Division Council Service Award

It is always nice to find a special surprise in the mail. Yesterday I received one, a plaque from my peer members of the Hobby Manufacturers Association for my past service on the General Division Counsel.

SNOW!

As record snow fall blankets most of the country, I hope everyone is safe and finding it as an opportunity to spend some quality time at their workbench! Stay safe our there!

Workshop Safety

This time of year is also a time to be weary, colder weather brings with it increased risk of fire. One amenity you should consider adding to your workshop is a good trash can. One that is made of metal (NOT plastic) that has a cover which can be latched down tight and secure. Tossing a rag or paper towel damp with solvent or paint can be a disaster waiting to happen. It is the culmination of little things that create big mishaps or accidents.  I picked up this can some years ago at a local hardware store. I use it for everything in the shop, even as a collection receptacle when cleaning my airbrush.

Which is really handy when using a utility spray bottle filled with Windex, which I use to clean my airbrush after using acrylic paints.

Trivia: Stealthiest Raptor?

Did you know among all of the Raptors (the feathered kind) that Owls are the stealthiest? Owls possess a design feature that makes them inaudible to the animals they pray upon. To reduce vibrations as their wings move and as air flows across the surface of their feathers, the feathers are scalloped at the trailing edges. The feathers at the leading edges are of such construction they too quiet the air flow as it crosses over them.

Photo source: Boeing

Man has taken a lesson from nature to develop new technologies to copy Nature’s perfection. Take as an example the aft cowl sarations on the new Boeing 787 and 747-8. This technological advanced design is man mimicking Nature.  Will we be seeing scalloped trailing edges on wings soon? If we want our aircraft even quieter, it is a possibility.

Editors Note: I requested the ability to download higher resolution images from Boeing. I was refused, seems I do not meet their criteria as an entity worthy of republishing their pictures. When will they learn, its the little grass roots efforts that create public awareness. Scale modeling is but one way to instill interest in aviation and the sciences related to the design, creation and flight of aircraft. Some of their engineers are amongst my customers…pity is Boeing is missing a great albeit small opportunity to influence interest in aviation in a positive way.

Inspection

Be sure that when you get that new kit home from the store or delivered to your door you take the time to open and carefully inspect the contents. Do a sprue check, many of the instruction sheets have a sprue map include in the first couple of pages. Compare that with the contents inside the box. Also check those sprues/parts that are most likely to get damaged while in transit. Most of the better packaged kits now have additional packaging inside to protect fragile and others easily damaged pieces.

I have been working on my Trumpeter 1:48 F-100 never giving the canopies a thought as I left them protected inside their packaging. To my surprise when I opened it only to find the canopy split right down the middle still attached to the sprue.  The time lost between when I recieved the kit and now was time I could have gotten the ball rolling to get a replacement part. It probably would have been here in time to finish the build…oh well hide sight is typically 20/20.

Trumpeter should take a lessen from Tamiya, build a cage around the part using the sprue itself so accidents like this don’t happen. I can deal with a seam down the middle of the canopy…much easier than I can a crack splitting it into two pieces!!!

Just a heads up on some changes here as to the availability of certain colors and price changes.

Effective January 1st, 2010 our color line up for both lines (SnJ Spray Metal and Talon Series) will be as follows:

Aluminum – Bronze – Copper- Gold -  Pewter  – Bronzed Aluminum

Red Anodized Aluminum – Florescent Red-Orange

Polishing Powders:

Aluminum – Bronze – Copper – Gold – Pewter – Platinum – Steel

MSRP has also changed from $6.99 per bottle to $5.99 per bottle for both the paints and polishing powders.

We’ve eliminated those products which have seen a reduction in consumer demand. We’ve also reduced price to help bolster sales in this stressful economic time.

Academy 1:48 F-22 Raptor built by Chris Oglesby to test Raptor Sheen.

First my appreciation to Chris Oglesby and Paul Boyer for taking the time to be field testers to evaluate the beta version of this product. Their suggestions are valuable in the development of this product.

This is a good news, bad news situation. The bad news first. Raptor Sheen has still not been perfected. The good news…we’re not yet giving up. The main hold up is getting consistency…that is everyone who uses it has the same or nearly the same results with the product. So I’m working the formulation of the product to deliver consistent results when mixed with the appropriate gray shades of enamel paints and applied to the surface of the model.

I believe the product is viable, it is just a matter of working out the optimum mixture ratio to get sufficient metallic sheen without washing out the grayish color.

The real Raptor can take on a very dull gray look in certain lighting conditions, as well as a brilliant metallic sheen in bright sunlight. We’re striving to achieve just that.

There are a couple of other field testers I’m waiting to hear back from. Hopefully they’ve had positive results, but regardless their feedback is critical and appreciated as well.