peteski

Also (what many clueless panicking drivers out there fail to realize), when your main hydraulic brakes fail you can put the car in Neutral and use the parking/emergency brake to slow it down or keep it from rolling. I guess in a real emergency while the car is still moving you could try to shift the automatic transmission in "park:", but that would likely not end well for the transmission (but might save a life). I mentioned that because your vehicle is like still old enough to be able to do do the things I mentioned above. New cars with electric parking brake and electronic pushbutton gear shifting will likely not let you do any of those things because it is all controlled by a computer which will decide that what you are trying to do is not safe for the car. We are losing control of out vehicles to their computer "brains". It is not a good thing.

Nathan, When you apply brakes hard enough to stop a car weighting thousands of pounds, the pressure in rake lines is hundreds of psi. That is why the are made of steel. Electrical tape is totally useless. If the brake pedal is not depressed, there is no pressure in the line, so I suppose electrical tape would slow down the leak. I do suspect that the brake fluid, in short order, will attack (soften or dissolve) electrical tape's adhesive. It was a smart move to have the it towed to the shop.

High humidity means high dew point where water from the ambient air starts condensing. Spraying paint (and the propellant) cools down the paint. The cool paint causes the water droplets (dew) to occur either in the paint stream, or on the cool paint which settled on the model surface. That water affects the paint's finish (like blushing). Very low humidity (especially if the air ambient air is warm) will accelerate the solvent evaporation from the liquid paint, That could cause the paint to dry too quickly resulting in orange peel or similarly non-glossy surface. But if the paint is applied to the model in heavy enough coat to look wet, so it looks glossy when wet, but dries to flat finish, that doesn't add up. If the solvent was evaporating too quickly, the wet paint would not look glossy at any time during the painting process.

Obviously some ingredient in the Zap glue reacts with the polystyrene. What it is causing it? I have no idea. You live in Europe. Many of forum members live in USA. The brand of polystyrene might also be in play here. What brand are you using? I know that the Zap kicker has acetone and it will affect polystyrene and paint. I switched to BSI industries accelerator because it does not affect polystyrene or even paint. Actually, I have not used the Zap brand CAs for many years. All I now use is BSI CA glue.

Yum - SPAM! I have been eating SPAM Lite for some years now. Many Americans turn their noses up at SPAM, but it is a very well liked meat product in Hawaii and many other Asian countries. I like it!

Bill, is this the first time you have tried Tamiya paints? Spray cans, or decanted shot through an airbrush? Or are they the acrylic paints in the glass bottles? Which specific paints are you using? What is your painting technique? I recommend experimenting (test-painting) plastic spoons. That way you won't have to strip paint from your models.

No preference. Cars, trucks, motorcycles (in multiple scales), SciFi, aircraft, even model railroad items. Whatever I find interesting. I enjoy all sorts of miniature models. If some of the models I built happens to depict something that directly ties to me or my family, that's an extra perk.

Charlie, both choppers use single edge razors. I wonder why you "downgraded" to the original Chopper. I should also mention that Northwest Short Line also makes a true sander to square off cuts made on the chopper or razor saw. https://nwsl.com/collections/true-sander They also offer a variety of other useful modeling tools. check out their website. They are a small company which changed hands some time ago and the new owners are still redoing the website, so some of it is unfinished. But they have been around for decades and are solid company. https://nwsl.com/

As I mentioned earlier in this thread, 3D printer is *NOT* just another modeling tool to improve your modeling - it is a complete new hobby in itself. Lots of new skills to learn (even if you use existing files and just want to print the parts). Depending on the printing technology chosen it can also be messy and require a lot of experimentation to achieve successful prints.

The problem is that in order for less flex in the blade, it needs to be thicker. And that again causes a problem in thicker material with deflection on both sides of the cut. It would not result in a flat cut perpendicular to the sides. As the blade enters the material being cut, the blade has to displace the material from the space where the blade is plunging in. That is why with thicker materials you need some cutting tool which removes (rather than pushes away) the material taken up by the blade. Razor saw does that.

It is not meant for thick materials. Even the choppers using thicker blades will not give you a square cut. The wedge-shape blade will create a sloping cut, and any type of guillotine type chopper will also crush the materials which chopper crushes. You need to use right tool for the job. For those you need to use a miter box with a razor saw. I have Zona brand miter box and razor saws.

