Ace-Garageguy

Beautiful work, as always, and as always, your wheels really make a fantastic contribution to the realism of the model. The dash wood is also entirely believable...just beautiful.

That's exactly the case in the very nice '40 and '49 fords I put up in post 4 of this thread. A large group of models was being sold as a collection, with some in-progress and some complete. The sale was very obviously being conducted by a family member, judging from the prices asked and the photographs. I was surprised by how nicely the two in the photos I posted cleaned up, and by what a good eye for stance the old builder had. I was also surprised that no family member wanted to hang on to these models. I still have a few my own father built (the ones I didn't get my own grubby little paws on), and though I don't display them, looking at them sometimes takes me right back to a simpler, happier few moments. Even though as an adult I came to intensely dislike my father, I still owe him a debt for some very good days, and for teaching me many of the basic concepts that I've built my life on. My point is that even in the least happy families, it seems to me there would be a desire to save a little of the good parts of the past.

Today in history. Story here. http://www.mapsofworld.com/on-this-day/april-1-1826-samuel-morey-patents-the-internal-combustion-engine

What it means is that no more "security patches" will be offered by Tinylimp (be SURE to install the very last one, which will come out April 8) and that every hacker in the known universe will be targeting weaknesses in the system. Here's a relevant article from IT World, posted on the 26th of March: http://www.itworld.com/windows/411661/microsoft-returns-scare-tactic-well-dump-xp-campaign Advice to help keep an XP machine secure: http://www.itworld.com/software/408137/9-must-dos-if-you-must-stick-windows-xp A happy thought: http://www.itworld.com/software/412304/chinas-unsupported-xp-machines-hold-potential-become-massive-botnet-army ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Though this is all maddening, the flip side is that a desktop machine running 8, with a massive increase in power and memory over most old XP machines can be had for under $300. Used / off-lease / reconditioned 7 machines can be picked up for less than $200. BUT, these may or may not be compatible with accessories (cameras, etc.) and peripherals (printers, etc.) that you already have.

79 degrees (F) and 10% humidity here right now. Somehow we got Arizona's weather.

Yup, clean and pretty, great stance.

I currently don't have enough airbrush experience to offer a really valid opinion, but I DO have considerable experience buying real-car knock-off (Chinese copy) spray guns (gravity feed and siphon, touchup and full-size), and in general, I've been extremely disappointed with the smaller ones...the touchup guns. I've had several that sprayed great the first time out of the box, but the o-rings and other seals disintegrated during the first cleaning, leaving the guns un-usable until re-engineered. I've seen a couple of guys on here who have had similar problems with no-name airbrushes. Just be sure you get a good guarantee if you're going to buy an off-brand with poor parts support.

Clean, great colors, fine paint. Nice.

Some of the most realistic weathering I've ever seen. Really really believable.

Could you elaborate on that please sir? I haven't bought any Round 2 models yet, and I'd like to know what their approach is.

There's always so many excuses and "reasons", like how much legal effort and time it would take to license tire logos to model car companies CHEAP, etc., and I just say bull. Any competent attorney can draft a generic licensing agreement in a few hours. If I can afford to have an attorney do it for my own work, a tire company can surely afford it. It's petty cash chump-change to an outfit like Goodyear of Firestone. And, ANY advertising is and always has been a write-off. Any costs incurred by licensing the logos could be entirely written off with a little creative accounting. IF THERE WAS ANY DESIRE to allow model companies to use tire logos, there ARE EASY COST-EFFECTIVE WAYS TO DO IT. Personally, I'd have a much better attitude towards buying a specific tire company's product if I didn't get the impression they were nickle-and-dime happy, and all bound up with lawyers chasing every single cent. A little perspective and realism would be nice to see in the world, where every single damm thing wasn't about the dollar. And maybe allowing model companies to license tire logos cheaply wouldn't actually generate any revenue from advertising, but by what metric would you decide that? You don't have to PROVE advertising is effective to write it off. And it surely wouldn't cost them anything either. It's just pig-headed "that's the way it is" reasoning, which isn't reasoning at all.

It probably makes sense for people who would prefer to interact with the computer in a familiar visual environment...people who don't live on the damm thing, and don't want to have to take the time to learn a new system just so they can do the same old stuff. I know lots of computer-challenged folks, not all of them old fossils either, who are terrified of having to work with a new operating system. This market segment is being entirely overlooked. Not ALL of the market is techno-savvy kids who pick up new gadgets and software instantly, and not everyone has either the time OR the interest to keep up with the latest BS.

Listen to Danno. Fiddling the sales tax is a SURE FIRE way to get shut down. My state misplaced a decimal point on one of my sales-tax returns during data entry many years ago. My business was padlocked by the sheriff, and ALL my bank-accounts locked until I could prove it was THEIR mistake.

Another winner from Dennis, who builds real cars and gets it all right. Perfect look.

Right proportions, right stance, right parts. Man, that's pretty !!

Yes indeed.

The car you're working on is a unibody, and essentially, you'll be building a traditional rectangular tube frame (or round-tube, if you want to get a little more radical) under the rear of the car to take the place of the unibody structure...which is not otherwise easily modified to accommodate wide tires. This is referred to as "back-halfing", as noted above. The original structure is removed, a subframe is constructed and fitted in to the space, anchored to the remaining original structural elements, and floors and inner wheel-wells are fabricated to close everything up. Mustangs are also unibody cars, and this is a simple back-half frame that replaces the original structure. It allows massive tires to be installed without flaring the outer fenders...

1) Painting model cars has been discussed at length, on multiple threads on this forum. Everything you could possibly need is already here. You can find this information relatively easily. Don't bother with the search function here. Instead, go to Google in a separate browser window, type in site:modelcarsmag.com, a space, and the the topic you're looking for. Example: site:modelcarsmag.com alclad Much more relevant results. 2) You can't get solvent-glue off of clear windows. You MAY be able to sand it off and polish the glass back up. This has also been discussed in depth. The best solution is to use a PVA glue for your windows and avoid the problem entirely. 3) 1/8 is about the largest commonly available scale model cars come in. It's big. 4) Noob advice? Read this thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44595

Now that's impressive. I thought my paltry-by-comparison 400 watt equivalent was bright...

My own occasional stupidity...that's what irks me the most often.

He musta been lookin' at a Heinz ketchup bottle at the time. Numbers are hard. Personally, I've always thought of the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975 as the real end. But that's just me. "No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic." [Nixon] Fall of Saigon 1975

Well, read the Prez's proclamation. It states it's commemorating the 50th anniversary of the war. It has now been only 41 years. If the Prez hisself can't even get the math right, well... If you count from the first 'official' mission on Jan 12, '62, you're at 50+ years...but why make the end of the war day (41 years ago) the "50 year anniversary" when it's really Jan. 12?

Vietnam Vets were often treated pretty poorly. They were spat on. They were called baby killers. Unlike any of the veterans of the other conflicts you mentioned, many Vietnam vets had no idea of why we were even there; nor did most of the American public. Singling out a day for this particular conflict is just part of an attempt to undo some of the wrongs done to a group of people who took duty seriously, and were in return shunned by the very people whose ideals they thought they were fighting and dying for.

But really, how do you expect a bunch of over-the-hill guys who killed and were killed in defense of the ideal of freedom to compete with something as overwhelmingly important as March Madness?

And the media just don't think it's worth reporting. The geezers who were over there are all past it, old, not relevant, not part of the target demographic.