Ace-Garageguy

Nobody is talking about a "filling station". The scenario I referred to is for a home installation. Obviously I didn't make that clear. Said installation produces sufficient fuel for the "average" commute in a reasonably fuel efficient car. Honda, as I said earlier, has already demonstrated a workable pilot program. Most of the time, I drive a gas hog pickup, but my commute is only 4 miles each way. One gallon equivalent of fuel per day would fulfill my commuting needs nicely. If I drove a vehicle that got only 25 MPG, just TWO gallons would be sufficient for a 50-mile round trip. The numbers work. And for those who probably don't know this...when I was a member of the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition (paying $1500 dues per year for the privilege)...there was on the market a home-installed device called FuelMaker. It was a compressor that hooked into a residential natural gas line, and would safely and efficiently refuel a NAT GAS vehicle overnight. At the time, before the electric utilities began stupidly burning NAT GAS to alleviate peak demand requirements, the price of the energy-equivalent of a gallon of gasoline was about 64 CENTS per gallon. Gasoline was hovering around $1.85 then, if I recall correctly. The mission of the NGVC was to make the world aware of the whole natural gas vehicle fuel thing, but they mostly had conventions for industry insiders, not really very much else (though the honchos paid themselves VERY well and traveled the world in first-class style) and the public and government remained blissfully unaware you could even RUN a car on NAT GAS. The infrastructure was already in place to refuel a large number of vehicles daily with NAT GAS, it was cheaper and WAY cleaner than gasoline, engines last a LOT longer burning the stuff, the vehicle conversions were relatively inexpensive and the payback time was relatively short due to NAT GAS's low price. But what happened? Not a damm thing. Politics, slow moving minds and greed dammned the whole movement before it really got started. Hydrogen made-on-the-roof-at-home is only a short hop from where we'd be if we'd phased in NAT GAS in large numbers, instead of the quantum leap necessary to go from liquid-petro-fueled vehicles to total electric. I've been watching and dealing with stupidity, foot-dragging and know-nothing naysayers for decades, which fully explains my lack of patience with the way things are, and the way they're headed. Idiots are driving the bus, and I want off.

You allude to two very important points. The first is that human population is increasing at a rate that is unsustainable, and is the real cause of a lot, if not all, of humanity's current problems. Global population has more than doubled in just MY lifetime. And the folks who are breeding the fastest are NOT the ones who are in a position to do anything to solve the problems human numbers are causing. The second is that there's no global energy initiative, but instead a lot of disparate groups pulling in different directions, and many of them are politicizing issues that need to be addressed by the best technical minds on the planet rather than being used as levers to gain political power. There's also the problem of rabid mismanagement by the capital sector. One of the companies over here that had developed a brilliant and sustainable growth model for installing local solar generating stations let the wheeler-dealer MBA set get carried away, began playing the fast-and-loose "business" game (rather than focusing on the tech and hardware that need to be fully developed and debugged) trying to gobble up other companies and expand as fast as possible, and in the process burned through $24 BILLION of investment money prior to filing for bankruptcy (leaving NOTHING for the shareholders). The Idiocracy is here. Welcome to the future.

Best laugh I've had all week.

X2. However, in general, it usually takes a significant other who thinks a little outside the box and is secure enough in herself to allow YOU to do what YOU enjoy (for a hobby) with no criticism or whining, and somebody who has known men who have actual physical hobbies (drinking beer, watching sports and playing video games don't count). It also helps if SHE'S creative and has some kind of actual physical interest too, like photography, painting, etc. Trying to not make a mess is good, kinda like putting the seat down, and simply shows respect for the other party and the joint living space. I met a very attractive younger woman not too long ago who I thought might have some potential, but when she visited my house for the first time and asked, kinda sneeringly "why do you have so many cars that don't run?" (all in various stages of storage, restoration or repair...and all quite valuable AND significant parts of my life), it was obvious from that instant that she'd just never get the old car thing, probably not the model car thing either. Next. Life's WAY too short to have to kiss azz to get some.

Unfortunately, the Revell piece noted is ugly (in my not-so-humble opinion...and this is NOT my model...) The MCG piece noted above is a fair rendition of this, and to my eye, is MUCH better looking... One of my own favorites for scratchbashing comes from this vintage kit... ...and scales up very well for '20s and ''30s cars... Another nice nose comes in this kit... ...and also works well on other bodies...

That's not a bad idea. I know there are IT security "experts" who will argue as to the benefit of this, but unplugging the network cable from the modem or router when you're not doing something on the web will in fact create what the IT dweebs call an "air gap", which is really just a silly high-falutin' way of saying there are no physical wires connected to your machine from the web at that point, so no threats can get in during the unplugged time. The "experts" will also tell you that your network cable will not withstand constantly repeated connection and disconnection, which is complete BS. I've been doing exactly this with my own system now for years, and my network cable plug hasn't failed yet...over thousands of cycles.

