Junkman

Hey thanks! Yes, those blackout panels are the European version of the muscle car craze.

The only kit I ever bought a casepack of is the Model King 59 Imperial. I have to give away at least ten buildups of that one.

How? How?? How????

I'd say Spain only. Yes, the 1430 acquired some sort of cult status there.

:o

It never happened to me. You take the parts out after the paint is stripped and the metal is still completely unharmed. We are talking minutes here. It would take much, much longer for the caustic to do harm to the metal.

Am I supposed to build them?

What is the real advantage of a double action? Mind you, this question comes from somebody who is incapable of operating a single action.

64 bucks is dumping price. Congrats!

Yeah, wheras 91 proof white lightning is a delicatessen! On a more serious note: Have you guys ever tried thick bleach? I use it for decades and it works so well for me. It's the easiest thing to obtain and costs pennies. The looks one gets at the supermarket checkout when putting four bottles of that stuff onto the conveyor belt is priceless!

Notoriously tough to strip diecast: After the boiling water + caustic soda therapy: The paint comes off within seconds. The repainted model: Another example: Stripped in boiling water with caustic soda, again within seconds (sorry, no photo of the stripped model). Here is the repainted model: Oops, they aren't models. They are toys.

To get the paint off diecast parts: - Put them all in a plastic container. - Fill with boiling water. - Add two tablespoons of caustic soda. After to minutes there should be no paint left on the parts. Should there still be some, repeat the process. Make sure you wear rubber gloves though and do it outside.

Actually, the past few years I bought mainly abandoned projects, since the prices for minters went way beyond my income group. In addition to these, I may have in the neighborhood of 100 kits I started myself, and about 600 unstarted ones. Looking through this thread is like a revellation. The imagination those people have is unbelievable! A lot of the stuff is so cool the way it is, it would be a shame to finish it. Once a model is finished, it is just that. Finished. I often find myself thinking that when the last finishing touch has been added, the excitement is gone. Hence I often gave/give my finished models away. Actually most of them. I hardly have any. If I want to display a finished model, I buy a diecast.

Here is a sculpture of noted artist Richard Pietruska: IMO he closed the gap between modelling and art. If you would like to read more about Richard and his work: http://www.rpmart.com/art.shtml

Was it not expensive enough?

The time it took to surf through this thread I could have used to progress some of my stalled builds, but man, what would I have missed! This is better than any art gallery. Entirely btw, I beat you all: In addition to my stalled builds, over the past 30 years I have acquired at least 500 stalled builds from other modellers, just to stall them further!

The nicest thing is most of that stuff is free. As in rubbish.

Fuse wire to make spokes for spoke wire wheels: Plastic strapping/banding for pallets to make car transporter or trailer boards and ramps, walkways on tankers, etc.: It comes in various widths and there is a multitude of uses. Q-Tips are exhaust pipes, roll cages, radiator hoses, axles, raw material for headers, zoomies, whatever, there are so many uses for them. Wire coathangers from the dry cleaner's are axles for old Jo-Hans, exhaust systems, roll cages, reinforcements, whatever. Old telescopic car antennas are hydraulic rams for tipper lorries. The wooden coffee stirrers from McPuke or Tarbucks are pick-up floors, woody wagons or actually even paint stirrers. Peeled skins from boiled potatoes are seat covers and drag-chute wraps. Rubber 0-rings are hoses, same goes for wire insulation. Silicone molds for cake frosting are molds for resin cherubs, angels, scrollwork, flowers, crosses, etc. for ornate hearses. Wedding cake columns are columns for column hearses. Kinder Eggs are 1/8th scale headlamp buckets. European style pins are door lock knobs, column shift and turn signal stalks, pull switches, rivet heads or convertible boot fasteners. Drawing-pins are dog dish hubcaps. Springs inside of oil seals are carburetter linkage return springs, etc.

You get gazillions of aftermarket parts in 1/20, but most would be intended to pimp the Formula 1 kits. Hence there is a plethora of disc brake kits available in all levels of quality and for every budget. Mind you, the X1/9 is a tiny car and 1/20 scale stuff intended for race cars may look vastly out of scale. There are aftermarket disc brake kits for 1/24-25 scale hot rods which may be the right size for a 1/20 Fiat. However, what I find rather tough to come by is wheels/tyres. There are the Formula 1 ones of course, and some rally ones. Then there are the custom wheels from the aforementioned 1/20 scale MPC Corvettes and lest not forget the 1/20 scale AMT nee MPC show rods like the Popcorn Wagon, Gridiron Grabber, Chuck Wagon, etc, which are plentiful and cheap atm. But other than that, there are only the vintage Japanese 'can be motorized' off roaders by Nichimo and similar, which are highly prized (and priced) collectors items in their own right nowadays. Hence you need to be inventive if you need wheels for your 1/20 Bosozoku or Gran Chan. Or Fiat X1/9 for that matter. Often 1/24 scale Donk wheels and smaller 1/18 (may I mention the D-word in this forum?) stuff will work. For your X1/9 you may want to hunt for some dirt cheap 1/24 Bburago 'rari and nick its Campagnolos. They may well look right at home on a 1/20 Fiat. The real funny bit is, that when you put search ads for 1/20 scale stuff somewhere, you get no replies whatsoever. But when you find vintage Japanese 1/20 scale stuff for sale, you pay through your nose for it!

Yes, most of MPC's van kits were 1/25 scale. I say most, because there was also an array of 1/32 scale vans. Only the ca 1970 Ford van and its custom derivatives were 1/20. And what cool tow vehicles for the Rupp snow dragster they make... The only other 1/20 scale American vans I know are those from Revell, which are the later type Econoline. There were interesting variants, such as the NFL Series, a police and a swat version and lots more, iirc.

I had several of them, but none of those could be built stock.

I like old-fashioned skinny high-profile el-cheapos without whitewall.

Hmmm.... What about resin?

I think it is very easy to answer. A Master Modeler is one that makes master models, from which molds are taken.