SteveH

I use a punch and die set from Harbor freight. Measure the hub diameter with calipers, put Tamiya tape on thin plastic stock, punch out the correct sized circle, peel it off the stock and apply to the hub as a mask. The other method also works.

Thanks. Also received an email today stating it wil be picked up by UPS and delivered 2nd Day Air. That should put it here by Christmas.

On my laptop there are 2 screws securing the hard drive. You could try removing the screws, pulling out the hard drive, reseating it securely and replacing the screws. Have you gone to "Control Panel" and checked whether it shows up? There may be a way to "reactivate" the drive in those menus. Sorry if this doesn't help - I just know enough about my own computer to do dangerous things to it.

So - have any of you new owners received your stock certificate yet? Kind of hoping to surprize my wife for Christmas but nothing to put under the tree yet. And I do understand that it may take a while to print a hundred thousand or so certificates ;)

Decided to go the old "tried and proven" route. Raided the wife's pantry for some yellow food coloring, filled a baby food jar with Future, added enough drops of food coloring to make a passable substitute for the Tamiya and am going for multiple dips of the pieces followed by draining the excess drippings to a paper towel. The pieces are currently draining/drying and they look surprizingly good! THe actual color is pretty subtle and I don't want to overdo it. I'll save the Tamiya for dabbing onto smaller parts such as light lenses. Thanks for the replies!

The pieces were cleaned with windshield washer fluid, rinsed well and dry. No thinner for the acrylic - it airbrushes nicely as is, a lot like "Future". A very short bath in stripper (Purple Power) actually cleared up the frosting but there was no way to wash off the stripper without losing part of the clear yellow. So time to start over.

Will the stuff dry clear or do I need to strip it and brush paint it? The pieces are too big to dip unless I buy about 5 more bottles of the stuff (EA-6B canopy). Thanks for any help. Edited to add that I was spraying at 20 psi with a fairly fine spray pattern. It is not drying clear so into the stripper it goes! Any tips appreciated on how to do this right next time.

Misunderstood you. Thought you meant Iraq already had F-14s.

Iran had the F-14s, not Iraq. They bought 70 or 80 back when the Shah was still in power. The Carter admin cut off spare parts after the hostage incident but the Reagan admin aledgedly provided them with parts during the "ABSCAM" debacle. Wonder if any of them are still in flying condition.

I guess its one of those "intangibles" we learned about in Econ 101. I have several large boxes full of NASCAR stuff celebrating our favorite driver who retired a few years ago - don't ask what those "tangible" items cost over the long run (they exceed the stock price). They are in the basement now. Still, it was fun being a fan and having the model cars added to the experience - at least for us (or me) - others would likely have spent their money differently. For $250 plus change we have a "stockholder's interest" in one of the most successful teams in NFL history and a cool certificate to

Maybe we'll have neighboring offices ^_^ We'll have to get together and share modelling tips

And "our boys" kicked some major bu** today! She wants to send them some cookies and a "well done" note :)

Can anyone provide a FS number or Model Master Acryl color for the walkways? The instruction sheet seems to show a silvery gray color but with no paint suggestion. Help will be greatly appreciated.

Viper: That is a great looking build and the decals match the team photo! I'm unsure from your post but am I to believe those are the SuperScale decals? I surely hope so as I was unable to find a source for the Fox One decals and ordered Superscale sheet #48-1227 from Sprue Brothers today. Thanks to all who responded.

I use a Porter-Cable 150 psi pancake style compressor, also from Lowe's or Home Depot - its been a few years - at my modeling area in the basement. I bought an inline pressure regulator at Sears which allows fine tuning of the pressure. It is installed immediately upstream of the airline hose. When fully pressurized it will spray at 20-30 psi for a good long time, but it does make quite a racket when the compressor is turned on. Not a good choice for multi-family dwellings or homes with newborns.