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Post by Christian on Feb 8, 2021 5:45:52 GMT -8
Chapter 1 – Opening the BagI’ve been eyeing Summit Customcuts kits for years. I first saw them on the break-out railroad model by Pelle Søeborg. Most are too new for my 1985ish layout or represent prototypes that are unlikely to be found in rural Illinois. When I spotted this 1980s Taco Bell kit I immediately put it on my letter to Santa and, gosh darn, Santa delivered! Summit Customcuts kits are pricey. I’m guessing that’s because of licensing. Most are specific businesses found almost anywhere. A few are era specific. There are four Taco Bell kits which cover the seventies to right now. Very useful for representing time and place. I asked Santa for an 80s version. More recent research indicated that this version started appearing in 1985 so my building is squeaky new. Actually, only the sign is squeaky new. The building is the same as the classic from the seventies which had a lettered name and a mission bell in a cove at the top false facade. This version has the “new” sign with the first bell graphic (Same as the header for these postings) which covers the hole from the mission bell era. More on prototypes later. Photograph one is of the contents of the kit. All are stuffed in the heavy weight plastic bag in the upper right. Not great packaging, but everything arrived unharmed. I guess the packing did the job. At the top left is a photograph of the model, a swatch of graphic material which is weak, and the instructions which seem really good. I would have liked the instructions to cover the site plan as most Walthers instructions have done for decades. This is for reasons that I’ll go into soon. Under the printed material to the left is a smaller bag containing all the smaller parts. Beside that bag is a swatch of Plastruct tile roofing material which is a thin vacuumed plastic. The brighter white parts are laser cut polystyrene parts and sheets of parts. The darker white side wall parts are milled acrylic – I think. They could be hard styrene. Photo two is of the contents of the smaller parts bag. Top left are 1/16” acrylic window pieces. Acrylic makes great windows UNLESS you need to put posters on the windows. Then you can see how thick they are. The black pieces are laser cut black styrene parts for the canopies on the sides of the building model. The rest of the parts are milled and then laser cut pieces. The standing sign is cut styrene. Photograph three is a closer look at one of the acrylic pieces. In a seventies Taco Bell there would be a mission bell hanging from the yoke. The 1985 modernization covered this opening with a new logo/sign. Photo four shows the black styrene canopy brackets. And photograph five is the sign. It’s not a photograph of my broken thumbnail. Please look away. Next up a look at some prototype reference photos.     
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Post by sd40dash2 on Feb 8, 2021 12:09:09 GMT -8
Great thread!
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Post by Funnelfan on Feb 8, 2021 13:06:45 GMT -8
If only I had known about this Taco Bell kit a year or so ago, I would have chosen it over the KFC for my commercial district area on the club layout. I already have a Burger King and a Pizza Hut there, also working on a 7-11 store and gas station.
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Post by riogrande on Feb 8, 2021 14:34:44 GMT -8
I'm lovin it. This is something I have a personal interest in! The cool thing is, it's something I could actually use on my layout too in the late 1970's. Taco Bells looked like that from the late 1960's into the 1980's.
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Post by Christian on Feb 8, 2021 15:37:16 GMT -8
I'm lovin it. This is something I have a personal interest in! The cool thing is, it's something I could actually use on my layout too in the late 1970's. Taco Bells looked like that from the late 1960's into the 1980's. You will see in tomorrow's post that bunches are still in use. |
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Post by valenciajim on Feb 8, 2021 16:44:51 GMT -8
I enjoy building the Summit Customcuts kits. I am looking forward to watching your progress on this model.
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Post by GP40P-2 on Feb 8, 2021 17:48:09 GMT -8
Here is some history of Taco Bell, and some good images of the earlier versions of the buildings leading up to yours (including the first Taco Bell building). He was a Southern California "local", so some history from the local paper. He was also friends with the Knotts, and wanted an amusment part similar to Knotts berry Farm; however buying the ex-Westside Lumber property in the Gold Country did not go well, lasting only a few years, even with "taco boats" on the log pond. Taco Bell History |
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 9, 2021 0:19:01 GMT -8
The same retail-theme Facebook groups I mentioned before are great places to get shots of buildings like this in second-hand or third-hand use.
I kind of wish they'd do a few more older places, something like a Red Barn or a Carroll's might not be bad to get rights for and would really set a scene to a past era.
