peteski

Not being skeptical about quality (even if George mentions a disclaimer about possible problems at the plater). I'm not of FB but would like to know more details about what he accepts. I like to rack my own parts. Is that acceptable to him? What size rack? Which areas of the rack have to be left free of parts?

Electrical tape (even the more expensive 3M brand) will shrink in time and also the adhesive gets gooey and soft after few years. At least in my experience (in its as-intended electrical application). The tape is stretchy vinyl. The shrinkage might be due to the fact that the tape stretched when it is being pulled from the roll. It probably takes some time for it to relax and get back to its original size. But even then, the adhesive meltdown can be a problem when it is used on a model.

Ok, but either way, he might just get tired of casting all those parts - he's been doing this for decades. As far as the business being taken over, even if he finds someone, I'll be really surprised if they are as fastidious as Norm is. Which means the quality will suffer. Yes, I might sound negative, but IMO, I'm just being a realist. But on the bright side, 3D printing is really advancing, and there are plenty of computer whizzes who can whip out superb 3D designs with ease, so we might have a replacement for fine craftsmen casters like Don H. and Norm V.

70-something? Unfortunately, time marches on. I'm dreading the day Norm decides to retire - just like with Modelhaus, we will loose a superb craftsman, and all of his excellent resin castings.

As it has been discovered earlier, there is likely some combination of words in your detailed commentary that trips the forum's anti-hacking routine, causing the 404 error.

I don't believe you can just replace the black toner cartridge with a white one and magically be able to print out opaque color decals. It all depends in which order the colors get printed. There are color laser printers which can print white, but they also come with special drivers (RIP, or Raster Image Processor) which allows you some control of how images get printed.

To be honest, I don't remember, but I'm pretty sure it was not an automotive lacquer or enamel. So that leaves either some flavor of solvent-based Testors model paint, or possibly Accu-paint (model railroad paint). Does it matter? If it leaves a mess on my model (regardless of what paint I use), I will not use the product.

Happy Birthday?

Someone mentioned this "helpful" hint some years back. I tried and never again!!! When peeling the stuff off your model, it leaves tiny pieces of adhesive behind.

If the tolerances are close enough, that might be an option. Iit will likely work well for larger images, but if you have for example bunch of small yellow letters to be applied to a dark colored model, it will be quite a challenge to get them cut out accurately, then evenly apply them to the model, one by one.

It is not that easy. If someone did take over the business, they would also have to be as fastidious and quality oriented as Don was to produce those fine castings everybody is pining for. You could have some hack take the business over and make shoddy castings with bunch of pinholes and other flaws. Who would want to buy those. From what I see around me, fastidious people are hard to come by nowadays.

Standard printers use translucent Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow inks for printing color images. For true color rendition they rely on the inks being applied over white background (paper). Decals printed on clear film will be translucent when applied to a non-white surface. They will almost disappear on very dark surfaces. Of course, you can print on white decal film, but then you have to trim the images really carefully or the white film will show up on the model. Alps MD (MicroDry) series of printers can print white ink and they can print colors over the white ink areas. (in overlay mode). That is really the only printer that can truly print good opaque color decals. Of course it is out of production, and if you can find a used one, it will be very expensive. There are also some color laser printers available which can print white (the black toner is replaced with white), but they are also pricey.

I suspected as much, but it is still amazing feat of engineering to me. The liquid plastic feed rate has to be just right so the right amounts of the colored plastic do not overflow into where the other color will be injected.

I remember it well. I also remember that evening how quiet the sky was with no airplanes flying anywhere. It was eerie. As far as remembering goes, there are 18 year old young adults who weren't even born when 9/11 happened. They can't remember, but should be reminded.

Still irks me. Understanding what you are using and how it works makes for a better modeler. I'm just trying to teach. Same like when people call water-based paints "Acrylics", even though there are organic-solvent based acrylic lacquers and enamels.

From what I understand, the shutdown is temporary - they will be available once he reopens for business. I have seen several cottage-industries (usually 1-man operations) temporarily shutdown due to some reason. Personal issues, sickness, temporary unavailability of raw materials, etc. It happens. But obviously he can still put some of his spare time onto designing the artwork.

We live in very silly times.

Why people keep calling it wax?! Future (or whatever the latest iteration is called) is a floor finish. Waxes have no thickness - this is a clear coat which has some body to it. If you have something else you are using now to add a gloss to your models, it is also likely not a wax, but some sort of a clear coat.

I believe that the info on Swanny's site is still current (from 2015). Worth a read and look! http://www.swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html

What I find really amazing is the Gundam figure kits where injection molded parts have multiple colors on the same part! Not painted - it is colored plastic.

There have been few threads where I abstained from commenting out of fear that my comments might be negatively received.

Last Saturday, at my club's meeting, my friend brought one of their aircraft kits. The quality of resin castings is amazing! And they are as thin (and sturdy) as injection molded kits. The instructions are also really well done.

I have never had a chance to work with Adobe Illustrator, but from I have learned, Corel Draw is very similar (of course there are differences in how to accomplish the same thing in each program). Corel Photo Paint (which is included in the Corel Suite of programs) is somewhat similar to Photoshop (a bitmap editor, with some vector functionality). I use very old versions (10 and 12) where 19 is the newest version, but even those older versions have more than enough functionality for my needs. I'm not sure if there will ever be a consumer-grade (and price) printed which will come close in capabilities to what Alps MicroDry printers do. Most home printer users really have no need for white inks or overlays. A cheap ink jet printer is quite sufficient for them. The Alps printer was just an anomaly, and it failed to penetrate the consumer printer market. While it is ideal for hobbyists or small cottage industry decal companies, it was very slow and cumbersome to use. What might develop is same thing that is happening in 3D printing. You design your item and a company like Shapeways (which had the expensive 3D printers) will print it out for you for a fee. I foresee decal companies which will accept your artwork and print a decal for you (using their expensive printers which are capable of printing opaque ink decals). Actually, there already are several custom decal companies which will print decals (usually on ALps printers) using your artwork. But it is so much nicer if I can do this in my own workshop.

You can participate in this forum for free, and you can upload photos to the forum for free. No need for paid photo hosting solution for me. Plus, as a bonus, the photos in my posts will never show up as missing (due to a 3rd part photo hosting problem, or me canceling the subscription). My photos will show up in my posts for as long as the forum is up. Can't ask for anything more.

If you haven't followed this thread: If your message had the words s e l e c t and f r o m (without the spaces of course) within the text, that would give you the 404 error. It is a bug (feature?) in the forum software. Or maybe you accidentally discovered another combination of different words which triggers the dreaded 404 error.