niteowl7710

I understand what you're getting at, but like most things statistics can be made to say whatever you want them to say. Do you really believe there are nearly 3.700 metropolitan areas in this country? According to the U.S. Census I live in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Census Area...but I'm literally 28 miles away from my front door, to the center of downtown. Can anyone explain to me exactly how that makes me part of a Metropolitan area? Especially when I have a horse farm next door? When you really look at that data there are only 463 actual Metro Areas of 100,000 or more people. 1,838 areas are areas of 50,000 or less, and the final 1,328 are areas of 2,500 - 5,000 people. I hate to break it to the almighty Federal Government but 2,500 people does NOT make something "Urban"...that's flipping rural! Heck even if your county seat has over 100,000 people in it, that doesn't make everyone living outside of it "Urban" either.

Terry you're just in the wrong part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area, I have at least 4 of them within 25 miles of my house, and they're building a 5th.

Yeah what Mark said! Get some run of the mill scotch tape, burnish it down tight, and then remove. The decal should come right off without affecting the underlying paint.

Well in reality we probably will not run out of oil, we will however at some point run out of commercially viable oil. The U.S. sits on more oil than the Middle East, however getting the majority out of the ground involves either getting it out of shale, or our own oil sands, neither of which are cheap, so the investment isn't being made. Besides I've long thought this country's long-term energy policy was to use up the world's oil first, then we'd have all of it. This conversation has been an interesting exercise in paranoia and far-out technology dreaming. But as is the usual case the here and now falls somewhere in the middle. Despite all the noise on both sides about either government control or the evils of urban sprawl, the vast majority of this country is the middle of nowhere rural. I live a short 28 mile commute to Pittsburgh, but out in my county it's primarily rural/agriculture zoning. We don't even have a taxi service, let alone public transit. We have a "bus service" for seniors and the infirm, but you quite literally have to be approved by the county to us it, you can't just get on the bus and ride it around. I;m the first person to admit that when I got to D.C. on vacation I park my car in the hotel and don't see it again until I leave, but that all encompassing Metro system isn't going to help me or 85% of Pennsylvanians who live outside of Pittsburgh & Philadelphia. All the hybrids, electric cars and high speed rail isn't going to help the farmers in the Midwest, or ranchers in Texas. There are always going to be people who really DO need 1 ton dually pick-up trucks, 7 passenger SUVs, and 16 passenger vans. That's to say nothing of commercial freight movements. For all the greenie/touchie/feel good ads that Norfolk-Southern & CSX run, the fact of the matter is that your local grocery store doesn't have a rail siding behind it. All of those containers and intermodal trailers have to come off and be run to their final destination on a truck. All putting things on rail does is eliminate long-haul trucking jobs, and reduce traffic congestion in Kansas. It just means MORE trucks on the road in major cities to deliver all those trailers to and from the rail-head. Also due to the way the rail lines merged and consolidated we're one major train derailment away from having the entire grid come to a halt. Chicago is a particularly notorious choke-point, with the freight going through far exceeding the rail capacity...one wreck there (aside from whatever devastation the potential chemical release might cause) could shut down East-West rail traffic for weeks. A lot of rail-beds were torn out and turned into "nature walks", bike trails, etc. so there's no real viable work-around either that doesn't detour things through Kansas City, which goes into an entire separate issue of who's rails who's trains are using. The next great thing out there might very well be developing in an R&D lab, or percolating in some college kid's mind, but until it gets here we use oil. The problem as I see it really lies in the fact that we're throwing subsidies around for these "green jobs" and "alternative energies" with the same reckless abandon the Feds do everything else...which is to say totally ineffectively. Bypassing various technologies based on who has the biggest lobbyist convention in town. This country has shown a complete and total propensity towards talking a lot of doodie, but not taking any actual actions (see - No budget in over 2 years, huge deficits, Social Security & Medicare going bankrupt through at LEAST 3 administrations). Bottom line is those dopes don't care one whit about any of us on either side of the "aisle", it's all about power and $$$, and the infrastructure of this country is collapsing around their collective greed.

Alright Nate let me just sit here in stunned silence at the over-arching stupidity of that excuse... O.K. I can't...what the heck is that even supposed to mean? Kids love cars real and models! I went to a model show attached to a car show in VA, and the kids had to be forcibly dragged through the contest venue (to get to the other part of the real car show) because they wanted to look at the models.

