Aaronw

Very nice, I haven't seen a van with a mural on the side in years. It would fit right into a Cheech and Chong movie, just needs some smoke coming out of the windows.

I think everyone goes through spells where they just can't build. I really got that way about a year ago, I'd open a kit, maybe assemble the frame and then just put it aside unable to generate any motivation. Part of the problem was I like to build fire apparatus, but they are not simple builds. I started trying other things, painted some figures, built some aircraft, last March I built a helicopter and that really got me going again so last week I pulled out my Trumpeter fire engine and picked up where I left it more than a year ago.

Well H E double hockey sticks, there goes my article idea for an amphibous tank turned salt flat racer. Really guys, a traction motor is early construction / farm equipment. I hope a build of AMTs Cat D8 Dozer or one of their farm tractors fits here, it certainly doesn't fit in other magazines. There is more to car modelling than hotrods and lowriders, not that there is anything wrong with those. I'm still waiting for my issue, now I'm looking forward to seeing this article to see what the fuss is about.

I would try it one something unimportant like a piece of sprue, but I bet if you experiemented a bit you could make a brushable adhesive from Elmers glue. Just thin it with water to get a nice thin consistancy. You can clean the brush with water, but I wouldn't use a good brush just in case. You might even be able to use a finger to apply it if there are no tight corners you need to get into. I might give this a try myself since I don't have any stores that would carry something like gold leaf adhesive within an hour of me. That reminded me of Emo Phillips talking about his childhood. When I was a child my parents used to tell me to stay away from the basement door. One day when they were gone I open the door and saw all kinds of wonderful things... birds, trees, blue sky and clouds....

While browsing I realized I missed a whole 1/3 of the Big 3 How about a suggestion for a '70-74 'Cuda or Challenger, I've always liked the look of that car. Might as well recommend a Charger too. Also how are Revell's '69 GTO, 68 & 70 Firebirds? Definately starting to become a wish list instead of a shopping list.

I just saw a car posted on FSM that used it for a vinyl roof. Looks like it is worth playing with if you like vinyl tops. http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1080682/ShowPost.aspx

Pinecrest is out of buisness as far as I know. You can occasionally find a Pinecrest cab on ebay but they generally go for a good chunk of money. I am not at all familiar with the other casters so assume they are not around either. I can recommend the following truck sites for resin cabs and parts. http://www.aitruckmodels.com/ http://www.stsmodeltrucks.com/ http://www.freewebs.com/rmrresin/ http://www.sourkrautsmodeltrucks.com/ http://www.modelsbydave.com/ http://www.kitformservices.com/

Thanks, I've picked up several of the Mustang kits and need something to balance out all the Fords.

Thanks, not a lot on the NNL site yet, many links still go back to '08 some to '07. I'll see what gets posted closer to the date and see if there is something nearby my wife can take him to do when he gets bored. If it doesn't look like many activities they can hang out with grandpa like last year. He liked the models at the IPMS nats a couple years ago and is getting an interest in building more on his own so I thought it might be a good influence for him.

I use Future as well, it can be a little tricky if the light doesn't want to stay but otherwise never had a problem.

I'd love a 1-1 of any of those but I know the taxman won't have news that good, so I'll have to settle for kits.

It looks like there are some activities for kids at NNL West, I didn't really notice what they had last year, looks like maybe a make and take thing? Anyway if I drag my son along are there activities available throughout the day, I know he will start to get bored once he walks past the tables for the second time. He is 8 and does like to build stuff, just wondering if I need to plan on something for my wife to do with him while I drool on models and dig through the swap meet or if there are a lot of things for the kids to do there. Also with the make and take events are there people to help the kids? I'm not looking for a babysitter but I think it might be nice to have someone other than Dad (who can't keep his hands off the model) available to show him some things he can do. Thanks

I plan on going, I had a good time last year.

Kind of planning ahead for my next shopping spree (please taxman have good news next week ), I'd like to get a good 67-69 Camaro, preferably with the RS option, along with an early 70s 2nd generation Camero. I'd also like a couple of Chevelles, it looks like Lindberg does a nice '66, but I'd also like one of the later styles (68-72?). If I throw in a '69 Nova I should have the early Chevrolet muscle car genre pretty well covered. Thanks

Taco Bell caught a lot of flak over the Chihuahua, they probably don't want to take any chances with another "hispanic" character. Much safer to have bland commercials, besides I'm not really sure what the point of fast food commercials are anyway. You are hungry you stop and eat, I'm pretty sure by the time we can drive most of us have decided on our preferred fast food stops. I never see In and Out commercials and they seem to do just fine.

