peteski

Yes Pete, there are lots of knives out there and which are chosen is a matter of personal preference (or sometimes just by random chance). That fat handle looks interesting. Here are few more examples of scalpels that don't lose blades or roll off the table. One of our model club members used to work for a medical supply company. When things like rubber gloves or disposable scalpels expired (yes, even scalpels have expiration dates), he used to bring them to the meetings for the members to grab. I grabbed few disposable scalpels and made a custom one for BMF work. It is the green one. I reworked the blade end to be able to replace the blades (normally the blade is permanently installed), and I also shortened the handle a bit. Plastic handle is very light, so it is easy to go very easy while trimming BMF. I also painted the tip wit black Sharpie to better see where I cut the shiny foil. The blue one is another disposable scalpel I grabbed a the meeting. I have not tried using it yet.

It takes a lot of talent to scratch-build a model like that. Very impressive and beautiful. Marzal has always been on the top list of my favorite cars.

I have an old blade blue X-ACTO handle that has a cam-like action lever on the back end to lock the blade. No screwing at all. You could also graduate to using scalpels. Those use different blade attaching method and are sharper than hobby knives. And #11 blade is smaller than the hobby version. Generally scalpels give you more precise control (since they are designed for more precise cutting). The black handle is like someone mentioned earlier - the tightening knob is at the top end.

That's sad. She was my favorite on Gilligan's Island. She was super cute and very shapely. She did some commercials for MeTV couple years back, and she still looked pretty good for her age. According to online info, she had some problems later in her life, but was handling them. Too bad she is gone.

They sure are spoiled rotten! But they are both smart, lovable and affectionate pups (except the chihuahua is very yappy and a bit crazy). I'm glad you found some new food - I hope your dog will like it. There are lots of of different dog foods out there - pet support is is a giant industry. Not like in the old days where you had Alpo, few other brands, and table scraps..

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying or asking for. Are you asking what the weekend modelers buy when we spy them at a local hobby shop? Are you asking what we (I) buy in my local well stocked hobby shop? Are you asking what type of models that local hobby shop carries?

Well done Kurt! I was eyeing some of Fernando's kits on eBay. At least I now know what it takes to make them look really good. Lots of tweaking! I would say, even more challenging than AMT kits. But you were up to the challenge!

Instead of scouring model shows for odd sizes and lengths at often inflated prices, I highly recommend http://www.componentsupplycompany.com/ They have full range of sizes and lengths of tubing available. Years ago used to buy all my tubing from Small Parts Inc., but Amazon absorbed them and trying to find specific sizes became a huge pain. Component Supply Co. is the closest to the old Small Parts Inc. I ever found.

My GF is into feeding her little yappers (a Papillon and a Chihuahua) raw dog food. It comes frozen in kibble-size chunks. She mixes some dry kibble and some human frozen veggies into it. She nukes the dishes for few seconds to defrost it all. On Sundays they get a special treat: Raw chicken necks! Yum!

Thanks for posting your progress. I'll be watching this thread. But why for goodness sake they decode to mould the body and other bits in red plastic? I thought model companies graduated to using neutral color plastic for all the parts (like nice light gray).

What's up with the square headlights? Sealed beam headlights were either round or rectangular (none square).

If you cut thin stripes of the Blue Painters tape, it will also be quite flexible.

There are plenty of new hobby paint brands to choose from, plus I still have decent stash of Testors and Floquil paints. As for the big corporation owning the hobby paint brands, RPM (the parent of more than a dozen of paint brands) has owned both Testors and Floquil paints for decades. This is nothing new. They have been trimming the paint hobby paint line for quite some time, probably because other brands are entering the market, along with some oldies (like Humbrol). Yes, I'm excited about yet another hobby paint being brought to the American market, but as this threads Subject line states, it is beating that proverbial dead horse. The Revell paints will get here when they get here. The latest FSM magazine had a very informative review of several lines of acrylic lacquers (the "stinky" type - not water-based acrylics). There were some new brands reviewed that I have not heard of. So, they are new.

Yes, contemporary cars seem to generally look more alike than cars back in the mid 20th Century. But there are exceptions. My current ride: My previous ride: Neither is the typical looking sedan or SUV. I like to be different.

Monty, why are you so eager to get those paints? There are plenty of other paints on the market, and you have the rest of your life to eventually get your hands on those Revell paints. Are they supposed to be *THAT* good, so much netter than any other hobby paint that you just can't wait? I would say "relax, this is a hobby". We usually take on hobbies as stress relievers, or pleasurable activities, not something that causes stress.

