Aaronw

Some chemicals / compouds like lead are just plain gone (lead was used in red, not sure what other colors), but the big changes have been in the volitiles (the solvents and stuff that evaporate) which have been reduced due to air quality laws. In California a lot of this occured in the 1990s. I was working in the paint department of a hardware store and I know many complained about the quality of the new spray paint. I think like everything else the manufacturers have adjusted and found workable replacements to the initial compliant paints. I know I have either become a better painter or the paints have improved between the early 90s when I built my last model and 2002 when I got back into building. It seems like most of the current paints are far more forgiving than the stuff that was available in the 90s.

This is the first I've heard about another Mad Max movie. Interesting that they show the interceptor since it was blown up in the second movie. I share your hope that they don't screw this up, it could be fun if they do a good job.

You also might check your photo hosting site, I think some offer the option of reducing your photos to a set size.

You should have gotten a photo editing program with your camera, it seems like all come with some program. I leave the camera on the highest setting, you can always reduce the quality, but you can't go back in time and take the pic at a higher setting. If you open the pic in your photo editor you should have the option of resizing the photo. Most monitors have a resolution of less than 100 dpi (I think 72 is standard). When you select image size it will usually show you the size in pixels (example 1600x1200) or inches, and show the resolution measured in dpi (example 300dpi). Just change the dpi to something like 72 or 100, and change the pixles to 800x600 and that will give you a good size for posting on a website. If you decide to make other alterations (crop, adjust color, lighting etc) do that before changing the image size.

Perhaps they have nefarious plans to get their kits into a mainstream chain store like Target, Toys R US etc and want a full line of paints and tools to sweeten the deal. Testors definately has an advantage over some of the other paints since they have tools, several lines of paint, sand paper and occassionally model kits. As far as hobby shops I could see a some providing space for part of the line, like the car colors, a rack of 20-30 colors would only take up about a cubic foot of space and would offer something different. Very few hobby shops stock the whole Model Master Acryl line, they just have the basics. Acryl also has a fantasy and marine line of paints but I've only seen one shop carry those. Even fewer stock MM and Polly S (both owned by Testors). and Monty, Saphire should be blue in my reality too.

Look for the Lindberg 3 in 1 '34 Ford truck kit. It is a nice kit with lots of optional parts and its only about $12, sometimes cheaper on ebay.

I don't know about the paints being a terrible idea. Model Master is dominated by military colors, as is Tamiya, Polly S and Vallejo. Citidel / Games Workshop is focused on fantasy figures. If Lindberg were to offer a line of paints with lots of accurate model car colors, they might be able to find an unfilled niche.

I have a Canon Powershot S3IS I really like. Canon is now 2 generations past mine they did an S5 and I forget the latest version, they changed the name completely (I think it is the X10 or something). It is on the upper end in price for a point and shoot though, around $400 4 years ago. If you really just want a general purpose camera you can also take photos of your models with, almost any digital camera will work these days. I think even the real cheap ones are around 3-4 mega pixels which is more than enough for posting pics on the computer. The one feature you really want to look for is that it has a macro for taking close up shots. A manual setting is nice too, so you can adjust the light balance and shutter. If you take the pics at a high resolution setting then you can use a photo editing program to zoom in to the photo to show off detail even closer. Most of the pics you see of a dashboard or other small detail is usually done in a photo editor, not by getting 2" from the model. I like Canon but pretty much all the name brands (Canon, Olympus, Nikon, Sony etc) should be pretty good.

Yeah those High Rollers kits would probably do pretty well. Unlike most of the monster trucks with a little work and some stock ride height wheels you can make a nice stock-ish 4x4 and OOB they are a nice lifted 4x4. None of the new kits really grab me but there are some re-issues that are nice to see again like the Ford F250, '37 Ford truck, and White Road Boss. The Sikorsky is nice to see again too, I was just starting to look around for another one. The Lonestar seems like an odd choice for a first time out with a truck, but it is nice to see someone doing an all new semi. I'm guessing they are hoping the wild styling of that truck will attract people who normally don't build heavy trucks.

I've read elsewhere it is from Lindberg and in 1/144 scale so its going to be pretty big (about 4 feet long if my math is right).

I have used Model Round up many times. The ordering method is a bit dated and awkward compared to some but their service and prices are good. They have a good selection of kits from the US based model companies, not as good for Tamiya, Fujimi etc. They ship pretty quickly, not the fastest but not bad, I think most of my orders have arrived within a week to 10 days of placing the order. Star Models is good for resin. I use Tower for a lot of my supplies and kits. Lately I've found Model Round Up has better prices on domestic car kits, but Tower also stocks other types of kits (I build a little bit of everything, not just cars). Their shipping is super fast, I've had many orders arrive in 2-3 days. They use a flat rate for shipping so large orders really help cut your shipping cost. http://www.towerhobbies.com/ I've also used Megahobby several times. Sometimes they have a better price or offer a kit the others don't. http://www.megahobby.com/ For foriegn kits you can find some really good prices from some of the Japanese and Hong Kong sellers, Hobby Linc Japan, and Lucky Model are two I've used. Shipping really factors into these so watch the charges closely. Most are weight based so if you pay attention you can figure out where the shipping prices jump and try to stay under the big jumps. Patience also pays off, surface rates are much cheaper but you may wait 4-8 weeks for your order to arrive. There have been several posts like this recently so it might be worthwhile to search, you may find some shops listed in another thread that doesn't get listed here.

