Pete J.

Music was always a part of my life. Mom insisted that i learn piano at 6. Then I played baritone in the marching band. Picked up a Regal twelve string in college. Still dabble in music but kind of like modeling for most people, it is always for me. Never anything I was really good enough to do in public.?

Personal education is a lonely pursuit! Way too many hours alone with your thoughts and a pen(well typewriter...umm word processor). As you said, the long back strait of Mulsanne, in the dark , in the rain. In the end, the morning sun does rise and you wipe the grit and oil from you face and the long night is forgotten. All well worth it. You have grown in ways you will never understand. Congratulations Doc!

This strikes me as an updated version. Same kind of blunt nose

Front end looks like an upside down Tesla! Other than that, I got nothing.

Some really bad news here in north San Diego county. We have our first two confirmed cases. The really bad news. Both are paramedics! The scramble is on to get in touch with all the patients and healthcare workers they were in contact with.

Me too! I have a drawer full of them in my garage. They use to be all over the place, especially within the F1 modeling community. There use to be a photo-etching company out of Japan named Acustion(not the right spelling) that made a ton of this stuff. Now I can't even find them on the web.

If we meet some time ask me to tell the joke about 3 southern Belles sitting on a porch. The joke has been told with both "how nice" and "that's nice" You can google it, but it definitely doesn't belong on this web site so that is all I'm going to say about it. Well, not quite. After I was first told that joke I saw a huge 4X4 pickup that was jacked way up in the air with a vanity plate of How Nice.

Really? This comes up first when I google it. https://galactictoys.com/products/finishers-formula-1-f1-car-tire-stencil-1-20-1-24-scale-photo-etch-tool?variant=31126678241361&currency=USD&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQjwpLfzBRCRARIsAHuj6qU9FenlEmyAVOeiKoLOQB39uMqoTWX4ttcuUNcq3uXugiEpQoG7MNoaAoRgEALw_wcB Hiroboy.com also has them in there online catalog but it shows out of stock. Hobby link Japan HLJ.com has some too, but you have to search a bit more often the stencil comes as part of a photo-etched set with other parts. https://www.hlj.com/1-20-scale-mclaren-honda-mp4-5-photo-etched-parts-fuj11289 You kind of have to go through the photo etched aftermarket sections to find what you want.

How nice, has the same connotation . Treading on thin ice here!?

I see a lot of people shooting the messenger. Yes the news is probably over reporting and some are slanting the stories to play into the fear, but most are reporting the facts. What we do with those is up to us. First off, 30 minutes a day of any news channel is enough to get the information that you need. If you get more than that and become fearful, well that's on you. Find yourself seated in front of the TV all evening soaking up MSNBC or Fox news and then complaining that they are over playing the bad news of the day? Watch the first 30 minutes then shut it off and go build a model. Do I sound like the parents from the 50's and 60's about TV in general? Oh heck yea! I remember my mom coming in and shutting off the TV and telling me to go out and play. Be your own mom. Control how much you get.

Google Model car tire stencil. There use to be a plethora of these things around but you can still get them.

I think it was easier because it was the odd cousin of a pretty well know car. If you had a reasonably sharp eye, you would pickup that is wasn't the Interceptor when you compared a couple of photos. The two side vents were the giveaway to me.

I finally found one of these and paided stupid money for it. I wanted to make my first car which was a 69 notch back(aka coupe). This kit has the option to build a stock version. Apparently Revell reconfigured the mold to make the later fastback so it has never been reissued.

It has been ages since I watched SNL regularly. Like ah totally back when they was killer beezz, und ah like the bluesie brudders! Yea, like I totally swore off tubelavision for a eon ago. So this is what happened whild I wuz goon. Wat the ....??

Peter, I get the process for vacuum plating and it is something that anyone could do if they invested in the equipment. Problem is I haven't found one for less that several thousand dollars. I don't think that is in the realm of what the average modeler would spend on such equipment unless they were going into business. My suggestion is expensive for most modelers. $140 kit of specialty paint that gets very close to the same result, and can be done with normal modeling tools(an airbrush). Most could master this paint and avoid the cost of the plating equipment. It would be nice if there were a lot of small batch vacuum platers around but they all seem to have gone out of business.

