CAL

Well that's good to know. It is the best in the world and the only thing I have ever used in the past several years. Thanks for the heads up.

Nice... I have the same thing cooking, too.

I like to use non-hardening clay, myself.

Yeah, I think I even looked inside the box one time when I first got mine nearing ten years ago. It's going to be a while longer before I tackle that one.

For a long time I did without future. I have seen some bad results and it seemed to be a cure all for other problems, mainly poor paint jobs. However, I have changed my mind and picked up a bottle recently and have experiemented around with it a bit. FWIW I did see Future and Pledge with Future Shine. I believe it to be the same stuff. The inside labels are exactly the same and could not find any specific differences. I think I am converted and sold on Future, but the jury is still out. First, I have had no problems airbrushing straight out of the bottle other than it's so thin that it likes to run easy. Maybe it’s the nature of the stuff, but there seems to be a very fine line between getting a glossy finish and it running. However, that seems to be a minor annoyance compared to the positives. It will sand, however any aggressive grits (like 600 or coarser) and or wet sanding strips it right off. Maybe it’s not hard enough yet, as I am still playing with it. However, I found that I had best luck with 800 wet-dry and 3600 micromesh, and it sands pretty easily. I tried brushing as well, It goes on smooth and easy and dries without brush strokes, however I did find that I got a little better finish and less trash and nibs airbrushing it. I also found that it liked to bead up in places on a gloss finish so some areas had to be worked with the brush more to get it to stick. I did not have any problems like that while airbrushing the stuff. It’s extremely glossy and gives a body that wet look finish. I had a better finish in 5 min spraying Future than I did with hours of sanding polishing and wax and buffing. It will hide small sanding scratches, however, the base needs to be pretty good without any major sanding scratches or defects because it WON’T hide the bigger paint issues. However, it seems like it works if you wanted to do a two or three stage paint job. If the flat base is wet sanded (color sanded) and a couple of coats of future was just a glossy as future over gloss. It may cloud up while drying particularly on second and third coats, but clears up when dry. I here Windex would strip Future, but so will Iso, which is what I used. I came right off even after several hours of drying. I suspect that may be a different case after 24+ hours when it really dries. I also suspect that it will get much harder later. I also understand that it can be polished and waxed, but I don’t know that you’d be able to get any better finish (it’s pretty darn good just sprayed on), but that’s other experiments I plan on trying in the near future. So far I have had a pretty positive experience with Future.

Yup, this probably good words to live by, or at least model build by. Someone else said it, but it's accurate, "It's something I do to relax, tinker around and keep busy and hey if I happen to build a model in the process all the more better."

Robert Browning first wrote it in a 1855 poem Andrea del Sarto a real life painter who lived in 15th century said "less is more" when addressing Lucrezia, his adulterated wife, who he left aside for something more important.

I am more drawn into it than decide. I figure well if I just fix this and add this and do this it will look a whole lot better, but then I need to this and this, but then I need to get this PE set, this decal set, and these five other bits, but now that I have done all that I might as well go all the way and do this, cast that, scratch build these. At this point I might as well do the other 10% left and go all the way. Sometimes... If I could just leave well enough alone and build it OOB, but I can't seem to do that.

I wonder, as a driver, how do you ever get used to the stupid spectators?

the red one I have is a WIP

silence is good half the time. The other half I listen to well we have a large library. Tori Amos Sarah McLachlan Poe Jewel Concrete Blonde Patricia Kass Vanessa Carlton Pink Jem Cranberries Cowboy Junkies Natalie Merchant The Go-Gos Lorrena McKennitt Ani DiFranco Melissa Etheridge Fiona Apple Christina Aqulara Kate Bush Liz Phair Siouzsie Sioux Alanis Morissette Kelly Clarkson Heather Nova Katie Melua Tracy Bonham Nina Gorden Vonda Shepard Evenscence Dido Natalie Imbruglia Norah Jones Santana Rob Zombie Metalica Suzanne Vega Michelle Branch Meredith Brooks Sheryl Crow Belly Hole Dire Straits Sixpence None the Richer NickleBack Dana Glover And hundreds more

I hear ya brother. actually mine was encouraging me to buy a new kit three weeks in a row. Last week she flipped the f out for buy one. I been on a streak myself. So I have gotten the same, but, yet when I tried to spend time with her it's, "why do you go do something." you can't win. mine was always "Women, you can't live with them, and you can't shoot them."

