Schmitz

You don't drain it to keep water out of the air, but to keep water from sitting in the tank and rusting it from the inside out. If you find a tank compressor without a drain plug, maybe keep looking... BTW, the Grex airbrush guys and gals were demoing a sweet little compressor at the last show I was at - it looked fairly heavy duty but still quiet enough to run indoors. I think it was this model and they may have been selling it for a few bucks less then amazon at the show (and no, I don't get a commission if you buy one). Don

There is a model railroad museum/club just down the road from my house - its been there about 20 years now. After bouncing around various locations in the city, the club raised money (by hosting big public swap meets I think) to buy a lot in the suburbs and put up a nice but simple concrete block building, which includes a huge HO layout (probably 2-3000 sq feet just for the layout). They also have an onsite workshop with compressor, spray booth and other tools for use by members, and a library with shelfs of reference material. From Thanksgiving through New Years the layout is open to the public to raise funds (and the place is always packed). But these Railroad guys aren't afraid to spend money. The land probably cost $100K and the building probably cost about the same to construct. Their annual dues are $90, and members are expected to help maintain the building and work the public displays. At a guess they run a few thousand people through the open house and charge a $5 a head donation, plus they sell food and drinks and raffle tickets. I have doubts that a model museum has that sort of drawing power, or that most of the modelers I know would be willing to support a club at that level of money and time. Don

Looks sweet! I got to drive a Healey 3000 a few years ago that was for sale - it drove like an old pickup truck, but the engine made all the right sounds and there is nothing like a Little British Car with the top down to put a big smile on your face (too bad the body was full of scary rust bubbles - it was the sort of project that could end a perfectly good marriage ). How is the engine detail on this kit? I was ready to order the latest reissue until I saw the $30 price tag... Don

Automotive glazing putty (like Acryl Blue) doesn't have much strength - its only meant to fill scratches and very minor "dings". For as much as you have to fill, Bondo (the two part stuff) might be the way to go - at least for the big holes. For the big gaps I'd drill a couple small (1/16) holes into the resin for the Bondo to ooze into and create a "mechanical bond". I haven't looked for it lately, but MinWax used to sell something a lot like Bondo (smelled the same!) as "Epoxy Wood Filler"; it was available at Home Depot and the like. Only advantage being you could buy a much smaller can than actual Bondo automotive filler. Bondo "sets" in a few minutes, but it takes a day or so to get really hard - you want to do the rough shaping and sanding within an hour our two or it will become a lot harder to work. Good luck! Don

"Firefly" may be the best sci fi tv ever - at least my opinion. If you like fantasy/horror Jos Whedon's more famous "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is surprisingly good (it took me a while to get past the title to give it a try). And if you liked "Buffy" you'll probably like "Supernatural" which is currently running on one of the smaller cable networks. "Lost" was also one of my favorites - although the later episodes weren't nearly as good as the first few seasons. Don

I had to lookup Earth: Final Conflict; I was surprised I hadn't heard of it until I saw it came on in the 90s when my kids were little and I watched very little tv. Reminded me of some of Roddenberry's other tv pilot movies: Questor Tapes and Genesis II and maybe others. I think they all fell through due to "creative differences" with the networks. Don

Carrie Fisher has had a lot of medium/small parts in film and tv (When Harry met Sally for one) and also writes movies - I think she is known as a "script doctor". Actresses don't age as well as actors...

Resin is a two-part (like epoxy) plastic. You mix the two parts - both liquids - together in the right proportion and after a few minutes it starts to harden into a solid similar to styrene (usually a little harder and denser). Regular styrene glues won't melt the resin; you need to use superglue or epoxy glue for assembly. Resin parts/kits are made by pouring the mixed-resin into rubber molds. To make a kit, someone first makes a "master" of the parts, either by modifying an existing styrene kit part or scratchbuilding it from plastic stock, or (for figures) sculpting it from some sort of putty. Then they make a mold of the master-part using a two-part latex-rubber. The rubber is also an epoxy-type product; since it starts out as a liquid it can pick up very fine detail on the "master" part. And since the resin starts out as a liquid, it can reliably pick up that fine detail from the mold. This is all handwork, and the molds have a limited life-time (usually 50-100 pours), so the kits are small volume and pricey. Quality can vary quite a bit, depending on the skill of the people making the masters and doing the molding/pouring. A typical problem with low-quality kits is air bubbles in the rubber or in the resin causing bumps/holes in the parts that need to be fixed by the modeler. Verlinden is a "big name" and should produce high-quality stuff; more obscure kits from true "garage shops" are more of a crap-shoot (some are still very good - it pays to ask around before you buy). Hope that helps! Don

