Ace-Garageguy

I wouldn't advise it on rattlecan or airbrushed lacquers or enamels. I've tried it and the speed was simply too high with my particular setup...which was a corded variable speed Dremel on the lowest setting. Rather than polishing the paint, it melted it and smeared an area, requiring a strip and repaint (this was the last time i experimented on a model rather than on a test panel). You can probably get away with machine-polishing a 2-part urethane clear after it's fully cured...maybe...but experiment on a test panel before you try it on a model. Once you sand all the orange peel out, hand polishing really doesn't take very long, and you're far less likely to damage a nice paint job.

Lay the centers out carefully and drill exact-center pilot holes with a pin-vise and small-diameter bit, maybe .030" or .040" You don't need a pin-vise to use twist drills to enlarge the holes in styrene. Fingers work just fine. Use SHARP bits. Don't be in a hurry and don't press too hard, which will tend to tear the plastic and run the bit off center. If you can get bits made specifically for drilling into plexi, they have a different taper on the flutes and will tend to stay on center better without tearing or getting caught. Two notes: few things look stupider than unevenly-spaced holes, and visors that haven't been thinned to approximate scale thickness. I've seen plenty of model visors that would be 1" thick if scaled up. Wrong.

Point missed again. Geez. Let's review. 1) Modelhaus is going out of business, probably at least in part due to the death of the son. 2) As a courtesy and service to the modeling community (rather than just shutting down and leaving everybody twisting in the wind, which would have been entirely understandable) Modelhaus announced their projected closing date so modelers could get what they may have missed in the past. 3) Possibly, SOME large order placers aren't buying for their own use, but to resell at inflated prices after production ceases. 4) In MY view of things, folks doing that are taking unfair advantage of the folks at Modelhaus. 5) WHY would Modelhaus be content to sell product at regular price to hoarders / resellers when Modelhaus could get the inflated prices themselves if they simply shut down and auctioned off stock as they saw fit, for the highest possible prices? 6) They wouldn't, unless they were idiots, which they aren't. (But if they were operating solely on business principles, human-greedy-nature or laws of economics, that's EXACTLY what they'd do). 7) Again, I maintain intentional big-order resellers are unfairly taking advantage of Modelhaus' kindness, consideration and courtesy in announcing a closing date. If you can't grasp what's at issue here...whoever you are...I sincerely hope you'll be treated exactly the same way you seem to think is OK in all your future business and interpersonal dealings. It may be "good business", "human nature", the "laws of economics" or whatever you want to call it. But buying large orders specifically for the purpose of reselling at inflated prices is simply taking unfair advantage of the kindness, courtesy and responsible behavior Modelhaus has extended to the modeling community.

Boy, there's really some convoluted 'logic' that somehow got that question from the issue under discussion here.

I think what we're seeing more and more is what happens when a society begins to think concepts like fairness, courage, ethical behavior and pretty much any worthwhile values whatsoever are obsolete and laughable ideas. Wherever you look, including in corporate and government sectors, the idea of "is this right?" doesn't seem to occur to anyone anymore. When I was in the England in the early '70s, very few police were armed or wore bulletproof vests. It was almost unthinkable that anyone would shoot a cop. Not so today, and it's worse here. But this isn't about guns. It's about people failing to respect other peoples' rights, and reacting without thinking of the "right and wrong" of any action.

Glad I could help. Mr. Hoving's photos of that work really showed me the way to go on making custom windshield frames too. He's very talented and skilled, and his masters are as good as it gets.

I've been painting 1:1 vehicles for 50+ years, and I don't understand why your clear is still tacky for so long (you say "1-2 hours"). It's common in the real world for a 2-component urethane clear to be "dust free" (no longer tacky on the surface, so that any dust that falls on it is easily removed) in 10 minutes or so. If you're using the "one use" 2-part clear, are you certain you're getting ALL the hardener out of the little bottle and into the big one? Too little hardener could conceivably slow the dry time. I'd be careful about using a sealed container for drying, too. It COULD inhibit initial evaporation of the carrier solvents and lead to solvent-popping as the clear cures. To inhibit dust getting in your paint, all you really need is a clean flat thing to put the just-painted model under, in a draft-free area. Dust normally settles on horizontal surfaces, or gets blown on to other areas. Having a simple clean cardboard plank to put the model under will eliminate the former, and insuring you're in a draft-free environment will eliminate the latter.

