Weavers closing, along with Scalecoat

[peteski]

My brother is an award-winning high-end auto restoration body/paint professional (no Bondo, just lead) who also used to work as an instructor for Akzo Sikkens.  He uses 1:1 auto paints for large scale (well, larger than N) auto models regularly.

I also use automotive paints and even fingernail polishes from painting automotive plastic model kits, but not N scale stuff. They don't sell automotive paints in RR colors (and custom color matching requires a minimum quantities which are relatively large for what I need in N scale).  Plus those paints are hot enough to craze plastic bodies. Primer/sealer/barrier is required. It is ok for a 1:24 scale model, but in 1:160 every additional layer of paint obscures fine details.  If I can help it, I try not to use primer.

[Rich_S]

Then of course is their paint stripper - again, an item which will be greatly missed (at least by me).

+1

[Rich_S]

I also feel like responding to Geoff's "On the other hand, maybe I'll learn to use a product more likely to allow myself to meet my grandchildren." statement.  Come on let's, get real.  Most of the modelers here are over 50 years old (many are over 70) and we all used solvent-based paints  in our hobbies since the young age. Most of us are still alive, more or less healthy, and able to see our grandchildren (if we have any).    The level of exposure to chemicals we use in out hobbies is quite minimal compared to someone who deals with this type of chemicals in their professional life.  Plus in the last 30 years or so we have been so brainwashed trained to use respirators, skin protection, and paint booths which all further minimize the dangers of using solvent-based paints.

The first thing you need to do is move out of the state of California, because everything is known to the State of California to cause cancer...      OK I'm running for cover now 

[Kisatchie]

The first thing you need to do is move out of the state of California, because everything is known to the State of California to cause cancer...      OK I'm running for cover now 

Hmm... the state of
California causes cancer...

[Bob Bufkin]

Actually Rich I do believe you.  Last time I was in San Diego waiting for a ride from my hotel I decided to play some pinball in the lobby.  Sign on the machine reads "This device has been shown to cause cancer".  HUH.

[Doug G.]

No thanks. Not with all the chemicals that we're being sprayed with in the form of chem-trails. And any time someone mentions "activists" who are looking out for my well being, my BS meter goes off.

Looking out for your well being? That is very naive.

Doug

[towl1996]

Looking out for your well being? That is very naive.

Doug

Naïve? On who's part? Did you drink the Kool-Aid?

Any time someone says I'm from the government and I'm here to help, look out.

[Doug G.]

Naïve? On who's part? Did you drink the Kool-Aid?

Any time someone says I'm from the government and I'm here to help, look out.

I think I may have misread your post. Sorry.

Doug

[towl1996]

I think I may have misread your post. Sorry.

Doug

No problem.   

[sirenwerks]

Consider this:

• Government is better than everyman for himself, proven by the fact that those who settled this country when it was nothing created government because they saw settling it alone has significant drawbacks when it comes to battling nature, enemies, etc.;
• History has proven that manufacturers have a "hard time" considering the other impacts (such as individual and community health and safety) of products and processes over making money.  They say they care and can self-police themselves, but when we turn our backs long enough the kids raid the candy shop; and
• People (the public) aren't always the brightest and will believe whatever they're told to the point of harming themselves (look at what ignorance the internet spreads).  And while Darwinism sometimes seems like a great idea, I can't let my neighbor step on that rake even if it would give me the laugh I need right now.  Or starve, or electrocute themselves, or drink contaminated water...

These three truisms are good reason to have government and its regulation - as well as the many other positive things government does which we always seem to forget or somehow attribute to our own individual efforts, like build roads and hospitals for common benefit.  The government we have is the best system we've come up with.  Is it perfect?  No, that's why government is made to be actively participated in to affect needed change.  If you don't participate (beyond just casting a vote on occassion and paying taxes and grumbling) you have the right to complain (in some countries) but your complaint is not very valid.  Doing so is akin to watching baseball versus actually playing.  Yes, you can sit in front of the TV and complain how the batter struck out and feel self-important, but can you do better?  Can you even get off the couch and out the door? 

