peteski

What kind of scale ratio is 143:1 or 142:1? Do you simply mean 1:43 or 1/43 where the model is forty three times smaller than the actual object? When you mentioned 1/25 scale you used proper nomenclature. 1:42 is not a scale I have heard of (but it might have been used by some older manufacturer). Also for automotive subjects 1:32 is a popular scale. This one looks more like 1:32 model.

No need for a chemistry degree, but knowing at least the basics of the chemicals you use makes you a better informed and overall better modeler. This is especially important with paints, but understanding adhesives is also very helpful.

Very interesting. It looks very familiar but it obviously is not.

Subaru? Interesting . . . To me that car has more of a European flavor than Japanese.

Keep your water in cool dark place. No UV rays! Unicycle on a rail trail seems reasonable. But one on a 2-lane town street with no sidewalk and with snow bank ending right at the edge of the travel lane (no shoulder) seems a but risky thing to do (even on a standard 2-wheel bike). Speed limit is 35 MPH but we all know that nobody travels under 40. Luckily I passed them on a straight part of the road with no oncoming traffic, but the road does does have low visibility curves. While it cracked me up, it also seems very irresponsible.

Yes, Spotlight Hobbies is offering "chrome plating" of plastic model parts, similar to what others offered in the past. That's a winner for me. If you still want DIY paint solution, then the winner will be what works best for you. As you mentioned, there are lots of opinions and lots of varying results, depending on the individual reviewing it.

The clear film of old decals can shatter into small pieces. Coating the decal sheet with Microscale Liquid Decal Film will add another layer of clear which should keep the old decal together. That is the same clear film Microscale uses for their decals so yes, it will be flexible and respond to decal setting solutions. Some people just spray the sheet with any sort of a clear coat, but I prefer to use the product specifically made for the task. I have also revived cracked decal film sheets by airbrushing a couple of wet coats of lacquer thinner (not wet enough to run of course). Wait for the lacquer thinner to evaporate between each coat. The lacquer thinner remelts the shattered film so it basically becomes like it was originally. But use this method at your own risk.

Read the quote below.

What a coincidence Kurt! But the situation is not that grim. We have discussed food packaging's "best by" dates, and those are really just a suggestion of a date where the food will be as flavorful as the day it was packed. If the can is sealed, the contents will still be good for some years to come. It's not like it instantly spoils or becomes poisonous the day after the "best by" date. I have eaten food from long "expired" cans, and it was still quite tasty (and I'm still around to tell about it). As for what cracked me up, just when I thought I saw it all, I have encountered a bicyclist on a busy street today. The temps here are quite cold and there are snow banks at the sides of the road. This time of the year there aren't many bicyclists riding around on the streets. As I was approaching I saw their both of their arms flailing in the air as if they were riding with their hands off the handle bar. I thought that it was a silly thing to do since they were riding very close to the snow bank on the side of the road. As I got closer I saw the reason for their flailing arms - that person was riding a large unicycle!! Those have no handle bars! They were using their arms for balance. I made sure to stay as far away from them as I passed. It was a rather large unicycle with a good size wheel with a fat tire (like ones on mountain bikes). The tire was also rather low in air. They were traveling at a pretty good clip. I will likely never see anything like that for the rest of my life.

LOL! No, you're not alone. It is the way the produce companies package the greens. They do the same with cauliflower and probably other veggies which have similar shape. Only way to deal with this is very sharp pointy knife. Even if you found the tape's end the adhesive is so aggressive that it will most likely rip the plastic bag instead of coming off. Ask me how I know.

Just a tool or not, space managements not just a computer thing. Emails are like pieces of snail-mail. Whether virtual (emails) or physical, if you let them pile up, they will fill your whole house (or space allotted for your emails). In my experience most emails are rather small in size, so to fill 14,710,000,000 bytes takes a lot of individual emails. As for just wanting it "to run", just like your car your email account needs some periodic maintenance to keep running well. It will automatically purge the emails it marks as SPAM, but it doesn't know how important or unimportant are all the other emails you never deleted after reading them. Don't forget to go through your "sent" email folder where all the emails you sent are stored. Good luck with the purge.

