Pete J.

I am sure many of you are familiar with Tom Danials Red Barron kit.  It is a rather old kit, but our model club(San Diego Model Car Club) got a hold of a case of them courtsy of one of our members.  It is now our common kit, club build for the year.  Since I am not a resonable person, I could not leave well enough alone and decided that I did not like it as it was, so I decided to convert it into a differant but recognizable build.  The color scheme will be black, brass and aluminum and I am going to add what I consider some retro-updates.  The conversion is going to try to take it from WW1 into WW2 as a theme. Here is the start of the build.

 

  First thing that I decided to change was the stance and the tires.  The the kit tires are a little dated.  They are narrow and give a '50s agressiveness.  I choose to go wider.  I had some F1 rain tires that have been begging for a model for a while.  I started by turning some rims to accomidate the larger tires.

 

 

 

After that, I didn't like the low detail of the rear axle and so I turned a couple of differant axles and made a new set of springs from brass shim stock.

 

 

Having done that, I really didn't like the engine which is a WW1 mercedes aircraft engine.  To spruce it up cut off the old cylinders,

 

 

and make some new cylinders from aluminum.

 

 

Ok, that is enough for tonight.  I will add more as I go along.

 

 

Ok, here is the question.  You just opened the bottle and out pops the genie.  He grants you five wishes.  The catch is they have to be five real flesh and blood cars and you have to live with them for the rest of your life.  No wishing for a gazillion dollar exoto car that you can sell and buy a hundred thousand Fiat 500's.  You actually have to live with them.  They are your transportation.  No frigin race cars or homolgation specials!  They got to go down the street.  Oh, and mantainance is included, but you wrap it around a tree, TS man, they ain't fixing it unless you can pay for it.  So, what do you choose and why?

 

Here is my list in not particular order:

 

  1. '69 ram air IV GTO Judge -  I fell in love with this car in the muscle car era and just like the lines of it. Homage to the big block street gran prix cars.

  2. '60 250 GT California Spider SWB - Yea, Ferris Bullers day off car.  A lot of Ferraris to choose from but I think this one had some of the nicest lines of any of the early(In my life) Ferraris.  Has to have the 250 V-12.  Oh, and I just don't like the look of a Daytona.  Looks like it was designed by an ammunition maker.

  3.  '71 280 SL 'benz pagoda roof.  A friend of mines dad had one while I was in college in ice blue and it was a great car to drive. The last year of this car were the most refined and best like so many last editions.  The fit and finish were impecable and  it was a great car to drive.  This would be my daily driver.  Easy car to live with.

  4.  '74 Porsche 911 carrara,  Rated as one of the worst porsches ever build for maintance.  It was the first year of the battering ram bumpers and had a lot of emissions stuff that went south.  So why do I want one?  I had a '74 911 and I want it back!  Best/worse car I ever owned.

  5.  '03 458 Italia  Yea, I hear you.  Crazy exotic but I have seen several of these at cars and coffee in Irvine and I could walk around this car all day long just looking at it.  I can't find a line that I don't like.  And when one of these leaves the lot, Oh, my word!  It is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.  Or maybe even sans apparel. 

 

 Ok, your turn----- Oh one last question to put this thing into perspective- What do you drive now?

 

Me? '93 MR2 turbo.  You? 

I have started to work more with brass and have been trying to cut some special parts to be soldered up. My main problem is cutting them so they tend to curl behind anything I try to cut them with. I don’t have the hundreds of dollars to buy a metal brake/shear so I have been seeking an alternative. I just ordered a jeweler’s saw and was wondering if anyone here had some tips on using it and if there is an alternative. I have been scribing the metal and flexing it to get a straight line and that is satisfactory but a bit risky. I still get some curling from time to time and it is not straight.

Ok, I'm frustrated! It is getting to the point that it is almost impossible to add a post to any topic. Almost Everytime I try the screen gets that silly little green button with the three windows scrolling accross and it just never goes away and I finally give up. I've tried everything. Before anyone gets their panties in a bunch and starts blaming my browzer, computer or sevice provider I don't believe it. I have a newer computer with a i7 six core processor and 16 GB of RAM, I am running windows seven pro, I am on cable internet with the fastest speed and use the most current modem on the market. My browser is Internet Explorer in it's most current version. I am on multiple forums one of which uses the same exact format, and I have no problem with them at all. Frankly I will be supprised if this gets posted because of the problems.

I really enjoy this forum but I am down to almost never posting anything anymore. I will continue to view the comments, but until something is done I am not going to waste my time joining in the conversation. Ok, ball is in your court.

Try #2

I am about to start another long term project  and this may seem a weird question but here are the basics.

1.  I have about 125 photos of the 1:1 car that I would like to have with me on the bench.
2.  I was about to print them when the cost of paper and ink kind of hit me!
3.  I have been considering a tablet for a while and it dawned on me that I could save the cost of paper and ink and load them on a tablet and it would save me the space of a large note book filled with photos(the 935 turned out to be a 3 inch binder).
4.  I have a windows based PC
5.  I don't need telephone connectivity and have a droid photo.
So, does anyone have any suggestions about which would be an optimal solution and if you have a tablet, do you use it for referance photos as descibed?