Art Anderson

Art Anderson, who's sworn off ever posting on these boards, again.

My dehydrator has a downdraft fan, very gentle fan

Gee, Bill! I've had a water trap on my air line since 1963, and I live in Indiana, which from spring to late fall can be as humid as Florida (trust me on that one), and "blush" from my perspective, has always happened from the ambient air, NOT from air in my compressed air line. Now "blush" as I have seen it comes from my entrenched "layman" knowledge/experience, as opposed to the professional experience from you, and the numerous professional spray painters I have known over my 74 yrs of life. BTW, my moisture (water) trap has been connected to the various compressors I have used, since early 1963, bu a minimum of SIX feet of hose, OK--and it's done its job perfectly ever since. Art

Geez. and all these years, I've decanted rattle can paint into my airbrush jars, by simply spraying it, GENTLY (by not pushing down the aerosol nozzle fully!) into my airbrush color jar! That has worked for my for decades, since my first airbrush purchase (using paper route tips and Christmas money, way back at holiday time in December 1961--before a lot of YOU were born!). Back in those days, we then-teenaged model car builders learned by the "school of hard knocks" a lot of the time! Art Anderson (nearly age 74 now!)

Actually, this is an "Old Wive's" tale. When you compress air, it gets warmed up (did you ever take Physics in HS or College?), and when you release that pressure, it cools way off (Again, did you ever take physics in HS or college?). i don't give a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH what any airbrush/air compressor manufacturer or seller tries to say--a moisture trap needs to be separated, downline from the compressor, period. I have a 30-yr old Binks air compressor, which is connected to a 6' hose to a Binks water trap that I bought way back in 1962 (!), with a hose from there to my airbrush. Not in more than 50 yrs have I had any issue with moisture interfering with my airbrushing, PERIOD, end of statement!

Uh in summer, here in IN, the humidity can be just as bad as in Florida (Sorry, Floridians, you do NOT have a monopoly on humidity, regardless of your opinion!). Any moisture trap NEEDS to be a distance down line from an air compressor, in our environment--mine is at the end of a 6" hose from the air compressor (the trap and that hose are now well over 50 yrs old, BTW), and that setup has NEVER betrayed me. Art

My Dehydrator is an Oster, bought at Walmart back now 8 yrs ago, with it's temp preset and fixed, ad 125F. It has worked, each and every time I've used it, with styrene, RESIN (known to be temperature sensitive!) and metal parts, for "baking" paints, both enamel and lacquer, dry and hard. It works for me EVERY time it's used, so IMO, no need for a bunch of "rocket science"! Art

Steve, GOOD point!

Even better: Use a bit more liquid cement, squeeze the two halves of the engine block (oil pan too if part of the halves of the block in the kit) tightly together, enough to "squeeze" out a "bead" of plastic--let dry for a couple of days, sand smooth! That has worked for me, every time I've tried it, for now decades! Art

And just to think--I just got done convincing Dave Metzner that the windshield shape of the upcoming Moebius '65-'66 Ford F-100 kit required serious revision. Years pass, times change, model companies evolve, but I'm here to say guys: "The fat lady has yet to screech that high note that shatters the crystal goblet"!!! Art

Face it guys, our hobby is no longer the province of the 11-15yr old age group, in fact it hasn't been since at least the middle 1970's or so. There is an "age of entry" though, albeit nowhere near as huge, but passionate nonetheless--about 20yrs old or so (Junior, our model car club's youngest member notwithstanding--but then, for him it's a family thing, Dad, Mom and his 16yr old sister all build as well). Around here, it seems that the "age of entry" into all forms of scale modeling is late teens to early 20's, not surprising given that while once upon a time, our two local hobby stores were located downtown--a nickel bus ride for a kid, or even easy for kids to reach by bicycle. Today, however, our LHS is on a 4-lane thoroughfare, which has no sidewalks, not even a true bike lane--it's reachable by CityBus, but even that has but one stop, that being in the driveway leading to one of our multi-screen movie theaters, and you have to dodge 40-45mph traffic to cross the street to that hobby shop. Once inside, to get to the plastic model department, one has to walk past a counter-top display of no less than 30-35 RC offroad truck models, along with all the parts and accessories, but still, whenever I go into RC Hobbies Plus, there is at least one kid, in the perfect age range for starting to build, back there scoping out the model kits--but almost always, no parent willing to sacrifice a Saturday night once a month, to transport his/her son to our model car club meetings (no matter the sheer number of glossy-finished Lafayette Miniature Car Club Cards I've handed out over the years!). But this does not mean that today's kids don't appreciate scale models, as they certainly do. Back in November, I was starting to mentor my youngest grand-nephew Jacob, just turned 8, in second grade--due to his Dad's preoccupation with Jake's mother's terminal cancer. For his second grade class, having the first unit of American History to study, I helped Jake build up the old Monogram 1903 Wright Flyer, and look up the story of that plane, and when it first flew (6 days before my Dad, Jake's Great Grandfather, was born!). It was really something for this old, white-haired greatuncle to sit in the back of that private school classroom, and listen to Jake tell the story (even down to the birthdate of the great-grandfather that he never got to see). HIS hands built that model, which is really quite easy, but an 8yr old does need some guidance!, the only thing I added for it was to do all the rigging of the bracing wires. That airplane, and Jake's scrawled report on it, are still ensconced in one of the showcases at Lafayette Christian School, where I pick him up every afternoon, to take him to his dad's cabinet shop after school). Who knows, perhaps next year or the year after, he and I might have to do a model car, again as a school project, or better yet, just for fun! Oh, and later this summer, I probably will take him to his first model car show, someplace. Art

