Aaronw

Always nice to watch you at work.

Iphone is pretty non-specific, Iphone is up to 16 now with multiple subvariants of each generation? Any relatively modern cell phone with camera (2020 or newer) is probably good enough that buying a "real" camera is only going to improve your photos if you learn to use all the features. There are all kind of tricks you can do with aperture size (f/stop) which allows you to play with light and depth of field. Looking at the current Iphone 16 the lens has an fstop range of 1.6-2.2, compare that to my 15 year old, low end DSLR's 18-55mm kit lens which give an f/stop range from 3.5 to 38. This lens can do things that Iphone can't, but the average point and shoot user would likely never see the difference. I can take technical photos with my 15 year old DSLR that my Galaxy S10 simply can't, but the reality is my DSLR hasn't left the bag much in the past 5 years because the cell phone is in my pocket and it is good enough for my general photography. The DSLR only comes out these days for very specific reasons, basically art photos, low light, super close up, fast moving things etc. Cell phone cameras are pretty good these days. Unless you want to take a dive into fancy technical photography, you might be better off investing in a good photo editing program and learning to use it. That will probably have a much bigger return than buying another camera. There are several free photo editing programs available, but I can't suggest one. Not free but I like Affinity Photo 2, about $70 but a one time cost. I used to use Adobe Photoshop but they went to a subscription service and personally I'm finding Affinity easier to use. They offer a lot of sales throughout the year.

Another aspect that took some time to get used to is there was a big shift in my finances between working and not. There are tax implications and many hidden costs to working. When you are working, if you have a pension or a 401K they are pulling money out of your check for that, there is SSDI, and unemployment insurance coming out of your check. So even though your gross monthly income may be less, it is the net income that really matters. In my case my gross in retirement was about 1/2 of my working gross, but the net was about the same. While some of these costs are pre-tax, that drop in gross pay often does result in paying less income tax further closing the gap in net income. I'm not taking SS yet (only 57) but when that day comes, my state does not tax Social Security benefits so I will receive an increase in my income without increasing my state taxes. The other part that was kind of surprising, is seeing just how much I was spending to go to work. Probably $250/mo in gas alone. Not as easily tracked but I'm also having to do less auto maintenance, tires, oil changes etc because I'm putting a lot less miles on my car. When I was working there were many times co-workers wanted to go get coffee or get lunch somewhere, and I'd join in. A voluntary expense, but one that I indulge in far less because being home it is really easy to make another cup of coffee or make something good for lunch in my own kitchen. All in I'd guess being retired saves me around $400-500 a month.

I theoretically retired at the end of 2017, so just hitting 6 years this month. I say theoretically, because I retired from my full time job as a fire captain, but I immediately signed up to work part time as needed. The first couple of years was mostly logistics on fires, maybe 6-8 weeks a year spread over the summer / fall months. It helped me transition from full time to a slower pace. Work increased to about 4 months in 2020 because of many large fires in the state. I also added fire dispatching in 2020, and since 2021 I'm probably pushing 6-8 months of pretty steady work. I also just got a job as a part time instructor teaching fire classes at the local college. So yeah, I'm retired, but I'm also not if that makes sense. I do not get bored and in fact have no idea how I got anything done when I was working full time. Something that I have found with this situation is, when I am working I just don't have the stress that I had being full time. I like the extra money, but it is just that, extra money. If I don't want to work, I don't. If at some point I'm not enjoying it, I can do something else for extra money, or just tighten the belt and not work. We have no major debts, no car payments, house is paid off, the only credit card I have is only used for work (meals, hotels, rental cars etc which I get reimbursed for), and immediately paid off when I get home from an assignment. Not having to go to work every day to make sure there is food on the table, and knowing I always have the option to just stop is very liberating. I was lucky to be able to walk into something based on my prior experience, but even if it was just picking up 2 or 3 days a week at an auto parts store, or Starbucks, working on your terms, knowing you always have the option to quit makes it so much more enjoyable. With the way the job market seems to be these days, there are a lot of employers who would be happy to work with an employee who has established a record of showing up on time (or at all) and willing to work even if only a few days a week. Also I have hobbies, a child still in school and unending work around the house / yard so I never get bored even when I do get a weeks or months not working.

This should be an interesting project to watch. Very handy that you have the real one available to check for details as you go along.

Another thought, for an independent operator they may buy a second hand chassis, and then mount the desired body on it. Similarly a company with a fleet of trucks may also choose to pull an older truck out of service and repurpose it. Second hand you kind of take the best deal you can find which may mean buying a 3 axle truck, when you really only needed two.

Do you know how hard it is to drive a stick shift while holding a live woodpecker in your left hand? True story and not a euphemism. ?

By subject, I've found the AMT 1950 and 1960 Chevy pickup quite pleasant and trouble free. The Revell 1937 Ford, 1941 Chevy and 1950 Ford pickups are also quite nice with minimal issues. I have not built either, but the AMT 1953 Ford pickup and the new AMT 1960 Ford pickups look quite nice in the box. I haven't run across many issues with the AMT 1953 Corvette, but the headlights are tricky due to the metal grills they had protecting the headlights.

Original date of kit issue or subject matter? I was assuming subject, but the replies are old kits some of subjects older than the 1950s.

