Aaronw

The Rampage and Demon are listed on their website.

What the heck is a mini-men, all I can picture is Dr Evil's side kick Mini-me and I really don't need one of those.

Amazon has it listed as a pre-order, release date is the end of the month. http://www.amazon.com/Stone-2-Disc-Special...0158&sr=1-1 Never heard of this movie, sounds interesting, thanks.

So these kits actually include instructions for weathering the model to be a left in a field truck? If so what a neat idea.

From personal experience Tamiya's paints are great on small surfaces but very hard to brush paint large surfaces. The paint dries very fast and I get the clumping you describe. I find the Testors Model Master Acryl which is also water based is much easier to brush paint. Also you can use the GW paint you already have, I have a fairly good selection of it myself and it works fine on models. Spray paint or an air brush works best though.

Hobbies Unlimited in San Lorenzo carries the magazine. If you are in Fremont that isn't much of a drive and its a great shop, near Porky's pizza which is some great pizza.

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/