peteski

While those are inexpensive and easy to deal with, in most cases the wire in them is out-of-scale (usually too thin) to properly represent scale suspension springs. Little things like that can make or break the model's realism. I took one of those pen springs and measured its wire to be 0.0135" in diameter. The comes out to 0.34" in 1:25 scale, or 0.32" in 1:24 scale. Hmm, I guess that would work for some light duty springs. They still look too thin to my eyes,

That's because the flames start at the back (gas tank) of the Pinto as soon as something even touches the rear bumper. I would think you're old enough to remember that.

. . . and yellow (for fog lights or French headlighs).

Fluoride is not going to make a difference. Pretty much all toothpastes contain fluoride (to strengthen tooth enamel). The important point is to use white colored toothpaste, not the translucent gel type. The white toothpaste contains mildly abrasive polishing agent, while the gel type does not.

Exactly! You read me correctly.

There is a possibility that the clear wrapping material (something like the soft-stretchy-clingy Saran Wrap) has leached its plasticizer into the clear plastic (sort of like the "tire melt" problem). So the plastic itself might be slightly deformed and softened. In that case it will be difficult to fix it.

Thanks George -- I was not the one looking for Larry. I was just surprised that he did not chime on this thread, since he is being discussed.

If it is marketed for graffiti then I expect that paint to be rather viscous and very opaque. 1-coat coverage! It will also adhere to pretty much any surface. Just look around you - graffiti is everywhere on everything.

I really enjoy peeking into this thread to see progress being made. It is the phosphoric acid in Coke (or Pepsi) . While I have not tried, citric acid (in lemonade) might do the same. After all kit's "chrome" is actually very thin layer of of delicate aluminum. But phosphoric acid will not strip the clear coating under the aluminum. You need alkali to do that (like Lye in the purple pond or in Easy-Off). And for fun facts google "many uses for Coca Cola", and you'll find things like https://www.wisebread.com/51-uses-for-coca-cola-the-ultimate-list

Like others have mentioned, I made my own from needles and some 1/8" acrylic rod. They work great, and I have wide range of sizes (not all of the sizes were successful, but I kept them anyways). Also different sizes work for different viscosity glues. The Micorbrushes are for applying the accelerator.

CA glues harden (not dry), but either way the end result is unusable glue. I haven't bought the Gold odorless version for quite some time, but I don't recall it hardening faster than other BSI CA adhesives I use. But then again I have a ritual I go through to extend life of all my CA glues (by keeping moisture out of the bottles). The problem with the Gold CA is that I was using very little of it relative to other CA types, so I do recall that proportionally more of it went bad than other CAs. Keeping the CA bottles (tightly sealed) in a fridge also extends its life.

LOL! No. I wish. That was the price on November 2016. I date my glue bottles when I buy them. The 11-16 is the "date code".

That's craftsmanship!

Well EXCUSE ME Luke! I'm so sorry that I chimed in on the problem with images not showing for some members. I know nothing about paint! But seriously, any fine-grain metallic silver should work well. The interior of a drag car is usually made from natural unpolished metal. FIne-grained metallic paint creates a finish that looks like a metal surface. Try any of the Alclad II aluminum paints. I don't think any glossy undercoat is needed. I think Tru-Color aluminum paint would also work. If the finish is too bright or shiny, coat it with flat or satin clear. Does that sugestion meet with your approval Luke?

Um, did you happen to see the post above yours?

Well Bill, I asked the admins to split off these several technical posts we have here to the "How to use this forum" section, as the discussion is off-topic here. Hopefully they will do that and maybe chime in with their view on this situation. I also asked you for a detailed description of how you take those JPGs from Photobucket and upload them here. I think that's where the problem occurs. Also what type of computer and what Operatign System are you using? You did mention Firefox is your browser. Just trying to help out and understand what is going on.

