Aaronw

When I think school bus I think Crown, but they had a huge corner on the market in California. There were a lot of school buses built on transit style buses too, Gilligs, GMs etc and those would certainly have a wide audience. The cutaway chassis style school bus could easily be the basis for a lot of other projects, prison bus, church bus, minor league sports team transporter, band bus, river rafter hauler, converted mobile home etc. If they did an IH I'd buy at least one to do as an Expeditors bus, they are a contract company that hauls fire crews all over the west every year.

My mistake

Everytime this comes up I shake my head. Nobody cares what you do in PMs or email except for illegal behavior like threatening another member. Have a car model to trade, and somebody PMs you that he doesn't have any of the kits you want but does have a nice, crisp U.S. Grant ($50 bill) that he would trade for it. Do you really think Harry or Casey are going to come crashing through the window like Batman if you accept that "trade"? If you "trade" cash for a model or part and get took, so sorry but that is a risk of buying selling anywhere but in person (and sometimes even then). If there is no selling on the site, and you buy or sell something through PMs then you really have no business bringing it up on the site. The trade section is bad enough with people openly negotiating back and forth. Beyond here is what I have, and here are some ideas of what I want for it, the only other posts should be PM sent or requests for more info which doing openinly makes sense because anybody interested might want to see the reply. That is the real point of the no buying and selling rule, the mods do not have the time or the ability to play Judge Judy when there is a dispute and really they shouldn't have to. If they are getting as many PMs over bad trades as they say they get, I'm surprised that section has remained open.

I built my own from 1/2" plywood for just a hair over $200, the fan accounted for about 75% of the cost. To answer Skip's question. Why did I build my own when Pace makes perfectly fine paint booths for $200? Because mine compares to Pace's large $495 booth, is designed to my preferences and has a more powerful fan (485 cfm vs the Peacekeepers 265cfm). If you want to buy a booth, Pace has a lot of happy customers, I almost bought one myself. This is a good article on building a booth, I found it quite helpful. http://modelpaint.tripod.com/booth2.htm My booth, 1/2" plywood, standard $5 16x20" filter, and a Dayton 1TDR7 485 cfm shaded pole blower (I recommend Grainger for the blower, they have a large selection, decent prices and great service). Behind the filter I built a plenum which is supposed to help distribute the suction across the whole filter instead of getting a "hot spot" of suction right at the point of the fan. I don't know if it is neccessary but the instructions I followed recommended it so I did it. These photos were taken when I had it temporarily set up in my garage. In its current location it vents outside through about 3 feet of 6" duct. I didn't want to cut a hole in the house, so the vent is a piece of 1x12" pine set into a slightly open sliding window. I cut a hole in the board for the vent, and ran some soft weather strip along the edges of the board so I don't get drafts from outside. Make sure you get ducting appropriate to your fan. If I had gone the cheap and easy route of using 4" plastic flex duct for a clothes dryer instead of 6" metal duct I would have reduced my fans efficiency to about 300 cfm (or lost more than 1/3 of the fan I paid for).

I've seen these before and would love to have their modern D7, but $2500 is a bit more than I'm willing to pay for a model no matter how accurate. Drop a zero and I might consider it.

I have 270,000 miles on my Tacoma, and as far as I know it is the original clutch (bought it used with around 60,000 miles on it). Oh, and I use the engine to slow down, a habit from mountain driving where it is something of a neccessity if you don't want to end up at the bottom of a canyon. I'm not sure why that is considered bad, it is encouraged in trucks and they even make exhaust brakes so diesel engines can do it.

That kit is still available in several online shops for $15.99 or less, and it is often possible to get free shipping from them. I don't see you getting rid of these right now without practically giving them away once you factor in shipping.

I did the EMT / Paramedic thing and have worked for structure departments, but wildland fire turned out to be my preference. I'm an engine captain for the US Forest Service, but since I also really like playing on the structure fire side of things too, I recently became a volunteer firefighter in the city I live in. It has its ups and downs, but overall it is a great career.

I like the light grey stripes over the silver, nice effect.

It looks like you already know this, but build to your space, it is yours and you know what you need. Don't just build some shelves, build shelves that fit your stuff (assume the little guys around the dark brown cabinet is for paint). You might want to look into some under cabinet lights or track lighting. You could mount them right above your bench freeing up desk space and providing lots of working light. They are very easy to install, and fairly inexpensive. I'm really liking the LED lights I put in as they are bright, don't use much power and don't get hot. Not cheap though, $30-40 per bulb but they claim to have a life of 20 years or so.

She Who Must Be Obeyed AKA The wife

I've seen diecasts (even had a few), but never plastic kits. Sure enough though, quite a few on ebay, and most are not unreasonably expensive.

Speed Racer. I know the Mach 5, and the movie Mach 6 have been done, but I'd like to see some of the others like Racer X's car and some of the more exotic opponents cars. Captain Scarlett and the Mysterions (animated with marionettes), some neat vehicles in that.

