peteski

Nice! Looks like that method will work quite well.

I still have one, but it is dried up/hardened, and I never bought a fresh tube as I really don't find any applications for it. But we all use different techniques, so if someone finds it useful - the more power to them.

Jeff, while I don't know about this specific kit, model kits often have wrong engines in them. Especially older kits. They would use the same engine in several kits. It might be accurate in some kits, and not in others. As for the decal, Monogram probably replicated actual car's decals even if the kit has a wrong engine in it.

I'm enjoying this thread. As for those brass rings, they seem too loose on the plastic rod. If they weren't so floppy on the rod, they would stay in place for you to glue them. I was thinking of maybe wrapping the rod with some typing paper, but that would probably make it too thick. How about "painting" some CA over the rod and letting it harden. That would increase the diameter slightly, hopefully enough to steady those rings. Depending on the CA's viscosity, you might have to apply more than 1 layer. I'm also assuming that you are gluing one ring at a time, not trying to glue them all at once. That way each ring can be aligned separately. You should also be able to reuse the rings from failed attempts. Acetone dissolves CA glue (and also styrene), but you can likely find replacement styrene rod.

If the publisher allows for downloading the electronic copy (maybe in a PDF format) to you computer then you do own it. That used to be the case in the past, but nowadays they probably don't offer that.

I think that a coat of 2K clear would result in an award-winning skull.

LOL. Yes, I have heard that too and I believe it is true, but I still like my bar soap! We all have our idiosyncrasies.

Because times they are changin'. Most hard type floors today (which in the past would need to be rejuvenated) are made from vinyl, and often have satin or flat finish to begin with. You don't want to put glossy clear over that - it would ruin the look. And the glossy vinyl floors have very durable finish which does not need to be clear coated. So there isn't much market for floor coatings or waxes. If it doesn't sell, well, the stores don't carry it. Some thing is happening with bars of soap - the younger generations are all into liquid body wash. Look at the variety of body washes vs. bar soap variety. And even nuttier is that now shampoos are being phased out by 2-in-one body-wash/shampoo. I like my bar soap and shampoo separate, thank you. And just plain shampoo. I don't want that stinking conditioner in it. Plain shampoo (not the shampoo/conditioner combo) variety is also shrinking. We sure live in strange times. Rant over!

What is my favorite adhesive? Well, whichever glue is the best suited for the joined material. I don't play favorites. I have about half a dozen of different adhesives. Epoxies, Cyanoacrylates, Contact Cement, Hypo-Cement (for watch crystals), and solvent-type glues (MEK, Methylene Chloride) for styrene, ABS, and acrylic. However I often favor the CA glue and accelerator. I however don't use the typical hobby tube-type cements (like Testors orange-tube). I have left those behind with my childhood.

Can you provide a link to it, or at least a Micro-Mark catalog number?

And worth every penny! Welcome to the crazy world of eBay!

Use a hot knife or even a fine-tip soldering iron to melt the plastic mesh instead of cutting. That might actually be beneficial to stabilize the edges. But I agree with others that seeing the actual shape might be helpful in providing ideas.

Ron, how can a 3-jaw lathe chuck be a precision drilling tool (like a pin vise)? That was the original question here The chuck itself is bulky and probably weights couple pounds. Even if the chuck could hold small drill bits (#60-80), I can't see having good control or gentle touch while drilling a #80 hole in a some part of a plastic model. The chuck also has individually adjusted jaws, which means for every size drill bit you would have to go through a centering routine, or the drill bit would wobble. This chuck would probably be good to turn down model rims and such, but not for precision drilling! What will you use it for?

You know, there is a sticky thread about this topic in the Tips and Tricks section of the forum. Hard to miss. If you look at few of the recent posts in there, you'll find some alternatives.

I'm curious if the yellowing is also present on the clear plastic that connects the windshield with the rear window, or is it just in the exposed window areas? Once you pry the "glass" out of the model, If the entire piece is yellowed, scrape some plastic from both surfaces of the connecting piece to see if the yellowing is just on the surface, or through the entire thickness of the plastic.

If we are now playing "spot the difference", the license plate is missing and each taillight is different, or is mounted differenly.

It is the same reason Les mentioned: lack of technology. Ancients did not know diseases were caused by bacteria or viruses (they have not yet invented microscopes), so they could not develop vaccines. Back in the day, people thought Earth was the center of the universe and was flat. Human brain is just a biological organ. It has very little information when we are born, and it learns as we age. I'm pretty certain if we could somehow bring a baby from ancient times and have it grow up in today's world, it would function just like the rest of us. It might even invent something new. The learned knowledge makes the difference in shaping the human brain. And don't forget that ancient Egyptians built all those pyramids, and we still haven't really figured out how they did it using their basic tools. Leonardo Da Vinci had some interesting ideas for flying machines, but the technology hasn't yet evolved to allow him to actually build working examples.

I spotted this one last week in the morning traffic. It's been years since last time I've seen one of them, and this one seemed to be in pristine condition. Not bad for 30+ year old vehicle. As a side note, it also had the older style license plate. Those are also rare nowadays. Current plates have red numbers on white background. Sorry for the spotted photo - my windshield was covered with sticky stuff coming off the trees this time of the year.

It is not about the amount of metallic flakes in the paint. Most Testors metallic spray paints from that time had what many modelers perceive as overly large metallic flakes. The paint would look fine on a 1:1 vehicle, but for small model it is basically out-of-scale. Flakes have size which could pass for the glitter-finish on a scale bass boat. It is not super noticeable viewed in-person, but taking photos of the model, the out-of-scale size of metallic flakes is readily apparent (to some of us). Actually looking at the photo of your Charger, the metallic flakes which show up look too large to me. Again, it is all in the eye of the beholder. In 1:25 scale, metallic flakes should be barely perceivable. The paint should have more homogeneous metallic look.

When I visit that link it shows it as"'Pre Order'. That's not the same as in stock. The price seems reasonable compared to Japanese online vendors considering the shipping cost from Japan.

$645 shipping charges for a $107 worth of decals? That seems a bit excessive. I seem to recall someone here mention that he has someone in USA distributing his decals.

Yes, unfortunately paint compatibility from different manufactures is not guaranteed. Sorry to hear that you learned the hard way. Even if both are lacquers, they likely use different binder (resin) and different mixture of chemicals in the solvent (thinner). If not using the same brand and type of paint for all the colors, it always makes sense to test the combination on some unimportant object (plastic spoon, soda bottle, or spare model body). None of this was a problem back when we all painted our models using hobby (enamel) paints from Testors or Pactra. But now modelers have dozens of different paints to experiment with.

Not sure if it is available ready-made, but with most modelers owning a computer and a color printer, one could use even the most basic graphic program to draw a color grid to some specific dimensions, then print it out. Or find a photo of a real trunk liner, shrink it to desired size in that same program, and print it out.

I thought the paints were made in gloss, semi-gloss, satin, and flat. I would think that semi-gloss would be more appropriate for a pedestrian vehicle than satin. Semi-gloss is shiny, but not mirror-smooth like gloss.