I believe that you use copy/paste to upload photos here. Maybe they get changed (on your end) by that method? As I shown to you, the ones we have been discussing are WEBP. How exactly do you get them from photobucket to this forum? I can tell with certainty that the DSCN0193.JPG was uploaded to the forum as http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/DSCN0193_zps9xvzkq5t.webp.0f5a855188b3a8fedb77a8f009e97889.webp The proof is the name as it came from your computer: DSCN0193_zps9xvzkq5t.webp The Operating Systems seem to get more and more intrusive in automatically choosing what they "think" is "the best" for the user. Apple is especially invasive, but MS Windows is getting that way too. It might think it is "helpful" to automatically change the file format to reduce the image size by changing JPG to WEBP.

The photo from that thread you just linked to is also WEBP, not JPG. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/DSCN0456_zpsmk5kpuwb.webp.ff22ca6d67d6b41fae711a8c311ab925.webp I thought about this some more and I see a proof that you uploaded the WEBP formatted images. The link to your photo contains its original name. In the example in my previous post shows the name DSCN0456_zpsmk5kpuwb.webp. It is WEBP, not JPG. Playing a detective, I can further expand on this. The DSCN part of the name tells me that the photo was taken by a Nikon digital camera. Normally the file camera creates would be DSCN####.JPG. But the file name of the file you uploaded has _zpsmk5kpuwb added to it, and the extension is WEBP. That tells me that Google, or some other photo host was involved at some point and it converted the JPG to WEBP format. UNless your camera saves the photos as DSCN####.WEBP? You then uploaded that WEBP photo to the forum. I'm not going to argue this - the explanation I provided above is clear enough.

Bob Smith Industries (BSI) produces a full line of CA adhesives. That's what I use. It is often branded as the hobby shop's brand. The accelerator is very mild (does not mar paint or plastic) unlike other brands which use acetone as its solvent. BSI also makes odorless "Gold" CA which will not fog clear parts (but is more expensive than plain CA glue).

The subject line to me seems to indicate that you are worried that some glue will attack resin. No glues we use in our hobbies will negatively affect resin, so no need to "stay away". Polyurethane (urethane) resin is compatible with all hobby glues. But as Mark mentioned, some solvent-type glues designed for polystyrene or ABS will simply not work with urethane.

I doubt that this forum changes the photo you upload from JPG to WEBP format. I have not seen this forum automatically modify the file format of any files I upload. I suspect that this this is (or was) done on your end Bill. But hopefully you will will get an answer from the admins. @Dave Ambrose can you comment on this? Does the forum change the file format from JPG to WEBP when the JPGs are uploaded? I have not encountered that so far. All my photos which were uploaded as JPG are still JPG. I just checked and my oldest and newest (just couple of days ago) uploaded files are still saved as JPG on this forum.

I think it was around 11-12 years ago.

Even cheap files are safe to use on white metal, brass, and aluminum. Now you you try to file harder metals (like some stainless steel alloysor high-speed steel) that might dull the files, but I don't think I ever heard of metal files made just for plastic.

I see something unusual about your photos Bill. Other photos in this website usually have .JPG extension. Yours have .WEBP extension. Like this: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/uploads/monthly_2022_02/DSCN0456_zpsmk5kpuwb.webp.ff22ca6d67d6b41fae711a8c311ab925.webp I looked it up and: What is a WEBP file? A WEBP file is an image saved in the WebP (pronounced "Weppy") raster image format developed by Google for web graphics. The WebP format reduces file size more than standard JPEG compression while maintaining similar or better image quality. It supports both lossy and lossless compression and includes an alpha channel for transparency, similar to the PNG format. So, Google is doing "its thing" again. I suspect that not all browsers are able to render WEBP formated photos, and that is likely why Ron can't see them. The "problem"is on your end. Seems that this site does accept WEBP formatted photos, but not everybody can see them. Maybe you can configure your Google account to use the more widely used JPG standard for photos.

Yes, when these first came out, they were distributed in US. I bought one and have it in my stash.