peteski

Nail polishes are pretty much all lacquers (which are fairly hot). I would put them in the same category as automotive touch-up paints. Yes, lacquer thinner works well with them.

I wouldn't use it, and don't recommend it. Compared to white LEDs, it has much shorter usable life, it is nowhere as bright as LEDs, and it requires high voltage (the last point is not really bad, but I rather deal with 5 or 12V than 100V AC). LED strips also run quite cool (unlike the old incandescent rope lights). Electroluminescent material was all the rage in the late '80s and '90s (before white LEDs became widely available). I used it back then,and it was good at that time, but I'll never go that route again. That is not to say that it is totally useless. Far from it. If one needs a thin and very evenly illuminated area, which doesn't need to be very bright, the EL material is perfect. Like Joe said, perfect for some ScFi models. But I just wouldn't use for illuminating a display case, where I would want a brighter light source.

I use the same technique, but I use stainless steel hypodermic tubing. It has very thin (scale thickness) walls, and it has a very realistic sheen. I bought my supply of tubing long time ago from Small Parts Inc. They got bought out and butchered by Amazon, but if you Google "hypodermic tubing" you should find some places to get it from.

How about nano-bots which will travel in your bloodstream, performing medical procedures?

Who will fix the repair robots which repair the repair robots, which fix the repair robots?

Great story D.W. "Mole hair interior"? I never heard of that one. Are you sure it was not mohair? Like the fabric used for the old fashion teddy bears?

Yes, LED strip lights. Micro Mark sells them, but a huge variety is available on eBay and Amazon, much cheaper. Many come with a wall-wart power supply. I used those in my photo tent.

Unfortunately that is the reality. The were never really cheap, but since they very discontinued, they fetch high prices on eBay. Also a warning: these printers have very delicate print head which can get damaged. The result is thin lines of missing ink in the printout. They are also rather delicate and unless packaged properly, can get easily damaged in shipping. The ones offered on eBay might have defective print head, and/or be improperly packed for shipping. I participate in Yahoo Alps group and see my share of horror stories about defective heads or shipping damage. One source that is trustworthy is Elephant Rocket in Japan (don't mind the funny name). But their website (um, it actually is a blog) is a real pain to deal with. But when they refurb those printers for sale, they have the ability to replace the print head and recalibrate the printer properly. They also properly package the printers for shipping. This makes the price rather high (plus shipping cost is quite high). The prnter models you want are 5500, 5000, or 1300 and 1000. The others are ok, but lack some features. Alps also doesn't deal well with with color gradients, but they can't be beat for solid color graphics (and of course the capability to lay down a coat of white ink under color layers makes them really handy).

Alps MicroDry printers can do all sorts of tricks as far as multiple ink layering, keeping the paper in perfect alignment. They also print white and metallic colors in spot color mode. Perfect for making decals. Unfortunately they have been out of production for several years, but there are still plenty of people using them (me included). These printers aren't perfect, but are the best there is for hobbyists and cottage inductry decal manufacturers. The consumer grade color laser printers (like Micro Mark sells at a huge markup) have very limited capabilities. They can only send the paper through the paper path once, so they can only apply the color toners in the order they are installed in the print path. As far as graphic software, I have been using the Corel Draw suite for decades. It is similar to Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, but less expensive.

I sure hope that someone (hopefully professionally) will be recording a video of this once-in-a-lifetime for posterity.

If every physically and mentally fit human being is capable of doing something "more satisfying", then great. But I have feeling that not all humans fit that mold. Plus , I much rather speak to a human operator when I call some company, rather than going through a large tree of stupid "artificial intelligence" computer menus. Give me a human being please! Only the time will tell how this new paradigm works out.

I think that the last couple examples have strayed a bit too far afield from the original subject: weird *CARS*.

Yes, but it is very shortsighted (by those greedy executives replacing humans with robots). If we make humans obsolete, nobody will be buying the products those robots manufacture. Plus, who will fix them if they break.

Neah, remember that kids already live in a virtual reality world full of electronic gadgets and AI (and with their noses in their smart-devices). They'll think that seeing robots is quite normal. It is the old fogies like us who will have nightmares.

You must have uses one of the naughty words forum censors. The world has lost another funny lady. We all aren't getting any younger.

It might have something to do with the way your monitor is adjusted (like picture brightness). Of course, once you know what to look for, you cannot unsee things to verify whether brightness setting makes a difference.

Interesting. Makes sense (but regardless, not something that should be tagged in a text message window, and especially causing the forum software to puke out 404 error). IIRC, the other forum has problems with things like "(print", or something like that - not just bare words. Poor coding if you ask me.

I suspected all along that some combinations of text in posts was interpreted as code. This problem never existed in the days of simple BBSs using plain text. I frequent another online forum (using different forum software) and they have similar problem.

Yeah, looks sort of like small claw-less lobster.

A wicked jumbo shrimp?

That is odd. Polystyrene is a type of a resin, and even with additives (like pigments or plasticizers), its basic chemical properties are still the same. So, strong solvents like acetone, MEK or methylene chloride (either of which is used in liquid cements for styrene) should soften or melt it (which is how those glues weld parts together). If those types of cements are not working properly, I wonder if JoHan used some sort of different type of plastic?

In New England the last weekend was the 1st rain-free weekend we had for months! It seems that rain would arrive just in time for most of the Summer's weekends (and we often had some during the week too), but not as bad as other parts of the U.S. It has been a very wet Spring and Summer here.

I should clarify me response. I stated that I use an Ad Blocker, which is not quite correct. I don't use an Ad Blocker per se, I use NoScript Add-On in my browser which blocks browser scripts from running. The effect often is that it will block the ads (or many of them).

I thought it was just the opposite. Lacquers are the ones which can be dissolved after they dry, and enamels (after they harden) cannot ever be redissolved, as their chemical properties change. So they come off in sheets. Example: if the solvent mostly evaporates from a bottle of lacquer, adding more solvent (thinner) will revive it, so it can be used again. But if the solvent mostly evaporated form a bottle of enamel, the remaining binder/pigment turns into a rubbery "goo". Adding more thinner will not reconstitute that "goo" it cannot be redissolved. Even if you mechanically breake it up and stirr it, it will still be floating in chinks in the thinner, not a homogenous paint that can be used. BTW, thanks for expanding on what I mentioned - not many modelers understand the ins and outs of paint chemistry. But they should, since they use paints all the time. Understanding paint chemistry (even if just the basics) makes them better modelers.

Interesting . . . And I love that shrimp on a Barbie image! But isn't it really supposed to be "prawn", not "shrimp"? I thought Aussies use "prawn". ??