peteski

Exactly - not as easy as it first appears. But I corrected myself quickly.

Sounds like you've developed an allergy to shellfish. I guess it can happen as you age.

Wow, that is some strong aversion to eBay. TO me it has its place and it is a world-wide marketplace with items I guarantee that you will not find elsewhere. But yes, there is lots of garbage there too. With all this hoopla, and since nobody else wants to, I think I'll ask the seller if it is a typo.

Expert, super-expert, professional - those are all European buzzwords used to drum up sales. In U.S. we instead use slogans like "industrial strength".

If we are to believe Wikipedia (because, why not?), zinc pest is actually caused by lead contamination in zinc alloys (like white metal). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_pest White metal is just a name of a range of alloys (not a specific formula). So is "pot-metal". Then there is Zamak too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pot_metal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_metal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamak Good reading!

Thanks Claes. I have some of those wheels and I can see some slight striations from the 3D printed master. I was wondering if you did something to smooth them out (like a coat of primer). I suppose that the glossy clear lacquer applied during the "plating" process smoothed out those striations.

Now that one I think I can guess - looks very familiar. And there are hints in that picture as to the car's lineage (on the car itself).

Funny, the club's logo was the 2nd thing I noticed in that photo (the car itself was 1st). No big deal - no need to feel sorry about it. It is not like we'll ban you from the forum. It is not a life-or-death mistake.

Good job!

I'm surprised than nobody mentioned the possibility of a typo yet. It was probably supposed to be $49.98 (or maybe even $499.89 - which is still unrealistic). The half off is probably just automatically triggered, so the seller is unaware. I see price typos happen on eBay from time to time. If the seller is contacted, they usually fix them. And again, we can thank the current eBay pricing structure for this. Back in the old days, when eBay charged a percentage of item's starting bid's price, this would have never happened when the seller saw what it would cost him to list that item! Remember those days when many auctions started at $0.01 or $0.99? That was why.

And for some silly trivia, "brat" means "brother" in Polish.

But you never lost the lid!

Looks good! Did you prep them in any way before sending them out, or did you send the bare resin pieces?

Isn't the logo in the upper left corner of that photo a hint?

I believe the $120k equipment you linked to is not what is used for "plating" styrene parts. Looking at the FAQ's from that website, I quote: Physical Vapor Deposition - also known as PVD Coating - refers to a variety of thin film deposition techniques where solid metal is vaporized in a high vacuum environment and deposited on electrically conductive materials as a pure metal or alloy coating. The vacuum deposition systems used by the model manufacturers (and 3rd party platers) do not require the materials to be electrically conductive. Our model parts are polystyrene and while they do apply clear glossy lacquer to those parts before the vacuum deposition process, I don't believe that the lacquer is conductive. But then again, I'm not an expert here - just a hobbyist who, like the saying goes, knows just enough to be dangerous.

Enamel paint used different chemistry than lacquer. Is there such a thing as "enamel-based" primer? I'm not talking about just some flat gray paint being used as primer, but a real primer designed to be a primer. I never heard of an enamel-based primer.

There was no mention if any decal setting solution was used. Those chemicals (often alcohol-based) can sometimes mar the paint surface and it will not wash off. But as far as the decal itself goes, it is all water-soluble, so any glue residue should come off with just more water. I also noticed that the paint onto which the decal was applied does not seem to be glossy, but more like satin finish. Water-slide decals should ideally be applied to glossy paint surface.

Weird! Maybe he was expecting cash? Or was that above and beyond the normal reimbursement you give him?

I thought that Barbie figures were closer to 1:12 scale.

I know that modelers generally call most clear plastic sheets "acetate", is it really acetate? Acetate (actually Cellulose Acetate) was one of early thermoplastics, and I don't think that it is actually used much in our hobbies anymore. Most clear plastic sheets are Polystyrene, PET, PETG, Acrylic (Plexiglas), or Polycarbonate (Lexan). I Acetate? Not so much.

So, you're leaving the old battleaxe behind? Nice! Hopefully the new pad has enough room for all your models.

What thickness was that? I think the 0.005" might have slight texture, but the thicker sheets should be perfectly clear. Another possibility is that instead of paper separator sheets they started adding a protective film over the sheet, which needs to be removed? It's been a while since I bought any Evergreen sheets.

Yes, I have replaced it once in the 30-odd years that I owned the airbrush. I did that when the needle could be reinserted into the airbrush with almost no resistance. But I don't recall if it pushes out through the front or the rear.

I have one pair of small tweezers with pointy tips where I slid some wire insulation stripped of a piece of cooper wire, and another pair where I slid some small diameter heat-shrink tubing, then shrunk the tubing with a heat gun. Both resulted in tweezers with soft tips

Yes, those files come in very handy. But for *REALLY* precise miniature work the best are reamers used by during root canal therapy. I had my share of those, and whenever I'm at the endodontist's office (for another root canal) I always tell them about my hobbies and as whether I could have couple of those tiny files they use during the procedure. They usually hav a a box with dozens of them (and many different sizes). They always let me have few of them (the unused ones of course). Those are the tiniest files I have ever seen.