peteski

Assuming kfif was a typo, here is an explanation: https://fileinfo.com/extension/jfif Google (or DuckDuckGo) search is your friend.

Looks very interesting, but with just the bottom of the engine showing I would not call it it a "full" kit, but a "curbside". However I guess as the aftermarket resin kits go, I would call it a "complete" kit as no additional donor kit parts are needed. This small discrepancy in the description might be due to Ukrainian->English language translation issue, and I'm also just splittin' hairs. It looks to be an excellent quality kit. I might just splurge on this one when it becomes available. I also have a suggestion: Headlights are one of the items which make a big difference in the model's realism. They can make the model look like a model or a fine scale replica of a 1:1 vehicle or like just a toy. Would it be possible to redesign the headlight lenses to have a more realistic texture? As shown in the photos, your headlight lenses just have horizontal lines in them. Those lines are also rather thick and evenly spaced. That to me does not look very realistic. Actual headlights have more complex pattern of striations. Look at the real 1948 Caddy headlight. As you can see, the lens has mostly evenly spaced vertical lines with varied spacing between them, and some horizontal ones too. Lens is quite complex and I don't expect the model to have such complex texture, but it would be nice to make the model headlight a bit more like the real car's headlight. I don't expect that 1:24 scale model will have headlights with such a fine and complex texture like 1:1 vehicle, but they can still be made to look realistic. Here are plastic 1:24 scale lenses made by company called Modelers. To me they are very realistic looking. They have a finer texture than your lenses, and while not as finely textured as 1:1 lenses, the pattern looks closer to 1:1 headlights than your lenses. I suspect that your headlight lenses were designed in CAD, so there is a possibility you could redesign them to look more realistic. That would greatly improve the appearance of this excellent looking model.

Be careful with that. Nail polish removers can have skin conditioners mixed with the acetone. Instead of trying to be a tightwad, just get some "real" acetone from the HW store. It's not *THAT* expensive. But I would not recommend using straight acetone to thin (or reduce) paint which will be applied to a plastic model (with or without primer applied first). Also, acetone evaporates very fast - could be too fast for the paint to level properly.

Thanks for starting another of your very enlightening threads Justin. It is interesting to see the hobby world and the type of stats you are presenting for a hobby shop's perspective. How did the automotive hobby kit sales compare to let's say Gundam or model trains? That might possibly be another separate thread. I believe you had one like that earlier in 2024.

Thanks Tim! I was also quite happy with how the wrecker photos came out. I had my Nikon FG sitting on the ground (with me also lying on the ground) to make the photo appear to be taken by a 1:25 human holding the camera at their eye level (how photos were taken back in those days since one had to look through thye camera's viewfinder). I also used a wide angle lens (28mm) to slightly exaggerate the perspective, and f32 aperture to maximize the dept of field. Back in those days you had no idea how a photo came out until you had the film developed. How things have changed since those days . . . The '50s cars are actually 1:32 scale so those are even harder to make them look like real cars. If I recall it correctly, the photo of my 1:8 Mercedes was my first attempt to try this type of photography. Here are few more photos I took during that photo session. I also wrote a magazine article about that wrecker (including these photos among others featuring some construction photos) and sent them into FineScale Modeler Magazine. They accepted it and even paid me, but the article was never published. Not sure why. It was my first attempt writing an article so it probably was not very good, but I suppose the editor could have punched it up a bit. Again, this was around 30 years ago and back then FSM pretty much was into non-automotive subjects.

Electric cars go even back much further in time. Here are some examples: And this is my favorite. There are many more examples. Just look for "early 20th Century electric cars".

Pretty clever idea. Back in the days of film 35mm SLR cameras (about 30 years ago), I used to take my models outdoors to a setting where buildings and vegetation were far enough away to make the model appear like 1:1 scale vehicle. Since 1:1 asphalt texture is too coarse for realistic 1:25 scale look, I placed the models on a sheet of rubber roofing material which looks like scale asphalt. And I agree that natural sunlight/shadows add to the realism. Here are some examples This one is 1:8 Pocher kit. With a larger scale model the 1:1 asphalt (no rubber mat) looks a bit rough, but not too unrealistic.

