southwestforests

Actually, it is time for plastic models to be eliminated totally, they serve no actual necessary purpose to society, they and their consumption of paper and of various toxic solvents are a frivolous waste of resources which by their very existence are toxic and damaging to the environment.

Tamiya service anecdote from the 1970s, when MRC in New Jersey imported them. I built a number of their 1/35 tanks which at that time often (usually?) had battery powered motor in the hull or were also available with a 2 motor steering system to a battery box on tether wires. I preferred the in-hull, one-motor non-steerable models without the leash but did have a steerable Jagdtiger that Dad got me. The M36 Jackson and T-34/76 saw heavy use in the backyard, the snow, mudpuddles in the street, et cetera. They were the tanks least likely, if ever, to shed treads in rough terrain which caused almost all the other types to do so, even the M4A3E8. (M36 would actually float in deep enough puddles with its exposed lower tracks propelling it) (after discovering that I worked at adding some water resistance to the hull) (a few years later got another M36 with motor & a Testors/Italeri M4 with simply rocking articulated bogie arms, put those bogies on the M36, much visual coolness as the parts moved) (my brother "turbocharged" his M10 by wiring a couple AAA or N cells in parallel with the standard pair of series C cells) The T-34 had a newer gearbox with nylon gears while most of the previous models had all metal gears. Eventually a tiny stone got in gearing and caused a gear tooth to break, immobilizing the tank. I wrote snail mail and asked if there were still any all metal gear boxes. There weren't. 😑 But they did send a replacement gearbox. Which was appreciated and used, even with the white nylon gears. 😊 I miss those models. The decades and the misfortunes of moves & giving some to my brother as I got more in to trains, saw them leave my care.

That is a great resolution to the situation. 😊

That turned out well and presents well. Wonder if anyone might ever make aftermarket parts for the radiators they decided not to use but left the mounting blocks for there on the engine pod sides. I like that it is 1/144 scale. Among other things that allows comparison to Revell Germany's Space Station models, Mir and ISS, the Space Shuttle, Saturn V, plus well known aircraft.

Aw man, I apparently didn't know they made one! Way back when I was in to their 1/48 WW2 tanks and their 1/48 WW1 airplanes. And that may be why. Speaking of boxes: it was interesting when some of the tank kit boxes, the square ones, had printed wrapper for tank kit applied over box orginally assembled with printed wrapper for monster kit. Do remember that some of their 1/48 tank kit figures were quite nicely sculpted and molded and some were rather simple and basic.

Between this and the SDASM it must be "Outsource your plane identification to the lowest third-world bidder" week. "... America's B-25G Bomber: The Jet That Used A Tank Cannon ..." A B-25G jet? No kiddin, eh? B-52G is a jet; B-25G is not. Spelling counts. https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/meet-americas-b-25g-bomber-jet-used-tank-cannon-destroy-enemy-warships-111316 Some of the comments where this article is posted on Yahoo News are entertaining.

Recent uploads of a number of models of WW1 aircraft on Flickr by SDASM are laughably mislabeled, and quite a few of them at the "ROFLMFAO, You idiots!!!" level. For instance; Seriously, a SPAD 13 that says Fokker E3 on its side and is a German monoplane to boot?

Google reverse image search finds the source to be, https://theaviationist.com/2012/03/08/israeli-f-15s-strike/

I've always used Tamiya's own X20A thinner, haven't yet acquired the Mr Levelling thinner. Health matters have me doing so little airbrushing any more that I've simply not made the effort to seek it. Through the decades I have occasionally tried a couple other things for thinning it but none work for me as well as Tamiya's own stuff. Have found that "or a little more" you mentioned to be pretty much the norm, maybe even 60/40 thinner/gloss.

I got started using it on model trains in the mid 1980s when it became available where I lived at the time and have long been pleased and impressed with it. My scale modeling at the time was armor, and tanks don't have much need for gloss! Especially liked using it on window transparencies on trains because it changed the way the clear plastic reflected light and it looked much more like glass. The way life has gone I no longer have those trains, so assessment of whether it has yellowed here multiple decades later is not possible. A bit of a tangent; While talking Tamiya products, tonight is the first time I have used any of their plastic cements. Started on one of this, "Pegasus Hobbies' theoretical Moonlander spacecraft. Designed in 1952 by Wernher von Braun" which is molded in ABS plastic instead of styrene. So, am following the glue advice from here, https://youtu.be/ecXYRGDicMg "Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic, Building Pegasus' Von Braun Moonlander Part 1, Sep 18, 2017" And at some point in the painting process clear gloss will be called for as surface prep for decals & because I want it to look new and shiny, straight off space station showroom floor. Which brings this back to clear coats... Which one to use ...?

Then it is a mystery: there is no sunlight reaching inside my apartment's pantry, so what caused the 2011 bottle to yellow? It wasn't yellow when i bought it, or I wouldn't have bought it

Or will it turn yellow in 8 years? Going by copyright date on label I have a possibly 8 year old only partly used bottle which got forgotten about in the back of the pantry and it has visibly yellowed.

I don't have a smartphone but I have read that ads can be inserted on regular computers by internet service providers fully independently of website control. That makes the question one of how to determine whether the ads on the phones are by the website, or by the ISP, or by the phone company, or somehow connected to something bundled an app on the phone.

That was good. 🙂

Sounds interesting. Also interesting is how, fate, fortune, luck, divine providence, call it what you will, allowed, or even set up, the US to be the industrial powerhouse it was and that it took to win that war.