peteski

The Tamiya liquid cement I have (don't remember which one) is acetone-based and WeldOn I have is methylene chloride. Both are very fast (methylene chloride is the fastest). My Testors Liquid Cement is MEK-based and it is much slower evaporating that the other 2 I mentioned. That is the slowest liquid cement I have encountered. There are also some non-toxic liquid cement (they use some sort of citrus oils). They have much slower evaporating time but I would stay away from them because they never really fully evaporate. Especially when large areas are glued. Even after few months you can see some distortion on the styrene develop from where the cement was applied.

But those Romans were really, really flatulent! And we all know that methane contributes to global warming.

Epoxy (the 5-minute type) will also give a good bond.

Nice! That does look like a major pain in the butt kind of a job.

Yes, Joseph is a class act. Very good products, and Joseph is a pleasure to deal with.

We have some people at work with their cubes configured for working in a standing position. Do you think it would help to have a high workbench and work on your models in a standing position? Would that help with the pain?

Acetone will craze/etch plastic. It worked on on "chromed" parts because the metallic layer acts like a barrier protecting the plastic underneath it. For tinting styrene windows I use Tamiya Acrylic pints (the ones in small glass jars). The have several transparent colors. Just don't thin it with lacquer thinner - use Tamiya thinner or Isopropyl alcohol.

I can even do better - I own an Alps MicroDry printer. But it would be much easier to just put the dry transfer on clear decal sheet. I could still scan them first just to have a backup copy, but since the visible side of the dry transfer decals is against the semi-transparent backing film, the scan will not be very usable without some extra cleanup work. Still, taking a scan is a good precaution. Thanks.

Put the candle back!!! Hump? What hump? Nice knockers! Why, thank you doctor! Mongo just pawn in the game of life. Laurel and a hardy welcome . . .

Nice find (for the Brexited folks). But remember that Polish with an uppercase P refers to a country (which I came from), not the stuff which makes things shiny.

Thanks for the info Greg. What brand or type of acrylic lacquer? Just out of curiosity, if you have small pane of (clean) glass or small mirror handy, could you place them down flat on a table and put few drops of water on them and let it evaporate naturally. Do you see spots or rings left on the glass or mirror? If yes then it sounds like your town water has lots of minerals dissolved in it. If you used distilled water it should leave no spots behind. You can buy distilled water in gallon size in pharmacies or in many grocery stores (supermarkets).

Mine has try transfer markings. I can't see myself trying to rub them onto the tubular frames! I might apply them to clear decal paper then apply them to the bike as decals.

If you revert back aren't you where you just were, not where you want to revert to? This one is one of my peeves.

Emoticons (or now we also have emojis - thank Japanese culture for this really cutesy stuff) have been around for a long time. The above Wiki link has a good explanation as to why they are used: As social media has become widespread, emoticons have played a significant role in communication through technology, and some devices have provided stylized pictures that do not use punctuation. They offer another range of "tone" and feeling through texting that portrays specific emotions through facial gestures while in the midst of text-based cyber communication. I also think of emoticons as shortcuts. While you could convey your thoughts purely through words, using emoticons is much easier and faster. As for the current use you can thank early computer geeks for them. The original emoticons go way back to the days of dial-up bulletin boards where they were written the old-fashioned way using ASCII characters like :-) . Of course as computers got more powerful, cutesy graphics replaced the ASCII text emoticons. That's progress for you. Even if you dislike those smiley things, I highly recommend that you read the Wikipedia entry I linked to at the beginning of my reply: you might just learn some very interesting things. But as with everything else, there are serious emoticon abusers out there: those who end each sentence with an emoticon, or those who just spew lines full of them across the message like this: Like it or not, this is the new way of computer-text-based conversations. You don't have to like them or use them.

I have also seen Michael Smith's work in the past. I recognized his work right away. But what to me gives it away is the chain-link fence. It doesn't look like real chin-link pattern but more like veil material. chain-link has square openings where this stuff is more like a parallelogram.

Super-realistic build. Very impressive! I have one of those Protar 1:9 bicycle kits (different than yours) in my stash and I am also planning on redoing the spokes. BTW, were the markings dry transfers instead of the usual waterslide decals? If yes, how difficult were they to apply?

Nicely done model! You also use unusual lighting technique for your photos. I'm not saying it is bad (the pictures are clear and in focus), bit it is just different.

This to me looks like a perfect candidate for a natural-brushed-metal dash. I would sand the plastic dash smooth then take some real aluminum duct tape (not the cheap stuff). Use something like 400 or 600 grit wet/dry paper (before you apply it to the dash) and using same-direction strokes make it look like brushed aluminum. Then stick the tape onto the dash and trim it. It will look just like the 1:1 in the photo above.

Most Tamiya kits I have ever worked with are like that. This looks to be a fun build!

And I expected pics of the sticks being discussed here (not the finely buffed model body)! On a serious note, most of those sanding/polishing things can also be purchased at beauty shops which cater to the hair and nail salons. While probably not as cheap as Walmart, they are still cheaper than the hobby shop versions. Those stores also carry acrylic nail resins and hardener. That stuff can be used to make small castings or for non-shrinking body filler. But the hardener is fairly aggressive and it might craze some styrene.

I wash my in-progress models probably way too often and I have never ran into this problem. Very interesting. Did you just let the water droplets naturally evaporate from the model or did you towel-dry or use compress air to try to dry the body after washing? Also, what type/brand of paint did you use on that model. Barkeeper's Friend is a mild abrasive, so you are correct. And it didn't leave any residue which . . . needed to be rinsed off?

If you click on each material featured on hat page, it will give you detailed information (including cost and the printing process) about each material. But metals are printed at much lower resolution than the resins, so their usefulness for small scale models is limited.

Shapweays can print your designs in several different metals. That technology is already within hobbyist's reach. http://www.shapeways.com/materials/

Yeah! You should see the expression on the face of a teenage cashier when the total is something like $4.48 and I give them $5.03 (or even better, $5.53)! They look at me like I have three heads (and I only have two).

Model. There is one very visible clue (at least to me). But the modeling and photography are superb.