peteski

That's true, because no amount of shaking will revive those, but any non-gelled paint where the pigment just settled down can be made usable.

For a moment I thought these were re-pop and re-branding of the MRC Muscle Car Hop-Up Sets, but these are all new design. Nice! The photo of the tires and of the instructions confirm that they are big and little set, but the tread pattern seems to be too modern for Wide Oval tires.

That is an old way to refer to scales. I see it used in the RC model airplane circles and sometimes in model railroading. You probably know that it refers to what fraction of a a 1:1 scale inch represents one foot in 1:1. It is a bit weird. As you implied, it would not work well for 1:8 scale as in that scale 1.5 1:1 inches represents 1:1 foot.

Yes, since the '90s when the sealed beam headlights stopped being required on American cars, we started having this problem. Acrylic (or Lexan) plastic headlights aren't as durable as glass. There are kits available with all that's needed (including protectant) to renew the lenses. But on my last couple of cars (bought new) I have applied headlight protective film to them and they stay clear for years. The film is a self adhesive stretchy thick clear vinyl. It is a bit of a pain to apply (especially on lenses with complex curves, but well worth the effort). I use https://www.headlightarmor.com/

That will be a lot of energetic shaking or stirring. Micro-Mark sells electric paint shakers, but I have seen threads here showing how to build a home-made paint shaker using Sawzall saw.

In a simple explanation paints consist of the solvent (liquid which evaporates as the paint dries), pigment (the actual colorant), and the binder (the liquid resin dissolved in the solvent, which when dry contains the pigment - the actual body of the paint). Normally the binder resin remains dissolved in the solvent, while the pigment often settles to the bottom of the paint container and needs to be re-dispersed (by shaking or stirring) back into the binder before paint is applied. But if you have shaken and stirred the paint and it is still clumpy, that means the binder has began to gel, and cannot be made liquid again. This is unrelated to the pigment that settles in the bottom of the container. The way you described the problem seemed to me like the binder has gelled. But if you can keep on shaking and stirring and the clumps get liquefied into a homogeneous liquid, then the paint is still usable.

For metals I use https://www.topbrite.com/

Enamel not only dries by solvent evaporation (like lacquers do), but it continues to cure (harden by chemical reaction) long after that. At that stage, you cannot just add some thinner to revive it. If your enamel has clumps, that to me indicates that it has beyond drying out, and it has started to cure. Not much you can do - chuck it. That is the difference between lacquers and enamels. When lacquer dries, it is dry and hard. But enamels first dry, but remain soft, and it takes them long time to fully harden.

John, it is the modelers themselves who request that kits have more and more details. These are not those simple kits that MPC, AMT, Revall, or Monogram made 50 years ago which cost $2. I have no doubt that model companies would much prefer producing model with fewer parts (as it takes less design and prototyping time for them), but then modelers would complain that they produced a brand new simple kit.

Good to know that worked for you. Thanks!

I've been tired of this celebrity death notices here for a long time (I almost got banned for voicing my dissatisfaction). Why should we care when they depart this Earth? This whole celebrity thing irks me. So does glorifying sports figures. They play games and get many millions of dollars salaries. Scientists should be getting that kind of money, not some jocks for running with a ball across a field. Edit: after posting this I read another thread down the forum, and it is a perfect example of a profession that should be making the big bucks, not some sports figures or celebrities: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/185306-ironic-sad-911-milestone -think-about-this-please/

Exactly! Any person who has half a brain should be well aware by now that any transaction requiring payments using gift cars is a scam. I feel bad for the lady but come on . . .

LOL Ron, nothing could be further from the truth. Those happy model builders have deadlines to meet and if something goes wrong, there is hell to pay. Any hobby modeler who became becomes a professional model builder, will tell you that a large part of the fun gets replaced by stress.

Yes, this is excellent technique. Soft plastic bags (of any kind) are good to use, but don't use cling wrap as it might react with freshly painted surfaces. If someone does not have empty bags used to hold kit's parts trees, for smaller models (like 1:43) simple folding top (not zipper) store-brand sandwich bags work. For larger scale models I use Hefty 1 gallon baggies.

Joe, the original statement from the peanut gallery was: And now you seem to agree with what Steve (and I) stated. But whatever . . .

Fair enough Jeff. My '77 T-BIrd had chromed pot metal scripts. My '85 Caddy Eldorado has both plastic and pot metal chromed badges and scripts and any colored areas are actually reverse painted acrylic inserts. So looks like there examples of different types of badges out there.

I'm willing to learn. I replied basing my view on my experience. Could you provide some examples of chromed badges (like the ones that are foiled in this thread) which are not shiny chrome, and which don't have glossy color fills?

You must have excellent vision. Either way my earlier explanation still stands.

In my experience 1:1 badges/emblems/scripts are either metal or plastic that has been chromed to a smooth (glossy finish) Shiny chrome is by definition glossy - if it wasn't, it would look like satin-finish metal. If there are colored areas in the badges, those are often reverse-painted pieces of clear acrylic (also glossy). If the colors are painted directly on the badge, they are also rather glossy. But either way, 1:25 badges are so small that it would be difficult to see if the colored areas in chrome badges have glossy or flat finish.

Chromed plastic car parts are electroplated using methods similar to chrome plating metal. First plastic is coated with electrically conductive lacquer, then it is copper plated, then finally with Chromium. There might also be another metal used between copper and chromium. Except for the conductive lacquer step, this is the same process using for metal parts. Chromium is a very though metal resistant to strong chemicals. I doubt that purple power (or any Lye-based products) will have any effect on it. Model car parts aren't actually chrome plated by vacuum-metalized using very thin layer of aluminum. Aluminum is a soft metal which Lye-based products can easily dissolve. However some diecast models, and few kits (made by Trumpeter) for their plastic chromed parts uses a similar electroplating process used for real cars. Those were pretty much impossible to strip using any chemical methods used for other typical vacuum-metalized "chrome" kit parts.

Should work with any paints.

Lacquer thinner is a "hot" solvent. JUst like you not supposed to apply hot paints over enamel (becuase it will wrinkle the enamel), the lacquer thinner will soften the hardened enamel in the lid. We are not going for liquefying the dried paint (which cannot be done anyway) - just to soften it enough to unscrew the lid. Like I mentioned earlier, I always make sure the threads, the lip of the bottle and the cap and seal are clean before closing the lid, so I don't have this problem.

I agree. in this case I don't see a good way to realistically create a flat tire.

If you have an old electric iron (the one you iron clothes with), and if you don't mind getting some melted plastic on it (or just buy a cheap one), then you should be heat it up then push the tire against it to soften, then distort it. You have to adjust the temperature to just before melting the vinyl. Just hot enough to soften it enough to be able to squish the tire. At least that is something I would try. But this will only work with vinyl tires if the tires in this kit are made from real rubber, that will not work. Rubber does not soften or melt like vinyl

I understand what you stated, but the tractor's tires have a sheen to them (like they were recently coated with Armor All). Grimy tires usually have dead flat surface. I suppose that could be caused by the lighting of the model for those photographs. The tires likely look perfectly acceptable in-person.