunshine Tax?

I remember those days. I wasn't very savvy back then and made the mistake of buying a 911 here, just before I was transferred to Michigan. I could have avoided the Sales tax if I had bought it in Michigan, but then I just had to have that shiny green car!?

It can get even weirder here. Cities can charge a surtax on all sales. My town charges .25% and I believe San Diego charges another .5%. When I bought my new car I bought it in Yuma and avoided those. Still have to pay the California tax to register it here but three quarters of a percent on $40,000 is significant. Just to clarify, I didn't do it because of the tax. After searching for several months, the Yuma Toyota dealer was the only place I could find the exact model I wanted. Rented a car one way to go out and pick it up.

Spot on and typical of any discussion of "Art". Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is no "correct". Only what you like. Frankly, I enjoy building. The scale is only relevant in the level of detail I need to achieve. Smaller the scale the fewer nuts and bolts I have to add or the higher powered optivisor lens I need to fit!