Ace-Garageguy

Beautiful. "Racing Isetta" must rank as one of the truly great non sequiturs. I had saved one of these little guys from the crusher, non-running, and dragged it home many many years ago. My idiot girlfriend at the time sold it for $50 while I was out of town, and thought she'd really done well.

Those "Studebaker" wheels were available as aftermarket parts to anyone, and another set can be found in the old Revell '31 Ford sedan kits...

1959 is right in the transition period of promos going from acetate to styrene or ABS (simply a toughened styrene). Art Anderson and a few others on here should be able to tell you what material you have depending on what car it is. In general, unless an acetate model has been stored in some kind of suspended animation or time warp, by now it will be showing the characteristic shrinking and warping they're prone to. If the model isn't warped, it's a pretty good bet it's styrene. I'll leave any further responses to the experts on this information.

The orange car is a knockout. Looking forward to seeing how the RPU version plays out.

Lovely. Clean work. Great color for this particular body style.

Bingo. I HAVE used hot-glue in several attempts to mock-up styrene parts (I use hot glue constantly in my real-car work and find it to be invaluable) and the normal-sized glue-guns produce a stream of adhesive that WILL melt styrene, becoming permanently attached to the parts. I have been getting around to trying the very small "craft" glue guns that use much smaller glue sticks (and I assume, operate at lower temperatures).

There's this thing called functional illiteracy, which is really what I'm talking about, and what the articles I cite above are talking about. Being able to sound out words from letters is a far cry from understanding what the words mean when strung together, especially when sentences get longer and more complex than "the cat is white". From Wikipedia: Functional illiteracy is reading and writing skills that are inadequate "to manage daily living and employment tasks that require reading skills beyond a basic level".Functional illiteracy is contrasted with illiteracy in the strict sense, meaning the inability to read or write simple sentences in any language. Functional illiteracy is rampant, and a fair number of those "educated" individuals who pass as "journalists" today are right on the edge. In 2015, approximately 30 million adult Americans were considered to be "functionally illiterate". That's almost 10% of the population, and I would personally posit it's much higher, depending of course on the standard one uses to define functional illiteracy. Daily I encounter people whose ability to communicate through the written word (beyond something like "UR L8") is so pathetically poor as to be almost scary in its implications as to the the general level of competency of the populace as a whole. Often these are "professional" people, and that's the scariest part of all. Maybe I should have referred to "poor reading comprehension" rather than "illiteracy" for clarity though. The poor showing using that definition is every bit as appalling. From a 2014 publication: According to the most recently released results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, poor reading comprehension is rampant in the United States. A basic level of proficiency is defined as having “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade” (NAEP, 2011, p. 6.). In the US, nearly one in every three fourth-grade students and one in four eighth-grade students is below even this basic level. Only about one out of three students score at the proficient or advanced levels at either grade. This, of course, explains the functional-illiteracy of a large percentage of HS graduates. With this, I agree 100%. A kid who hasn't been taught to value learning and knowledge well in advance of going to school is doomed to a life of slinging burgers or changing oil, at best. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again, I don't put this stuff up to make fun of or criticise anyone. My intent is to try to make someone THINK, look around, wonder what's going on, and maybe do something positive to try to fix it. Doing something about it, even on a small local scale, will be a large part of my own post-retirement reason for continuing to breathe.

I forgot about cats. For being so graceful and lithe, they can cause havoc to delicate things vulnerably displayed...but it's kinda up to the human to compensate for the cat before it happens. Early on, my last one learned pretty quickly what places in the house were verboten to fourpawed creatures, but than, she WAS a lot smarter than most of the people I know. Seriously, the wheels almost always turn on most of my models, but not freely...kinda like the brakes are dragging. I simply prefer to be able to reposition them or even remove them if the desire should strike. The only one I've dumped on the floor was when I hadn't locked the top of the workbench, had too much weight on the front, and everything slipped off as the top slid to a 45deg. angle. My dumb, pure and simple, and the model would have slid off whether the wheels had been glued solid or not.

