Ace-Garageguy

Spotmodel shows new stock arriving for some part numbers.

Sometimes there's info available on this very site:

Yeah, I never understood why some aftermarket maker didn't offer a sprue of 'em. Some truck kits have trees of various lenses in yellow and red, Revell used to do a bubble top and other clear stuff parts-pack, some of the parts in the AMT and Revell bumper and grille parts packs needed clear lenses to complete 'em, etc. Looks like trees of clear fluted lenses would have been a no-brainer, especially when you look at some of the goofy parts-packs that did make it to market. Like chrome seats. Really?

"Watch this" I shouted as I donned my wax wings and prepared to fly around the Sun.

Riveted fans were pretty common back before everything went to plastic. 1" thick blades though...nah.

Frustrations abound when one attempts to travel across the Sea of Red Tape with anything remotely resembling speed.

Morning coffee and MEK, or cutting oil, or a little lacquer thinner or bondo stink...man, that's the smell of money being made.

Man, those look great. Nice trick there, sir. Yeah, I sometimes forget how measuring-challenged many in the model-tooling biz apparently are.

Unless you vacuum-mold them, like the googly-eyes people sometimes use for no-flute lenses.

The most important part of getting a realistic looking headlight lens is remembering the fact that the flutes on the real glass lenses are on the inside, and the outside convex surface is smooth. Many kit or diecast lenses put the flutes on the outside, and this looks immediately toylike to me. The problem with having the flutes inside the lens is that it requires a 2-part mold to capture both surfaces. There are plenty of UV-inhibited clear casting resins that won't yellow appreciably over time. But it's still a lot of fiddly work to make good ones...worthwhile in my opinion, as good headlights really set a build apart. EDIT: Something else to remember is that there are only two standard sizes for US sealed beam round headlights, and only two for rectangular as well, so there aren't that many molds you'll need to make.

The court case is absolutely hilarious.

I think it's pretty obvious the federal government should pass laws forbidding anyone from owning boxes marked "ACME", explosives in any form for any purpose, magnets, bird seed, detour signs, catapults, anvils, and hot air balloons, and all these items should be confiscated on a nationwide basis. According to multiple studies that ignore or willfully misinterpret easily accessible data, this will solve the coyote crime problem.

Give me a trailer full of Spam, a few chickens, and a small vegetable garden, and I'm good for the collapse of Western Civilization.

Well that's pretty dangity cool. I need something like that to do plaid seats in an old Mercedes race car. Have to give it a try.

One is not necessarily greater than zero, according to a lot of zeros who insist that math and logic are oppressive.

Man after my own heart. These days I'll usually smoke less than a pack a year, but if I smoke at all, it's unfiltered Camels or Luckies when I can find 'em.

The question was about using DTM primers on die-cast, I related the answer to real-car practice, and yes, I'd definitely scuff fully dry DTM primer with 180 prior to applying polyester filler. I usually scuff plastic with 180 prior to applying polyester filler as well. And I don't have adhesion or featheredge lifting problems. Ever. EDIT: I have had featheredge lifting problems after applying polyester (catalyzed 2-part) over plastic only scuffed with 400 or so. After shaping and featheredging, subsequent priming with lacquer primer would sometimes pull up the featheredge. But hey...I've been experimenting for decades, and I know what works for me.

Wow. What-ifs are among my favorites in the hobby, and this beats everything I've ever seen by another order of magnitude. Few things really rate "stunning", but this does. Thanks for turning us on to it.

I need to lose the equivalent of two to three cats.

Just FYI, in the REAL car world, there are primers that are NOT recommended for application "direct to metal", like most urethane primer-surfacers (recommended to be applied over epoxy primers or self-etching primers). But it gets "confusing" real quick, as it's usually recommended you don't put polyester high-build primer-surfacers over self-etch (except for Featherfill G2, and that doesn't always work right). However, polyester high-build primers and other polyester products (like bondo) work well over epoxy primers. And this is why, in the real-car world, smart guys stay within one product brand to avoid unpleasant surprises, as manufacturers test all their own stuff for compatibility and give you instructions as to what works with what. But I've known plenty of cowboys in the bodyshop biz who think they're smarter than the chemists at DuPont or PPG, and mix anything that's cheap with anything else that's cheap...just like a lot of modelers. And God forbid they'd ever actually read the product TDS or application instructions. And you know what? They have the same kinds of problems modelers have from trying to save a few bucks. But a redo on a real car can cost many hundreds of $$$ in material alone. Pretty clever way to save money, right? Bottom line if you want repeatable GOOD paint jobs on your models: stay with products made for modeling, or products that have been tested extensively and recently (like Duplicolor primers)...OR...do your own extensive testing yourself before you start combining stuff because some random guy on the internet said it worked. EDIT: In a lot of cases, the labeling of consumer-oriented refinishing materials has very little to do with reality, and is simply rebleating words some marketing guy who knows little about anything and cares less came across somewhere. For instance, I've seen "2K" rattlecan products that aren't anything remotely resembling true two-part catalyzed products. Paint manufacturers for real cars pretty much HAVE to get their labeling and product usage info right, or they won't be in business for long. But some company turning out second and third rate paint that's going to get shot full of runs and dribbles and dirt on granny's lawn chairs doesn't generally hold itself to the same standards.

Making molds of the lenses wouldn't be very difficult with the right materials, and casting them in a tinted clear epoxy or polyester would also work...with the right materials. If you have a lathe, turning them from red tinted acrylic rod would work well. EDIT: For that matter, you could turn some custom bullets from red sprue, using a drill motor. Or somebody on feePay is doubtless selling something that could be easily adapted. The pair below is about 10 bucks plus shipping.

Metallics and pearls are prone to streaking with improper application, period, and on real cars just as much as models. Airbrush (or spray gun) adjustment and technique are critical. Air pressure too high can blow the center out of the pattern, leaving the edges too wet, resulting in streaks. Poor or inconsistent overlap of passes can cause streaks, and jerky movements can cause blotches. Shooting the stuff too wet can cause local pooling or puddling, leading to streaks and blotches. Shooting from too far away, or too dry, can make a grainy texture that will look horrible under your clear. Like everything worth doing, learning to shoot metallics is a learned skill, and you learn to do it by doing it. Best to practice on something other than the model you want to get right the first time. Spare bodies, or small plastic soda bottles, scuffed and primed with the primer you'll use on the model, make excellent practice targets to learn how to shoot blotch-and-streak-free metallics and pearls.

Humans who can't grasp the "ONE" part of "One Sentence Game" and repeatedly post multi-sentence "copy and paste" definitions probably do need help from robots.

Looking forward to seeing this progress. I recall being similarly disappointed with the kit, and pretty much stripping it of parts for other projects.