X2

Modelhaus resellers (in this instance, assuming a block of product was purchased specifically to resell) are acting without the consent of Modelhaus. THAT'S the point. I doubt Modelhaus would be happy about knowing they were producing a large number of orders so someone ELSE could profit on them. Frankly, they would be fools to do it. Much better for them to withhold product and sell it at inflated prices themselves after production stops. If people are reselling with the CONSENT of Modelhaus, fine. I rather doubt it though. Modelhaus never sold through middlemen, to the best of my knowledge. If people are reselling large orders of product without Modelhaus' consent, it's taking unfair advantage of a situation. But feel free to call it "good business". I reserve my right to call it something else entirely.

Ethics and the golden rule just have no place in the world today, do they? And if that's really the way you feel, quit complaining about your corrupt Crook County politicos who exist to do nothing but line their own pockets. They're just following "human nature". It's kinda like "I was just following orders". So many people ALWAYS miss the point. Reselling BY AGREEMENT is NOT the issue here. Another not-too-subtle difference that IS apparently too subtle for most.

Quote from Tesla: "Autopilot does not turn a Tesla into an autonomous vehicle and does not allow the driver to abdicate responsibility".

And I, for one, have no use for middlemen. I'll try to cut one out of every deal I can, every time. I've spent the majority of my life MAKING things and getting no credit and way less than half the money. I'm sick of a system that rewards the resellers and screws the producers, the originators, the inventors, the ones who make it possible for everyone to live. This is the principle involved: If you can MAKE something, you deserve as much as you can get. If you can't make anything, you don't have any right to a free ride on MY effort and skill. Buying up a bunch of Modelhaus product specifically to resell is wanting to profit for doing nothing but posting the parts on ebay. It's lazy, greedy, and sleezy. Anybody who actually ever made anything original will get it. Free-riders won't. And another thing: reselling someone's product BY AGREEMENT is one thing. Loading up a company with orders (specifically to resell) whose principals are trying to end production following the death of their son is something else.

Sat outside on the porch at dusk with a cafe con leche, watching the fireflies come out. (image taken from the web)

A fundamental change in human nature that eliminated the desire to make a buck for doing nothing while riding on someone else's back.

So, MCM isn't the only forum with the occasional glitch.

I keep coming back to look at this. Really beautiful work, especially considering it's only her second, and one of the more challenging kits at that. It's better than a lot of folks who have been building for 50 years or more. Fine, fine, fine. There's a lot of talent there.

I know this is the accepted wisdom, but there may be brains that work a little differently. I have had, on occasion, quite vivid and memorable dreams while only dozing for a few moments, and thought to myself at the time "how can this be? I can't possibly be in the defined 'REM' sleep mode yet".

Well, it's different, see? A LOT different. They weren't just MARKING UP somebody else's product. THEY HAD TO MAKE MOLDS AND MAKE THE PRODUCTS. The molds have a finite life too, have to be replaced regularly to keep the quality up. Yes, much of their work was BASED on production parts from a variety of sources, but it wasn't just re-sold and marked up existing stock by people incapable of doing the work. Far from it. But I guess it's another of those not-so-subtle distinctions that seem to be too difficult for many to grasp. EDIT: I'd also wager Modelhaus was paying at least nominal royalties to produce facsimiles of parts and designs that obviously originated elsewhere, but that the original manufacturers had no interest in continuing. We live in such a greedy, grasping, petty and litigious world that this MUST be the case.

Yup, and I really don't like the idea that the Modelhaus folks are probably doing a significant amount of their final work so some no-talent buy-low-sell-high something-for-nothings can make a fat profit on their effort. Call it whatever you want.

Yeah, I KNOW how it is and what it's called. Like Van Gogh died penniless, but a year ago some fat bastard who probably can't paint a cabinet paid some other fat bastard who probably can't paint his toenails over $66 MILLION for his L'Allée des Alyscamps. Yeah, that's just as it should be. Nah.

Yup, there's always plenty of maggots willing to make a profit on SOMEBODY ELSE'S hard work and reputation.

No. I'm running Win7. What browser are you using?

OK. It's easy to find completely useless trivia on the net.

I prefer any of the PVA white glues...polyvinyl acetate...that are packaged specifically for doing clear parts. These include Micro Krystal Klear Testors and Pacer Formula 560 Elmers Glue All is the same stuff, and will also work. There are other useful PVA glues too, of differing viscosity. The downside to these is that they have almost zero wet strength, so you often need to fixture windows in place until the stuff dries. Windows also need to fit well, as these glues aren't very strong on non-porous materials like plastic. The upside is that they dry absolutely clear and disappear entirely. Absolutely no fogging of headlights or other clear parts.