Pete J.

Lacquer thinner or Acetone

Nobody, especially me, called you a bigot. I don't make such assessments of anyone. As to history, if you are talking about the map of the US and who colonized what you really need to take another look at it. The first colonies were Spanish and Portuguese from Florida north into the into what is now Georgia and as far west as Louisiana. The French colonized the area from Quebec through the Ohio Valley down to Louisiana and northwest into Washington and Oregon. West and south of that was the Spaniards and Mexicans. The Germans and Dutch had large contingents from New England down into Pennsylvania. The Brits really had a very small colony relative to what others had especially the Spaniards. Yes, our founding fathers spoke English and that is what our early laws were adopted in, but as the English speakers moved in, those that spoke other languages didn't just suddenly move out. In point of fact, until the mid and late 1800's the predominant language that was spoken in the majority of the land mass that is now the US was either French or Spanish.

I would have to say it depends upon what part of the country you live in. What most people don't consider consider is that for over 500 years, Chinese, Spanish or native American dialects were the principle languages spoken from Texas to California. This area has only been a part of this "English speaking" country for less than five generations and only been a majority English speaking for less than 3. Having lived here for 27 years and coming from areas that do not have a rich Hispanic history, I have come to appreciate the long history of these peoples. There are Hispanic families that trace their roots back over four hundred years. Although we hear far to many stories of misdeeds and other negatives, I can say from my own personal interactions that they are very hard working, industrious, law abiding, honest people. Yes, there are a few bad apples, but even the causations in Beverly hills have their share(Justin Bieber for one). As to the Spanish speakers, anthropologist tell us it generally takes immigrants three generations to make a true language adjustment. There are literally thousands of legal non English speaking immigrants who become citizens every year and language transition is a difficult proposition. English is a horrible language to try and learn. It has more exception than hard rules. Reading and pronunciation can be a bear or is that bare or bar. In short, when I grew up in western Nebraska, there were German and Swedish signs throughout the town. That is no different than what we are doing now. It is an assist to those who are trying to learn the language.

Was digging through my stash last night and found a couple of these. Boy are they green!

I really do not intend to throw gas on the immigration fire but here is an interesting fact. Are you aware that the US government has never actually sanctioned English as the official language here? There have been attempts, but they have always fallen short. I know my great grandparents spoke very broken English and the community accommodated them. You want to talk about an unintelligible immigrant, try speaking to a Swede who doesn't understand English!

Don't forget the Alfa B.A.T.s There were spectacular cars for their time.

PVA's have far more uses that just clear parts so a 5 spot is money well spent. I like the Formula 560 because it holds strong and gets tacky enough to hold parts quickly. It is great for gluing parts like spoilers, external rear view mirrors and door handles to painted surfaces. It's distinguishing characteristics are that it grips quickly, cleans up with water and it is a bit flexible after it dries. It grips well enough that you don't have to worry about something falling off but if you bump something after you are done, it won't take the paint with it like CA or epoxy. You can also dilute it with water and use it for decal adhesive. This stuff is not a one trick pony.

..and the 1:20 Lotus 25

Dat's da stuff! Another option is Pacer Formula 560 canopy glue. Both are white glues that dry clear and clean up with water!

Frankly, if you are eligible, there is no one out there better than USAA. I have had my insurance with them since 1972(yes 42 years!) I was an insurance underwriter for 10 years and an agent for 15. I could have had any insurance company with a professional discount and I still kept them. The reason why is simple. They give the best service out there. Example: I had a water leak in my kitchen that resulted in mold. The whole kitchen had to be torn out and redone. The day after I reported the claim they sent a claim rep out and met with me and my contractor. The three of us went through costs and agreed on a price for the work to be done. I had a check in 3 days for $38,000. No argument, no hassle, nothing. Just money to fix the problem. I had more issues with the bank trying to deposit the check than I had with them. When all was said and done, we had enough money to replace the cabinets with better grade casework and put in granite counter tops instead of tile. Oh, and they guaranteed the work as long as I own my house. Having been an underwriter I knew the contract and it is debatable as to whether they were liable(sudden breakage vs. long term leak) but they came out with the attitude they were going to make it right for me. I wouldn't trade companies for the world. Oh, and the cost! Mike is right, most insurance marketers will just hang up if you tell them you have USAA. They are a member owned co-op and as such when you sign up they set up a "subscriber account" and every year they put a portion of the profit in there for you. Once you get to a certain level, they pay out any excess to you. After this long, I get about half of my premium back each year. If I were to rate them on a 1 to 10 scale, I would give them a 15! Only down side, if you can call it that is they only take military and their families. My adult kids have them and I have threatened them with their lives if they ever change companies.

