peteski

Not in my experience. Majority of those new LED headlights are blinding to me. I can't balieve that such a high percentage of new cars have misaligned headlights. Yes, several years ago when many people were retrofitting aftermarket LEDs for their sealed beam headlights, they were very problematic and often misaligned, but most of today's cars have factory installed LED headlights. But we have strayed from the original subject. My fault - I just felt like ranting a bit on a semi-related subject.

Excellent lunar lander model, diorama, and superb Lunar-flavor photography.

Allison, It would be helpful to know more about the model. Looks to me like a kit. Might be H0 scale? What company made it?

Interesting question. Someone working at NHTSA would likely have some info, or know where the documentation is which dictates the colors. As you mentioned, many imported cars do have amber directional lenses in the taillights. But I have also seen cars such as Mercedes with all-red taillights (so they must have made those specifically for the US market). This particularly doesn't bother me as much as all those cars with all those aftermarket red, blue, purple, green lights (like halos around the headlights) at the front of the car. Some of those are fairly bright. That to me is much worse than red rear directionals, and cops don't seem to care. Back in the day, even the subtle "blue dots" in the taillights could get you stopped by cops. Not anymore. Also very bothersome are those those new blinding LED headlights. Sure, they illuminate the driver's road very well, but at the cost of blinding all the incoming drivers. It is just not cool! Again it seems that the NHTSA did not consider the incoming drivers when they made those headlights legal. Yes I know all about the very sharp beam cutoff, but that doesn't seem to help in real-world application,

With AI being the latest buzz, I have seen some AI generated images which weren't half bad (and plenty of not so good ones). I haven't looked into this, but you should be able to locate some AI instance where you can describe (or show similar) image you want to generate, and let it go at it.

Or get take-out! Unfortunately in this country service people like wait staff depend on tips for their income. Making this type of excuse (especially when paying with a credit card) makes them a (word I can't use on the forum).

I mentioned tires too, becasue those are also sorely lacking in most models. Kit tires are often wrong size, have incorrect shape, or have very poor sidewall and tread details. When we take the time to create (likely 3-D printed) better wheels, we will need better tires to complement the wheels. That will greatly improve our models. Also, it would be nice to have them available in more than just 1:24/25 scale. For example 1:32 scale or larger scales. Again, if these are to be 3-D printed, resizing the CAD drawing to print them in multiple sizes should be easy.

Like Mark mentioned, those balloon tires and wheels with in-scale spokes would be very nice. Of course more conventional spoked wheels and tires would also be most welcome. Most kit's tires have thick crude spokes, and tires with no or really crude tread pattern.

Don't worry, eBay will unfortunately survive and even thrive because most of the unwashed masses using it don't really care how they handle things. They are also too big and too well-established to fail. Sad but true. I have also been a member since 1999, and don't like what they are doing. Paradigm is shifting, cheese is being moved - the world is changing (often not for the better). That's why I'm glad to know that I won't live forever. I couldn't take the continuous disappointment of things going to hell without a hand-basket.

There is a lengthy "paint stripping" sticky thread in the FAQ section of the forum, and just by chance earlier today I was discussing brake fluid and other strippers along with they ability to strip various paints and compatibility with plastics and resin. If you are interested go to that post ( https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/83153-paint-strippers-what-to-use/?do=findComment&comment=2906617 ) and also read few subsequent posts after it.

1955? While I'm no spring chicken, I wasn't even born for several more years. In my experience with "plastic safe" paint strippers, except maybe for 99% Isopropanol, and the Castro Super Clean, all others can cause some damage (for the reasons I mentioned in my previous reply to you). But even those (especially the alcohol) might affect certain urethane resins (while being safe for polystyrene). And also I have not found a truly universal stripper which would safely strip any type/brand of paint from any plastic. That is what I have about half a dozen of various paint strippers I use for plastic models.