Being proactively involved in governement requires being able to think, listen, and consider that other people with other beliefs and other ideas are sharing the same community and air, water, ground, roads... system.  It requires the ability to act on those considerations too, to lend to compromise, not just stand up and beat your chest and believe you know best.  A lot of people aren't cut out to participate in government these days it seems, but the rest of us have to buck up and provide an extra dose of tolerance in their favor.

And then there's being a government employee, one of those people who knocks on your door and says they want to help (ha ha  ) because most of the time they really do want to help.  Sometimes helping requires teaching the person on the other side of the door even if they don't want to learn.  Working for government takes the ability to work within a framework of often poorly worded laws, etc. and making them a reality with the little (if any) money Congress and its state and local sisters provides, and then having a lot of people unhappy with what you've managed to do despite all odds.  It's not an easy job and government employees don't get paid big money or get amazing benefits (despite popular belief).  People joke that once you get a government job then you have a job for life.  It's more like once the government can hire a person who cares enough and can tolerate the working conditions and regular public disgruntlement (when was the last time you thanked a government employee that wasn't a fireman or police officer?) management will do all they can to hang on to you, at least the minimal amount it takes not to get you to walk out the door when you're fed up. 

All that being said, I am proud to work in government and serve my community and country and proud of my coworkers and friends who work in government as well.

[MVW]

Very well said.

Too bad it had to be said.

Jim

[casmmr]

It is a sad day when a well know hobby shop closes.  In 2004, I investigated the purchase of a local hobby shop, the economics said NO WAY.  The amount charged for merchandise varied upon the amount ordered.  Some distributors were charging 80% of MSRP.  After a review, decided that it was not a retirement that I wanted.  The local hobby shop closed down in 2005.  The same probably happened here, investigate and you will find that the cost of operating was increasing, the profit decreasing and so no buyers and the shop closes.  The economics at work in this country will result in the very rich, the poor relaying upon the federal dole and a decreasing middle class funding the whole mess.  (SORRY, BUT THAT IS ANOTHER DISCUSSION).

[johnb]

Your profit is not in the selling, it is in the buying. Everything is a negotiation when you run a shop.

[peteski]

Like it or not, no matter how long of a discussion we have about the current state of the government, the bottom line is that Floquil and now Scalecoat paints are gone! What's next?  CA glue because it might be causing cancer?

These hobbies will not be as much fun anymore (at least for me).  And I don't want to hear about alternative paints. It seems that instead of a pleasurable time, my hobby is becoming more a struggle to find the hobby supplies which I prefer (and which  had been previously available for many decades).  Time to start thinking of moving on to pre-decorated structures from Woodland Scenics and RTR models from all the manufacturers. 

[Rich_S]

Consider this:

• Government is better than everyman for himself, proven by the fact that those who settled this country when it was nothing created government because they saw settling it alone has significant drawbacks when it comes to battling nature, enemies, etc.;

Sorry, I have to throw a flag on the field on this one.   The first people to settle this country were only worried about survival, The Roanoke Settlement did not make it and the Pilgrims almost didn't make it. It was many years later, when many more people were here and merchants grew tired of being taxed to near poverty by the King of England, that our current government began to be formed.  If the King would have granted the colonists a few seats in the House of Commons, the revolution may have never happened.   

Yes government is a necessary evil, but unlike other countries, we elect people to run our government for us. Never forget that our government is "Of the people, By the people and For the people" The elected in the Executive branch and Legislative branch are our employees, i.e. we are their bosses, they are not our bosses. That is what makes the United States of America different from every other country in the world. 

The people of this country have more power than even you might realize. The biggest problem is, the people refuse to realize the power they hold. For example, if you believe a company is doing wrong, stop purchasing their products. Their income comes from you purchasing their products.

Do not buy into the "You didn't build that" lie. Henry Ford built an empire without use of any public roads. He built and purchased his own railroad, steel mills and automotive factories back when most roads were dirt paths.  Never forget:

To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, —the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, & the fruits acquired by it.'" Thomas Jefferson

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government. John Sharp Williams, Thomas Jefferson: His Permanent Influence on American Institutions "