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Ace-Garageguy

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Everything posted by Ace-Garageguy

  1. Yeah...much as I like a lot of what Musk has been doing, I'm disappointed he didn't step up to at least try to get Arecibo patched enough to survive. But I've read elsewhere that the NSF has an 8.3-BILLION dollar annual budget. One would think that a smart guy could squeeze enough bucks out of that to provide absolutely required maintenance. A report on the planned decommissioning of the facility stated a while back that "following a review of engineering assessments that found damage to the Arecibo Observatory cannot be stabilized without risk to construction workers and staff at the facility..." Kinda makes one wonder why those Neanderthals and idiot boomers 57 years back could BUILD it, but there's nobody around anymore who could FIX it...especially now that the entire world is populated by nothing but tech-savvy wizards. I guess if something can't be done with a screen and a keyboard, it's impossible.
  2. Agreed. I've always considered the lines and proportions of this kit to be acceptable. It has its share of nits to pick, but the major elements look very good. To somebody who's seen a lot of E-types over the years, there's nothing on this kit that's immediately jarring. Some apparently don't know it shares nothing with the Monogram and Revell boxed roadster and coupe that started as Aurora kits. The lines and proportions of the Aurora / Revellogram kits (though they have gorgeous box art) are pretty awful, particularly the nose.
  3. Yeah, it's been going down the tubes for a while, but your basic normie has been looking the other way, or is afflicted with terminal HITS (head-in-the-sand) syndrome. This is a pretty dramatic...and tragic... proof that those of us who've been paying attention have been seeing the reality of the situation. Funny that Arecibo falls under MY definition of "technology", as opposed to what is meant by the majority today...and as you say, the mainstream media didn't even notice. Mr. Gates or Mr. Zuckerberg or Mr. Bezos, "technology" kings all, could have easily paid to maintain or repair the thing when it would have been prudent, and would have never even missed the money...chump change to those guys.
  4. Nice proportions. Same instantly recognizable car with the bloat removed. Looking good, sir.
  5. Excellent point. And though there are other somewhat similar instruments, none of them are capable of what Arecibo could do.
  6. Witness the symbolic beginning of the collapse of Western Civilization. 7 billion people on the planet, some of them individually worth billions of $$, yet nobody cared enough to maintain this incredible instrument. The Idiocracy is here...
  7. I usually tape or jig the window in place exactly where I want it, dry. Then I'll apply a few drops or a small bead of a white PVA (polyvinyl acetate) "canopy" glue where the parts meet. It dries clear, you avoid smearing from moving the part around, and it's plenty strong for "glass". If you get any excess on anything, it cleans off with a damp Q-tip when it's wet too. My go-to is Micro Kristal Klear, but there are lots more...including plain old Elmers...that work just as well. They're all water-based, so there's no fogging that you can get with CA, no gooey mess like you can get with epoxy, and no solvent crazing like you can get with tube or liquid plastic cement.
  8. Correct. Which is specifically why I said "through '87 engines of the original 1948 design". The original 1948 design, known as "XK", was fitted to the US spec XJ-6 through 1987 in 4.2 liter displacement. I have two. In other markets, the "XK" engine lasted through 1992 in the Daimler DS420.
  9. Agreed. Though I see a couple other nits to pick (like the little depression stamped in the fender just over the end of the side-trim being shaped wrong and kinda huge), nothing significant. I'll be having a few. There are so many ways to do a wagon that this should be a big hit with the market. No problem with it having the old-school blobular chassis, either. The bits are out there to deal with that should anybody want to go full-detail, but as a curbside it looks great as-is.
  10. Dead on the money.
  11. Indeed. One of the best.
  12. Exactly. The general shape and first impression of it are vastly superior to that sad old Monogram mess, but the first-generation E-type roadster kit from Revell decades ago, long before CAD and 3D printing made it entirely possible to fully evaluate a kit's accuracy prior to any tooling being cut, was really quite good. I will probably buy one and fix the stupid stuff that the designers should have caught while doing their JOBS. But I shouldn't have to FIX SOMEBODY ELSE'S WORK. And that is the entire point. To US these are hobby items, not hugely significant in the overall scheme of things. Adult toys, if you will. But to the people who design and market this stuff, and take our money, IT'S PAYING WORK. Folks seem to be allowing more and more slackness in doing ANYTHING to creep into every aspect of life, and the immediately obvious flaws in yet another newly-tooled and endlessly hyped kit are just another affront to those of us who take our work seriously, and strive for competence daily.
