peteski

A word of warning. The plasticizer chemical that makes vinyl tires soft leached out of the tire and made the kit's plastic soft enough to cause the damage. But the plasticizer remains in the plastic, so that entire area is now softer than the rest of the body. Even if you remove the raised areas and fill in the depression, the surrounding plastic is still affected by the plasticizer. It would make sense to remove plastic surrounding the tire-shaped depression. Sort of like with cancer - you don't only remove the tumor, but also some tissue surrounding the tumor.

Why the iffy scale stops you from adding figures to your dioramas? 1:1 scale people come in many different sizes (both height-wise and weight). There are short and tall people, fat and skinny. Even if the figure is not the same exact scale as the model, if it's close enough, it will still look right.

I guess that makes me paranoid and I'm ok with that.

Funny thing about this is that as I understand the word hubcap was originally used to describe a small cup-shaped metal cover in the center of a wooden spoke wheel. It protected the hub bearing from debris and keep the lubricating grease from oozing out. Those early wooden wheels usually did not have full wheel covers. Later on, when wheel covers became more widely used, I guess people found using the "wheel cover" name too cumbersome, so those full size covers became hubcaps. Many contemporary cars still use the small hubcaps for non-driven wheels/axles.

Well that was the point. Seems that for many the smart phone became an indispensable portable device, for better or for worse. Might as well have it implanted in their palm. Still to me the convenience of doing things on-the-fly on that tiny screen does not trump a large monitor connected to a home computer. Most of the things mentioned above can wait until I sit my behind in front of the computer. Mind you that I prefer not to have smart devices like Alexa or other IOT devices like thermostats fridges and now even cars. I depend on my smart phone so little that I sometimes forget it and leave it at home. When I have it with me I also forget that I can whip it out in the spur of the moment and take a photo or a video. Mind you that back about 45 years ago I was a computer geek. I was into electronics (on hobby and later on professional level) since my early teens, I built my own computers and lots of other electronic circuits. I still have the skills and the know-how, but the invasive nature of today's Internet-connected world worries me. Maybe because I understand what goes on behind the screen and keyboard. And as I said, I can wait till I get home to do most of the tasks involving online activities.

That thing is so very homely that it made me throw up on my keyboard. What a mess!

Let me rephrase that for you: It never ceases to amaze me that people use their smart phones for pretty much everything relating to their computing experience. But I suspect that we are just old fogies left behind in the desktop computer world. Forget just the banking thing. Seriously, I just can't understand how someone is happy viewing photos, videos, or reading tiny print of emails or other online documentation on a postcard-size screen instead of a nice 24" or larger computer screen. Sure they can magnify what they are reading, but that only gives them just a postcard-size portion of a larger image or document. Same with the audio coming from those tiny built-in speakers. The experience is lacking (at least for me). Yet, when it comes to TV viewing, most will want the largest screen possible. Sure, the tiny wireless-connected device with a tiny screen is convenient, but the overall experience stinks.

Leaving the yellowed decal exposed to sunlight (UV rays) will often bleach them. I usually put the decal in plastic zipper bag and tape it to a south-facing window.

Wow, we are now going at least over 20 years into the past. I'm pretty sure that was just rebranded Bondo Glazing & Spot Putty. Both smelled and looked (dark red color) the same.

Lets start with which specific putty that you use is crazing plastic for you? While I have not heard of it before, many 1-part putties do use "hot" solvents which might cause crazing on sensitive clear styrene. 2-part putties (including 2-part epoxy putty) should not cause crazing. Within last few years there have been some new water-based putties made available. Those should be plastic safe.

That sure is an odd reason I never heard of before now. But whatever . . . I assume that this is to prevent damage to the car being hijacked and the car in front and behind it. Well, that's all well and good, but think about it - how often the hijacked car (not damaged during the initial part of hijacking) is recovered undamaged? From what I see, when a hijacker is finally apprehended, most of the times the car gets seriously damaged anyway. My mother also used to do this, but her reasoning was that if she leaves large enough space between her and the car in front of her, if she gets rear-ended she will be far enough not to hit the car in front of her. I thought that was also a silly reason, but what do I know . . .

