StevenGuthmiller

Funny part is, even a kit like that can build into a nice shelf model. Steve

Oh, I agree Pete. There are all sorts of situations where an airbrush works much better than a spray can. I use my airbrush for all sorts of different applications. I was only stating that the availability of colors was the reason that I initially bought an airbrush. I have no access to anyone who will mix colors for me in a spray can, but I have access to any kind of pre-thinned airbrush paints via the internet that I could ever desire. Variety is the spice of life & I never want to have the colors I choose for a build limited to what's available in a spray can. Steve

I'm still of this thought too. I just can't see the Holthaus's just packing up all of those molds & pitching them in the trash. There has to be a bit of cash wrapped up in all of that stuff. Now, the big question is, if someone does buy it, is it someone who will be able to do something with it, or someone who "wishes" they could do something with it & winds up biting off more than the can chew. MCW just recently sold off the paint portion of their business & the new owner is committed to carrying on with hopefully little interruption. I'll find out soon as I just ordered paint for the first time since the business changed hands. I'm relatively confident than something similar will most likely happen with Modelhaus.......Fingers crossed! Steve

Speaking of low parts counts, a while back I built an AMT "Junior Craftsman" 1959 Ford Galaxie kit. The total parts count was 22 parts! Steve

With me it's not so much results that makes the difference. Good results can be gotten with either spray cans or an airbrush. I have almost as many finished kits in my collection that were done with a spray can as those done with an airbrush, & you would never be able to differentiate between the two. My biggest reason for using an airbrush on bodies is availability of options. There's a huge world of airbrush paints, finger nail polish, custom mixed colors, etc out there, & the only way to take advantage of that is with an airbrush. Spray cans are just too limiting for me. That is the "only" reason that I ever purchased an airbrush. Steve

Well, the body is "almost done". I still have a few details to pick out here & there. I'm happy with the paint now that it's all polished & the foil always helps. Got a start on the interior & then it's on to the engine. I still have to figure out a good way to detail the "440 TNT" air cleaner. Steve

Thanks John. I usually shoot the back of the glass with some clear window tint. That should have pretty much the same affect. I've not been able to find the Future polish around here. I built another kit a while back that had a few stress cracks in the glass & you have to be looking for them to see them. But being a modeler, you know, even if nobody else sees them, you know they're there & it bugs you. Steve

Take it back to 1957. a lot of cars back then coordinated exterior & interior color schemes. I would do it in possibly a light tan & red 2 tone. Steve

If I thought I'd get much use out of it, I'd buy one of those. I occasionally spend that much on one kit! I'm going to see what I can do with some .007 clear sheet that I have. If not, the glass I have is clear & smooth, it just has those stress cracks on one side. Not sure how badly they will show on the finished model. Steve

I use both depending on what I'm doing. It's probably 50/50 when you consider primer & clear. I use nearly all airbrush on color coats & interiors. Steve

Before I discovered MCW paints & the joys of lacquer paint in general, I used to paint all of my builds with Testors flat enamels & clear coats. I liked the flat paints much better than gloss because they layed down much better, didn't have the tendency to hide detail & dried much faster than gloss enamel. Back then I would shoot them with gloss enamel clear coat, although it was never a good idea on very light colors because of the yellowing problem. This '53 was painted with custom mixed flat enamels & Testors clear enamel gloss coat. Steve

I'm not crazy about it, but that's just me. Maybe the '49 Merc grille from the AMT kit? Or I believe the old AMT '57 Chevy kit had a '57 Buick grille. Something a little less in your face. I've got a ton of custom grilles from some of the old annual kits. I should look through a few & see what I have. Steve

That's cool! When I was younger, all my sister & I did was fight! We get along much better now. Steve

I agree. Sometimes acrylics can work very nicely versus enamels. I use a few Testors acrylics. The only problem I seem to have with the ones I've used is coverage. Steve

