Pete J.

They didn't shut it down in that respect. They down sized and moved. The American HQ is still in operation and will still provide assistance and parts. It is in a much smaller office in Irvine and the warehouse is in Carson. Apparently, it was a money thing. Oh, they still own the land behind the old HQ and the RC track is also still there and operational.

I am actually very happy you posted this. No offense, but it means I will never own a Grex airbrush. I have tried them at shows and thought them to be solid pieces of equipment. Knowing this about them takes them off my list because I use so many different lacquer paints. I'll stick with my Iwata/Tamiyas and Badgers.

I have a very good friend who is retired from The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and he has always contended that every profession has its own jargon. The purpose of that is to keep out the uninitiated. The guys with office speak are doing exactly what you are doing for the same purpose. I have to agree with him, because over the years, I have had several professions and dealt with multiple professions. The jargon/language that each speaks is the secret hand shake for the club.

I see that from earlier posts we are now getting down to dialects. The south has to be the worst, but there are many others throughout the country. Deep south -Mayonnaise - Mayonnaise a lot of rain the other day. Wigidiger- Brought your wife wididiger. Texas- all - We drilled us a allwell. And I just love areas that drop letters. You know like that city that has the Ravens NFL team - Balamer. I will never forget the first time I got dictions from my father in-law. He said, "Go down to Blair road and take a left on Ekadal" The actual street names were Bel Air and Echo Dale. Don't even get started on Baston AKA bean town.

x2

While we are correcting each other someone(yes, I am to lazy to look it up) mentioned the phrase " for all intensive purposes." The correct phase is "for all intents and purposes" and dates back to the 1500's. When one considers that a person may have intent and purpose in a legal environment it makes the statement more understandable. Other great Gallagheresque words would be- cents, sense, since. So close in sound and so far apart in meaning.

Dag nab it! But of corse!

Ok, had to post my second favorite comedian's routine on language. I would have posted the one by George Carlin which is my most favorite, the I am sure that I would have gotten my knuckles rapped because George uses some pretty course language. That one you will have to look up on your own. In the mean time here is Gallagher on the English language! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mfz3kFNVopk

To be honest, most of the time when I get into the detail mode, it is more about learning how to do something new to create better detail or just for the fact that I can say, yes, I build that part from raw material. It is a very personal motivation, but the fun in this hobby for me is in the creation. I love building and new techniques or other methods. That is what got me into working more in metal and other materials. I recently purchased some Delrin and can't wait to get into machining it. Different material and different techniques.

You can do it successfully with the same process that you use of paint, however, you should check the surface for things that may need filler such as sink marks, seams and other issues with the plastic. If there are defects in the plastic that you would normally fix, then paint is the only way to go.

I guess I have to say "It depends". It depends on what the mood strikes me and to be honest I couldn't tell you why that is. I like an occasionally like an OOB build, others I like to do a little more and then some get the "full Monty". Having said that, I like all my models to be as clean as possible. Take care of all the mold lines, fill all the gaps, get the best paint job I can do. After that, it just depends on me. And then there are the moments when I just like to get into the parts box and go totally Gonzo! Yea, that is an Ed Roth Surfite.

Remember, we are talking about an aircraft going ballistic. Technically, most of the X aircraft from the X-1B on were not ballistic. They were for the most part fitted with reaction controls which were very small hydrogen peroxide rockets at the extremities to maintain attitude control. Also many of the X planes were rocket powered which allowed them to alter trajectory from the true ballistic flight path. Being ballistic is different from setting an absolute altitude record. Setting a absolute altitude record is all about controlled flight which is not being ballistic.

Technically an aircraft that runs out of fuel in not ballistic as the pilot still has control of attitude and direction. An object that is ballistic is one that is on an uncontrolled parabolic arc determined by velocity, air resistance and gravity. A ballistic missile is referred to as such because once the warhead separates from the booster it is on a ballistic trajectory to impact. I first ran into the term in pilot training. An aircraft goes ballistic in a maneuver that at very high speed and very high altitude does as hard pull up and goes into the upper atmosphere where the air is so thin that there is insufficient air for the control surfaces to provide direct attitude control. The pilot now has no attitude control and the aircraft is ballistic until it returns to a lower attitude and control is regained. I believe the first aircraft capable of "going ballistic" was an F-4. Using the term to describe a person I believe comes from the idea that they are out of control.

...and the cent sign goes behind the number and you don't include a decimal!

Anyone who got the pilot credentials is the 60's or 70's sure can. It's what happens when an F-4 runs out of air!

I think the one that bugs the heck out of me to no end is "No problem". What ever happen to "Your welcome". Heck no it's not a problem. Your a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH waiter. It's your job!

Far out man, out'a sight, rad man, groovy, gnarly man, .................Oh, never mind. They have gone already!