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Post by Christian on Feb 9, 2021 4:01:45 GMT -8
Chapter 2 – Foodie Nostalgia
After some Googling I found that although there are lots of commonalities in the Taco Bell restaurants of a given era, the details are all different. The biggest difference is the site. Pretty much everything evolves from the site. A search of “Taco Bell Site Maps” will bring up lots and lots of architectural submissions to municipal planning commissions. In older times a business located next to other businesses and shared assets such as parking, streets and municipal lighting. The strip center and shopping mall are modern examples of sharing. Fast Food and the like had to go a different direction since their business model is all about the automobile and the customers in that car. Getting their money and delivering their food as quickly as possible. Life with a car became popular in the thirties, but really boomed after WWII. “Drive-in” movies spawned a host of drive-in services. Drive-in food became big in the fifties. Cars lined up and waiters and waitresses came to the car to take orders, deliver food, and bus the remains. Photographs one and two. (Yes, boys could also car-hop. Their uniforms were very different!) Photograph three shows a contemporary Sonic Drive-In which mashes technology with flesh and blood contact. But the concept of car-hop service has mostly gone away. It is seeing a big Covid related revival. Burger King, Hardees, McDonald's, and Sandy’s used a new model by the mid fifties. Park your car and walk up to the window. Photo four. By the seventies the now called “fast food” industry used a hybrid model. Park your car and come inside, or give your order over a speaker device and drive up to a delivery window. In all these cases the fixtures and fitting for cars are part and parcel of the business. And should be part of the model. You’ve all seen model railroads that have plopped fast food buildings down with no provision for getting a customer to the food. Or included a road that a real car couldn’t negotiate. I knew that I had to make the site convincing in order to be happy with the resulting model. But, also aware that parking lots and drives eat up a lot of space that could be used to park some of those extra forty-three locomotives! I’ve been to some pretty cramped fast food sites so I kept that in mind as I looked at photos. Below are three of the four I’m going to use for reference during the build. The forth photo has copyright all over it. The other three have been posted multiple times and I feel no guilt! None of the photos are from the mid eighties. The prototype photo on the Summit website is from 2006. So I’ll be doing some guessing as to what things were like way back in 1985. In a couple instances I’m going to let an anachronism in because I like the look or the detail. Photograph five is the oldest reference I'm using. I’m not into automobile years so I can’t gave a date. A little help from one of you car guys? The lighting on the roof and under the eves draws my eye. As do the large terracotta planters. Those planters are in front of a lot of eighties Bells, and all of them feature dead or nearly dead plants. This photo is one of the color references I like. There are a lot of differences in how the beige walls and the orangery false Facade are painted. Apparently the franchise holders have a lot of latitude in interpreting paint selections. As noted in the kit’s instructions. Photo six is a closed restaurant in Rochester NY. The red, green, and yellow stripy things are of interest and I’ll talk about those details very early in the actual construction. Photograph seven is recent and shows a renovated restaurant in a post Pepsico color scheme. Interesting combo of the yellow bell on the restaurant and the purple bell on the street sign. I’m having an internal war over using this anachronistic color scheme. Right this minute I’m leaning toward used it except for the orange false facade. But it’s that orange facade I like the most and which is the most “wrong.” It’s a long time until I have to commit to paint colors. The big thing I am taking from photograph seven is the arrangement of the sidewalks, patio and ADA parking space. The photo I’m not showing is similar and has the same concrete patio furniture. On that restaurant the orange is muted. And boring. Than again, boring is commonplace and deserves modeling. Despite all the large windows I can see almost nothing of the interiors in any of the reference photos I have. I don’t light structures – that’s a whole other hobby. But I do model what can be seen through the windows. The kit instructions suggest using automotive window darkening film. Too early to think hard about window dressing. A final note that will color all this Taco Bell discussion. Of course there is taco snobbery and I’m very guilty. Jim waxes eloquently about growing up with Taco Bell in CALIFORNIA. I’m TEXAN, bless Sam Houston. I grew up elsewhere but family, breeding, and heart is yellow rose all the way. I’ve lived many years in Texas, specifically, San Antonio, and there is no way I would have been caught dead in a Taco Bell. Until I moved to New York and later Virginia and had no choice between Taco Bell and my own kitchen. I do recall an ugly rumor that there might have been a Taco Bell in the tourist areas of San Antonio, but I can’t confirm that. I’ve mellowed and do occasionally chow down at the Bell. Letting everyone know my opinion the whole time!Next up, site work.       
