Ace-Garageguy

Career and relationship choices I made were not always well thought out, and I'm paying the price too late in life to do much about it.

I'm sure that's great for you, but it's not my approach.

Think about it. If I'd said "no red plastic kits bleed" but "some do" it would be contradictory. Remember that part of the argument out there is that "all red plastic kits bleed"...but the truth is that ALL do NOT bleed...only SOME. My sentence construction possibly isn't the best to convey that idea, but it's still grammatically and logically correct. EDIT: It would admittedly be more clear had I relocated the word "not" to the beginning of the phrase, making it "not all red plastic kits bleed..." So sue me.

While not always accurate, the "skill level" ratings printed on kit boxes these days can be a good indicator of the relative complexity of a kit and how challenging it is. Parts count is another good indicator. The Revell '49 Mercury referenced above is marked "skill level 3", but the much older (though still very good) AMT '49 Mercury is widely considered to be a skill level 2...though AFAIK the kit doesn't carry skill level markings. The vintage Johan Turbine CAR you built, on the other hand, would be at least a level 5 by today's standards. EDIT: Don't be put off by low "skill level" numbers though. Even the most basic snap kits can produce outstanding models with patience and extra effort. And if you just enjoy putting things together and don't have the desire to get into the crazy stuff some of us go for, the basic kits still make very attractive models that anyone could be proud of.

That's fine, but it doesn't work for me. I'm actively trying to build muscle and lose lard, and I need to see daily results. Muscle weighs more than fat, so my weight can stay about the same during the process, but I'm not as responsible about working out OR eating right as I want to be, and daily weighing keeps me honest. I need an accurate scale that shows me if I've gained or lost even half a pound...

Red bleed-through has been discussed ad nauseum for years. There are opposing "opinions", some insisting it's real, some saying it's not. SO...I did my own tests. ALL red plastics DON'T bleed color, but SOME DO. Shooting silver over the primer is the best way I've found to block it under light colors so far, without excessive film build. It's really not an issue under reds or dark colors.

I'm getting more serious about managing my weight, and my old spring-job bathroom scale was becoming erratic, never giving the same weight twice, even 30 seconds apart. So I bought a brandy-new whooptee Chinee ( what else?) digital-readout scale. It's even worse. Made sure the floor was entirely level and solid where I put it, and that it wasn't rocking even the slightest bit. Even tried it in different parts of the house. As much as ten pounds difference in displayed weight, 30 seconds apart. On the way out the door to return it. Man, I am SO sick of garbage consumer products. EDIT: No wonder there are so many people out there saying "I've tried everything and I can't lose weight". Yeah, well, if your scale isn't accurate...

I was given a copy of this recently, by someone who remembered my love of classic and particularly wooden boats...

Day to day aches and pains sometimes make me wonder if the monster under the bead beats me with a baseball bat while I sleep.

Music is very important to me, and not just as background noise.

Cool. There have been several modelers on this forum who've posted really impressive scratch-building work using the Cricut to form parts. Definitely worth a search...

Truer words were never spoken. Which means stay away from the really cheap plastic Chinese junk. Most of them are toys, and are incapable of delivering any kind of consistent accuracy. I'd owned a full-size lathe and mill for my business since 1995, but when I decided to get into miniature machining I started with a used but excellent late '60s Unimat, and in early 2024 added a used Sherline that came with a bunch of tooling for an incredible price, though the machine does seem to have been used by a chimp at one point. Deals are out there on excellent used equipment if you have patience, but be prepared to spend at least $500 and up today to get something you can actually make parts with. If you're not already familiar with machine work terms and procedures, you'd be ahead of the game if you did some reading on machine work in general and miniature machine work in particular, so you'll have an idea of what the various machining operations entail and what additional parts and tooling you'll need besides just the basic machine.

Studio musicians don't always become stars.

Based on a recommendation from member stavanzer on another thread...thanks Alan.

My own bad attitude today, more than anything. Need to work on it...

Interesting idea, well integrated styling. I like heem.

Tonight some still don't seem to grasp what a sentence is, so this should probably be renamed "string of words that convey an idea game".

As I sit down for lunch outside, it's 87F with 59% humidity and a light breeze. Beautiful blue sky, lotsa puffy white cumulous clouds...reminds me of full-on summers when I was a kid in the Midwest, on the East Coast, and down South, in a world where most people could survive just fine in temperate climates with no AC. For all my involvement with "grossly-polluting, planet-destroying" old cars, I'll wager MY "carbon footprint" is MUCH less than the vast majority of the self-righteous climate-crisis crowd. The fact that my home is tree-shaded and I force-ventilate it at night when temps are in the 70s, then close it up during the daytime, means it's usually still at least 10-15 degrees cooler inside than outside when I get home from work, and I pay HUNDREDS of dollars LESS a month for electricity than the average US house this size consumes. So who's REALLY "saving the planet"?

Still the pretty standard summer weather pattern here, and forecast over the next 7 days: daytime sunny, hot (mid to high 90s) and humid (70%+), afternoon popup T-storms. For all the doom and gloom and "existential threat" and "OMG heat!!!" whining going on, this is exactly the typical summer weather pattern I've experienced here since 1969. Exactly.

"Ring around the collar" was a dreaded scourge of housewives in the USA in the late '70s, according to a laundry detergent ad.

I don't know how to interpret this ScaleMates timeline... https://www.scalemates.com/kits/italeri-3624-mercedes-benz-190e-23-16v--1413201

Got 56 PSI in the FI loop with the new pump running in the DeLorean, which is dead on spec. No leaks, and she only bled down to 32 PSI after sitting for several hours. I ran a hot mix of FI cleaner and non-ethanol gasoline through the loop for a while, to try to clean...or at least loosen...whatever deposits and varnish have formed from sitting so long. It's basically a Bosch CIS system, and I'm hoping to not have to go through it...though I've already replaced several sensors and chimp wiring. By the end of the day tomorrow, I ought to have been able to start the engine and idle it long enough to see if the new cooling fan control circuit will cycle the fans as intended...but first I have to jumper in the stock instrument cluster to monitor coolant temp and oil pressure, minimum. The aftermarket fans in the thing are unfortunately some supposedly whoopty units the DeLorean guys like, but they're silly little bee-fart jobs that just don't move much air. Any fans that come with 16 gauge wire pigtails are a joke, ya know? One of the reasons for DeLorean cooling problems is under-gauge wiring and crusty connectors from the relays to the fans...all of which I've already corrected, but I don't have much faith in these silly little twinkie fans getting the job done. Getting closer to making this nightmare mess go away...but now he wants me to re-engineer the controls and ductwork for the "showcar" HVAC system (that's totally chimpified) to actually function...

Matters rhymes with hatters and batters, and is not the same word as "'maters", which kinda reminds me that I need to make a thick mater n' mayo sammige before my maters rot.

Thank you VERY much. I'll most definitely look into that.

I'd just about quit buying any new models of anything, but when I saw these for what seemed to me to be a good deal, I popped. I missed the Chevy coupe last time around, and had no intention of missing the wrecker.