Sorry, I reread the entire thread and I obviously got confused,. After your failed attempt to use it even with the paint it was designed for, you wanted to relegate it for cleaning-only tasks. But as you found out, it also does not work well with hot lacquers. As Pete J. and I explained, it is just the wrong stuff to use with those hot lacquer paints. Testors stuff (petroleum-distillates) is a mild and slow drying solvent. In right proportion it actually works well with standard Testors enamels. The longer evaporation time actually allows the enamels to level out nicely. But if you make the paint too thin (as you did), the paint will pull away from edges or raised details. I didn't care much for *ANY* subjects in school (chemistry included), but learning theoretical chemistry is nothing like educating yourself about paint chemistry. You don't need to memorize chemical formulas here - just gain basic knowledge about the various chemicals that go into paints, and what is compatible with what. I didn't sit down in front of my computer for 2 weeks to cram all there is to know about various paint chemicals. My knowledge was just slowly acquired while doing my hobbies, and I'm far from being a genus!

Most shippers (USPS, UPS, and even FedEx) are having delays and tracking that is not updated in a timely fashion. The holidays overloaded the system. Yes, they blame some of it on COVID). Some even have exclusions on the guarantee of delivery within a certain time (if you read all the fine print). It stinks, but it is happening.

That is correct. Acrylic thinner (for the water-based paints) has a blue label. The stuff you have (as others already mentioned) appears to be the same stuff they have been selling for decades (in various color tins and bottles). I still have a really old one with blue label (yes, blue), and one with black label. The red label is newest. That thinner is for their hobby enamel line of paints (and they even mentioned Floquil paints which are long gone). All those are organic-solvent based enamels. Testor's thinner is not compatible with the hotter automotive lacquers (like Zero, Splash MCG, or others), or other lacquer hobby paints like Alclad. Actually I'm not even sure what type of coating Alclad metallic line is, but it sure isn't enamel. These lacquers or other hot paints require use of lacquer thinner for thinning and cleaning. Safest is to use their own brand of thinner, or at least generic lacquer thinner. When you start experimenting with mixing pain chemistries, you can easily get in trouble. You are a seasoned modeler - after years of successfully thinning paints for airbrushing what made you try the Testors stuff for cleaning Splash paint? You already had a bad experience with it, even when using (likely a bit too much of) it with Testors black enamel.

Shame about paint compatibility problem. The color changing paint actually looked good on that model. When I try new paints combinations I try to do a "spoon test" first, but sometimes I forget to do it.

That's what I said too! See Philip's build thread.

Nice job Craig! I built my Heller (I think that was the make) 1:72 B707 probably 25 years ago. I used the stock BOAC decal on it, but I also installed lighting. I used red and green LEDs with fiber optics transmitting light to the wingtips. This was before white LEDs were available, so I used real Xenon strobe (from a disposable 35mm camera) with a custom built flashing circuit with more fiber optics for the fuselage and wingtips beacons. I also used small incandescent lights for the landing lights in the wings, but those got so hot that they melted small depressions in the wings. I had the model displayed in a hobby shop, but got it back when the shop closed. I have no space to display it at home, so it is packed in a box in the basement.

I always hear the Opel GT called "poor man's Corvette". As for the general resemblance of those cars, there is nothing surprising - similar type of cars will often look very similar. Maybe because the designers of car makes are like-minded (and often migrate from one company to another), plus there is always spying going on, where each manufacturer tries to spy what their competition us up to. Cars are just 4-wheels with a body. You can find resemblances between makes throughout the automotive history. You can see similarities in many car makes made in 1910s, '20s, '30, and so on. Also, human brain tries to find commonalities, and it is pretty good at discovering them, then taking photos to prove it.

Funny, the the car looks very British to me. Like something maybe MG or Austin Healy woudl have conjured up.

I sure did - fixed it.

Again - wrong thinner. Alle paints are not made equal. The Testors airbrush thinner (for enamels?) is basically mineral spirits (enamel thinner) and Alclad is hot lacquer. It needs the hotter lacquer thinner (or acetone, which also often is in lacquer thinner). It helps in our hobbies to understand paint chemistry. I have to admit that the manufacturers don't really provide much info about the paints they sell, so educating yourself is a bit difficult. Often smell is a good tool to figure out what to use with that. Just a little whiff (don't inhale it to get high)!