PeteJ

I think we are back to the old illusion of central position. That is that no location or date suites everyone or every group. As a more senior modeler, I prefer later dates that are outside of traditional "vacation" times. I would prefer a September/October date, because the weather is cooler(I remember 112 at 11pm in Phoenix) and all the vacationers have gone home and the crowds are gone. There is also a more open availability of facilities and hotels are generally available at off season rates. Not all modelers have young families, have school issues or like to be out in the July/August heat. I think National is lucky to satisfy as many people as it does.

I think the German SOB who keeps hiding all my stuff has been messing with my computer! Here's the link http://www.texascraft.com/hps/home.php?cat=250 German SOB you ask? Alzheimer's, dang it Alzheimer's! By the way, one of the ways I save on cost is to cut the sheets up into 4"X5" and put them in my photo tray. Much less waste that way.

Don, I just noticed that I was stupid and forgot to put the link in my message. Here is the place I go and it is a lot cheaper than any hobby shops.

I think you have hit the nail on the head with that one. We don't need another 57 Chevy/32 Ford. Nor do we need the super-dooper new Bf 109. Who wants a next Sherman? These are all kits that we just keep buying over and over and the manufactures keep making a new one because we do. There is just no way to stop this nonsense because if we quit buying those models the manufactures tell us that there isn't enough money in what ever we want because the bread an butter sellers like a Yamato or 57 Chevy aren't bringing in the basic bucks they need. So with this conundrum I guess we will just what we get and be happy when something comes out that we want.

I agree with John on the Small shop stuff, but get the metal ones. The plastic ones just have too much give. I do use the bug for complex folds and times that I need to get a precise angle. For quick and simple bends you can beat Tamiya's bending pliers. I have both and use both. The small one are great for little tiny pieces. Here is the site for these. http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/74084bendingpliers/index.htm http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/tools-accessories-80/tools-74000/bending-pliers-74067 I also really like their diamond file for cleaning up the metal. http://www.tamiyausa.com/items/tools-accessories-80/tools-74000/diamond-file-74066 By the way, I am sure from you question that you are like a lot of us, you can never have enough tools. :lol:

Looks like a Birddog candidate to me. Sky gray with some willy pete rockets canisters under the wings.

Here are some of the other birds. First is my Dad's. He was a founding member of the Black Cats in New Guinea. I have a document that states he did a split S in one of these to get away from a night fighter. I also have several pieces of shrapnel that they too out of the wing tank when he got back. A chores line of pretty ladies

I have HD surround Video that I took these stills from. I will post it if I ever figure out how. Anyone have any suggestions?

Much better! Thanks Gil

Tried to delete this post and redo it because they are "Lightning's" not Lightings, but apparently I don't have the authority to do that.

Yesterday over the airport in Chino California. If you weren't there you missed a great opportunity to see 5 of the 7 flyable P-38's left in the world. Nothing like the sound of 10 turbocharged Allison V12s. Back never wrote such a concerto!

Noel, I am sure that you have experience the curse of poor quality tools. Cheap tools cost far more than top drawer tools. They either frustrate you and you wind up paying someone to do something you could easily do yourself with the right tools, or they break and have to be replaced or break what you are working on. The real down side to having good tools is I have to say no to friends who would borrow the tools. I really don't want to go into how often I have loaned a tool out and it came back in such poor condition that I just had to throw it in the trashbin. I would have been better off buying a cheap tool for that person. When I was first married, my wife questioned my purchasing tools as I needed them and wondered why I needed so many. My response was, " I could build a house with a Swiss Army knife, but why would I want too?" Never heard another word about it.

Don, thanks for the tip. I suppose in the back of my mind I knew .040 was an inch but now it will stick and that is definitely a usable number.

I mentioned the "Standard/SAE" from back in the day. I grew up working of farm machinery in western Nebraska and soon got a lot of experience working with the two different threads. Then in 1966 I got a Yamaha twinjet 100 and the stuff really hit the fan. Nothing I wanted to do with that bike made any sense. The bike came with a cheap and I do mean cheap set of double ended wrenches. Over time I bought a good set of Craftsman metric wrenches and 3/8" drive sockets and Allen wrenches. I think that was the start of my obsessive compulsion to purchase good quality tools. I still have that set of wrenches and sockets and still use them though I have expended my collection considerably since then.

I love these discussions because I had to go and do some research. Back in my day(I'm 63) there were just the two standards and you could tell them apart easily just by looking at them. Apparently as some point they discontinued the name "standard" and "SAE" which had been around since the early 1900's. It appears that the only thing that they really changed was the name and they are now known as UNC(Unified National Course) and UNF(Unified National Fine). I suppose that makes more sense but it is hard to get use to something new when you have used it 50 years. It appears that the "American National Standard" was also the United States Standard Thread, Sellers Standard Thread and the Franklin institute Thread at one time or the other. Thus, my comment about, standards being great-everyone has one. Then the government gets involved and selects their own standard and really messes things up. Kind of like AN pipe fittings. Good intent, poor execution.

