peteski

New Hampshire just got rid of the annual car safety inspections. Drive any car you want in any condition. Old wreck with fenders falling off and bald tires? Sure, it's ok. A Monster truck with huge tires sticking out? Why not! It will be interesting to see how that works out after couple of years. I doubt that cops will start enforcing safety laws any more than they have been not doing already. Live free or and die.

While I didn't bother looking for the specific model, the "silver streaks" (or old man's suspenders) told me it was a Pontiac. It is a good looking car.

I don't think Rustoleum (owned by RPM) manufactures Testors paints in China, but I could be wrong. Stranger things have happen. If this is accurate info: Rust-Oleum manufactures product in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin; Hagerstown, Maryland; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Lesage, West Virginia; and multiple other locations in the United States and Europe. No China is mentioned. But (especially since COVID pandemic) it seems that most consumer products are now manufactured in batches with some periods of unavailability before new batch is made available. I notice this a lot with all sorts of products. You might have to try finding and ordering it online. Yes, the shipping charges are usually outrageous (for a 1/4 oz. bottle) but think of how much gasoline you have used up driving around looking for it locally.

Has to be illegal, but nobody enforces any automotive laws, rules or regulations anymore. When my GF sees these on the road she says "sorry about your (insert male sexual organ name here)". She says these are driven by guys who have feelings of inadequacy. They need to reinforce their manliness by driving these vehicles. One thing missing in that truck are a pair of tall exhaust stacks behind the cab spewing black diesel smoke. Every fad finally fades away, but this one has been sticking around for some time.

That's correct. Unless it is clearly specified, power strips do not contain any surge protectors. They just have circuit breakers to protect from over-current. Even the popular power strips with built-in surge protectors are of questionable usefulness. I believe in Ace's case (lost common neutral), certain circuits in is house ended up with 240V instead of 120V. Many foreign-made modern appliances are design for worldwide operation and can work on 100-240V, some aren't.

Maybe so, but that Ferrari is nowhere as "brutal" as this one. The nose protrudes too far and it is too bulbous. But then I never liked the looks of the Mopar Superbirds with their tacked-on noses either.

Donny, back in the old days most of us modelers used Pactra or Testors PLA enamels in bottles and spray cans. Those all use mild solvents which did not attack plastic. But pretty much any paint made for 1:1 autos will have much more aggressive (hotter) solvents which attack plastic causing crazing like it is visible on your spoons. This also applies to several lines of paints sold as model paints, but in actually are those "hot" automotive enamels or lacquers. It makes sense to always test new paint you try on plastic spoon first. But to complicate things (because nothing in life is ever simple or easy ), the polystyrene or ABS plastics used in various brand models can have slightly different formulations and some will be easier crazed than others. Same also goes for plastic spoons. While many plastic utensils are made from polystyrene, recycling code 6 or PS (which is good material for paint compatibility tests), some utensils are made from different types of plastic. Other plastics are basically impervious to even the hot paint solvents, so they are not really good for testing paint compatibility. Make sure to use the polystyrene spoons. If no recycling code is shown, polystyrene is more brittle, and can be broken easily, while spoons made form other plastics are very flexible (you can basically twist and tie the spoon into a knot without it breaking).

I have used Alclad II Chrome over gloss black (no clear coat) and mine looked much "chromier" (more reflective) than what you show on the spoon. Closer to what you show for un-cleared Molotow. I have also seen model photos on this forum with Alclad II Chrome painted parts and those also looked better than what you got on that spoon. That's weird.

Another new thing I learned today! These look way over the top (but so were the fins of those '50s cars).

Jerry, I'm always curious why people use subject lines like "quick question" instead of something like in this instance "Engine Swap question", which to me is not much harder to type up, but would be more descriptive. Or you all are going for the click-bait effect? I'm not trying to be a wise-ass - I'm really curious.

That is true, but even after stretchering it, when shrunk, its wall thickness returns to the as-designed thickness (which is the same as if you shrunk it unstretched). I too have worked with heat shrink tubing for decades and used it in unconventional ways.

How does the seller know that this was a base of an outside mirror? The large footprint of its base doesn't look like it it could be realistically attached to either the side of the door or front fender.

