peteski

I still have my Tyco TCR slotless race car set, similar to this:

The model exhibition and contest my club puts on every year has had top attendance the last few years. It is not an IPMS event. http://classicplastic.org/events.html

Corel Draw uses .CDR or .CMX as a native file format, but it can export in many formats.

I also deal with: 1:160 N scale model trains and vehicles 1:220 Z scale model trains and vehicles Then 1:43 to me is mainly automotive vehicle models (pre-built or kits, diecast metal or resin). The Monogram Ultimates is one of the very few injection-molded styrene models in this scale.

Um, well . . . I'm just speculating on the meaning anyway.

Maybe they mean "single component paint" as in "no hardener needed"?

The bids look legit to me. m***z(5935) snipped it and beat the maximum amount e***n(118) placed on it. If you click on "Show Automatic Bids", the bidding sequence becomes clearer. While it is a kit-bash of couple of models with some custom made parts, the engine is built box-stock and there is a prominent seam on the transmission. The BMF on the side windows is also a bit rough. Not something I would spend couple of grand on. But it is pretty, and someone out there obviously thought it was worth what he paid for it.

I've been watching one item for more than 3 years now. Yes, that long! It keeps getting relisted while identical items often sell for $15-$30. https://www.ebay.com/itm/291025513310 AMERICAN GRAFFITI 1978 FORD THUNDERBIRD 1:64 MotorMax VHTF Green _73600_MOMC NEW Couple of years (when there were couple of other identical models listed for fraction of the $130 this seller wants) I contacted the seller asking what makes their model worth $130. Never got a reply. Waiting for a sucker he is. I'm not the only one curious - there are currently 13 watchers.

Cat litter (clay) dissolves brake fluid? How can you dissolve something that is already liquid? Or are you dissolving cat litter?

I agree. It does look mean and like it means business but it is just too cartoonish. The body lines are too exaggerated. I prefer more elegant lines. Something that looks fast and still pleasing to the eye. Something like this car from the '60s. Heck I'll even take a Lambo Countach from the same era.

You mean "dark purple"? Black Sharpie is actually a very, very dark purple color. When it gets diluted, it shows its true color.

Model Expo also sells all sorts of wooden ship kits: http://modelexpo-online.com/

Clear headlight lenses? Cool!

Dark metallic colors are difficult to judge from photos. Lighting also plays a big role in the way the color looks. Color in the photo above looks fairly similar to the color I used on my 289 Cobra. I used a nail polish. I don't remember the name - I would have to check the bottle.

NICE!

You're welcome Bernard. Alps MicroDry printers are great asset to a modeler who wants to make custom decals. Since you are serious about utilizing this printer I recommend that you (and your friend) join Alps-related Yahoo groups. While Yahoo groups are supposedly on the way out, we still have about 4000 members (not all are active of course). The groups are: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Alps/info and https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/alpsdecal/info . Both groups are a good resource if you have some issues and you need assistance from the Alps community.

I highly recommend thoroughly reading through https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm . Alps very poorly handles rendering colors using the CYMK halftone process. That is because it uses a type of halftone which creates patterns that are picked up by the human eye. Ink Jet printers for example use an advances scattering process instead of a standard halftone screen. The scattering of ink dots much less objectionable to the human eye. These are scans of Alps printed decal. Yes, these images were printed by me in a bitmap format. Even with the 190 lpi halftone, the artifacts of the halftone screen are visible. This is especially true when the halftones color is used for very small objects or lettering. Tthe general rule of thumb with Alps is that the best quality is achieved by 100% saturated colors (not halftone blends). Clever Alps users figured out that by layering multiple passes of various Alps colors (printed at 100% density) they can extend the range of non-halftone colors. The website I pointed you to shows sample color charts giving you an idea what can be done with the Alps printer without using the halftoned CYMK colors. Unfortunately each Alps printer seems to be slightly different and some of them cannot handle the multilayer printing without some inks peeling up, or not adhering. As far as the color space is concerned, even though the printer is a CYMK printer, its drivers are happiest when fed RGB based images. Yes, it seems counter-intuitive. This has been discussed many times on the Alps Yahoo groups, and while some users do not seem to have issues using CYMK color space in their artwork, to be on a safe side, most of us (me included) chose to work in the RGB color space. The example you cited where the CYMK black is not a "true black" is one ot the possible things that can go wrong in CYMK color space. With RGB you don't have to worry about that. The website I pointed you to also has a list of decal companies that make decals using Alps - I wonder if your Alps guy is on that list? Also as an anecdote, the person who creates that website (Rob deBie) did not own an Alps printer while he created most of that site - like you, he wanted to understand the process really well so he could provide Alps-print-ready artwork to his Alps guy. Eventually he did buy his own Alps printer.