Noel - We missed that boat back in the 70's. For a brief period road signs showed both miles and Klics. There is still a residual of that on or speedometers. Good old gov't couldn't pull that trigger. Life would have been much easier in the world if they had. Nice part about the Sherline equipment is that it is calibrated in decimals. As long as my measuring equipment is the same I'm good. Scale conversion works better if I build 1:20 scale, but that is an F1 thing only. 1:24 works much better that 1:25th when I am thinking in inches. Inch =2 feet and I can play with fractions in my head from there. Here the threading I grew up with was Standard and SAE(Society of Automotive Engineers). SAE was a much finer thread. My friend the rocket scientist( really is- he retired from JPL) likes to say, "Standards are great! Everyone has one."

It is .030" as is sits so that scales out to 3/4" I plan on soldering brass strip top and bottom to get an I-beam effect so it will look thinker when done. This is actually a hotrod not a dragster.

I have been using a Sherline lathe for years now but really wanted to take my builds to the next level. Last week in a weak moment I went over to Sherline(about 5 miles from my house) and dropped a wad of cash on the desk and walked out with a mill and a bunch of accessories. Finally got it set up today and these are the first pieces off the mill. I am taking an old Red Baron kit and planning making everything from metal except the tub and the helmet. Here are my first bits. This is the pattern that I scribed on two pieces of .030" brass strip. Here are the parts and the original piece. I need to clean them up a bit more and then I can make cross members and suspension parts.

I'm with you Eric. Most I ever did(so far) was drop $600 on the 935 SMS aftermarket set. Well actually I've done that several times. Most of Matthews stuff(Scale Motorsport) is exceptional. In the same class as MFH and other world class model suppliers. In short, you get what you pay for. Now the only question is how bad do you want it? If you don't want it that bad, great. Don't buy it. If you want the best, it is going to cost you.

Oh, don't ever start adding up the cost of a hobby. It will scare you! My last inventory, and I do an inventory every couple of years and I will explain why in a moment, was over $32,000 in kits alone. Now granted a lot of those came by way of "payment" from my work for Tamiya but they can add up quickly. I inventory my kits because my garage was broken into several years ago and they stole several kits. The inventory was all the insurance company needed to reimburse me for my loss. But to the point. I went to Disneyland with the family last week. Entry plus food was a little over $230 per person for the day. That works out to about $20 an hour. If I take 50 hours average to build a model, then if it costs me less than $1,000 I am cheaper than Disneyland. I went to the movies not long ago with my wife and the movie was about $15 and popcorn and a soda was another $10. The movie was an hour and a half so $17.50 an hour. Model built for that price $875. A nice dinner out with a drink, $40. 2 hours of enjoyment, $20 and hour. Same cost as Disneyland. Pick you other enjoyments and run them as cost per hour, and I think you will find model building much less expensive. $500 worth of kits and supplies? Man you are just getting started! Don't look at them as what they cost, but add up the hours of enjoyment they represent. You will feel much better about them.

I was looking at your camera on line and it looks like you can go manual. To do what I am going to suggest you will need two things, a tripod and a remote shutter release. Set your camera up and go to manual mode. Set the exposure time to the maximum that it will do. You many need to turn the flash off. Some cameras set the shutter to 1/60 of a second in flash mode. Then back off about 3 feet from your model. You have a zoom lens. Use that to zoom in on the area you want to highlight and shoot the detail. Here is the science behind what I am suggesting. A longer exposure means two things, sharper detail and greater depth of field. Sharper detail is self evident. Depth of field is the distance range front to back that is in sharp focus. A longer exposure makes this area larger from front to back so more of the model is in focus. By using the telephoto mode on your camera you do two things. Most macro modes will cause distortion around the edges because of the closeness of the subject. Have you ever seen a photo of some ones face with the nose filling almost the entire photo. That is what happens when you get too close to a subject. Also by using the telephoto mode you are less likely to have a problem with shadows from the camera and photographer. With a long exposure, you get a blurry image if the camera moves at all, so by mounting it on a tripod you eliminate the shakes. Using a remote release also reduces any shaking. If you cannot get a remote release, use the countdown timer, that way you are not touching the camera at the time the photo is taken. Good Luck

Don - They look good, just like we planned but there is this caviat at the top of the page. Please note: The Contest Categories listed here are under review by the IPMS/USA National Contest Committee for the 2013 National Contest. Any changes approved by the NCC will be posted here by as soon as they are available. So for now, you can consider this listing of Categories as nearly complete, but still subject to possible changes.

What? You haven't been following my Works in Progress Threads? Last year I showed over fifty models in progress; forty-four of which got finished and I STILL came in fifth! :D I'm sorry I finished so few, Dora and a few four-engined aircraft slowed me down... Good on ya, Mate!

Just a word of advise to you top 10 - QUIT SCREWING AROUND ON THE WEB AND GO BUILD SOMETHING! :drillsergeant:

Since I was a pilot, wings on a car seem to be a natural thing. :gray-plane: