SfanGoch

My apologies, Peteski. I should have wrote that RPM gave us the business. Testors Corp. acquired Floquil Polly-S and Pactra prior to itself being acquired by RPM in 1984. The decision to drop the other lines was made by the RPM corporate braintrust. These lines were seen as not profitable enough to justify continued production. Hobby paints and products constitute, at most, 1 percent of RPM's total sales. Its major business is in industrial coatings and sealants. That there were too many paints in the combined lines is a fact. But, each line catered to a different segment of customer. The elimination of the three previously mentioned brands left the model ship builder and train enthusiast without any options. Floquil produced excellent Marine and Railroad Colors lines. Testors (RPM) never bothered to incorporate the Marine Colors into its MM line. Many of the Marine Colors have no MM equivalent and that placed the wooden ship modeler between a rock and a hard place to try finding a substitute. Ditto with the train guys. Your comment about the shrinking number of modelers isn't entirely accurate. Ever check out the number of items being produced for model railroading? That's a dumb question, of course you know . It's insane; but, that area of interest is more popular than ever. There are more brick and mortar shops exclusively dedicated to model trains than there are for plastic kits. And, they're raking in the mazuma, too. Floquil reformulated (removing Xylol from the formula) its paints to be plastic compatible in the early '80s. That made them dilutable with regular thinner, as opposed to using Dio-Sol. I'm partial to N Scale myself, going all the way back to my first Aurora Postage Stamp Train set I got for Christmas in 1967.

I've experienced the same thing. JUST ONE MORE DETAIL and I'll be done. That one more thing turns into twenty more because I got to get it to look right. And, the project never was completed because I lost interest. My solution: If I can't see it with a casual glance from at least a foot away, nobody else will notice and it doesn't get added.

Funny that you should mention Bigfoot, Harry. There was a kid I went to school with named Gennaro. He was a 15 1/2 EEE in fifth grade. Gennaro once told the class about the time he was chased through the woods by some guys with a camera when he and his family were on summer vacation in Washington State in 1967. Even as a youth, Gennaro bore a more than passing resemblance to the Kanamit in "To Serve Man". Last I heard, he was living somewhere around Rachel, Nevada involved with some type of government work.

I know. I was just injecting some lowbrow humor. I'm good at that. I checked out Peteski's album before. That is one hellacious build. I built a couple Cobras years ago for some guys at work. Now, I'm gonna search the great big dub-dub-dub for a few more for myself. These beauties need to be reissued and Revellogram should add to the series. There are a lot of worthy candidates.

Accept no imitations! Get your copy, pressed on gen-oo-wine, honest to golly, vinyl! Esque Reeder, Voolameister par excellence, sez If it ain't a hit, I'll eat my...................................shirt.* *Had you there for a minute, huh?

I was being sarcastic. I'm one of those rivet counting military modelers who uses Vallejo paints; although, only for figures and interior painting. They don't have the bite/permanence on styrene, like MM Acryl, Revell Aqua Color, Humbrol Acrylic, Gunze Aqueous and other acrylic types. Micro-Mark acrylic paints suffer from the same issues. Polly-S and Pollyscale were the best acrylic paints They didn't scratch or peel off styrene, primed or otherwise. Testor's decision to discontinue the Floquil/Pollyscale and Pactra paint lines was planned when RPM acquired those companies. It's known as killing off the competition. This is a letter Testor Corp./RPM sent out to its "partners": Yeah, Testor gave us the business. A model train enthusiast can no longer find colors anywhere equal to Floquil enamels. Military modelers miss the variety Pollyscale military colors offered. R/C fans bemoan the loss of all those great Lexan compatible Pactra colors. The only thing Testor wanted to do was push its own house brand without offering the consumer the choice of using anything else and not bothering to add comparable replacements.

I'm not a gasser fan and it'd be nice to see a bone stock Willys coupe for a change.

It's usually that way. The writers run out of ideas. New writers are brought in and they recycle old storylines. I'm a big Merrie Melodies/Loonie Tunes fan. You can see the dropoff in story quality in the cartoons produced after 1955. They were unwatchable after 1962. The best Popeye cartoons were the early Fleischer Studios shorts. That they were B/W, they had a quirky, surreal feel to them. Being a born and bred New York City rat, I appreciated the seedy waterfront images in some of those early ones. The later A.A.P., Paramount (the guys who brought you Baby Huey, Herman the Mouse and, ugh, Casper) and King Features Syndicate TV cartoons were baaaaaaad.

Tempera paints are a better choice than Micro-Mark. The Humbrol acrylics are just as good as the enamels. You're going to like working with them.

