peteski

Because Americun modelers are fixated on 1:25 scale. Everything else is considered odd by many. While Tamiya does have a series of 1:20 open wheel racing cars, I believe that generally speaking 1:16 and 1:12 might be more popular automotive kit scales. Then there is 1:18 for automotive subjects. but not for plastic kits.

While that is correct, I still say that turpentine is still not a preferred solvent (or a brush cleaning solution) for alcohol-based or water-based acrylics. It is best suited for oil based paints. Here is quote from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turpentine As a solvent, turpentine is used for thinning oil-based paints, for producing varnishes, and as a raw material for the chemical industry. Its use as a solvent in industrialized nations has largely been replaced by the much cheaper turpentine substitutes obtained from petroleum such as white spirit. A solution of turpentine and beeswax or carnauba wax has long been used as a furniture wax.

True!

White Spirit (Turpentine, or paint thinner) are petroleum based thinners which work very well with organic solvent based enamel paints (like Testors or Humbrol), but not as well with alcohol-based (or water-based) acrylic hobby paints like Tamiya. Alcohols or lacquer thinners (which contain polar solvents) are much better suited to Tamiya paints as a brush cleaner.

Wow! I've never seen this kit. It is actually very cute! Are those price you quoted for sold kits, or asking prices with no takers?

I think Lindberg made many very nice (non-automotive) model kits. I believe the gripes here are directed at their automotive models, especially in the odd scale they chose.

Actually I enjoyed reading this thread from 2011, and how Bruno (who himself hasn't visited here since 21018) was having a 1-way conversation, answering his own questions. Almost as if we are missing some posts in between his questions.

Just to clarify, by "cheap" lacquer thinner I mean a "regular" lacquer thinner, like the stuff you can by at a hardware store (or any shop which has a paint department). All generic lacquer thinners are basically a blend of solvents like acetone alcohols, and other solvents.I called it "cheap" because it is much much less expensive than any of the thinners made specifically for the hobby market and sold in small quantities. I guess that calling it "generic" instead of "cheap" would have been better choice of words.

Nice red light bypass. Gained them about what, 10 seconds?

In that situation you would need a dash camera which also takes rear view video.

Why not just use inexpensive lacquer thinner for cleaning brushes? It will do as good (actually better) job as the X-20 thinner. There is absolutely no need to use either Tamiya or Mr. Hobby stuff.

BS or not, even if the economy is booming that doesn't guarantee that every line of business will also be booming. It is not that simple.

Looks great Mike! Nice to see another fellow Pocher builder. Interesting how similar our stories are. Around the same time you got yours, I bought the Mercedes (probably the one you missed). I mail ordered it from Hobby Expo after seeing their ads in FineScale Modeler about how realistic the Pocher models were. The most tedious part it was building 6 (yes, four plus 2 spares) wire wheels! While the spokes came as a V-shaped pair, each spoke has a tiny metal nipple that had to be installed. I still have that model in a glass display case. I was not a very experienced kit builder at the time. Funny seeing how my building skills have improved in those 35+ years. Looking at that model I would now do many things very differently. Here is a snapshot of my Mercedes 340AK Kabriolet (scanned from the original 35mm film photo 4X6). I should post my efforts too (I do have some WIP photos too.

Believe me - I do. I specifically mentioned that in my post. I also agree about never having too much glare-free lighting. I'm not talking about the dental magnifier you are describing. That sounds like something 19th Century dentist would use. The ones I'm talking about look like eyeglasses with miniature telescopes embedded in the glasses. It gives a stereoscopic magnified view. Here is an example (for $1300). And here is my workbench. I have a magnifier lamp (which I mostly use for illumination, small goose neck halogen spot work light (which I can position at the most advantageous location for whatever I'm working on), on the right you see part of a boom holding a zoom stereo microscope (with its own ring light), for when I need a lot of magnification. My Optivisor hangs to the right (not visible in the photo). I didn't just buy all this equipment at once. I acquired it all over couple of decades. http://classicplastic.org/image/Pete-workshop-5.jpg

There should still be several custom decal makers you might want to contact to see if they can do the job for you. There is a list available at https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/decals.htm#other You could also try https://fsdecals.com/ https://circusdecals.ecwid.com/ https://highballgraphics.com/index.php/custom-decals https://stsdecals.com/ Also in Canada https://www.pdc.ca/rr/custom_decals/ Some of those are geared towards model RR decals, but I don't see why they wouldn't print anything you want.

Sometimes it makes sense not to be thrifty. I'm a huge Optivisor fan, and my hobby would not be the same without it. I tried mutiple low-price headband magnifiers, but they all stunk! So instead getting few model kits (or with today's prices not that many kits, and some paints) I would recommend saving the money and getting an Optivisor. Nowadays (as I aged) I usually wear my reading glasses under the Optivisor. relatively speaking, Optivisor is not out-of-reach expensive. The magnifiers dentist use can run $500 and up. They work great (my dentist let me try his on), but those are too spendy for me.

Yes, modelers use small strong magnets to hold model parts while still allowing them to be removable. I believe Scale Master is one of those modelers. it is a great idea which I will utilize in my future models.

The search results link I posted shows you multiple posts with lots of good info (from actual users) about that paint. All you need to do is click on the link.

I always thought it had Isopropyl Alcohol but after just finding MSDS I see that I was wrong. Tamiya X-20A MSDS I have used 99% (not 70% or 91%) IPA to thin those Tamiya Acrylic paints. You can find 99% IPA (often called Isopropanol or IPA99) in hardware stores in the paint thinners section.

Yes, the demise of Alclad (II) paints is mentioned on the British site. I have some of the original Alclad paints (when they were first introduced on 1990s in USA). Back then there was a limited number of shades available and the paint formula seemed to be different than what they have now. The bottle on the left (with the tiny cap) is the oldest one. Going by the labels, it was a small cottage industry manufacturer. To me the Alclad name always meant "Aluminum" (as in metal) "clad". I don't know of any buyouts or mergers, but it is possible. The info in some of the links posted above seems to imply that there is (or was) a British version of those paints. The company name and address was Lumonz Products, PO Box 15571, Long Beach, CA 90815.

I knew what it was, but not they year. Now you made me find it.

That stinks! A simple solution would have been placing "DO NOT BEND" phrase on both sides of the envelope (and hope that USPS people listen).

Laptop? You should be happy. Many people (including quite few here) do *ALL* their Internet browsing on their small "smart" phone screens. I just don't get it. Personally, I still have a 24" monitor on which I do a lot of my computer work. But even that will will not replace printed materials. We're just old fashion.

The original Alclad and the current Alclad II is a well established hobby paints company. Probably over 30 years old. They are not a "new kid on the block". Should be able to defend their turf. They have good product and a wide range of finishes (not just metallic paints).

Decals should be applied to a smooth (glossy) surface. Is the pearl paint's surface smooth, or is it satin (like typical metallic base paint which needs a top coat clear to make it glossy). Also some decals can be affected by "hot" clear lacquers applied over them. what brand/type of paints (pearl/clear) are you using?