True, on Model Railroader, but then, someplace, I have a Walther's Catalogue, from 1940 (the year that the late William K. Walthers started his company--met him personally in 1965, when he visited here, was a guest of the Purdue University Model RR Club), and yes, that catalog was nothing but parts--save for manufactured freight car trucks, and some rather crude couplers, that was about it. I also have a kit, all wood stock (none precut) with molded plastic wheel/tire units, along with a molded plastic radiator and steering wheel, a kit of the legendary Locomobile "Old 16", produced by Oscar Kovaleski Sr--who with his son Oscar Jr, founded the now legendary "Auto World" (whose catalogs fascinated thousands of Baby Boom kids back in the 1960's). I watched my older brother, John, as he built up a bunch of the old ACE hot rod kits (balsa blocks with spruce sheet for the body sides) and cheap bakelite wheels, when I was no more than 4 or 5 (he was 12-13 at the time--by the time I was old enough to even think of building stuff, those ACE kits were long gone). aRT

I'll be 74 come July, been building continuously since a bout with rheumatic fever in the summer of 1952, mentored my oldest nephew in the art of model building in the late 60's to mid '70's (he is now one of the nation's premiere antique furniture restorers) has done restorations for Colonial Williamsburg, and certified to the Smithsonian), and Geoff's youngest son, 8yr old Jacob whom I also am mentoring (especially after he lost his Mother this past January) with building models--we will see where, and if, that takes Jacob anywhere down the road--he's an exceptional, wide-eyed 8yr old who views his world as "his oyster"!

But, back in the 1950's, what was the latest "hi tech" craze for 10-11 yr olds? Plastic model kits! I rest my case. Art

Well, if something isn't selling that much anymore, why make more of it? Some of us still remember when the square-bottle Testors paint lineup was a full SEVENTY FIVE colors, most of which declined in sales a few decades ago.

Jordan, an EXCELLENT point! If I might add, this and that other major model car forum, Spotlight, is mostly populated with modelers in their 40's to nearly 80 now- (I'll be 74 in just two months!), who remember, and pine for, that yet-to-be-done model kit of that special car of our youth, back when we were really young. But the real fly in the ointment, or so it seems to me, is that today's younger--potential--model car builder more than likely is not going to be interested in cars of the 1950's or 1960's, no more than we were as 12-16 yr old kids were, in cars of the 1920's or 30's (unless they were hot rod, or drag car subjects!)--even drag racing today is a sport that seems to cater to adults, some of us of somewhat advanced age--rather than the upcoming generation. And yet, this forum, as well as just about every other model car building forum out there, is populated mostly with guys who are either approaching middle age, or all the way out to approaching being super annuated (OLD, in other words). Model car kits of the latest, and greatest of modern cars do keep being done--but not for us, primarily the US market: Exactly why, I do not have that answer, but yet in other countries, other continents, kits of such subjects seem to do pretty well--perhaps that is due to a difference in the average age of model car builders overseas, or is it? DAMFINO. I would suggest this, however: IF this planet is still live and inhabited with humans still affluent enough as to afford a hobby, as 'frivolous" as model car building, by mid-21st Century, then there will be model car builders, and who knows, some of those future modelers will be looking back at the majority of us--one can only hope with respect.