You might have just found it, but it has been around for decades. Originally it was a Floquil Company product. I can also guarantee if you were to look through this entire thread, you will find several mentions of Easy-Lift-Off (or ELO) in those hundreds of posts. There is also Scalecoat Wash-Away paint remover (another hobby paint stripper), although the state of the Scalecoat paint line is currently in question (I have few bottles of it stashed away).

Well not quite, but they are somewhat related. Don't swear! DOT3 Brake fluid is Ethylene Glycol or Alkyl Polyglycol Ether Esters. ELO is Isobutyl Alcohol and Glycol Monobutyl Ether. So no, not quite the same thing. Internet and availability of online MSDS makes it easier nowadays to find out ingredients of chemicals we used in our hobbies. Then there are also multiple formulas of plastic used for kits. There is Polystyrene, and ABS, then there are variations of each type. They all can behave differently when exposed to "plastic safe" paint strippers. Best to test compatibility first. Also the length of exposure and the temperature of the stripping solution will affect the results. Good modeler is a well informed modeler.

If you guys checked the topics listing, this is being discussed in

You know guys, this thread was about server migration. The slowness is unrelated to this, and it is currently actively discussed in

When I was growing up in Poland in the '70s, my uncle owned the next generation Trabant 601S. I remember the time there was a crack in the trunk lid and he used epoxy to glue it. I remember it so clearly because he took couple of pieces of my cousin's wooden erector set to not mar the paint when he clamped the pieces together. And on one of the vacation trips he used my aunt's thin metal fingernail file to clean the spark plug gap when the car started running crappy. The old Polish ingenuity. Make do with what you have.

I believe that most smart phone cameras (what majority of models use for model snapshots) and even average digital snapshot cameras do not have a "bulb" setting which allows the photographer to leave the shutter open afor as long as they want. DSLR cameras are usually needed for that feature.

Yeah this one was easy for me, and brought back some memories too.

What I read on the Interwebs is that the companies making the 1:1 items are worried that if some tyke swallows a tire or otherwise hurts themselves by playing with a branded model, because the brand name is on the model the lawyers will sue the company making the 1:1 products for millions of dollars in damages. We live in litigious world, so that doesn't seem too far fetched for me.

The "glue" is not really the main thing which keeps decal film adhered to the surface. Mostly it is natural cling. That glue is dextrose-based water-soluble adhesive which mostly remains on the wet backing paper. Whatever little is left on the decal film might help with adhesion a little. You should be able to apply the decals inside the "glass". If you worried about adhesion, carefully flip the decal film over on the wet backing paper, so some of the glue will stick to the front surface, then apply it to the inside of the glass.

Got it! Thanks. I guess I was trying to read more into what you wrote.

I do know what wraps are, but I just didn't understand the meaning of "lets call it dark rust orange." That description seemed odd to me. Like you didn't really want to describe what it looked like. Was the wrap a photo-realistic depiction of a rusty metal surface? Otherwise, what would be wrong with a dark rust orange colored vehicle? At least this is how my brain saw your comment. Seemed that you were giving a hint, and I just don't get it.

That's why I mentioned that the eBay thing should be just one of several sources of model desirability research. I was not suggesting looking for outrageously high selling prices, just the general volume of kit's eBay sales. The other methods mentioned earlier were getting feedback from show visitors, and of course online forums. But both of those are also very small sample of potential kit buyers out there. Manufacturer has to produce tens of thousands of kits to make some profit. The more data is available about potential sales, the better informed decision the manufacturer can make.

Not trying to be argumentative but I just read all Dave's posts in this thread and nowhere he asks for all types of forum strangeness to be reported here. Same in the "Forum now unusable — SOOO slow" (locked) thread where he pointed members here for reporting sluggish website behavior. Speaking of which (and bringing this thread back on topic), the forum has been quite sluggish for me this morning.

What I think would be helpful to estimate whether to reissue some older kits would be for them to monitor sold eBay listings of the original models. If they fetch high prices or show bidding wars, there is a good chance that a new run would sell well. Not to use that as a sole reason for reissue, but use those numbers along with other request they get for reissues to estimate whether a new run is justified.