Dave Ambrose

I've done it both ways. Spraying on the tree, then touching up works best with flat, non-metallic finishes. But, for the most part, I assemble them into some rational unit, do any necessary filing and fitting, then paint them.

Welcome. you'll fine a lot of nice people and boatloads of good information here. All my childhood builds are gone, and that's probably a good thing. They were generally terrible. My current builds are better, but it's always a learning experience.

My eyeballs are steaming.

Congratulations. I see you went for the twofer. Have fun with them. I have one grandson who should be a pretty smart kid assuming he survives that challenging period between two and three years old.

Sorry, this has strayed into politics, which is one of those verbotten topics. Going to lock it now.

Unfortunately, Photobucket has turned into a large, steaming pile of fail. I can't get it to work at all for me. I hear Fotki.com is much better, and am signing up as we speak. For free and easy to use photo processing, I've been using IrfanView for years. Nothing fancy, but works well, and it's free.

Sounds like software.

While I started learning to wrench on American cars, I really became a competent mechanic on British cars, with all the attendant terminology. This sometimes caused problems when I went to get parts. I wanted a grub screw and couldn't remember the American name!

I saw a 1950-something COE truck. Not sure whether it was a Ford or Chevy, but it was nicely rebuilt and painted a dark blue.

At this point, constructive discussion seems to be over. I'm locking this topic.

I see this is trying to get out of hand. Rule number one around here is be polite. Please remember, and act on it. Mark, I suggest you rethink your business/website idea. Here's why. You generally want to go after expanding markets of sufficient size. Model cars are fun, but the consensus here is that while there is money to be made, the market is is not large, and it's shrinking, at least in the USA.The era of portals, and online magazines has mostly gone away. Google and Bing searches are very good. A bit of digging, and you generally find what you're looking for. There's still a place for pulling content online, but you need to be an effective curator of that content.Good content is more than just having good writers. The writing in Scale Auto magazine is generally very good because everything goes through a professional copywriter, and they have good production standards. But, it's got no soul, nor does it have any personality. You need those if you're going to be fun to read.You need to be authentic. Your candor regarding your interests is commendable, but coming in here with a name like ModelKitBuilder, then saying you have no interest in model cars is impolitic. Then you ask for free market research without establishing any common interests with those who're providing it. As you've seen, not being an authentically interested party can provoke hostile reactions.In our current-day Internet content, it's your own passion for the subject matter that really makes something worth reading or watching.While ad filled articles, (un)popularly known as clickbait are common, they are not well regarded, and will probably fall victim to improved ad blocking in the near future. This not to say you can't generate ad revenue. We use ad revenue to defray our operating costs. But, it's a lot harder now, and you need an active, committed community. That requires authenticity. (see above)At this point, you should pick something you're interested in, and pursue that. You'll find it much more satisfying. To everyone else, let's keep this civil. We're here to have fun, not get mad.

Please try it again. I made some setting changes.

Paint drama is the bane of my model building. There always seems to be some kind of problem. I'll get it figured out about the time I'm too old to build.

The figure I've heard is 10,000 hours. That probably varies with the field of expertise, but it seems right for anything of moderate complexity. That's 5 years of working full time. That's a lot of modeling time. I know I don't have that much into it.

Thanks for the update. Lots of best wishes from back here in the server room.

Glad to hear that the surgery went well. Keep asking questions, but your recovery sounds pretty normal.

I'm assuming it came in one of the usual rectangular metal cans. One other thing that will help is to tip the can with the cap is on top instead of the bottom. That means you have to tip the can further before it actually starts dispensing liquid. It will spill much less, especially after you remove some of the solvent from the can.

Welcome home.

This looks like a fun project. That Harrier engine is an odd one. You'll need the side vents to direct the bypass outlets to the rear. I'd also move the engine to the rear so you have plenty of air intake space. Most of the ground-based turbines I've seen also have screen domes over the intakes to exclude debris.

What a great idea with that Hudson, and beautifully done too. How did you mask and paint the roof?

Congratulations, Jim! I lost my dad to cigarettes. We might have been able to save him, but he couldn't stop smoking when he absolutely had to. Stay with it, you're going to feel better for it.

Welcome to the forum. It's good that you're building things with your son. Even if he doesn't get the bug, it will be good times. Take a look at the science fiction subject too. My kids don't build cars, but they do build Gundams, Main thing seems to be that the subject is interesting to them.

I don't know if this is the problem, but it's definitely a problem. I've been experiencing intermittent slowdowns for a while. They didn't seem to correlate to anything happening on this site, and a few other sites were affected too. But, as I discovered last night, having a Facebook tab caused my Firefox browser to consume memory like there's no tomorrow. It eventually fills its memory and things slow to a crawl. I started closing my Facebook tab, and things have been working much better. I don't know if this is affecting anyone else, but I put it out there as something to try.

Very neat project. My son just got a 3D printer, and we're looking at what we can do with it. What program you're using for your 3D models?

The real car used a Corvair engine. The fan would have been belt driven, but that detail has been left off. The turbos are freelanced on this one, but there were some turbocharged engines, so it's not completely outside the realm of possibility.