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Post by sd40dash2 on Feb 9, 2021 4:09:39 GMT -8
^ Thanks for posting prototype info and photos -- very interesting stuff! Awesome thread.
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Post by Mark R. on Feb 9, 2021 11:29:10 GMT -8
Original signage with the bell. Wish they would have included this generation of sign as well ....  Mark. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 9, 2021 11:35:32 GMT -8
That 5th photo with the red car, looks like a midsize GM sedan around 1990-ish, that platform was made like 1985-1995 give or take and I can't see enough detail to see which make it is.
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Post by Mark R. on Feb 9, 2021 12:06:10 GMT -8
That 5th photo with the red car, looks like a midsize GM sedan around 1990-ish, that platform was made like 1985-1995 give or take and I can't see enough detail to see which make it is. Looks like a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais. (?)  Mark. |
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Post by stottman on Feb 9, 2021 12:08:52 GMT -8
This is how I remember Taco Bells looking like in the 80s.
At some point, probably in the late 80s, they changed to the difference style sign, and soon after, a "new" building design.
Summit's kit signage, going by memory, would be good from the late 80s onward. The good old "59-79-99" days.
As I remember when I was a kid in the early - mid 80s, Taco Bell's interior only consisted of a "Take out" counter; All the seating was outside, and consisted of round tables with the trademark Taco Bell shade. Bear in mind that this is California.
For the layout / building site, you can check out- 1546 Camden Ave, Campbell, CA 95008
That is an old Taco Bell that was sold off and turned into something else... The building itself has been de-Taco Belled, but the building site has remained the same..
Here a couple links that might help-
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Post by Mark R. on Feb 9, 2021 12:15:57 GMT -8
Beat me to it.
Mark.
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 9, 2021 13:47:22 GMT -8
That 5th photo with the red car, looks like a midsize GM sedan around 1990-ish, that platform was made like 1985-1995 give or take and I can't see enough detail to see which make it is. Looks like a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais. (?) Mark. Works for me too. |
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Post by 12bridge on Feb 9, 2021 14:47:58 GMT -8
Interesting to see what one of these kits actually looks like. They are indeed a but pricey...but I also didn't think they actually had licensing....
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Post by valenciajim on Feb 9, 2021 16:00:39 GMT -8
Interesting to see what one of these kits actually looks like. They are indeed a but pricey...but I also didn't think they actually had licensing.... They are bit pricey, but I recently scratch built a structure and the styrene parts were not exactly cheap. I have built four of these kits and there definitely is value for the money. Many of the parts are precut. |
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Post by Frank on Feb 9, 2021 18:05:28 GMT -8
Interesting to see what one of these kits actually looks like. They are indeed a but pricey...but I also didn't think they actually had licensing.... I think they do on some items, but I’m fairly confident it was retroactive. The reason I say that is some of their products have mysteriously disappeared from the catalog and I suspect due to that issue. Jack in the Box being one of them. The hotel they offer was once a Super 8, now generic. Not sure if they still have the CVS, but that was another troublesome one. |
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 9, 2021 18:47:05 GMT -8
It's like the Life-Like McDonalds that came out about 1968. McDonalds objected and it became an ice cream stand. LL probably got more miles out of it that way given it was obsolete as a McD's by the mid-70s. Too bad though Walthers can't revive the tooling, restore it and get a licensing deal on it. Their 7-11 also eventually they probably declined to renew the rights on and it became Ace Supermarket, but by then 7-11 design had changed 2 or 3 times.
Sometimes that stuff happens IRL, there is a hotel not far from here that for years was a Days Inn... then one day I go by the sign has a tarp over it "Dave's Inn". Not too long after it was heavily remodeled - losing a story in the process - and became another brand entirely.
This is why I've wished they'd consider doing some 70s era stuff. There's a lot of regional chains that barely or no longer exist that I doubt the name rights will be any issue on. Ames, Zayre, Jamesway, Hills, EJ Korvettes, Two Guys.... with all the trains sold out of Two Guys I'm amazed nobody's done a flat with their logo on it. I'd buy one just for the irony.
