Pete J.

Are you talking about the Tim Conway elephants out take? Never made the air, but I do so love that one. Anything that can have the whole cast on the floor, "Now thats funny, I don't care who you are!"

I use to buy two kits every time I bought, because I knew I was going to screw up something and lose a part or break something. I use the be rather heavy handed at the bench.

Very nice models! The thing that sticks me about the Le Rhone rotaries was the lack of a throttle. They ran at a fixed speed and the pilot controlled power by turning the ignition off and on. I can't imagine the tension in a pilot's mind when he is on short final, killing the engine periodically to land and then if he has to go around, relying on the windmilling of the prop and engine to restart it. Can you imagine trying to drive a car that way??

Well, I learned something! I like the expanded version of browsing through the topics! I was one of those who complained loudly about the condensed version wasn't working, but after months of using the expanded version I found that I liked having the first line of the text! Well, I went back the the expanded version!

Congratulations and wishes for a long term recovery! One piece of advice from someone who has battled heart problems for over 30 years. Be vigilant! Falling back into old bad habits is like starting over again and is insidiously slow. We also tend to do what we have always done. It takes more strength to break those habits that it did to acquire them. Be strong!

Yea, lipstick on a pig alright, but in this case I think is works. I don't know how or why but the looks are greatly improved. It actually does something the original doesn't. It makes it a cohesive design, not the hodgepodge of pieces of that make up the original. Of course the high gloss black paint doesn't hurt. I would never buy one, period! There is an old story out there, that I have never confirmed, the these were executive cars at Pontiac HQ. The exec's were forces to live with the most monumental design screw up in the company as punishment for producing the darned thing.

My point was more about restored to the way they came from the factory. Gull wing in a perfectly restored condition is a $6 million dollar car and a fully restored Phantom V is worth less than $100,000(two sold on Bring a Trailer in the last two years for a high of $88,000. Not sure a von dutch paint job would add anything to a fully restored 'benz.

$1.2 mill! All about the ownership!

Keep this in mind. This was done back with this was just another old car, maybe worth a grand or two tops. Here is something else from the same era. An old car painted up to the owners taste. Now granted the celebrity ownership probably make this stupid ridiculous today, but both cars stripped down and restored would have radically differant values today. One would be worth a ton, the other one, the restoration would totally destroy the value.

Dapping block set can also be quite useful.

It is really small. The instruction are for someone who is doing a full sized car and mixing at least a cup so they really aren't good for what we do. My general rule is equally subjective. I mix up about a marble sized bit with the tip of a toothpick dipped into the tube about a quarter inch. Use is a few times and you will get a feel for it pretty quickly. Open time is until it starts to get grainy. When you get it out of the pouch it has about the consistency of a thick milkshake, so it is pretty easy to mix. It also goes on very thinly. You don't want to get it on thick because it is pretty hard when cured and you will have more of a sanding job. Thin coats. If you are careful you can actually scribe new lines through it, but you have to be careful and only take light strokes. You can work with it until you see it getting grainy. Less catalyst = longer open time, but i don't mind making several batches to get done what I want. It is cheap enough that you are probably only mixing a penny or so at a time. Oh, and I mix it on a piece of cheap white subway tile. A good test of when you can sand it ,is when you pop it off the tile and the piece comes off in a single unbending piece. Often times I will leave the toothpick in the leftover as a handle to pop it off. The excess comes off the tile with acetone or a single edged razor.

I've got a small planishing hammer( the one in the lower left) and am practicing with it. So far, I have some really strange shaped brass and aluminum sheet. Nickle silver is next on the list.

This one! It is a very fine grained two part automotive glazing putty. Two important things it does very well. #1 Depending on how you mix it, you can be sanding it out in less that 10 minutes. #2 it is impervious to just about any paint you can throw at it. In other words it doesn't ghost through even after automotive lacquers. Oh, and it is cheap. $16 for this bag and that is a lifetime supply. To get the same amount of Tamiya putty at $5 a tube you would spent $75. This is a quart pouch and that is how I recommend buying it rather than the larger cans. You can keep it totally fresh by squeezing the excess air out before you close it. You can lay if flat or squish the heck out of it to mix it after it sits for a while and settles out. Only real downside it the catalyst. It tends to crystallize over time and you need to get another tube, but it still far cheaper than the cost of any hobby putty and none of them work any better than this stuff.

The title says it all! Glad to see that is working again!

If you have a couple of hours to explore all the options. Paul Budzik has everything you ever wanted to know about airbrushing on his web site. https://paulbudzik.com/tools-techniques/Airbrushing/airbrushing_for_modelers.html Read through this and you will have more knowlege than most of the modelers on this web site. Of course you can never get the experience level by reading or watching videos. There is no substitute for using the tool, no matter how much you understand it.

Got mine and they are even more amazing to hold in your hand. The wires are just so fine, I'm almost afraid to touch them! I am going to paint up a set and repost it soon.

NOTHING! My car hasn't moved in a month and a half! Doc, lifts the driving restriction on Tuesday. We will see then if there is anything out there worth reporting!

I have a who garage full of them!! I am not a collector! I am a builder and every kit I've ever bought was a some day project. If I did one a month, I would be well into my hundreds when I finished!

These are a couple I bought in Japan about twenty years ago. Perhaps it is time to get them down and have a little fun!

I've used a similar process. I machined this piece some time ago and it is less hassle than all the clamps and valve. I can also make the hole large enough to get a pipet of thinner in and flush out all the paint. I generally punch two holes. One as close to the bottom as possible to get all the paint out and one near the top to vent it and let the paint flow out smoothly. I can also cover the top hole with my finger and control the flow.

Just like the car builder don't get the fascination with tanks or the aircraft guys don't get ship builders. For some reason modelers in Japan have a huge group of Sci Fi/fantasy builders. I suspect it comes from their "saturday morning" cartoons. If you ever watched power rangers or transformers shows as a kid, there is a steady diet of that for kids growing up in Japan. That is why Bandi has multiple grades so kids can build the basic kits and then as the grow up they get progressively more complex and expensive kits. It is a great marketing strategy. I liked them because I couldn't get my son to sit still long enough to build a car or an airplane but the snap kit Gundams were something he could put together and then go play with. He is thirty something and has a 4 year old himself. I am going to get them a simple kit to build and help him build a relationship with his son.

Gundams have been around for a very long time. I picked up several for my son when I was in Japan 20 years ago. I still have a couple of the Master grade kits that I haven't built. They have five differant grades of kit. The higher the grade the more complex and the higher the cost with the Real Grade at the top of the heap. You can really let your imagination run wild on these thing with colors, finishes, battle damage or weathering. I understand why the younger modeler love these. There are several cartoon series that use them as characters. The Transformers are an evolution of the Gundam series.

I grew up in western Nebraska and we only had Dolly Madison. It wasn't until I was in the Air Force that I discovered Hostess Hohos. I got over those years ago though. My wife is from Baltimore so we always have the Tasty Cakes in the house. Mostly Chocolate Tandy Kakes. I like them when I go to Jersey Mikes for a cheese steak. Yea I know'... poor substitute for a Gino's or Pat's but that is about as good as I can do on this side of the country.