I think the worst movie I've ever paid to see was Lifeforce. Even Mathilda May couldn't save this one. Don

I'm no expert, but there is a fellow in my chapter that does a great job of this and has tried to show me the techniques for painting model car upholstery (he does use artists oil paints - if you're using model-paints or acrylics this might not help...) Best part is he has a number of write-ups and short videos posted on the "planetfigure" and "armorama" websites. Take a look here (I think he mentions the colors he used on the 2nd page of this thread): http://planetfigure.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13410 If you do a web search for figure painting articles by "Mongo Mel" (his user-name) you'll likely find other useful stuff. Good luck! Don

Smurf, no offense taken; I'm an opinionated SOB myself... I was a little curious, so I did some web surfing to read reviews of 2001. They take either your position or mine (about 2/3s agree with you - its clearly a love-it-or-hate-it type of film). I also researched Kubrick a bit; he is known for taking a book and telling a very different story in a film, while keeping the same characters and events as the book. Writers who have worked with him generally aren't completely happy (e.g. Stephen King and Anthony Burgess); even Clarke seems to have somewhat mixed feelings about this collaboration. I found a claim that many SF writers at the time thought Clarke had been "used" by Kubrick. Kubrick's 2001 clearly broke a lot of new ground and helped legitimize SF movies. Without it we may never have seen Blade Runner or Star Wars or Alien. On the other hand, if Kubrick had made a slightly more conventional and accessible film, we may have gotten even more quality SF sooner, rather than the niche films that only true-SF-geeks can enjoy. I wonder what 2001 would be like if Ridley Scott or James Cameron had made it... Note that I don't hate 2001, I just don't enjoy watching it (even though the images are technically awesome and I still enjoy re-reading the book) so I can't really call it a favorite. Nor is Marooned one of my favorites; I just used it as an example of a more conventional SF film made at roughly the same time as 2001, that tried to be a quality film (I don't think its fair to call it made-for-TV-quality), and that I can still watch without nodding off halfway through. Keeping me awake for 2 hours after a long day at work correlates well with my enjoying a film. The reason I questioned 2001 showing up on so many favorites lists is that I suspected a lot of the people putting it in their top-5 hadn't seen the film since a late-night showing at a college theater several decades ago (2001 doesn't show up on cable very often and even finding it on DVD is not easy). Before I got the DVD a few years ago I hadn't seen for it a long time, and I had a rose-tinted memory of it that lasted to just after the apeman tossing the bone into the air... Don

I never saw 2001 in Cinerama - all the movies I saw until roughly 1980 were on the (single) big screen of a small town movie theater that (judging by the layers of coke dried on the floor) was built sometime in the 40s. First time I saw it on a big screen was probably early 80s, at a just-off-campus theater that specialized in showing "cult" films to broke and slightly inebriated college students. For me, it was a real let-down. The special effects were awesome and way ahead of their time, but the characters were flat, the dialog almost non-existent and unbelievable, the lack of any sort of narrative/scene-setting seemed completely unnecessary. As a movie it was like a Warhol painting of a soup can: no matter how good the technique it was still just a soup can... Knowing that Clarke and Kubrick had worked together on the book and film, I really expected more of the ideas in the book to make it into the film. Maybe Clarke's ideas were too subtle (the relationship between intelligence and machines - in the book the monoliths are clearly machines) or too controversial for the times (questioning the existence of God), but I'm suspicious that Kubrick was just using Clarke for "cover" to do over the top, psychedelic visuals (it was the 60s) using "its science fiction" as a way to rationalize whatever he did. I didn't mean to compare the effects in Marooned to 2001; but for me it worked much better as a story, with believable characters and a clear plot. Don

I think it is called "gradient paper". You may find it at an art or scrapbook store. This place and probably lots of other photography store have a professional product called "graduated background" that is what you want but seems expensive. When I was web-searching for places with gradient paper, I found a suggestion to use photoshop to create a gradient image and have Kinkos print it on plain paper to whatever size you want. Don

I've got an offer from someone to pass a message on, so I'm set now. Thanks for all the replies! Don

If anyone knows Gary and could get a message to him I'd appreciate it - please let me know... Thanks! Don

