ColonelKrypton

No, but you might get away with it if you are lucky. If not lucky you might encounter the paint curdling, never drying or curing properly or flaking, peeling or not adhering properly, and so on. Water based acrylics ( i.e. Testors, Revell, Vallejo, AK Interactive third gen, Army Painter, Humbrol, Golden, Liquitex, various brands of craft acrylics - Apple Barrel, Deco Art, and others ) should not be thinned with alcohol or lacquer thinners, or enamel thinners, or Windex, or windshield washer fluid ( which may contain alcohol and ammonia ). Use distilled or deionized water if you can ( a gallon is not expensive and will last a long time ), better yet, use the manufactures own products ( in the case of hobby products like Vallejo). Tamiya acrylics are not water based acrylics and their thinner is about half and half water and alcohol and should not be used with water based acrylic paints. The best thing I found for thinning water based acrylics is either Liquitex or Golden brand airbrush mediums. They contain acrylic polymers which help preserve the paints properties when thinning. For washes I use the manufacturers own thinner or in the case of water based craft paints Vallejo airbrush thinner or AK Interactive 3rd gen thinner. Get the larger bottles, a little goes a long way when used only for thinning - use something else like tap water or something stronger as needed like, alcohol, windex, etc for clean up. That many get away with using witches brews like Windex or windshield washer fluid to thin water based acrylics is just plain luck and a testament to the quality of the basic paint itself. I can't count the number problems so many have had using and painting either by brush or airbrush trying to use these brews. Model kits and paints themselves are expensive enough but trying to cheap out and pinch pennies on something like paint reducers and thinners is just being penny wise and dollar foolish. cheers, Graham

Very nice cheers, Graham

I asked Bill for some details not too long ago. Perhaps it is time I join the group. cheers, Graham

Meant to ask @bytownshaker , are you a member of the Ottawa Model Car Group? I've never been. I used to commute every day to work in the Big City but since that need has past I don't often drive in just for the something to do. Although, once in a while I feel the need to visit Bill's store just to see what's new or interesting. cheers, Graham

Although I have lived longer in Eastern Ontario than anywhere else ( 30+ yrs ), I am originally from South Western Ontario ( Chatham / Sarnia area ) plus periods, some short, others a few years in every other province and territory except PEI. cheers, Graham

About the same distance but different direction from Ottawa in Embrun. For some reason I never stumbled across this topic before - always something new to discover. cheers, Graham

Very nice. cheers, Graham

I don't so much the cold or snow although too much snow can be irksome. Freezing rain Ice storms on the other hand are always irksome++ We usually get several every winter here in the Eastern Ontario / South Western Quebec / upstate NY / along the St. Lawrence Valley seaway area but this Winter Mother Nature was kind to us and we hand only one small one of note. The previous couple of Winters were particularly hard and damaging in this area with much heavy wet snow and freeing rain. It was nice to have a Winter with a bit of reprieve. I always remind myself that no matter how bad I think it is locally and I find it irksome, someone else, somewhere else is having a worse time of it than I. cheers, Graham

Surface tension works well for many such tasks. Using a small paint brush is a good tip. What you may be thinking of is something like this: https://uchida.com/products/jewel-picker has a sticky end. Some tools are double ended and there are several sizes. Also a wax stick ( bees wax ) is another. You will find this tools in craft stores, Amazon, eBay, your favourite hobby store, ( etc ) Not always easy to search for as they are called different things by different users. Wax sticks can be found by searching ( on Amazon for example ) for something like: nail art wax stick or nail art picker . cheers, Graham

Very nice. Those were the days of real drag racing, not the billion dollar "Sports Entertainment" it has become. cheers, Graham

I did miss it, thank you for posting. Lots of inspiration to be found there. cheers, Graham

That is common practice brush painting acrylics - several thin coats vs one heavy one. I am still learning, trying to break that "gotta cover in one coat" mentality. This is common subject matter for topics on Britmodeller. The focus there is primarily aircraft and military vehicles but the techniques of painting are all the same. This is a youtube link to someone who brush paints exclusively and uses Tamiya acrylics: And this a link to one such topic on Britmodeller ( there are many more if you care to search ) https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235136960-tamiya-acrylic/ cheers, Graham

Hard to say. Post a link to one of his youtube videos so we can have a look. Could be he is adding some retarder. Tamiya product number 87114 is the retarder for Tamiya acrylics. I would also use the Tamiya X-20A thinner as well rather than distilled water. Follow Tamiya's instructions. I found it made a real difference. cheers, Graham

