OT a little: questions for model builders

[trey]

ok, this is kinda rod related, i think. i was wondering if any of the model builders here can give me a few tips. what kind of paints do you guys use? im an amatuer, so i use what i can buy at walmart. right now, im using testors enamel paints. even when i let them dry all the way, and go to glue stuff together, everything turns to goo. i dont use too much glue, i dont think. are acrylic paints better? also, where can i get some kits that have a lot of detail to them? thanks guys

trey

[purple]

<font color="purple"> I use simple things. Since the models don't sit outside I use the cheapest spraypaints I can for the basic colors. But Krylon is always good. I use testors for jars and some spray colors. Model glue is made to melt the parts together, therefore melts the paint too. I use superglue for most parts, it comes in regular and also gel for the pieces with gaps. I use Elmers for the clear stuff because superglue fogs the clear. </font>

[DrJ]

Just for the record, I boycott WalMart.
They are apidly destroying the "small business" structure of our once great economy, and I refuse to be part of it.

Models I like 1/25th scale. The 1/24th scale look weird next to them and it's irritating that anyone makes a scale so close that isn't the same anyway... And you can't swap parts between them!

Schwinn usta put their candy colors in rattle cans and they didn't attack the plastic so I usta use them on models.
Pactra is good, Boyds is good too.
Brushed on metallic colors look shinier if you gently blow on them right after applying them.
Also, if you're using "chrome silver" buy a new bottle, do your "chroming" with the fresh bottle and pretty much toss it as far as "chroming" with it. It "tarnishes" in the bottle after you open it.

[296 V8]

when im not useing big car basecoat clear coat I will use dulicolor its lacquer in a spray can you can get it at auto paint supply or some auto part stors spray it over krylon primer and use super glue on all but chrome and clear parts and stay away from that fucking misfitmart (walmart) good luck and show us what your building

[DrJ]

I got this essay about Wal-Mating America from another HAMBer;

Now, before you go saying this doesn't belong here, when was the last time you found a hotrod part at Wal-Mart? and how many shops where you could by parts closed up because Wal-Mart came to your town?



Labor Lost
In Wal-Mart's America, worker rights are not a priority.
By Harold Meyerson

*

If you had to pick a time and a place where the 20th century (as a distinct historical epoch) began in America, you could do a lot worse than 90 years ago in Highland Park, Mich. It was there, in 1913, that Henry Ford opened his new Model-T plant and announced, a few months later, that he'd pay his workers a stunning $5 a day on the revolutionary theory that the men who built cars should make enough money to buy them.

Within a couple of decades, it wasn't just cars that the men on the assembly line could afford. Particularly after the United Auto Workers burst on the scene in the mid-'30s to win successively larger wage settlements for its members, Detroit became the American metropolis with the highest rate of home ownership during the first half of the century. In the post-World War II period, that distinction shifted to Los Angeles, where vast housing tracts sprang up around the unionized aerospace factories that were then the city's largest employers.

So in honor of yet another Labor Day, here's a depressing question: Where are the housing booms for the current generation of working-class Americans? Not around factories, that's for sure: We close factories in America today. In the past four years, the United States has lost nearly one in nine manufacturing jobs, including 20 percent in durable-goods industries such as autos.

You won't find any housing development radiating outward from the center of the new service and retail economy, either. Ford and General Motors are yesterday's news; the employer that now sets the standards for working-class America is Wal-Mart. The nation's largest employer, with 3,200 outlets in the United States and sales revenue of $245 billion last year (which, if Wal-Mart were a nation, would rank it between Belgium and Sweden as the world's 19th largest economy) doesn't pay its workers -- excuse me, "associates" -- enough to buy decent cars, let alone homes. According to a study by Forbes, Wal-Mart employees earn an average hourly wage of $7.50 and, annually, a princely $18,000.

Just as Ford, GM and the UAW once drove up wages for workers who were nowhere near auto factories, so Wal-Mart drives down wages for workers who never set foot there. Controlling as it does so much of the low-end retail market, Wal-Mart has, with great success, pressured suppliers to cut their labor costs. No other American company has done as much to destroy what's left of the U.S. clothing and textile industry or been so loyal a friend to the dankest sweatshops of the developing world. And unless American unions can find the political leverage to block Wal-Mart's expansion into non-southern metropolitan areas, the company poses a huge threat to the million or so unionized clerks who work at the nation's major supermarket chains.