Your "thinner for marine coatings" does not mention on the label that it is a "lacquer thinner". Pick up a small can of actual lacquer thinner from a hardware store and test it out. Also different brands of lacquer thinners have different formulations, but generally they all work well with solvent-based enamels like Testors.

I still mostly use the old-school stinky paints, but I do some painting using water-based acrylics. I have never actually tried to test the "protect from freezing" warning. If you want to try, just got to any hobby/craft store and pick up some inexpensive craft paints. Those are water-based acrylics enamels. Then give them the freeze-test.

More and more people are switching to water-based acrylic coatings due to their lower odor and toxicity over standard solvent-based coatings. All water-based paints and other compounds (like wood putty or spackling compound) will have "protect from freezing" warning somewhere on their labels because . . . they are water based, and water freezes. Once the water freezes then thaws, that affects the chemical composition of the paint, making it unusable. In your situation I would recommend buying in warmer months and applying it in temperatures above freezing.

While I don't doubt that, I believe that the 4-wheel steering is disabled at highway speeds.

Yup.

There was a build thread on this forum some time ago where one of the members scratchbuilt a school bus in 1:25. It was very well done.

Those were actually popular for quite a few years on a range of different cars. They also included a washing fluid nozzles and later the wipers were replaced by just high pressure washer fluid nozzles. To me those would be more mainstream than rare, but they were unusual.

I'm not participating (I do know couple), but how about this one? Yes, it is a joke.

Sounds like some extra snuggling sessions are needed to keep the domestic peace. Shouldn't be too difficult. And when the partner is asleep, you could sneak out of bed and be that night owl. If that doesn't work, try knockout drops in hot cocoa.

Basic color theory tells you that adding white to a color will make it lighter (appear faded). That has nothing to to do with the glossiness of a paint, although faded paint does often have dull (flat) finish.

Some resins are water-soluble, so I guess that's possible. There are lots of variables to consider when it comes to 3D printed parts. I is not just plain polystyrene or polyurethane casting resin we have been used to dealing with for decades.

Good to know, but this was not about boat navigation Rick. It was about providing a pointer to some helpful information which includes the answer the OP was looking for).

To me the large fin era (and overabundance of chrome) was mid-50s to early-60s. After that fins were pretty much history. No appreciable fins on 70s cars. But some cars retained some hit of fins even into the 21st Century. My '85 Caddy Eldorado still has a hint of fins at the edges of the rear fender (and actually the front fenders too). That continued (in even more subtle way) all the way to the last Eldorado model in the early 2000s. After all the fin "thing" was started by Cadillac. Those early fins looked more like bulges with taillight in them, but then taking cues from the contemporary jet airplanes the fins got thinner, taller and more streamlined.

Do you really think that hobby paint manufacturer purposfully do something to have paint go "bad" quickly?! I doubt that very much. Plus many of us have 50 year old bottles of Testors PLA enamel which are still usable. To me that is lasting. Any paint will go "bad" if its container is not sealed. I'm anal and make sure the lip of the bottle and the gasket in the lid are perfectly clean every time before I reseal the bottle, and I also shake the bottle after sealing (to have the paint fill and harden in any microscopic voids between the lip and gasket, but most modelers just screw the lid back on, so the paint crusts up over time, preventing a good seal from forming. Then their paint dries up rather fast. Not manufacturer's fault.

True (at least in USA), but give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish (look through the forum for answers,even in very old threads), and You Feed Him (information) for a Lifetime. Instant gratification is so overrated Rick.

My CA application methods are described in the following post: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/165362-ca-glue-wells/#comment-2469163 If you look at the CA bottles in the photo you can see some of that CA fogging we have been discussing here.

You could have contacted the forums moderators to help you to go back to your original account (and probably even merge your new posts to the original account. They are a helpful bunch. To me that makes more sense than starting fresh Mr. Humble.

Over the years there have been multiple threads with techniques for making better headlights. It would l be nice is someone compiled them all into a single collection. Here is one of them: