Don't Fence Me In

Unless I am in a diorama if so then I got a trick for ya.

Almost any Fabric store has this lace stuff that is made of something like a PVC or plastic material and with a little help of paint, some of it looks like wire or chain link fence. It is called "TULLE LACE" pronounced 'tool'.
 I picked up a large amount of shiny black for under a dollar and from what I understand there are many sizes so I'm thinking many scales could be found. What I picked up measure almost perfect to be scale chain link fence for 1/25 - 1/25 scale. I measured my real fence outside at my home, then did the math and like I say it's almost spot on.

I used some fast drying Krylon Flat aluminum I had around to spray it which takes a bit being as it is lace and you want to rotate, twist and repeat to get color coverage in all the tiny angles. The result is some fairly convincing chain link fence, I plan to use it with some aluminum tubing for the poles.

-Hobby Dude

Kit Quality vs. Price

I am convinced that 80% of the models made since the early seventies were and still are never built. If even half of them were built there might be more influence from builders seen in what lines the shelves today.

Sounds like I just threw a blanket over the entire modeling industry but I shall explain. I bought my first model in the early seventies and ran a hobby shop thirty years later and now just a Hobby Dude so I base my statement on observations over many years.

It was fairly common that many of my friends built models at some point in our youth. Some were glue bombs and others a met flaming demise in the backyard, mine hung from 4lb. test fishing line from my ceiling. But, there were those other kids for whatever reason never built theirs and they usually received a ribbing from me "Come on man build that up" I would offer help, paints and my tools to no avail.  I am fairly sure a 64 Fairlane kit I had given a friend in the late eighties is still up on a shelf and my brother still has models I gave him in the nineties under four inches of sawdust in the garage.

At the hobby shop, I saw regular customers buy models for themselves in stacks and would ask them about their builds and a very large amount just collected kits. There were a number of times we bought out private collections, estates, etc. and resold them in the store. These collections were in high triple digit numbers, one buyout involved many trips in a box van. Now I could care less why someone buys or collects something, more power to them for whatever their quest, but all these stagnant kits influenced the quality.

My recent trip back into mainly automotive-themed modeling  I have formed some opinions and have me scratching my head on what I see available.  Last year I bought Revell's 68 Dodge Charger 2in1 and was very pleased. Next, I grabbed a Lindberg 66 Chevelle and was more impressed. Now on a roll, I grab an MPC 67 GTO thinking 'Hey this will be a nice start of muscle cars. The GTO still sits in a box. It was priced a little more than the Charger and less than Chevelle and silly me I thought it would be in the same ballpark for quality. I am one year older than the real size GTO and I would gamble I am in better shape than the mold that made this model.

Flash, Flash and more Flash. Can I recycle styrene?

I kept rolling the dice grabbing a couple MPC dragster kits, AMT 30's Fords and Chevy's and they are still in boxes at different stages with a ton of flash yet to be removed and chrome coated as thick as A Kardashian hipline. I resolved my building to better quality kits going forward but dang it Tamiya, Hasegawa, and Fujimi don't make a 48 Olds or a 37 Chevy.  If you have built any model be it aircraft, auto or military you are familiar with the quality and detail. Although there are quite a few imports I admire and want to build there are more domestic on my list. I have bought both the Tamiya Porsche 959 priced $17.95 and AMT's 37 Chevy Coupe priced $23.95 and it just leaves me thinking if Americans built more models rather than collected the demand for a better quality would happen. Box looks awesome but few know the kit is junk.

Tamiya Subaru $27.95 and excellent detail, clean, great tires, etc. A lot of quality that AMT/MPC do not have and if this example was a benchmark of the price most Revell USA kits would be less than $20.

Hats off still overall to Revell for being a decent kit consistently. Revell of Germany from what I have seen so far has been equal or surpassed Tamiya or Fujimi.  I picked up the Moebius Ventura and Catalina and I  have to say they have nailed the detail and I hope they put out new stuff regularly as there is great promise there.

I know some purists will always hold on to some romantic reverence for their first builds 60 years ago with lots of sanding and putty and tell me "That is just part of modeling". But I doubt those purists would be happy when they pay for the model and the cashier runs their card through the old mechanical card imprinter on carbon paper while they wait 20 minutes for the cashier to phone in for approval from their credit card company. "Just part of Cashiering"?

Well, stuff improves I say and someone at MPC needs to figure out how to cut a new mold because a 67 GTO does not have wheel skirts.

• Hobby Dude

So Much Time Passes...

I realize how long it has been since I last posted but when I find the time that is void of back pain or numb hands I gravitate towards the paint and glue rather than the keyboard.

So a few updates:

Christmas was good to me and I hope for all of you as well. All my family was home and it was a holiday that returned us to the gift of time with each other rather than a mountain of wrapped boxes. Even with that said mine was still bountiful and model themed!

