niteowl7710

What exactly are happening to your models on display that you need to glue your wheels to the base? In the unlikely event that something knocks the case over all that's going to do is rip the suspension off the bottom of the model and/or spray glass all over the place. You can also kiss the ability to show the model at anything other than an NNL type of show goodbye.

This is especially true of metallic colors, if you have a solid color, and the paint was pretty smooth the begin with you can usually run through the last 2-3 pads and polishing compound without any issues. This is also dependent on your paint type as well. Real automotive paint is a bit more hardy than hobby paint (especially the never drying Testors enamels). But once you start sanding a metallic color it all goes to heck (ask me how I know). As several people have mentioned a real Micro-Mesh kit comes with a soft foam block in the kit, but the other suggestions here are equally good. If you have access to soft foam the block is about 3/4" thick and the size of your palm (about 3" long by 2" wide). I like it because it's borderline spongy in texture so it doesn't get all funky when it gets wet, then you can just squeeze it out when your done and let it air dry. Same thing with the pads, don't "wring" them out, just shake off the excess water and drape them over the edge of something (I actually have clothesline running through my basement, so I hang it over that). I've also had the same experiences with others as to length of "duty" you can get out of them. My 4800 sheet tends to go out first. Micro-Mark (the hobby tool store people) offer the individual sheets (and the whole kit come to think of it). I use "The Treatment" Model Wax. It used to come in a 1oz jar, but for some reason they stopped making it that way, and now only offer it in single use "ketchup" packs or 5oz tubs. I never managed to make a significant dent in the 1oz jar, I imagine the 5oz tub I have will literally go bad before I can do much with it. I realize I'm probably overpaying for what amounts to cheap car wax, but I like it, and I've gotten good results, so therefore I shall cling to it

Couple of other things...always make sure you alternate patterns between grits. Aka up and down, and then back and forth. If you sand it the same way the whole way through you'll just end up with a bunch of shiny scratches. The other being to always start at the highest # grit you can get away with, there's no real purpose in going through all of the sanding pads unless you have to, and at the point you might as well strip it and start over because you'll cut through the paint before it's all over with. I use the low grit (2400) to scuff primer before painting and that's about it. 4800 makes me nervous unless I'm going to be adding more paint. I try to start at 6000, and then do 8,000, 12,000 and then the compound. You really don't have to apply a lot of pressure, just let the pads do their thing, and the wet sanding can't be wet enough but make sure you dry the part off every so often and check it under a good light to check your progress as it's not easy to tell if you got that piece of fuzz or hair out, especially on a dark color when it's wet.

From talking to some other people it seems to depend on what series you got as well. Seems the older kits didn't have decals, but the newer ones have a sheet that Microscale made. Or perhaps someone is sitting around their house with a huge pile of decal sheets giggling like a ninny. It's a pretty nice sheet too, has several states worth of plates, a couple of company names, some "Private Not Fore Hire" things, "reflective DOT tape", etc.

I bought one of the 5th Wheel trailers this spring, and it had the decals. They are pretty spiffy decals, and I can see why they might "wander" away, especially since those kits aren't sealed in a traditional way.

When the Charger police packages first became available, the factory was so swamped with orders from the civilian market they simply couldn't offer custom two-tone painting on the line, so if you wanted one, it had to be in a solid color. So all GSP Chargers from '06 & '07 with the exception of one or two they used to test out what two-tone scheme they wanted are solid colors. From 2008 on when GSP decided to go with the pewter over gray for their custom two-tone the solid body color units have been assigned to specialty units. The solid gray one is a H.I.T.T. unit (High Intensity Traffic Team), and the black one is one of the "elite" Nighthawk DUI/H.E.A.T. (Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic), the Nighthawk team was created in Metro Atlanta Area of the 10 most highly trained DUI Troopers in the state. It has since expanded to the Savannah Metro region. They focus entirely on DUI Enforcement, and operate primarily during the overnight hours, their motto is "We Hunt at Night". The difference between H.I.T.T. and H.E.A.T.? H.E.A.T. is primarily in the Metro Areas (Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, etc, especially along the I-75, I-85 & I-20 corridors and focuses most of it's efforts on Aggressive Driving. H.I.T.T. is the state-wide anti-DUI traffic task force. The two tone car has 21 lightning bolts on his door. Back in the day the A.C.E. (Aggressive Criminal Enforcement) guys got a license plate where each of those lightning bolts stood for 5 felony auto theft arrests, but those plates have since been phased out. I presume those bolts are now singular, because at 5 a piece that would indicate this trooper has made 105 auto-theft recoveries. That must make him the luckiest guy around, or he has the best stolen car radar in the world. Even with Lo-Jack and OnStar, 21 arrests is still quite the accomplishment. So in fact the answer is yes to both your questions

I think Saturday at 9:30pm Eastern works for me.