Back in the '70s I don't recall any cans showing "best by" or "expiration" dates on them. Back in those day food was good until the can was opened and consumed. Seriously, if the can is hermetically sealed, it will not spoil, even many years after it was canned. It might not taste as flavorful as when it was not as old, but it will not make you sick. If it smells ok, it's still good.

Special blades? No repeatability? Most model railroaders who are into scratchbuilding (including me) for decades have been using the Northwest Short Line "the Chopper". There are multiple versions available. See https://nwsl.com/products/the-chopper I used to use the original Chopper but several years ago I upgraded to the Chopper II. Yours seems to use a rather thick box-cutter type blade. All choppers use SERBs (Single Edge Razor Blades), which are much thinner than box-cutter blades (give you more controllable cut), and are available everywhere. I highly recommend the Chopper.

Can't you just trim the pointy ends from those rectangular mirrors you have? Assuming those are already "chromed", then just touch up the cut area with some silver paint.

I suggest posting your failed prints in the 3D printing sticky thread in the General part of the forum. You will likely get some opinions and suggestions from members familiar with 3D printing.

Yes, over the years there were several threads dedicated to the multiple brands of "chrome" paints. Mark, since the inquiry is specifically about AK Super Chrome, mentioning that fact (instead of just generic "Chrome Paint") in the subject line would have been helpful to all now and later. The most recent lengthy thread is about Revell paint (but others are mentioned too) and comparisons to others are there too. And if you follow directions in https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/79627-how-do-i-search-for-answers-already-posted-here/ you should be able to locate some of the other related threads, some of which might actually answer your question.

I can relate . . . I don't call l that being grumpy old man. I call that "life experience".

And IIRC, made you miss the Classic Plastic Model Club exhibition last month.

Not all that long ago (at least in my "years") most food packaging did not have any human-readable date codes and we survived. You might be onto something with your conspirative (is that a word?) explanation. Sort of like we are conditioned that we must take shower every day (that is not the case in many other countries, and BO is not an issue there either). Amuricans are conditioned to do what they are told in ads or word of mouth without really thinking about why. Most semi-perishable foods (vacuum-sealed bags or jars/cans have a "best by" date, not "throw out by" date. It is the date manufacturer determined that the food will still retain 100% of its original flavor. It remains edible and non-sickness-inducing for log time after "best by" date. It just might not have the "like fresh" flavor. Canned goods, even meats can still edible for decades. If that SPAM is still tightly sealed, it will still be edible.

Those pads come in different "grits". Besides green there are also gray and brown colored versions. Those are not as aggressive. An Air Eraser (miniature blasting gun) with any type of abrasive media (like baking soda or aluminum oxide) will work well too.

12 AWG stranded might work, but there are likely different types (more or less flexible) of wire which have higher or lower number of strands, so each strand's gauge (diameter can vary). Looking at https://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/wire-gauge-chart.html solid 24 AWG wire (the conductor) is 0.0201" diameter, and 26 AWG is 0.0159" diameter. Copper wire can also be purchased pre-tinned, so the surface will already have silver color finish. Also, bus wire is bare soft copper (uninsulated) wire, usually tin plated. That would work well. Or, a bare copper wire can be tin plated using electroless tin plating kit. I used such kit to produce a satin silver finish on some copper and brass rods.

Scratchbuilt? Wow! It's frickin' awesome Bart!

It is (or was). For some fun trivia see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acme_Corporation

Yes, the modern TV have a setting which controls how the programs from various video sources appear on the screen. On many TVs the default setting is for the TV to fit the program being displayed to the aspect ratio of the screen. The will cause the old programs to be stretched to fit the wide screen of the modern TVs. On mine the optimal setting is "use original aspect ratio". But it doesn't work 100% of the time.

It affects the CA still in the bottle. It you are in a humid environment and you leave the bottle open (even if it is just a small opening at the top of the applicator cap, the moist air will enter the bottle and slowly begins to thicken the liquid. This process takes quite some time (again depends on how humid the air is and how long the bottle is left uncapped). The humid air will not affect the actual bond in any meaningful way when you glue parts together. If anything it might help to set it faster, but not in any measurable way (not like if you apply CA accelerator to the fresh joint). That's been my experience. CA can also leach out of the plastic bottle and frost its outside surface. I guess the polyethylene the bottles are made of is not 100% impervious to CA.