Definitely outstanding kits. The detail was unreal especially for the scale and price back then. Revellogram seriously needs to consider reissuing them. Both kits can still be had for $20-30 on evilBay.

A true connoisseur of comedy, you are. I doff me dicer to anyone what quotes Groucho Marx. Jus', not right now. Some goriller poured molasses inta it when I wuzzint lookin' it an' it's stuck but good on me nut.

You got that right! What kid would prefer intelligent, parlor room humor over Moe ripping a couple handfuls of Larry Fine's hair out of his head? Not me, brudda. Gimme some pliers and stick your tongue out, porcupine! Rocky & Bullwinkle were something else, funny in a way that made you think because of all the pop culture/current events references. I can't explain why ( I can; but, that's another topic best left for another time ); but, it seems that we kids (in the early-mid 1960s) were pretty savvy when it came to "getting" the inside jokes and pop culture references in those and other cartoons like Mr. Magoo and Loonie Tunes (especially the Bob Clampett- directed episodes). Maybe, it's because we read more, especially newspapers, and watched movies more often (no all cartoon channels back then) than kids do today ( that is, within the last 30 or so years).

Nuance.....Say......that's de woid what some guy in anudder tread used. The Three Stooges were a staple of after school television in NYC for years. Officer Joe Bolton hosted the 3 Stooges Fun House. Rocky & Bullwinkle were also favorites. Both were on WPIX Channel 11. The Stooges were taken off the air after parents' groups complained about the violence. Whatsamatta, your knucklehead house apes didn't know it was all pretend? Moe! Larry! Cheese!

A Susquehanna Hat Co. delivery truck a la Abbott & Costello.

In a nutshell, yes. However, there are oodles of other uses Novus products are good for, including polishing acrylic paint. As far as washing the parts, you're going to do that any way in order to remove mold release and skin oils so primer and paint adhere better, right? Novus 2 is perfect for polishing painted parts and Novus 1 is the "finishing" step. Not much different, and fewer steps required, than using micromesh pads to achieve the same results. I've used Novus for over 30 years and prefer to polish up paint jobs over the micromesh pads. Besides, you can polish those hard to reach crevices found on some bodywork, using Novus 2 and a Q-Tip, that are impossible to do with the micromesh without possibly removing the paint on raised edges and corners. This is just my preferred method, which works for me. Other modelers have their own. I find it easier this way. I'm a firm believer in the K.I.S.S. principle.

Nope. Testor Corporation is a subsidiary of RPM Corporation, Inc. It has been since, as previously mentioned, 1984. RPM also purchased Floquil, Polly-S/Polly Scale and Pactra. The only paint line owned by hobbico is Revell germany's Revell Color/Aqua Color.

You're right, Novus 1 isn't a polish. It's a cleaner and antistatic which leaves the surface very shiny and prevents fingerprint smudges and repels dust. We used it on flight helmet visors and plexiglass helicopter windows for those reasons and why it's it's great on models with a gloss finish. No. 3 is not for use on coated, i.e. painted, plastics. It's used to remove very heavy scratches. Novus No. 2 is great for removing fine scratches from parts after any sanding work. I also use Flitz Metal Polish (aka Blue magic in the States) for scratch removal and polishing parts prior to using Metalizer or Alclad products.

Soitenly! Three Stooges related items sell. End of story.

"Be careful or you'll put your eye out"; "You could hurt yourself doing that"; "Do you want to kill yourself in that thing?".....BAH!!!!! Enough with this "safety" already! All these here regulations take the fun out of doing stuff. "They" are turning us into human veal. Does anyone know how much gun cotton I'll need to cold crank a Chrysler Slant Six?

Drinking the fifth is more enjoyable. Hic!

Welcome Matt! Nice to see another Lawnguylanta on board. That T-Bolt is a beauty, man.

I usually let the acrylic clearcoat dry for about a week before I attempt to polish it. But, hey, that's just me. I want to make sure that it's completely dry and hardened. Other modelers might tell you that a day or two is sufficient. Experiment on a scrap body or some sheet styrene to determine what works for you. Everyone has different results based on coat thickness, dilution, temps, humidity, etc.

You could polish any type (flat, semigloss) paint to a glossy sheen. If you allow the acrylic clear to dry thoroughly, it produces a rock hard coat which will hold the shine without dulling. Just don't handle the finished model too much. Your skin oils will mar the finish. Use cotton gloves to prevent this from occurring. I've used Turtle Wax and Novus 1 and 2 to polish out acrylic clearcoats. The Novus is especially good because it provides anti-static properties to the finish,ie, it won't attract dust particles.

More. RPM acquired Testor Corp. on Jan. 20, 1984.

I was thinking more in the line of Platte River Associates. But, Ashley Madison works too.