peteski

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

Well, I can see Snake45's point about future being an inferior top clear coat for model cars. While Future results in a decent glossy finish, it can't be sanded and polished like standard clear lacquers or enamels. Many modelers strive for a mirror-like glossy finish. They get there by first building up a thicker layer of clear, then spend hours sanding and polishing it until it shines like glass. You can't build up a thick coat of Future and then sand/polish it to the same level of shine as you can with other clears.

Looks like in this example the decal was applied over flat paint. So, it was barely stuck to the surface, making the removal easy. Most modelers apply decals over glossy surface while also using decal-setting solution. Those are almost impossible to remove. Also there are different thickness of decal film (depending on the manufacturer). The thicker ones woudl be easier to remove than the thin ones.

Do it yourself. Simply drill a hole in the mirror stem and glue in a piece of brass rod. 0.010" rod is a good size (for 1:24 or 1:43 cars). I always pin the side mirrors to my models. I pin most of the small parts which are designed to be glued to the surface.

All these variations in color make me think that maybe the color depends on when the car was made during production run? Could that be a possibility? Maybe some had a body color pan while others had light beige or gray pans? I'm no expert mind you, and I don't play one in the online forums either. But I own one of those (still unbuilt) models.

I don't think that the small producers of cast resin parts or kits need to buy a 3D printer. There are several companies which offer high-end 3D printing services. As long as they are provided with the appropriate 3D drawing, the can print the item which then can be used as a master for resin or metal casting. There are several kit producers which do this already. I have a recent Tameo kit of a 1:43 F1 car and many of the white metal castings have very faint striations on them (indicating that the master was 3D printed on a high resolution printer). Showcase Miniatures vehicle models also have metal-cast parts which under magnification show some faint artifacts of 3D printed master.

So, it was that car after all. It just seemed way too easy.

With all this talk about autonomous cars all communicating with each other or cloud computing power, nobody has raised the possibility of hackers breaking into the car's computer systems or into the entire inter-car communication system and creating havoc (maybe even causing accidents). If we look into any current computer devices, they are all prone to hacking - even the super-secure government network. The problem to me seems that the size of the software (in millions of lines of code) has become way too complex to manage properly. There are many people or entities creating various pieces of the code and then someone else integrates them together (or uses set of libraries from another source). This is just ripe for back doors or vulnerabilities. I don't want someone hacking into my self-driving car's computer and forcing it to slam into a bridge abutment at 60 MPH! Even now (remember Toyota's self-acceleration bug?) cars have buggy software for their non-autonomous systems. Imagine a system 100 times more complex. . .

Interesting - thanks for the tip. So the liquid rubber is more viscous than typical liquid resin (so it doesn't just pour out of the mold half when you tilt the molds to join them together)?

WOW! How you you avoid air bubbles trapped in the mold? Especially in the ridges of the tread.

Silly question: is the airbrush really clean? The chrome paint needs to go on almost dry - that is why they recommend very low pressure and spraying close to the model. When I do it, when the paint first hits the model it looks like matte aluminum, then as it dries, the little metallic platelets align with the surface of the model and it becomes "chromey" looking. You can actually see it turn into chrome finish right in front of your eyes.

Very impressive! Even the surface finish looks perfect - not too rough and not too shiny. It looks like rubber. Do you pressure-cast? BTW, tires have tread, not thread - easy mistake to make.

Could the bottle of the chrome paint have simply gone bad? I have had Polished Brass go bad where it started clumping no matter how hard I shook or mixed the paint the clumps would not dissipate. Are you keeping the airbrush nozzle open wide enough for the metal flakes to go through it?

Maybe their attitude is related to the customer's attitude? Just speculating . . .

The shape is very familiar, but obviously it is not that car.

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.

That '62 Chrysler 300 interior looks more like Testors tan color (from the small bottles) than the darker leather color

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.

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

Very well done! What surprises me is that even in large scale like 1:12 they molded the rear quarter window louvers as a solid pieces. I have couple of 1:24 ESCI kits of those cars and I'm planning on making those louvers as see-through pieces with 3-D printed parts (once I figure out how to design them).

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.

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.

The Demise of Alps printers has been greatly exaggerated. 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.

If they don't stock it at your local friendly hardware store, then can custom order it for you.

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.