Yes - they moved a few years back. The barn used to be a hardware store - its in the retail section of a residential neighborhood, only a few miles from where it used to be in Dormont, but I'd need a GPS to get between the two locations. I live in the north suburbs, AB Charles is in the south, and I have to cross 2 rivers and go through a tunnel to get there from my house - which by Pittsburgh standards means it might as well be in West Virginia - so I don't get there very often. I'm not a regular enough customer to follow the in-store politics; but for a long time it was AB Charles & Son. The father died a few years ago and Scott (the Son) took over and followed through on his plans to expand (another rumor had it they lost the lease on the old store - I'm not sure). The new store doesn't have the narrow aisles and the long accumulated film of cigarette smoke of the original - whether you see that as a plus or minus is up to you... Strangely, my wife is a bigger fan of AB Charles than I am - she can always do my Christmas shopping there in about 10 minutes - and the guys at the counter always know exactly what I want from the sketchiest description. Don

I'd heard about the Spare Time shop for years and finally made it there a few years ago while on a long business trip. Definitely a good shop, but I think AB Charles in Pittsburgh is at least as good. Esther's Hobby in Millvale (a Pittsburgh suburb) is also good - not as big or well stocked as AB Charles but its in an old neighborhood and building with lots of character. If you go early, check out the P&G diner across the street for breakfast. Don

If you're flying Southwest into Phoenix (I think PHX is one of their hubs, and I've always had good service from them), they'll let you pay $10 extra to guarantee you a spot in the first group onto the plane - still behind those paying business fare, put ahead of about 80% of everyone on the plane. If you're cheap like me, you can check-in online exactly 24 hours before your flight and be close to the front of the line, but the $10 extra seems worthwhile if you want to be sure to get an overhead bin for your model case. Don

Still another reason to build old kits is the variety of subjects; the high-end kits are mostly wildly popular subjects (ala Tamiya's 1/32 Spitfire). Being cheap and plentiful means no-worries when you decide to pull out the razor saw and attempt some major plastic surgery. Finally, some of the older kits are surprisingly accurate and well engineered (probably because the hobby was still popular enough back-when to justify putting lots of work going into the design and tooling). Some of the Revell real-space kits that were done in the 60s are really nice, as are a lot of the Monogram and AMT car kits from the mid-80s through early-90s. Even if the fit isn't perfect, I like having separate parts to work with and knowing that there actually is a scale carburetor on the motor, even though it can't be seen under the air-cleaner. Sometimes it seems that Tamiya's goal is to mold an entire car/plane/etc in 3 or 4 (extremely intricate and detailed) parts that seamless snap together, reducing the entire hobby to an exercise in masking and painting. Don

James, Others have noticed this - it seems to be some weird interaction between the latest Invision software and at least some versions of browser (some of the newer versions of Firefox seem to have the problem). You could try Google's "chrome" or even plain old Internet Explorer (both seem to work OK for me on this otherwise horrible Vista laptop...) Don

Are you talking about looking at digital pictures on a monitor? I was just reading that a typical (cheap) LCD computer screen has really poor color reproduction. Even the high-end "professional" displays need to be calibrated to get the colors "right". Don

I found this page with a web search: http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=186679 If you poke around on their forum there are several threads on the topic. Most common suggestions for thining were plain water and water-mixed-with-isopropol. This is a gaming-miniatures site, so they may not have to worry about masking - but presumably their pieces get some amount of handling. Don

Thanks Ed - this is still one of my all-time favorite models (and it makes the point that when it comes to highlighting and weathering, less really is more). I have a similar picture sitting on the disk of a dead PC - this reminds me to buy the cable I need to try to recover that stuff. Don

Human sight is more complex than simple optics. Look at a 1/72 scale plane from 2 feet away and thanks to stereoscopic vision your brain knows its is only 2 feet away (not 144) - so it expects to see detail. Look at a real aircraft with butt-joined panels from 50 feet away, and since your vision is good at recognizing lines it will see the panel lines even though there is no measurable gap or difference in color - your vision picks out the tiny discontinuity in the way light reflects at the edge. Highlighting panel lines and painting in shadows and other such trickery is sort of like heavy stage-makeup on actors in a play: it lets us see what we expect to see under unusual lighting conditions and viewing distance. Human viewers will think such a model looks more real, even though a camera will think otherwise. BTW, one of the coolest things I've seen at a model contest was a dio of an aircrew getting a plane ready for an airshow: some of the little guys had buckets of paint outlining the panel lines, another was leaving the air out of the tires so they "bulged", another guy was sanding the paint of the leading edges of the wing. Had me laughing out loud. Don

You probably need a note if it is attached too, otherwise a judge may try to pick it up and find half the model in his hand and the landing gear, tires, etc. still glued to the base I still get a chuckle remembering one of our local shows where someone entered a plane without enough nose-weight (or maybe it shifted in transit?) and they "fixed" it by gluing the nose wheel to the table. You can imagine how that turned out... Don