Chief Joseph

I have updated my website with the large 35" tires now available for order. http://www.fireballmodels.info

It dries very fast as long as you don't glob on too much. In minutes. Much faster than regular old Elmer's school glue.

Does SW2007 have any kind of "screenshot" or "export window to image" function? If all else fails, (with Windows) you can do a Alt-Print Screen and it will capture a screenshot to the clipboard. Then open up MSPaint or some other image editing program and paste the screenshot into a new image. I just found this: http://help.solidworks.com/2012/English/eDrawings/SaveAsImage.htm I would assume the 2007 version has the same functionality because it's a fairly basic feature for a modeling program.

That's an awesome bit of marketing from Subaru, which has made a name for itself the past several of years as the "safe, family car company."

These are TDR Innovations pieces and they are available in other scales, too. They have lots of really nice pieces in their Shapeways store.

Those airbrushes are usable, but you'd probably be better off getting one good, solid airbrush with easy-to-find replacement parts. Something like a Paasche H or VL, but I don't know how easy it might be to get parts for them in Norway-- an Iwata Revolution or a Harder & Steenbeck might be a better choice based on your location. The compressor in that listing is probably decent and the vendor sells it individually. Looking at the other airbrushes that vendor sells, there is something definitely off about the way the price their items, such as the $1600 airbrush-compressor combos!

There are basically two distinct classes of online print services. There are your "volume" outfits, most notably Shapeways and Sculpteo, and then there are your "professional" outfits, who claim fast turnaround or high quality and are much more expensive. I've had work done by three different "professional" outfits: one gave me a jaw-dropping gorgeous part, another game me parts that were sub-par and barely usable, and the third gave me parts that were utter BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH. I use Shapeways almost exclusively because they offer the best print quality at the best price in a reasonable amount of time. Try Shapeways first, and then you'll be in a better position to judge the capabilities of the other services.

FWIW, I have one of those same Chinese guns that picked up several years ago. It's not my first-line choice, nor even my second or third, but it works well to be so cheap. I use beeswax on all the threads because it does tend to have air leaks.

IMHO, a gravity-fed airbrush with the paint cup built into the airbrush body is about a million times easier to clean than an airbrush that uses a separate color cup or jar.

I'm gonna send you a PM with the address I have for Alan.

You can try mixing some plain vinegar and table salt together and dipping the fret into that solution for a few minutes. There will probably still be some discoloration.

If you are meaning waterslide decals: Uh, don't. Use decal solvent and lots of patience. A hair dryer will just quickly dry the decal with all the wrinkles in place. Vinyl decals can be heated and stretched around curves, but not waterslide decals.

Cato, as 3D scanning moves closer to consumer-level acceptance, we'll be able to get good-quality custom figures at a decent price . Have a look here: http://shapify.me/info/home This is a neat idea except the figurine is apparently locked to only 1/20 scale. If they had just chosen 1/18 or 1/24 instead, they would have car modelers or diecast collectors throwing their money at them!

I know folks who do this kind of work. Getting someone to sculpt a figure for you by hand will cost a fortune. Getting someone to do a digital sculpt for you and then 3D-printing the figure will cost a large fortune. You're talking about resin casting as if it will somehow magically produce your figure-- but you need something to mold before you can cast a copy of it. Your only real alternative is to find an existing figure that is close to what you want and modify it. You could combine parts from several figures if it helps to achieve your goal. 1/8 scale is tough because there aren't many cheap figures to cannibalize. If you were needing 1/12 scale, you'd have all those cool McFarlane figures to work with.

Self-etching primer really won't do anything special for resin; regular Duplicolor primers or hobby lacquer primers are all you need. Did you rinse the parts in plain water really well after using the dish washing liquid? A lot of guys will scrub resin parts with Comet cleanser and a toothbrush-- that works really well to prep parts for primer.

Yes, urethane rubber for ease of use with a wider variety of wheels. I can make rigid urethane resin castings upon request also.

I know a guy on Facebook who does this sort of thing. He does a lot of short- and dirt-track cars. I believe he uses sign-lettering enamel and does it all by hand.

The larger tires are in production now. I'll release them for sale when I have a decent stock built up to handle the initial orders. Rubber takes longer to produce than standard hard resin, so it's been a slow-go to build up stock. Thanks for your interest, and your patience!!

Once the Wicked or Autoair colors cure, they are no longer water-soluble, so you can wet-sand them to get rid of dust or defects. HOWEVER, they are not glossy and do not shine up like glossy enamel & lacquer when you polish them. For a shiny paint job on a car body, the Createx paints need a glossy clear coat over them. Fortunately, virtually any clear can be used over them, from Future to 2-pack urethane.

Your 46mm radius dimension is grossly out of range. A 10" diameter heat shield in 1/16 scale should be about 15.9mm in diameter, giving a radius of about 7.95mm. A cylinder with a 46mm radius x 74mm length would look more like a squat barrel.

Yes, real soon. We recently moved and I've just yesterday started casting again. I'll announce them on my website when they are available.

Yes, it's the same thing just under a different brand name.

Photobucket has always been easy for me, even with their recent re-design that seemed to really upset a lot of users.

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/pa_booth.htm for reference only; I don't necessarily endorse this technique

There are similar groups all over the country that aren't quite as commercially-oriented. Over in Pensacola there is a maker group that meets every week to do nerdy and geeky stuff, mostly electronics and life-hacking kinds of things.