Friday 5 December 2014

Why can't they just leave it alone?...

I had my suspicions with the last pack I bought, confirmed some way by the black stuff and now, with a new delivery of my usual Yellow-green Milliput, it's definite....the silly buggers have changed the formula.  My favourite filler is now grainier, making it more difficult to mix and spread and it is way more sticky than before, or at least the green component is, which now backs up people who complained of its "messiness" from the days when it really wasn't if you spit on yer mitts.  Now, I hardly have enough spit to stop pulling the whole lot off what I have just put it ON!  This is not progress, but then, when was any new development of a substance an improvement?  Have you tried to stick anything with modern Evo-Stick, that amber/clear coloured crap that runs out the end under gravity alone?  Don't bother.  Use Evo-Stik carpet adhesive in a tin. That's yer Original cream snot and so much the better for it.
I don't know of anything like Milliput, so will have to keep going with it.  Of course it is not "yellow-green".  It never was.  Now it's baby poo and pale grey.  The sticks are now very close in colour, which makes life very difficult to mix the 2 parts in anything but strong daylight.  I always do Milliputting in the evening. It's an ideal job for that point where you get the impression the Mrs. expects you to be sociable, whatever garbage the telly companies are pushing out.  But now, with the change of formula, you won't be able to mix it properly and even if you can, you'll spend the rest of the night getting the muck off your fingers!

LEAVE IT ALONE fer Chrissakes!!!

10 comments:

  1. Might be an idea to buy up that old stock in my local model shop! I agree with you about Evo-Stik, it goes off in seconds and blurps out of the tube at the least provocation. The smell seems to be even more toxic than of old, too. I expect that in this capitalist ruled world we live in that the changes are all down to economics, substituting less effective but cheaper ingredients and thinking that the customer won't notice. There's another issue here, which is lack of respect for customers...I, like you, have been using these products for more years than I care to remember and now I'm being sold down the river by these cowboys, having to find other less effective products. They will say that it's for "H&S" reasons of course, but we all know it's the fell hand of economic expediency. Rant over!

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  2. Right in all regards, there, Iain. Cheapness under the cloak of H&S crap.

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  3. Ah yes! Too true sadly enough. I apologize for not writing sooner but the oven died on me the day before thanksgiving, the gas grill tank ran out about ten minutes before the turkey was done and Mariann is on three months of cardio rehab three days a week. Top it all off and my motorcycle battery died and Mariann had to take a ten day course to keep her Oncology license updated.
    Still no oven as the type we need has to be "special ordered:" whatever that means.
    However I have been building a bit and have developed a foundness for your Sterling GWR 4-2-2. Now to build that in our 1/48th scale in narrow gauge should be a challenge. BUt I'm through being the school marm now so I can get on with it as sson as Chritmas is over. Explanning it should be another tale!
    If I locate some green and yellow Milliput should I check it for hardness before purchasing? IF I find it ZI'll buy all I can and send it your way.
    BTW, what in god's name are you guys using for paint these days? With the passing of Floquil and accuscale I'm at a loss.. I hate the thought of using that watery ............. whatever it is.

    Cheers

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  4. Rich, I now have a four pack of Milli, so I wouldn't need any more, even the old stuff, but many thanks for the offer, ol' pal. Sounds like you got plenty on currently.
    I'll mail you on all that stuff, but Stirling GNR single or Dean GWR single? You know my views on GWR!
    Paint. Gawd help us, but some use that watery.......whatever it is. But most use enamels for the loco colour, Precision Paints, I think is the main make, but there are others who still do enamels. We never had ought like Floquil, even before they strangled the stuff, although we could go to Victors of Islington and buy it personally, as the PO wouldn't send it back then. Now the PO won't send anything that smacks of paint even the watery stuff!

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    1. Bugger again it happens! I did mean GNR not god's wonderful railway as you so fondly called it!.
      I'll hold on the Milliput then as well. I've been studying medical stuff and learning the lingo so to write the essay parts for Mariann's test. Might as well have been trying to write Mandarin for all I know. Slogged through it so that's behind us. 10 days worth of that and I'm burnt!
      Since the demise of Floquil the only enamels available are Testors and much of that is for armour only. I cannot for the life of me see spraying liquid snot through my airbrush! You know my physical problems so you'll understand. Odd but we can still ship all manner of paint through the mails , just not by airplane.
      Mickey's little hand is on the 10 and his big hand is on Minnie so I'll be off like a prawn in the sun! Thanks again for the heads up on my G-R's.

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  5. Rich, I think, if you thin it with their own stuff, Precision is good stuff. I once painted an LNER B12 with it and it went on very nicely, but I used white spirit to thin it and it took over a week to dry! I have some Testors enamels and they're matt, but seem to have a very dense pigment, so work well enough. Our PO now allege that they fly most parcels, so are now big on the rules about "dangerous" products. Including acrylics, which is ridiculous. I always spray outside, upwind to avoid the problems of which you speak. These days about all I spray is self-etch, which you really need to get up-wind of!

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    1. FWIW. Testors comes in gloss as well as flat but the military boys love the matt finishes so they all say FS before the colour. ( Federal Standards) The glossy stuff is for mostly automobile models and such. Testors also has it's own thinner as well as a special airbrush thinner too. What the difference is? Who knows, probably just price and the size of the can/jar. drum,barrel, hogshead what have you I'm talking about the half pint sized bottle here, not those silly 1.4 oz sized things that seem to dry while you look at them in the shop before they are even opened. But you can purchase those almost anywhere ,even the local chemists!.

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  6. Yep, I bought mine assuming they were gloss! half pint???! The tiddlers were expensive enough. I can't imagine what the half pinters cost over here! The importers are a half hour from here.

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    1. ERROR I meant half ounce not half pint. I could probably sell my house for the price of a half pint of hobby enamel

      Sorry about that.

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  7. Ah! Haha. I thought that unlikely, even for America!

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