Dave Ambrose

Those things are awesome, and you have a wonderful friend. That circular illuminator should be a real help. Many years ago, I had to work one Saturday. So did my wife. I took my three kids to work, brought my wife's box of fossils, some sodas, and set them down with the soda, and fossils at an inspection microscope in the lab. Didn't hear a peep out of them for three hours except to ask where the bathroom was.

I haven't run into any problems with spoons vs. bodies, but that might just be luck You second point is well taken. I'll have to try that. I haven't run into any coverage problems with opaque paints. My technique is to go find the corners and other hard to get to spots, and spray them with a light coat first, then spray the main areas going front to back, then change the direction 90 degrees and spray again going side to side. Learned that painting rockets and aircraft. It seems to work well.

What size of tip are you using in your airbrush? I use a number 5 in my Paasche VL, and it still seems a bit small sometimes.

My preferred testing medium is a white plastic spoon. Same plastic as our models, cheap, and the curve on the back side gives you some idea of what it will look like on a fender. I got a lifetime supply at Costco for $10. Orange peel is caused by the paint being too dry when it hits the model. The two possible cures are more solvent, and/or a slower drying solvent. Also make sure you're putting down enough paint. The part should be wet, and you'll have to discover the difference between enough paint and runs. This is all best done with spoons. Another factor which you don't control is humidity. On a dry day, the solvent will evaporate more quickly. I see you're in Ventura and I presume that you're in SoCal too. I don't spray paint anything when there's a Santa Ana. It's too windy, and I have yet to find a solvent that evaporates slowly enough. My own experience with airbrushing Tamiya was a disaster, and I haven't tried since then.

No worries. If you remember your old user name, I can take that older content, and put it under your current user name.

Welcome to the forums. If you can PM me your original user ID, I can merge the two accounts.

I love their music I was fortunate enough to see them when they performed here, and again in Toronto on Canada day. Truly a talented singer, songwriter, and performer. He funded some amazing charitable projects too. Truly someone worth missing.

Good luck. As much as we like to believe otherwise, medicine is not an exact science. Took a several tries and a lot of perseverance to get my afib problems resolved, but I'm doing great now. Hopefully, you will get well too.

There are bugs in the forum software. This is our next upgrade.

I don't make a lot of purchases from eBay, but I found that the Japanese vendors are exceptionally good. I was looking for one particular kit, and a Japanese vendor had it on auction for a lot less, even including shipping. It got here in less than a week in perfect condition. They had done some additional packaging inside the box. Gave that guy 5 stars with complete enthusiasm.

We have a profanity filter. It transliterates your misbegotten word into something family safe. You may use all the antifanity you want..

I've used Bare Metal Foil and Tamiya clear red. It works well. I haven't tried it, but my gut feel is that Tamiya clear read straight over the Molotow pen is going to end badly. Test that on something disposable, and let us know how it goes!

The Petersen is one of my favorite museums. Another one is LACMA, which is just down the block from the Petersen.

I've been using the little three pack Gorilla Glue. This is a thick CA glue, but the tube seals well, unlike the Zap CA glues. I gave up on those after multiple failures to seal, and high price.

How did I miss this? It's awesome.

I got a clean bill of health from my cardiologist. No more followups unless my afib comes back.

It doesn't matter what you're selling. Retail is brutal these days. I'm fully stocked with kits (at least according to my wife), but I buy paint, and some tools at our local hobby shops. At least around here, the RC sections of the hobby shops keep the rest of it afloat.

I had to look twice at this. SMH is also an acronym for Shake My Head.

I thought the Fairladies were the previous models; 1600 and 2000? That's a very nice looking Z. Z-cars are classics, and will still look good 100 years from now.

Looks good to me too.

You must be way north. Good quality mineral spirits are a decent second choice. The ModelMaster thinner is high-quality mineral spirits. We have higher temperatures and lower humidity, so the slower drying time helps me a lot. Metalizer is a lacquer. You can also use lacquer thinner, or better yet, Xylene. Both are available at your local hardware store. Given your location, something that evaporates faster is probably better, so I would certainly try lacquer thinner. Whatever you do, test it on a plastic spoon first.

Clearly, someone has more dollars than sense.

If you're airbrushing it, I've found the ModelMaster airbrush thinner to be much better than the standard hardware store paint thinner. (Paraffin for those in the UK) It's better refined and dries better. That's all I use for thinning the ModelMaster paints, and it lays down well.

Another reminder -- please, this is not the place to do anything more that express condolences and anxiety. Political discussions are important, but we have neither the inclination or the skill to manage them here. Please take them elsewhere. Thanks, Dave Ambrose

Tonight's primary mission was mostly accomplished. You should see a healthy performance improvement, and it should stay that way. If the board is being inordinately slow, drop me a PM and let me know what you were trying to do when the slowness hit, along with the date and time (with time zone please). Thanks for being patient. Hopefully, things will be better now.