peteski

If you have some funds available, and you are willing to bid on eBay (when these kits are ready), you can own one. I would love to get my hands on one too (I owned a '77 T-Bird). NEO also made a built-up 1:43 resin model of a '79.

Wait til the big online merchants start using their own drones for deliveries. Postal Services will likely suffer. I heard that even UPS is looking into using drones.

Well Hermann, we have proven you wrong. Personally, I'm interested in all sorts of cars, trucks. bikes, airplanes, ships, etc. American and foreign. Any miniature model is interesting to me. But what captivated me here is the documentation of your scratch-building efforts. Anybody can put together a plastic model kit. It takes a real talent to scratch-build a very detailed, and what looks like accurate, model. I'm also impressed how you create complex 3D surfaces using simple lamination of flat plastic parts. Reminds me of paper models I used to build as a kid. How are you sizing the parts? Do you have blueprints, or just using photographs of the 1:1 truck? Amazing job!!

True. That is why I mentioned "some clear coats". Not many automotive modelers use Future (or as the FinescaleModeler Magazine calls it :PFM).

According to http://theavengers.tv/forever/index.htm and specifically http://theavengers.tv/forever/cars.htm none of the main characters drove a Lotus Europa. But maybe some of the bad guys did? That website is a great resource for the Avengers info.

Looking good Mike! I've had one of these kits in my stash for years - I'll build it some day. I love the looks of that car (and I do like the JPS scheme, but I wonder how it would look with UPS-brown instead of black, with gold pinstripes of course?). Funny thing is that one of my friends from the model railroad club (whom I have knows for years), owns a 1:1 Lotus Europa! I guess we never discussed cars at train shows. I found out about it couple of years ago when we elected him a president and we held out annual meeting at his place (in Hollis, NH). His is a medium metallic blue. Beautiful car! I know where to go for reference if I ever want to super-detail my model.

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Caution! If the model will be clear coated, some clear coats make Sharpie ink run. Like Ray mentioned, test it on something other than your model first.

Dan, I have question about the spark plug wires (BTW, wires and the looms look great): why are those wires are all go into what looks like the differential case? On my model I routed them to distributors.

For this example what might work is getting come clear film decal paper then using one of the Sakura Micron fine line blue permanent markers to draw the stripes, then cut them out of the decal sheet and apply to the model. Since the body is white, the blue stripe doesn't need a white undercoat. Those markers are available as thin as 0.005".

Looks like 2 kits are now being discussed: The gull-wing hard-top and the convertible are different kits. Scalemates seems t o have them lumped together. I have the AMT Trophy Series gull-wing kit, and Testors (Italeri) convertible. They come f r o m different molds.

I owned 2 mid-70s Pinto station wagons as winter beater cars in the late 80s. Paid about $200 for each. They got me from work and back during the winter (while I had my Camaro put away). They were what one would expect from a $200 car (rotted floors, no heater, broken turn signal stalk fixed with a piece of aluminum tube, etc.), but back then I was young and I didn't mind. One of them I think had a broken modulator valve (automatic tranny), and when I floored it (or maybe when I quickly stepped off the gas pedal - I don't remember now), it would suck the transmission fluid into the intake manifold, creating a large, dense, white cloud of smoke! What fun that was! I felt like double-oh-seven!.

I thought that the first axiom of styrene model building was to make sure that both glued surfaces are bare styrene (no "chrome", no paint). That will assure a good bond. Otherwise, the bond is only as good as the weakest layer being glued (usually paint or plating).

I also use a strip of Bare-Metal Foil, or sometimes a piece of (stripped) 30 AWG wire-wrapping wire (because it is silver-plated, not copper color). on models 1:24 and smaller (down to 1:43). I have some photoetched hose clamps but I feel they would look more in-scale on larger scale models (like 1:16 and larger).

Why go to Google when you can do this using any basic 4-function calculator? Or just do it longhand (of you still remember how). This is 1st grade math. Just take the 1:1 dimension (in inches), divide it by 25 (or whatever scale you need to use), and you get the scale dimension (still in 1:1 inches, which you do need to fabricate the part). I have couple of those tiny cheap calculators (keychains) from Staples (or Dollar Store) hanging around my workbench, just for this purpose. 8" / 25 = 0.32" I also own a $20 digital calipers from Harbor Freight, so I can dial 0.320" directly on the calipers to measure out the part I'm making. Those are couple of (very inexpensive) tools I find indispensable in this hobby.

While useful, single-eye magnifiers do not give you 3D vision. That is why I much prefer a stereoscopic magnifier (and microscopes). Nice feature of the Optivisor is a replaceable padded leather band for the headband. SO leather (not plastic) is in contact with your forehead. That makes it more comfortable, even during long modeling sessions, than the less expensive ones.

Yes, these are contemporary locos that are currently being used - you are correct. They use a 3-axle truck from a larger locomotive and a diesel engine with small generator. One of my friends build an N scale model of it. But the model Lee restored has the hood and cab parts from a larger Diesel switcher like SW9 (from the 50s and 60s). The other thing that makes it a fantasy model is that (as mentioned by Warren earlier) it rides on a passenger truck (which in 1:1 scale has no traction motors), so it would not be able to travel under its own power.

It is probably some word(s) in your text. Try posting just the text of your message.

As it has been mentioned multiple times in this thread, the most likely explanation is that some words in the text of your post are tripping the SQL injection filter which is supposed to prevent hacking attempts, but seems to cause lots of grief for the forum's members. The error is generic on purpose.

Yeah, that definitely is a "fantasy loco". No such beast exists in any railroad. In O gauge there are other examples of whimsical models. I recall seeing a car made up from 2 rounded ends of an observation car, riding on a single truck. Looks like an egg. I see them sold at the train shows. Can't find any online photos (not using the correct search terms). Then, in a similar style there is also

I'm curious how this can be fixed? By disabling the scan for SQL commands in the post's text? How else can this be dealt with?

Well, you didn't quote all the text of my post, and even if you did, the words were already made "safe" by splitting them in 2, so even if you quoted my post word-for-word, it would not have generated the 404 error. When I first composed my message I got the 404 error. Going by my past experience here (with the dreaded SQL injection filter) I figured that either s e l e c t i o n or o r d e r i n g (or both) were the offending words. So I "neutered" them by splitting them in half, and that got rid of the 404 error posted my message again. Of course, the way I wrote those words now, they are also "neutered" and safe.

Ron, either you or I are not understanding things here. I've been on eBay for 20 years, and the bid that eBay will make for you (because eBay always does proxy bidding, or whatever they call it now) will only be higher than the second highest bidder's bit by the minimum bid increment. So if the second highest bidder had a bid of $75 dollars, and you bid $200, your bid would only show up as $80 (or higher than that $75 by whatever the minimum bid increment amount is in that situation). It would not show up as $200. Go back to that auction and look at the bid list. You will see that the 2nd highest bidder bid almost as much as you did. Or am I missing something? Post the link to that listing (or the item number) and I'll take a look.

Then you are way off. N scale (9mm gauge) is 1:160. Tiny! G-gauge (aka LGB) is in the 1:25 scale range. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_transport_modelling_scale_standards Nice job on the restoration.

I don't feel like going back in the thread to get more info on this purchase, but I know you paid close to $100 for it. Was it a Buy It Now auction or was there a bidding war? If there was a bidding war then few buyers on eBay wanted it almost as bad as you did. So there is some chance that if you list it, that those buyers will find it and the selling price will get quite high.