bobss396

By far the worst blade mishap was when my brother, age 11 then, was cutting some hobby wood using a big Xacto blade in the large holder. He was making the cut along a metal yardstick and the blade came out of the cut. Right up his left thumb, cut the nail like butter and came up close to the wrist. Deep... it took a few seconds for it to bleed... and bleed it did. I got some paper towels and luckily my dad was home, it was Saturday. My mom was at work. Dad took him to the ER... he was back a few hours and 10 stitches later. I stayed behind and mopped up the mess.

I have a decent cut on the back of my left index finger from a razor saw mishap yesterday. It has stopped bleeding.

I have a completed model, painted white (Tamiya spray) and foiled. I had it stored in a kit box, wrapped in some paper towels... well, I opened it up and the body had had a reaction with the plain white paper towels. I will have to at least do the foil over.

Thanks. Do you do the decal area only, or the whole body?

I got my latest batch of surgical blades at a show, $15 for 100. They are not as good as real surgical blades, but better than a #11 blade. I have been using the same #11 blade going on a year, although I have plenty around. I simply sharpen it on a Smith's hard stone.

This may be the Droid I was looking for... I am totally gun shy about clear over decals as of late. I'll have to get some of this. Thanks. How is it applied? Just over the decals or all over the body?

I put in a '70 Pontiac, not limelight green but if you know the paint code, they probably have the match. One guy in my club swears by the stuff. https://www.automotivetouchup.com/touch-up-paint/pontiac/1970/all-models/

I have trouble just thinking about using it. Once I get past that block, it comes out pretty well. I can do door handles. wipers and interior parts with decent results. For longer pieces like windshield trim, I'll cut a fresh edge on the sheet, so I don't have to cut it on the car. I have surgical blades I use expressly on foil. Real blades, I got a bunch from work.

It looks like what 1:1 car painters call "solvent shot". Likely too heavy a hand with the clear and/or too soon after the color coat. I have done it recently with Duplicolor paint and SEM 1K clear,

Ol Stool? I will pass on that... I read that others like Hot Rod Magazine may be going quarterly. Nobody likes to read it seems, and the old subscribers are just that... old. I used to subscribe to a few, but found it hard to find the time to read them when I was working.

Up to a few years ago, we could still do a decent hobby store crawl on Long Island. As far west as one in Glen Cove, Gold Coast Hobby. The owner died of cancer maybe 10 years ago. Then Willis Hobby in Williston Park, mostly all RC cars lately. Dave's in Freeport (place was a shambles) is gone. Someone said that Nassau Hobby in Freeport is still open. Suffolk County, we are down to only 2 that I can name. One is a store that got a re-do last year, Bay Shore Hobbies. Again, many RC cars, little model car parts. Out east 25 miles, Men at Arms Hobby. The owner is 78 and in poor health, zero aftermarket parts. The really best place is Hobby Lobby with the 40% deals. The real service hobby shops are few and far between. Little hobby shops were once all over the place. Some we rode our bikes to, spending our lawn cutting dollars. My dad had one by Grumman, he would pick us up kits on his way home if we gave him a dollar. I'm down to ordering from Mega Hobby, Detail Master, Model Car Garage. Even they do not have what they used to have. Scale Dreams was a great place, that is gone too. eBay is a good one right now, sellers I know from shows sell there, I have a bunch of saved sellers.

Once I get the interior tub located, I'll mock up the suspension to see where everything falls out. I agree that wheels forward is better than wheels backward.

We did a lot of 3D printing at work in plastic. Mostly prototype sample parts, fit checks and assembly tooling. For the most part we were happy with a 63 or 125 finish. Dimensional accuracy was right there. Even round parts tended to be ROUND. Some of that had to do with how the files were set up for export to the printers. We ran them mostly at night and retrieved the parts in the morning. We had a desktop printer that worked well. I guess demand will fuel the desire for better surface finishes. Look at what we put up with those thick resin car bodies for years.

I hosted sort of late in the game, decided a week ago and my girlfriend picked up a turkey for me on Monday. It was just me and my 2 sons, I invited others for coffee and pie, no takers. I did clean off my dining room table... and had a table cloth on it. I managed to organize all of my model car stuff, put stalled projects away in the finished basement. I really should move my building operation down there. We had a nice day, we are all thankful for mainly good health and my kids being gainfully employed.

I showed my Mustang fastback build to someone in the club. He clued me into showing me that the wheelbase is too short on the most recent release. By about an 1/8" according to my mock up. I'm struggling through fit issues with mine right now, interior tub to the body and glass issues.

I got into that earlier in the year, I am sold on it. Their lacquer clear goes well over it. A guy a few blocks has one, same color as yours.

I still think that the best car I ever had was a '65 Falcon. 27 mpg, 3 speed on the column, manual choke, no radio or even carpet. Just a rubber mat. It did have seat belts.

Aftermarket parts are aftermarket parts. Look at traditional slush-cast resin pieces. Some are really crappy and need a lot of work to look decent. Norm Veber is the polar opposite of that, his stuff is ultra clean and thin. Accuracy and appearance are everything to any modeler. So is time. I have a lot of 3D parts in my stash and I use them. Most take little or no clean up time to get ready for paint. I'll take that convenience all day, any day. Sure there are complete 3D kits, I see them mainly for trucks so far. And some stock cars on Etsy. I have seen the bodies close up at shows. Some require a lot of work to remove the step-over striations. I think that this will improve as techniques and equipment/software get better.

AND the said model will show up at contests as a hologram....

For rear leaf spring cars and trucks, I make up lowering blocks from styrene tubing. Look at some 1:1 car sites, like Gambino Customs or Porter Bilt.

Most stores carry as small as #12 beads. I ordered some on eBay, but they sent me round instead of the hex shape I wanted, they were #15. I'll find a use for them.

I have a set of MCG PE emblems that came with their '66 Nova set. This is the way to go, but likely expensive. I like the decals too. My brother would BMF the emblems first and then paint the car. Then he "polished" through the paint to expose the foiled emblems. This is the best method I have seen so far.

I have a good Mack brush I like, 520-0000.

With pure white, I like to polish it out and leave it at that. I have some I did with white auto paint and used clear lacquer over that. Those finishes have stayed white and have not yellowed.

I like the Tamiya TS-14. I have shot TS-65 clear pearl over it too with good results.