Aaronw

Well if you get the aircraft bug again there are a couple of nice WW2 Italian fighter kits out now in 1/72 and 1/48. Italeri has several in 1/72 I forget now who has the 1/48 kits. I like to build stuff that is a little different and Italian aircraft and armor definately fall into that category.

If you coat your clear parts with Future, CA glue won't do that to them. It even protects from the dreaded glue and paint covered thumb print, a little windex and it all comes right off. I really should get a kick back from Johnson & Johnson with as much as I push Future to other modelers.

Fire engines, preferably green ones.

I use Future, since I use it as a clear coat and dip the "glass" in it before I start it doesn't matter if I get some some where other than where I need it. It works great anywhere I can use gravity to hold the glass in place while it dries. Once dry it is quite strong.

I'm a fire captain for Yosemite National Park. Hey Rob you might have painted some of our equipment, we have 6 engines and a rescue truck built by Pierce.

I've cast small parts up to complete bodies, even managed to cast a gear shift (that was a joy but I finally got it to work) but Wheels / tires (one piece), steering wheels and fans really vex me trying to find a way to cast them. I manage to make the wheels / tires work, but I'm sure there is a better way, fans and steering wheels end up being almost as much work to cast as just scratchbuilding them, I have just had terrible luck with them. Can anyone offer some suggestions or show what works for you? Thanks

Trading cards are for collecting, models are for building. Tower hobbies has a good selection of supplies, several brands of paint, glue, evergreen plastic, brushes, tools etc. Good prices, good service and flat rate shipping. Sorry can't help you with the broke part, been there and that is no fun.

You would think they could just drop the name and go from there. I mean if there is nobody to approve the licensing who would contest a no-name release of the trailer? If Revell can drop the Goodyear from its tires without re-making the whole tire I would think they could issue the trailer name free. Oh, well its not like most of this licensing stuff actually makes sense to the normal person on the street anyway. That's too bad, I wasn't particularly looking forward to this release but I'm sure many others were.

Thanks, I'll pass that along to him.

On another site I belong to, one of the members is looking for a Kenworth TH-800 conversion. I found a T-800 but no TH-800. He said that it is a "high hood" truck. I don't know the big trucks all that well being more focused on the medium duty stuff. Does anyone know of a conversion that would work for him, or suggestions for making it himself? A bit of scratchbuilding on an existing kit or resin conversion is within his ability if he knew what to do. Thanks

Just an update on the Ford issue, from another website I belong to it appears the calendar issue was driven from the printers side, not Ford. In the past Ford has agressively protected their blue oval and name. Well apparently some overly cautious bean counter noticed Fords have a blue oval and say Ford on them (whoda guessed). It appears Ford is trying to clear this up by specifying the issue they had was products with a promenent FORD or blue oval as if an endorsement, not simply having a Ford car in the photo. It is nice to see sometimes the world is not quite a screwed up as it appears to be.

I haven't made it as far as actually looking for figures. Thanks for the links though, it gives me a place to start.

Thanks, I googled Novas and the late 70's Novas are so different they don't register in my mind as a Nova. I mean when I see them I know they are a Nova but I completely forgot about that body style.

You're probably right about that. Old Hermit that is exactly why I find it strange, I understand the difference between the model companies and our resin industry, I'm talking about the machinery that cranks out 20,000 resin gnomes. There are all kinds of resin products (mostly nick nacks) cranked out by the thousands. These are not made by some guy in his garage (probably hundreds of kids in China ). It just seems odd that this type of resin casting has never hopped into this hobby, even as a failure. Oh, well just a wierd thought that has been bouncing around my head so I thought I'd share.

Actually, I just pulled the '34 out and started working on it again. When I started on it I painted it before extending the frame, rather than mess up a decent paint job I'm making it into a patrol truck instead of the engine. I've got another '34 I'll use to build the engine. The '37 stake bed is about in the same spot, I'm not pleased with the wheels and haven't decided what to do with it. I can't fit anything larger on it without a fair bit of work, but that is probably what it needs. Remember kids measure twice cut once. Then Revell brought out the '41 Chevy and now '50 Ford pickups which further distracted me. I was just looking at the '37 this morning, so who knows it might get done yet.

Thanks, I'll keep my eyes out for one of these. It doesn't appear that Airfix is currently producing this kit, but maybe they'll bring it back as they get back on their feet and there is always ebay. The one I drove was exactly like the one you built but dark green. It will go well with the Jag E-type in my stash.

A bit earlier someone asked about bubbles in plastic and during that discussion the fact there are industrial strength resin casting machines came up, but none are used for making kits. I've been thinking about this for awhile now. We hear how expensive injection molded plastic kits are to tool up, and obviously the aftermarket resin casters are able to make a kit for a miniscule fraction of this cost, although granted the potential output is drastically smaller. Why is there such a gap in technology? It seems strange that nobody has taken that middle technology between the out of the home resin casters and the "big boys" (Revell, AMT etc). It seems like that would be a perfect solution for those frequently asked for but relatively low volume kits. I'm guessing the big companies just don't bother and the cost is beyond even the big resin casters budgets, but it still seems odd.

One of the firefighters I used to work with was trying to paint a bondo patch on his car with one of those touch up paint spray cans. It just happend that one of the other FF's on duty also built models so we were out back offering tips and techniques of painting with a rattle can. I guess we weren't to helpful because he ended up telling us to go the BLEEEEEEP back inside and sniff some glue.

AMT did a Ford Interceptor Police Car, it doesn't say so on the box but it is a 70 Ford Galaxie. My understanding is the LTD is just a different trim level of the Galaxie. Old style model but still a decent kit if you can live with metal axles. It wouldn't hurt to see a more modern version of this kit though, I like those big Fords.

Well talking cop cars how about the late 70's-90 Ford LTD / Crown vic, 80's Chevy Caprice Classic and Dodge Diplomat / Plymouth Gran Fury. All three would also be useful for taxi's, demo derby cars and old fart cruisers. I'd like to see a late 70's Chevy Nova and Ford "baby" LTD too, a combination of the gas crunch and kinder gentler police managers saw a lot of police departments adopting these smaller cars. I want to build one of San Francisco PD's baby blue Nova "police services" cars, the only time in the departments history that they didn't use the blue and gold SFPD 7 point star on their cars. Useful for police cars but also just a good looking car in my opinion is the early-mid 70's Plymouth Satellite.

That came out nicely. Its hard to tell in the photo, is the paint a metal flake type or is is solid. If its solid it would be great for a fire engine or crash truck.

I think this is the first time I've seen one of these built, looks good. How does the kit go together? I don't usually build sports cars but I do occasionally for a change of pace. If its not a curse and howl at the moon kind of kit I'll keep my eyes open. I drove a green one just like you built, got about 1 block before it broke down. Nice looking car but I gather that my experience is typical of them.

I don't think you will see the B post get smaller anytime soon, you need someplace to put the shoulder belt anchor and 27 airbags. Unfortunate but I guess safety after you get hit gets priortity over looks and vision before you get hit. I have the same problem of trying to see around some of these huge pillars, some of the C posts are the worst, it makes the back window like looking out a tunnel.

Out of curiosity how much did the Nova change over the years? Obviously this body style is different from the early 60's version but it doesn't seem like this style changed much from 69 through the mid/late 70's.

I was told there might be hard hats in the MK / AMT '72 Chevy Blazer too, I just went and checked and there are some in there. Thanks