Steve, your right. I also have a lot of things just like you, but in the last 25 years(I got back into building when my son was little) I have found the WD-40 travels when you spray it as an aerosol. Lubricating anything with it fills the air with very tiny particles and they seem to be attracted to the surface of plastic. I am not sure if they have a static charge or what. The droplets are so small that to spot them on the surface of a model seems to be impossible until they show up as a giant fisheye. Unfortunately, my model bench has to share the room with my general shop, so a lot of things go on in the room(it is actually a one car garage) so I try to limit what gets in the air. Spray lubricants of any type just don't get used in that area but I have has far too many issues with WD-40 to even allow a can of it in the room.

Ok, I learned something about WD-40, but it is still one of the best things for screwing up a paint job and after it had done it's worst, you need to take all the paint off down to bare plastic and soak it in a good degreaser like super clean. As I said, it just the devil incarnate in a model shop.

Caution- Be very carful with WD-40 around a model work bench. It has a bunch of silicon in it and if you get it on the surface of an unpainted model and don't do some crazy clean up before you paint, you will get fisheyes in you paint so bad you will not believe it. I am so paranoid about it that I have band it from the same room I model in. The stuff really can screw up a paint job in a hurry!

Not a real solution, but I keep a small squirt bottle of half 91% alcohol and half distilled water around for cleanup. You can use it on lacquer but you have to be quick. Just a bit on a Q-tip or a piece of t-shirt cotton and work quickly. This works really well for white glues like Krystal Klear and Formula 560.

I will not weigh in on the "over foil" issue but just about all the issues mentioned here have more to do with the application of clear and the type of clear than what you are putting it over. What I mean is that you can clear everything if done correctly. First is the color change issue. The best thing you can do is look at the paint you are using. If you look into a quart of House of Color or DuPont lacquer, it looks as clear as water all the way to the bottom. No color change. Do the same with decanted Testors and it has a yellow hew to it. Having said that the thinner the coats the better. Some people just haven't got their techniques down and add way to much paint and you get that dipped look. That is partially due to too much paint and partially because they don't finish sand the paint. Paint by it's nature tends to build up around seams and edges and is slightly raised. You can see this on real cars but it is so small that you don't notice it. By the way if you put the paint job on your models that most real cars have it would look horrible. To get a realistic paint job the surface has to be absolutely level with no dips or high points. You do this with a sanding stick(AKA a long board for models) and then polish the paint to a high gloss. This takes effort and time but it yields the best paint job by far. Choose your clear. Lacquer, enamel, acrylic, catalyzed, water bourn, floor polish, all have different uses and different things they work on well. You will only find out what works for your techniques by trying them. Right or wrong depends on you, not the product or what someone else does.

Solar energy!!! I get people knocking on the door, unsolicited calls, junk mail by the ton! Here in SoCal it is the "Hot" thing to be selling. Our electricity rates are very high(at least $250 a month without A/C on) but these guys are like fleas. I probably will get solar panels one of these days, but when that happens I will do my research and I will make contact with a reputable installer, not someone who is door knocking. In 60+ years I have learned to be skeptical of telemarketers and door to door salesman!

I'm going with model on this one. I have to agree with others, wrong tires for the beach and the paint is too even for a beach environment. The rust looks a little to even and with that much rust I would expect to see some holes also.

All of these retro styled cars look like they were shortened in Photoshop, whether it is the Mustang, Challenger, Fiat 500, Mini. I think all the originals had better lines to them.

Actually, I find it interesting that you can upload CDs of albums that you own to iTunes so you can listen to them on your mobile devices like my ipod shuffle.