Zoli, Another excellent job! I think this one is definitely a "phantom" though, as GSP hasn't bought a new Ford since 2006. With the exception of a handful of Tahoes, they are all Charger all the time down there now.

The other police car guy to the rescue! Here's the orange graphics. 2005 was the last year for the white graphics.

All of the various version of this kit were discussed in great detail with Art in the chat room many months ago. Apparently when it isn't the pit of all the evil that permeates MCM, it occasionally has interesting and informative discussions. If anyone didn't know about the convertible version or any of the other versions, lack of participation on your part, doesn't constitute an emergency on Moebius'

Well I can't speak for Jim, but I would certainly send you pictures of everything I bought, so you had the piece of mind of knowing all the joy your money brought to me.

Absolutely great job! I too have one of these in the pile and echo Ken's thoughts about having it come out as well.

Maybe I'm way off the mark here, but at $10, I can't see where it's economically (or legally for that matter) viable to make a resin copy of this thing.

Well Wal*Mart has been carrying them, but so far I've only found the black slicktop unmarked version there. Jeff Halpern at www.policecarmodels.com has all of the version in stock. Zoli -- Nice job, I like that blue better than Hyattsville's current cars too! I notice you didn't strip this one. Didn't want to have that fight again?

So 2 pages and 30 replies into this, everyone has an opinion, but nobody has this kit on hand to take a picture of? Here ya go...shows the trim recess for the rear, and the fact the front trim is indeed there.

Alright let me see if I understand what you said in that veritable tsunami of ellipses. If anyone dares ask you why you do, or don't do something they're a bully? Now I have come to expect from following your builds on here that you don't feel it necessary to answer for yourself. Also as Mike stated above, you build the way you want and that's fantastic. But sir, I believe it to be a long way between someone who asks a question of a tactic or procedure you followed and them bashing and/or bullying you. If you want to have a braided line erupting from the top of your alternator, huzzah party at John's place. But if someone asks you about it we get a a re-enactment of the Wizard of Oz, where we have to talk to the guy at the door to get in and then are told to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. You're thought of as a world class builder by many if not all the people here. You're dare I say famous, with builds in the magazines, and GSL Best of Show awards. Perhaps it's unfair for the unwashed to expect you to build everything to those standards, but a lot of people here would like to learn from you. The only way they can is if they "get inside your head" so to speak. Why is the driveshaft sponsored? "I dunno, I thought it looked good.", would be an answer. But instead we're shook off like fleas with overarching generalizations about "building for myself" and "Non-accurate this, that or the others". To boil it down what I got out of that was "Kiss my butt and lick my boot-heels and you're my friend, dare to question me and I will resort to throwing out tired cliches and call you names." I'll come out and say it, that's a crappy attitude to have. What did I learn from the world class modeler today? How to accept gushing meaningless praise and deflect criticism. I can see all sorts of ways to apply that in my life.

Ack it's a French langolier!!! Run before it eats all of the past!

Is that 1:35? I have a couple of police SWAT ideas for that...but I admit to being a scale bigot.

If you're accessing this site with Firefox, the built in browser spell check functions just fine. I have to believe that some people are just ignoring the pretty little squiggles under their words, or don't know why they're there. If that is you, right click on the word, and you will be given several choices of things it thinks that gibberish you typed really is; more than likely one of them is correct (or at least more gooder) than the word you assassinated. Ain't gonna do nothin' for your grammar though. So it can't fix the read/red, it's/its, they're/there/their problems.

Congrats! I got one about to burst forth any minute...we're down to the last few weeks and mom is not happy about things, she just wants the kid OUT OF HER!

P70 is the designation for the slightly longer wheelbase taxis that were specific to NYC. If you ever look at a CVPI and a P70 taxi side by side you'll notice the rear door on your taxi is several inches longer than a regular Crown Vic.

His last cars were the #66 K-Mart/Rt 66 Jeans Tauruses in 2000. Although I thought the most interesting set of #17 cars are the Revell/Racing Reflections L.E. kits that were from '97/'98 that were all sponsored via Parts America (what Western Auto became known as) but were painted in several of his old paint styles from his Budweiser, Pepsi, Mountain Dew & Gatorade sponsorships.

I had a '88 with the 3.8, so yes I've wound one out a few times. Not the worst car, but I can see why it wasn't a success. To completely derail off your original point... It couldn't have been much worse that this... Heck skip cutting up the Volvo and just make a police car out of it...

Found it!

Vrroom!!