Ace-Garageguy

Line and proportion are everything, and just a little difference in how you do something can make a HUGE difference in how it looks when it's done. Slownlo's red Merc above has very nice lines and flows well, and it's the result of a "similar" pie-cut sectioning-and-chopping strategy that really isn't similar at all. Really looking at things critically and thinking-through what you want to achieve is key.

That right there is the key. If you want to build good models, it takes effort and commitment and...perish the thought...work. First-rate tools and materials definitely make building first-rate models easier, but they're just no substitute for paying attention, thinking about what you're doing, being careful, and honestly critiquing your own work.

Yup. You got both the big profit-center strategies at most dealerships today. Screw the customer, screw the "techs". Your "final straw" remark above is exactly what I was referring to in my earlier post, about why many dealerships no longer hire "real" mechanics, and prefer to pay cheap kids who know almost nothing except how to hook up the diagnostic tools and read codes...if you can get them to stop texting long enough to do even that. After working as an apprentice doing PDIs for a dealership in the '70s, progressing to the commission side and then going to several independent shops as a mechanic, I worked for a while as a service-writer. The policy I encountered at most dealer and chain shops was to sell sell sell as much as possible, whether the work was actually needed or not, and the more ignorant the customer the easier to screw them. And unfortunately, the old pay-the-mechanic-flat-rate system could easily be exploited by hack-job "mechanics" to boost their incomes by "beating the book". I have an ex-friend who did things like removing the plastic HVAC box from a Honda with a big pry-bar, breaking off all the mounting tabs rather than removing the fasteners. He put it back together with hot-glue. I know another guy who took a cutting-torch to an old Jag to get the trans out without having to pull the engine, then did a bodged stick-weld job putting it back in. "Hey man, it's just business. Gotta make a profit". I refused to do business that way, and went on my own. Proved conclusively to myself it just isn't necessary to be a thief, a hack, and a liar to make a comfortable living...if you're actually a competent mechanic and diagnose problems correctly the first time, charge fairly for the work, communicate honestly with your clients, explain things to them in terms they can understand, and work up a sweat occasionally. Unfortunately, most people still don't know enough about their cars to know if they're being bent over and reamed...whether by a dealership OR an independent shop. A good friend of 30 years who's retired but works part-time as a driver for a major parts chain (and knows the business from the inside, having been a real mechanic in the '60s and '70s) is amazed that most of the shops he delivers to can stay in business. He tells me they're predominantly idiots, technically ignorant, poorly organized morons. I believe him.

The quote and edit functions just let me down entirely, cramming in quoted material from posters I wasn't quoting, with no way to remove them. Never mind. Very nice kit overall, kudos to Moebius. Minor flaws noted all look to be legitimate gripes to me, but not deal-breakers by any means. Simply and politely stating (and illustrating, as in Casey's post) the truth hardly constitutes "whining and attitude".

As stated above, all the plastic in the various boxes is identical. You can find prices for different issues all over the board, from less than $10 to "rare and collectible" (same exact kit in the box) listed at well over $100.

As far as I'm concerned, it's a pain-in-the-apps to re-record CD data on your computer, then load it into iTunes or convert it to some other format and transfer THAT data to your pod or other device. I mean...all those steps which are, in my humble opinion, purely 100% wasted time. I consider my time to be valuable, especially since it's running a bit low. You can buy a refurbished laptop with a LOT of power (and an integral CD drive) for less than $200, and look at your CD contents upstairs, in bed, whatever. You also get a much larger screen than you get with a pod. I just bought a refurbbed WinXP laptop to run some legacy apps that aren't available for or compatible with my desktop Win7 machine, and I couldn't be happier with the results. It's the equivalent of big cheap horsepower in a small old car, and after I backed up all my business files on the older machine, I now also have full business and email capability if my primary machine goes down for any reason. As far as I know, there's just no easy way to directly jack a CD drive into a pod...though there ARE apparently adapter cables to be had with an Apple-compatible plug on one end and a USB plug on the other. Good luck with that. Buying a cheap refurb laptop is a low-tech and functional work-around...with additional benefits. HOWEVER...here's some information that may prove to be helpful about ways to connect USB devices to small Apples...depending on what kind of input-port you have. Note: you will probably have to use an externally-powered USB device (CD drive, in your case...if you can get it to work at all) because the little pod can't possibly provide enough power to run it. http://ipod.about.com/od/ipadhowtos/f/connect-usb-to-ipad.htm

Mark is 100% correct, and to elaborate on what he said...every layer of material that's put on over the bare plastic (paint or plating) softens details. If you take a mold from a part that already has the details slightly softened, make a part from that mold and then primer / paint or plate it, you'll have even softer, blurrier details. It's like making a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox...eventually it becomes unreadable. The people who make the best masters and castings take this stuff into consideration. Another potential hazard with molding from painted or plated parts is that the paint or plating may decide it likes sticking to the mold better than it does to the original part. It's very difficult to clean stuck contaminants off of the inside of a mold....especially in scales like 1/24 and smaller...without damage. While it's true that this usually happens if the part surface isn't properly prepared with the correct release-agent prior to making a mold (or if the paint or plating isn't very well adhered to the original part) it's always a possibility.

This is the shot of the proposed cut. Basically, you'll ruin the the lines of body. The tail will droop, the rear of the roof will be lower than the front, etc. If you like goofy looking clown cars, by all means, do it. To see for yourself, find a good profile shot of a '49 Merc. Print it out. Mark it as shown...accurately...and cut. Stick the pieces back together. See?