Tools and more employees to add to my garage. I mentioned in my last post I had my eye on a Tamiya "College Friends" kit with figures and a Vespa, well I returned to the store to look at it and I passed. It wasn't as detailed as I had come to expect with Tamiya. So now I have a number of mechanics for my garage with the addition of this Tamiya Rally crew kit. The detail is good but it is listed as 1/24, the same scale as my Testors kit but the Tamiya guys have amazingly small heads in comparison. It comes with very nice detail hand tools, Laptops with cases, and few other things great for a diorama The Fujimi Tool Kit is excellent. I have already built up a few of the tools and very pleased with quality and detail. My only complaint with Fujimi is Where the heck are the decals? For at least the A/C unit and engine analyzer. Luckily the Tamiya kit came with decals for the laptops and I have already scanned them to aid in detailing the Fujimi kit.

I opted to cut some basswood and convert the tire rack into some shelves since I already have a tire rack. Built up a few of the other items to populate the garage. The poster seen there is not in the kit, I had printed out some vintage scale posters and wanted to try my hand and making some for the garage. I used basswood as a base, washed it brown(stain) and used acrylic clear (60% gloss+40% flat) to adhere the printed image to the wood panel. Worked out well I plan to make more.

The jack stands are adjustable, I tossed the little plastic pins and made some from a hard wire. There are shelves inside the bench cabinet and the door opens and closes!

So progress is good and soon  I will have a lot more to update as far as my garage project, new Christmas models coming!

I hope everyone's start of Modeling in 2018 I starting as fun as mine!

-Hobby Dude]]

Hired Some Employees

When I was a kid I hated painting the pilots that came with Airplane Kits. I should re-state that with some honesty; I didn't hate it, I didn't know how to yet and I hated my finished (usually not finished) figure. Through the years I learned technique, I learned what colors to have on hand to do figures properly and I got better. When I was building lots of RC aircraft I really had the chance to practice my skills on pilot busts.

My garage Diorama needs figures so I browsed the G Scale offerings, others I could find from Fujimi, a couple from Tamiya and the random figure from various kits. I found this Testors/Fujimi kit dated 1988 and picked it up as a start.


Detail is good and I have some options for positions although none of the positions stands straight up to work under a car lift. Need to go stock up on my skin tone colors now. I have my eye on a few other kits with 1/24 1/25 scale figures I can use. I plan to re-visit a thrift store that I saw the Tamiya "Campus Friends"  had a few figures and couple Vespa Scooters if it is still there it is coming home with me.

I started on another piece for my garage, an engine hoist. Looking at a tool catalog and using my scale calculator I think I have a good start.

That's it for now.

-Hobby Dude]]

The Garage

If I am building items for a diorama and I have all these great ideas for it why not just get on it?

Some of my big ideas include covering a 4'x2' shelf with garage, parking lot, paint booth, maybe a drag start with a light tree. This endeavor proved to a bigger project to start with as I started sketching it out.
I decided to make a garage for a smaller shelf that could later be a module in a bigger project.  I like this idea of using modules especially for what I originally had in mind making it a lot easier to relocate at a later time.
I grabbed some foam board and craft sticks at the dollar store and broke out the razor knife and straightedge and got busy. It will have the footprint of about 1'x2' White glue worked great for assembly.
I rustled up some scrap clear plastic from packaging (a good reason to buy a pie) made a few windows which later I plan to add a photo of some scenery on the outside.

My ending result so far is 3 walls. I have not secured the walls down to floor yet this pic is me just laying out to see how it looks. 

I had some trash left from a broken window fan and with some bits of plastic and imagination, I was able to make a car lift.

I still have to make my garage front, decide whether to make the space where the orange 32 Ford is sitting an office or a car display and I did start on a staircase for the office option. The area under the awning is where my GMC Tow truck will park. I also plan to make a flat frame only for the roof and then wire up with lights. More to come!

• Hobby Dude

When It All Comes To A Halt

Somebody said that life throws you a curve ball sometimes and mine came across the plate with a numb and tingling hand. Many years of guitar playing, jobs with stress on my hands, bad posture, bed, pillow etc. All showed up at once as back/shoulder pain and a very numb left hand. After a few x-rays, carpal tunnel and spinal arthritis are confirmed. Modeling has recently been very slow and mainly in the planning of colors for future builds. I await my next steps to get out of pain and numbness so I can get back at it.

I allocated a nice bit of room on a shelf to build a garage diorama and in the stages of sketching it out. I have experience with microcontrollers like Arduino and the Raspberry Pi so a few ideas are blooming with some features I want to add to my garage like a remote bay door, remote lights and whatever else that may come about like lighted signs.

A few months back I had started to build a few items for my garage and I plan to build many more scratch built items.

I saved the plastic gift and club cards they are easily cut, glued and painted to make many things. Here I made a parts washer. Aluminum tubing, some plumbing screen, old paint brush and a few decals.

Bamboo kitchen skewers and some basswood yielded a nice little tire rack for the shop.

Gift cards, basswood, and bamboo skewers made a decent workbench. The drawer works with an aluminum handle.



I had a few metal foil tools I glued in place. I plan to make a few more of these.

I found a Free Scale Calculator App on the Google Play Store to make measurements I am sure there are many calculators out there but I will pass on this one:  Model Scale Calc

So until next time get a good chair to model in, treat yourself to a new pillow, don't buy cheap shoes, stretch often, get up and exercise so we can all do this a long time.

• Hobby Dude