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Post by peoriaman on Feb 9, 2021 19:55:02 GMT -8
I'd like to see a model of that Sandy's Drive-In posted earlier... They had locations in several states but were based right here in Peoria. Those old-style Taco Bells evolved a lot over the years. The oldest ones were brick, then came stucco, and here is one that is just (I think) stucco-patterned boards (note especially the panel joints above the side windows). This is probably a very late example of the mission-style Taco Bell.  |
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Post by Christian on Feb 10, 2021 1:34:16 GMT -8
This is probably a very late example of the mission-style Taco Bell. This photo is timely. In an hour or so I'll need some of the information on this photo! As for Sandy's - that's where we went in high school whenever we were in the "big" city. Paper hats, all men behind the window, 15¢ burgers. Days of heaven! EVERYONE - keep on flowing the information. Don't hesitate because I "might" have seen it. I might not. Other folks may find it useful or trigger a thought or memory. |
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Post by Christian on Feb 10, 2021 3:19:31 GMT -8
Chapter 3 – Site Unseen
I’m doing these postings like I did for the Atomic Cafe. Namely, letting the build get ahead of the posts. I kept the boxcar post almost in real time which cause some narrative issues for me in that I’d work myself into a problem and have to flap my wings for a couple days while I figured it out. Today’s chapter is an example of one of those problem posts that I was able the resolve for chapter four. This was a frustrating day. I wanted too much with my Taco Bell and the compromises were just not satisfying. I wanted to develop the site and placement of the restaurant before I started construction on the building. I needed to know if I would have a satisfying scene. The Summit Customcuts prototype model photographs on the website show a great scenery development of the restaurant and site. I would have loved to copy it, but it appears to be about eighteen inches square. That’s too much landscape for me. I wanted to fit it onto a 9” X 12” board. But I couldn’t. I worked with a 12” X 12” board and its OK. Following is how I got to where I am as I type this up the next day. (NOTE: I’ve had a thought, but I’ve got to give it some time. It doesn’t effect what I’m presenting in this chapter, but it might make me me a bit more positive about the site.) (Much later edit: That proved to be a dumb thought, but I did have a good thought.) I studied Taco Bell site maps from the internet. I looked at Google maps of some. Photograph one is a site that I like, but isn’t possible space wise. But it does have all the things I’m looking for. Namely, restaurant, parking, ADA parking, small patio, drive-up and green space. I cut a 12” square out of brown paper so I could move things around and pencil in lines, spaces and notes. And erase any of the above. Then I went to the internet to learn all about parking lots, drive-up lanes, entrances, ADA space, and green space. Here’s some of what I learned. 1. Parking spaces. Commonly 8’-6” to 10’-0” wide by 16’ to 18’ long. I squished to 8’ wide by 16’ long. 2. Drive-up lanes. Narrower than I thought at 10’ minimum. I stuck with that. 3. Entrance and roads. The ten foot minimum is what I used. I’m not sure if a full size van can get in and out of a parking space. Yes, I tried driving my models! 4. ADA parking. Standard space with an 8’ wide space marked off to the right of the parked car. 18’ deep. I squished to a 6’ wide marked off space but maintained the 18’ length. 5. Patio. I think that space for two tables and two benches each will work for me. The last prototype photo in the previous chapter shows an example. 6. Green space. There isn’t going to be much. A strip between the patio and the street sidewalk looks to be it. I used some basic pieces and started moving things around. Photo two shows the starting pieces. The white piece is the base with the kit. This is problematic because it fits inside the walls, not under like a foundation. So I have to consider a foundation. I decided to use my sidewalk pieces under the base plate as a foundation. The gray pieces are City Sidewalks from Smalltown USA. (Riks, Pikestuff, etc.) These pieces have cut lines underneath to split into to strips and/or remove one of the curbs. I moved some things around, a lot. Where my mind broke is the 3rd dimension. How high above the base plate does each element have to be and can I do that? Yes, I can do it. I have EVA foam sheets 1mm to 6mm. Simple lamination, but, at this typing I’ve yet to figure a plan. Photograph three. I use Walthers sidewalk pieces from a street kit along the edge that would be a street. They are a bit wider and thicker than the Smalltown USA pieces. Photo four shows three cars to check the spaces of a layout that mostly satisfies my hopes. Note that the restaurant is backed up to the rear edge of the base plat. Not particularly desirable although the ultimate location of this building is only visible from the front. A convenient tree or two should disguise the lack of a drive-through lane behind the building. Now that the paper was well worn I turned to my base-plate. I used a 12’ square artist’s canvas panel. Photographs five and six. These panels are light, tough, mostly flat and mostly square. A ¼” x 1” frame under will make it flat, but that is in the future. The canvas is surfaced with black gesso. White is also available. They are resistant to humidity and water. These artists panels are about three bucks each in a package. Tempered hardboard, both sides smooth like a clipboard, will be cheaper, if you can find it. And you still have to waterproof the cut edges. These artist’s panels are completely sealed. Photograph seven is a sheet of 2mm gray closed cell EVA foam. This comes in all sorts of sizes, thicknesses and colors. I use Amazon, but it is carried in craft stores. Some is very soft and not especially usable. The stuff I have is about the same as a yoga mat. Except thin. Without yoga sweat. Photo eight. Finally! A tool and dust. Yeah, I know. I’ve been wanting to make a mess for a couple of days. In this photo I am sawing one of the Walthers sidewalk pieces. I trimmed enough to fit along the front of my Taco Bell site and put the drive entrances close to the ends. This Walthers/Heljan plastic is tough. Photograph nine is the underside of the Walthers pieces. It is a “system” with interlocking curb and street pieces. If you had some in your hand you’ll see what I mean. It’s rather clever. Photo ten and eleven. I used my trusty Tamiya cement to stick the pieces together with scraps of 0.040” styrene enforcing the joins. And, under weight for the night. Tomorrow, more sidewalk pieces. Plus I am thinking the entire time about constructing the building.           
