Pete J.

Best is such a nebulous term and in this case hard to define because this hobby is so subjective. By subjective I mean the each of us has a very distinct category of models that we like to build whether it be 'merican iron, F 1, NASCAR, sports cars, ect. No company produces models in all of these categories. Even the largest can't manage that. This preference is going to shade our perception of who is the best! On top of this, there are categories that have nothing to do with the type of model itself. Who does the best research, produces the most technically sophisticated models, the easiest to assemble, the highest level of detail. In short, this is like trying to pick the best sports team. Not the best football team, or soccer, or hockey, or rugby team, but the single best team in all of sport. Can't be done. Now, I am going to go out on a limb and nominate my favorite. Tamiya. I have a host of personal reasons for this but hear are the pros and cons of them. They are always at the leading edge of technology with the kits they produce. They were the first to make their molds with the aid of computer machining in many ways. There engineers produce kits have parts that require the use of very complex sliding mold technology such as the single piece chassis for the Enzo, the space frame on the new 300SL, and the chassis on the LFA. They are always experimenting with new ways to create a more interesting model. Look at the use of very small rare earth magnets to mount removable part to represent diverse features of their models. They were first to include metal transfers for the badging of almost all there autos. There kits are the standard that others are measured against. Down side of Tamiya is a big one. They have just a plane weird selection process for deciding what they will spend the time to develop and produce. A new subject can be a real head scratcher. They developed a 1:12 scale Chaterham(modern Lotus Super 7) but never produced a Porsche 917. They have produced few American subjects and when they do, again real head scratchers. A Jeep and a ho hum Mustang?? No explanation. They even have the aircraft and armor guys scratching their heads. The "best company"? No, you really can't define it. You can have a favorite but best just doesn't exist!

Nope to both. I've just developed some techniques that work. That is why I like the slow speed of my Dremel. I started doing it when I had several 1:12 scale cars to do and I needed to be able to do the job quicker. I use a fine polishing compound, slow speed and keep the surface wet, move quickly and don't pause in one spot. With a little practice it works very well and you get a better shine than you can get by hand.

Not really sure what they have done to their line. I have one of the first Lithium Ion units and it works great. I like the fact that I can slow it way down. It looks like they have set the new lineup to start at 5000 rpm. Often I use a much lower speed, especially when polishing paint. Change is not necessarily for the better.

To pronounce it correctly you need to have a tiny bit of knowledge of Japanese. That bit is that the language is spoken without emphasis on any syllable. Thus, tameeyah would be correct, flat, no emphasis. That is how I was introduced to Mr. S. Tamiya. I never heard him pronounce his own name, but every one around him said it that way. Tam-I-yuh is the Americanized way.