It may just be me, but I don't recall the moment when the American people proclaimed their preference for an economy driven by Wal-Mart to the one driven by General Motors. It is, after all, one thing to live in a nation where the largest employer wants workers to make enough to afford its cars; quite another to wake up in an America where the largest employer wants workers to make so little they'll be compelled to buy low-end goods in a discount chain. Indeed, polling has consistently showed that a clear majority of the American people have been dubious about the benefits of free trade -- but these are the only polls that the political elite, so poll-driven on other questions, has consistently ignored. By the same token, polling also shows that Americans believe workers should have the right to join unions free of intimidation, yet that has not been the case in the American workplace for at least the past three decades.

Prodded by a labor movement that's grown smarter, if not more powerful, since John Sweeney took the helm at the AFL-CIO eight years ago, the Democrats have finally started to move on these questions. Most of their presidential candidates now say that labor and environmental standards and worker rights have to be an integral part of any future trade agreements, and that labor law must be reformed so that workers can again join unions without fear of being fired.

The relation of union power to mass prosperity is, in a word, causal. Anyone who doubts that should go to the only American city today where there's a boom in housing construction for the working class: Las Vegas. The MGM-Grand, the Bellagio and Caesar's Palace are the Ford and GM there, and a quite brilliant hotel workers union, which has won the right to represent the workers in all the strip hotels, is the latter-day UAW. And the desert rings with hammering and sawing as homes go up for the only low-end service-sector workers in the Wal-Mart economy who've won the living standards to sustain the American dream.

Harold Meyerson is editor-at-large of the Prospect.

[Fat Hack]

Testors enamels tend to stay "gooey" for quite awhile after they're dry to the touch, it's part of the hobby to work around this if you use Testors paints (like I do!).

The best way is to paint them using MCW laquers sprayed from an airbrush. The paint dries within a day and with a little practice, can deliver show-quality results!

Still, I prefer to build models for FUN these days, and so Testors spray enamels are still my primary choice for all but the best of my projects...if I paint them at all!

Now, that said...as much as I'd LOVE to take up the fight for Wal-Mart, this ain't the place to do it. Suffice it to say, I'm a strong supporter of them and a loyal customer, as well as a former employee.

Models at Wal-Mart: $4.99....same model at other retailers: $9.49....hobby shop: $12.99

Your choice! (They're big for a REASON!)

Enjoy the hobby, wherever you shop.

[Anderson]

What kind of glue do you use? I like the liquid (i use Ambroid - Pro Weld) for most assembly (suspensions, engines, interior, etc) but i like basic Testors blue for final. Also, Testors makes clear parts glue, works well. If you have some really small windows, you can get some on the end of a paintbrush, slide it along he edges of the wondow, and the film (like when you blow a bubble or something) will dry and be the window.

As for paint, i use whatever color looks good. I've never had any problems with different brands or types of paint. I too like the Testors small cans, and Tamia (sp?) makes a good range of colors too.

Detailed kits? All the manufacturers make SOME good kits, but they also make SOME crappy kits. Revell has a lot of good ones, their recent "Rat Rod" line is good, the '32 Fords are good too. AMT/Ertl makes nice kits, but recently they have been popping out re-issues of old kits that kinda suck.

Let me pose another question. What kind of putty do you guys use?

[Fat Hack]

I'm a Testors modeler to the core! I use their glue (in the orange tube!), their knives, sanding films and paints mostly, with the exception of some Humbrols and MCW laquers on a few now and then.

