peteski

Yes, looks like we are talking about the same thing. But "crazing" is the rough surface on the entire painted part, caused by the solvent in the paint partially melting the plastic. Like Steve said, hot paint that causes crazing also makes the "scar", this thread is about, more visible. The artifact your arrows point to (the "scars") would be visible, even on unpainted plastic (before the crazing takes place).

I was reading the latest copy of the AAA magazine and when I saw a caption for this photo I immediately thought that it is wrong. The pickup truck looks way too new for year 1944. Also, weren't phone numbers around 1944 only 6-digit (with the first 2 "digits" being letters)? I'm not a pickup truck expert, so I hope someone here will identify the year of this truck. Going by the shape of the body, the sharp corners of the door, and by the windshield, to me it looks like a late '50s or '60s truck. Gas price is 29 cents/gal, so that I think points to the '50s.

I think you guys are missing the point. The discussion is not about what looks like crazed black paint on the underside of that hood. The discussion is about the curved line on the lower left quarter of the hood. That line is at the place where the color of the paint (or the light reflection) also changes, so the area to the left of that line is slightly darker than the rest of the hood. I had to look at the photo for a while to figure out where the problem was. BTW, this model woudl never win anything at any IPMS contest: the prominent ejection-pin marks have not been dealt with.

Yes, inner tubes work well, and even if they burst, that won't cause much damage or send shrapnel everywhere. But I do admit that in this case, where low pressures are involved, using PVC pipes and end caps is likely safe. I just mentioned that PVC piping is not safe for any (higher) pressure applications in case someone reads this thread in the future and decides to use PVC for holding air under higher pressure. I use a portable compressor integrated with a (steel) 4-gallon tank that holds 110 psi, then oil/water trap, and pressure regulator to reduce the pressure to what I need for airbrushing. I would never consider PVC for anything on the high pressure side.

Yes, seems like a clever idea, but I would never consider using PVC sanitary sewer piping for a vessel holding pressurized gas. Yes, there is a pressure rating stamped on the pipes, but it is not designed to hold that pressure. I have seen PVC pipes burst (shatter explosively) from air pressure (well below the rating printed on them). https://www.pvcfittingsonline.com/resource-center/using-pvc-pipe-for-compressed-air/ But after stating all that, this looks like a small airbrush compressor that only puts out 30-40 psi. I suppose with such low pressure this setup might be safe.

I was told that no mold release agent is used in the injection-molded polystyrene process. And you right, unlike urethane resins which cure by a chemical reaction, Polystyrene is a thermoplastic, which for injection is heated until it is a thick liquid, then it hardens when it cools . As others have mentioned, those lines seem to be where the injected plastic (from multiple injection points) meets inside the mold. This is readily visible in metallic-color (like silver) polystyrene bodies or other large parts. The metallic particles clearly show the plastic flow patterns. But those artifacts are not supposed to affect the plastic surface. I wonder if the molds were too cold when being injected, causing each flow of the plastic not fully fusing with the other flow, creating a seam-like artifact. Ore like Casey mentioned, the here was insufficient injection pressure. I would consider those defective parts.

There is a Japanese rice-paper tape called "Washi Tape" that is used for crafts. It is pretty much identical to Tamiya yellow tape, but it comes on larger rolls (less expensive). I found some in my local Ace Hardware store (in the adhesive tape section), but it is also available all over the Internet. However, you have to put up with the cutesy markings (which do not affect its properties). Yes, Washi Tape is more expensive than standard masking tapes, but less expensive than Tamiya.

I mask and spray the black trim after painting the body. For this particular task I usually use Parafilm-M for masking. I use "mild-solvent" flat or semigloss black paint (Testors) because hotter paints can attack or soften Parafilm-M.

Cute video. My neighborhood is infested with rabbits. Your kitties must have been well fed to watch that rabbit so quietly.

Yes, you snooze - you loose. Fear (from the talking weather-heads) is the greatest people motivator. Not only for weather related panics, but also for political reasons (but we're not going into that). Even wars were waged triggered by fear, so food hoarding is not all the bad in the greater scheme of things. But it still stinks!.