Here is my two cents. I agree with Paul Budzig's video. In spite of what people may say, you get what you pay for. Second point is that everyone is going to recommend what they have. No one will tell you that they married an ugly spouse! When is comes to airbrushes, you have to decide what makes the most sense for you. Is this purchase just an experiment to see if you like airbrushing or is this a long term commitment to learning how to use an airbrush and develop the skills to do amazing things with it such as the flames or graphics that you see in some of the above posts? If this is a short term experiment, then cheap is probably fine, but if it is going to be long term commitment, then spend the money on good tools. In my modeling career I have had five or six airbrushes. My first was a very rudimentary Badger that blew air over an orifice that had a dip tube into a jar of paint. It was crude but it got paint on a model better than a brush. The second was a plastic Aztek/ Testors and it was marginally better but being plastic, it had issues with spraying lacquer. My first real quality brush was a Badger 150 Crescendo. It was of the midrange size tip that Paul described and was an absolute workhorse. It came with three tips and worked well for me for 15 or more years. Unfortunately it didn't have a solvent resistant seal and it died and I threw it in a drawer. I then went with the route that Paul described and I got fine and medium tip Tamiya/Awata brushes.(I was doing work for Tamiya at the time and got a great deal) When I found I couldn't do 1:12 scale cars easily, I broke down and bought an Awata HPL-50 small touch up gun. This gave me the arsenal to do everything I need to do. The right tool for each job. Now I mentioned that I threw the 150 in a drawer and it languished there for 15 or more years because someone told me you couldn't replace the seal in that model. I happened to be in Coast Airbrush about a year ago and they told me to bring it in. To make a long story short, I did and after they replaced the seal, needle chuck and the needle for under $30 my trusty 150 is back on the bench again. The moral of this diatribe is this. You decide how you plan on using this tool and how often and how long. Are you committed to building for the next 30 years, or will you stop in the next couple? Family and career can get in the way of our hobbies. Then make a decision. If you are long term, then spend the money on a quality tool, you won't be disappointed. Name brands are really important long term because parts for cheap knockoffs probably won't be available when you need them. Witness my Badger comments. You can count on just about any of the major brands, Awata, Tamiya, Badger or Paasche. Your choice and budget. As to the compressor, anything that will provide air under pressure works. I have a Sears professional pancake compressor that I have used for 15 years and it does just fine. Again it was a good deal because I sold tools at Sears for years. Most good compressors in the US are made by Ingersoll-Rand including Devilbis, Porter-Cable, Dewalt, Campbell Hausfield, etc, so they all will last a lifetime, but as I mentioned any source of compressed air will work. Get a good pressure regulator and water trap and you should be in business. If you have other tools that use a compressor such as impact wrenches, angle grinder and such, size your compressor to those. Your airbrush will work off of a small 5 gallon pancake or a 100 gallon commercial compressor equally well. Airbrushes don't use a lot of air. The commercial airbrush compressors are designed for one purpose and that is to deliver air very quietly, so if noise is an issue then they may be a good choice. So once again, this choice really depends on you and your needs. Get what suits your situation and budget and you will be happy. Good luck and welcome to the world of airbrushing.

First of all, I only buy kits that I like and want to build. With over 400 kits, I can stop buying at any time. Once I decide I want to build something, I never look at what the kit might be worth to someone else. I didn't buy it for them. I bought it for me and for me to build. If you are a flipper or a kit seller, then that isn't for you. If you enjoy the hobby of building models, then build them and forget about someone may pay for one of your old kits. Collectors collect because they enjoy collecting, rare kit sellers sell rare kits because they enjoy that. Builder build because they love that. Doesn't matter what do, just do just enjoy what you do and don't worry about what others like to do.

There was one huge clue in the photo. There is what looks like a two tone BMW behind it with a CCCP sticker in the rear window. All I had to do was Google Soviet cars and that was that.

Mark, superb build. I am going to miss watching this one. I am excited to see what is next!

As I recall all of these genera of soviet cars had some basis on a Fiat 1500 series. So I guess we could call them Fiai's. That would be a Fix It Again Ivan!

Having servived the big C twice(once in my 20's and again in my 50's) I will tell you that a large percentage of the battle is staying strong and positive mentally. This is not easy to do when you feel totally beat down by the chemo and the rest of the issues but it is a must do. When you really don't feel like it, get up and move. When you really don't want to get out of bed, get up and do something. When you feel like giving up, find someone who has beat it to talk to. It is the challenge of a life time for many and surviving is a matter of will. Stay strong Jonathan.

This is one of the examples I used in my post on the subject. I didn't know it took three years. I do know it was a lot of work on your part and others. It really put a burden on you and the family. The other was a certain builder who went into a care facility but build for a museum. Still hard to get rid of his stuff.

I have had a couple of modeler friends pass away or have to liquidate their built models and stashes and here are the cold facts from my experience. 1. Regardless of the time and effort you may have put into them, the majority of build models have little value. I don't want to insult anyone's work, but a collection of a couple of hundred build models would sell for a couple of bucks each in most situations. 2. In spite of the family praise, no one in your family has room or a desire for more than a couple of your built models as keepsakes. A wall full of your models is not likely to become one of your kids wall of models. 3. Giving them to a museum is generally not an option. Unless you have a standing relationship with a museum, they won't accept a bunch of built models. The models they use are there because they illustrate a specific point in an active display. They don't keep a stock of built models in the back in case they need them for a future display. They probably have several model builders they can call on to build a specific model and that is what they will do. As most of you know, the care of built models can be quite time consuming and museums just don't have the staff or space to store them. 4. Your stash of unbuilt kits is nothing more than a pain in the back side to your heirs. There may be a lot of money tied up in them, but selling them is not easy. Selling a couple of hundred kits on line is time consuming. One family of a friend has taken years to dispose of the collection. Working that hard for the little money you are getting is not rewarding. On top of that your family probably has no idea about the value of a kit or if it is complete. It will take the help of your friends to sort the kits out into sellable and unsellable. Not only that but some of your friends are vultures. I am sorry to say that but it is true. When you are gone, they may come around and try to buy the whole collection for a song. Sorry, but I have seen it in many different cases. So, planning may help but your kits and models are your hobby and building them gave you great pleasure. Don't hog-tie your family with a lot of nonsense about disposing of them. Tell them to keep the built ones they like an toss the rest. If you can, make contact with a collections buyer before you go and help them find someone you trust to dispose of the rest.

