Aaronw

Oh, well at least its got company. With all the 1/32 being re-issued maybe I'll get around to building the Revell Mack and Lindberg ALF one of these days, I'll finally have enough available to put something next to them.

I would think being in the back seat of any police car would suck, I've always tried to avoid finding out first hand.

Nice to see all the big rig stuff, particularly the White-Freightliner DD, when the SD was reissued a few years back I heard it was probably the last time we would see a White-Freightliner cabover, something to do wth licensing if I remember correctly. That Charger should be a good seller just for the lightbars included, a nice Charger police car is just a bonus. I noticed a '32 Chevy pickup in with the Lindberg stuff, anyone know what scale that will be? It would be nice to have a 1/25 truck from the 30s that isn't a Ford (just for variety, nothing against Fords).

I was going to suggest you go with an East European start up company, that way you could use the readily available models of 1950's American cars with minor changes. You see, many Russian and East European cars strongly resemble American cars of the 50's.

Many do it yourself decal papers are very thin and require a slightly different technique. Most kit decals I've used will let you slide the decal off onto a finger, paint brush etc then place it on the kit. With many of the aftemarket decal papers used to print your own decals the film is very thin and you really need to slide the decal directly from the paper onto the kit or it will fold, roll up, tear or some other nasty thing. Many of the aftermarket decal makers are just using this same type of blank decal paper with an ALPS or similar printer, although some of the larger ones do have their decals screen printed like those in model kits. Screen printing is nice but the places I've seen that will do it require large batches (1000+) which is a bit of an investment. I've also found if you use Future and Microsol or similar decal solution decals tend to adhere quickly. I'm back to using plain water and I only put the setting solutions on after the decal is in place.

Realistically that is the best way to learn, just start making stuff. Start easy, make a speaker box, or an ice chest, anything to start making you look at how things are made, then transferring the idea to plastic.

On the back of the Evergreen sheet packages they give the scale sizes for the different thicknesses. I always look at that when I try to figure out what size to get. If you are going to build a roll cage or grill guard find out what size tubing is used on the 1-1, find out what that is in scale then you know what size tubing to get. Plastruct and Evergreen seem to be the most popular brands and both have websites where you can see what is available. Plastruct offers a ton of special shapes and parts. Evergreen is more focused on sheets (plain, siding, roofing etc) and strip / rod. Personally I prefer Evergreen's sheets, they seem to cut cleaner than Plastruct's. Don't overlook the various brass and aluminum bits available. If you want to do something with bent tubing metal is a much better material to work with than plastic. Metal tubing has a thinner wall too, so exposed ends usually look more in scale if you use brass, plastic and aluminum tubing have much thicker walls.

Thanks, too bad I was hoping they would include both.

This is a post I made last year to find motor colors. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.p...amp;#entry15240

The C600 stake truck included the parts to make a tractor, does anyone know if the C900 include the long frame frame from the stake truck?

That is sad to hear. I just read an article about him the other night, sounds like an interesting person. I didn't know he had been a firefighter for the Richmond Fire Department at one time.

You could probably use an epoxy putty like Milliput or Magic Scupt instead of clay if you wanted something permanent without casting.

Ken Kitchen does one, http://public.fotki.com/KenK/kitchen_table_resin_kits/

Alumilite makes a decent clear resin, you are supposed to use a pressure pot with it but I've used it without one and the bubbles were not too bad. It really makes a difference on how clear you need the part to be, something you need to see through, you definately will want a pressure pot, I used it for lights so a fair bit was painted over, plus I used various Tamiya clear color paints on the lenses. I have used another clear resin I bought at a craft store and it never really fully cured, the surface remained tacky. I still have a few pieces I cast with it several years ago and they are still tacky after at least 4 years. Here is the link to the alumilite clear, it is actually pretty reasonable and it is a 1-1 mix like most solid resins, the other clear resins I've seen are 10-1 mixes. http://www.alumilite.com/ProdDetail.cfm?Ca...umilite%20Clear

Any paint you use on plastic should be fine on resin. Resin is more tolerant of hot paints, so those that use actual automotive paints don't have to worry as much about the resin crazing like plastic will. I haven't used any resin parts from Ross Gibson, so I don't know much about them.

