peteski

The topmost sticky in this section of the forum has hundreds of posts about stripping model paints and lots of hints as to what works with what and other special things that can be done to successfully strip paint. While it will take a while to read through it than just posting a new question about the same old paint strippers, that lengthy thread is very educational. Just sayin' . . .

Fireball Resin makes several types of tires cast in soft (urethane?) rubber material.

Wow! I grew up in Poland in the '70s and I don't recall seeing that one (the writing is in Polish). That is a really poor drawing of the Space Shuttle. The boxart looks home-made by some teenager.

Yes, model railroads have their own scale problems. But it is a scale, not gauge problem. N gauge is always 9mm but it can be used for several scales (like 1:148, 1:150 and 1:160). Same with G-gauge track -it can be used fo several scale models Then there are "box scales". In the '60s kit manufacturers were using standardized size boxes. So they made models (usually aircraft or ships) to fit the standard-size box. That resulted in all sorts of odd scales. Then there are Matchbox diecasts: those were also scaled to fit in the standard-size box, resulting in a wide range of vehicle scales being used.

Thanks for the info. Your artwork looks excellent! What graphic program do you use.

I bought some full extension drawer slides and some wide laminated boards at Home Depot and built myself a paint cabinet. The drawers were designed to hold few hundred of various brands of paint bottles and spray cans. I also built a smaller cabinet for my tools (under the workbench). It is on casters so I can roll it around the workshop.

I learned a lot here - thanks guys! And I totally spaced out on all the 1:20 F1 kits (I even own few myself). I still wish that instead of having 3 scales fairly close to each other in the twenties (1:20, 1:24 and 1:25) all the manufacturers just picked one of those and never made models in the other 2 scales.

Ah, so that makes sense now. Who in UK printed these for you? Precision Labels & Decals?

These do look very nice (especially with the metallic silver and gold). Funny - going by the sheen of the inks (and by the faint line across the pair of black license plates with the Oldsmobile logo) to my eyes they look like they are printed on Alps MicroDry printer. This photo doesn't show the corners of the sheet but if there are alignment marks (usually thin crosses) for all the ink layers than that would be a good indication that they were silk-screened. I do see a small color swatches on each set of decals. If you look at the swatches under a strong magnifier, is the color made up of individual dots (like what you would expect on an ink-jet or color laser printout) or is each color perfectly solid with no dots at all?

This thread got me thinking about this oddball scale. I have built automotive model kits in 1:8, 1:12, 1:16, 1:24, 1:25, 1:32, 1:43, 1:87, and 1:160 scales, but I have stayed away from 1:20. Why in the world someone decided to produce plastic models in that scale?! What were they trying to accomplish? Which company was the first to produce 1:20 scale kits? It seems to have never caught on because there are very few models made in that scale. Another oddball is 1:18, but that is, AFAIK only used for pre-reassembled diecast models.

Or heat the remaining axle with a soldering iron (or a torch if you are adventurous). That should soften the plastic surrounding the axle and you might be able to pull it out.

The ends of the metal axles are usually knurled and press-fit in the wheel. I had some luck taking the tires off then twisting each wheel in opposite direction while pulling them apart at the same time. But at this point looks like you used "plan B".

I didn't say that I don't like those cute little buggers. But as cars go, they are unimpressive as compared to let's say a more impressive car like a Ferrari. One can like unimpressive vehicles. I for example like Henry J. , Nash Metropolitan, and many European Eastern Block vehicles (like Trabant, Syrena or Warszawa), even though they are all unimpressive vehicles. I like VWs too. Unimpressive doesn't mean unlikable. We both know that Volkswagens (especially the vintage ones) have a huge following, even though they are cheap wheels. Remember, VolksWagen (people's car) was a a basic econo-boxes designed for the masses. It was Hitler before WWII who decided to make a car which pretty much every citizen could afford. He engaged Ferdinand Porsche for this task and the rest is history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen

So Norm was just buying the etched parts from an outside source, then casting the rims, tires and the assembly fixture? Was the guy that passed away etching those himself or having them etched by some metal etching company? If it was a company then they still have the artwork to etch more sets of those etched frets (if we had some info about the company and the guy selling these to Norm). These are rhetorical questions. That is one of the bad things about cottage industry like this - the production falls apart when one of the outside suppliers disappears. No "plan B". Norm's wheels are/were very nice. I should call him up and see if I can get more info about this. Getting parts etched is is not that difficult nowadays. Maybe we can get Norm supplied with more etchings?

Since we have now branched to non-automotive subjects, pretty much all the box-art from the now-defunct VEB Plasticart (kit manufacturer from East Germany in the '70s) had some beautiful artwork. Those were some of the first kits I built as a kid and the artwork still looks beautiful. Here is a bunch of examples.

Yes, some brands of metallic model paints have totally out-of-scale size of metallic particles. Testors is one of the worse. Those paints look really bad on a model in photographs. Like others said, there are paints with much finer metallic particles, but it is also a bit of a compromise of what looks good and what would be properly scaled.

The "real" VW Beetle convertible is a very unimpressive car. So why should the model be any different. The only thing going for it is the fact that it is a convertible. To me the box-art looks perfectly fine and the model looks to be well built. It shows what is inside the box. Nothing depressing about it.

Well, the rubber tires in Japanese kits have a correct look. But yes, vinyl tires don't look very realisitc. But little rubbing using scouring poweder or some Dullcote makes them look like rubber. And of course if one models a car at a show with shined-up tires, shiny vinyl works just fine.

You're not the first nor last to do that. Other restricted items also get sent via Media Mail.

And they would look like they are made from black styrene. They are molded usually in neutral colors (like gray or beige) because that is what military modelers prefer and they are on the same tree as other parts. But even if molded in black , they would still need to be painted to properly represent the color and surface sheen of rubber tires.

The pressure question is not a one-size-fits all. It depends on many factors. What type of paint, how viscous it is, what type of surface you are painting and how large it is, and what size nozzle is being used are just some variables. You will find yourself changing the pressure, paint flow and distance to the object being painted depending on the specific scenario.

They do have a minimum order (250 sheets), and will be quite pricey (especially if multiple colors are needed). Providing a print-ready artwork (in vector format) makes it less expensive but still pricey. See http://www.microscale.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=Custom for more info.

The plasticizer (chemical which makes the vinyl tires soft) has leached out of them and got absorbed into the polystyrene fenders, making them soft. I don't believe it will ever harden. Like Don said, the only good way to deal with the problem is to remove (grind away) the softened plastic and repair the damage using new styrene or putty, or both. Just like a dentist cleaning out a cavity before applying the filling material.

What printing process is the printing company using? Silk screening, UV-curable ink-jet, or some other method?

Actually, all the Japanese-made model car kits I have (Tamiya, Aoshima, Fujimi, Otaki, etc.) have tires made from rubber. Satco tires were also rubber (Japanese-made). They even smell like rubber! But just like real rubber, after about a decade of being exposed to air, the surface starts to deteriorate and it hardens a bit too. Why are tires molded using soft materials? I suspect that has something to do with being able to demold them from the mold cavities with all the sidewall details, tread and sometimes hollow center on a single-piece tire. If they were hard plastic they would never come out of the mold. There are companies (mostly 1:35 military vehicles) that make tires out styrene. But to get the same level of detail as the soft tires, those hard plastic tires are made up from a sandwich of several pieces. Usually each sidewall is a separate piece and then there are several rings with the tread detail stacked between the sidewalls. And they have to be painted to look like tires.