It's really up to your skill with an airbrush. The coat is very thin so it doesn't hide the details like regular paint even when you dip it or brush it. As to masking, same as any other paint. Oh, and by the way once it is dry, you can mask over it to spray other colors like flat stripes or a blacked out hood. Done to manufactures specs, making paint will not damage the chrome finish. The base coat is clear so you can chrome over anything. It is also water based.

No, I am talking about the spray on silver nitrate system that involves multiple chemicals and an ionized water spray that is common in many comercial body shops.

So, have you been watching the new fox show Lego Masters? That is such a kick. They just built 6' bridges and then tested them for strength. A couple of them held a half a ton!

Most of them require a large investment in equipment. Alsa easy chrome is the only one that I am aware of you can do with or without an air brush .https://alsacorp.com/product/easy-chrome/ As I mentioned I have been playing with it a while and have had the best results dipping small parts. I have not quite mastered the airbrush with it yet. Like anything I have seen threads about this stuff that said it doesn't work, but the painter rarely followed the exact instructions. To many "I've been doing this for 30 years and know what I am doing" attitudes. Follow the directions, get good results. Granted the starter kit is $140 plus shipping but that is a lot cheaper than $5,000 for a commercial chroming setup. Not to mention the cost of their chemicals.

Yes Joe, you can. I have spent as much as $1,000 on a kit and parts, but then it took me 4 years to build it, so I suppose $250 a year wasn't all that bad. It is a matter of perspective!

Going the opposite way from what I actually do, you can go really cheap. Every model car show/competition, or any other kind of model show for that matter, has swap meet. You can generally find a bunch of kits for about $10 each. Also often someone is selling off their paint supplies and the price I see is about $3 to $5 a can. There are also tool sellers, so you can pick up hobby knives and sprue cutters on the cheap. The only thing missing is glue and you can get that at the store for a couple of bucks. So in theory you could set yourself up for under $20. Now that all changes when you start looking for that "one" kit that you have always wanted to build. If you want more you can certainly go there, but like anything there is a price for that. I think most of the complaining about cost comes from those who want the latest high quality kit, with all the aftermarket stuff and the tools to build it. Do you need all that stuff? No, but it can make the hobby more enjoyable and a great model easier to achieve, but you can still have fun and put competitive model on the table with just the basics. It just takes time and effort.

I'm glad someone revived this thread. I totally missed it! Great cars and paint jobs. What surprises me is that with all the Martini car lovers no one posted the big dog of them all.

I know they are not quite the same but there are some paints out there that do an increadibly close job, if you take the time to learn how to do them. My favorite is Easy chrome by Alsa. I have been playing with it for a while now and know for sure that "dipped" parts are spot on. I am still working to get airbrushed results to the same level. Easy chrome is also very durable as it is designed for 1:1 autos and rims. The downside is that it is stupid expensive but if you have to have something, that is what you need.

I have to agree with Dave about the cost of other hobbies. They can be way more costly. I just upgraded my camera from one of the first digital nikons(at least 15 years old) to a one generation behind Sony. It a a 7II body with an 80-120 lens and I got it "cheap" through the exchange for just under a grand. The current 7IIIs are selling in the $2,000 just for the body and another grand for a decent lens. The Nikon was getting very long in the tooth and the new camera is like going from a 32 ford to an S class Mercedes. The darned owners manual is over 300 pages. This will undoubtedly be the last camera I will ever buy(well if you don't count cell phone cameras). After this, a couple of hundred for a kit seems like a bargin!

1:12 Tamiya kit and the Scale Motorsport detail kit along with a ton of scratch building. For instance, the fire bottle in the front was turned from aluminum billet. Just an FYI, the engine in the photo was on its own display stand which is show below. That is the back half of the chassis cut down to show off the whole rear half. The model was built with a engine in the engine bay but only the bottom half was detailed as the rear deck was not openable.