Ace-Garageguy

OK, whose battery tech impresses you? And why?

Yup, stance is looking good. Nice work relocating the spring hangers. Just like real.

100% correct. Though you may not notice degrading performance with the low-end epoxies people usually use on models, industrial and aviation epoxies are considered to have shelf lives ranging from 6 months to two years, or thereabouts (from the time of manufacture, not the time of purchase). Carefully controlled testing will show a slow decline in how well the stuff works over time, and it's even illegal to use some of it that's gone out of date in certain applications...like aviation...though it still seems to work perfectly well...sorta. Andy is right about heat being a factor too. Keeping your materials cool, sealed, and in a low-humidity environment is a good way to prolong their life, and measuring / mixing carefully, even with the hardware-store "50-50" grades, will give you the best possible results.

I've never encountered anything that was "unbuildable", but I've encountered a few that were so awful that I thought to myself "what's the point??" Probably the worst kit I have is a Lindberg '40 Ford that's short-shotted AND warped badly...just not worth the effort to save, 'cause there are so many nice '40 Ford kits on the shelf. But I keep even the really really horrible stuff, 'cause you just never know when a part from something otherwise useless might be just the thing you need for something cool. And yes, "unbuildable" is in the eye of the beholder...entirely.

Oh yeah, but people always think I'm being a mean SOB when I rag about incompetent people doing half-assed work...everywhere...

Several guys have mentioned using bilge-fans made for boats. They have to be "explosion-proof" ("ignition-protected") to qualify for marine use, and can sometimes be found cheep. You'll need a 12V DC power supply as well. Here's a 4" 240 CFM fan. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rule-240-Inline-Bilge-Blower-fan-For-Inboard-and-I-O-Boats-4-240-CFM-/231516685776?hash=item35e77845d0&vxp=mtr

What annoyed me at one time was a female body-shop "manager" who didn't have the first clue as to what she or anyone else in the shop was doing. Couldn't write any kind of usable estimate because she didn't actually know how a car is put together, what the parts were called, or which systems might have crash-related damage...but she'd argue all day if you gently tried to teach her anything. Kinda like a know-it-all guy (who doesn't) with boobs. But I'M ALL FOR WOMEN GETTING EQUAL PAY AND RESPECT FOR EQUAL KNOWLEDGE AND WORK. And I've known plenty of male "shop managers" who were just as clueless and arrogant as this bidge was. Equality, see? Yeah baby.

Yup.

Besides wiping them off carefully immediately after use, I find that keeping tubes of anything, including epoxies, standing on end with the cap up (in something like an old coffee cup) pretty well eliminates the mess from leakage.

Indeed. Great colors for it too. And from where I'm sitting, your BMF work looks just about flawless. Impressive and certainly inspirational.

Nice one. I'm liking the Rocket Bunny look more and more. Are those rising-sun endplates on the wing PE parts?

Cool hot-rodski, definitely. I've always liked Fiats, and a sleeper Lada should be a to of fun.

If only. That would get me interested in current events again.

A agree with Steve...nice job on a very rarely seen kit. I don't think I even really knew it HAD been kitted.

Yes sir, this one definitely has style and character all its own. I like the rake, the channel, the raised and bobbed fenders...pretty cool.

Everything weasel said is true, but you also run the risk of obliterating any fine details if you just primer over the paint and then paint some more. Excessive finish-material thickness is something you really want to avoid. In general, if the model is worth doing a nice job on, it's worth the time and effort to strip it.

Much the same could have been said of cars in general when they were first available...they were primarily not-too-practical toys for rich folks to flaunt their wealth with. And computers? Something with a tiny fraction of the power of a smartphone would have cost millions. Most complex manufactured products follow a similar trajectory. Time will tell.

https://youtu.be/TDm6Snkle70

What if 3D printing was 100 times faster??

Thanks for asking, Wayne. I just got some pix of the underside of a real '32 decklid, and since I opened this one, I'll be doing something soon to represent that. I wanted to get the '28 lakes car at least to the point where the primer was shrinking-in before getting sidetracked.

Thanks guys. i just buried the rear bellypan in SEM high-build buff, and shot a couple more coats of scratch-filler PlastiKote gray on the upper body. Details are crispening up, but I'm going to let her shrink in all work-week. I'm getting a little antsy wanting to see her in paint now...and that's the time to put on the brakes. This is really an exercise in self-discipline for me, 'cause normally I would have put her to the side and started on something else weeks ago, when the build got a little more involved than I'd originally anticipated. I thought this was going to be a relative "quickie", just to get one actually finished.

I've had some Testors enamels bubble mysteriously on occasion if sprayed from the can on to a part. The paint hits, flows out beautifully slick, and then will bubble a bit, but only on a sharp edge. Not contamination, or too-wet spraying of the material, cause I kinda know how to prep and spray. Very odd. The wheels on my heavily re-worked '32 Ford gluebomb are Testors dark red enamel, and 3 of 4 wheels (painted at different times) bubbled only on the outer rims. After assuming contamination and stripping them and re-prepping/re-painting several times, the only way I could get rid of the bubbles was to let the paint cure completely for weeks, and sand / polish the rims...VERY carefully. Hammering the paint on would have resulted in bubbles where the paint was thickest, and pooled...not where it was thin on the sharp edges. At this point, I can only assume this was some odd dissolved-propellant gassing phenomenon...but it still doesn't make much sense.

I never got around to building mine...because I couldn't find any structural, interior or engine detail references.

Very nice. Gorgeous paint too.

Looking good.