peteski

No harm done. I"m not complaining about Fernando's prices either. Yes, I have few of his wheel/tire sets and they are all resin castings (except for (stainless steel?) wire spokes. Also, Fernando is in Europe (Portugal or Spain).

I didn't know - thanks Rob! Like I said, I have never seen these models before you just mentioned them recently. Looks like I messed my Brititish nomenclature too. Eh, these are models of Italian cars anyway!

You think so? Labor is cheap in USA? Why then the U.S. companies keep moving all the production to China? I'm also not sure how this applies to the current discussion. What setup and machining? Fernando is a small cottage-industry manufacturer. The wheels are made from silver-painted resin-cast components (likely made from Fernando's hand-made master patterns and then cast in RTV molds). Just like other small resin casters do. Then he is likely using some sort of a jig to keep the hub aligned with the rim and then wraps continuois wire around the assembly to depict spokes. The tires are also urethane resin castings painted black.

He sells just the wheels/tires on ebay (and probably elsewhere) and they are surprisingly affordable. They are not perfect (individually hand-made), but pretty BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH good! I have few sets. Took one apart and they are very cleverly designed and executed (and I can see that it doesn't take all that much time to lace them). I wish I knew his secret so I could do my own wheels that way.

I have strong suspicion that there were no takers for their business. After all, one has to be willing to work really, really hard and has to be very fastidious to consistently produce high quality resin kits. Most of the fastidious currently active resin casters have their hands more than full just keeping up with their offerings. Taking on another large casting operation would not work for them. Just my view of this . . .

Just to follow up on my earlier post (above), after few PMs and email exchanges with Greg and Dwayne, my kits are now of "Modelhaus Quality". Thanks guys!

I was lucky enough to pick up couple of these from him before Bob passed away.

Funny, I use a Badger 200, which is a siphon-feed airbrush. I do have a metal-cup adapter, but I almost never use it. I like the fact that I don't have to worry about spilling paint from an open-top cup. For air pressures I use anywhere from 10-30psi. No problem with the siphon picking up the paint (airbrush-consistency paint is pretty thin).

Hmm . . . that's odd. As I understand, those are the most popular size for vibrators, um "personal massagers".

This is like deja-vou all over again Art. Your post is pretty much identical to one you posted some time ago and I then chimed in that from what I understand about the waterslide decals, the sticky coating on the decal paper is dextrose (sugar), and not gelatin. But either stuff is water soluble.

You need to actually talk to them and tell them that they are calling you by mistake because you . . . don't own a computer!! I did that few times and I haven't had one of those calls for few years now. But I'm getting lots of other Spam from "electric company", and lots of health plans.

Wow! Those are some really early 1:20 scale Tamiya kits! I have never seen those in person (and I don't recall anybody mentioning these to me before you just did). Nice! But as you said, these do not have any opening doors or trunk (bonnet for the "true" English speakers). I'm still curious what kit Craig has.

Also didn't watch the video. Looks like they got the rear wheels wrong (just like Revell did). The rear wheels are supposed to have deep dish mags and fatter tires. But it looks like they used the same wheels and tires all around. To me that is a huge flaw, as those wheels are one of the signature things about this car.

I guess you've missed the ongoing discussion about this, in this section, about 10 posts down from yours. Imageshack did the same thing to me few years back.

While I agree that it is not magic, I strongly disagree that just knowing how to scratchbuild items from physical raw materials gives you most of the skills needed for 3D modeling. Being proficient at designing in a virtual 3-dimansional space on a computer is a whole different skill set which must be learned from scratch. Some of it might be intuitive (especially when you are familiar with 2D drafting), but taking it to a 3rd dimension is a large leap. Designing simple objects is fairly easy, but it takes lots of know-how do design more complex objects, especially with complex surfaces. The degree of the learning curve also depends on the CAD software being used.

LOL Guido! I Never ran my Dremel for 60 continuous hours. But seriously, I had my oldest Dremel for probably 30 years and the brushes barely show any wear. I suppose it is because I almost never run mine at full speed. Actually, I mostly use it at very slow speeds (so I'm sure there is much less wear on the brushes). I'm also surprised that fiatboy's Dremel has worn out chuck on the motor shaft. I don't have the cordless model but I assume that the motor shaft is steel. How the heck did it wear out?! On my Dremel, the Chuck is aluminum and the collets are either aluminum or steel (depending on the size). Pretty solid stuff - mine shows no signs of wear. I tried the keyless chuck but it didn't run true enough for me (especially with small drill bits and dental burrs).

Craig, I'm curious about that Fiat 131 kit. Is is plastic, or simply an unassembled die-cast (metal-body) model? Not many plastic model kits are made with opening doors, hoods, and trunks without also having a full engine and detailed interior. Actually not many plastic kits period, come with opening doors/hood/trunk. What is the manufacturer of that hit? What scale it it?

Think about it: Maybe not so moronic? Jet fuel is not very volatile and it is well contained within the fuel tank and fuel system of the airplane. The aircraft is designed to safely hold that flammable liquid. I think the worry is that a flammable material in the cargo or baggage hold of the aircraft might catch on fire, and do enough damage to take down the aircraft. Same with the Lithium Ion batteries (which can catch on fire).

I doubt it would be different plastic. It is likely just regular Polystyrene with different dyes/additives. Virgin Polystyrene is transparent and colorless.

Beautiful build! Looks like it will be a nice kit. Since these are not decals, how did you mask the tailgate letters so nicely? One thing that bugs me is how chunky/clunky the wipers are. Very toy-like. Not that this is the first model with chunky wipers, but Tamiya can mold them much thinner, and more realistic looking. But I guess Moebius is not Tamiya.

Because it makes a statement about the wearer's mental state. How quickly we forgot about Lady Gaga's meat dress. That was real raw beef, not just print on fabric.

Sounds tasty!

I put my kit's decals in standard cheap polyethylene zipper bags. That protects them and the bag material should not affect the decals. I would stay away from waxed paper. Some of the Revell Germany decals which use thick clear film had waxed paper sheet to protect them. The wax paper left marks (impressions) in the shiny clear decal film.

I'll have what you're having! I really like pickled beets: the texture, the flavor, the color . . . I can eat them by themselves. Speaking of likable textures - I like water chestnuts for their unusual crinkly crunchiness.

LOL! Well, at least you can be fairly certain that it is not any of the parts you already replaced. Yeah, I know that this is very frustrating. No trouble codes are even set in the PCM? You mention that the problem is intermittent and that you checked all the wires. But how about the electrical connectors? Maybe one of those causes intermittant connection? Assuming that the PCM is in the passenger compartment, did you check the wires from the firewall connector to the PCM? When the car is working properly, can you simulate the problem by pulling off one of the connectors on on one of the sensors? Do you have the service manual which explains which components are responsible for controlling the idle speed?