How much "mail" do you guys have??!?! My free Gmail account which I had for over 20 years has 15GB of space and I'm only using 0.18Gb! Imagine if you left all your snail-mail spam sitting by your front door - you would have a huge pile! Gotta purge!

New admin where? On this forum? Or do you mean "the new U.S. gubermint"? "Admin" when referring to some computer relate thing usually mean system administrator. The only way to stop this insanity would be to shut down Internet or nuke the entire world (including U.S.), and neither ain't happening. The Pandora's box has been opened and there is no going back to sanity.

I also noticed that the background color does change spending on which part of the forum I'm viewing. It might be tied to the ads being displayed at the top.

Are you using any type of Adblock?

Wick, again some logical thinking is helpful. B-Bs are probably steel balls with copper plating. If used in water-based paints, there will be chemical reaction taking place. But if used in petroleum based paints they are probably safe to use. Lead shot can also be affected by long exposure to water-based paints. Personally I borrowed the idea from spray can agitators and started using glass beads as my agitators in paint bottles. Glass is not affected by water or solvents. Just make sure to get glass (not plastic) beads.

I suspect that this type of thing is easily customizable by the admins, but still not sure why the designers thought this would be good idea in the first place. Probably another example of someone not thinking things things through.

Yes, that color scheme is less than ideal.

Ah, a nice vintage Matchbox. Nice! It has much better proportions than the new version. Even the castings were thinner, and the new one has slightly exaggerated "chunkier" look. Still nice, but not as good as the older one. As I mentioned earlier, the older Matchboxes had more accurate look to them. The body castings were thinner and the clear plastic parts was also mold thinner. Even the interiors were better looking. They had actual steering wheels (even if the "cross" spokes were inaccurate), not solid blobs they are like in most contemporary models. The detailed Tampo-printed decoration on new models is nice, but to me it still does not compensate for the clunkiness.

Can't you use "forgot password" procedure, or your current email address is no longer valid? Still, admins here do not like users to have multiple logins. If you PM one of the admins (like Dave Ambrose) he should be able to help you taking care of this problem.

Well then, using PVC as a baffle for diffusing the released air is ok. Looks like the pressure pipes on the bottom are iron.

While we don't have a more detailed description of what it looks like other than "little oxidized", I suspect that as Bill mentioned the "oxidized" look is due to the metalized layer simply missing and no amount of polishing will bring it back. In order to polish a solid metal surface, the dull layer needs to be abraded off the surface. That is what polishing compounds do, They simply remove it exposing the clean metal underneath. But here since the "chromey" aluminum layer on the plastic surface is so thin, there is no pristine metal to be exposed. But at this point you have nothing to lose by polishing it - give a a whirl!

Yes, using PVC pipe for pressurized gases is a big no-no. I've seen what happens, and it is not pretty. A BIG Kaboom!

Time of some education. Kit chrome (in 99.9%) of the kits is not chrome. It is a very thin (couple of atoms thick) layer of aluminum applied in a vacuum over a glossy clear coat. The process is called vacuum metalization or vaccum metal deposition. The metal layer is very fragile (as Bill pointed out). If it was real chromium (very hard and chemical resistant metal), it couldn't be easily stripped with bleach or lye. Polishing it (polishing compound is abrasive) will instantly strip the aluminum exposing bare plastic. Your only options here are to strip it, then either paint it using one of several chrome-finish paints, or sent it out to be "replated" (vacuum metalize) as that service is again being offered.

Welcome to the world of today Tom, where ineptitude is rampant. Who will fix things when the older experienced folks are gone? At least we, older folks won't have to worry about it. After reading your towel bar adventure I was ready to tag it with a sad icon, but the Washington image in the unsanded spackle on the wall made me smile. You're a good father Tom!