Good timing, I literally just finished posting a resin how to on another site. Plastic and resin share most techniques, but there are a few differences. #1 is glue, you will need to use a CA glue (super glue) or an epoxy. Regular plastic model glue will not attach resin parts, luckily CA glue and most epoxies do work on plastic. #2 is paint, resin often has an oily mold release left over from the casting process. Even if the resin caster does not use a mold release, unprepared resin will frequently repel paint. On the plus side "hot" automotive paints that can damage plastic will not usually hurt resin. #3 resin is much more brittle than plastic. You can often trim plastic very closely with a sharp knife. When working with resin it is better to use a razor saw or sanding stick as cutting with a knife may cause it to shatter. #4 resin dust is an irritant, it is best to do major sanding outside while using a dust mask. Other than these three issues, there is not much difference between resin and plastic. Recommended tools and materials A plastic container large enough to hold your resin parts and enough liquid to submerge them. Westley's Blech Wite, this is a tire cleaner you can find at most auto parts stores. This is my choice for prepping resin parts, but there are others. TSP, rubbing alchohol and prepsol are other popular cleaning supplies. Sanding sticks, sand paper, razor saw, epoxy and / or CA glue, model putty, paint. I'll be going though step by step with an RMR Jeep pickup. Step 1 Seperate the parts, clean up flash Step 2 Place parts into cleaning solution. Most of these solutions are very harsh on bare skin, so gloves are highly recommended. I prefer a container with a liquid proof lid to help avoid spills. Times very, I usually leave the parts overnight but usually a couple hours will be long enough. Step 3 Rinse parts with warm water. I like to use a clean container filled with warm water to rinse the smaller parts as it makes losing parts down the rain less likely. A soft stiff brush like a toothbrush also helps clean the surface. I give the parts a final wash in warm soapy water, then rinse let the parts dry. You can check the surface with masking tape, if tape sticks paint should as well, if the tape won't stick to an area you might want to go back and clean the area more. Step 4 Hunt down and fill any bubbles or other imperfections. I prefer to open bubbles from the inside and fill them with putty. Step 5 Do any additional sanding or filling. I find emery boards work well on resin. Step 6 Based on your preferences, you may choose to do some assembly before painting. With this particular kit, I chose to prime before doing any assembly. Prime your parts, any primer should work, I personally have found Krylon and Plasticote seem to work better on resin than other brands I've tried. All resin is not the same though so a primer that works well with one brand may not work as well on another. Once the parts have primer on them, there is little difference between working with plastic and resin except for the glue you will be using. Just like plastic if you have painted the parts prior to assembly you should scrape the paint away from areas you will be gluing. From this point on there is little difference from building a plastic kit.

Hey Ed, sorry no '56 Buicks, but how about a '54 Ford? Had a good time, lots of old cars even a few not so old Ron, I didn't run into you or see your A-100 truck, I did see a Convair pickup though, but it left before I got a chance to get any pics.

Southgate did a nice WIP scratchbuilt lowboy a couple years ago on the S.A. site. If he still has the pics you might be able to get him to post it here. He did a pretty nice job showing how he built it.

Here you go http://www.resinrealm.net/

I would email Star models, I found him very easy to work with and he was willing to answer questions about the resin I was buying.

Nice tow truck, not something I see very often. Different states have different rules for lights. Here in California blue is only for law enforcement, in Arizona some of the fire departments have red and blue lights, in Oregon tow trucks can have blue lights (or at least they could 20 years ago) and in many states blue lights are for volunteer firefighters. Some states treat tow trucks as full blown emergency vehicles allowing emergency lights and sirens. CalTrans has some neat tow truck / fire engines on the larger bridges, I've seen one on the Bay Bridge several times but can't seem to catch it somewhere I could get some pics of it.

Any suggestions for plastic sheet to replicate the corrigated or grooved metal siding used on van style trailers? I'm sure that Plastruct or Evergreen has something that will work, but I have to do most of my shopping online where I don't get to take a good up close look at the design. Kind of hoping someone has built a trailer and has already found something that works. Thanks

Click on the model fire apparatus link in my signature, it is my website made specifically to help people like you (not a firefighter, don't know any firefighters) build fire apparatus. Lots of definitions and photos to help you figure out what you are looking at. The truck in my avatar is the 1-1 Engine 51 from the TV show Emergency! It is a Ward LaFrance like dave's cab. One trick I've seen to improve the emergency beacons is to replace the chrome dome with a similarly sized automotive light bulb with the base ground down, then mounted on the base.

The kit is an ALF 1000 series, I have an ALF book I can check exact dates on but roughly you are looking at early to mid 70's. With the lowside body style I would lean towards early 70's but that is not an absolute. With a little work you could backdate it to a 900 series which came out in the early 60's. The big difference between the 900 and 1000 series is the trim. The 1000 is basically a 900 with all the popular bells and whistles included as standard items. I have a photo of a 1968 ALF from the San Francisco FD that is almost a dead ringer for the kit. The Scale Fire House has sticky threads dealing with these kits. Pumper http://scalefirehouse.com/sfh_chat/viewtop...p?f=35&t=68 Ladder and Aerochief http://scalefirehouse.com/sfh_chat/viewtop...p?f=35&t=69

Thanks, I guess I'll get it next time I'm down there. They only recently added it which seems odd if it was re-issued a few years ago.