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peteski

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Posts posted by peteski

  1. Didja notice that much of our new furniture is coming from these two places?  When we bought our leather couches in our den there was a closeout of the style, because they had just shut down the US plant in the south and were going off shore with new styles.  That was six years ago.

    Anyone else notice that's when we got the stink bug infestation?  Yea, beetle like bugs that eat crops and stink like heck if you step on one.  They can hibernate up to a year.... as in sleeping in furniture in ocean containers.   AND they are used in local cuisine..   used to give dishes a spicy taste, beware!  :blink:

    Five years ago they were everywhere.  We are fortunate that the last few winters have been cold, which has killed a lot of them off over winters since they are a tropical bug.

     

    That is an unfortunate result of this global economy.  Here in the Northeast we have the stink bugs and even more destructive longhorn beetles. Both came from Asia.

  2. I'm about to use Tamiya acrylic paints for the first time and I have a couple of questions:

     

    1) How much do you thin it with the Tamiya thinner before spraying it through and airbrush?

     

    2) Does it have any interactions with Model Master enamels?

     

    3) Is there anything else I should know about this paint? It smells like it has a bit of lacquer solvent in it.

    1) like others said - til it is as viscous as 2% milk. I never really make a note of the proportions.

    2) It shouldn't - it has a fairly mild solvent.

    3) The smell is probably mostly Isopropyl Alcohol. Like most others have mentioned, I say stick with its dedicated thinner - don't cheapen out and use substitutes.

  3. This guy definitely deserves an award...

    This is a fully functional scale airport with planes landing and taking off, lining up to take off, with monitors of arrival times and whatnot...check out the link for more pics:

    http://airwaysnews.com/blog/2013/07/31/knuffingen-airport-at-miniatur-wunderland-the-worlds-greatest-model-airport/

    LOL, isn't it just amazing?  It is all H0 scale (it started as a train layout which grew and grew). I wouldn't call it a diorama - it is more like a huge model train layout, or maybe a better name would be an "exhibit".

    It is also not just a guy - it is a team of dozens of people who work on this exhibit full time building and maintaining it.  There is an entire Youtube channel devoted to this exhibit. They even show behind the scenes stuff (how it all works).  it also generates revenue (you have to pay admission).  Official website: http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ and Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MiWuLaTV

  4. Harry,

    I stumbled onto this beautiful thread by chance.  I have long planned to build a backdated version of the Christie kit sans motorized tractor.  I already have two "Breyer" horses to pull the rig, and reference materials on the harnesses and other equipment  that will need to be fabricated.  I still need to source the front wagon wheels.  Can't see buying an $85.00 kit just for a set of wheels.  Harry, fantastic job!  Thank you for sharing your step by step photos!

     

     

    David

    I have a partially built one I picked up for much less than $85. I assume you need a set of its rear wheels to use as fronts?  If you promise to post some in-progress photos of your modeling I think those wheels can find its way to you.  ;) PM me.

  5. Assuming that EVERY red styrene formulation is identical and that they will all bleed or not bleed equally is probably a bad idea, as are most assumptions.

    Until every red styrene has been tested with identical prep and coating materials under controlled and repeatable conditions, there is simply NO BASIS to make a blanket statement either way.

     

    That is exactly what I was going to say. Over the years there were many different formulations of polystyrene and dyes used to tint it.  Plus, different companies use different sources for their raw materials.  Next are dozens of different paint brands which modelers use (and those paints can have different chemical composition).  So what Snake proved was that the red dye in the plastic piece he painted and the paint he used did not react. But that is a very small sample of what is out there.

  6. The Demise of Alps printers has been greatly exaggerated. :D

    There are still many Alps printers out there chugging along (including mine).  If you go to http://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm and then scroll down to the section titled Custom decal companies you will find several customer decal makers. That list is fairly up to date.

    But remember that simply scanning a decal as a bitmap and then putting it in a PDF or another vector file format will not magically turn the scan it into a vector graphic format.

  7. me2! Btw what do you use to play cds? I kind of born the wrong times--- nowadays portable cd players just out of production, and i really hate to buy second hand....

    At home I have an old Akai component system stereo from 1980s: 2 cassette decks, CD player, equalizer, receiver and a timer.  I also have DC player in my car (2006 Scion xB - same car as Toyota bB).  I don't have any portable DC units  but I really have no need of one of those.

  8. I did some maths, so 120 F = 48 C??? omg.....

    Yes it is almost 49 C!  It is getting a bit toasty in some parts USA this Summer. 

    Some say this is global warming, others call it global climate change. Some think it is a natural cycle, others that humans contributed to the warming.  Yet others say that it is just some random occurrence.  Then there are also those who just stick their heads in the sand. You choose which you believe.  :D

  9. 91%-93% is generally the strongest that's available commercially in drugstores and the like. 70% is more commonly available, but it's pretty much useless as a stripper...though it works very well as a cleaner.

    Eh, those are weak! :D I get the "good: stuff, IPA99 at a local True Value hardware store (in the paint thinners section).  It is 99% IPA and sold in gallon containers. Not very expensive either.  Works even better than the others and still just as safe on Polystyrene or ABS.

  10. I think I get what you are asking (but it wasn't obvious). :unsure: Unpainted plastic looks like . . . unpainted plastic.   If you are ok with that, then leave it bare. but f you want the plastic parts to look like the material original car parts are made of (usually metal, either bare or painted), then you paint the plastic parts too.

     

    Having said that, I have seen some good looking models which had unpainted bodies (they were just polished). But that only works on certain colors (often the lighter color plastic bodues are somewhat translucent and they will look "plasticky", even when polished).

  11. This is not something that irked me specifically today, but I just thought of it.

    Some people's emails have a very annoying tag on the end. Things like "This was sent from my Verizon 4G smart phone", "This was sent from my super iPhone5", "This was sent from my wonderful Apple iPad", or similar.  I really don't give a rat's-a$$ what device you are sending your email from!  To me this is just gloating about how much of a technology-whore you are.  Oooooh, I have a wonderful iPad!  Fine, you can sit on it! :angry:  All I care about is the meaningful contents of your email - I don't need to know how you sent it.

    Peteski

    This was sent from my supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Dell Optiplex, Win XP SP3, Seamonkey 2.33.1 :D

  12. With flat paint spray cans you really need to shake the bejesus out of them. The flattening agent settles down and needs to really be agitated well to get back into suspension.  Shake it vigorously 3 times as long as you think it is necessary. :)  Then test-spray onto a cheap plastic spoon to verify how it looks (before spraying the model).

  13. I don't think the IRS scam is related to any data breaches. I think the scammers just call either random or sequential phone numbers.  As far as faking caller ID, most of the scammers and sales-pitch callers do that. It is really easy to do.  The best one I've seen so far is when the Caller ID showed my own phone number calling me!

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