Since two people have now asked, and have been told to buy airbrushes, but never had their original question answered... This effects the spray paint, not the little bottles of paint. There's still more than enough X-18 to go around for everyone, or at least there is at my LHS, who just got a re-stock of the the acrylics last week (I know since I bought the last jars of several colors back in April, and he had fresh stock in May.) Paint is like motor oil, antifreeze, and most other common "chemicals". Along with most food companies too come to think about it. There are only a few companies that actually make it, and then they co-brand it to several specific brands. Figure out who makes Tamiya spray paint, and then buy the cheaper off-brand, but just as good stuff.

They are the exactly that. The Police car kits actually include the wheels, and several engine parts from the SRT-8 kits. They are also the same as the Testors Daytona and R/T kits as well as they were cast by Lindberg for Testors.

Might be that nobody knew about it? I'm presuming we're talking about New Stanton as in at the corner of I-70 and the PA Pike right? I went to the show in Pittsburgh in March, and have been to the hobby shop in Connellsville 3 times in the past 3 months and never saw one word of there being anything today.

Diesel Exhaust Fluid...aka DEF...aka synthetic urea...

Tim - I think the reason you see a lot of "roundy-round" truck sales is for two reasons. 1) They're easier to make fleet trucks out of (aka CHEAP) since there's less chrome, and doo-dads. 2) The ATA and TCA have brainwashed every major company into believing the reason they don't get enough fuel mileage is a combination of their trucks aren't round enough, are going too fast and all those lousy drivers in the seats are idiots. Nothing to do with them de-rating the HP, and running them around at 60-62mph out of the "sweet spot" of the engine. I have gotten significantly better mileage (8.5-9 MPG) out of a '04 International 9400i that would go 85 on the floor, and 81 on the cruise, than I have ever managed to get out of any fleet truck in 13 years until I got this ProStar. I actually got worse mileage out an '07 Columbia than I did out of a '99 Pete 379. Rob - I think Moebius hit the "perfect storm" with this kit. The right subject matter, at the right time (combination of improved economics of the hobbyist, with the lack of new truck tooling), with the right niche. Truck modelers are used to spending more for their kits to begin with, so while the price tag is steeper than the Round 2 re-issues of late, it's still cheap compared to the RoG kits. But the non-truck guys aren't going to buy this kit in droves, especially when the styling of the subject matter is so hotly debated. This is a fantastic kit, a marvel of modern modeling if you will, and a lot of people are going to miss out on it simply cause it's ugly and/or they "don't build trucks". While it must peak the interests of the people at Revell and Round 2, I think they're watching much more closely the saga of tooling revisions of the Hudson & Chrysler. Here again are two sorta niche subjects. They're oddball kits in the sense that while almost everyone can find something to do with a '69 Camaro, not everyone is going to hop on board the train to Hudson-town. How popular will these two really be? Can they sell out before hitting the distributors like the LoneStar did? Here in lies the problem as I see it...we "truck guys" have seen how great the LoneStar is, we now know what to expect (in theory) in both quality and detail out of the two cars, and I think we're more likely (unless one refuses to build car subjects) to readily buy the new car kits just to have the experience of dealing with more Moebius tooling goodness. Whereas those who balked at the truck are going to be more hesitant to buy them since they're a "new company", the subject matter isn't a muscle car, and the price is "too high". I know I personally am chomping at the bit for the Hudson & Chrysler, and am pacing a hole into the floor waiting to see what they have planned for release at iHobby. If they can sell out the cars on the way to the distributors as well, that to me signals a seismic shift in the modeling world, and we could be well on our way to entering a new "glory days" within the hobby unlike we've seen since the competitive days during the 1990's when Monogram & Revell were separate companies and AMT/Ertl was cranking out mounds of kits.

For those of us not up on our German...here's the English site. http://www.revell.de/en/products/model_kits/services/info_channel/picture_galleries/galleries/?&L=1 Also the actual catalog shows it as being a 1983, rather than a 1981, which I assume is a potato/patato type thing, since I doubt there was was any styling movement in those 2 years... Wasn't something that was on my radar, but "new tooling" and "full detail" peak my interest on odd-ball subject matter like that, much the way the Trabant did. Although, gotta say I am much more eagerly awaiting that Audi R8 Spyder.

If you want to stick entirely within the paint line...Testors makes Lacquer Primer (Model Master) and Wet Look Clear (in the One Coat line), so that you're not crossing products together. I hate recommending doing anything with Testors spray paints other than using them as paper weights, but the One Coats are pretty good.

