peteski

Very handy fifteen dollar tool, and accurate to 0.001"! Nice! For that price you can even afford to have multiple digital calipers.

Yes, a watchmaker's apron is an excellent idea. I had a strip of fuzzy Velcro sewn into the lower edge, and I stuck strip of the hooky part of Velcro under my bench. It works quite well and it is easy to fasten/unfasten.

Wasn't the "new Coke" just relabeled Pepsi?

Save the environment (and the plastic trees)?

Very nice build! I like the color you chose. That kit is quite good (Tamiya IMO does not make bad kits), but yes it is vintage, and while it has full engine, the details are sparse. Again, typical Tamiya thing - parts are very well molded and fit well, but the details are sparse for someone who likes detailed engine bay. That is how I expect a Tamiya kit to be. That kit has the best molded 1-piece plastic wire wheels I have ever seen.

Dave, is this the newly released ex-snapper kit that was discussed last month (just how bad it is and how high of a price it has) . Too bad you didn't see that thread. There were lots of warnings in it. But yours came out looking quite good (at least in the photos).

I did not know that. I guess the plate that was used for the rest of the series was what stuck in my mind.

I really enjoyed watching that show. Nice model! But wasn't the license plate on the show "ROBIN.1" as it was one of Robin Masters' car?

I agree that soft and sticky (uncured) resin is usually caused by not fully mixing the 2 parts or by the resin being past its expiration date (or both). 5 years is way past the resin's useful life. I'm surprised that the castings were not full of tiny bubbles. One of the resin's components absorbs moisture from the air (even if stored in what appears to be sealed container) and that causes those tiny bubbles to form when resin is curing. You probably live in very dry environment.

That is what I was thinking. To me it looked like an Australian version of some American make. But is ended up being an European "relative". It definitely has lots of "American flavor".

That statement is so very true, especially when it comes to viewpoints which aren't to be discussed here.

That's old news. As it was explained in some related threads here, that happened due to material supplies issues related to COVID (like most things in the last 2 years). At this point BMF is back to its original formula, but some hobby shops might still have the subpar stuff. Order directly from BMF.

Alps printers can print satin silver and also chrome-like silver foil. The letters look like one of the standard typefaces (font), so they could likely be easily reproduced.

This is a Romanian version of a Polish fighter plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_P.11 One of the first kits I built in my childhood (in nearly '70s) was that aircraft. Not this specific kit, but a Polish made kit. Mine had wheeled landing gear. The kit included a small vial of liquid cement but no paint. Some good memories here.

Well done! Makes me want to build that one too. I seem to recall some time ago someone else on this forum has built one of these. I don't recall that one being illuminated.

Even with that "orange label" Tamiya cement you might still end up with a problem of long term slow-evaporating solvent. But worth a try.

Joe, if the paint you are spraying is "hot" enough to penetrate the primer and craze the plastic surface, then of course same thing will happen when you apply it to bare plastic. Spraying multiple lighter coats (where the hot solvent evaporates quicker) will minimize the crazing, but will also not give you very smooth finish. Back in the distant past we used hobby paints on plastic model kits. Those paints (usually enamels) were made using solvents which were mild enough not to attack plastic. But as the hobby marched forward modelers started messing around with automotive touch-up paints which were designed for metal surfaces and used solvents hotter than hobby paints. With those you needed to apply a primer which had mild solvents that did not attack plastic, The primer acts as a barrier, preventing the solvents in the "hot" automotive paints from damaging the plastic body. Companies such as Splash Paints sell basically small quantities of automotive paints to modelers. From what i see on the forums, there is no definitive safe combinations of the model's polystyrene blend, primer, and "hot" paint which is guaranteed not to ruin your paint job. What seems to work for some modelers, does not work for others. The painting technique (how thin the paint is, and how heavy of a coat is applied) is also part of the safe painting equation. There is a lot involved in painting success. If we could only go back to the old days where we used Testors or Pactra paints for our models and didn't have to worry about paint/model compatibility.

Yes the very high current passing through the wire loop top creates strong AC magnetic field which Degausses (demagnitizes) any object passed through or near the tip. This brings up a whole new subject. There are small magnetizer/demagnetizers sold out there but they don't work well for demagnetizing. I got fed up with my tools getting magnetized over time (for whatever reasons) so few years back I got something stronger and more reliable: an old bulk magnetic tape eraser for reel-to-reel tapes. Got it on eBay for short money. It's made by Akai, and it is a big honkin' electromagnet which works from 120V AC. I can just turn it on and pass my entire tool tray over it and all the tools get demagnetized instantly.

I never fully succeed laminating styrene using solvent glue (and my attempts were smaller than yours). The problem with solvent cements is . . . the solvent. For me the laminated parts end up bowing, weeks or months after being glued. I suspect because the solvent never fully evaporates. I used MEK. I also agree that welding the pieces is the best practice to produce strongest joint. None of the non-solvent-based adhesives (CA glue, epoxy) will likely be as strong, especially if the parts are bent after being bonded. I'll be curious how you solve the problem.

Yes the forums search engine is useless. There is a sticky in the FAQ section showing how to use Google to search the forum. I did that and there is plenty of good info available. here they are (yes, participated in all of those so for my recommendations, along with others please read the older threads): http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/140409-plug-wires/ http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/129432-good-source-for-124-spark-plug-wire/ http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/135811-spark-plug-ignition-wire/ http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/173582-best-spark-plug-wire-size/ Bottom line is how accurate you want to get to keep things in-scale. Also, the cheapest solution is unfortunately usually not the best or most accurate. Small gauge insulated wire is expensive to manufacture, thus it costs more than standard 30AWG Kynar insulated wire-wrapping wire. Sometimes to get good results we need to spend some extra dough. It is up to you. As for boycotting Chinese made, most everything is made there nowadays (even if it is sold by U.S. based sellers). Something to think about.

While that usually works, several of my tweezers are "antimagnetic" stainless steel, so the magnet would not hold those.

Yes, the bands are slices of silicone tubing, but not to make them self-clamping. I slip it on to keep the tips closed when I pack them in a small box with other tools I take to model train shows (in case I need to repair some model during the show.

While I have not used those paints I feel like I should mention that "metal flake" implies large metallic flakes in the paint. Those will likely look *WAY* out of scale on a 1:25 model car. That is something that to me destroys the realistic look of a model. Some Testors metallic paints (not even considered "metal flake" paints) have large metallic particles which look really weird on a model. This oversize flakes problem really shows up in photos of a model (not so much when viewed in-person). But of course it doesn't bother some modelers.

What paint stripper works and doesn't work is greatly dependent on the paint's chemistry and also on the strippers temperature (not just on luck or other factors). Some paint strippers work best with certain types of paint. I have not yet found a universal plastic safe paint stripper that would work on *ALL* types of paints (and likely I will never will). That is why I have several types of paint strippers at my disposal.

Smallest brass wire I used for pinning was 0.012" (and #80 holes).