Dave Ambrose

I was in the same boat. I've discovered two things: The cleanup gets faster with practice. I now clean the inside of the airbrush by spraying lacquer thinner, then cleaning the inside using a cotton pipe cleaner dipped in lacquer thinner. The gravity fed airbrushes clean up very quickly with just a spray-through of thinner, and a bit of swabbing with a Q-tip. I'm totally sold on this type now.

The 20,000 Leagues Nautilus is perpetually a favorite subject. There are very few kits around and those that exist are expensive, probably due to licensing. I thought it was interesting to see high popularity on anything from Firefly and 2001, a Space Odyssey. I confess, I added my votes there too.

This shouldn't be a problem. Aluminum is soft and drills quite easily. To add to the above: You should use a drop of oil to lubricate the drill bit. They type isn't terribly important. 3-in-1 should work just fine. Also stop periodically, and clear the cuttings from the drill bit. It also helps to turn the drill counter clockwise when you withdraw it. You should avoid flexing the drill bit while drilling. You can't correct the direction by tilting it, so start as accurately as you can.

Thanks, everyone. I'm getting happier by the day. I don't actually care whether it's a boy or girl. It's gonna be awesome.

My daughter called, and asked whether I preferred Papa, Grand-dad, or Grandpa. I went for Grandpa. Baby's due November 10th. Well off any holidays, and out of our family's "birthday season"; a three week period where half the family has their birthdays. I don't know whether it's a boy or girl yet, I don't care. We're gonna have fun. Building models will likely be part of it, regardless of their gender. This whole grandparent thing is growing on me. I might just get to like it.

I like fluorescent tubes for over workbench lighting. They give you nice even lighting, without shadows. Now days, a magnifier light is a must for fine work. Between the two, I seem to do well.

Being able to get close is a valuable attribute for some applications, like underwater photography. Last time I did some actual tests, the Canon optics were better than Nikon's for close-up work. That doesn't prevent you from putting a weak magnifying lens to improve close-up performance.

Several of my highschool classmates served in that war. Viet Nam was terrible in so many ways. Everyone who went gave more than we should have asked for. So, my deepest thanks to all who went. I appreciate your sacrifice more than I can say. Hopefully, the life I've lived will be worth protecting.

There are also some suitable disks in the AMT '29 Double T kit. You can strip off the chrome and paint them with Alclad aluminum. The parts by Parks disks are better though.

Looks great. My daughter has this kit. Thanks for all the info!

That's awesome. They'll need your love, and just think, in a few years, you should get a new modeling building buddy.

Showed up here last week.

I had two reactions to being diagnosed with Presbyopia at 45: What the heck does Presbyterianism have to do with my eyesight? And I'm way too young for bifocals. But, bifocals it is, and I have a special pair of "office glasses" for computer use. This makes for 3 pairs of glasses I get to schlep around. Don't fight it. Get your eyes checked by a good optometrist and get the glasses you need. I have a magnifying light on my modeling bench and my general work bench. They help a lot. I find them more convenient than the tilt-down magnifiers, but for really fine work the tilt-downs can't be beat. I also have a lot of light available.

LOL - I had a '62 MGA when I was in college. Never shoulda sold that car.

I'm one of the people who keep the servers and forum software fed and watered. Like many here, I started building models when I was a kid. Put them away when I discovered that girls were interesting after all. Then picked them up again later in life. In my case, I started up again when my daughter was born. One of my daughters also builds models, but she's mostly into making Gundam dioramas. She does build the occasional car. Now days, I build mostly cars, but have some sci-fi subjects in the queue for this year too. I'm happy to be a member of the San Diego Model Car Club. I don't post very much here because I promised myself I'd spend more time building, and less time poking around the forums.

Amazing. There is actually an emoticon limit. I bumped it to four. just don't get all emotional on me.

One of the few regrets in my life was selling my 1962 MGA, Mk II. Loved that car. Haven't seen another one I could afford.

This board doesn't seem to like file names with spaces in them. If the board rejects the image, typically as wrong type or extension. Then look for spaces in the name and remove them, then reupload the image to the photo sharing service.

Great stories. Mine isn't quite as interesting, but I'll toss it out. I was 17 and bumming around with new friends after an astronomy conference. We decided to go to Seal Beach. The waves were big, at least 6 feet or so, and excellent form for body surfing. This was my first trip to a SoCal beach ever, and having been raised in Northern California, I was amazed that the water was in the 70's. We were out body surfing and I lost sight of my friend. I didn't see him in the water, so I looked for him on shore. Bad idea. I looked back, or rather up, to see a honking big wave. I had just enough time to utter something rude, and take a breath. The wave broke over me, flipped me over end for end at least twice, then left me on my hands and knees in shallow water. I had a terrible case of vertigo, and it took me a couple of minutes before I could even stand. My condition brought inquiries from a couple of cute girls in bikinis so it wasn't all bad. I swam back out, found my friend, and kept body surfing, but now I always keep a watchful eye on the surf.

You may be having a reaction from the toluene in the solvent. You're not likely to get permanent damage from a single exposure. You totally want to use a cartridge respirator. Get a couple of spare cartridges when you do. They seem to change the cartridge design, probably to induce you to buy a new respirator instead of new cartridges. You want the organic vapor cartridges. There are some with a plastic piece that go atop your head. Those are a lot more comfortable than the ones that use a single strap. Make sure it fits well to your face. You should not be able to take a breath when your hands are sealing the cartridge intakes.

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!