mad mike

Hello Trae, always nice to hear from you! Yep, the Stingray emblem is 3D print, shows what can be done if you know some tricks... The bumpers are actually handmade from acrylic glass, no RP at all. The nose emblem was a makeshift solution, having to finish the car at three o'clock in the morning in time for an exhibition Actually, I don't know what the correct emblem would have been... can you tell me? (Surely And to all you guys looking at the car and telling me those nice things: Thank you!!!

Oops, I really should've mentioned it in the title. It's 1/8. Thanks to all you guys looking, and thanks for all the praise

Hello Bill, apart from the sills which are made with chrome foil, all other chrome parts are painted with Alclad II, no cover paint. The windowframe, top grilles, rims and the sidepipes were primed with th same glossy black 2K as the body, while all the other parts have no primer underneath - I molded them glossy so that primer wouldn't be necessary. I make my silicone moulds always like that to avoid the primer work. Actually, it's possible to mould the parts in shades of grey to achieve an effect range from silver-looking to steel-looking chrome with Alclad paint, which is translucent. I think you can't tell from the photos, but this difference can be seen when comparing the sidepipes with the bumpers. Oh, and I hope the PM I sent you made it through? That Camaro of yours ROCKS! Greets, Michael

@ Cato: that's because we 1/8 builders help each other out once in a while, right Karsten Really beautiful finish on that one. And I'm sorry for the delay with the engine parts!

thanks a lot for all the praise, it's nice to hear it after putting her together at one o'clock in the morning, with shaky hands and a head full of spray fumes. The joys of modeling @ Len: The headlight housings are CAD designed and 3D-printed, while the reflectors and the glass are copies from my Cobra parts. And hey, she can blink Oh, and one more thing: ALCLAD II chrome paint ROCKS!!! I really like the stuff, worked great right from the spot.

Hello folks, finally, i'm back from China, back from Mallorca, and back from the US Car Model exhibition in Frankfurt last weekend. Guess what I did in the days and nights before the exhibition... Are you ready? Let's roll! Ok, first of all: she's still WIP! There's no chassis, no door locks, no antenna, the rear lights are not correctly fitted and the wrong version. But worst of all, the windshield got damaged while painting the interior, with solvent bleeding through the masking tape. I have to exchange the windshield now, because it's not possible to polish it any better than this. Ah well, I still like her XD

Hey folks, sorry for not posting any news or pics lately. I have embarked on a business trip to China, and I won't be back til September, so please keep watching my Vette thread. I promise I'll be stepping on the gas once I'm back, with all the pent up energy from doing no modeling for several weeks... It will definitely rock and I'm looking forward to it!!

Hey guys, thanks for all the nice comments! I like Z06Bob's nickname for my Vette most Here's another little teaser pic for you, the hood sanded prior to clearcoating, with a test fit of the raw printed magic numbers... those are only 3mm high! As I told you Trae, there's a little red on my Vette too

Hey guys, I'm really glad you like the paint job! Can't wait to show you the other parts of the car. @Monty: I use two-component car paint to do black, grey, white and clear, and one-component water-based car paint for the colorful stuff. The 2K-paints are from Endlendt Color and Mipa. Biggest advantage of 2K paints: they can be sanded and polished. But without my trusty SATA Minijet paint gun, I think I wouldn't be able to get those results. It doesn't come cheap, but painting with this gun is a real breeze - with all the little stuff (bumpers, headlights and so on) I was spraying black nearly an hour without getting the cramps. I would never paint a car body in this scale with an airbrush or even spray cans. @semijoe: For taping, I use TESA type 4334 tape, which is similar to Tamiya masking tape. I never had any bleeding with those tapes, but it may depend on the viscosity of the paint you're using. My paint is relatively thick compared with airbrush stuff.