Hmm, I haven't bought any of the items from the new Archer, but on the original rivet decals I purchased the lettering was 3-dimensional. It is printed by the same printer which prints the rivets. It is all printed using a special ink jet printer using thick UV-cured ink. I recommend browsing through the entire Surface Details section of their website for some very interesting and useful items. Armor, Naval, Aircraft, and Other Scales sections. Yes lettering (but not a full alphabet) is there (under Armor section). There are items like diamond thread, woodgrain, weld beads, and lots of other items.

Like David said, the word "varnish" is used differently in various parts of the world by modelers to describe clear coatings. And for education purposes, here's some info : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varnish

Good idea, but to me the bellows shape is a bit softly defined. There are many different types of heat shrink tubing available. I suspect that using a thin-wall tubing would give even better results.

The main active ingredient in Easy-Off oven cleaner spray (the original stinky one) and Purple Power (or Castrol Super Clean if that is still available) is Sodium Hydroxide (Lye). Yes it is corrosive and will damage your skin if it comes in contact with it. Lye was also the main active ingredient in many model paint stripping solutions from cottage industries I have encountered over the years. And as mentioned, Lye is also good as a plastic safe paint stripper, and it is mentioned in multiple forms in another sticky thread:

There is a huge difference between sending a scan (bitmapped image) of a decal sheet and basically a print-ready artwork that LOBBS provided to STS. The LOBBS' vector-based artwork can be used directly for the artwork to print the actual decals. A scan like yours has to be cleaned up and converted into vector graphics. That could be a lot of manual work, and can take quite a bit of time. I know that it consumes a lot of time when I do this for my decals. STS probably has better tools for cleanup and vectorizing bitmaps, but I'm sure there is still a lot of manual labor involved.

LOL! I don't think it will actually freeze - it sill likely become more viscous. I have stored CA glue in a refrigerator (at about 2 deg. C) but never tried the freezer. Either location will be relatively low-moisture. Keeping the CA container tightly sealed is the best way to prolong its life. Even so, like most chemicals, it does not have unlimited shelf life. Some modelers like to buy large bottles (because the per gram cost is cheapest) and store them in a fridge, decanting smaller amounts for immediate use. I buy the smallest bottles sold by Bob Smith Industries and usually just keep them on my workbench. I prolong its life by minimizing its exposure to ambient air. I only take the cap off for few seconds to dispense few drops into a small well from aluminum foil (I showed a photo of that in my earlier post). That usually last me the entire day's modeling session. I also religiously clean the dispensing tip so the glue does not cake up on it, causing the cap not to fit tightly. Even if the glue thickens to the point I decide I no longer want to use it, it will take usually over a year to get there, and at that point spending another 3-4 dollars for a fresh small bottle is acceptable to me. This is mostly for the extra-thin-CA. For medium viscosity CA I often use the very small metal tubes or bottles. I buy in a dollar store. I suppose that like with most chemicals the reaction will be slower when the adhesive temperature is low, but I never really explored that since to me the advantage of CA is its fast set time. I use the accelerator to speed up setting even more.

The airbrush I own and use is a 30+ years old siphon-feed Badger 200. I do also have a paint cup attachments for it but I almost never use it. I like the that airbrush. It performs well. Cleaning is no problem either. Not looking for another airbrush. Can't comment on Iwatas.

The newest Unimat (show above) looks very similar to Proxxon machines. Unimzt sounds like a misspelling.

@Donny , good to see you looking over older threads for tips. Many newbies just start new threads asking questions without even trying to find answers to those questions asked multiple times. Here are some other CA glue related threads: https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/155447-ca-and-other-things-im-clueless-about/ https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/165362-ca-glue-wells/ https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/182361-bob-smith-industries-glue/ https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/168907-any-glue-i-should-stay-away-from-with-resin/

Funny thing is that the subject line of this thread states "Frames" not "Flames". I looked in because I was curious about FRAMES being modified with a grinder, and all I see is some yahoo with extremely silly ideas. No, I didn't watch the video. The video's still image here clearly showed me all I needed to know.

That's an unusual model. Nicely built. How large is it in 1:10 scale?

Excellent modeling! I love it! The theme song sure is an ear-worm!

Nothing to argue about Bill. I was referring to the original Metalizer airbrush-ready paints supplied in glass bottles. This is before the company was bought out by Testors. It was long time ago but as I remember they were never offered in rattle cans. Only when Testors bought that paint line they started offering them in spray can form (and I believe they also changed the paint's formula). Testors sold their metalizer line of paint in airbrush-ready bottles and some were offered in spray cans.