peteski

I have bought some wheels made by DiOlex few years ago on eBay. Good stuff! As for eBay, it is too bad that they restrict what listings one can see. In those cases I bring up the version of eBay where the seller is (like ebay.de or ebay.uk), login there with my regular eBay credentials, then look for the items I want. Once I find the item, but the description is in another language, I just go to the URL field in the browser and manually change the domain for example from .de to .com. That will show the same listing in my native eBay and translate some of the listing to English.

Yes, it seems funny now, but wait few more years (or maybe even not that long), and we will all be really screwed. What's real and what's AI generated fantasy will be indistinguishable. No such thing as photographic, video. or audio proof anymore. We sure live in some interesting times. Remember, the AI we are seeing now is still in its infancy.

Foil cast them.

While some etched metal letters are available, I highly doubt that you'll find anything close to the style (font) of the letters used on that Grand Prix, and I know you are very fastidious builder.

0.1mm? That would be 0.004"! That is about twice the thickness of typing paper. That seems way too small. Those in 1:25 would be only 0.1" tall. What size are the 1:1 letters?

Best pairs for airbrushing (for the beginner)? Any "stinky" paint that is not water-based. I would say start with hobby paints to avoid disappointments when some hot solvent attacks the plastic car body. I've been airbrushing (not prolifically, but enough to get quite familiar with my Badger 200 siphon feed airbrush) for over 30 years, and I still only airbrush the "stinky" paints. Thinning, spraying (without anything clogging) then cleanup, it is *SO* much easier when using "stinky" paints. When you jump right into water-based acrylic enamels, you could end up quitting airbrush because of the hassles and frustrations. Start off using the easy to deal with paints.

In my post I wasn't suggesting to grind up shells or fish scales of the model's finish. I was suggesting a less complicated method of using one of the many Pearl Ex powders mixed into clear coat to achieve that shimmering color-changing property of the original Futura paint. I also have that kit, and when I get to it, I will look into trying to make its color as difficult to photograph as the original.

Make miniature wheel chocks for your model. While that might actually be a valid option, you should be able to buy some acrylic square rod, then use double-sided tape to attach it to the glass shelf. Or you could cut the square rod into short pieces and make a pair of small wheel chocks for a single wheel of each model. That way they will stay in place instead of rolling to the edge of the shelf. Do a google search for 1/4" square acrylic rod. Or maybe even 1/8" rod would work for you (especially for those chocks). And it is clear transparent, so it will work well on a glass shelf. I just did a quick search and there are plenty of sources available.

I don't trust tack cloths! I wash my models with dishwashing detergent (ike Joy - with no hand softeners added), blow the water off with clean compressed air (use oil separator and moisture trap), then let it sit covered to dry thoroughly).

From what I read in an article about this car in the Collectible Automobile magazine was that the color was very difficult to photograph. They stated that the color was white with ground up fish scales or something like that so depending on which angle you looked at it and what type of lighting was used, the color would change. Sort of iridescent. That is why different color photographs f it show slightly different color. I wonder if painting it white and mixing some of the flip-flop Pearl-Ex powders into the clear coat would achieve similar appearance. Maybe green-to-blue powder, or one of the other color combos? EDIT: I read some earlier posts and this was mentioned in an earlier post. Sorry!

As I understand, since the airbags were installed in the steering wheels, the optimal hand position is now 9 and 3. Leaves more open space for the airbag deployment.

Yes, as Bill pointed out, this subject has came up in the past.

How about American SATCO white-wall Firestone tires? Item "I". Those pop up on eBay quite regularly. The white-wall is a plastic piece, but it looks good.

Thanks Alex! So far I only browsed your current items (which is quite a nice selection already). Sounds like we're almost neighbors. I regularly visit Manchester, NH.

I have to chuckle. Every time I see the subject line of this thread my brain sees "Mexican Food Trucks". I guess I'm hungry for some good tacos.

Welcome to the forum Alex. I saw,and commented on your post about the gold nugget wheels and tires. Nice to have yet another source of excellent quality 3D printed scale model parts (and maybe eventually complete kits). It is really amazing how the affordable 3D printing technology with high enough print resolution has, in just few years, changed the scale model hobby scene. Also nice to see that you are open to taking requests from modelers or even custom designs.

Rick, I am well aware of you disdain for me, but what's wrong with mentioning that this is a well-covered subject, and actually pointing to the relevant info? Is it really *THAT* bad? I am so sorry if you don't approve. I might have to notify the moderators that I have sinned.

This question comes up here repeatedly, but since you only have 8 posts under your belt (and probably didn't do any forum searches) you wouldn't know that. Here is one such thread from coupe of years ago. Same info will likely be repeated here.

The reflective property only really shows up when a light is shined directly onto the stickers from the direction of the viewer. When viewed during the day those stickers don't show any reflectivity, so to me using regular colors would suffice. Yes, Alps printers do have metallic inks available, and you can also overprint them with other colors. For example printing yellow over met. magenta produced metallic red, and yellow over met. cyan produces metallic green.

I bought those tires for my Camaro in the mid-80s. Maybe they were old stock tires? The lettering is the same. In any case, it would be a bonus if different tread patterns were available. Not something most people notice, but it would be nice to have options available. this whole 3-D CAD design and printing thing makes it easier to have many options available.

Welcome to the forum Alex! The tires and wheels look superb! But one thing that jumped at me was the tire tread pattern. But before I called it out I figured that I should check it out, and you got the pattern just right for the contemporary Radial T/As. The reason it didn't look right to me was because the tires I had on my car had a different tread pattern, but that was over 30 years ago. So here is a modern wheel's tread pattern (just like you modeled). Here are the tires from my car. Notice the pattern is quite different. Any chance you could also design and sell the tires with the older tread pattern? Many of us model older cars with those wheels and tires.

There are many different 3-D resin formulations, that I would be cautious, regardless of which stripper we try.

Is that really outside diameter of the insulation, or the diameter of the metal wire itself? I ask because wire specifications are usually for the metal conductor, not the diameter of the insulation. If the insulation diameter is really 0.28mm or 0.011" then this wire will be quite handy for models.

Looks good Marcus!

The mangled kit is not really USPS' fault. Sender used inadequate packaging materials. Putting soft cardboard box with a model in a bag is not cool and dumb.