Alright, instead of learning for my exams, I got some paint on my Vette. Those pics are taken right after removing the masking tape, and the boundaries are not finished yet. Just a little update in between... now I will add some striping and seal the whole car with clearcoat. A day after painting, the paint still looks wet

@ stump: Aw man, there are worse diseases out there! And yup, I'm going for the Baldwin Motion Phase III, hopefully she's going to look just like this: But I won't use the "egg crate" front grilles and add some cockpit air scoops, and I'm planning for a 427 GT version with three taillight bands. Hope you'll be around until she's done, it'll take some months though...

@ Trae: Yeah, that's a nice one! those flares look just like mine, with the exception that mine are going to have a sharp edge. Yesterday, I fitted my Torque Thrusts with those knock-off nuts, and I thought it looks strange. Your pic shows it's being done after all... I'm about to get the Rapid-Prototyping parts for the Vette, and I'll post pictures as soon as I have 'em. Did I mention that I'm going to give her movable headlights? By the way, what's the story about the "Stingray" side emblem being on only a few '69 Vettes? And I'd like to use the Bullet-mirror, like on my Cheetah and Cobra. Hope that's not a serious style flaw...

@ Cato: Man, I really wish I'd met you before starting the Cobra. You're the man to ask! About the Elise: That was just a short love affair, a test drive. I couldn't keep her... It's just me and my Boxster But guess what, I've got a one-eight Elise 111R in the making, maybe someday she'll make it to this forum...

@ Cato: Nope, I'm not using RenShape. Or maybe, yes - it's hard to tell, because I have used leftovers from industrial modeling until now. Basically, it doesn't matter what brand of KBM (Kunststoffblockmaterial - "Plastic block material") you use. As far as I know, it's always foamed Polyurethane, and the only difference may be in the foaming process, influencing the structure a bit. The main difference is about the density of the stuff, which is coded by the color (but the makers may have different colors for their densities of course.) Choosing the right density is crucial, because a light density means easiest carving, but sharp edges (e.g. fender flares) are damaged easily. Also, the bigger the chambers in the foam structure, the bigger your problems at the filler stage are. My observation is, that light foam produces a really heavy orange peel when fillered. You can add a thick filler and sand the peel down, but the filler will continue to set down for months and you will see the peel again in the paintjob. It happened with the Cobra... Heavier density foam is harder to carve, but the filler and edge issues are not as bad. Personally, I found that density around 0,3 grams per cubic cm works best for me. The main issues about the stuff are availability and price. I hope for you that in the US it's easier to get. After all, it is pro material used in the rapid tooling process by industrial modelers. I found that they charge absurd prices in hobby shops for it. I'd really like to support all you modelers out there with the know-how I've got about industrial modeling, because the opportunities are countless. I thought about writing a book about it (like those Kalmbach how-to paperbacks), but I'm not sure wether it would sell.

@ Cato: I guessed you would find some more imperfections with those pics up But you missed one: I didn't add rubber seals to the hookup and roll bar body ports. Aw, let's just call it a prototype... About those tires: Actually the tread pattern is from a Dunlop tire I came across. I am using them in a module fashion for all my cars in different sizes and with different emblems, a bit sloppy I have to admit. But they are rapid prototyping parts I'm casting off (the only other means to make such a tread is with CNC milling as far as I know), and since RP parts of this size are rather costly, I'm content with them. Plus, the rough RP surface really looks interesting on the tread. Guess if I had a spare garage, I'd have already started a real kit Cobra. But I already have storage problems with my 1/8 kits

@ Trae: I used a Revell '69 in 1/24 for reference and carved those sections by hand. Basically, after cutting the old parts, you glue in a large chunk of modeling foam and model it to fit the body lines. Of course, I cannot guarantee that my car represents a '69 body exactly, but I like it the way it is... lots And yes, I'm going to fit Hooker sidepipes, with all those sexy bends. What do you think about heat shields? And I'm not yet sure wether to use a Le Mans filler cap or the usual with the emblem... Being as crazy as I am, I just finished my first cast of the body a few minutes ago. To give you a big hint, it's going to be converted to a curbside Phase III...

