Harry P.

How do you feel about the term "Johnson rod?"

Engine gaskets at 1/24 or 1/25 scale would be basically invisible. Why even bother?

That was covered in post #12. Just sayin'...

Are motorcycle engines subject to the same EPA regs that car engines are subject to?

Yeah, if you used big spacer blocks! Seriously though... kind of impressive the amount of power they can squeeze out of a tiny engine these days. Not that long ago big honkin' 8 cylinder engines that made 125 HP were considered to be pretty powerful.

You want weighty, deeply meaningful posts? Here ya go: E=mc2 Contemplating that ought to keep you busy for a while...

Do you ever get the feeling that the internet gods just don't like you?

Maybe because the default is the new version. Try clicking on this and see what happens. It's the old Photobucket. http://photobucket.com/

Then I suggest you go with the old version of PB as long as they'll let you.

You don't ever want to go backwards with web browsers. Not sure you actually can, but if you could it wouldn't make any sense. You'd be losing whatever functionality the latest version has and would only make your compatibility issues worse, not better.

I just tried the "new" PB using Safari 5.1.7 on my Mac with OSX 10.6.8. PB worked just fine, but I don't really see any improvements... it's just different. Just a matter of getting used to the new layout and functions, but I really don't see how the new version is significantly better than the old way. Think I'll stick with PB "classic" until they pull the plug on the old version.

Skip, are you saying that you can't run the latest browsers because they won't run on your Mac operating system? If that's the problem, it's only going to keep getting worse (more and more sites won't run as time goes on and web technology keeps evolving). Time to bite the bullet and upgrade your OS.

No, it doesn't. Scratchbuilding means you're making a model from raw material... sheet brass, sheet styrene or rod, aluminum... it doesn't mean you're making the sheet brass or styrene or aluminum!

Scratchbuilding doesn't mean creating the material. It means taking the material and using it to create a model.

Remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer was enjoying dangling participles? "I'm out there, Jerry... and I'm loving it!"

Beautiful! Very nicely done, you can be proud of that one.

Everyone knows that Oscar Mayer does...

It lets me use crap.

Try looking "Under Glass" or "On the Workbench" or in "Big Boyz" or "Car Kit Reviews" or the Trucks section or "Model Building Q&A," just for starters. This is the "General" section.

Who said language doesn't change over time? Obviously it does, and obviously dictionaries are constantly edited to add new words and remove obsolete ones. But the dictionary is still the recognized source for correct spelling and usage. And by the way, I didn't use a 200-year old dictionary, I used dictionary.com, which I'm pretty sure didn't exist 200 years ago.

As in waxy yellow?

The thing is, the definition of "scratchbuilding" isn't a matter of opinion, it's a word that has a specific definition and when used, means a certain thing. But when misused, it drives real scratchbuilders crazy. It's like a person baking a cake from a Betty Crocker mix and frosting it with frosting out of a can and entering it in a bake-off and saying they made it from scratch. Someone else in the bake-off who actually did make their cake from scratch is not going to be very happy with the Betty Crocker person going around claiming that their cake was made from scratch. And I used the dictionary in my post because the dictionary is the "referee" as far as correct usage, spelling and grammar. If we didn't have an accepted "official" source, and no rules for grammar, spelling, etc. at all, we'd all be speaking and writing our own version of English, and odds are most of us wouldn't understand each other.

I realize that "build" is accepted as a noun among many modelers, all I'm saying is that it's not grammatically correct, as Drew initially pointed out. And as far as Model Cars Magazine is concerned, it's "scratchbuilt." I have to edit copy all the time because some people say "scratch-built" and some say "scratch built." But our "official" version is all one word, no hyphen.

Not just me. The dictionary disagrees with you, too.