Dave Ambrose

My musical taste is all over the map, though I never venture into the lands of Country, Hip Hop, or Rap. I usually listen to Alternative whilst I build, tho lately it's been Weather Report. When I'm programming, it's almost always 20th Century Classical.

I don't think there's ever been a better time to be building model cars. The Internet has put the world's largest library at our fingertips. That makes a huge difference because we're no longer limited by publishers interests. Back when we only had magazines for information, we were limited to reading about things that would be reasonably popular. Not so much any more. Now we have the opposite problem. That, by itself is a huge impact and enabled a lot of other things like: This forum. A plethora of cottage industries that can now affordably reach people who need their products. ...which brought a huge variety of detail parts, transkits, and other items which add interest to our hobby. Our selection of paints is much better than it used to be. Model companies, who can now more accurately gauge interest before commiting to products. A bunch of people who rediscovered their interest in model cars (or other subjects). Coming soon: 3D printing 3D scanning Software that will make use of the above devices. We'll start by using 3D printing to make masters for resin casting. Eventually, we'll be able to use 3D scanning to capture things like car bodes. Then we can make the masters with 3D printing. Right now, neither technology has either the reliability or the performance to be mainstream for a cottage industry.

I had so much trouble airbrushing Tamiya pain(t) that I quit and went back to Model Masters enamels. I would try these: Add more thinner. The paint is drying before it reaches the model. Make sure you're using the airbrush thinner. Regular thinner will be more volatile and evaporate too quickly. Get closer. This might mean putting on a lighter coat. Reduce your air pressure. Switch to enamels. In my experience they behave much better, especially if you use the airbrush thinner to thin out the paint. It evaporates just a little slower so the paint is liquid when it reaches the surface. Some people use lacquer thinner to spray them, but I find that just orange peels here in our very dry conditions.

I have a few feline helpers on my hobby table. We put a cat bed in the back corner which acts as a containment. That way, they don't sprawl and push parts off the table. Here's Button, keeping an eye on my progress.

Ausgeseichnet!

It can happen if you glue them with cyanoacrylic glues. Use white glue and you won't have that problem.

Try the Testors Wet Look Clear. It does a pretty good job. Let it dry overnight before handling the car. It might feel dry, but the paint is still soft.

I'm not seeing any useful skins that will address this problem. Sorry. We used to have more skins, some featuring truly hideous color combinations. But they don't come with the board software any more.

I put an automotive droplight (turned on) into a cardboard box with the model. Does a pretty good job and doesn't cost me anything. It's a good idea to wipe out the inside of the box with a damp cloth. Then it will keep dust of the model too.

We have several locally owned hobby shops within a 30 minute drive. I usually patronized Discount Hobbies in San Diego. They have a lot of good stuff, but most importantly, a huge paint selection. They cover cars, armor, and aircraft. Cars aren't the most popular subject around here, and none of the hobby shops carry a deep selection.

That was painful to watch. I suspect the Stanford Band made themselves up to look like the Broncos and locked the real fooball players in a back closet..

At the bottom of the page, you will find a link that says Change Theme. It has regular and mobile. Do not select the mobile. You cannot switch back. You have to contact me, and I'll change it back for you. We might be able to download a theme that will address your problem. Is light blue an OK background color?

Barnes and Noble carries it in their hobby section.

Hi Kyle, Welcome to the forum. It's a good place to be. Lots of good content and good people. I even hear that even the admins are nice.

I have a Craftsman oilless compressor that's been working great for a few years now. It has a 26 gallon tank and a 150PSI working pressure. You probably don't need that large a tank, and I think they have a model with the same compressor and a 12 gallon tank that should be just about perfect. Mine came with an air ratchet and an impact wrench. Just be sure you follow the break-in instructions.

The craft stores operate one season ahead. People need time to build their projects. I can accept that reasoning. I cannot accept Home Depot putting up Christmas decorations (more like desecrations) before Halloween and including an inflatable T. Rex with a Santa hat. That just made me want to put to sea and not come back.

