Aaronw

Ken, I'm wondering if you have specs for the larger 41-46 Chevy's, I found some for the later 47-54 and am currently building one from the AMT '50 Chevy truck. the larger than 1 ton were 2.3" inches wider (in the fenders) 3.4" longer (fenders & hood) and 1.5" taller than the 1 ton and smaller trucks, but I haven't been able to find similar info on the 41-46 series. Dave looks great as usual, but then I've already seen it.

I used to work medical standby at concerts in the SF Bay Area, I got to see John Lee Hooker in the early / mid 90's. He was an old man, that needed help getting out on stage to a chair, but once he started playing you could see the years fall away from him. Same show included Santana and Steve Miller, I miss working concerts I got to see and hear a lot of good live music.

And for just a little over $20 you can get a semi, trailer and a model car. The car hauler looks nice, I like the colors you picked too.

I usually only listen to music if I'm home alone. Otherwise I need to keep my ears open for the sounds of my son NOT making noise (if you have kids you know what the bad quiet sounds like, the quiet that ends with you finding your son brushing the dogs teeth with your wifes toothbrush) or the sound of the cat getting ready to pounce onto the top of a stack of models, or the sound of a skunk under the dishwasher (I still don't know how it managed to get in the house, but last night was not restful). Funny I used to be able to just listen to music.

Many of you probably already know this but I didn't so I thought I'd share. My wife discovered you can order Legos individually directly from Lego. It costs a little more but you can customize your own package and get just the blocks you want. Lego individual blocks You just go in and select the bricks you want, how many of each etc. You can even select the color (my brilliant wife even color coded mine so I know the size brick by color, 2x2 = yellow, 2x4 = green, 2x6 = blue, 2x8 = red). For those of you wondering why is this guy talking about Legos in the resin forum, Legos make great forms for molds. BTW the link is good but it looks scary with that warning=false bit on the end, if you don't trust it you can go to this link and select indiviual blocks http://shop.lego.com/ByCategory/

Well that went a little wierd but thanks for the help, I got my answer and a little more. Thanks

Vacuum pump and chamber are my last additions (except perhaps the centrifugal thingy if the plans look easy enough and I figure out what its used for). I've been casting for a couple of years and slowly adding new gizmos to improve quality as I learn to use the ones I have. I agree with you there is a learning curve, I have some funky resin and silicone to remind me of that. I have a pressure pot and I remember you mentioning this before. My problem is getting an uncured mold into the pot. I'm not quite sure how I'd manage that. It would also limit me to only one mold at a time.

I'm looking for a good fairly inexpensive vacuum pump, I undersatnd refrigerators are a good source for these pumps, rebuilts being fairly cheap. I built a vaccuum chamber and have a blow by vaccuum thingy (metal box you hook an air compressor too) but it does not seem to have the needed suction to de-air the silicone so I'm looking at plan B. I live in the middle of nowhere (2 1/2 hours from Fresno) so I think online is going to be my best bet but if someone knows a good place in Fresno feel free to mention it. Thanks

I use Quik cast, the smell is not really that bad and the new formula they went to smells even less but I prefer not cast in the house. The clear on the other hand reaks. Mostly its the mess of the occasional spill, but I'd prefer not to have everybody breathing the fumes either. There really isn't a good place to work in the house anyway. I have a model bench in the house but casting usually isn't as time consuming so I don't mind throwing on a coat, in the past I did my casting on an outside work bench so having a roof over my head is quite an improvement.

Sounds interesting, you can put me on your list as well. I might never build it but it would be nice to have if I do. A couple years ago I wouldn't have thought I would be doing any casting, so who knows.

I'm in Yosemite National Park so humidity is pretty moderate, its just the cold this time of year. I think I've got something set up that will work now. I'm storing my silicone in the house, so it doesn't get really cold, then I'll take it out when I'm ready to make a mold. If I pour silicone during the day its warm enough, then I'll bring it inside after its set up a bit and less likely to create a disaster. Seems to be working ok. The actual casting of resin can be done with a portable heater out in the garage where no one except the mice will complain about the smell. Thanks for the help.

Well then I guess I'll need to get a portable heater. I kind of thought it might be a problem but wasn't sure.

