peteski

Joints between styrene parts made using small amount of 5-minute epoxy can be broken fairly easily.

I have nice stash of the original stuff from years ago. Few months ago I picked up a sheet from my local hobby shop, but it looks and behaves as well as I woudl expect from the original chrome. I suppose to try getting some of the "bad" foil.

What kit is that? I have the Tamiya kit 24082 Mazda MX-5 Miata and it is a LHD kit. Was there another version of the Miata? If the one you have is RHD, it woudl be probably easiest to just get the kit I have.

Jerry, If you check their profiles, both people who posted in this thread haven't visited here for years. I doubt they will see your request. It is also not a good idea to post your phone number in a public forum.

Some contests have a "collaboration" category for when multiple individuals created the contest entry. Other shows allow models to be entered for display only -- those will be still enjoyed by the spectators, but will not be judged. If the contest you are planning to attend does not have either of those options, you can also contact the contest organizers, and ask if they would allow you to display your work. Most will gladly agree.

That's correct. Quoting the website I liked to in my last post: Associated Hobby Manufacturers got its start in Philadelphia in the 1940s by Bernard Paul, who, legend has it, sold balsa wood model airplanes in the back of his mother's candy shop. After establishing his model railroad business in the 1950s, one of Paul's first moves was to take on the Hobby Industry of America which, intent on putting importers like AHM and Polk's of New York out of business, passed a ruling that trade show exhibitors had to pay $300 for each brand they showed. Since Paul imported 40-50 brands, it made for an untenable situation, so he had everything repackaged for his "H.O. Train Company" brand. (Polk's pulled the same stunt using their "Aristo-Craft" brand.)

I didn't state that Hasegawa stuff was a viable alternative, and I don't believe anybody else stated that directly. IMO, it will work in certain applications, but not in others. I'll try it one my next build which needs chromed areas (but that won't be for quite some time - I'm concentrating on model RR stuff now).

I have been buying from Hobby Link Japan for decades. Not often, but I do buy things there. Never had any problems. It is a legitimate large online hobby shop. I used to also order from Rainbow 10 (a brick and mortar hobby shop in Shizuoka City I had a pleasure of visiting). No problems, but they don't do online sales anymore. Hobby Search Japan is also another large online vendor where I have ordered multiple times, problem free. Shipping charges (especially nowadays) can be on the high side, but the Japanese (domestic to them) kit prices are usually less than the same kits in USA. If you buy several items, the cost is IMO not that bad, especially when they have something you want, which cant' be had in USA. I have also seen Japanese kits listed on eBay by some Japanese sellers, with some outrageous shipping costs. No thanks.

They also sold N scale model RR items (like locos, cars and even structure kits). Those were all just reboxed items made by other companies. http://www.davidksmith.com/birth-of-n/ahm.htm

Thinner and more stretchy than Mylar (or wherever Pop Tart wrap or other metalized food packages are made of). It is sort of like scaled down version of 1:1 (vinyl?) car wrapping material.

Something strange is going on with Snake Pliskin's account. Not only the joining date and the last visited date is the same, according to the profile he has made zero posts. EDIT: never mind - you were looking for the other snake.

How old was his post you found? If you were to check his profile info, you would notice that he Last visited May 5, 2011 So, either his PM Inbox is full, or maybe his account was made inactive.

I got some of the Hasegawa foil, and did a small test application. It is actually very thin metalized vinyl (?) film with adhesive back. It looks just like chrome, and it has some stretch to it. it will to some extent stretch over convex curved surfaces. But if it is stretched to fit depressions, it will eventually pull back and "relax" to almost to the un-stretched state. It should work well for chroming simple protruding features, but it is nowhere like the original BMF. But it sure looks "chromier". Of course it is also very pricey.

PMs are similar in function to way email works (except that it is confined to PM exchanges between forum members within the forum itself, where as email can be anywhere to anyone on the Internet with a valid email address). I suppose that (just like with standard emails), you can have almost live conversation if you and the PM recipient are both online in the forum and respond in real-time to each other's PMs.

Back in the '90s there was a mail order company in Florida called IIRC "Phoenix something", and they used to sell a whole range of Imai/Imex 1:12 bikes. Mostly Harleys. They also carried Protar bikes (1:9). Nowadays, with so many online (mail-order) companies out there, you can easily order any of the currently production Japanese bikes. Hobby Link Japan, and Hobby Search are 2 companies I buy from most often. But older, out of production models are hard to find (expensive). IMO, there really isn't much of a demand in USA for model motorcycles.

If it really takes 1-3, and the other one 6 months to harden (!?), then I'm not really surprised that 10 hours in the dehydrator did not harden it either. I have been known to leave painted items in my dehydrator (around 120 deg. F) for few days. I have no experience with that clears you're using. Maybe someone else who uses it will chime in with their experience.

Nothing? Well, it kept your painted items at 113 degrees F for 10 hours. So it did its "thing". Why the paint did not cure? I have no idea? How long does that paint take for you to cure at room temperature? None of the paints I use in my hobbies require elevated temperature for drying/curing, but elevated temperature does speed the curing/drying. Does the paint/clear you use specify that it needs oven curing? If not, then the paint is designed to cure at room temperature. If it does not dry/cure at room temperature then maybe there is a problem with the paint?

No way I know of to directly email a member of the forum. Forum does have member's emails, but another member does not have access to that info. Well, as far as I know. You can only contact other members via PM (or by public message, which I have never tried).

Here is a chart of common sizes of Surface Mount Device (SMD) package footprints. It is common among all the SMD devices (resistors, capacitors, LEDs). These dimensions are of the footprint. The height is not described as it varies between different components. You can also see how the size (the 4 digit code split up into two 2-digit numbers) relates to the actual dimensions in decimal inches. I figured that this will be helpful to decide which LED is best suited to your project, so then you can look for that size on eBay.

PMs are not emails. PMs are conducted within the forum website. Yes, do you get notified via email that you received a PM, but to reply you have go to the forum's website and reply here. EDIT: However I just send a test PM to myself and I have not yet received an email notifying me about the PM, so the forum's email notification might be slow, or broken. About 2 weeks ago there was a problem with email notification. Maybe the problem is occurring again. See:

Thanks for showing before and after examples. I used the word "photoshopped" in the context of manipulating/editing a bitmap image to achieve the desired result. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/photoshop Another free program that has been around for some time is Gimp. The added clouds look really good. One thing that looks a bit strange is the repeating pattern on the barbed wire in the lower right of the photo. You probably cloned the same piece of the photo multiple times. If you felt like taking the time, that should be easily fixed.

Great Photoshop job! I had a hard time determining that the shuttle was a model.

I like it! That gold paint looks good too. I have this one, and the Creepy-T in my stash (to be built someday).

Scary? Why? Testors paints are (and were always) designed for plastic models. No primer needed. When you were a kid, did you put a coat of primer (from a hardware store) before spraying models using color paints from Pactra or Testors? Probably not. I build mostly unmodified kit bodies. When I use hobby paints like Testors I don't use primer. To me any additional layer of paint ruins the realism (paint coat gets too thick, out of scale). The only time I would use primer with hobby paints would be if the model was modified in some way that required putty. Then the primer is needed to make the model's surface uniform. Otherwise, the paint goes over bare plastic. Of course this works with the "stinky" "paints. Acrylic water-based paints usually dont' stick well to bare plastic. I don't use those.

I have not sent many packages lately and I don't recall the regional boxes being the available selection for Click-n-Ship, but I'll take you for it. But I believe the prices for the current options seem quite a bit higher than last time I used Priority Mail.