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Post by GP40P-2 on Feb 10, 2021 20:14:11 GMT -8
This is probably a very late example of the mission-style Taco Bell. This photo is timely. In an hour or so I'll need some of the information on this photo! As for Sandy's - that's where we went in high school whenever we were in the "big" city. Paper hats, all men behind the window, 15¢ burgers. Days of heaven! EVERYONE - keep on flowing the information. Don't hesitate because I "might" have seen it. I might not. Other folks may find it useful or trigger a thought or memory.How many times in the late 1970's through the 1980s did I go railfanning, had a camera or two in the car, stopped at Taco Bell, and apparently never took a picture of it (or the gas stations, supermarkets, grade crossing, signals and equipment boxes, delivery trucks, local bus, garbage truck and dumpsters, Ford Granada, Chevy Citation, Dodge K car, etc). Then again, film processing cost money to even get the image, unlike now with my cell phone. |
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Post by Christian on Feb 11, 2021 4:19:48 GMT -8
Chapter 4 – Finishing Site Work For Now
I’ll come back to the site toward the end of the project. Today’s chapter on site work will show you just why I started with the site; not the building. I wasn’t happy with the front and back of the lot when I wrapped up chapter three. I slept on it and came back to it again. The building backed to the end of the base-plate and the tightness of the green space up front just wasn’t working. For a while I thought about making the base even larger. That was the “dumb” thought from yesterday. Then a solution came to mind. Make the building shorter! Why not? The back two thirds of the building is boring. The eye is going to come to the front. So I got out my scale ruler and did some shoving back and forth on the base plate. I found the cutting 8’-6” off the length of the building would satisfy my placement issues and not look too short. Photograph one show me marking out the 8”-6” section I was going to cut from the base-plate. I scored the lines and snapped the end off. I dressed the breaks a bit and stuck the pieces together with good old Tamiya cement. Photo two posed with a wall piece. I’ll cut them later. The Tamiya didn’t hold so later I used some of my carefully hoarded Ambroid Pro Weld. Photograph three. Now I could get serious with my Smalltown USA sidewalk pieces. Serendipity smacked my in the face in that all the cuts and splices came at the molded joints. Photo four shows the underside and the molded in cutting locations. This plastic is tough and doesn’t score and break cleanly so I used a snap-off knife and made many passes until the pieces separated. Photograph five. I worked through the sidewalks being careful to put curbs where needed. When I had the pieces cemented together I put them under weight for a while. The blue is a silicone mat I have for other reasons. Glue doesn’t stick. Previously I used Reynolds Wrap non-stick foil. Photograph seven is the sidewalk piece with the curbs in place. I didn’t obsess over the cracks since the finishing materials will eliminate them. Photo eight is the assembly with the base plate and positions correctly on the base board. Remember that the white base-plate fits inside the walls. I allowed for the plate to be supported by the sidewalk slabs and allow the walls to come flush with the curbstones beside the drive-up window. I’ve got one issue behind the drive-up window that I'll deal with down the road. Next session. Step one of the Summit Customcuts instructions.        
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Post by edgecrusher on Feb 11, 2021 9:11:11 GMT -8
Off to another great start, I'm happily following along. Quick question, whats the fancy square type tool in the first pic?