If that works out have him come see me in 10 years. Half the adults who have worked for me can't figure out put it back when you are done.

I started years ago with a TV tray, then moved into a closet, but now I'm lucky enough to have a 14x15 foot room devoted to hobby stuff. One side has a computer station a couch, TV, fridge and some bookshelves. The important side has a full length work bench. I used to get frustrated by having everything piled into one place, so on the new bench I divided it into stations fabrication, painting, photography, and general assembly (the part I use the most). I bought several short shelves meant for shoe storage to put under the bench. These work great for spray paint and the plastic shoe boxes I keep in progress stuff in. I used track lighting above which is easy to install and the lights can easily be moved around to where you need them. I put some under cabinet lights under the work bench to help me find little parts I drop.

All I can say is good luck. Children are different, what works for one does not work for another. Take the time and have some patience to try and figure out what works on this kid. Personally I like the old make them figure it out for themselves thing. You know offer to set up his new tree fort (or what ever) then seem puzzled and disappointed that you can't build it for him BECAUSE YOUR HAMMER IS MISSING!!!!

Pretty neat. I've seen the Corvette Nomad before, but the Corvair is a new one to me. Way out of my price range, but the photos are helpful if I ever decide to build one.

Yeah, I tried a few sizes, 3" was the sweet spot for me, 2" looks like it will work, but actually doesn't hold very much before getting tight, 4" is so big you might as well just go back to throwing it all in a box. I can get 10-15 packs into a 3" tube leaving enough room to easily sort through them. You could get probably twice that number if you cram them in, but then its hard to see what you've got.

I used 3" ABS, and cut it into 10" sections. It is pretty cheap, about $15 for 10 feet. I used clear silicone to glue it to a pine board.

I don't think it is an accident the the "ute" died out at about the same time good compact pickups arrived. I would guess most of their market was for a more comfortable small / midsize truck when trucks were larger very utilitarian things. You can now buy trucks in all sizes equipped nearly as well as the best luxury cars. Utes can not compete with a real truck (even a small one) as a truck, but modern trucks can do the car thing pretty well. The only thing a ute has left to offer is styling and ute styling tends to be of the love it or hate it type.

Basically what I did, but glued ABS pipe to a board. and made slots from wood for the sheet plastic. I grouped strip/rod/tubing by type / shape, not size (round, quarter round, tubing, strip etc). It doesn't really show but there is a third row of tubes for the brass.

I don't think the 30" Pace would be a big problem to move unless you have a very tight hallway to go through. Standard doors are 32" wide, so it should just squeek through even held the wide way. I have a homebuilt booth about that size made from 1/2" plywood with a blower nearly twice as powerful and I can carry it by myself, although 2 does make it a lot easier. The Pace booths are made from sheet metal, so should weigh a fair bit less than mine. I don't have personal experience with either booth. Pace has a good reputation here, but I would be hesitant to buy the smaller Pace booths. The size and design seems very constraining, it almost looks like trying to paint in a microwave. You might try finding a cardboard box about that size and pretend to paint a model in it and see if that works for you. Mine is designed more like the one at Micromark with an angled open top, I like having all that room above the work area to move around in. If the booth is working properly you should get no overspray. I have no experience with indoor vented booths, but the Micromark booth does have a charcoal filter which would be a plus for you as they are supposed to help contain the paint fumes. Pace uses standard HVAC filters which are cheap and easy to get, but only stop paint particles, they won't do a thing for the fumes.

Artist's oils work well too. There are lots of tutorials online, here is one. http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2003/03/stuff_eng_tech_wood_grain.htm

I only have the green one, but based on others comments, the silver re-issue deleted the custom and drag parts. I'm building the green one now and can confirm it has the extra parts. Also parts to make a phantom El Camino (El Nomado?) They are the same kits, just one lacks the extra parts. It is a decent kit, somewhat simplified compared to current kits. It has a chassis plate with the frame and exhaust molded instead of seperate parts, and a metal axle for the back wheels. The 265 V-8 is ok, but there are far better engines out there if you are looking for high levels of detail.

I think you are safe. I've been in a drug testing position for at least 10 years (commercial drivers license) and have taken dozens of drug tests without a problem. It may vary some by drug test, for example I know the DOT testing program I'm in also looks for alcohol, where most employment drug tests don't. In general unless it is a test specifically looking for a weird drug (your boss thinks you are huffing paint, abusing cough drops etc) they are looking for illegal drugs, and prescription drug abuse. Interestingly many now also test for things like Goldseal which is a product many take in the belief it will conceal their drug use. You are given an opportunity to list items you are concerned about like the vicodin your dentist gave you for wisdom teeth, your pot growing neighbors garage burning down last night etc. Mythbusters did show eating a lot (and it was a silly huge number) of poppyseed bagels, muffins etc was able to give a false positive for opiates. The drug test people said that couldn't happen, but based on that episode they supposedly changed their protocols for that particular aspect of the tests.