You wrote yellow zinc chromate though, not dichromate. "I keep it simple. I paint them gold, then go over it with Testors tail light amber. The result is the mottled look of stock yellow zinc chromate."

I have done business with Strada Sports. Pretty decent guy no complaints. I guess it depends on what you are looking for as to who is going to give you the best service.

as much as possible. The more you use it the more proficient you will become using it. Plus models generally look better with an airbrushed part vs. a brush painted part. I do some detailing with an airbrush but use other techniques - primarly washed in conjunction with airbrushing. Just keep airbrushing and don't be afraid to A.) fail and have to try again or B.) experiment and try different techiques. Oscar Wilde the guy that THEE Oscar is named after said, among other good quotes," nobody ever learned a goddamn thing from success."

That could be, but it's not ZC (ZnCrO4). ZC chromate is a chemical reaction to create a yellowish colored protective coating for aluminum. In fact, ZC is highly reactive with aluminum. Developed by the Ford Motor Company in the 1930's - initially it was rejected by the US Military until the mid 1930's when it stared to become a standard primer for the aircraft industry. Certian "Indicators" were also used that created everything from greens to pink AKA salmon and rust colors. Carbon was also sometimes added to speed the natrual aging process of ZC to create other greens - more of a candy apple green. The protective coating for carbs is a Cadmium plating (or Yellow Zinc Dicromate - also a plating procedure) process that is nowhere near the same process, or results that you would get from ZC. The closest similarity for Aluminum would be anodizing, and remember many carb bodies are not aluminum but zinc die-casting. Not withstanding ZC is generally sprayed on and Cadium Zinc plating is done much like other plating processes. Electricity in a tank with some solution. HTH

I have always used a mix of brass and steel. yellow zinc chromate: not even close to the "cool yellow" of ZC, which is always yellow unless an indicator is add. I am somewhat of an expert on ZC.

stuff like that I will use an acrylic base and artist oils over that.

In the old days of tooling a kit you made a scaled up version that was quite a bit bigger... so you could get all the detail - out of a block of wood. The tool maker used a special tool to run over the wooden model and it would be scaled down through a pantograph like device and cut into a slab of steel - very labor intensive. I am sure some parts were made on a Bridgeport. Now days it's mostly all CAD-CAM.

I am guessing it's Minicraft. They did all those really old cars.

I'll give that a shot, thanks. Not exactly what I am looking for is listed, but have a bid in on a sheet. I'll keep trying and I do have an email into him. Thanks.

Been there done that. Know what I want. Just not clear how to order them. Have email into Keith. I was just wondering if there was another way to get them, or am I doing just the way it needs to be done? TIA

Need some sheets.

yeah, I actaully did it on the stove top at low temp - much lower than RIT recommends - but as high as I could go without melting the part, and had it in for 1/2 hr at one point. I even tried heating putting the part in and letting it sit overnight. Not even a hint of tint. AFAIK it just doesn't work. I can't think of anything that I haven't tried to make it work. Time in the dye. Temp Iso lightly roughing up the clear different ratios of dye and water and I cannot even remember all what I tried it was some time ago, but I did try for over a week before giving up on it. If someone has indeed got this to work I would sure like to know how. Maybe I overlooked something - however I highly doubt it.

Maybe it depends on the particular clear parts. I heard that you could, too, and I try it but all I ever made was a mess of a pot. So from experience, NO it doesn't work. It just beads up and rolls off. I spent a fair amount of time trying different things to make it work but couldn't come up with a concoction that worked - not even something that worked a little bit or kind of worked, or even worked but not real well. It just didn't work at all.