This is one of those cars that is rare because nobody likes them. Rare does not mean valuable either!

A mist coat is achieved by putting very little paint on. That is done with a rattle can by moving across the model very quickly, not by moving back from the model. If you back away from the model you get a "dry coat" which is the beginings of orange peel. If you want to understand this better, then I repeat, read this from the Tamiya web site. http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/painting-with-tamiya-synthetic-lacquers-35?category_id=8&type=article#.VOvzEnmBGpp

Let us know how it works out! Always open to see what other products might be useful.

I hear your car problems. Just got bad car news also. I have a 1993 MR2 turbo that is in wonderful condition for that year and age. I am finally getting sick and tired of the external head gasket leak and want to fix it. To change the head gasket, it is best if you drop the engine and transmission. That adds about $500 to the bottom line. Total $2,800. Now I am questioning my sanity and why I would do it. The car only has 130,000 miles and being a Toyota, it could easily go another 130000. I love the vehicle but that would be a substantial down payment on a new car, but not one nearly as much fun as this one. That brings my total major repairs over the last 15 years to about $10,000. I paid $7,000 for the car and if online auctions are to be believed, it is worth about $13,000. So what does one do? There just isn't anything else out there that would be that great to own without dropping $30,000 and that is over my budget!

Optivisor is definitely the gold standard for vision aids. I have been using mine for over 20 years. They are not all that expensive. One of the critical issues for me is that the lenses are glass and therefore impervious to all the glues and solvents that we use. I bought mine with 4 lenses but as I have gotten older, I only use three, the 5,7,10 diopter. I also have bifocals and believe it or not, I use them together. It gives me a much broader range of magnifications without having to change lenses.

Guys, I feel for you in those temps. They just don't seem to be going away. 55 here with dense, dense fog! I can see the house across the street and that is about it. The freeways are a horrible mess this morning. Idiots driving blind and highway speeds. Suicide when you get 40 or 50 mph overtake in this stuff. One guy doing what is right and driving at a speed they can see what is ahead of them and someone else figures 70 mph speed limit means they have to drive at that speed. Crazy stupid!

Everything you need to know about Tamiya rattle can synthetic lacquers. http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/painting-with-tamiya-synthetic-lacquers-35?category_id=8&type=article#.VOVsjXmBGpo

I don't live in a snowy climate now but when I did, the idiots in their 4wds use to drive me nuts. Icy roads and they are blasting down them like they were dry. Total misunderstanding of what 4wd does for you! Most times I would see them in the ditch a few miles down the road. I refuse to stop and help figuring that I would disturb the evolutionary process of natural selection.

Yup! Still kills me to see a California Spyder flying backwards through the window into the trees. This shot is the real deal which was used in close ups only. Apparently there were three replica/kit cars built for the stunts and the final plunge out of the window into the trees.

Bingo! The last part of the movie. Driving down the coast highway in Mexico as Morgan Freeman narrates what happened after the prison brake. My all time favorite Steven King story! Now, who has the second picture?

The problem with Tamiya glue is that it isn't glue. It is plastic solvent and dissolves the plastic to join two pieces together, so it won't "come off" because it is not on the surface. The only true fix, is to sand the plastic smooth and polish it out. The Future may work because you are filling in the unevenness in the surface caused by the solvent.

These two cars are from two of my favorite movies. I think they are so common that they have to have been posted already, so if they have, sorry!