Except for one thing: Scratchbuiding scale models has always been, and likely always be, a very small part of this or any other scale modeling hobby. Also, consider that any "scratchbuilding" effort involves planning, perhaps even scale drawings, then even the "art" of designing a model car body, let alone a complete kit, to be 3D printed, is closely akin to scratchbuilding, the only difference between that and "traditional" methods--the complexity and price tag of the tools, along with totally different skills needed in order to develop the software needed to instruct that 3D printer as to just how to do the job. OK, so use 3D printing as the tooling for mass-producing new model kits? Fine, if you want to wait a good bit of time for that new kit--an injection molding machine can kick out a fresh polystyrene model car kit in about 90-120 seconds, but having watched 3D printers in action numerous times (I work at Purdue University--perhaps all of you model car guys have heard of the place?), in a building which houses several fine-resolution 3D printers, and I am here to tell you that it takes several hours just to print one part, be that a single part, or a "tree" with multiple pieces--a 3D printer (as today's technology stands) moves only just so fast, and I can assure you that "just so fast" would mean, for at least the foreseeable future. Next, the cost: All the time, I read, on this and other forums, vociferous complaints about "the cost of a model car kit today" (Why, I used to get a cool AMT--or name your favorite poison--kit for just $2.00 (or so) when I was growing up. Uh, if you grew up with $2.00 (or less!) 1/25 scale model car kits, then you also grew up when a really good salary was no more than $10,000-$15,000 a year--a new 1500 sq ft house might have set you back (in most parts of the US--California excepted!) perhaps $35,000 or so, on-and-on. Many, but NOT all of you, know that I've been involved, somewhat directly, in EVERY Moebius model car kit (even a couple of Polar Lights back 12-13 yrs ago) model car kits during their development--currently in the midst of the development of their 1965-66 Ford F-100 series of 1/25 scale model kits. I've been on this one since day one--I assisted, on a very busy Saturday, 300+ miles away (more than 400 miles for Dave!) to measure, and photograph, some 6 of this vintage pickup--and no matter how many pictures, and how many measurements (an analog carpenter's rule, with every other inch blacked out, told us exactly just how many scale inches any and every dimension needed!), and even at that, when we'd seen the CAD files, AND the 3D scans, no matter how closely and intensely we looked at them, once test shots had been done (requires cutting steel tooling to get those, BTW), we saw discrepancies which did not show up to our eyes in the tooling mockups (which were 3D printed, BTW!). AND, I have not addressed the matter of body side trim, and oh yeah, those fiddly little badges and scripts--trust me, those do not easily come about when a tooling mockup (itself a 3D printed model kit part) is printed, only in the horizontal plane--but in our game, that is to be expected--some fine detailing of a steel tool still has to be done analog--a highly qualified, jewelry-capable sculptor working his tiny version of a Dremel, free-hand, in a process that is as old as injection-molding model car kit tooling itself. Now, how many "civilian" model car builders have both the hand/eye skills, and the tools to do that?. OK, now I have ranted enough--about stuff that many of you here (and on other model car message forums) probably don't want to hear, OK? But trust me, this IS a major part of any story as to just how any model kit gets developed--and it is NOT within the realm of possibility for the vast majority of us model car builders, OK, nor--I predict--not even close to the ballpark for any of us, perhaps not our descendants, in our lifetimes.

Round headlight bezels denote the '63 Avanti, which while it was publicly unveiled as the "Honorary Pace Car" for the 1963 Indianapolis 500 Mile race, wasn't ready for that task, so Lark Daytona convertibles were used. The square headlight bezel was pretty much the only styling change for 1964, and was what Newman & Altman continued with during their production of the Avanti II. I have a good friend here in Lafayette who as a '63 R-2 Avanti--it still goes like a scalded dog when prodded! Art

Amen on that! I also took delivery on the Rampside from Tom, at NNL-East (reserved the last one he had, FWIW). Once I get some other stuff out of the way here, likely that's gonna find its way to the workbench! Art

Jeff Harper, over on the Spotlight Hobbies Message Board, is working up a fully detailed version of this kit--revised the chassis, added a Corvair engine, along with corrected separate suspension. I too, have this kit, and believe me, it's one fine effort. Mine, when I get to it, likely will be strictly a curbside build though. Art

And, we older builders went through that when Lesney/AMT went through bankruptcy, back in 1981.

I've never used a clear coat over Scale Finishes paint, actually--just polished out the paint, waxed it, and that's it. Art

In the middle 1970's, many fire departments (at least out here in Indiana) went to using 1974 Oldsmobile "Omega Lime", which I was told at the time, was a "recommendation" from the US Dept. of Transportation, and in fact, the Lafayette (Indiana, where I live) ordered 3 ALF Century Series rigs--2 pumpers and a snorkel--in this very color, about 1975-76. This is a color that which MCW Automotive Finishes ought to be able to mix up, pack in a spray can for you. It's pretty much the original "Slime Lime". Art

Most assuredly not. Monogram's 1/32 scale Lola GT stemmed from its first being done as a 1/32 scale slot car body, way back about 1964-65 or so. Palmer, if anything, would have done a very crude rendition of it, frankly. Art

Peter. the Testors/Modelmaster units are polyethylene--I've used them for years now, with good results. Art