Harry P.

Usually I lose interest. Or I find another kit on ebay, and when it arrives I drop the previous one and play with the shiny new one. Eventually I'll go back and finish all of those partially-built kits. Yeah, right!

The first step was to visualize exactly how I wanted the top to look. I decided I wanted an arched top, higher in the middle than at the ends (because it's "jaunty" that way... ). Once I had the design of the top in my head, I began by cutting four corner blocks out of basswood. Each corner block got a hole drilled in it the same diameter as the brass top supports: The arched side members of the top were created by soaking the basswood strips overnight, then clamping them around an object that had the diameter to give the side members the arch I wanted. (I used a large kitchen pot). Once the curved side pieces were completely dry, I assembled them with five crossmembers and the corner blocks, using CA glue instead of white glue (it's faster that way!)... Then I rounded the corners and stained the top frame... And finally added the top material, a slightly oversized piece of sail cloth left over from a wooden ship kit... glued to the top frame with a few dabs of CA: More to come...

Both front and rear top supports are installed and locked into position with epoxy. Instead of trying to install four separate supports and trying to get all four parallel, I figured it was easier to bend them in sets of two, with the top crosspiece still attached. Easier to make sure each support is parallel to the other this way... And now I measured the same distance up from the ground on each top support, and clipped off the cross pieces: Now to build the top.

I'm not the one who "unpinned" the pinned topics... that was someone else's decision, so I won't comment on that specific thing. BUT... when the pinned topics were there, the same questions kept getting asked over and over again anyway, which proves to me that pinning topics, for the most part, is useless. Most (not all) people simply ask their question without trying to first find the answer themselves. I guess it's human nature, especially on a forum, to just ask away. I don't have a problem with the same questions being asked over and over. Look at the plus side... it brings up a topic every so often that a lot of beginners might need to know about. And besides, if anyone doesn't like answering the same questions over and over again, you don't have to! Let someone else take a crack at answering. There's no need to feel obligated to answer repetitive questions over and over again... we have plenty of members here who will chime in and answer.

I'm not telling.

I just finished shoveling round #2 for today. I expect to do one more round tonight after the Packers game, if the temp hasn't fallen too far by then (supposed to be -20 tonight). On the bright side... this regimen of shoveling snow three times a day for the past 4-5 days has been a great cardio workout! I haven't had this much exercise since I don't know when! So I'm calling this epic "global warming" winter my personal fitness workout!

It's a dual plug engine. 16, not 30.

Also... a lot of people gain weight as they get older because they continue to eat the way they ate when they were in their 20s and 30s... but as you age, the body's metabolism slows. It's completely normal, but the fact is, as you get older you literally don't need as many calories a day as you did when you were younger. So actually backing off a bit on the total food intake as you age is needed to keep from gaining weight.

Impressive results, Bill! The hardest part of losing weight is the self-discipline needed to not only lose it initially, but to change your eating habits over the long term, and stick to it, so the weight stays off. Looks like you have done exactly that... changed a lifetime of bad eating habits for healthy ones. That is not easy to do. Also, I see that you're a believer in the natural way of losing weight. No pills, no miracle drugs, but the basics... eat healthy and exercise. That's the way to do it. There's no magic or mystery to weight loss... it just takes the self-discipline to do it. Congratulations!

It's thanks to you guys that we're supposed to hit 20 below tonight. Not wind chill, actual temperature. I wish you guys would just keep your Canadian arctic air up there!!!

Shoveling. Why do I even bother? I did it again this morning. It's still snowing. Been snowing for FIVE days now. I'm running out of places to throw the stuff!

Bill is correct. After you click on "Edit" and the editing window pops up, you have to click on "Use Full Editor" at the bottom... that gives you access to change the title.

From page 4 of the manual: Paint should be thinned with its proper solvent. Do not spray solvent-based (flammable) paints around open flames. Obviously if the NEO was not compatible with solvents, those lines would have been worded very differently.

I just got in from shoveling. AGAIN! So I'm working and working, from the top of the driveway down to where it meets the street. I finally get the last of it off the driveway apron, and literally not more than a minute or two later, here comes the village plow... throwing all that snow that I had just finished clearing off the driveway right back onto the driveway again. What are the odds that the minute I finish the driveway, the plow comes by and undoes all my work?

"le barre rolle" or something like that.

"Surrey with the fringe on top" is exactly what went through my mind when I first saw the photo with that fringed top! Anywho... here's the front top support, bent to shape (just faking it here, folks... making it up as I go along!)... attached through the front body panel and "locked" in place by filling those little pockets I made with some 5-minute epoxy... Here's a closeup of how I locked the top support in place. Now that interior structure I added makes sense... right? The rear support will be done the same way. Then I have to figure out how to make scale fringe. I already have an idea...

I use Photobucket all the time. No problems here.

It seems very "French" to me...

My top will be supported by brass poles that will have a 90 degree bend at the end that will attach horizontally to the front and back panels of the body. First step is to create the "flanges" where the posts will connect to the body. I made them with thin aluminum sheet, and the "bolts" holding them in are brass planking nails from a model ship kit. The middle hole in each flange is where the short horizontal legs of the top poles will enter: I want to add some strength to the top poles... I don't just want to push them into the holes and rely on a drop of CA to hold them in place... so I added some structure on the inside... just scraps of wood to create the "pockets" where the brass pole legs will extend into the inside of the body. I will then fill these pockets with 5-minute epoxy, burying and anchoring the legs in the epoxy. None of this will be seen once the seats are installed, so I didn't have to be particularly neat or precise:

Yes... just not sure what yet.

Maybe I'm crazy... but I decided I want to add a top, sort of like this one: I'll have to scratchbuild it, of course, but I think I can handle it. Mine will be slightly different, but basically the same idea. I just have to figure out how to make 1/16 scale fringe!

That's what I mean. No more new products.

Pretty cool!

Model building questions and answers belong in the Model Building Question and Answer section. Maybe you should apply for the job of moderator.

Maybe you should start a neighborhood polar bear club!