Mike999

Not Netflix. But for those who have the EPIX movie channel: on Sunday 7/26 at 10 PM EST, EPIX starts a new 6-part documentary series, “Helter Skelter: An American Myth." The advertising calls it "the most definitive recounting of the Manson Family story ever put on screen, and will challenge everything viewers think they know about this bizarre chapter in American history." They've tracked down former Manson Family members, cops and others who haven't been seen for 50 years. So it might be interesting. EPIX has done some really good documentary series, especially about music. Most recent was "Laurel Canyon." Before that EPIX did the great 4-part documentary "Punk," co-produced by Iggy Pop. That channel also runs a lot of movies every month, often more than 150.

Condolences. Your Mom sounds like a strong woman and I hope she pulls thru.

If you're inspired to build any Breaking Bad scale model vehicles, this Wiki should help. But just like the show, it can eat up some time. http://breakingbad.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Vehicles I was living/working in Egypt when the first few seasons of Breaking Bad aired, and didn't want to start in the middle of it. I was real happy when AMC showed it end-to-end a couple of years ago. I DVR'd every show, then sat down and binge-watched them from start to finish. A couple of episodes glitched but I found them lying around the internet.

I wonder if Kalmbach will keep publishing "Damaged" magazine. It's a tie-in with AK-Interactive, the huge Spanish seller of modeling paints, books and accessories. I bought a couple of issues, then quit because it did too many subjects that didn't interest me. AK publishes its own extensive line of model magazines, with occasional cars but mostly aircraft and armor. But weathering is weathering and the techniques are often useful, no matter what we're building. This is the Spring 2020 issue of "Damaged."

You did a great job on that old monster! It looks ready for a parade. Or the invasion of Prague. Some trivia about the Tamiya T-62: The kit was released back in the 1970's and had a lot of well-known errors, according to "Der Experten" armor builders. The biggest error: the turret is too low. So is the whole tank. Maybe because Tamiya measured a burnt-out/wrecked T-62 with a collapsed suspension. That didn't matter, since it was the ONLY 1/35 scale T-62 kit until 2009, when Trumpeter started releasing T-62 kits. Verlinden did a detail set for the Tamiya T-62, with a full engine/interior, photo-etched brass storage bins, and a whole new resin turret with interior parts. It was mastered by the expert modeler Charlie Pritchett. But the turret was a direct copy of the Tamiya part, so it was too low just like original! Another expert armor modeler, Jose Rodriguez, built his T-62 just like you did: out of the box with a few fixes. Here's his fun review of it. "...my wife would whack me on the back of the head if she were to know that I blew over $50.00 in a plastic tank." http://hyperscale.com/features/2002/t62jr_1.htm And here's a review of the Verlinden detail set (which cost more than the kit) https://butterfingeredmodelbuilder.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/tamiya-135-t-62-with-verlinden-damage-set/

Since I barged into your other discussion of these 442 kits, I'll do it again with some more irrelevant information...? That '66 442 convertible has a nice air-conditioning system under the hood. There aren't too many model cars with vintage air-conditioning parts, so that's a neat touch. In real life, most people would have probably ordered A/C in a hardtop, not a convertible. In 1966 A/C was getting more popular in American cars, but it was still a pretty rare option. Especially in a high-performance muscle car like the 442. But the 442 was seen as a "gentleman's muscle car," so A/C was certainly possible. And AMT-ERTL made sure that if we wanted an air-conditioned hardtop, we'd have to buy both kits... The whole chassis of either 442 kit can be used to upgrade some old AMT kits with the metal axle and hole thru the engine block. Both of these kits originated in the 1990s, when AMT-ERTL was having a renaissance and issuing many new kits with great details.

I'm almost out of my (old) Floquil Railroad color paints and will miss them. I just used some Floquil "Grimy Black" enamel on a chassis, for a weathered car build. Great stuff, it went on smooth and dried dead flat. They had lots of other colors useful on model cars too. Antique White, Boxcar Red for red primer, Red Oxide for old rust, etc. etc. I remember when Floquil was lacquer, many years ago. When they switched to enamel the paints seemed to work just as well. They seemed a little easier to rub off accidentally, I guess because the enamel didn't "bite" into the plastic like lacquer.

The Aurora/Revell Aston-Martin DB-4 also came with a 4-piece set of fitted luggage for the trunk. (Pic stolen from an old Worthpoint listing).

