peteski

If you lived in New England (especially in the Boston area) you would hear people use the word "wicked", as in "wicked good" or "wicked awesome!"

True, but I suspect that a center hole for the spark plug would have weakened the clear head.

Nice, but to get a baby-butt-smooth chrome finish they will have to be sanded/primed better.

I doubt it is mold. Most likely some plasticizer leaching out. You could try to scrub them using 91% isopropyl alcohol or even naphtha (Ronsonol lighter fluid). That might take care of the problem.

I think it is more than the box art - that car was way ahead of its time and had very pleasing contours. Auburn Boattail Speedster (from the same time period) is also a a very nice looking automobile.

I think I see what happened. Again, it is eBay interfering with communications (not the seller). You most likely selected "ask question" then you were presented with a nifty list of various topics. One was probably "combined shipping" which you probably chose and was immediately told "no". I went through all of this too. I then tried again and chose "other" as the reason for contacting the seller and that allowed me to ask anything. So I simply composed a message which asked the seller about combined shipping and got a prompt response. Again, it is eBay not the seller messing things up. I suspect that no-combined-shipping is the default selection whel listing on eBay and seller probably has to find a way to disable that. I agree that buyer shouldn't have to go through hoops in order to contact the seller but again it is eBay which makes this harder. I too have been buying and selling on eBay since 1999 and I remember when you could freely and openly view and contact any user on eBay. Or view full eBay history of users who were bidding against you. That ability is long gone.

Cool! I'm also surprised with how long the clear plastic (Lexan?) head lasted being burned by exploding fuel.

Skip, you never answered my original question: Was your combined shipping invoice request rejected when you tried that at the checkout time? Did you contact the seller through "ask seller a question" in one of the listings of the items you won? Like I said, eBay is doing some funny things and sometimes sellers aren't even aware of that. As far as what packing material is used, IMO that should not even be considered as long as it was packaged well and arrived undamaged.

But the word learnt you are using repeatedly is more common in British English. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/learnt-vs-learned

Correct, but I don't recall the last time (other than yours) anybody mention Bituminous Concrete in any sentence. In a casual U.S. conversation the stuff used on the roads is called asphalt or pavement. But I suspect that Brits use the word Tarmac in casual conversations.

That would be nice. Yeah, I could "work" for room and board.

3 feet (or 36 inches) away? And you were able to get some paint on the part you were painting?

I had Sharpie ink attack (craze) clear styrene. As far as plated backup lights go, I used some 5-minute epoxy with talcum powder mixed in (which makes it a milky translucent color) applied over the chrome. Like I'm making a lens over the chromed one. But some 5-minute epoxies will yellow after few years making the lights look yellowish. If I ever have to do that again, I will mix talcum powder with Bondic and apply that over the chrome lens.

I'm pretty sure it is IMAI/IMEX (Japanese) kit. Nice build!

Very nice!

I'm pretty sure that when I talked with Dale from the Little motor Kar Co. (at the NNL East) he said that he did the vacuum metalizing (or as we call it "plating") for Modelhaus. I have not been impressed with Chrome Tech last few times I used their service, but I have not yet tried any alternative company.

Thanks Charles! Since I have electronic background I pretty much buy my electronic components from industrial suppliers and then I make my own circuits. But if you do a Google search for LED lighting kits for models you should find many sources of modeler-friendly lighting kits.

If a clear oily fluid which oozes from the soft material used to make the tires it is not a release agent - it is a plasticizer (which is what makes the tire material soft) leachign out of the tire. Not only it is nasty to deal with, it usually makes the tire shrink and stiff. I see that often on recent (Chinese-made) models of automotive subjects, from 1:64 to 1:18 scale. I suspect that the formula those manufacturers use is unstable (due to crappy materials being used?). I have also seen tires which turn "frosty" - the surface looks like it is coated with a thin layer of candle wax. The oily liquid can often soften any plastic the tire comes in contact with (similar to the "tire burn" which used to happen with the old kits from the '60s and '70s).

Too bad that you can't send that diorama to me - I could light it up like the proverbial Christmas tree! I like to light my models up! And design and build custom electronics when needed.

There always is room for improvement on pretty much every model kit! It all depends on how far the modeler wants to take it.

Just like others I use the Tamiya transparent paints in the little glass jars. But sometimes I feel that I need to spray them on too thick to get the desired darker shades of red or amber. I have just recently picked up a set of Alclad II transparent paints to try (but haven't yet). They seem to have much denser colors and should go on very thin. But Alclad II is a "hot" lacquer so I'm afraid it might craze the more delicate clear styrene. I'll be sure to try them on a piece of clear runner before spraying any actual parts.

I've been mostly buying (but some selling too) on eBay since 1999 and I agree with all you mentioned.

eBay is really F-up, and is is not getting any better.

Free shipping to Massachusetts.

This happened to me few times recently. Even on a listing where seller mentioned that he does do combined shipping. It is probably no seller's fault but some eBay glitch. What I did in all those instances, instead of asking for combined invoice, I went to one of the individual listings and contacted seller through "ask seller question" and asked them for combined shipping. They had no problem sending me a combined shipping invoice. The EBay is getting weirder and weirder - try contacting the seller like I did and see what happens.