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niteowl7710

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Everything posted by niteowl7710

  1. Other than the Aventador Roadster or Aventador J (the one with basically no windshield) along the Veneno (which while neat, is a car which only three are going to be made) - none of which I would particularly discount in the future, the only place for Aoshima to go is backwards. Frankly they can do a Diablo and Gallardo too and blow those Fujimi kits out of the water while they're at it.
  2. Ah yes the famous "swerved to miss another car" excuse. He hit (or rather missed) the exit ramp's curve at, or near highway speed, being familiar with the area that exit is a traditional cloverleaf design meaning that unless the car came up the shoulder past him the only way to "swerve" to miss a car was to take the ramp to avoid the vehicle. In either case he's traveling at an excessive rate of speed to navigate the exit, you don't get all 18 of your wheels off the ground like that doing the required 25-30 MPH that exit ramp is posted. Asleep, on the phone, yacking with his son...something caused a severe case of driver inattention, and he's ###### lucky he didn't kill himself or his son, and that there was no one transitioning across the bridge when he Dukes of Hazzarded his way across there. The ramp has a reasonably long run-off from I-74 so if you swerved to avoid being hit by a car and were "forced" off the road as it were, there's more than enough space to come to a complete stop, let alone slow to a speed sufficient to navigate the curve. Quite real actually.
  3. Funny I think if someone (Revell, Moebius, et al) were willing to redesign a new tool for the '68 Camaro, '69 Firebird, or '69 Chevelle (all old AMT/MPC tools that are "already out") , they would be anything but flops. Let's also not forget Revell is on the 3rd try for the Hemi Cuda since they keep swinging and missing... But heck beyond that, Gregg, Harry, Casey; I petition the management of this board for the closing of the Kit Review section. I mean why should anyone even bother to review kits here anymore when if you DARE to point out the issues with the kit a lynch mob of people humming Bobby McFarrin's one-hit wonder begin to immediately light torches and gather their pitchforks. I mean what possible value is there in reviewing a kit around here when Revell could for all intents and purposes put a mish-mash of airplane and tank parts into the box of the upcoming Mercury Wagon and there'd still be a loud contingent of people who would just be happy that they even got the kit in the first place and when tell everyone to FIX ALL THE ERRORS AND JUST BUILD! I was very "invested" in the Mustang LX, I was also very "invested" in the Lindberg Dodge Charger Police kit. By "invested", I mean I really wanted these kits, I had plans, I had dreams, I couldn't wait for them to come out. Yet the both have problems I consider "offensively easy to have been fixed before manufacturing" which disappointed me greatly. Yet I don't run around here unable to see the forest for the trees, blinded by my desire to have kit xyz over-rule all logic and ability to see it's just not that great a kit in the end. It's ironic to me that the people who seem to want to public flog the people who do dare to review a kit, to put forth a clear and honest opinion of what is right and wrong with a kit are often screamed at by people that "IT'S JUST PLASTIC!!!!" Yes, I agree, it's just plastic, why does my critiquing it to allow for an informed and well thought out purchase cause you so much emotional anguish? I will never "just be happy" that any manufacturer brings forth a kit, anymore than I will be "just be happy" that the lights turn on, water flows and farmers grow food. It's what these people and business do, that's why the exist. More broadly, if I'm not devastated beyond words that a kit I've wanted for years was a disappointment to me, why are you so upset when you had no intention of buying and building one in the first place?
  4. Please tell me what other industry, service, or ANYTHING where the stupid attitude of "We should just he be happy we're getting it at all!!!" exists in...name one...and GO! Oh the cook made my order wrong, but I should just be happy this restaurant is even open... I mean seriously if you bought a lawn mower and you got it home and found out it had a deck that wasn't the same size as the one pictured on the box and instead of mulching it discharged grass clippings all over the place would you really expect to go online to a lawn care forum and have a bunch of people tell you that you should either alternately JUST BE HAPPY that you could even buy a lawn mower and the other bunch telling you that if you think you could make a better lawn mower you should design it yourself. I have no idea what a debackle is, nor what "hoops" Moebius is jumping through. Moebius makes models, that's their business, their sole purpose of existence. Moebius' key advantage over everyone else - except Aoshima who follow a similar "business model" - is that they are willing to show their work in the process and then take the suggestions of their customers who see errors (of varying degrees of critical importance) and then actually fix them despite the "Criticizers" being public caned here by the "Don't Worry, Be Happy" crowd.
