SfanGoch

Martin Scorsese.

Say...ain't that menges tronges the French equivalent of the Three Stooges?

I prefer them over single entendre jokes because you get two for the price of one.

Only in countries that don't have more than three consecutive consonants in their names. In those that do, it is considered a prearranged marriage..

I use Zap Z-7 Debonder. It's jelled so there is no overspill and it doesn't melt the surrounding plastic like some other debonders do. http://www.supergluecorp.com/files/images/PT-16.preview.jpg

It really sucks when LHS won't budge from what is known to be an inflated price, Kevin. That's why these kits sit on a shelf or on the floor acting as doorstops. Jan's Hobby Shop has the Soar Art 1/35 Dora Rail gun for over 9 bills. Add the sales tax and you're looking at around a thousand bucks. I found a hobby/RC shop in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn selling it for $675. With tax added, it's still $300 less than Jan's. I bought the Trumpeter 1/16 King Tiger w/Henschel Turret when it was first released in 2008 for $269, including $9.00 shipping, from a store in Indiana. I received the kit two days after ordering it. Every other online store was charging $369.99 to almost $500. One has to show discipline and savvy whether buying in a store or online. The worst thing to do is buy on impulse because you just have to have it now. Do some window shopping, compare prices before buying and you'll have extra money for other things if you play it smart. All that paying more than it's worth adds up quickly.

You saved 3-5 bucks......You either really don't spend much time comparison shopping; or, you order from the usual shortlist of suspects like Sprue Bros., Squadron, etc. I order online from stores in the EU, Hong Kong and Japan and save three to five times as much, even with shipping. As an example, Sprue Bros. has the Rye Field Model RM-5003 1/35 Tiger I Early Production s.Pz.Abt. 503 Eastern Front 1943 (Full Interior) with a fabricated MSRP of $90.00 (the actual MSRP is only $79.99) and is offering it for $71.99, claiming a specious $18.01 savings. Even with the cheapest shipping option, I'd end up shelling out $83.49. On the other hand, Plastic Hobby, in the Czech Republic, sells the kit for $51.52, price excluding VAT. With $16.39 shipping stateside, the total is $67.91, which is a whopping $15.58 difference. I could go to Jan's Hobby Shop, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and ask them to order the kit; but, I won't. Jan's will charge me $115-$120 plus 8.875% sales tax, jacking up the already obscenely overinflated price to $125.21-$130.65. I can't justify paying $50, or more, over MSRP at a local hobby shop as a way of showing my support. Google truly is your friend when it comes to shopping for the best online deals available. The secret is checking more than the first page of results. The deeper you dig, the more you'll find. One also needs to research what the actual MSRP of any particular kit is. Best place to start is at kit manufacturers' sites which have online shopping such as R2, R-M, Dragon and others. The price indicated on the site for a kit is the MSRP. The kit manufacturers will charge full MSRP for their stuff with the exception of sale items which might or, in many cases, might not be subjects which interest you. Take that price and compare it to what is posted as MSRP by online retailers and you'll know if they are being straight up or are trying to run a line of s**t on potential customers who don't know better. An example of this is the AMT-900 PIRANHA SUPER SPY CAR. R2's price is $23.99. Now if, for instance, you checked out Squadron, it shows an MSRP of $28.99, five bucks more than R2 charges. Then, there is the "Best Price", which is $21.74, creating the illusion that you're "saving" $7.25 off what it purports to be MSRP. In reality, you'll save $2.25 (9.4%) off R2's actual MSRP. This is why you only save three to five bucks before shipping is included. To paraphrase the late, great clothing retailer Sy Syms, "An educated consumer is the best customer." My comments regarding LHS from another site:

Second that on Model Empire. I phone my orders in. Nice folks, great selection and prices and quick service.

If she's hot, who cares if you can shine a flashlight in her left ear and see the beam exiting her right one?

Looks like another possible reunion tour scratched off the list.