I have a car sitting in my driveway with BF Goodrich Radial TA tires which were purchased in the late 1980s. They show some light cracking on the sidewalls, but still hold air. I think the "best before date" expiration for tires was created by tire company lawyers to prevent frivolous lawsuits (and to make more money by scaring people to buy new tires every few years, regardless of the tread condition). If you go back to the '70s or earlier, did anybody ever worry about tire expiration dates? People were smart enough to visually inspect their tires (or have a mechanic do it) and replace them when needed. Nowadays even Coca-Cola cans and bottles have "best by" dates stamped on them. I drank a can of Coke which was few years past the "best by" and I didn't die. It also didn't taste any different than a fresh can of Coke.

While I see where Don is coming from, I would also not even consider using Metallizer as primer. I don't see how any paint will adhere well to it. I build mostly models with unmodified bodies and I only use primer if absolutely required (like a red body with the final color being white). If the paint color will be similar or darker than the plastic color I don't use primer at all. Of course this is for plastic-compatible (hobby paints). Automotive lacquers usually require primer (not to attack and craze plastic).

As an Alps owner for about 15 years I can tell you that getting good results with Alps is an art form. Having the vector based artwork greatly increases the success rate. Also, if you really want to get the top results you need to use spot colors. Any images printed using the standard CYMK color printing (where the color is derived from a mix of halftone CYMK inks) will result in unacceptable results (at least to me). Even with the finest halftone (190lpi) selected, I fund that unacceptable in most case. With spot colors your range of available colors is somewhat limited, but the result are top-notch. The problem with bitmaps is that it makes the necessary artwork manipulation much tougher than if the artwork was in a vector format. Having said that, the specific artwork you showed (Gilmore) would be doable in a raster (bitmap) format. I use Corel Draw (and the companion bitmap editor - Corel Photo Paint). If I was going to do it as raster, I would approach the following way (in Photo Paint). Artwork resolution: 600dpi (and 1:1 scale) Color space: 24-bit RGB Each colored area would be as a separate object. No smoothing of the object edges and in between colors. I would do that by reducing the number of colors to 4 (black, red, yellow, white), then change the colors to the following values (in R, G, B): Red 255, 0, 0; Yellow 255, 255, 0; Black 0, 0, 0; White 255, 255, 255). This gives us a ready-to-print color artwork. Next we need to prepare the white undercoat layer. Make copy of this drawing and do the following (Again no smoothing) Change all black areas to white. Change all the red and yellow areas to black (RGB=0, 0, 0) and also make black all the image areas to be printed white. This is where using vector format makes things easier. Basically we need black/white artwork for the white undercoat where all the areas to be printed white are black. And it has to be perfectly aligned with the color artwork. This should result in a good quality decal with white undercoat. If the standard yellow color is too light, that would require some additional tinkering with the image. Looking at your earlier posts, you do have a decent grasp on how to do the artwork for Alps. But with bitmaps (especially when created and printed using different graphic apps) there are more chances that something will go wrong then when using vector format, so I can see why there is apprehension when you provide raster format artwork.

I use liquid masking material for this type of masking. But Elmer's white glue shoudl work just as well. I do this because I'm a "belt and suspenders" kind of modeler and I hate scraping paint from parts to assure good glue joint. Here is an example of masking (after the masks were removed). The kit's plastic is yellow. I liquid-masked the cylinder heads, the engine block in the oil pan area, the top of the carburetor (to glue on the air filter), the wheel hubs on the axles, and many other areas no visible in this photos. Also on the interior tub I masked the area for the gear shifter, dash attachment and seats. The seat masking was done with pieces of masking tape (not liquid mask). The door panels were made from white plastic and their edges were also masked.

I have always been an eBay sniper since joining eBay in 1999 (for the reason you stated) and yes, it irks me when the nickel-and-dimers keep outbidding each other days before auction ends. Of course the sellers hope for that.

LOL - I wouldn't expect a non-Polish-speaking individuals to use the non-English characters. The funny thing is that the word "paczki" in Polish (the "a" without that funny tail on the bottom) means "packages".

Yes, but in a storage unit they will be siting for weeks or months. I've seen warped parts in kits after they sat in an attic (in New England) for extended period of time. I just wanted to warn about a possible problem.

Military (flat finish) colors are usually perfect of automotive interior colors.