  5. Actually pretty much everyone who had anything to say about the Mustang's myriad issues said their piece and moved on having made their decision on purchasing one or not. There have however been snide sarcastic comments in every conceivable thread by those who would lick the warehouse floor out of gratitude of Revell's mere existence making reference to the Mustang's issues and how they cynically relate to whatever the subject matter is, and it's critics as needing to let it go while none of us have said boo about it in a month or more.
  6. Not in the slightest, bit then it's hard to compete with sales from 1983 anyways.
  7. Well the big picture as you put it would be the kits being successful in sales, thereby funding further projects. But both the Hudson and C300 had to be stopped and have a bunch of issues back-fixed before the kit was brought to market that could have been avoided if they were taken care of before the tooling was cut in the first place. The "rivet counters" made the Hudson a model 10 times better than what was shown in the pre-release test shots. Now if you want to go back to getting a couple of blocks of balsa wood and whittling kits yourself, by all means...
  8. It will take a little while for the order to appear on your account's page. Now the question is, did you order something IN STOCK, or was it Out of Stock/Back Ordered/Pre-Order? If it wasn't in stock, you didn't have to pay for it until it comes in, and then you will be asked to make the payment via PayPal.
  9. I don't know if it's technically still in the catalog or not, but finding one isn't very hard. The best of the old AMT cabover tools that was released in terms of ease of building is the Chevrolet Titan. The tooling it for it seemed to be in the best shape, especially compared to some of the multi-part cabs that have come up since then. http://www.round2models.com/models/amt/chevy-titan90
  10. Copen is from HLJ, found the other two on the Clearance Rack at the new hobby shop that opened up this year. Guy used to run the thing out of the backside of his drug store two towns over for years. Not sure why he suddenly decided to retire and open a strictly Hobby shop - retirement FAIL . The M3 still has the drug store's price tag on it.
  11. I think it's a win-win for Moebius to show the tooling mock-ups in advance. It's impossible for Dave to really come forward and go "D'OH! We didn't know that xyz wasn't correct" as it would make the development team look incompetent, so it's hard to know what incorrect things that were critiqued were on the "To-Fix" list and which ones were genuinely oversights. But if anything can be learned from the original Hudson and C300 kits is that it has to 100 times easier to fix the tooling patterns before dime ONE is spent cutting steel than it is to go back in and spend a mint fixing a bunch of tooling issues that delay the kit for months on end. Aoshima is the only other manufacturer I've seen who will share their advanced designs and concepts for public input. If a certain Illinois based company were so forward thinking then perhaps their litany of "whoops" wouldn't be so long.
  12. One other thing about bandwidth. When you "hot-link" a photo to here (or any forum for that matter) every time someone reads the thread you're getting dinged for the bandwidth. So say you post a build with 5 high-rez photos that are 4MB each. That's 20MB of bandwidth each time someone views the thread whether they actually even look at the pictures. IP Boards is scaling all the photos smaller to maintain the forum formatting, but PB is still transferring the full image to the forum. Now yor build gets 100 views and bam you're at 2 Gigs of bandwidth. Fortunately forums work on the law of diminishing returns, as eventually everyone who wanted to see the thread will do so relegating the bandwidth draw to the occasional dribble of a random view. But post enough photos of enough new builds in a month and that's another way to smack the bandwidth limiter regardless to the "private" setting since the photo can be seen by everyone on the forum when it's hot-linked as proven above.
  13. Bandwidth (or through-put) isn't necessarily just someone downloading an image, ANY time someone just looks at the image that generates bandwidth. So if enough people just come in.and browse around you could bounce the limit especially if the files are large.
  14. The Revell kit could certainly pass for current equipment if you were aiming to build a representation of an independent car hauler who does auction work. The thing about a fancy-pants over the sleeper Cottrell system is it's REALLY expensive, somewhere in the 6 figures range if you supply the truck. The upside is more cars, the downside is you're limiting yourself to a "coffin" bunk truck. Can't stand-up and only 4 foot deep. Running a 5-6 car 5th wheel style like the kit and you can put it behind any tractor, and it's half the price. PMTG who used to run all-enclosed car haulers recently switched to 8 car over the sleeper Cottrells on Western Stars which other than Peterbilt appear to be the only trucks you can order with small flat-top sleepers on Lo-Pro tires and rims now that Sterlings aren't made anymore.