Kinda says something about the value of the content in USA Today, and the competence of the average USA Today reader, doesn't it? "See Bobby chase the ball. Chase, Bobby, chase. Jean likes to see Bobby chase the ball too." is also "reading" by your definition, but it's hardly what I'd expect of a HS graduate. And it's useless in any kind of ADULT context. If this level of literacy is all this country expects and accepts from its populace, there's no way in hell anyone is going to "Make America Great Again". But hey, let's defend illiteracy and ignorance. I guess it's more PC to defend it than to wonder WHY it's acceptable in today's society and HOW it came to be so.

Me too.

Europas weighed from about 1300 pounds to around 2000, depending on year and equipment, with the later twincam-engined ones being the heaviest. Performance was sparkling, even with the little Renault engine, and the cars had razor-sharp handling. 300HP would be really thrilling. The Europa is one of the ones I always lusted after but never owned...though I've driven a bunch. And if you're much over 5'10' and 165 pounds, you're going to be uncomfortable. Frankly, I suspect the big wheels don't help this car at all. Unsprung weight as a percentage of total vehicle weight is important, and in such a light car, very light wheels and tires are necessary for optimum ride and roadholding. The real magnesium wheels and paper-thin real racing tires shown on the race-version are what these cars need to work best...if you're interested more in exploring their limits than in boulevard showboating.

Good looking model. I envy you having the space to work in O. That would be my scale-of-choice, but I barely have room to run a single HO switcher back and forth on one piece of flex-track.

I'm a big fan of the 1/32 and 1/24 scale aircraft models you show above too. I've got a couple of 1/24 kits to get back to, and a 1/32 Spit done up as the baby-blue prototype that I'd like to build some friends for.

Simple. No matter WHAT kind of cab the thing has, the jet engine gets mounted behind it, where the thrust-producing exhaust has a clear shot out. The Harrier he's sourcing the engine from produces its power as exhaust thrust, not a turbine-shaft-takeoff, so there's no necessity to retain any of the original drivetrain or engine-placement.

Exactly. You need a pourable product.

Seriously fine work.

Snagged three restorable Revell "Big Boy" HO scale locomotives. Cheap. The builder had some interesting ideas about paint, but thankfully my gamble paid off and most of the odd coloring dissolved with hot water, while the remainder is coming off quite nicely with oven-cleaner. No excessive glue, so two of these will make nice display models in a "scrap line" setting, while the third will become a "freelanced" what-if coal-fired steam-turbine-electric for an alternate-reality layout.

I disagree adamantly. Reading at a college freshman level is identical to reading at a high-school-graduate level. Think about it. You graduate from HS, you have summer off, you start college. SAME reading level. What the report actually SAYS is this: "According to officials from City University of New York, a full 80 percent of high school graduates in New York City can’t read when they graduate. As CBS Local reports, “They had to re-learn basic skills – reading, writing, and math – first before they could begin college courses.” Article here: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/03/07/officials-most-nyc-high-school-grads-need-remedial-help-before-entering-cuny-community-colleges/

I like to go "vroom vroom vroom".

Agreed. Lots of interesting ideas certainly worth further investigation.

Yup.

It is mechanically and structurally very similar to the Abarth 1300OT race-car I wrenched on for Performance Research Associates back in the 1970s. The car had been owned previously by Al Cosentino, USA Abarth racer of some renown. (this is probably not the same car)

OK, sounds reasonable. What kind of mold-release do you use for these alternative materials? I assume the UV-curing resins stick both to styrene and to themselves, so a mold release would be required...correct?

The cheapest and most readily available home-brew mold-making material that actually works is plaster of Paris. Like all home-brew cheapo alternatives to using the real stuff, it has its limitations... Liquid brushable latex can also be used effectively, and is widely used for mold-making, but because it also dries by evaporation (like dissolved styrene) it has to be applied in relatively thin layers. I've seen hundreds of second-rate and downright awful results using both, and even a few decent ones. What I've never understood is the widespread reluctance to use commercially available materials that work perfectly, every time.