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Post by Christian on Feb 11, 2021 11:05:03 GMT -8
whats the fancy square type tool in the first pic? It's a marking ruler made by General. It was $$$ and only on the market for a year or so at the end of the last century. I got it on remainder for a fraction of the retail. It's etched so you can mark in 1/64" spacings using a 2mm draftsman's pencil. I don't use it much, but it's pretty so it hangs around my bench. Micro Mark has a $$$ clone. (Of course!) Theirs is sized for 5mm pencils. www.micromark.com/search?keywords=marking%20rule |
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Post by sd40dash2 on Feb 11, 2021 11:18:55 GMT -8
You remind me of Jack Burgess. He said in one of the TSG videos that he doesn't mind spending money on good quality tools.
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Post by Christian on Feb 12, 2021 1:56:34 GMT -8
Chapter 5 – Putting It Together
At the end of this chapter we’ll have something recognizable as a Taco Bell. But First: (Yeah, I know – there’s always something,) The matter of those quarter round canopies. Making them is the first step in the Summit Customcuts instructions. I don’t want to make them. Rounded shapes are tricky and not in my box of successful modeling. Indeed, a close look at the Summit prototype model shows that they aren’t made very well. Look along the top and bottom edges. In all the photography I’ve looked at of Taco Bells (so far) the only quarter round awnings I can find are on the Monroe LA prototype for the kit. And that photo is from 2006. I do like the red, yellow, and green stripes. But I don’t find them on most photos. Particularly those photographs old enough to represent my 1985 era. The photo posted by peoriaman above Chapter Three presents a solution. Lots of Taco Bells had an interpretation of pueblo vigas. Photograph one is a chunk out of peoriaman’s posting. Photo two is a detail from another Taco Bell. These are sorta like Carpenter Gothic in that they are purely decorative and cobbled up from standard width and cheap boards. There is a simpler version in several photos which is also in the back of my mind, but decisions on this can be put off while we go to step two of the instructions and slap together a Taco Bell. I actually followed the instructions for the next few steps. If you have followed any of my other postings you will know that I strongly recommend building things flat clear through with weathering. That won’t work with this kit because of fitting and trimming parts. Fortunately the paint and detail is simple. The four walls fit together like they were laser cut. D’oh! All the fitting errors were mine and they won’t be noticeable. Those of you with three hands can skip ahead. Photographs three and four show the first couple of joints. Wall to wall and then walls to base. Photography five shows the gap that I didn’t catch in time to press out. I used Ambroid PROWELD and didn’t trust my silicon sheet. Pro Weld is very aggressive. I used a sheet of Reynolds Wrap non-stick under my assembly area. Weights to hold things in place and a square to keep things, well, square. Ambroid PROWELD has been gone for some time now. I think Scalecoat PROBOND is the same, but am waiting for a shipment to test. Micro-Marks pricey SAMESTUFF is the same as the Ambroid right down to the bottle label. All of these bond polystyrene, ABS, and acrylics. I love MEK, but plastics in the hobby have moved beyond what MEL based solvents can cement. Photos six and seven close the box. Photo eight is after Tamiya white putty was smeared into the joints as needed and then sanded down. Brick lines were restored with a Zona saw. Photo eight. I had to use some clamps to close the gaps on the entrance/drive-up window. Photographs nine and ten. The distinctive false facade – right out of the old west – starts with two pieces laminated. Lots of little clothes pins as clamps. Next up, it’s already time to think about the interior before things get boxed in. EDIT: there may be a day or two without a new post. I'm puzzling through some future construction and finishing "issues."           
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Post by Christian on Feb 12, 2021 2:21:47 GMT -8
You remind me of Jack Burgess. He said in one of the TSG videos that he doesn't mind spending money on good quality tools. I've never had a lot of money so tool buys have always been very careful. (A reminder that I've been buying tools since the 1950's. They didn't all appear one day.) I buy carefully and I take care of what I have. Sales are a good thing and I'll wait a very long time for something to go on sale or be discontinued and discounted. The General square above is an example. The iron blocks you frequently see in my photographs came out of a dumpster. The Badger 360 (Universal) airbrush is getting close to thirty years old. The newer Badger Rage is from Badgers occasional "every airbrush for fifty dollars" sale. And so on. Now that I'm in my seventies I do have the luxury of being able to reach for the "correct" tool for any given job. A "luxury" that has taken decades to assemble. EDIT: Paint brushes are a whole different thing. He who has the most paintbrushes when he dies wins. |
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