Um, yer link loops back to this thread.

You're absolutely right. I didn't even notice the "Aero 1D". Never mind.

For that particular site, it's required.

You forgot to mention mudslides. They make house moving easier.

I just checked out the label on a bottle of Testors Lacquer Thinner and Brush Cleaner. It contains "alcohols (denatured and isopropyl), toluene and ethyl acetate. The label has a warning indicating that it's known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. I've never seen a pregnant model kit. Is this lacquer thinner, in a reformulated, useless "green" version, available in Cloud-Cuckoo Land?

The stuff in New York still has acetone, MEK and other high VOC goodies, which are all banned Kalifornia, to enhance your paint thinning experience. Have you considered moving out of that loony bin?

Some people get the internet version of stage fright when it comes to expressing themselves. Others might have difficulty engaging in discussions with what are, in essence, anonymous entities. It's not the same as talking to someone with a physical presence. Well, that can be a good thing. If things get heated, the only thing you can punch is the computer screen in front of you. What's the word? Thunderbird! How’s it sold? Good and cold. What’s the jive? Bird’s alive. What's the price? Forty twice! Bum Wine

You need to change agents, man. Wanna go halves on a bottle of Red Grape Malt Duck?

The Silent Majority.

Been to Juarez and Tegucigalpa. Great places as long as you're conscious. Unless you lived and experienced things the way they were in my neck of the woods, you wouldn't understand. It was a 24/7 adrenaline rush as opposed to strolling through a pedestrian mall in a coma. You want some pepperoni on that cardboard?

Heh, I actually saw a guy wet himself after having a dozen or so M-16s pointed at him. Back in 1980, my company was attached to 716th MP Bn to provide support at Ft. McCoy, Wisconsin. This is was a processing site for the hardcore criminals from among the Mariel Boatlift refugees. One of my buddies was walking perimeter guard and found some schmuck trying to cut his way out through the fence with home made wire cutters. We ran over to where this was occurring and screamed at the guy to drop the cutters and eat dirt, notwithstanding that he understood zero English. Angry soldiers pointing rifles and yelling is universally understood to mean stop what you're doing NOW AND QUICK! Not complying usually results in a bad day for the guy looking down the business end of a rifle barrel. He was so scared that the front of his pants turned dark really fast. I have a couple good stories about this deployment; unfortunately, I can't post them.

It's a really good book, Kevin. Oodles of 3-view drawings and photos. If you aren't familiar with it, you might like to check out Piet Van Hees' excellent Sd.Kfz. 251 site.

I'm a firm believer in free market capitalism; just not at the expense of the local small business owner, who is the backbone of our economy. Once small businesses are eradicated by these chains, there is no longer any choice. You are forced to buy from only these places because there is no other alternative. Homogenization and cookie cutter stores aren't my church. I like different. Vanilla sameness is frightening. That might be a concept that's embraced in tract housing communities in Culdesacia, USA. They love their mega-malls filled with generic sameness in the same way that cardboard covered with ketchup and shredded, pasteurized process cheese is passed off as pizza in those same locales and nobody knows any better. I don't know what the situation in Chicago is; but, my city has been transformed, and not in a good way, by the introduction of these big box stores. Midtown Manhattan has been turned into a dystopian mega-mall filled with nothing but crummy chain restaurants serving faux-Italian food and the previously mentioned box stores which have driven out local businesses because the landlords quadrupled rents in order to force them to close and bring in box stores, chain pharmacies and banks (one could find 3-4 of each on a single city block; and repeated on the next block ad nauseam). Only they are willing to pay $1 million/mo. for a space that until recently rented for $10K/mo. Times Square has been taken over by the evil Rat Empire and turned into a boring white bread-plain Disney Superstore. I preferred it when it was a seedy, somewhat dangerous area a la "Taxi Driver" where you can catch three third run Kung Fu flicks for two bucks, hit the penny arcades and grab a slice of real pizza afterwards.