Harry P.

This can't really be true. $5,000 for...nothing???

But what's REALLY REALLY sad is someone BOUGHT it!!! For $5,000!!!

Man, what a loaded question! Ask 100 guys the best way/technique/paint type/method to paint a model and you'll get 100 different answers. There are SO many possible varieties of paint and types of paint, can vs. airbrush, enamel vs. lacquer/acrylic, etc., that you can argue this one back and forth forever. Bottom line: there are MANY ways to get a good paint finish. It's all a matter of practice and finding the method that works best for you. Some basic overall rules, as far as I'm concerned: 1. DON"T USE ENAMELS! That, to me, is the single most important rule of all. Enamels are finicky to apply, NEVER dry, attract dust and gunk because of the slow dry time, and are basically not worth the hassle. Depending on the brand, some enamels take weeks or even MONTHS to fully harden. Use either lacquers or acrylics, which dry in a tiny fraction of that time, and you'll be much happier. One caution: most (but not all) lacquer paints will attack styrene and cause "crazing" or tiny little cracks in the finish. If you use lacquers always use an appropriate primer on the bare plastic first. Acrylics, on the other hand, are safe on all plastics. 2. It IS possible to mix and match different brands and/or types of primer/color coat/clear coat if you have the experience and know what you're doing, but WHY would you put yourself in a situation where the results might be disaster? Stick with one brand and/or type of paint...that is, if you use a lacquer based primer, use lacquer color coat and lacquer clear. By "keeping it all in the family" you'll eliminate the possibility of a bad reaction between paint types or brands. Like I said, it's posssible to mix and match, and many "experts" do that, but I just don't see the reason to do so. KISS (keep it simple, stupid) is my motto. Especially so for beginners. 3. Lacquers and acrylics also spray better from the can, because they're thinner than enamels, so you get a better finish. You don't need an airbrush to get a good finish...show-winning paint jobs can be had right from the can. I especially like the spray pattern of Dupli-Color automotive paints. They have a different spray nozzle than your typical can of "model paint", and spray a nice, smooth, fine pattern. Of course, an airbrush with adjustable nozzle and pressure will give you more control, but there's no reason you can't get great results from a spray can...as long as you use lacquers or acrylics! 4. A polishing kit is the "great equalizer". No matter how you applied your paint-can or airbrush-a polishing kit used correctly can make just about ANY paint job look fantastic. I'm sure you'll be getting a lot more input on this topic, including acrylic/lacquer hybrids, urethanes and other exotic (and potentially dangerous) types of paint, HOK paints, etc, as everyone has their own particular favorite that they swear by...but those 4 basic rules will take you a long way.

I met test user once. He's a real quiet guy... and I thought Robert Burns passed away in the late 1700s. Geez...he was one of the really early members...

In Venezuela the government controls gas prices. We tried it here once...and it didn't work. Seems to be working SPECTACULARLY well in Venezuela. What do they know that we didn't???

Ok...you guys did really well last time. Let's see if you can keep it up! The answer: REAL!

And in Venezuela, it goes for .12 cents/gallon!!!

Photobucket's always been free...and has always been easy to use. Why do some people pay for Fotki when Photobucket is free???

Very nice and clean. You foil work is great. (don't forget to foil the vent window frames!)

To the two brave souls who wouldn't go along with the crowd and had the guts to vote "Model"... You're wrong!!! As the rest of you said, it's REAL! (although it would make a cool model)... Next one coming MONDAY!

He means McCain...or as some peole say, Bush the III.

Very nice! And I love your photos, too. Nice touch.

The ironic thing is, the very people who drive the biggest gas guzzlers, the huge, expen$ive SUVs, are the very same people who are least affected by the cost of gas. After all, if you can afford a giganto-car for $60,000, you can probably afford the gas at $5 a gallon too. And you probably couldn't care less about conservation... after all, you drive a freakin' Hummer!!! The rest of the world is beneath you... It's the average guy, the guy driving to work in his '92 Cutlass, that's being hurt the most by the price of gas. And by the way, Harold...your comment on the "Dancing With the Stars" mentality of Americans...how true! How sad, but how true.