Good thoughts all on the actual airbrushes. I own three and use them all the time. Won't go into details with one exception. The size of the tip and needle should be selected based on you use. A fine tip is great for very small stuff such as lines and specialty thing such as fades. A medium tip is best for general spraying on small models. If you are going to get into the big boys(1/12 scale or larger) you will need a large tip or you will drive yourself nuts making a hundred little passes. Here is my one exception and it is for the really big stuff like 1:12 scale car bodies. I have a "baby Iwata" and it can be had with three different tips that have a spray pattern for 1/8th inch to four inches. I have all three and interchange them depending upon the use. The reality is, this is really a very small touchup gun and has a couple of features that airbrushes don't. First of all it has a fan shaped spray instead of the round spray like an air brush. This is accomplished by two air outlets on either side of the nozzle that, depending on the air pressure to those outlets will flatten the spray pattern to an elongated oval. This gives a more even spray over larger areas. Second it has multiple choices as to paint containers. It comes with a large(pint)side feed can. There is also an attachment to use the standard syphon feed airbrush bottles. Last it is a large spray gun and is easy to handle for ham fisted guys like me. Down side, it ain't cheap! I would also not have it exclusively, but if you are building large models it is a great convenience. Here is the link on Coast airbrush. http://www.coastairbrush.com/proddetail.asp?prod=LPH50 As to compressors, anything that blows enough air is usable. Your main decision has to be based on noise and cost. The airbrush only compressors like Iwata and Badger are super quiet but useless for other things like blowing up tires. Shop type compressors can give you all the air you need but can drive the neighbors nuts with the noise. So you have to choose a balance of noise, price and location to suit your circumstances. One tip given earlier is that you need clean dry air so a moisture trap is critical! One other choice that a lot of modelers use is CO2. This is great because you can get a large container(like they use in soda machines) and they last a long time and are absolutely silent. They are easily refillable and give you absolutely dry air.

Oh heck yes! Like landing at the wrong airport with a 747 and now don't have enough runway to get airborne again! Or getting embroiled in a discussion over a laptop in flight and driving past your intended landing field by about a half an hour. This is one of my favorites and a career ender for two Air Force pilots - Gear up landing on Diego Garcia. What makes this one so bad it that it happened on Diego Garcia and shut down the runway for days. No big deal but Diego is in the middle of the Indian Ocean. 5 degrees south latitude, due south of India and there is only a single runway and no other runways for thousands of miles. They just skipped one little step on the landing check list. Gear down? Check? http://www.zianet.com/tedmorris/dg/bombers4.html

You got to be old to remember this one: Came an answer from the kingdom, with our brothers we will share, All secrets of our mountain, All the treasure buried there.

There is stupid and then there is stupid. The guy diving into a cactus, the gal swallowing cinnamon, the guy driving 100 mph in a residential neighborhood. That is pure essence of stupid. The lady backing the van into the garage with the rear door open, well maybe I can see that one. I grew up on a farm and was moving heavy machinery all the time and it would get routine. Then one time something would change and the stuff would hit the fan. Should have thought of it, but there are things we are conditioned to do and didn't recognize the consequences of failure to do one little thing. Example. The draw bar on the tractor had pins to keep it from swinging. You always put the pins in when you were going on the road and took them out in the field. Going home one evening and before I left the field I stopped to put the pins in, but before I did that I had to relieve myself. Something in my mind said I had done the routine. Got off the tractor and got back on and did something in between. About a half mile down the road the implement I was towing started swinging wildly and almost took me off the road. Stupid? I wouldn't call it that. Unfortunately, for men, most of the truly stupid things we do, especially when we are younger, either involves a female or friends that we are trying to impress. It is a good thing they don't jail you for being stupid from time to time or we would all be in jail.

Up until the later part of the 20th century, mail order companies were a viable if not vibrant method of retailing. This was because there was a huge population that lived in small towns and rural areas. Sears and Wards were the primary server of those communities. I grew up in one of those communities and Sears and Wards both had "Catalogue" stores in town. For those who haven't experienced them, they were very small retail spaces, maybe 10' by 30' as a show room. They had a few appliances on the floor and a service desk. The real action was the back room. You could go in and order anything out of the catalogue(The Big Book) and it would come in on the next truck. The deliveries took about a week where I was. Yes there were other small stores in town that sold similar items but they just didn't have the expansive selection that these catalogue companies had. My Dad ordered veterinary supplies, livestock handling stuff. Mom had clothes and household item and don't get me started on the Christmas catalogue. It was part of small town America. As this part of the population disappeared the validity of the retail method went with it. I was always surprised that Sears didn't become Amazon before Amazon. They could have easily owned the internet market. They had the distribution network and suppliers all they needed to do was get online. They just came to the table too late.

Not a song- Time for me to go, wife is home and we are meeting friends a Stone Brewery. Time for an Arrogant Bastard Ale! See ya!