Testors rules! http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

[james]

Hack-- I used to work there, too, in the 90' when they actually paid decent, and sundays were time and a half. They also used to brag about the products that they brought back to factories in the U.S, and had signs up showing how many jobs were saved. Notice those signs are gone? All the "made in the USA" banner waiving is gone. They found that more americans were willing to forgo that loyalty to save a buck. You know that model for $4.99? Wal mart probably paid more than that for it. There are many items in the store that they sell at or even below cost just to wipe out competitors. The hobby shop sells it for $12 cause he probably paid $8, and he's paying more per square foot rent, more in taxes, and probably more to his employees. You notice how circuit city sells CD's for about ten bucks? That's cost. They don't care, because they'll try to sell you a new stereo or computer. That's why the local mom and pop record shops are gone. They'd have to get $16 or so just to stay afloat. Sorry for the rant, but a freind lost his hardware store a few years back when home depot came to town. Same thing--most items he could get at Home Depot as cheap as his wholesale suppliers.

[Unkl Ian]

Wallmart accounts for 10% of all American imports from China.And because of their buying power,they are forcing their suppliers to move offshore to maintain profitability.

[cornfieldrodder]

I use testors acrylics, usually military colrs and brush future floor polish for gloss. Don't laugh, future lays down smooth and pantinas to a mellow look.
I prime every thing that isn't flat black. my favorit glue is testors liquid, but super glues are used with painted surfaces or when gluing non styrene.
Testors makes a good clear plastic glue which does not melt the plastic. Epoxy works great too. I use thick super glue for filler or brush on fill primer then snad it to shape and reprime with testors or cheap enamel or acrylic primer

[safariknut]

[ QUOTE ]
Testors enamels tend to stay "gooey" for quite awhile after they're dry to the touch, it's part of the hobby to work around this if you use Testors paints (like I do!).

To enhance the dry time of enamels go to the local artist/hobby store and buy some japan drier.As you are painting,add a couple drops(NOT in the bottle)to the paint on a palette and the dry time will be cut considerably.

[Mojo]

The only models for $4.99 i've seen at WalMart are in the bargin isle. When they used to sell them (notice how they're disappearing from the shelves?) they were always $10.99 or more. Hardly ever a selection either.

I worked for Walmart too, during Christmas. Got asked to work overtime off the clock (they didn't threaten me, but they alluded that it would help make me "full time"). Got harassed by a psychopath manager because I didn't kiss some co-worker's ass who was bucking for management... Real nice place to work.

If you ever want to seperate old glue joints, like for rebuilding a older model, mineral thinner works great. "Paint" it on with a old model brush on a joint, and slightly pry on it. Different brands are different strenghts, so practice first.

[hemi]

I'm a Testors Red guy through and through.

The glue is not an adhesive, it's a solvent. You put a little on both parts you are joining and let it melt it a little and then join and hold them.
What you are actually doing is welding, or fusing the plastic together.
Thus, the glue will disovle the paint, but you are not getting a good bond with all that goop floating around in the way. What you will have to do is gently scrape the paint off down to the plastic on both halves. I use the tip of my X-acto knife usually, or an emery board.

Superglue can be used on painted surfaces and to join non plastic parts to plastic or other surfaces.
Superglue works by evaporation, and takes very little to get a good bond. If you use too much on a gap, it will skin over on the outside, and not really dry all the way through. This is why they tell you to use it sparingly. Blowing on it as it dries helps, and they make special chemical accelerators you can brush on to help speed the evaporative process up.
Be careful with superglue gels, sometimes they kick over and leave a whitish fog or haze around the area, especially on the chrome stuff and windows. I generally use very little superglue.

To fill in cracks and do body work, try to find a catalized two part filler, the really fine stuff. The air-dry type scratch filler or the green putty will shrink and be harder to work with.

Some guys mix up superglue and baking soda to make a crack filler/bondo substance. This will work and can be helpful when filling in cracks, but it dries hard as a rock. Much harder than the plastic, and care should be taken when doing the body work.

For paint, I found the Boyd colors work well, spray great and leave a very high gloss shine.
The Testors spray paints are thinner, and spray a little different. The nozzles do a good job of atomizing the paint finer than others, but this will also make it run easier. It takes a little practice, and especially with the transparent candies, light coats are needed to build it solid. The down fall is that with each coat you run the risk of messing it up. I've found the Boyd colors do well with a few heavy coats.