Great idea! Those "news cars" with their flashy graphics always get my attention in old movies. I'd like to do some too, maybe printing the decals myself. A minor heads-up: if your kit front bumper is wrong, it's right for your build. If it's right, it's wrong and you need to make a minor fix. Is that confusing enough? On the front bumper of the 442 kit, check the position of the parking lights. If you're lucky, you got the "wrong" issue of the 442 hardtop. It had the parking lights in the corners of the bumper. That was correct for a regular 442 (or your Cutlass), but wrong for the W-30 package. Olds moved the parking lights nearer the center of the bumper, to make room for the W-30 air scoops. Exactly as shown on your box art. AMT-ERTL corrected the bumper in later issues of the hardtop kit. The AMT-ERTL '66 442 convertible has a single 4-barrel carb, not the tri-carb W-30 setup. So its parking lights were always in the right place. The box art of your kit is known over here as "the Wal-Mart box" or "checker-board box." In the 1990s the huge chain of Wal-Mart stores struck a deal with AMT-ERTL to sell their kits in those unique boxes. I'm not sure if "the Wal-Mart box" has the corrected bumper. If so, just shave the parking lights off and move them to the corners of the bumper. Here's a pic of the 442 convertible, showing the position of the parking lights.

Is that the Public Enemies with Johnny Depp playing Dillinger? I agree, it wasn't that great. Bryan Burrough's book with the same name was a lot better, that's what the movie was based on. Burrough stuck to the facts, which the movie didn't. I understand movies changing stuff sometimes, but that movie showed Pretty Boy Floyd being killed before Dillinger. He was killed after Dillinger. Can't see any reason to do that. It didn't add anything to the plot and just annoyed us historical nit-pickers. If you can find it, back in 2008 the History Channel ran a great show about the same subject. Crime Wave: 18 Months of Mayhem. For 18 months in the early 1930's, there was a bank robbery, kidnapping, shoot-out or other major crime just about every week. The show put up a map, showing the date and location of each incident. It was pretty amazing, seeing them all in one place like that.

I don't have Netflix but...find their stuff laying around the Internet sometimes. They have some great documentaries and documentary series. According to the schedule I found, right now Netflix is showing the 2010 documentary "Senna," about the life and death of Ayrton Senna. Also Ken Burns' 17-part documentary about the Vietnam War. A docu series I really liked is "Dirty Money," about the global economy and the exciting new ways it's ripping us all off. Crooked bankers, politicians of every persuasion, Big Pharma and...the Great Canadian Maple Syrup War!

Books-A-Million sells Airfix Model World and I usually pick it up. I also like the 3 Tamiya modeling magazines. Tamiya Model Magazine International is general subjects, and they also do an Aircraft and Military modeling magazine. Back issues of each mag are bundled 3 to a pack and sold at a discount price. At least they are at Books-A-Million. For shiny cars we can pick up tips on finishing from the Aircraft magazine. For beaters/junkers, the Military magazine is a great resource for weathering ideas.

Well, that was fun. One current project is an AMT '59 El Camino. Somehow I managed to lose the starter (that happens a lot). No big deal, I'll just find the right Chevy starter in the parts box. I grabbed one from an AMT '62 Chevy with a 409 engine. The El Camino is a 348 and they look the same. Almost... If you've never built that El Camino: it was released in 1964, when AMT 3-in-1 kits still had 2 metal axles and a hole thru the engine block. The '59 El Camino was a real step forward. No hole in the engine block. Everything in the chassis is separate, nicely engineered and fits well: 4 coil springs, turnable front wheels with kingpins connected thru the tie bar, etc. Even separate swing arms and a sway bar on the rear axle. Oh...and 2 separate exhaust pipes. Which must attach to the headers, in a very precise fit. Which the right side wouldn't, because the starter from the '62 Chevy was TOO BIG. %$#$#@!!! Back to the drawing board. And the parts box. I tried several different starters. And mocked each one up, by temporarily attaching the header, while checking to see if it would fit around the starter and still connect to the exhaust pipe.

Good idea! Though I guess much of this is sort of on-topic for "a bunch of new/old Atlantis molds featuring Weird Old Stuff and maybe some cars." One PYRO antique gun that was Unobtainium for decades and presumed lost: the Blunderbuss. Then out of nowhere Lindberg re-issued it, along with the flintlock pistols, in its "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. Old kit dealers wept... I tend to do bombers and multi-engine planes in 1/72, fighters in 1/48 because eyesight. With some exceptions. I'd love a 1/48 kit of the Brewster Buccaneer, just because it was a notorious turkey, probably the worst aircraft mass-produced in WWII. But the only injection-molded kit is from Special Hobby in 1/72, released in 2009. It's a short-run kit but a very nice one, according to the on-line reviews. I keep hoping Hobby Boss or Trumpeter will step up with a 1/48 Buccaneer. But that might be a case of "be careful what you wish for."

I think I have the 1:1 scale P.38 you're talking about. It's in a box with the AHM trademark. AHM was Associated Hobby Manufacturers, who mostly did HO-Scale trains and related items. Maybe they got the P.38 kit in a licensing deal with other stuff. The same Walther P.38 has turned up in boxes from Matz, Marui and Sanei. At least I think it's the same one. As you said, LS also did a 1:1 scale P.38 with the same quality as the rest of their kits. I also found the AHM Walther at a flea market. Cheap, because it's missing the bag of springs to give it the recoil action. I don't care about that and will only build it to display anyhow. Making those kits look like metal is a fun challenge.