Those little gaps on the bottom don't look too bad to me, but if you really want to get rid of them, I'd suggest getting some styrene strip. If your local hobby shop doesn't carry it try a model train shop. It comes in a variety of thicknesses and widths, I'd suggest a variety, maybe .010" to .040" which would be under $10 and provide enough to shim a dozen or so models. As far as the bumper & grill sticking out that is going to be a matter of finding the offending bumps causing it to stick out and sanding them off. I like what you did on the bottom, it is a nice mild weathering job just right for an un-restored old car.

There might be a diecast in 1/25 but I don't know of anything in plastic or resin. I have a diecast 50's IH pickup but I think it may be later than 1950.

I just saw a resin KW Bullnose on ebay, it sold for $139. It didn't say who the caster was. Does anyone have a list of what Illini did in the past, just to give me an idea what might be coming in the future?

One persons off topic is another inspiration for their next build. Photos of 1-1 hippy campers (little wooden house built on a pickup) would be model car related to some and off topic to others. I think the flaw in Harry's poll was including politics, yes there are some who want nothing that does not have an actual model car in it, but I think most were voting against religion / politics. There is such thing as too off topic even for an off topic area but I don't really know where that line is, except for spam.

I made some books to put in a hazmat truck and fire engine I built, I don't see why you couldn't do something similar for a calculator. I took photos of the real book covers, then shrunk them to scale and printed them out. Then I glued them to a piece of styrene sheet cut to size to give them some thickness.

Harry & George took care of #1. Jimmy Flintstone has done a couple of pro car ambulance and hearse kits, back then the same body was often used for use as either, some actually did double duty working as an ambulance and a hearse. Many are designed to be used with the Ecto1 kit, but some are complete kits. He also has a couple you can use to make the Galaxie '48 Chevy into a hearse or ambulance. The transkits are pretty reasonable, the full kits get kind of expensive. R&R also has some ambulance kits which could also be built as a hearse. You can get Jimmy Flintstone and R&R kits through Star Models http://resinrealm.net/Star/FlintstoneGalle...ntstoneAll.html http://resinrealm.net/Star/RRGalleries/RR_All.html You will find Jimmy Flintstone stuff for sale on ebay occasionally too. Chris Mooney has built several of the Jimmy Flintstone bodies as ambulances, you might be able to find them in the under glass area.

That is good news, all of the stuff looks great but I am particularly happy to see some 50s Kenworths. KWs were popular for fire apparatus in many hilly cities in the 50-60s.

Me too, I haven't picked up too many of these releases but that is because most of what I was interested were late on the list and only now, or (hopefully) soon to arrive. The IH 4300 semi, FL DD semi, flatbed trailer and Model T being the ones I'm really looking forward to. I really hope they announce more trucks. The IH S series trucks and the '77 Ford truck Model King released a few years ago would be nice. The IH trucks have been gone for years and the Ford has been hard to find for at least a year or two, I just saw one go for $43 on ebay the other day, it was the first I'd seen in a few months.

I have to wonder if all these its too hard to remove the fuel tank people would even know its in the wrong place? Besides its not the first time a manufacturer made an incorrect kit. I'd accept a new truck kit even if it is a Ford* with a minor error. * nothing against Ford, I'd just prefer to see anything but a pre-1950 Ford truck since we have nothing but Fords except for the '41 Chevy.

I'm voting yes but with a restriction on "hot" topics. There is a place for even mild political / religious topics but not for heated debate. The topics about GM & Chrysler do have some place on a board about model cars, even maybe government control is a good / bad thing as it is related to what we may have to model in the future. Topics degenerating into the socioeconomic value of post marxist socialism and its relationship to the Mayan calendar probably do not. If it is likely to cause bad feelings between board members it most certainly should not be there. A place for relatively harmless topics like recent movies, show me your pets, kids etc are harmless and can bring a closer feeling of community to a board even if it has nothing to do with model cars. While we are talking about adjustments how about an other than car models under glass section. Many of us build other stuff and it would be nice to see what people are building even if they are not cars.

Model kits?

Thanks for posting this, I'm the one who was asking about the Mad Max cars. Fantastic job on the MFP Interceptor, only now I'm looking at your Avatar and wondering what a Model T would look like in MFP colors. I guess I haven't had enough coffee yet.

Sorry Harry (and Poland) #18 is Poland, I guess I must have started drifting towards the end of that post. Saudi Arabia and most of those middle eastern oil producers are one trick ponies, they do sell billions in oil, but that is all the sell. The US is the #3 oil producing nation, Saudi Arabia beats the US by about 10% for #2, the US produces more than twice what #4 Iran does. #1 is not even in the middle east, it is Russia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chart_of_expo...f_oil_by_nation It is actually rather interesting to see who produces oil, only 4 middle east nations even make the top 10.

The beginning of Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Star Wars are 3 of the most memorable movie beginings for me, just sort of do de da for a few minutes of credits then wham they smack you in the head with a frying pan. When I was a teenager I got Mad Max and The Road Warrior on VHS, we figured out how to run the VCR through the stereo and shook the windows of the house with the car chase scenes.