Many decades ago, when I was decades younger, my favourite radio station was WWWW in the Detroit area. One day, overnight, they switched from rock to playing both kinds of music - country and western. I guess they couldn't compete with the then rising star that was WRIF in Detroit. Ya gotta go were the money is. I listen to all kinds of music including both kinds but the Canadian content rules have driven me to choose US based stations when given the chance as their content can be much broader based hence more enjoyable. I can't recall the last time I heard the Allman Brothers or Junior Johnson on a local station. My station choice these days is WICD in upstate NY. cheers, Graham

nicely done, very creative cheers, Graham

Often the usual end result of the "open bidding process" ( to be fair to anyone who wants to bid ) and usually selecting the "lowest bid" ( to be fair to the taxpayers ) with the unintended consequence of such messes and in the end it is on the backs of the rank and file taxpayers to clean up that mess. cheers, Graham

tea strainers are another good choice but ( obviously ) smaller in size but also possible to find even finer mesh size. The local dollar store often has such interesting bits and pieces. cheers, Graham

I have a set of Starrett and they are very nice but I find that the collets are a bit too hard and I find that they do not hold drills as well as I would like. Good for holding work pieces however. My preference is for the Tamiya pin vises, the large product no. 74050 and the smaller one product no. 74051 ( or 0.1 to 1mm drills ) and have several of both. Very concentric and grip drills very well. These are actually made by Minishema and branded for Tamiya. cheers, Graham

I saw that one too. Watched it twice. There are a number of other youtube channels which feature building such model trains a number of which are Japanese in origin. I have only a passing interest in model trains but I do enjoy watching the videos; lots of food for thought and technique. cheers, Graham

So can bow/arrows, crossbows, axes, chainsaws, knives, lawn darts, snow mobiles, motorcycles, ladders, power lines, chain saws, ( ad infinitum ) but that is not the point. Or arrogance, and generally no, least not with the nearly pointless punitive fines often handed out to such drivers and that is the point. Such drivers are prime examples of candidates that would fair well at the Darwin Awards. cheers, Graham

Amazing work indeed. cheers, Graham

Very, very nice. Well done. cheers, Graham

Good Monday morning all, There being no opinions expressed one way or another regarding my question on whether to post all within the main community group build topic or just to save that for chat and for the builder to have their own WIP topic; an executive decision was made and that is to simply leave it up to the individual. So, someone like @Ulf who started a fabulous build in the original TROG community group build and then carried on in his own WIP could continue to do so but would still be most welcome to continue his build as part of this #TRoG-IM-2024 The Race of Gentlemen In Miniature 2024 community group build. Bikes are big part of TROG but I have not had much luck in finding suitable model kits of early American motorcycles. There is an Italeri 1/9 kit of the Harley Davidson 1942 WLA as used by the US Army and a couple of Italeri and Miniart 1/35 of the same. I am tempted to have a go with the Italeri 1/9 WLA but the kit does not seem to be very common and a bit on the pricey side. Besides, bikes are not really within my usual interest and it has been many decades since I last tried my hand at model motorcycle kit - the old Revell ( I think ) Triumph drag bike. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained and having a go at something outside my usual interest is often times reason enough. I will leave you with the following youtube ( just a few of many ) links for inspiration: cheers, Graham

Tiny but very nice. cheers, Graham

Tamiya Paint Remover product no. 87183 or Tamiya Lacquer Thinner (yellow cap) product no 87077. Lacquer Thinner is a generic term and not all lacquer thinners are the same as other lacquer thinners. Typically the first thing that comes to mind when someone mentions lacquer thinner is a "hot solvent" thinner that will "eat" or damage polystyrene. It is certainly true that there are lacquer thinners which are very "hot" and will damage polystyrene but there are others which will not Tamiya lacquer thinner (yellow cap) product no. 87077 will not damage polystyrene. It is mostly isopropyl alcohol ( i.e. IPA (not India Pale Ale ) cas no. 67-63-0 ). I have tested this several times. In fact I have soaked model "chrome" parts in this for several days with no ill effects. It will remove the "chrome" by softening the underlying lacquer/enamel causing the "chrome" to flake off. Better yet and my favourite is a 50:50 mix of Tamiya Paint Remover product no. 87183 and Tamiya Lacquer Thinner (yellow cap) product no 87077. These products can be re-used multiple times. The solid bits will settle to the bottom and can be filtered out. I have tried just isopropyl alcohol but found that it was not as effective as the Tamiya Lacquer Thinner (yellow cap) product no 87077 or Tamiya Paint Remover product no. 87183 or a mix of the two. I am purposely being very careful to note the Tamiya product names and product numbers as there are the only ones I have tested that I know work. I have not tested Tamiya Retarder Lacquer Thinner (orange cap) product no. 87194 but I have tested a couple of the Mr Color thinners ( but not all ) and they have something in their mix which will damage polystyrene if left to soak for any length of time. If you are curious as to what chemicals polystyrene is resistant to, there are many documents to be found on the web; including this one which I find is a good quick and handy reference: https://nationalpolystyrene.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Chemical-Resistance-Table.pdf cheers, Graham