Just keep plugging away! That's the name of the game. Steve

The '65 Mercury came today! Looks very nice, & very dirty!! The only issues I can see from a preliminary inspection are a small chip out of the back corner of the hood where a hinge was broken off, & the missing stock hubcaps. The broken hinge is still there, so it should be easily repaired & I'll just have to keep my antenna up for a set of hub caps. Steve

That's kind of ironic Tom. My first car was a '67 Chrysler 300, red with a black interior & black vinyl top! I bought it at a junk yard for $200.00 & then fixed it up during my junior & senior years in high school. I have a Johan '67 that I'll be building in the future that will be a replica. Steve

Thanks Chris! I added it to my "watch list" but there's no way on Gods green earth that I'm going to pat the "buy it now" price of $24.95 + $4.00 shipping! Even the $7.95 starting price is way high for a windshield! I'll probably either live with the one I have, or see if I can find another one in the stash that fits. But thanks for the help. Steve

I had one of those "life flashing before my eyes" moments last night. I finished up polishing over the weekend, & got a start on the foiling process. At one point my dried up fingers lost grip on the shiny paint & to the floor she went! Luckily I have a large area rug in my shop, so the "shatter" that would have happened on my cement basement floor was averted. I thought I heard a small crack when it hit but I quickly picked it up an inspected it. I could find no damage on initial inspection, so I went back to foiling. As I was finishing up for the night & was giving the body a light rub down to eliminate finger prints & the like, I could hear a faint plastic on plastic grinding as I was polishing the top. To my chagrin, I found that the passenger side A-pillar had snapped! After I got over the initial anguish & the sinking feeling in my chest, I realized that it wasn't too bad. Or let's say, it could have been much worse. The break is clean with no paint chipping so I quickly pulled out the "Zap" & glued it back together. Even more disturbing was when I began to contemplate some reinforcement on the pillar & pulled out the glass to decide how much space I had to work with, I discovered that my windshield had a bunch of fine "stress cracks" on one corner that I hadn't noticed before. Needless to say, '66 Chrysler windshields do not grow on trees, so I'll have to learn to live with it. I guess I averted a real catastrophe & in the end the build can continue, but I thought it would be good therapy to share my harrowing experience! Steve

Nice Ray! It's nice to see one of these shoebox Fords built stock. I had almost forgotten what they were supposed to look like! Steve

Speaking of posting & the internet, Has anyone noticed that if you do a web search for photos of a car that you have happened to have built a kit of & posted on the forum, sometimes photos of your build will show up in the images? I thought it was kind of cool, but it just goes to show that everything you post is out there & never going away. It also illustrates the posting of a link as we've been discussing. Steve

That's what I usually do. Only when I'm really lazy & just want to post a quick reference photo will I post directly from the net. Same thing as when you're copying from Photobucket or Fotki. You're copying the link, not the photo. Which is why it uses no space on the forum. Steve

It's very simple to post photos from the internet. Just copy & paste. Find the picture you want, right click on it, click on "copy image". Then go to the forum, right click anywhere in the text box that you're posting in & click "paste". Now if you're using a device such as an ipad or other device without a mouse, I can't help you. I use my good old desk top computer & it's as easy as pie! Steve

I use 3 different photo sites. Photobucket, Fotki & Flickr. I use mainly my Photobucket account for posting photos here by "copying & pasting from it. It's very quick & easy & doesn't use up any of your allotted space on the forum because it posts a link, not an actual photo. Which is why if you go back & look at some of my older posts you'll see those wonderful "cats". My Photobucket account was a mess so I made the mistake of organizing all of my photos there into folders & thus all of those links were broken, hence the cats. I do have a question for anyone who might know. How would one post photos to the forum from Flickr? I discovered a while back that Flickr photos can be blown up by clicking on them. A nice feature that might be nice on the forum for those who want to really get up close & personal. When right clicking on a Flickr photo, there doesn't seem to be a "copy" option. Any insight? Steve

Alclad will rub off too with too much handling. When I spray a transmission that's attached to the block with Alclad, I wrap some blue painters tape around the tranny until final assembly is finished. That way the oils from your fingers won't wear off the Alclad. Steve