KeithJackson

I would love to have an LHS. All I have close is a Michael's and a Hobby Lobby about 45 minutes away. I was looking on lint to find something close last night and the only thing that I found was a couple of train shops. I might need to check with them and see if they can special order for me if they don't currently carry stuff that I am interested in.

Reading this reminded me of a time when my wife and I were sitting in the emergency room late one night. There was an inebriated man in one of the exam areas being looked at for a gash to the head that he got courtesy of a frying pan wielded by his wife.

The comic strip I stole my signature block from sums up my childhood experience in building models:

This came in the mail yesterday. I had to get it because, after all, you can't win the Ausieball Run without a crew.

While some may not call this model related, I do. I was at my local Wal Mart and they had a shopping cart of those little, personal USB powered fans. I figured that some of them would be nice in my work area since I don't have heat or A/C in that room. The best part was that they were only 10 cents each. I am half tempted to check tomorrow to see if they still have some since you can't really go wrong for a dime.

Wow! That is a roll cage that is built to survive. That should hopefully do the trick.

Thankfully, I have resisted the siren call of eBay for the most part, but I did win an auction the other day for a bunch of interior pieces which will be helpful since I am just getting into using an airbrush and it will give me some good practice pieces.

I was planning on going to the Mid Atlantic NNL, but as it turns out I will be leaving on a business trip that morning.

Of the 5 or so near me, I have only seen them at one. I will probably he headed back there later this week.

Thanks for the support on letting me use the 1/20 scale van. I was thinking that it would actually be harder for me since that is a hard scale to find stuff for and my scratch building skills border on non-existent. I'll wait a while (I am still waiting for some stuff in the mail anyway) and if I don't hear any complaints, I'll go ahead and do it.

It looks like I may have a major problem that puts my entry out of the running and will force me to come up with something else. I was just reading over the original post and saw that the scale was restricted to 1/24 & 1/25 and the base model that I will be using is 1/20. So unless the "powers that be" want to let me slide on the scale, I will have to ditch the "Hijacker" for something else. Serves me right for not reading closely.

I also collect video games and this is a HUGE issue in that community. Will the dryer sheets cause issues even if they are not in contact with the parts? Some people have had success with placing the items in cat litter for a while. I have had issues where I just let the item sit for a long time and it eventually went away. However, if the smell is that bad for you, finding a place to store them for that length of time might be a problem.

I got my base model in (posted in the 'What did you get' thread) but now I am waiting on the wheels/tires and spray booth that I ordered. If I can take the plans that I have in my head and put them in plastic, this will turn out real neat.

I bit the bullet at ordered a compressor, air brush, and spray booth. I still need to get a couple more things before I can start painting, but I am wondering what others use to practice on. I have heard of using plastic spoons, but I was wondering if there was something larger that could be used. I assume that old car bodies would be good, but does anyone have a good cheap source for them? I have about a half dozen NASCAR models that I know that I will never build, but I don't feel right about opening them up just to mess up the bodies. Also, once you have painted the body, can you strip it and use again for more practice or is it more of a one-and-done thing? Thanks in advance for any help.

I picked this up from the one Wal Mart in the area that sells anything model related. I figured for $12 I couldn't really pass it up.

I got them all right. I didn't think that they were too bad. Some were a little tricky.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know whether or not you could move the controls away from the compressor. Definitely gives me something to think about.

Where's the ignition switch?

I am looking into possibly learning how to use an air brush and have what is probably an unusual question. I was reading the thread about what type of air brush stuff to get and saw a particular compressor recommended. The one drawback to that model is that apparently it is noisy. So what I was wondering is if there is a limit to the length of hose that you can hook up to your compressor? If I wind up with a noisy model, I would like to keep it further away from where I am working but was wondering how far away I could actually put it. I realize that one problem would be that the pressure gauges and controls are located on the compressor so everything would need to be adjusted before starting. Any ideas? Or am I just making things difficult?

@CFMgarage: Hopefully, I can do the van justice. I really like the concept that you are going with. I hope that you can get your ride height vs. wheel travel problem solved.

I think that it will be fun. I hadn't seen anyone else posting that they were using this as a base and when I saw it, I knew that I had to go for it. I need to get some bigger wheels/tires on it, but I don't want to make the center of gravity any higher than it already is.

I think that this will be a good challenge. I will probably try to make a bigger bar to protect more of the front of the van. This model has something that I have never seen before. It has internal engine parts. By that I mean that it has a crankshaft, cam, rocker assemblies and a set of pistons. They don't mention any of these parts in the instructions and I have no idea why they would include them since you can't even see them. I am not sure yet what I will do about the wheels. I ordered some 1/18 scale R/C wheels and tires and hopefully they will work out. The kit tires aren't that big. They are only a little bigger, mostly wider, than the ones that come with the Tamiya Toyota Landcruiser 80. As for the wet bar, it already comes with a stove and sink, so it isn't out of the question.

I am ready to go official with my entry. I finally got my base model. I was going to go with the Toyota Landcruiser, but I think that others are doing that. Instead, I went with this as my base. I am planning on adding some aftermarket wheels and tires. This model opens up a whole lot of opportunities, especially since the doors already open and I won't have to do that myself. I will definitely need to come up with some type of kangaroo bar, but being an odd scale, I am really limited in the way of available parts.

I am waiting for delivery of the base model and some extra parts that I will be using for my Aussie Ball Run vehicle, but in the meantime, I forgot to post this that I picked up a couple weeks ago at a flea market for $10.

Looks super. I used to have an '89 Escort that was the same color.