peteski

What is "SB"? Super-Brakes?

Go to https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm and scroll down about half way to the Custom Alps decal companies, then pick one in your region. Like you found out, producing good quality color decals is not a trivial task. If you can draw your own artwork (preferably vector-based) that will greatly reduce the cost of producing your decals.

The Win98 SE machine is used strictly to run may Alps Micro Dry printer and old version of Corel Draw I use for designing decal artwork and other things. It works, it is safe (it has been for decades), there is no need to do anything about it. I have full backups (and even the install disks) and it is running on old hardware. It ain't broke, so I'm not fixin' . There is nothing on that machine that would be irreplaceable or worth anything to hackers. Plus there are no new drivers for the Alps printer. I roll my eyes at droves of people who are hell bent on updating their electronic devices and the software to the latest and greatest. Sorry.

I'm not that old, tech-savvy, Unix-literate, employed in high-tech, and I'm not on Facebooks, Twiddles, Snapcats or any other social media. Don't own or want a smart phone. I get my socializing done in online groups and forums. I also have machines running Win 98 SE (not really used anymore for going outside of my LAN), Windows XP, Windows 7, and Windows 10 at work. I practice safe computing (basically careful where I go and what I open). Have been hack-free for many years. Or at least I think have been hack-free. I also heard that many people (in multiple age groups) are closing their accounts and leaving FB. But that is too late for them, since FB already has all of their info.

Color ink jet and laser printers use translucent inks and depend on the background (the paper when printing on paper, or the model's surface if printing on clear film) to properly render the colors. If the clear film decal is then applied to a non-white model surface., the colors will not show properly. Black is the only ink color which does not require white background. Alps MicroDry printers (like MD-1000 or MD-5000) are capable of printing a layer of white ink, then overprint it with color inks, producing decals which will look correctly on any color surface. But those are long out of production (however, there are still quite a few of us Alps users around). But even with Alps printer, getting quality decal images will require some image editing.

Imitation is not quite the same as copying. If they imitated someone's work by making their own master pattern which depicted the same subject as the original, that would be flattery. But if they acquire someone else's resin item then they make a mold directly from it to make and sell copies, that doesn't seem kosher. But I suspect that you were making that comment in jest. Were you? Chinese copy a lot of products developed by others (who spent lots of money developing the original products). Is that flattery too?

There are Chinese eBay sellers selling oodles of metal stickers and waterside decals. Couple of years ago I bought some Mercedes and a sheet with various makes stickers from them. The seller is globaltoy https://www.ebay.com/str/globaltoy This is one of the sticker sets https://www.ebay.com/itm/182741013696

Nice video and layout. What I found a bit strange was all the red signals the train went through. Pretty impressive for a private layout, but not quite the gotcha factor compared to Miniatur Wunderland. But that is a professionally built and maintained layout. Mr. Porsche's layout is Marklin H0 scale. Back in 2010, I took similar videos of a friend's N scale (about half the size of H0) layout where I had my hand in building and operating. The video is lower resolution and it was a live wireless feed, so the quality is not as good.

I just made my first ever purchase there last week and I thought the price and shipping costs were quite low. I bought couple of Dumas Products Chris-Craft wooden boat kits and their price was quite a bit lower than what the manufacturer charges on their website. Shipping cost was also refreshingly low. I actually went with Hobbylinc because of the low prices.

No kidding! Dan, it would appear that you spend 16 hours a day, 365 days a year building all those models at the same time! Amazing! Don't tell me that you also have a 40-hours-per-week job.

Nice job! I also love the low angle photo from the front - it makes the model look much larger than it really is and it shows lots of details (like the antlers on the ship's bell).

Should have been obvious to me. The Rat fink there looks just like this one.

I see nothing wrong with having this section. Other online forums I frequent have similar section.

Before I peeked into this thread I didn't even know this model existed. But now I wanted one! So I ended up getting an unbuilt kit on eBay, and looking on Google for reference photos I found an older thread here showing another built of this kit: Atmobil made some interesting modifications to his kit. Between yours and his writeup, I'm learning many useful building hints and modifications. One think that bugs me about yours is the size of the door mirrors. But I suspect that when the model is seen in-person, it looks ok. My plan is to scratchbuild the mirrors from some styrene and putty, make master pattern out of those, and then cast them in resin. I also have couple of ESCI Mercedes 500SLC kits which also have no door mirrors.

I did a Google search for 1:43 Aston Martin Lagonda and there are some models available. Here are couple images. I also gfind that car strangely attractive. But then again, I own a 1985 Caddy Eldorado which also has a very angular body.

Um, I was hoping for something more shiny looking (like polished brass). Alclad has polished brass, but a Molotow pen version would be welcome too.

I think that just about anybody living in a densely-populated metropolitan area can easily say that the drivers in their area are the worse. To me the Boston drivers are the absolute worse drivers. What makes it even worse is the fact that Boston street and surrounding highways are not well designed (streets follow old cow paths, not the typical grid system), the streets are narrow, and the highways undersize for the amount of cars. No fun at all, unless you are driving in the middle of the night, and you lucky not to hit any constructions zones.

Christmas is coming . . . .

Thanks, I'll have to give it a try.

Guido was asking about applying Molotow over Future.

Yeah, I highly doubt I'll ever own the full-size car. Well, unless I win big on Power Ball and find a willing seller. I'm dreaming.

Bobby, are you also a member of the Showrods forum?

Nice Chopper!

That, and I seem to recall that Micro-Mark sells their own version of Ambroid.

Well, Molotow inks are alcohol-based. I haven't tried, but it will probably be safe. But anytime I try new technique I try it on some unimportant piece of plastic (like a plastic spoon). Just coat the spoon with whatever finish you would have on your model (including the Future), then apply the Molotow over it. Also, you used a common misnaming: Future (or whatever its current name is) is *NOT* a floor wax. Wax just cleans and shines the surface it is applied to - it has not appreciable thickness. Future is a floor finish: It is actually an acrylic clear coat which goes on much thicker than a wax (it is more like a clear lacquer).