If you use automotive or general purpose spray paint, it is a little thicker than the small can hobby paint. Heating the can up under running hot water or soaking it in a pan will help make the paint a little thinner and lay out better. Also, see if you can use a nozzle from a hobby paint can, the spray pattern is designed for model sized coverage, where as the 88 cent can of flat black from Wally World is designed to cover wide and heavy.

Do yourself a favor and go to a hobby and craft store and buy a few decent brushes in various sizes. They are fairly cheap and last a long time if you clean and store them well. I just use Testors bottle paints, or all the Boyd spray colors have matching jar paints for detailing.

I do a lot of sub assembly, ie: glue engine and axle halves together and then paint them. After I get stuff built, I go back and hit the nicked spots with plastic showing again with a fine bush, and you can drop some silver onto area is the chrome that are bare from being broken off of the sprue.

If you need any kit in the world, chances are it can be found on Ebay. I do 90% of all my kit buying there, and have even chased down several old and out of production kits that I trashed as a kid.
Good Luck, and Have Fun.

And this concludes Model Cars 101. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[Anderson]

Hey Ryan, maybe you should devote a forum to models, there are a lot of posts recently on em.

Speaking of ebay, I've recently discovered the ease of working with someone elses built kit. Find something not entirely crap-illy built, and modify it to your own tastes. Maybe its already been lowered or shaved for you. Also, i LOVE getting old model parts collections ("lots" or "junkyards" as they are found on ebay). Untill next time, happy modeling, and god bless http://www.jalopyjournal.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Nick32vic]

I am way to tired to read all the other posts so ill just say what i use.

For paint i use testors paint. First i wet sand the body, tack it off, then fog the paint on. Then i wet sand it again and clear it with testors stuff. They come out as smooth as glass.

For glue i use the testors stuff in the orange tube. And that pro weld junk too.

When it comes to models i dont really do research or anything on what works the best, I just buy the stuff thats easiest to come by(yes i get paint and glue and brushes at Wal*Mart).

Nick

[Fat Hack]

The $4.99 kits at Wal-Mart are special "Wal-Mart Only" packaged AMT kits, but they include the 57 Chevy, 71 Duster, 64 Impala, 67 Camaro, 36 Ford, 66 Riviera, and MANY others. Those are my favorite kits to build, so I happily buy them there!

As for working conditions, it might depend on the store. I worked at the Monroe, Michigan store before there were any locally, and it was a model store and employer at the time. I worked a funky sort-of midnight shift that was scheduled from 4am to Noon, but I'd often arrive at 2am and work to 10am with no complaints from management. Overtime was optional unless there was a HUGE amount of work to be done, then we all chipped in without thinking about it. It was like a family type of atmosphere and I loved working there....only quit because I moved!

I saw the article in BusinessWeek a couple weeks back about Wal-Mart and all of it's so-called "evils". Nobody likes a runaway American success story, I suppose! They complained that Wal-Mart paid too low for a person to live on, but if you polled Wal-Mart workers you'd find that most of them in the cashier and stock person ranks do it as SUPPLEMENTARY income as part of a two-job family. Lots of students and some retirees, too....people who don't HAVE to make a living soley on their Wal-Mart income. The "news" article conveniently omitted that fact!

The fact that Wal-Mart is strictly non-union also attracted me to them, both as an employee and as a customer. One-sided minds will claim that unions bring higher wages and better working conditions, yet will forget to add higher costs and reduced productivity as the by-products! Having a union carry some lazy slob and pay him five times what he's worth while others cover the slack drives up prices to the consumer and hurts the company as a whole. In a non-union workplace, you either work or walk!

Also unions require mandatory membership and collect dues from every member, willing or not, and use that money to support political candidates that may not represent the interests and beliefs of it's unwilling members. Say you're a Republican (like me), and you're forced to surrender dues to a strong-armed union who strongly supports Democratic candidates using YOUR money to do so....think that's a good idea??? It's not a big enough problem to induce action, since Democrats draft support from the typical union working demographic, but it's still a problem!

