Just call me Ray

I don't know how many of you end up with toys around the house, whether as part of collections for other hobbies or just for the sake of the kids. But I swear toys are about the only things that use C and D cell batteries as pretty much everything else has gone with integrated rechargable packs. I just found a large store of C cells in my basement, got them for a couple of battery operated dome lights that I think we ended up getting rid of. Put some batteries into some Nerf guns I have because wth am I gonna do with them otherwise?🤪

...so I understand that this post is a year old (yeah I don't come here much often :p) but it says "Publications" on my graduate school certificate so....

...so...does Tyler Rogoway scope out ARC then? https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/36009/f-102-delta-daggers-weapons-bays-combined-rockets-and-missiles-in-a-feat-of-cold-war-ingenuity Asking because I submit this as evidence that I'm seriously convinced he does.

Hmmmm...can't quite put my finger on it but I'm getting incredibly strong flashbacks to a certain other hobby very relevant to this particular whole entire forum thingie..... *randomly sliding decals everywhere nightmares*

To be honest here I'm not sure what you're getting at. It's been my observation that there are brands that have better consistency, some more consistently better (Asian brands, for some reason, although it seems like culturally they care a lot more about super exacting precision, i.e. Gunpla etc, also Czech brands but I always say the Czechs just seem to make the best stuff on Earth) some more consistently worse (*some* brands from behind the Iron Curtain although it seems like everyone's pretty much caught up, plus I know I'm going to get flak for this but Airfix, Italeri and Testors seem to

Generally true but it also does put you in a bind. You can do everything right to grow traffic and it can still take years. Many of the YouTubers I talk to, they tell me it took them a literal decade before they started seeing real ad income. Some people "cheat the system" (or at least try to hurry things up) by being a sponsor themselves to advertise their channel first, but I'm guessing funds are a bit tight to be able to do that and/or that's a bit counter-productive. Plus the channels that mostly do that, even when they appear to be done by individuals, usually have big bucks behind them b

True dat! I'm really into GA and with some of the subjects I really, really want to model (Mitsubishi Mu-2B and Dassault Falcon 50) I have to deal with the only game in town, a kit almost as old as the dang airplane design itself and a kit that I've been told doesn't even include pinhole guides, respectively.

I mean, if there's one thing I've learned in my 20 years here (yes, really), it's that yes...but it's situational/contextual. Some kits of specific subjects are going to be better than others and I've heard crap said about certain Tamiya/Hasegawa ones (don't quote me on this I'm mostly just using it as an example). I would say, if there's a specific kit or subject you're interested in do research on that specific one.

Yeah, plus Google's actually pretty dang good at catching stuff like that, so they deserve some credit. ...some.

So here's the thing you really, really need to be aware of. Umm, actually, several things: - first your wife might want to consider starting that sewing channel after all. You'd be surprised how much attention sewing channels get but more importantly having multiple channels certainly doesn't hurt and in fact they synergisticly support each other, provided it doesn't lead to burnout. If there's two things to take away from what I'm trying to say here, this is #1. - Second, Google literally owns YouTube, as in they are the parent company, so many of the same issues you

So I'm just noticing this for the first time but have you considered a Patreon account? Or getting more direct sponsorship outside of Google?

So it sounds like gravity feed by an overwhelming majority, unless I'm doing clearcoat especially on something large like a 1/48 or even 1/32 (or a Nerf gun, but in that case I'm probably using clearcoat out of an automotive rattle can anyway).

So my "other" hobby is semi-pro Nerfing...yes that's a thing and yes it's exactly what it sounds like. One of the biggest challenges in this hobby is paint matching the OEM colors of...whatever blue it is, whatever yellow it is and whatever red it is, etc. Anybody have any ideas on what matches? Automotive paint preferred but your favorite hobby store standbys will work too.

I saw!

Oh, that's already a pretty big problem in the Nerf community. Some guy put out files for a blaster he calls the Woozi and wouldn't you know it someone later stole it and reproduced it themselves to sell (video link, it's the very first news item discussed in the video right after the cute jingle). Some other dude who calls himself Captain Slug makes another gun called the Caliburn that's pretty much the staple of the Nerf 3D printing world, it has many design variants, some authorized, but some, particularly coming out of Singapore, are unauthorized ripoffs (note there is a large company that