Here in Chicago's NW suburban area, in the last day or two prices are starting to go over $4 a gallon now. Most stations are still in the $3.95 range, but the $4.05 and $4.15s are starting to pop up everywhere like dandelions. $5 a gallon by Memorial Day? $7 by Fourth of July? At what point does our society just snap and say "enough already!!!"??? I wonder just how high the oil companies will raise the price. Is it realistic to believe that the average Joe is willing and able to pay $100+ to fill up his tank every week??? Didn't we once have a similar situation with the high price of tea? I seem to remember the colonists not being too happy about the price King George was charging.

Not a chance. Once prices reach a certain level, they NEVER go down again. Yeah, maybe gas might drop a dime or two a gallon every now and then, but basically we'll never see $2 or even $3 a gallon gas again. The oil companies see now that they can sell gas for $4 a gallon...$5 a gallon coming soon, no doubt... without any trouble at all. Why in the world would they ever drop the price? They have us all "over a barrel" (pun intended!!!) and there's not a darn thing any of us can do about it. The only real way out of this mess is a huge push toward alternatives to oil...hydrogen being the most promising technology. But the oil companies (and our government, which is apparently controlled by the oil companies) will NEVER mount a serious effort to wean us off of oil. There's WAY too much money to be made by the fat cats with the system being just what it is right now. It's funny...on the one hand the government talks about "conservation" and tells us to use less oil, while on the other hand it's in bed with "Big Oil", who's raking in huge profits at our expense.

Yeah, me too. And I WORKED for the .coms back in the 90s. Unfortunately I was freelance, not an "employee". I got to do the same work everyone else did, but didn't get the stock options like the "real" employees got. I would come in on Monday mornings and all you would hear was how this guy just bought himself a new house and the other guy just bought himself a new car...there was so much easy money flying around it was like a dream. And then it all went "poof"...

I only wish I had bought oil company stock years ago! Then the current price of a gallon of gas would be a whole lot easier to take.

I'll bet the price of gas doesn't bother you so much when you see what your oil company shares are trading for... I'm all for free enterprise, capitalism and supply-and-demand economics...but when the price of oil is skyrocketing totally out of control and going through the roof due to billionaire oil speculators, while the rest of us are being screwed through higher prices for gas and everything else that depends on the price of gas, like trucks delivering goods to stores, airfares, public transportation, all things made of plastics (oil), etc...well, that tends to get me just a little bit cranky. There's something wrong with a system where a very few incredibly wealthy companies can make billions in profits while the other 99.99% of us are forced to pay for it with no choice. And on top of it all, our incredibly wise government gives these "struggling" companies tax credits!!! Because we know it's hard to scrape by on just a few measly BILLION every quarter. Where's my tax credit? Oh, that's right...I'll be getting a $300 "stimulus" check. Wow...that may be just enough to cover one month's home heating bill. Or one month's worth of gas for my car, so I can continue to go to work and make enough money to buy the gas that gets me to work so I can make enough money to buy the gas that gets me to work... sigh...

Hmmm....you don't happen to work for an OIL COMPANY, do you??? Another point: ALL of the items you listed, while priced ridiculously high per gallon, are DISCRETIONARY purchases. Nobody HAS to buy Scope, Evian, Gatorade, etc. There are other brands we could buy...or we could simply not buy at all! All of those items are bought because the consumer CHOOSES to buy them. How many of us buy gas because we WANT to...and how many of us buy gas because we HAVE to??? And with gas, there's no comparison shopping or generic brand available. ALL gas stations charge the same price, give or take a nickel or dime. The oil companies sell a product that we HAVE to buy, and they're sticking it to the consumer full speed ahead...just because they CAN.

I've been good! Nice to see you back around these parts!

from Wikipedia: Part of Hawaiian culture, ʻohana' means family in an extended sense of the term including blood-related, adoptive or intentional. It emphasizes that family and friends are bound together and members must cooperate and remember one another.

Attention, Woodstock generation! Real or model? The answer: REAL!

Hey...it's what I do best..

Amazing. Your scratchbuilding skills are phenomenal! And whoa....talk about an eye-catching color combo. Yikes!!!

Just to add to the comments... I'm having nothing but problems. First I couldn't get in at all. Didn't realize I had to sign up all over again. The site won't run on my home Mac at all! Latest posts don't show up until some time later. Where did the option to create a poll go? Geez, lots of frustrated people over there. And that's supposed to be a vastly "improved" site??? I think I'll just watch the train wreck safely from here...