Scion, Saturn similar idea. Didn't really work in any case.

3 is the faster setting. I use them based on the size of the piece I am joining and the longer it takes the solvent the dissipate the more plastic it melt and deforms the piece. Quick set is best on smaller pieces. Larger pieces that may have a support function, like landing gear on an aircraft, I use the slower set to make sure I get a complete bond. They still both set very quickly and are very thin. They will flow into a seam very well and make a fine bond. If you don't want a lot of ooze then use 3.

I use both Weld-on 3 and 4. Different speeds of curing. 4 oz tins of the stuff are handy and if this is the first time you have used them, this is a good size for your first purchase. After that I buy the quart size which runs me $15 Which is much less expensive than the ones packaged for model building. I just picked them up the other day and keep my 4 oz. bottles topped up. They evaporate very quickly, so keep the lid on the jar. A 4 oz. tin will evaporate over night.

Grex uses O-rings? Hmmmm, I guess they are off my list. I have a Badger, and several Tamiya/Iwata brushes and guns and they all have Teflon seals. No problem with lacquers. Does Grex make a Teflon replacement? Most companies do. You might try that first. Call Coast Air Brush in Anaheim. http://www.coastairbrush.com/ They would know for sure. Very helpful and knowledgeable when you need help with air brushes.

There is a difference between reuse and recycle. Glass is recycled every day and is a very useful product that way. Reusing a glass bottle involves cleaning, sterilizing(for food use) and inspecting to make sure it isn't chipped or cracked and is safe for reuse. All items that have a cost associated with them. Recycling involves throwing them in a pile and feeding them into a furnace to melt them down for reuse. A much smaller process. If you are talking about paint bottles, then you have to involve solvents to dissolve the paint and those are generally petroleum based. Then you get into local VOC regulations etc etc. What starts out as a good idea generally gets to the point that it just costs too much. Incidentally, it is the packaging costs that drives the cost of model paints. Example Alclad runs about $8 and ounce. Reasonable price right? Well, I can often pick up a quart of Mirrachrome(automotive chrome paint) for about $150 which is a little more than half the price of Alclad and will give you all the chrome you need for your lifetime and the lifetime of your kids and grand kid. Per ounce a gallon is even cheaper. Get all your friends together, by a gallon and repackage it to split it.

At the risk of being redundant I have a few things to say about both. Both are tools. Nothing more nothing less and as such each can have it's place in a modelers arsenal of tools. They are by no means and "either/or" tool. In other words, each has very specific purposes and is best at a particular task and you get different results from each. It is important to say this because rattle cans vary from manufacture to manufacture and even within a given line. For instance, Tamiya TS paints are acrylic lacquers and Tamiya has engineered the nozzles to spray at a generally higher volume than other manufactures. Their paints are also mixed so that they flow out rather quickly and flash off a little slower than some so that you get a good even glossy finish. The Tester cans, also lacquers, spray a finer mist that is more atomized so the coverage per pass is a little more even. The same is true with airbrushes. By construction, they can be designed to paint everything from very fine line less that 1/64" to over a 3" wide fan. They are also designed to spray paints at various viscosities and particle sizes. In other words, all airbrushes are not the same and you may need several to do all the jobs you may want to do with them. This is why some come with a combination of needles and nozzles. It is also why paints come in different viscosities and with different particle sizes. Honestly, no one can definitively tell another person the one is better than another. All they can say is that they have developed techniques to use what they choose that work for them. Everyone needs to use what they can get the best results for them. Personally, I have four different airbrushes and each as a specific use that does a particular task for me. I also have stacks and stacks of rattle cans that also have a purpose. Some times that purpose is just to decant so I can spray them through an air brush, others are for a particular color and sheen that I use frequently in small amounts, such as Tamiya Semi-gloss black for engine parts. It is just more convenient to rattle can a sprue all at once and be done with it, rather than getting involved with cleaning an airbrush. The use of airbrushes does not mean the death of rattle cans. They are complementary tools that each modeler can put to good use if they choose to. That is my story and I am sticking too it!

Very nice build. Super clean and well presented. Love this kit. A couple of the photos show the one mistake that I think Tamiya made with this kit. You can see the seat backs are hollow through the rear window. I don't understand why Tamiya would go to all the efforts that they did and not give you a simple panel to fill in the back of the seat. Another option would be to include the custom luggage that you could get with the real car.

Oh, yea, the super guppy. Designed to haul parts of the Saturn launch system. Of course a C-5 and the Airbus 380 aren't far off Just a side point. Aerodynamically the egg doesn't work in aircraft because of induced drag and the area rule. That is, drag at any cross section of an aircraft is directly proportional to the area of that cross section. This is why many high speed aircraft have a Coke bottle shape. Aerodynamicists pay a great deal of attention to the area rule.