When you run into posting problems, the first thing to do is clear your browser cache. I've seen instances where corrupted files get downloaded and cached. You have to clear it from your browser options, or settings. Please let me know if that does or doesn't clear the problem. If it doesn't, I'll burrow into it this evening.

I'm not spending as much time here as I used to, but I use it frequently.

Perhaps not too surprising, but I'm a software engineer.

I'm sure there will be lots of differing opinions. The reality is that there are a lot of workable alternatives. I recommend getting a compressor with a tank. So long as you have a filter, it shouldn't matter whether the compressor uses oil or not. That said, the oiless compressors are less maintenance and don't need a yearly oil change. I don't care for the diaphragm type airbrush compressors. Their line pressure pulsates when you have the airbrush full open. The nail gun compressors at the home improvement stores should have plenty of capacity for airbrush work. You should also have a regulator with filter and moisture trap, and pressure gauge so you can repeatably adjust your air pressure. It's a critical variable in your airbrush setup. Make sure you do not get a filter-regulator-lube device. The lubrication feature puts oil in your air line. It's great for air tools, but the last thing you want feeding your airbrush. I have a Craftsman shop compressor. I added a separate regulator with a filter/moisture trap for my airbrush. Whatever airbrush you get should be impervious to lacquer thinner. If you aren't spraying lacquer, then you'll be using lacquer thinner to clean the airbrush. I have a Paasche VL. The set is a real workhorse and will last you a lifetime of models. It's available for a reasonable price if you shop online. The kit comes with three different nozzle/needle sets. They'll cover handle about everything from spraying bodies to fairly fine detail work. You also get two bottles and a color cup. Again covering just about any reasonable need. It also comes with a nice hose. It doesn't coil, but it's flexible and doesn't readily kink. I have an Iwata Eclipse BCS. It's beautifully made, but very much optimized for thin inks and fine line widths. I don't know about the other Iwata airbrushes, but if you can find one with a sufficiently wide spray pattern when using paint, it should serve you well. Iwata cups and bottles will interchange with the Passche airbrushes.

Welcome to the forum. Knee surgery was my route back into model cars too. It's still boatloads of fun and there are tons of great kits and aftermarket parts available. I only occasionally buy kits at the hobby shop any more. I mostly get mine at model contests and other shows.

That is a very nice motor. Thanks for the review. Now, if I could just get a 1:1 for a reasonable price, my MGB would be totally thrilled. :-)

We have a 60 gallon tank in the living room. I'm glad for football season as I can now watch the football game and do tank maintenance. This is the best kind of multitasking.

For me, it was more of a curiosity stimulant than a source of information. It caused me to ask questions. I needed multiple sources too. My dad was a smart guy. He could talk for an hour on how rocket motors work, chamber profiles and pressures, and the role of the nozzle, and why you want different shapes as you get more altitude. But, he couldn't tell me very much about cars. Fortunately, my brother in law was willing to put up with a snotty-nosed kid asking a lot of questions about cars. I can't really tell you how I got interested in cars. It was just something I picked up. And Harry, I'm not trying to generalize my experience to everyone. But, I have seen the notion of model building as educational get traction with parents. Maybe we put some extra information in the instructions, of put it on a web site. Parents would use it. The important thing here is that it would open up modeling to a new audience. I'm not old enough to be aware if any kind of learning aspect was ever used to sell models. I've never seen it. But I do think that model building was considered a good, wholesome activity for boys. Now-days, we should include girls too.On that basis alone, it should be a good thing.

I can only speak from my personal experience. I built all kinds of models as a kid; ships, planes, cars, Oddly enough, no armor. but from that I learned how things were put together. It wasn't perfect and some of my attempts to build flying airplanes were doomed from the start, but I still learned. It probably helped that my dad was an engineer and could answer most of my questions. Most people have only the vaguest notion about how cars work. They'd almost certainly get a much better idea from building a model.