Some of the LS 1:1 scale guns were re-issued by Academy in Korea and Crown in Japan. Here's a stack I found at a flea market in 2017, along with a couple of LS originals. And even a Life-Life re-pop of the PYRO Navy .36, which is probably one of the molds that Atlantis has now. The seller called these "toy guns" and gave me a very good package deal on all of them. I've sold most of them on eBay in the past 3 years, but kept a few like the Nambu and the Crown Model 28, which has neat box art (California Highway Patrol).

That Red Flag limo was one of the first Trumpeter kits I ever saw. Yours appears to be in a different company's box. Or Trumpeter using a different name, not unusual for China. Many of the earliest Trumpeter armor kits were also sold under different company labels. As you will see, the limo is a weird mix of neat details (real red cloth carpet) and toy-like clunkiness. In the one I had, the "Red Flag" emblems on the front fenders were pre-painted. A nice touch, but would have needed careful masking if you wanted to paint the body. I finally decided I'd never build it, and sold it on eBay. If you like that one, there's also another version of the kit. It has an open rear sunroof with microphones. So that Dear Leader can rant at the adoring masses, I guess.

I'm not Kelson, but I have an original "Commando" kit with the plow. I just checked. It has BOTH sets of side panels, long and short. The instructions call the short one the "broken panel." The kit's inner bag is still sealed and I don't want to open it. I saw the long panels. So I'll take the instructions at their word that both sets of panels are in there. I also checked a '71 "Mild and Wild" Jeepster. It only has the short panels, so it looks like the long ones were gone by 1971. The "Mild and Wild" version also has all the parts for the "Safari" version in the box: hunting seats, etc. But it does not have the decals for that version. BTW, I'm not Rob Hall, either. ?

We can do that! 1. At the link I provided above, click on "Models" at the top of the page. 2. A new menu will appear, with a "Specials" tab and a "Clearance" tab. (The Rommel's Rod is in the "Clearance" section.) 3. While browsing Specials or Clearance items, you don't have to hit "Next Page" or the page number. Just scroll down and the next page will appear automatically.

For those who want one, HobbyLinc has the Monogram Rommel's Rod on sale for $17.59. They also still have the MPC Tiger Shark for $11.99. Usual disclaimer: I have no connection to HobbyLinc, except as a customer. http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/mon/mon854484.htm

The interior side panels. Here's a photo from an old Tom Geiger post. The panel on top is the full size, which was only in the original issue of the Jeepster IIRC. The bottom panel is the one in every re-issue since.

Your '70 "Safari" version Jeepster has the short side panels. I have one on the Shelf Of Doom that I fool with off and on and those panels annoy me. As others have said, do NOT cut any long side panels! They're incredibly hard to find. At a kit swap meet this year (pre-epidemic), I bought a box stuffed full of MPC Jeepster parts, old and new. It had 2 of the clear full roofs, a couple of the short roofs and some of the short side panels. But NONE of the long panels.

That's always fun. Back in Feb. I found a '62 Tempest built-up at a swap meet, missing the rear valance panel. That's pretty common and those valance panels are hard to find and often costly. But a member here pointed me to a eBay sale of a '62 Tempest parts lot: the valance panel, bumper, a mint grille (mine is glue-bombed) and other random parts. For $7.49 "Buy It Now." I jumped all over that! I "wasn't really looking" last night, but found a great Off-Topic airplane deal: the old Monogram Pro Modeler P-39Q kit, still shrink-wrapped for $9.99. That Pro Modeler kit has photo-etch parts, ground crew figures and the underwing gun packs for the "Q" version. The basic Monogram P-39 kit, from the 1960's, still stacks up pretty well against the much later kits from Eduard and Hasegawa.

I'm not sure if it matters to anybody except me. But the Aztek airbrushes were also discontinued. I've used those airbrushes for years and got fairly used to taking them apart and fixing them (even though we're not supposed to do that). I always liked the convenience of the different nozzles and easy cleaning, but those airbrushes do have some annoying quirks. Taking one apart shows they're cheaply made and flimsy. Especially the roller thingy that is supposed to control paint flow. It breaks/quits working pretty often. For fine detail work I have a Sotar 20/20 that I use sparingly. A friend who worked at a hobby shop sold it to me at a big discount, years ago. At some point I'll probably pick up a regular airbrush for the bigger jobs. I'm leaning toward one with a pistol grip, like the Iwata that Hobby Lobby has in stock. Or considering my skill level, maybe a cheapie from Harbor Freight. ? Good thing for me, we have a whole thread about airbrushes in here. https://www.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=32465

Here's a 1/35 scale "military" diorama without a single gun or uniform in it. Rick Lawler's incredible work, "Burden of Sorrow." The train car has just arrived at a concentration camp. It's hard to see the little details, but they include things like wedding photos and baby shoes.