Dave Ambrose

Nice work. I'm looking forward to more.

Looks interesting. I've been thinning squadron white putty with lacquer thinner and brushing it into tight spaces. I wonder if this stuff will work better?

I think we get even less winter here than the good Dr. does. But it does rain. I'm well-stocked with kits, paint, and supplies so I can hunker down during big storms and build. Painting gets to be tricky. I tried spray painting under the patio cover during a rainstorm once. Not gonna do that again. If I do anything now, it's in the garage. But other than that, I'm set.

I like the concept and the execution so far. Looking forward to more.

You can also use a common CO2 tank for beverage dispensers. It will be totally silent. The gas will also be completely dry. My friend is a professional artist and she gets about 6 months out of a single fill on a 25lb tank. You might need to cobble up some plumbing to get the airbrush hose attached, but if you can get to a 1/4" pipe thread, you should be set.

Very nice. I like the color too.

Bamboo barbeque skewers have been one of my handier parts holders. you can wedge the pointed end into holes in the part. The skewer also fits snugly into a Radio Shack alligator clip.

I use a 50/50 mix of Windex and denatured alcohol. It will remove both wet and dry acrylic. Works decently well on latex paints too.

Oh dear. I remember those. Thanks, dude, now I'm feeling old.

That is just flippin neat. Rats, now I'll have to buy another Hornet kit. (I'm assuming that's the donor kit) My wife will be thrilled.

I'm probably an oddity, but I use mostly Model Master enamels. They work well for me. I have a "bake box" to speed drying. When I airbrush them, I thin them 1:1 with Testors airbrush thinner. The paint goes down thin and dries glossy. I've been using a Boyd colors lately, and liking them a lot. You can coat them with Wet Look Clear. I'll have to try thinning it with lacquer thinner.That sounds like a good idea. I do not like the enamel clear though. It really yellows the paint, and it gets worse with age. Testors sells their clear lacquer in a bottle and that seems to work well.

Like many things, they have their place. Yes, metal flakes are out of scale. But they look pretty good in some situations. e.g. Customs and Roth creations, where a wild paint job is a Good Thing ™. Oddly enough, my Surfite looks great in Lime Gold.

I have a trick that helps for find small parts on the floor. I take a flashlight and shine it parallel to the floor. Any small parts make long shadows that you can see. It's not 100% effective, but it works often enough to be useful. Besides, where would my scratchbuilding skills be if I never dropped any small parts?

I have no interest in diecasts. For me, the pleasure in having a model comes from the fun in building it. Just buying a model car and putting it on the shelf, doesn't create any sense of attachment.

A couple of things that haven't been mentioned 1) The market is now worldwide. We might not balance the trade deficit with model cars, but the do get sold in Europe. We buy Japanese and European models here. 2) Licensing fees. Manufacturers are charging to use their designs in models these days. I don't know how much it adds to the cost, but it's significant. I know there was a lot of consternation when Boeing started enforcing their trademark rights with kit manufacturers. 3) The cost for designing a kit is a fraction of what it was 20 or 30 years ago. We can thank cheap yet powerful PCs for that. CAD software is much more affordable than it used to be. There were also advances in mold making technology, combined with offshoring that supply chain. brought costs down further. Chinese companies can produce kits cheaply. Improved development methods have kept us alive. If we were stuck with the old methods, we wouldn't be producing any kits at all. A production run for a popular kit is 10% of what it was in the late 60's and early 70s. There's just no place to amortize the development and tooling costs. Taking inflation into account, kit costs are twice what they were in the 60's. Given the shrunken market, I think we're doing well. I don't know whether the same market shrinkage has happened in Europe and Japan. Maybe someone who knows can comment. We also have a better distribution system. There are fewer levels, and online sales reaches the markets where there's no suitable hobby shop. Again more volume keeps the cost reasonable. I can sympathize with the younger people. I think it's safe to say that we all build cars in scale that we'd be thrilled to have in real life. I'm interested in Salt Flats and land speed record cars. Those are pretty tough to find in any era. Still, I feel thankful. We have good products. We have a good community. We're all having fun. What's not to like?

