peteski

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)!

Interesting thread. Let's see - Model Cars Magazine, after several years of being under water and "drowning" has just barely put their proverbial head above the water, and suddenly grievances show up? For goodness sake, give them some time to recover financially - they might still be in the red for all we know.

Looks to me like Plumcrazy just wanted to vent. If he was hoping for sympathy, he didn't get much. He might already be off on another project, because AMT trucks (and making custom decals) are just too difficult do deal with.

I guess we are going after different things. As I imagine a brass-era car, I picture one where the brass items are smooth polished brass. Like well maintained brass doorknobs, candle holders, or ship's hardware. Somebody is always polishing those things. Brass doesn't rust, but it does get dull if not kept in good condition. I suppose if you are going for that weathered look, then any brass color paint will work. As far as Alclad is concerned, it doesn't rub off *THAT* easily. But any organic-solvent based clear coat (even glossy one) will dull the reflectivity of Alclad. Clear-coated Alclad chrome will just look like a silver paint, and polished brass will look like brass color paint. I suppose that using water-based clear on Alclad woudl not dull the finish.

Because it is not about glossy coat, it is about the reflectivity of the metallic color. Most brass-color metallic paints look like metallic paints - gold, but dull. Clear coat will not magically produce a polished-brass look. It will still look like brass paint with glossy clear coat. That is why I suggested Alclad II Polished Brass. It should produce that polished-brass metal effect its name implies.

One thing's for sure: Plumcrazy's bold statement sure spurred a very lively thread!

While your recommendation is the sure way to fix the problem, if the alternate repair consists of washing, dabbing some paint and if that works, polishing the hood, why not give it a try first? It can always be stripped and repainted of the quick fix doesn't work.

That is exactly what I did on my 1:32 scale '57 Caddy. I made the partially open windows from 0.010" clear styrene, and then used thin strips of Bare Metal Foil to create the chromed edge.

From my interactions with David my opinion of him is that he likes instant gratification, and wants everything to be super-easy, just falling in place without any effort. Great idea in theory, but in practice that doesn't work out so well. Plus many of us actually enjoy the challenges that kit building or any advanced techniques (like designing and printing decals) present us with. That is how a mediocre modeler becomes an advanced modeler. Plus those learned skills can come in handy in other aspects of our lives.