  15. My LHS started giving out free tubes of glue with every model. I took one the first tube because I didn't realize it was in the bag, but for 8 months now I have to give Marc his tube of glue back. I could open a tube glue distribution warehouse had I kept them all. Better to save him the money and let it go home with the kid/returning builder who that free tube might make the sale.
  16. From chatting with an Aoshima rep they said it'll slot in a little higher than their Aventador did, so that puts it in the upper $40 range. The A Vent! A Door! was $42 at first, but the Yen free fall has it priced at $32 today. It's going to be a full kit with at least some engine parts - all the exact development is hush-hush - but they claim it'll be their most detailed kit ever. They went to England to tour the factory, and measure/scan the car firsthand, so expectations are running high on this one to say the least.
  17. Glue is a tool, and like any tool you need the right one for the job. In my arsenal... Testors Liquid Cement Tenax (similar to Ambroid) Loctite Super Glue - Ultra Gel Control Aleene's Clear Gel Tacky Glue (My preference, but there are several water soluble choices like Testors Clear Canopy Glue - the idea being you can clean up residue/finger prints with water and it dries completely clear.) I also have some 2-Part 5 Minute Epoxy, but I don't think I've had to use it yet.
  18. I just have my paycheck direct deposited into HobbyLink Japan these days.
  19. While I can't comment to the beds, I believe option-wise you're seeing the "glaring" difference between an old kit backed by manufacturing blueprints and support. Versus.a new tooling which is going to (for better or worse) option the truck exactly like the real truck they're making the kit to represent. If the 1:1 has odd optioning ordered, so will the kit.
  20. I dunno depending on how much vintage and import kits you own once you start getting into the mid-three digit amount of stash kits drinkin' and chasing women is probably less investment with about the same result.
  21. But that's not what the poll result showed. It showed what companies the surveyed people PERCEIVED to have the best reputation based on what they heard, not what company they liked. For example Pilot Flying J chain of truck stops has a major fiasco scandal right now owing to the fact they screwed all of the trucking companies out of the rebates they were to get back when they signed bulk fuel purchasing agreements. Now whether or not I LIKE to stop at Pilot Flying J - which was neutral, and how I perceive them - as a bunch of lousy crooks - are two different things. My perception of Pilot Flying J has severely suffered due to their copious amounts of fraud. It's not like they were running T.V. ads - Now at Pilot Flying J - RIPPING YOU OFF!! The same thing could be said for Toyota during the "Unintended Acceleration" period. Most people who are over WWII and own Toyotas are repeat customers, they like their cars, they like the brand, and overall people thought Toyota were reliable vehicles. Then cars started to allegedly drive themselves and BAM the PERCEPTION of Toyota changed for a lot of people negatively. Also the article says they supplied 1,100 brands, that covers the entire Fortune 500 TWICE. Sure polls in the overall sense are hincky and can be (well are) manipulated, but if you're going to poo-poo it, at least do it factually.
  22. It says 5,000 people per DAY, makes me think it's a rolling poll that is constantly taken to gauge the popularity rise and fall of any given brand based on a statistical average.
  23. Embossing powder does look granular (hey it's powder after all), but once applied looks a great deal more in scale than chopped up carpet fibers. Get a "shaker" (the top usually has a bulk "applicator" and then a smaller side that looks like a salt shaker) in clear, paint out to match the inferior, and for $2.89 you'll have whatever color carpeting you want for a few dozen models.
  24. I get what you're saying, and I don't necessarily disagree, and I really don't want to run this train down a siding, BUT I just think that if you're going to speak of building mistakes then there are plenty of things that can be improved that don't necessarily involve after-market (or creative home remedied) detail products. Just between you, me and the lamppost Harry we all know there are builds shown here that have glue emanating from joints, joints that are gaping/misaligned, finger prints in places and in media that shouldn't exist, hand painted trim (especially black trim) that looks like it was applied like the lady did her make-up during the landing in "Airplane!", and paint jobs themselves that could be used for Lunar Landing training. Yet more often than not those builds also have a litany of "Awesome build", "Beautiful model", etc attached to them. Yet there are a couple of people around here who live to point out in "Under Glass" threads that an otherwise cleanly built model would "look better with plug wires".. I just find it amusing and perhaps ironic that in a forum where honesty in building critique tends to get people pilloried to the point most people here are either scared or disinterested in participating in actually encouraging the growth of their fellow modeler in correcting actual MISTAKES in technique and increasing overall skill sets, we see threads like this one that pop up discussing the most minute of mechanical detailing nonsense like proper firing order.
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