Ace-Garageguy

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...

Yup, no Orbitron in styrene. Resin partial kit, as zo... Built up to look like this... http://www.showrods.com/gallery_pages/orbitron1.html Not really one of Roth's best efforts.

I buy a LOT of things in different categories on Ebay, and every time I go to the damm site, the functionality is worse. I guess they're hiring their IT people on the basis of who works cheapest, apparently the same criteria Photobucket did their hiring on. Their increasingly useless and buggy search functions continue to degrade, but it seems every week they send me more multiple useless and annoying "BID NOW BEFORE IT GETS AWAY !!!!!!" emails on every damm thing I've put in my watch list, as well as a plethora of other useless and annoying "updates". The site used to actually WORK. Now it rarely does without having to resort to all sorts of klugey workarounds to find what I'm after. I'm invariably called out and criticized for mentioning the rampant stupidity and incompetence in any number of professions these days, but I can tell what WORKS and I can tell what DOESN'T, and what was obviously done by I-don't-give-a-damm-just-give-me-a-paycheck idiots. Idiocracy. It's the new reality.

So far, it doesn't have any effect on me anyway, 'cause I always paid as I went. What a concept. Funny how nobody minded screwing P-bucket out of revenue, but everybody screams when the free lunch is taken away. But it's still THE WAY THEY WENT ABOUT IT that's reprehensible.

We've touched on this before, and agreeing to the "terms of service" gave P-bucket an unlimited free license to use the content however they wished, but it did NOT negate the user's ownership of the content, nor did it give them power to destroy the user's ability to access said content via links, etc. (assuming I understand the wording of the agreement correctly).

You are confusing contract law and the blatantly unethical, unreasonable and reckless actions that PhotoBucket took when they destroyed the content of hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of blog and forum users WITH NO OR VERY LITTLE WARNING. Suing PhotoBucket for causing emotional distress to so many people on such a wide scale has to do with how PhotoBucket's conduct affected people, not whether the service was fee-paid or not. Recovering damages for "emotional distress" usually requires that some physical harm can be demonstrated as well, but a case could possibly be made that the sudden destruction of vast amounts of peoples' web content can constitute "physical harm". Laws governing the definitions of ethical conduct and reckless behavior vary from state to state, so you would be well advised to consult a competent attorney before you make any judgments as to the viability of a suit. If the fine-print in the user agreement that nobody ever reads specifically states that P-bucket can change the terms of service at any time with no notice, restrict access to 3rd party sharing, and in so doing destroy the value of any web content containing links to their storage and sharing service, the free users may all be SOL. Otherwise, maybe not. Far as the "cloud" goes, I'll never use it for anything critical. If I'm ever engaged in an activity that's so Earth-shatteringly important as to require me to have access to all my data 24/7 from anywhere on the planet, I'll set up remote access my own server...not somebody else's of dubious security and integrity.