Silicone is pretty durable stuff so I don't think you have a lot to worry about. I also understand absorbing moisture is more of a problem than drying out. I bought some shoe box sized plastic boxes to store mine in, it helps keep them from getting dusty. I don't think it really matters of they are stored put together or seperate. I still have some of the first molds I made several years ago. Some have worn out from use but the ones that I don't use much are still good.

I love Achmed the Dead Terrorist, Walter is funny too. The DVDs have more stuff on them than the comedy channel shows, so its worth getting the DVDs.

Tamiya is frequently thrown out as "the best" but there can be some problems with Tamiya. #1 if you like American cars, Tamiya doesn't do very many. #2 if you want to detail a motor many Tamiya kits do not have a motor in them. This same goes for most of the other Japanese kits, Hasegawa, Fujimi, Arii, Bandai etc except the quality is not as reliably good as Tamiya (or so I've been told, I don't have a lot of experience beyond Hasegawa and Tamiya for car models). If you want to build American muscle cars you are pretty much looking at Revell, and AMT. Both of these companies have been around since the 60's so they have their great kits and they have their not so great kits. AMT and Revell each have their supporters which will tell you why their preferred brand is better. Lindberg has a lot of old not very good kits from the 60s they got from various sources. They also have some good kits they picked up along the way. The kits they designed in the 90s are supposed to be good kits comparible to the better kits from AMT & Revell. There are other brands you may find on ebay but they have mostly been absorbed (MPC) or out of buisness / barely in buisness (Johan). Galaxie is a small kit manufacturer that makes a great 1946-48 Chevy. For the most part you are best off asking about a subject you want to build and getting suggestions for a kit.

I will definately be watching that. My build was just cruising along until I got to the hood.

I was doing the same thing with a '41 Chevy but the hood has me flamboozeled.

Buy a Toyota Corolla, then take all the money you save on the initial purchase, gas and maintenance on more model kits. Sorry I'm not much help, the closest I've been to owning a Porsche was the VW Bug my parents had when I was a kid.

Hey nice to see I'm not the only one who builds lots of stuff. Model railroads really appeal to me for the super diorama aspect but I don't have the space currently. I also like to work with wood, I built a couple of biplanes for my son when he was about 3. I had plans for a whole series of them but only finished the DR.1 Triplane and an SE5. I wish I had the time to do more as they were quite fun to design and build and despite being toys I think I did a pretty good job from a scale model perspective as well.

Gregg did two good articles on taking photos within the past two years. He also did a seminar on taking photos of models at the IPMS Nationals in 2007. If you ever get a chance to sit through one it is worth it. It wasn't technical at all he just explained what the various features on the camera do, and took pictures. I learned so much in the first 30 minute lecture that I came back and sat through it again the next day. If you want really high end no shadows pics a booth seems to be the way to go. There are some ready to go photo booth kits out there. I've seen some big enough for model cars for around $50 at camera and electronics stores. I didn't want to spend a lot but I think my pics come out ok. I just bought a pack of white 24x36" poster board, and two clamp on 100w lights with reflectors. When I take pics I put a box in front of a shelf, lay a piece of poster board on the box so about half is on the box and the rest curves up the shelf for the background. I clamp the lights on either side on the shelf, then swing the light from my work bench around so I have 3 100w lights coming from different angles. The light from the work bench is on an arm so I can adjust the lighting angle to put light on any detail I want to enhance (also lets me put shadows on my mistakes ). Total cost was about $20.

I've recently bumped into a couple of fellow MCM members on other non-car modelling sites, so I'm just wondering how many here build more than car models. If you do build other stuff what kind of models? Besides cars I have a thing for helicopters but I basically build a little bit of everything sci-fi, real space, aircraft, armor, ships, I even paint the occasional figure.

Sadly 2008 was heavy in expenses and lean in OT, so my tax return will mostly be paying off bills. Thankfully I have a well stocked stash to work from.