Ace-Garageguy

Last time I had one was in an English pub, half Whitbread, half Guinness.

Man, back in the late '70s, I used to keep a mess of those little Millers iced down at the shop for the end-of-day. Something about those little bottles...Haven't seen a Rheingold for years, but I know I liked it. That goes for Schaefer, Ballantine and Piels too. I got my appreciation for different beers from being in different parts of the world. Anything from Pilsners and lagers to dark, oily Porter. In general, I can enjoy just about any beer depending on where I am and what I'm eating...though I never much liked Bud or Pabst, and how they could get money for most "lite" beers has always been beyond my comprehension. Save your pee, water it down, chill it. Same thing. Some of the "craft" beers really seem to me to be trying too hard, and I always get a chuckle reading the flowery wine-speak reviews from online "connoisseurs". But some of 'em are great. My go-to supermarket American beer, when I can get it, is Shiner Bock, and there's usually Red Stripe and Modelo Negra sharing shelf space in the fridge.

I agree completely, but actually learning to control the paint process to eliminate as much orange-peel as possible saves a whole heck of a lot of time and effort on the back end. Having to sand out excessive peel also makes it far more likely you'll go through the finish on high spots, and that opens an entirely new can of worms. But however you achieve it, Steve, what you're doing works.

Sadly, for the state of civilization, a great many people think this is a silly, old-fashioned and outdated idea. As far as I'm concerned, a lie is a lie. A cheat is a cheat. There is no gray area.

In fairness, I should say I've really had very few problems with USPS. The thing is though, when something seems to be reliable, something you can count on, when it suddenly goes all stupid specifically BECAUSE OF stupid, it's especially annoying.

I'll stand by my experience that it IS possible to control the application of materials, by whatever method is chosen, to get minimal peel every time. It may take more practice and experience than most people are willing to expend the time to amass, and it usually necessitates shooting test panels prior to shooting the model itself...again more effort than most people will put out. It's entirely possible to adjust one's technique to compensate for variations in rattlecan paint viscosity. I do it all the time. And if you're airbrushing, and you understand the tool and the procedures, you can control exactly how your material behaves. In the real-car world, going into the spray booth is NOT a hit-or-miss proposition. It would be economically untenable to wonder if every paint job or repair was going to "come out good", and have to expend huge amounts of time on the back-end correcting poor application technique. I personally take this same approach with models. Learn the materials and techniques, practice, test FIRST, and understand fully what you're trying to achieve.

I had a 1-pound box of strawberries for brunch.

I've always understood the desire to build beautiful custom cars, but I've never been able to figure out the amount of effort that's been expended on fugly. I know it's not concurrent with post-modern doctrine, but there ARE objective standards of beauty, proportion, and design, and a lot of stuff...a LOT of stuff...that's been built over the years has ignored same.

Exactly. I would also respectfully suggest you spend time practicing your spray technique...no matter what material and hardware you use (rattlecan or airbrush), to minimize making orange peel in the first place. It is possible to spray your color so slick, it needs very little after-work. The green hood below is exactly as-shot, with no sanding or polishing afterwards. It's Duplicolor rattlecan green, with Testors rattlecan "wet look" clear as a topcoat.

It appears to be a first-generation Chrysler hemi with those valve covers, even intake and exhaust port spacing, and the distributor drive in the rear. 331-354-392. The bolt pattern on the timing cover is in the ballpark too.

Cold Papa John's and a warm Jamaican beer. Figure I'll have Oreos and a big glass of milk for dessert. Yeah...I eat garbage on weekends. ...and I can STILL do a 15 mile hike, no problem.

Everything I've got is to build. How many I'll get to before I die...who knows? Whoever liquidates my estate ought to do pretty well though. Not the rarest, but I've got a couple of these... ...one of which is going in this...

Last several deliveries, the person on MY route has been leaving things IN THE DRIVEWAY. ON THE GROUND. There is a covered porch that they've always left things on in the past, so I don't know what this latest idiocy is. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the last one before a downpour drenched it, ruining the NOS packaging of the items inside. I REALLY HATE STUPID.

I've been advocating using Comet since around 2011, and my using it on models came from my experience on real cars (where I found it to be highly effective for scuffing clear on panels where I had to do a blend after a repair). Toner283 makes another good point. Handle your clean bodies with cheap latex gloves to avoid transferring skin oils to the model. As far as Dawn goes, well, it's OK I guess. It does remove oils. But for MAXIMUM adhesion, scrub the parts with an abrasive cleanser like Comet, a toothbrush, and plenty of hot water. Not only does this remove mold-release agents and lubricants from the parts, it also uniformly scuffs them, including down in nooks and crannies where sandpaper and ScotchBrite pads can't go. Parts that are NOT scuffed often exhibit paint pulling away from edges and panel lines, and scuffing with sandpaper or Brillo can obliterate fine details. For extra insurance against fisheyes, wash your parts with CLEAN paper towels and 70% isopropyl alcohol (available in any drug department). NOTE: Parts that sit around for any length of time with primer on them need to be washed with isopropyl prior to painting. Why? Because environmental contaminants like cooking grease in the air, furniture polish, even pollen, can settle on them and cause all kinds of fisheyes when you shoot your paint. As always, I know this from direct personal experience.

I found another shot of the Dodge with her trailer...with the camper rig behind !

Both the Dodge COE and the Diamond T tractors look to me like they might be runners. Both of them appear to have good rubber, especially on the rear. The Dodge COEs and Fruehauf round-nosed and winged trailers were still in wide use when I was a kid in the 1950s.

Maybe something like this?

Yeah, an accurately prepped Trams Am car would be really cool for the one with a roof. For the other one, I'd do a flat-top funny.

Looks like a 1935 Chrysler Airflow sitting next to that camper rig.

You've heard of Porsche Spyders, surely. That's the rare Porsche Spider.

One of the main reasons I've stopped building...last Revell '29 Ford body I shot with Duplicolor red "sandable" primer right out of the can crazed so bad, it looked like HEAVY surface rust...and that was NOT the look I was going for. In years past, I learned to shoot my primer slick (which means "wet") so I wouldn't have to do much sanding, and wouldn't have to use a lot of detail-filling coats. I don't like the surface texture, dusty orange peel, if you shoot "mist" coats from a spraycan either. It's shooting my primer wet, after scuffing the surface very thoroughly, that's causing the problem...but ONLY ON THE SOFT STYRENE that most kits are made from these days. I can use my old tried-and-true method on most early Johan, Revell and AMT kits with no ill effects. The '61 Dodge below was shot with SEM self-etching primer (black), one of the "hottest" primers out there. Shot WET. Slick and smooth as a baby's backside. No crazing, no problem. The older 1/8 scale '32 Ford from Revellogram, below, was shot WET with Duplicolor red "sandable". Again, hard plastic, much harder than today's kits, no crazing problem. To answer your question, I have no answer as yet. I'll be experimenting with Steve Guthmiller's recommendations (and variants) as soon as I have the time to invest in a potentially maddening and frustrating series of tests.

Weird indeed. I copied them to my own drive. I'll reload them from there. Done. They should all show now to everyone.

The AMT Silhouette has a rectangular tube chassis.

The AMT Car Craft Dream Rod / Tiger Shark also has a nice chassis for other rod uses.

Both the Revell Austin and the Henry J drag cars have simple tubular chassis as well.