Let be honest down here in the States, winter fronts are more for keeping the engine warm during those 10 hours of sitting around a truck stop than serving any real purpose out on the road. I'm not sure what you can actually even attach a winter front to anymore. The last truck I drove that had the attachment points on the outside, was a 2004 Pete 379. With Esbar heaters and APUs (along with the bevy of Government intrusion via Idle Regulations) you don't really have to worry about parking the truck at night in the winter worrying about which way the wind is blowing. And Leo is right Matt...they can be red and on, I misspoke...but you can't leave the clear ones on in motion, and they can't be funky colors and on, or both or either...

Looking into the maw of the dragon as it were... If you look at the area behind where the "V" is made by the cross piece of the opening, you can indeed see radiator goodness lurking back there.

I can see where a Freightliner Coronado (keeping with Moebius' apparent love of fully spec'd O/O trucks) would be a good choice, as with a few piece changes it could be re-popped as a Classic XL to share tooling costs (and maybe as the base of a new Western Star since they're owned by Daimler, the trucks probably aren't to different under the skin). Heck with the "aero" trucks all together, give me a current, accurate Extended 379 w/Ultra Sleeper, and W-900 with 72" Studio Sleeper. The new aero Pete and KW are 10x more fugly than anyone here thinks the LoneStar is...

I enjoy the guys who put the odd ball color lights (purple, pink, yellow, lime green, etc) into the work lights on the back of the cab and then run around with them on at night. This is also a no-no as they have to be clear, and not on while the vehicle is in motion...but then truckers have always been ones to see how far they can bend the law. Just make sure you have them turned off going into the scales B) Oh hey there is a Quality Carrier tanker with a LoneStar parked next to me...hmm where's my camera.

Interesting ideas for sure, but from the tooling "bang-for-the-Buck" point of view, the ProStar is the true no-brainer. They would need to change out maybe 2 dozen parts (new hood, grille and side skirts being the most obvious, no side pipes, and less over-all bling) and it would be come the truck modeling equivalent of a NASCAR "blank" kit. Almost every single major trucking firm in the U.S. has at least some of (if not entire fleets of) the ProStars. In addition to the one I'm sitting in at this moment for Celadon Trucking Services...Schneider, J.B. Hunt, Werner, SWIFT, Central Refrigerated Trucking, PRIME, Heartland Express, Knight, C. R. England, Con-Way Truckload (the old CFI), and the Wal*Mart Corporate Fleet all have them.

DOT Regulations specify headlights, front turn signals, side turn signals (on the LoneStar these would be the ones directly under the door, the ones under the sleeper are optional), and the 5 "DOT" lights across the top of the windshield. All those other chicken lights are for show. The only thing the DOT says about them, is that if you have them, they have to be operational. Also in back, rear tailights/turn signals, a reverse light...if you're require to display a rear plate (as in some Canadian Provinces and Washington State), there must be a license plate light. I drive a ProStar (the little sister of the LoneStar) and my lower grill opening directly feeds the lower radiator, and oil cooler. But I can't say for certain, but I speculate they feed air on the LoneStar as well. The too small openings above the lower grilles are where you would install tow-hooks. P&P Resin (Porky on here) has 3 styles of those kind of fenders.

Sometime it's just easier not to dink around with a middle man, and order direct! http://plastruct.com/Home.html Click on the top link that says "Search/New Order" and search for "hex rods" and you'll get all the sizes the make. It's like $3.25 + S/H for ten 10in long rods in the retail pack...or 35 cents a piece for individual pieces.

YOWSA! What a blue! That is fantastic

I just went for some Testors One Coat Purple-licious and Wet Look Clear for my daughter's next project, and it followed me home. Freaking box is HUGE! It dwarfs my Dell laptop in the background.

Got some goodies from HLJ over the past few weeks, finally got home to inspect everything.

Whomever wrote the original article clearly doesn't understand the difference between owning the copyright of something, and then the subsequent licensing of that copyright to others. The original Twitpic ToS didn't say you couldn't license you work to others, it just said you couldn't license you work to others on THEIR servers. Which is understandable, most people when linking a picture on the internet, certainly don't download the photo, and then re-upload it to their own servers. In essence they don't want their through-put (aka bandwidth) being used up by others, which as someone who foots a server bill of my own, seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Very cool! Nice stash too, but I couldn't help notice you have doubles and triples of some kits. But fear not, we are always ready to swing into action to help alleviate over-stuffed stashes!!