@ Trae: For that, my Boxster gives you the evil look and says: Black is beautiful! I saw a lot of black C3s with overall chrome rims, but I think that even with Torque Thrusts (which have less optical impact than e.g. Halibrands) it's just too much. Guess I'll try some of the "shoes" on when the body is painted and make some photos. We'll see then. @ Art Laski, Mark Taylor: I'm really sorry about this. Something went wrong with updating the pic, which is in much better quality now. Since there's so much appreciation of this project, I've got two pics from BEFORE painting the body with filler:

Now for some cockpit shots... I'm really proud of the way the "leather" seats turned out (the are, in fact, a one-piece cast taken from a magic-sculp model). The steering wheel rim is a turned part made from real wood, and I'm a little disappointed that I couldn't use layered wood because it would break. The mirrors are not good enough, too. Still room for improvement

@ Cato: Man, this Cobra of yours could be the one I'm dreaming of. One day I'm going to own one like that... Maybe a Superformance replica. Guess you're not going to swap your ride with one of my kits XD I'm going to contact you if I'm about to start casting again, but as far as I now, it wouldn't be legal to sell copies just like that. Now for some macro lens shots. Although I think that it's kind of unfair to shoot a model like this, because I'm not working with magnifiers during modeling. But it's the best way to catch those details... I think that the emblems and front cooler are the maximum what can be achieved by the rapid prototyping technique I'm using. For the Le Mans filler cap (handmade) and the cooler fittings (bought), the detail of RP parts would've been not crisp enough.

@ Trae: Sorry bout the "not red" choice, I'll be reserving that color for my C2 project ;] And true, I'm still thinking about the wheel thing. Got some Halibrands from my Cobra: But I also got American Racing Torque Thrusts and I'm currently making AR 500s: Really a tough choice... What do you think? And hey, I'm really envious of you guys owning such beautiful cars... here in Germany, we've got to do with Porsches and the like

@ Plasticfanatic: That hollowing was a messy job. I did it after casting a mould of the body. To get access, I cut off the roof and carved it all out. Messy alright, and dusty too!

At least the Cheetah thread has some nice pictures now. There you can also have a look at how I'm carving my cars. Have fun!

OK, I think I got the hang of uploading good-looking pics now. And now, a little WIP photo series of how the Cheetah was carved. It's like magic

Hey, I'm really glad that you like the good ol' snake! @ Plasticfanatic: Thanks for adding my webpage link, guess that should've been my job. @ XJ6: It's not a kit, it's... scratchbuilt! I used an AMT/ERTL 1/16 Cobra for reference, though. @ Cato: Guess you know more about the S/C than I do I started off with an AMT/ERTL 1/16 Cobra for reference, and just about when the body was finished and fillered, I came across an original S/C. Quite some shock... I went home, grabbed my biggest rasp and gave her a good do-over. Also had to use a lot of putty. With the tail lights, I took the freedom to use the round ones since they duplicate as front turn signals. You know, I made moulds from almost every part, so I reduced my workload whenever possible. I liked the round ones more, too. Same goes with the dashboard and the tires, I guess I was tired of absolute accuracy on those issues, just did what liked best But man, for the paint job I tried to get some "original" Guardsman blue, till somebody told me that Shelby himself couldn't say which blue that exactly was. So I used BMW LeMans Blue, which is what they use on the new Cobras... About the pictures: I'm really sorry for the bad quality. I tried to make some new pics especially for posting them here, but the weather here in Germany really sucks right now, and since I like to shoot in daylight, that's all I got. But I promise you some close-ups with a macro lens sometime soon! Any special angles you want to see?

Thanks for the praise, I'm really glad you like my "cat". I really have to apologize for the poor quality of the pics, if you'd like to see some more, please visit Detailed-Models.de