There are different generations of Ford flathead with minor differences if you are looking for a specific use. A hot rod 1950s or later probably doesn't matter too much since they could have used any generation engine they salvaged, but if you are going for period correct / factory stock you may care. The '34 Pickup has a first gen flathead ('32-36), the '37 pickup a second gen (37-39')and the '50 pickup the 4th gen and final variant ('48-53). The water pump and cooling arrangements kept changing and the the position of the distributor changed on the 4th gen. Some variants '38-47 combine features of the 2nd gen and 4th gen. A "24 bolt" 3rd gen could probably be made by using the heads from the '50 pickup on the engine from the '37 pickup. The original issue '50 pickup (molded in blue with a blue truck box art) had a stock flathead, later issues replaced the stock heads with aftermarket Ardun heads, and unfortunately did not leave the stock heads in the kit as an option. One of the Revell midget racers includes the smaller 136cid V-8 flathead.

I just remembered I have an old Silver State Resin Peterbilt 350 resin cab which were considered pretty good at the time. Measuring the grill I get a width of 35mm.

I found my Peterbilt book, but although full of information and drawings, nothing on the width of a "narrow" nose vs "wide" nose. They do however give the frontal area of the radiators, the radiator for the 281/351 was 1050 square inches vs 1444 on the 289 / 359, so the older is about 3/4 the size, although it doesn't break it down into additional width vs height.

Not a Peterbilt expert, but from memory the reason for the change in grill was the adoption of a larger radiator, the older radiator having 2 cores, and the new radiator 3. Now if it is as simple as the old radiator being 2/3 the width, I don't know, but I'd think likely to save on tooling costs. Why manufacture all new cores when you could just make a new radiator housing (frame? body?) to hold 3 of them.

My parents took me to the Harrah's collection when I was a kid, and it was building after building filled with cars. It was an all day event to see it all and my parents were not even car people, so that was at a pace of seen it move on, seen it move on. I do remember that he had a reconnaissance version of the P-38 that had been used for aerial survey after the war. At the time I saw it, it was one of only a handful of P-38s on display. Several more have been recovered and restored since then, but at the time it was a very rare plane to see in person. The current museum is impressive, and worth a visit but a considerably smaller collection. According to google, Harrah owned around 1500 vehicles, the current museum has 200-300. The Hayes truck collection was donated to the museum in the 2010s, but unfortunately they have not been able to raise the money to build a companion truck museum to display that collection.

It is now the National Automobile Museum. It is a much smaller collection of cars than what there was the 70s. Most of the collection was sold after Bill Harrah died, but the museum still has a couple hundred cars from his collection.

Nice job. I like the beacons, they look a lot like early Whelen strobes.

I have wondered about syringes, but thought they would be one use only, so never tried it. I can reuse the little plastic cups I mix the resin in, and since syringes seem to be made of a similar plastic, it makes sense that the resin doesn't stick well. Investing in a pressure pot makes sense for anybody casting in volume, but there are lots of little tricks to keep things simple for the just cast a part once in a while caster.

It will largely depend on how much of an under cut there is for the rim. If there isn't a deep undercut, maybe up to an 1/8" you will probably be fine, particularly if you are only going to make a few. Silicone is pretty stretchy, but the mold will tear more easily the greater the under cut. I'm assuming you are not pressure casting, so bubbles will be an issue but with some practice and "thinking like a bubble" you can eliminate a lot of them. Squeezing the mold and poking recesses with a tooth pick to help fill them with resin and allow bubbles to escape will help.

Nice to see you made all this. I initially expected it to be the wrecker bed from the Midnite cowboy kit with the weird mini "Peterbilt" cab.

It is new so you are going to see push back from some. I wasn't around to see it, but I'm sure there were those who thought the sky was falling when plastic started replacing balsa wood. I think 3D printing is great and I'm looking forward to learning to use the new tools.

There is now white toner available for some laser printers but it is very expensive. ALPS is still the only "easy" DIY option for printing metallics that I know of.

There is a feature within Word called Word Art that allows quite a few options, and a drop shadow is one of them. You can also use a font with a shadow which would be an easier but more limited option. I long ago switched to a more advanced drawing program (Corel Draw), so I'm a bit rusty with Word's options related to this stuff, but any word or drawing program, even the free ones can do a lot. With a little practice, printing basic decals is not much more complex than printing a document. GIMP is a free drawing program similar to Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw that some use, but there is a learning curve to it. This is another example of decals I did with either Word or Microsoft Paint, this one with shadowed lettering. Again done 2005-07-ish so I'm fuzzy on the details.

That is one of the joys of light colored (white, yellow etc) fire apparatus. Decal film and a regular printer work just fine for decals. These are a couple I did close to 20 years ago just using decal film, Microsoft Word and an ink jet printer. You can even get around the darker colors by using white decal film. I printed the text on white decal film and then cut the white film into strips for the striping and door logo. On darker colors sometimes you need to double up the white film to keep the color from bleeding through.

I did not know that, a neat piece of trivia.

Yeah, I wasn't sure on the inkjet paper. I knew it is bad news in a laser since the heat of a laser printer can / will melt the coating on the inkjet paper. I long ago switched to using a laser printer so use the same paper for both the ALPS and my laser printer. Glad this thread popped up. I'm on io groups for several other groups but had not run across the ALPS io group, so was able to join it. I agree FB is really not a great format for collecting that kind of info long term.