bobss396

A few more of the little ladies, they turn 1 in about 3 weeks.

I just put out food for the birds and a flock of mourning doves came in. I counted at least 12 of them. The bottom shot is bluejay feathers I picked up, they must groom themselves. I found a bunch of pin feathers as well. They should be molting soon... man do they look ugly for a while.

I have a can on order I got on eBay, finally some decent volume of it has arrived. Definitely the most expensive can of "paint" I have ever bought.

I opened one up about a year ago... I had built one a long time ago in my teens. I was hugely disappointed with the kit, the interior tub you'd be stuck with unless some kitbashing was done. I was going to do a '55 gasser build-off with my brother and picked up an AMT sedan kit, worlds better over the Monogram kit.

When you have doubts about something, make up a "test" piece out of an old body part. See how long that takes to dry and when you can start sanding it. Drying time depends on humidity, temperature, etc. You can still make up that sample piece if you can wait a few extra days.

To this day it is staggering that Penske got these cars to go fast and WIN...

This is the time of year that I see the old coots at cruise nights trying to sell their cars.... and run to Florida. I passed on a nice '55 Chevy last year. A few years ago I saw a '34 Ford hot rod up for $45k that must have cost $90k or more to build. It had been a magazine car at some point, flawless. Maybe there will be deals to be had, buying the market dip. This may lure in some younger people into the hobby. I don't know too many "kids" dripping in dough. Not that I was at age 35. I was building my nest-egg starting at age 28 and did without lots of things I could have had. Us older folk were steeped in the car culture. Detroit cranked out very cool cars until the gas crunches and insurance put the brakes on cars like the factory LS6 Chevelles. Look at the '88 Corvettes, they were embarrasingly anemic. Nobody wants or knows how to restore a car so it becomes an asset. The ROI is low unless you do all your own work. Time will tell when and where the market will hit bottom.

I dunno... the post on a spilled bottle of liquid glue has gone the same route...

I cut them out and make a new one, I have used ribbed RR siding for one I have in the works.

I run my dehydrator at a flat 105. It has a dial, but I double check it with a candy thermometer just to be sure. My old one that had the house dimmer switch, I made a "sticker" in CAD and printed it on clear acetate, held on with double face clear tape. I have never melted anything, I have read that you have to be careful with delicate 3D printed materials.

I used the Starliner engine in another build, I forget what it was, maybe a 352? It had good detail to it being a new tool kit. Another great engine is the 427 from the AMT '65 Ford.

If nail polish can be shot through it, any paint should be okay with it. I'd be concerned about keeping the innards clean and if replacement parts are available. When I have used airbrushes, I recall 15 pis being a good number to work with.

Having a dehydrator has been a game changer for me. I'm on my 2nd one, my modified Magic Chef took a dump on me a while back. I can color-sand in a few hours, between coats. I paint mostly rattle can lacquers and Tamiya TS sprays.

Like I have said, mixing paint mediums is like starting the evening out on scotch and switching over to wine. YMMV in a big way.

I had tried something called Spaz Stix "chrome" paint, IIRC it was something for RC cars and it really couldn't be handled. I was going to try a clear over it, but never did. BACK IN THE BOX... It was parts for a Revell chopper.

This is what I'm talking about... bravo. I tend to get rusty if I have some time off between paint work. I'm in a hiatus right now with a 1:1 project. I should be back in action in maybe another month.

The last one I had the Starliner chassis under (fit check only) was the AMT '61 Ford body. I was not able to see how good the wheelbase was, but this is what razor saws are for. Definitely count on making up some mounting provisions. The interior tub would be the wild card, as the chassis is totally open. In the past, I have used only the bottom of the tub. In one case when I did a '66 Buick interior in a '49 Mercury, the Buick tub was shallow enough to leave the stock Mercury chassis as it was supplied.

I buy all my tires from Tire Rack, I bought 3 sets this year alone. You can shop by vehicle, look at reviews and so on. I always get them the next day after I order and can have them dropped at a friend's shop.

I won a Best Paint award at MASSCAR some years back using Duplicolor and an auto parts store lacquer clear. Also a few "best in show" trophies. I had done 2 nail polish jobs, one was a BIS and the other won wherever it went and was in 2 model mags. I used to swear that Testors enamels were only good for keeping the rust off snow shovels. Then I saw someone that could lay down amazing results using that line of paint I bad mouthed. I have had my club members tell me that it was impossible to get good results from a spray can. I'm now convinced that someone could dip a dead squirrel's tail into a bucket of latex house paint and win an award with the results.

This is one of my eBay saved sellers, always good to deal with.

Plumbing up injectors is a challenge for me, I will have to give your method a try. Nice work.

I did a fit-up and it is doable. I also have in the works a '64 using a late Winston Cup chassis. I lengthened it in front of the firewall... big mistake. Now the transmission is too far forward... BACK IN THE BOX...

When I had 2.... the older one Chloe HATED little Ivan even as a kitten. She knocked him down, hissed, spit at him every day and would steal his food. It would have been nice if she had liked him. Once she died in 2022... he never even batted an eyelash over the loss.

I have always liked the box art, mainly AMT Trophy Series kits. I used to have a display of them when I had a modeling area. Now they are boxed up. The box was a big hook to help me decide what to buy 50 years ago.

Now I recall, I started that one on 2/18/2001, the day that Dale Sr. was killed at Daytona.