Beautiful model. More pix?

Bashing dealerships is always good sport, and I do it too...they're usually overpriced and incompetent, especially today. But that $100/hr you're paying is NOT for good mechanics to work on your car. You're paying for a big clean new shiny showroom and shop, and a lot of managers who generate zero income. Thing is though, because of the flat-rate system, a really smokin' mechanic used to be able make a 6-figure income (when $100k was still some money) by "beating the book" consistently. The flat "rates" in the book were determined by what it actually took a competent mechanic to do the operation on a new, undamaged vehicle. They weren't just random greedy numbers pulled out of someone's backside. But every year, they seem to bear less and less similarity to reality. Creeping idiocracy again. (And I won't even get started on what the insurance business has done to the body-repair industry in the last 10 years...but it's almost criminal how bad consumers AND body shops are getting screwed) Many dealership shops around here no longer hire real mechanics because they have to pay them. They'd rather hire iPhone-obsessed mouth-breather 18-year olds who will "work" for $10 per hour, generally have no clue as to 'what makes a car go', and if the computer-diagnostics can't pinpoint the problem, they're helpless as naked babes in a blizzard. Find an old fart who actually understands cars, and feel free to pay him what he's worth. He's a dying breed.

Indeed. Great job on the decals too.

With some effort and patience it will build up into a nice model (this one is NOT mine)... Here's another one...

'bout as close as Mexico got to a space program... ...seems as though the race-preparation plan went something like "attach many shiny things to car"... ...canopy was from a Vultee BT-13/15 trainer...

I dunno. It's gonna be 70 here on Christmas day, it's thundering now, and the summer mold and mildew are making a mid-winter comeback. It's jus' not right. I LIKE snow. It paralyzes the South, and 2" can get me 3 days off from work. Shovel it? Why? It'll melt soon enough on its own.

My ex wanted Raoul the pool boy for Christmas one year, but she didn't ask...just went out and got him. I'm sincerely hoping he's able to support her in the style to which she became accustomed...'cause BOY will his life be hell if he can't. In her absence and happily for me, my after-Christmas bills are no longer life-threatening. I think I'll go buy myself something.

Epoxy shouldn't attack your fully-cured paint, but remember...if you glue painted parts together without removing the paint from the bond area, your bond will only be as good as the bond between the plastic and the PAINT. Trying to assemble as much as possible prior to paint is always good, as I'm sure you know, and a lot of guys pin difficult-to-adhere parts (like mirrors and windshield frames) prior to painting, so that the pin will locate the part exactly on the body after it's painted, and a non-solvent glue like polyvinyl-acetate (white glue) will be sufficient to hold the part in place. PVA glues (polyvinyl-acetate) also work very well for attaching clear parts and detail elements like plug wires (in pre-drilled holes) because they dry completely clear. The downside to them is that they have no mechanical strength when wet, so you either have to jig or pin parts to use the stuff, or hold them together for hours.

I can NOT imagine how anyone could take that long to do anything, short of rebuilding a total that was wadded up like a ball of tinfoil. I've owned and run body shops, and that time frame is INSANE. Most insurance companies will only pick up rentals for a very well defined period of time, and there's no way in hell they'd cover 49 days. Every shop I've ever run (or even worked in) has made a priority of quick turnaround. You really don't make any money if cars are tied up for that long, the parts get lost, the techs forget where they were in the project...it's just not the way you do business. Of course, it's not the way you do business IF YOU HAVE A BRAIN. I keep forgetting...we're firmly entrenched in the idocracy now, and it's just getting worse and worse.

Which is all a trans rebuild SHOULD take, if the shop has a clue as to what they're doing. I guess the days are gone when real transmission shops had replacement, already-rebuilt units sitting on the shelf, ready to plug in. Still, though an automatic trans IS a complex piece of kit, it's just mechanical bits that come apart and go back together the same way. Clean stuff, measure stuff, replace stuff, reassemble. Not reinventing rockets, brain surgery or even the wheel.

It CAN be helpful from the standpoint of catching flaws you might otherwise miss. I've seen so many defects pop up as a result of posting my models online that I now take a lot more shots than I used to, blow them up and look more closely than my tired old eyes may be able to on the bench.

Actually, in this case, Chuck's choice of the word "raining" is absolutely correct, the notion being that the "high and mighty judgement" is "raining" (falling like rain) down on someone. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming. PS. It looks like a gorgeous model, and though I see and agree with each and every criticism of minor flaws on it, particularly those so well illustrated by Casey, I want several, and I REALLY want a couple of the SD 421 Catalinas.

Wow. Nice work. Great to see someone's parent take up something new and do so well at it.

Jeez...and I thought I was just getting old...

What a magnificent machine. I've never seen a Big Boy up close and personal, but I'm thankful that I was born early enough to see the end of steam power on American railroads, and I'm still saddened it had to end. Yes, I know they're high-maintenance heavy polluters, but there's a soul to these things, and a romance associated with railroading (and aircraft, ships and even cars) that's all but gone. Heavy steam locomotives were still pulling coal and freight through Ohio when I was a kid, and it was the high point of my week when we'd ride down to the station and watch one come through. I preferred the world before most everyone's head was firmly shoved up his (or her) apps.

No...it's because if EVERY timid little moron tweeting or texting on his mobile device left 2 or three car lengths between himself and the next car when stopped, traffic jams would be three or 4 times longer, and nobody would ever get home from work.

Ah yes. One I know upside down, inside out and backwards.