For those of you who were asleep in science class, hydrogen is easily split out of common water by a process called electrolysis (and no Maude, I'm NOT talking about hair-removal) which is simply passing an electric current through water. Pure hydrogen and pure oxygen are released. Honda, among others, has already demonstrated conclusively that a small rooftop photovoltaic array (makes electricity from sunlight..."solar cells") and compressor / storage tank can generate sufficient hydrogen each day to fuel a fuel-cell or H2-powered IC-engined vehicle for the "average" commute. Filtered household waste-water can be the source, turning it from a problem to be dealt with by the sewer system into vehicle fuel and pure, clean oxygen released into the atmosphere. Over the years, I've done extensive work with natural-gas and propane powered vehicles, and the plumbing and "safe" fueling procedures to use H2 in vehicles is very similar to what we use in the NAT GAS powered units. Storing gaseous fuels, and hydrogen in particular, onboard a vehicle in sufficient quantity to get decent range is tricky, but it's known tech. None of this is really hard, or rocket science, and it could have easily been implemented 10 or 20 or 30 years back, or more. The resistance humans always exhibit to any new technology, and the overriding greed of the stake-holders in the status-quo (who are in general too stupid to realize that they could have easily $$ dominated the hydrogen power field had they started a long time ago...) are the only things that've stopped a rational segue from liquid petroleum fuels to gaseous petroleum fuels, and ultimately to a hydrogen and electricity based transportation network. Those of you who love the sound of a snorty V8 or high-revving L4 need not worry. Your engines can be readily converted to run just fine on hydrogen too.

Ship 'em to China. That's where a whole lot of toxic-material-containing products are already going. God knows nobody in Britain wants smelly old industries around (even if they're clean) recycling a glut of toxic materials created by a poorly thought-out (but typical) knee-jerk "solution" to energy and pollution problems.

And fools. But I have to give a man points for using "pluperfect example of absurdist irony" on a model car board.

There seem to be basically three schools of thought on plug-wire diameter for models: scale (me and some few others), garden-hose (lots) and the third, whatever doofy looking (but cheap) krap is lying around.

Most clears manufactured for REAL cars have UV-inhibitors built in, for just this reason. Model paints may or may not, and probably not. I can NOT state for certain, but I'd suspect the Duplicolor rattlecan clears, available at many real car parts stores, have UV inhibitors. Unfortunately, even a UV-inhibited clear will not stop fading entirely if the color pigments are particularly sensitive.

When you look at all the models you have to possibly do, which one kinda jumps out at you and strikes your interest most? That's the one I'd go for in your case, but with one caveat. It's generally easier (and less frustrating) to start with a new model, to develop skills and get something accomplished, than it is to deal with all the problems you may encounter on a rebuild.

Depending on what I'm mocking up, I'll sometimes use pinning, rubber cement, or a tiny drop of liquid cement. White glue can be helpful, but it takes some time to develop any strength. It's great for attaching windows and other clear parts (it dries clear) with no risk of fingerprinting or fogging, but the parts need to fit well, and windows usually need to be taped in place, or jigged some other way, as it sets up. While white glue has limited strength, it's usually entirely sufficient to hold pinned parts in place permanently, if you elect to use Tom's suggestions...which are very good. AFX's suggestion to build up sub-assemblies to the max extent possible is also a good one.

Thanks for your interest. These big kits are a lot more like building real cars than the smaller scales.

Thanks for the reminder. I haven't touched it since then, but will try to get some time off after Labor Day to make some decent progress.

Got one of these 1/8 scale kits for the best price I've seen in years... ...and another partially built-up 1/8 Pocher Alfa. After a quick inventory, it appears to be at least 95% complete, with only very minor (and clean) assembly.

It depends on what you search for, and how you search. Functionality used to be the same across the site, and it no longer always is. I've reported multiple functionality issues to the Ebay admins, and remarkably, several have been corrected. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has had problems and brought them to the attention of management over there. And as Mark mentions above, they DO seem to have a propensity for making changes solely for the sake of change, and adding lots of "new features" that are essentially useless and redundant.

Absolutely, and an excellent illustration of why getting proportions right is so vitally important. The drawing looks pretty good, definitely has potential. The real one shoulda been called Dorkatron.

She has serious talent on multiple levels, and should be inspiration to anyone who wastes time finding excuses for "I can't" instead of finding ways to say "I will, I can".

I've been using this one from X-acto for many years. It's fine, and has slots milled in the bottom inside surface that will hold several different dimensions of stock securely while you cut. It also has a 'step' milled as a projection on the underside of one of the vertical faces to make it easy to steady on the edge of a workbench. Like all tools, the quality of the work it turns out is directly in proportion to the skill and care the user brings to its operation.

What a shame AMC didn't actually produce this thing. It could have been a real trend-setting crossover. With intelligently designed rear liftover height for making heavy but compact gear (like scuba) easy to get in and out of the available space, and optional roof-racks for surfboards or whatever else, I bet it would have been a strong seller in '69-early '70s to the young, active, upwardly-mobile market. Honestly, I think it would be a strong seller today. It's got the retro vibe covered, and has a plenty long nose to engineer in 2017 crashworthiness. That handsome skin could even be built on a "modern" FWD platform. Thanks for putting this one up again, Bill. I'd forgotten just how good that design is, and I'll certainly be putting a model of it on the future for-sure to-do list.

VERY nice lines on the hardtop. I prefer to do my own, but what you have going there looks great. Nice work, and I hope you sell a bunch of them. That looks so good, I might even buy one.

What worked against the Orbitron most was the fact that it was just flat ugly, without enough wow cool to make it to the big time. Part of the reason is that, though it was built by Roth, it wasn't designed by Roth. There were several much more successful asymmetrical designs of the period that I thought looked great in spite of their oddness. Among them were Roth's own Mysterion,... Dean Jefferies Mantaray... ...and the Car Craft Dream Rod... ...later rebuilt as the Tiger Shark...