I've finally got a work space set up in the garage for casting again. In the past I had a room in the house so temp control was not an issue, the garage is not heated so this time of year it probably averages 45-50 degrees. Other than possibly making the silicone and resin take a little longer to cure has anyone found cold weather to create problems?

Here is a link to the 2 part putty I have. http://www.tapplastics.com/shop/product.php?pid=110&

Yes many people put resin parts in hot water to rebend warped parts, hot water from the tap is typically 120-140 degrees, so quite a bit lower than most ovens low heat. I've warmed silicone molds in the oven (its supposed to improve casting quality) and the residual resin in them stinks up the house which is why I don't do that anymore. Probably your best bet to do what you are describing is use a two part putty. I have some stuff called magic sculpt that is a resin putty, you kneed the two parts together and it gives you about 30 minutes working time. There are others out there as well, many of the fugure builders use something similar but I don't know the brands. You might even be able to use that water proof epoxy for plumbing, it comes as a ribbon 1/2 blue 1/2 yellow, you cut off the size you need then mush it together until it turns green. I've never worked with that stuff but it is a putty, definately experiment first though, it probably has a short working time since its made to plug leaky pipes and such.

Mono Lake is just over Tioga pass for me, the pass is closed right now but I might take you up on that in the late spring. Mine doesn't get out nearly as much as it should and the fuel prices certainly haven't helped it get to play.

What to build? For some reason a Polar lights Ghost Busters '59 Cadillac with a Jimmy Flintstone ambulance body seems appropriate to me.

I only started reading the magazine late in 2006 so I'm not really familiar enough to provide any real opinions but... I don't really get much technical info out of the G&J section that I can't get here on the site, but I think the banter as you answer questions kind of sets the tone for the magazine. So whether you keep it as is, shorten it to one page or come up with something else entirely I'd suggest you maintain a light weight opening to the magazine. One of the reasons I really like the magazine vs some of the others I occasionally read is the tone of the magazine is light, it doesn't take itself very seriously, but provides good info, entertaining articles and has the feel that the readers really are included and welcome to participate beyond just buying the magazine and reading it. There was a comment further up mentioning those not on the internet and that was a good point, IPMS estimated that a rather large % of its members did not regularly visit online modelling sites (I don't recall the specifics but I want to say they found only 30% of the members were registered on the IPMS site), I'd have to believe that is probably true of non-IPMS members as well. So the readers of this opinion poll may not really represent the overall readership very well.

Sure if you were writting a letter to one of the model companies, but I think the point of these posts is usually just to let people have a little fun with their "If I were king for a day" kit lists and you know sometimes something useful actually comes out of these, there is usually at least one person who finds out that in fact one of their "wish" kits actually has been made.

Only Landcruiser kits I know of are a Tamiya FJ80(? or what ever the current-ish LC is) and an old Bandai or Esci kit of the FJ40, then there is a charactured FJ40 by Tamiya in an odd smaller scale. I haven't seen one from Fujimi or Aoshima but I don't see many auto kits from those brands so that is not surprising. I have an FJ55 but not an FJ60 so we are just reversed there, like you I'd be happy to have a kit of the other but would prefer the one I own.

Lawn darts, BB guns, jacks, home radiation lab, I am all over the dangerous toys sponsored car.

A Ford Powerstroke or Dodge / Cummins diesel would probably do quite well as a parts pack.

I haven't built that Ferrari but I understand it is not really a beginners kit but you still did a nice job, particularly for your second kit. The photo issue is because you haven't resized them, all you need for internet pics is 72 dpi and usually 800x600, it looks like you downloaded the full size photo from the camera. Somebody did a really good how to on posting photos. I thought it was a sticky but I can't find it.

If you go to the main page http://www.modelcarsmag.com/ you can order back issues, as many as you want. It also has a listing of shops that carry the magazine. This will take yu directly to the back order page. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/back_issues.html

I could go for a Lotus Elise, TLC FJ60 and I always liked the Scirocco. Even better would be a TLC FJ55, I would have put it on my list but its hard to find the FJ40 which is a much more popular vehicle and I'm not that optimistic even on a wish list.