Meijer and especially K-mart are glowing examples of how NOT to run a large retail chain. Dirty stores, long lines, indifferent workers, higher prices and falling profits are the fruits of their union labor. Shop at Wal-Mart and you're dealing with workers who take some pride in their work and do their jobs well so that they aren't replaced, and reap the benefits of lower prices to boot. They are mindfull of lines at the registers, and I can't recall a single time that I've had a long wait...even at peak shopping hours! I was very happy to see Wal-Mart open a store within two miles of my place a couple years ago, and I shop there frequently for tools, DVDs, ammo, magazines, electronics, home products...and of course...MODELS!

Free enterprise at it's best!

[Judd]

DrJ
Amen!
Judd

[Judd]

Trey
On plastic I use MEK ( MethylEthylKetone? ) it melts the plastic into one piece and glue as many parts as I can before painting. Use good vent it isn't good to breath MEK! I use auto Lacquer and air brush.

[trey]

cool, thanks for all the replies guys. im using testors red bottle glue. it works fine for me, i just didnt know if the melting was supposed to happen. i have an airbrush, an aztec, that i never use. i think i should break it out and get a compressor for it. i always have a hard time figuring out what paints i should use with it, but i try.

i was thinking a model forum would be good too. seems like they draw a lot of interest here. i think they are fun, and have done them since i can remember. ok, now im off to make spark plug wires for it.

trey

[2tall2beahotrodder]

I use the Red testors glue. It does turn a little gooy, but ya must let it dry (takes a while) i used superglue from the dollar store once, it works good but its a real pain if you mess up applying it...
For bondo work i use evercoat (small can, used for scratches on real cars)
Sand paper is usally the red stuff that comes from testors package (500-600 grit) it works great just before you lay down a coat of paint ....Basicly any car paint except pearl colors can be used on models. Testors paint is pretty good but make sure you let it dry for more than 3-4 days to get a good shine. The longer it sits and is wet, the better shine its going to give off. After applying the amount of testors coats, back it up with some testors clear .

For detailing, its best to use real rubber for belts, real elctrical lines for wire distributers, shit like that can make it cool lookin.... Hope that helps -

rat-

[Fat Hack]

Check this site out:

http://www.modelcarkits.com/

They have a message board visited by hundreds of enthusiasts and leaders in the hobby daily. Share your builds or ask questions. Excellent model car forum for ALL types of automotive modeling.

[D Picasso]

Downtown next to the Kroger store
Is where my hardware store once stood
It's all gone now, along with the rest of downtown
All the windows are boarded over with wood.
We survived the arrival of the K-Mart, and
The Pamida that had come before, but
Not even they had the strength to withstand the attack of
That fucking Walmart store.

Sam Walton promised prosperity and everyday low prices
When he brought his store to town, but
He only delivered unemployment
As one by one all the other stores shut down.

Soon I was forced to swallow my pride
And take the only job I could score
For 28 hours a week at minimum wage,
I'm the greeter out at the Walmart store.

Sam Walton has singlehandedly sounded
The death knell for small towns across America.
I've learned my lesson and I'm here to tell you
You can't trust a man from Arkansas.

-Killdozer, Enemy of the People

[Mojo]

[ QUOTE ]
Check this site out:

http://www.modelcarkits.com/

They have a message board visited by hundreds of enthusiasts and leaders in the hobby daily. Share your builds or ask questions. Excellent model car forum for ALL types of automotive modeling.


[/ QUOTE ]

The Hobby Heaven board is the best resource on the net for model car builders! Tons of great info, and lots of people glad to help out. Tom runs a tight ship (no cussing, no advertising deals of competitors) and it comes through in the quality of the board... great place, highly recomended for car modelers!

[Kustm52]

Damn! Dr. J and I finally agree on something.....!

Brian

[hemi]

The Hobby Heaven Board is a quality board as far as content. But as far as the structural layout, it's a kudzu patch. The messages are difficult to keep up with to maintain a conversation, and drop like a tech question here.

Tom should really take a look at the HAMB's clean structure and ease of use. Surely he could set something up.

I'll read the HH at work, get home and try to find the thread, and 300 posts willhave been made, and what I am hunting for is WAAAAAY down at the bottom. Popular posts should rise to the top.
I just randomly lurk there now, and I wonder how many others get fustrated and do too....