Ace-Garageguy

Well, if all you want to drill holes in is plastic, and just a few holes with each bit before they're too dull to do much of anything, Harbor Freight is definitely your best bet.

Why? It's never made any sense to me, since I was a little kid. Soon as you clear 'em, more blow back from somewhere else. And if you just leave 'em, they break down into lawn food over the winter. Somebody please 'splain it to me. PS. I just let mine stay where they fall. In the spring, my lawn looks at least as good as anyone's who spends effort or cash removing them. I guess my grass just doesn't know any better.

https://www.ebay.com/usr/midamericaraceway?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

^^^ On another thread, I mentioned that a vendor I met at the November show here was showing some exquisite 3D-printed prototype wire wheels, and these are them. Now that the cat's entirely out of the bag, all I can say is that they are SO good, they're almost beyond belief. They look far better to me than any PE-center wire wheels, and much better than most of the hand-laced wires as well. The detail is fantastic. Notice that the individual spokes have the appropriate bend at the hub end, and include a tensioning nut at the rim end. And also remember the image you're seeing here (if you're on a PC) is far larger than these are in reality. As soon as these are available, I'll be loading up.

Cool piece. What's the story on the material? Looks like cast oatmeal.

Sorry for what you went through there, Brian. I'd be pretty ticked at the USPS in your position. Surely something can be done. As you say, it's not your fault by any stretch of imagination.

Nuttin' much. Just a repop of the old 1/24 MantaRay slot car body. Looking a lot like a bubbletop single-seat Cheetah, I always likes these when I was a kid. Plan is to use it as the basis for another unusual couldabeen M/SP drag car. I was pleasantly surprised when I took it out to look at, as all the shots of them assembled as slot cars show the bodies hacked and warped on to ill-fitting frame brackets. But the body itself is nicely proportioned, just as I remember them from the dim recesses of time.

Got another part of the steel mill layout, the Walthers bridge-crane kit. Used to move iron ore or taconite pellets from the offload and storage areas to the blast furnace. Also got a couple Walthers heavy traveling crane kits for inside the mill. I'll probably need several more by the time it's done, as well as at least one for the locomotive service and erection buildings.

Great kit, nice idea for a build. I've got a couple underway, one as a gunship and one as a dustoff unit...and using a cast of the Lycoming turbine to power a fantasy LSR vehicle too. Have you seen the clear version of that kit?

Neato. Not a lot of people outside the aviation community know the old V-tail's nickname anymore. And I agree with the rest of what you say...the Starship and Staggerwing are two of the most spectacular private aircraft ever conceived.

This kit was 1/25. Later released as this kit... and this kit... All had a multi-part body, but are quite well proportioned and build up well. The later 1/25 '58 "Master Modeler" version is a different tool with a one-piece body.

^^^ Must be a gasser.

True enough. I think mk11 (Mike Mackie) expressed my sentiments best, back in 2017 on the "Your Favorite Box Art" thread: "To me, the best box art is evocative, like that piper box; it drags you into the scene, striking a chord and maybe makes you want to be there... and when the contents actually match the packaging... " Most of the stuff in this thread looks like it was phoned in by people who just didn't care.

They couldn't find the "ON" switches on the rakes and brooms...

Very realistic final effect. Thanks.

Except that it's about 1/18 scale (but don't quote me...I haven't measured and divided yet, but it's pretty big).

So...maybe what the manufactures should have done would have been to photograph a model built by the average buyer...slathered in glue where it didn't belong, parts ill-fitting or upside down, no sprue stubs removed or great gouges and holes in the parts where they were twisted off the trees, and bugs, runs, drips, and brush-marks in the paint. That certainly would have portrayed quite accurately what Joe Consumer could really expect to end up with.

Funny how it seems a high percentage of the well-paid "marketing professionals" with MBAs who signed off on this appalling stuff apparently missed the lecture series that began with the words "the primary mission of packaging is to make a potential buyer WANT the product that's in the box".

Just about everything is today. The Idiocracy is here.

Well, I bought one. Definitely styrene, but a much harder, more solvent resistant grade we used to get in the days of the dinosaurs. I tried both Plastruct "Plastic Weld" (MEK-based) and "Bondene" ((dicloromethane based). They'll both work, but if I had a gun at my head and had to pick one, I'd give a slight edge to the Bondene. CA will also work, but if you're going to want to sand the joins smooth, I'd go with one of the above mentioned solvent types. Be sure to give your work plenty of time to dry, too. At least overnight.

Absolutely knockout model. I meant to say that when it was first posted, but forgot. Fantastic effects.

Nothing unusual there. Have a look at the countless moronic how-tos on real car stuff. Nothing ever seems to stop the clueless from posturing as experts. While there certainly IS a great deal of value on YouToob, it takes some prior knowledge of the subject to know who's a fool and who knows his stuff.

From my perspective, it looks like the majority of the perpetually-offended lack the cognitive ability to tell the difference.

Holy moley. I'm still using a compass and blade I got back at the dawn of time. I NEED this thing. Thanks for posting it.

You guys need to be sure to watch the other two videos I posted, if you haven't already. 3D printing has been coming for a long time, and I'm almost to the "ho hum" point with it. It's here. It's a done deal, and the price vs. quality equation is rapidly improving. But what's REALLY exciting to ME is the advent of desktop injection molding. It has the potential to alleviate the problems folks like Fireball have keeping up with demand...at least in part. The process spits parts out literally in seconds, and though it's not appropriate for complex shapes that have a lot of undercuts like a highly detailed carburetor, it is perfect for simpler shapes that can have easily-managed draft-angles like cylinder heads, valve covers, wheels, etc. Another possibility that I haven't seen mentioned yet with a desktop injection molding setup is that IT CAN BE UPGRADED (relatively easily by a competent mechanical engineer / fabricator / machinist) TO HAVE SLIDING SECTIONS IN THE Y AND Z AXES AS WELL, so much more complex parts can be molded.