Thanks! I was half-joking Lee. Well, I grew up in Poland, and back then in Poland not too many people owned pets. Few had dogs, and even fewer cats (compared to USA). There was no such thing as pet food (only table scraps) and while the dogs were given names, it wasn't customary to give cats names. I did have cat back then (a tuxedo cat). When I immigrated to USA, we adopted the one in the photo, and like in the "old country", we didn't name it. The vet wanted a name, so we said "Blackie", but at home we just called her "kitty" or "kotek" (which meant "kitty" in Polish). She would respond to that, but what really got her going was the sound of 9 Lives or Friskies cans being opened!

Thanks! Yes, she was a very cuddly companion (for 20 years) and loved to climb under the covers in bed with me. Her loud purring was a dead giveaway that she was under there.

Yes, that is a very nice model train layout. I dug up one of the photos of my cat. She's been gone for many years (so long ago that the photo is a scan of a 4X6 paper print, and when was the last time anybody has seen a bean-bag chair?. She had no name (cat's don't need or want names), and she was super smart.

Most (if not all) recently produced Revell DE kits have been moulded in Poland (and many are done in white or light gray plastic). That has been true for few years. It is actually nice to see kit production done in my birth country (not in China)>

I own a 1985 Eldorado. Bought the TKM model of it, and it is worse than just "no good". Still sitting in its shipping box. It is too bad as those could have been quite nice models if the master was a bit neater, and casting method was not so primitive.

Wow! The speculations were that the windshield was done this way to make it easier to also produce the open-top version. But if they actually redo the tooling to make this version more accurate, that would be amazing. Major rework of a body shell mo(u)ld is quite expensive!

Washer fluid is water mixed with alcohol and some detergents or cleaning agents. Modelers use it simply because it is very cheap.

That is a beauty!

Most (all?) of Japanese kits have a list of replacement parts that can be purchased on the instruction sheet (if you damage yours, or for whatever reason). Prices and mailing address for the order form are also included (in Japanese). Japanese modelers are lucky that way. Years ago (when I last did it), if some Japanese kit was current, or fairly recent, I would contact Hobby Link Japan , or even Rainbow Ten (I was their customer) with the list of parts I needed, and they woudl order them for me from the manufacturers, and ship them to me. I'm not sure if they still offer this service, but it might be worth a try (to get few sets of those tires).

While not my cat (I lost mine long time ago), I figured you all would enjoy seeing just how graceful and gentle this cat is. None of the small details get knocked over. Amazing!

I would go for Michelins. For some reason I don't care for the tread pattern on the Pirellis. I think the only problem is whether the wheel diameter of enough Ferrari models is similar enough for the tires to be mostly universal fit. Or maybe make it fit the kit with worst factory-supplied tires, like the Italeri (and related reboxed) kits?

It's really is too bad that there is no source for good quality tires for Ferraris of this vintage. I wonder if we could talk Chief Joseph (Fireball Modelworks) to design and cast a set of big and little Dunlop (or similar) tires? He makes excellent tires!

Is this the problem as shown in this thread?

Well, the Chrome BMF is definitely *NOT* aluminum. That is why it works so well. It is much more pliable than aluminum foil. It is some sort of low-temperature alloy (you can easily melt it with a soldering iron). Aluminum foil won't melt using a soldering iron. The color of Chrome BMF is also distinctly different from aluminum. Put a piece of your kitchen aluminum foil next to BMF Chrome, and you will readily see the difference. BMF Chrome has a warm (slightly yellowish) color, where aluminum has a white (even slightly bluish) tone. BMF Chrome looks more like Nickel than aluminum. Anyways, the bottom line is that BMF Chrome is a great product for our hobbies. As far as the crinkling goes, that could also be caused by the resin body shrinking slightly over the years. While ploystyrene used for model kits is dimensionally stable, I have noticed urethane resin items shrink slightly over the years.

Actually this reminded me of another irk of mine. At some point someone came up with this list of "National XXXXXXXX Day" for every day of the year. Why is this a "thing", and why would we care? "National Potato Chip Day"?! Stupid! Gimme a break!