DanielG

Happy anniversary Lois! 38 years today. Who would have thought that it would have lasted this long, not your mother (God rest her soul), that's for sure!

Sorry for your primer woes. I was just down to my last drop when I managed to grab a couple of tins. Does someone know what primer recommended for Testors' laquers, maybe it would work for Tamiya laquers as well?

Sometimes a difference in toughness between the plastic and the filler can cause problems as it sands away at different rates and then there is the possible shrinking problem. You can try disolving sprue in liquid glue to make a goop for small filling jobs in plastic, it will sand out the same. You can also try gluing in scrap plastic so as to reduce the amount of filler needed. A thin fill is usually better than a thick one. As said above, using the paper with a stiff backing will take off the high spots better. I don't like the foam boards because I think that they 'give' too much. I ALWAYS use Tamiya primers with Tamiya laquers. You may be able to sand out the crazing on the body, maybe by repeated sandings and primings until (hopefully) smooth.

If your work-bench is not held off the floor by all the boxes stashed underneath it then you are not doing your part to boost the economy!

Always be careful, a link could take you somewhere you may not want to be, especially one that just says 'here'.

It seems to me that I remember Easthope made a three cylinder engine but with a bore of about 8" I don't think fuel economy was in the mix!

One of my all time favourite cars. I think the 240Z is one of those timeless classics that looks as good today as when it first rolled off the boat!

It would probably have been well used and would have dark areas near the stock and barrel bands etc. and worn in unprotected areas, just imagine where your hands would cause wear and tear. You could also give it a bronze barrel and escuteons etc, this was common for arms meant for sea use.

Hey, those Marines sure keep a clean tank!

Gnarley truck wheels and tires, roll-bar wth lights and seats in the back.

A brown finish would more than likely fit right in. If we are talking about an actual replica pistol you can get browning solutions that will do the job (on steel) or put the pistol barrel in a damp place, let it rust and scape it off with steel wool and repeat until happy with the colour. For small parts I used to leave them set in a briny solution until covered in rust and scape and repeat etc. Small parts like screws etc. can also be heat blued, they are polished bright and then heated until a nice rich blue colour is reached then allowed to cool and oiled. You can also heat them red-hot and dump them into old engine oil and get a blue-black colour. If on pot metal or plastic then we are probably going to use a paint mix, polished smooth. Some military arms were polished bright (so they were nice and shiny on parade!). The accepted practice was to burnish the barrel with the ram-rod. If you are trying to replicate a factory finish I would suggest scouring the interweb and books for relevent pictures of new arms, the best examples being dueling pistols, they were nicely boxed and little used. Military finishes could be bright to black and anything in between. I hope this is of some help. If you have a particular arm in mind give me a PM and I will try do dig up some relevent info.

If I realize that I have made a mistake I fix it if it is going to torture me forever if I don't! Otherwise I consider it the 'potter's thumb'.

The panes are there, just rolled down!

Gun 'blue' is more black than blue. Tamiya dark blue sprayed over black is pretty close (or maybe their clear blue over black, have not tried that). Any how the point is to get a nearly black finish. The finish used to be called browning or blackening and is basically rusting the metal over and over naturally or with chemicals until the desired colour is achieved. You can also decide on the level of shine, some finishes are not a high gloss. So just take a look at what you are trying to replicate and choose your paint colour. No one can say you are wrong.

Cool!

Looks pretty hi-tech!

Great metal work (as usual!).

Having the light just right and a slightly out of focus picture!

Update: I didn't make the seats fold down but I did change one so that it is folded and left the other up. I was going to post earlier but spent a couple of sessions re-doing the forward part of the deck which just was not good enough! I am also having to ration my Tamiya primer.

Excellent progress!

Two thumbs up!

The protection granted to US manufacturers is dependent of their defending any and all infringments of their trademarks/copywrites no matter how small, hence their seeming nitpicking. They have no choice if they want to keep the protection granted by the relevent authority.

Thanks Dave. They say a picture is worth a thousand words so at the risk of boring everyone I am trying to explain my method through the pictures. I maybe should have taken a pic of the interior in mid-construction but it was mainly filling in the deck and panels with styrene and CA soaked balsa. The rear seats are re-worked front seat-backs from the cannibalized TA.

One of my favourite aircraft as well. Could have and should have had a super-charged Allison from the beginning. Another instance where fuzzy planning cost lives at the pointy end.

I think that would be the tank commander with the binoculars.