Yes, that is the typical PCB drill with a 0.125 (1/8) inch shank. That's what I'm familiar with. You are absolutely correct. And they usually rotate at very high speeds when drilling FR4 glass/epoxy composite PC board material (which is abrasive to the tools). Even so, for decades I have been using those PCB drill bits down to #85 (0.28mm) to hand-drill (holding the 1/8" shank between my fingers) holes in plastic. I have broken few over time, but not often. I also use them in my drill press with almost no breakage.

I have never seen PCB drill bits with such large shanks. All the miniature ones I have ever dealt with have 1/8" shafts. A #85 bit on a 6.3mm diameter shank would look sort of strange to me. I even have PCB bits which are larger than 1/8" but they still have 1/8" shafts.

Unfortunately to work so well they have to be made from very hard material which is brittle. Those bits were designed for use in precision machines (not hand-drilling) which use them for drilling thousands of holes in PC boards. Yes, they survive much longer used in a drill press. I use those bits as much as I can and have plenty of spares. Large part of why PC board bits work so well is because they are sharpened to split point. If you could find very small HSS bits which were sharpened to spit point those would work just as well on softer materials like plastic aluminum or brass as PC board drill bits. Split point bits do not wander and cut the material better than bits sharpened to a standard point. I have larger HSS bits with split points and those work very well.

So much for La-Z-Boy having reputation as a excellent quality furniture company.

Yes, it answered my question - thanks. It just seemed odd the way you phrased your message. It was as if someone else brought this thread from the grave and you were surprised that the old thread was revived. At leas that is how I interpreted it. Yet, you were the erson who brought it back. And FYI, I never randomly scroll through the messages here. I have very specific and deliberate method of viewing the forum. I look separately into only sections which interest me (I skip some sections altogether). I have the forums sorted by the newest threads on top. In each section I only look at new messages (since my last visit), But again, not all new messages. If there is an active thread which I looked into earlier but which doesn't interest me, I don't even bother to open it. When done looking through all the new messages in threads which interest me, I just mark that entire forum section as read, so I'll have a baseline next time I visit. I never scroll thru the forum sections to look at any older threads. I only look for older threads when I search for a specific info which I hope to find in the message archive.

NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING, especially with the low-IQ "certified technicians" servicing your car.

So why did *YOU* fish it out of the archive? The post before yours was 12 years ago! BTW, checking Dr Cranky's profile, he last visited October 22, 2016.

Were those actual wheels or just hubcaps (wheel covers over steely wheels)? Yes, those Centerlines look really good. Back in the day I had them on my '76 Camaro. I also want to mention that I strongly dislike any black colored wheels. With the black tires that combo looks too drab to me. Wheels need some contrast from the tire.

Sounds like it power washed it! That's not cool.

Well then I guess the admins have to intervene here. They can do all sorts of "magic".

Interesting. I would thin that Revell uses the the typical (easy to remove) vacuum metalizing method to "chrome" their plastic parts. When you were sanding the metallic layer off was there a noticeably thick layer of metal or the metalization came off fairly easily?

While the "chrome" most model companies use to make plastic look like chrome is actually very thin layer of aluminum over high gloss undercoat. Aluminum is not a very robust metal so it can be easily removed using Lye-based liquids (like LA Awesome) and some even use chlorine bleach. But some manufacturers use electroplating method to deposit thicker layer of another metal over the plastic. Those are basically impervious to most chemicals. Trumpeter is one of those companies which uses this method. What company makes the Stacy David Hiboy?

What specific kind/brand of foil are you using? "Slick surface" is sort of strange statement. Slick might mean waxed (not just glossy paint). Foils used to represent chrome trim on models all have pressure sensitive adhesive (like any other sticker). In my experience stickers adhere best to glossy surfaces.

Standard "gold chrome" used on plastic kits is the regular (vacuum metalized) layer of (silver) aluminum sprayed with transparent yellow/orange clear top coat to make the silver look gold. If you try stripping just that top clear layer you will also damage the delicate silver layer under it. As I see it, the only way to de-gold is to fully strip the parts and re-coat them with a silver color finish of your choice.