Harry P.

When I was a little kid I couldn't wait until the latest issue of "Car Model" came out. And my two favorite builders by far were Hank Borger and Jim Keeler. To this day, even though the old magazines were tossed in the trash many, many years ago, I still remember Jim Keeler's "Dodge Fever" dragster, with the operating pistons in the engine. I had never seen such a detailed model before in my entire life! And I still remember some of Hank Borger's many features, including his "Angry Man" Maverick, his yellow Corvette street rod, his version of Oscar Koveleski's McLaren race car, and his "Swirladelic" paint technique. Although I never really got into model trucks, I also loved reading Phil Jensen's "Tidewater Trucker" column. Some great modeling memories there... I sure wish I would have saved those magazines!

We had dinner at Lawry's Prime Rib one night... Stetson's Chop House another night. Glad our dinners were "comped"... you don't want to know what the tab for 4 at Stetson's was! Also made it to the Sox game last Friday nite. But they lost... The rest of the time we were too busy working to even make it out of the hotel, so we "ate in."

Don't bother masking it. At that scale, whether it's satin or chrome would hardly be visible one way or the other.

"MRCIVICWITHSTYLE," I suggest you check your PMs.

I hope you don't mind... but I have a few suggestions for your design:

Vote early... vote often. That's the "Chicago Way!"

Do we need it? Uh, no. But I like it!

I've been thinking about getting this kit. Your photos make me think I really should!

ok, let's try this again! (I forgot to check the "Make Poll Public" box).

How about this one? Real or model? The answer: MODEL!

If the deadline that everyone knew about in advance was "arbitrary," then aren't all the rules governing the judging also "arbitrary?" I mean, someone made up the deadline; someone made up the judging standards. And if modeler A is allowed to submit his models 10 minutes after the deadline, does modeler B also get to submit his 20 or 30 minutes after the deadline? How late is too late? I mean, why is one standard "arbitrary" while another is not? Just curious as to your take on that.

There are two basic differences between an injection-molded kit (what we all call a "plastic" kit) and a resin kit. First, the plastic material used in almost all "plastic" kits is polystyrene, and is different from the material used in resin kits. But the main difference between a "plastic" kit and a "resin" kit is how they are manufactured. An injection-molded plastic kit (the typical "model kit" we all know) is manufactured by injecting liquid (melted) polystyrene plastic under pressure into steel molds. The liquid plastic fills the voids in the mold, and when it's cooled and solidified, the plastic is removed from the mold. The parts are typically molded in groups, attached by thin connections to a framework that holds the parts (called the parts "tree"). A resin kit (or resin parts) uses a completely different manufacturing process. The resin in a liquid state is poured into a mold and allowed to harden, then is removed from the mold. The difference from an injection-molded plastic kit is that the resin is liquid at room temperature, and is not injected under pressure into the mold cavity... it's simply poured in, and gravity causes it to flow and fill the mold. The injection-molding process employs very elaborate (and expensive) metal molds and injection-molding machinery, and lends itself to high volume production. The resin process is generally used by the aftermarket because the start up costs are much less than that required to do injection molding (no injection-molding machinery needed), the rubber molds are much easier and cheaper to produce than the steel molds needed for injection molding, and the resin casting process is much better suited to the small scale (even individual piece) production needs of the aftermarket. As far as the actual differences between resin and traditional kit plastic when you're building, resin in general is more brittle than styrene plastic, and will snap and break much easier than plastic would. Also, the typical "model glue" used on a plastic kit will not work on resin; typically you would use either cyanoacrylate glue (Super glue) or epoxy with resin parts. If you want to know more about the resin casting process you can google it and find a ton of information. Here's one place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resin_casting

Yikes! Another ancient thread resurrected from the crypt! What's going on here today?

Thank you, Peter!

I don't know how often you fly into or out of O'Hare, but it's not the clueless that are the problem. The problem at O'Hare is the long lines everywhere. I swear, it seems that every time I've flown out of O'Hare, the entire US population was also there that day!

Ok, this one definitely wins the "Oldest Thread Bumped Up" Award for today...

The distance from my house to the hotel, door to door, is 38 miles. The ride took an hour and a half. That averages out to about 25 mph. Traffic around here sucks. But the hassle known as "O'Hare Field" is even worse.

Going back to the original post on this topic... Matt was talking about the judging method, the breakdown of classes, and allowing late entries. He never mentioned anything about any bias IPMS may have when it comes to model cars... it was others who brought that up.

Me too!

I don't have a fear of flying. I just hate what the process has evolved into... chronic flight delays, smaller and smaller seats with no leg room, invasive airport security measures, paying extra for your luggage, people being allowed on board with "carry on" bags the size of a house, boarding the plane and then sitting there for an hour before takeoff, etc. Traveling by plane has gone from being fairly enjoyable to being a major hassle. I can't imagine how anyone can like flying??? That's why I was glad that this time my destination was just a cab ride away... no airport needed!

You and me both.

I was "out of the loop" for the past week-out of town on business. Ok, so I didn't have to go far this time... only to downtown Chicago! So technically you could say that I was actually "in the Loop!" Woo Hoo! No plane travel necessary for once. I HATE flying... the hassle of airport security, tiny airplane seats, etc.). I had internet access, of course, but no time for it! But I got home a few hours ago and it's nice to be back!

AMT=Aluminum Model Toys.

Even more information that makes my decision to never enter a contest look better and better to me.

Each issue has the issue number on the cover right below the word "Model" in the logo.