  13. Very nice rendition of a rare piece. I've always felt the scale of this kit may be somewhat under 1/25, but I've never taken the time to research the dimensions of the real one and check.
  14. Possibly. One of the shops I work with these days has a pretty good stockpile of older Jag bits. The owner and his son are hardcore old-Jag enthusiasts, have nicely restored several, and I believe they still have some in their own collection. I'll be there this PM, and I'll ask.
  15. Yes (through '87 engines of the original 1948 design). The "chrome" cam covers are actually polished cast aluminum.
  16. Had to save space for all the extra TP now that the hoarders are at it again. I guess that's what's meant by "white Christmas" in 2020.
  17. Here's a little secret for you. If something is 12" long, it doesn't cost any more to measure it and get 12" than to have some idiot chimp measure it and get 13". It only costs more when the first clown gets 13", the tools get cut, and then somebody else has to fix the problem.
  18. Actually, Agent G posted that. But I could certainly suffer through having it in my possession.
  19. This same old refrain every time. GET IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME. THEN MORE MONEY ISN'T REQUIRED TO FIX IT.
  20. I live in a semi-rural area, on a large wooded lot. Big fat field mice (big as medium rats, but kinda cute with light gray backs and white bellies) were a problem...12-15 a year in the house, trapped, usually after they'd shredded book bindings, photos, and made nests to raise their young in model boxes. Even having a cat in the house did no good. But since I've been feeding the feral cats outside (my current housecat is a kitten-rescue abandoned by one of them), I've had zero mouse-rat incursions for several years. The feral cats seem to do a very effective job of keeping all the rodents in check too: no more shredded wiring (squirrels) or fouled interiors in the stored cars either. Kinda interesting, as when hunting's not so good, some of the ferals will wait for me to come home so as to be sure to get a meal that day, and even bring their kittens up on the porch to meet the big food-dispenser being. Some of my neighbors, however, prefer to use poison on the rodents. My current cat has been very sick several times from having (probably) eaten a poisoned rodent outside. Some of the neighbors are decidedly anti-feral-cat too. One of the friendliest of the ferals died a while back, after having been shot through the throat and somehow dragging itself back to my front door to bleed out. I understand people being concerned that feral cats prey on songbirds. I love birds too. But the truth is that the cats only get the slow, stupid birds...insuring the survival of the fittest, and improving the overall genetic makeup of the bird population. Kind of a shame there aren't more lions and tigers and bears in the neighborhood.
  21. I would tend to believe you're correct. I'd also venture a guess that most people here didn't notice the paint mismatch between panels on the blue side-view reference photo posted by Matt. But when you have spent your entire professional life making things LOOK right as well as function, these discrepancies stick out like big zits on the Mona Lisa. Which is why I'm continually amazed that the "professionals" tasked with accurately measuring, scaling, and tooling models almost always seem to miss the mark somehow. Mediocrity is "Job 1" apparently.
  22. Yup. I kinda seem to recall somebody said that earlier...
  23. Width-of-frame channeled f'glass '32 body on American Stamping rails. 327 Chebby w/double hump heads, three Rochester 2G twos, Joe Hunt magneto. Tremec TKX 5-speed. "Culver City" Halibrand QC, gennie forged '32 front axle w/4" drop. Doors elongated and suicided. Custom windshield frame, other bits. This model was built in 1/8 to work out how I want to do the real one. Already have most of the parts except the QC rear end and the front axle. Just scored a pair of Jag E-type wires and hubs for the front.
  24. For simplicity's sake, yes. A sloppy real-car builder could leave it in place but inop, or a more knowledgeable real-car builder might even rework it to function as a pressure-retard, but the most likely scenario would be to just get rid of it.
  25. Lamb vindaloo, fragrant basmati rice, naan bread, sweet-hot chutney, Taj Mahal beer. Probably my favorite meal on the planet.
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