Chief Joseph

Just a theory here, as I have no way of testing this (I live on the Gulf Coast-- low humidity is NOT a problem here), but maybe you could wipe your body shell with a dryer sheet before painting. I think a used one would work better than a brand new one, and you'd have to make sure you didn't put any lint or fibers onto the body. Grounding yourself would probably help, too.

And here's a casting of the truck tire:

Yes, the lettering is recessed and inverted on the original Gatorback tire that came on the 84 Corvette, but later versions of the tire had the "serrated black letter" style. I patterned this tire after the 245/60R-16 that was found on the mid-80's IROC, WS6, and GNX. Thanks, Joseph I have a "Wingfoot HP" lettering set in my white letter waterslide decal line; is that the same one you are referring to?

Thanks for the feedback. First off, I don't have a 3D printer. I really wish I had a B9Creator, but it's not feasible right now. These were printed by PCS Engineering in Maryland. I use Shapeways, too. José, both these tires are original models I made from measurements of the real 1:1 items; they are not based on any kit tire. The truck tire is designed to fit nominally-sized 1/24 15" wheels that are found in many kits-- they fit the wheels in the Monogram F-250 kit perfectly, for example. Casey, the truck tire is sized to 30x10.5x15 in 1/24 scale. That was the optional largest size tire for my full-size Bronco, and it was a common size for full-size trucks back in the '80's and early '90's. I had them printed hollow to save cost, but the cast pieces will be solid like my other tires. These will probably only be cast in soft rubber, and not the hard white resin. Raildogg, I'll send you a PM. Regards, Joseph

Here are a couple of 3D-printed tires that I will be putting into production in the near future: Both are 1/24 scale and are original models that I made. The truck tire was made for a Bronco that I want to build and the Gatorback is for a 1985 IROC-Z. I have the IROC's matching wheel done in 3D, but I haven't had it printed.

Looks really nice! Great mixture of early and later GTO styling.

Tim, you may need to ream out the holes in the buckle pieces to insert the pins. I'd recommend using 28 gauge craft wire and select an appropriate micro drill bit to open the hole enough to fit the wire. You could go with smaller 32 gauge wire, but the smaller wire is not as stiff and would be harder to work with. The craft wire is easy to straighten off the spool by slightly stretching the wire with pliers. You may just want to use the first style of adjusters since they seem much easier to assemble and look good. Hope this helps!

That's an OCD rabbit-hole that I personally don't want to enter

U-Joints are easy to model in 3D, and can be designed to function. Probably even functional in 1/24 or 1/25 scale.

You could dilute the Micro Set with some distilled water to weaken it, or you could just stop using it and go back to using water. If your surface is glossy and smooth, you should not really need the Micro Set. I used Set & Sol for a long time, but I use Walthers Solvaset now, and I usually dilute it with some distilled water because it is very strong stuff. I use the diluted mix both under the decal and on top.

I have a flat nose pliers that I use to bend & flatten PE parts. If the PE part isn't mangled, I can usually get it back to usable shape with these pliers by squeezing it between the smooth jaws until it's straight. If you heat the piece and let it cool, it will take the springiness out of the metal and it will be easier to flatten.

Lovely Challenger! I really like that matte black hood with the Sublime Green color.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=927 has a lot of European and Asian stuff

If I were to go to a Mexican restaurant and saw an "El Ranchero Grande" on the menu, I would definitely order that.

I have no idea if anyone sells those, but they are very easy to make yourself.

The easiest way would be to run the decal sheet through a color copier onto clear or white decal paper. At best, you get a slightly fuzzy version of the original. If the original sheet is stained or creased, you'll get all those flaws, too. I re-create the original decal by scanning the sheet and re-drawing the images into vector art. This way, the new decals will be crisp and sharp and they can be rescaled with no loss in quality.

Sort of like taking a photo of a photo... The resulting photo is not quite as sharp or good. The term for that is "generational loss."

Are you maybe getting an external-mix version of "tip dry"? When shooting acrylic paint through an internal-mix airbrush, it has a tendency to dry out and form a blockage where the needle emerges from the tip, causing the paint flow to stop. Some acrylics are better than others in this respect, but they'll all do it given the right conditions. If this is what is happening to you, you can try adding a retarder to the paint to let it flow easier. Vallejo's Model Air thinner will probably work better than rubbing alcohol, or you can even try Future. Lots of modelers use Vallejo Model Air successfully, and there is a lot of discussion about it over on the various military modeling boards.

Soak it in something a little stronger than Dawn for a while; Super Clean or another of the caustic "purple" cleaners is good. Scrub it really well with a toothbrush or your green scrub pad and rinse it really well with clean water. Make sure you scrub the entire surface really, really well. When it's dry, hit it with some primer, wait a day or two and then do a tape test. If your tape pulls up the primer, contact the seller for a replacement or a refund. Polyurethane resin is 100% paintable after an easy prep session IF the caster used the proper materials and techniques when they made the part. Good luck!

So you are pulling up paint and primer with the foil, all the way down to the resin part? What kind of instructions for paint prep came with this particular item? I've seen "casters" talking about using silicone spray as a mold release-- I sure hope that isn't the case with your part or you'll probably never get any paint to stick to it. If you are pulling up paint with the foil but not the primer, then you don't have a resin problem, you have a paint problem.

Wal-Mart has a whole lot of Revell kits at walmart.com, and they will ship to your local store for free. You'd have to pay the sales tax, but it's better than paying shipping with no sales tax at a lot of the online retailers. K-mart does the ship-to-store thing, too, and they actually have a lot of kits on sale at their website right now. There's not a K-mart within 45 miles of me, though!

Put a clear water-based acrylic coat over them as a sealer. Future works great. There have been a wide variety of vinyl and rubbery-like plastics used for kit tires over the years, but they should all accept a water-based clear. Never use a hobby enamel paint directly on vinyl or other flexible plastic-- it'll never dry.

Most all of this was made on my Taig: Many parts of this, too: This is all made on my Taig (but not the quarter): Here's an action shot of a Dremel machining job on a fiberglass Dalek dome: Turning a piece of wood: Just a sampling. More photos in my archives, just not handy on Photobucket.

Lots of Taig guys start out with a standard motor/pulley setup and then move on to a torquey variable-speed DC motor later on down the road. In fact, the Sherline motor & controller is fairly easy to adapt to a Taig, but another popular option is treadmill motors. Aaron, have you priced out just getting the basic lathe parts and getting a motor locally? That's what I did and I saved quite a bit of dough. You can get a board to mount the lathe & motor locally, too. Sherlines are wonderful "turnkey" machines, but Taigs are every bit as nice for much less. You just have to be a little more handy. You might want to invest in an indexing wheel and a motor-tool holder later on. Also, go to Harbor Freight and get a dial indicator. You won't need it for setups with the 3-jaw chuck so much, but it's nice to have.

Easiest solution to that problem would be to use the kit's decal sheet as a guide, re-create the decals that need to be gold, and print them in metallic gold on an Alps printer. I could help you with that if you like. Just PM me.