This is going to be awesome. I'm looking forward to more. (or is that "moar"?)

My easiest build was the Revell '60 Impala. It was for an automotive themed urban legends museum display. Built it as a curbside; glued the hood and trunk shut. It was there to be light colored and shiny. The kit fit together extremely well, and looked great when done. Wrapped it up in 6 hours, not counting paint drying.

We were talking along similar lines at our model car club meeting. Lots of good kits available, and we have a rich selection of aftermarket parts.We also have a great selection of paints. That counts for a lot too. I figure that you can build a nice model for $35-40 if you already have a basic paint inventory. That's a reasonable cost for 10 hours of recreation. It makes economic sense in tight times. As we get more people back, we're get some percentage who stay for a long time. In that sense, Tight times work in the model industry's favor. At least in the US, we're collectively retiring credit card debt at an astonishing rate. Once that gets down to a reasonable level again, people will start spending some , but not extravagant amounts of money. That will be good for the industry too. Sorry kids, you're just too fickle. Me, I'll be a marginal participant. I have enough models to last me for a few years, so I'm acquiring selectively.

First, I would still use liquid cement. Something like Tenax. Just lightly paint it over the stressed areas, or areas where you've shaved off things like door handles. If you don't fill the depressions, you'll see them in the paint. You have a couple of choices. One is to thin the putty with lacquer thinner and brush it on. It will settle into the shallow depressions, adhere, and not be too painful to sand off. Or, you can build up some primer in the depressions. Brush the primer into the depressions, and sand it back smooth. I've been using Squadron white putty. It's working well enough. You have to be careful to make sure it has enough solvent in it to adhere properly. If it starts to dry out, discard the old, and dispense some fresh putty. I hear Tamiya putty is top notch stuff, but I've never used it. I always prime after puttying or filling. One question - are you using some kind of sanding block? I usually use either a rubber eraser, or a "tadpole" on curved surfaces. Do not use fingers. They give too much and you don;t actually level out the surface like you want to. You should be fine sanding the primer with 600 or 800 sandpaper. This whole body prep process is somewhat tedious, but totally worthwhile. Keep your prime coats thin so you don't obscure all the detail, then fill, sand, and prime until you get it right. It makes all the difference.

I use Model Master primer, sand with 600 grit paper, and I haven't had problems with scratches showing through the paint. But, I've found that the Testor's lacquer isn't really one-coat. It usually takes a mist coat, and a couple of heavier coats to get good color. One other thing you need to do is make sure the model is degreased. I usually wipe it down with an alcohol dampened cloth. It takes off any oils without affecting the underlying paint. I suspect that you're seeing ghosting where the plastic is stressed, and the solvents are softening it enough to show through the paint. If you brush liquid plastic cement on the affected area, it should relieve the stress. Then you can prime, fill, and sand out the area until it's really level. Posting pictures will help us understand what's happening.

That's one pretty kitty. I love Jags, but have never gotten the wherewithal to buy one of my own.

We haven't been pulling the plug to just to yank people's chains. We've been having intermittent server crashes for months. We had no way to isolate the cause without taking the chat room down. We've changed servers three times trying to make this site work well. Once we figured out what was going on, Gregg went to the expense of upgrading yet again to a larger server. I'm still trying to work out some better alternatives. Look, I know this hasn't been fun for anyone. Look at all my posts in On the Workbench and you'll see what I mean. We've got the problem solved now, and I'd appreciate it if you all would get back to the usual level of banter on chat. I was semi-regular there, and was thoroughly enjoying it.

My Achilles heel? PAINt. Glossy finishes are a lot harder to get right, than flat finishes. I'm getting better with practice tho. Today, I've decided to ditch the rattle cans and stick with my airbrush. The airbrush makes it much easier to put down a light, smooth coat of paint. Prepping the body so it looks good seems to take me too many fill-sand-prime iterations. My worst vice is just giving up on a project when something goes seriously wrong, or I just get to a spot that seems too hard to finish.

That's a beautiful locomotive, but my favorite is the Southern Pacific Daylight engines. The 4449 is nearly sacred to die-hard railfans.

I use an eraser as a sanding block. The drafting types are softer and do a good job on curved items.