Tom Geiger Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 (edited) This year was the 12th Annual 24 Hour Build and I've participated in the last several years. It's not a contest, nor a race to finish first. It's a personal challenge... can I build a credible model in 24 straight hours? Sponsored by Gary Kulchock, and communicated through a FaceBook group, there were over 100 modelers from across the USA and Canada involved. Gary has a group of diehards at his house and several other groups have popped up. The rest of us toil alone in our model rooms. It kicked off at noon on January 27, along with the 24 Hr race at Daytona. And you work, occasionally stopping to post a few photos, and/or watch the progress of others. It is really cool to be working in the middle of the night and knowing that there's tens of other modelers doing the same thing at the same time! And there's nothing like posting a few progress photos at 3am and instantly getting several "Like"s and comments. There are strategies that get discussed in the weeks leading up to the build. We share a list of tips from lessons learned by the group over the years. First, we recommend that you pick a kit of medium complexity and one that you are familiar with. One without building issues like older kits with fit issues and an overabundance of molding issues to sand and fix. The year I built the MissDeal Funny car, there was so much prep work that at 6pm I only had a primed pile of parts. You learn! And we recommend using spray cans of fast drying lacquer like Tamiya or Duplicolor. My work is all Duplicolor. We also recommend building an expendable kit, one you sacrifice for the project. You won't have time to do everything as perfect as you try on your regular projects. You can skimp on the prep work, spray quickly with spray cans, and just have fun. This is a free license to build like a fifth grader! This year I got the bug to build this Foose FD-100 Ford pickup. This truck sits a few blocks from my house and the voices in my head agreed to build this with the Foose kit. Falling back on my weathered sweet spot! And this is where we ended up at 11:45 on Sunday morning! It was a great time, that went very quickly. I took a break for nourishment and communications every few hours. That kept me going. The idea was to build the modern Foose rod with the patina of the 1:1 truck. One of the things that cost me a lot of time is that there are five colors of paint stacked up. The body started in primer gray, followed by primer red, flat black and several coats of two greens. With an hour or two between colors. That's needed so when I wet sand in a circular motion, the colors emerge. I was wet sanding in the middle of the night! The Foose kit's engine was built along with a bit of wiring and an aluminum air cleaner I had for years. The underside is again a modern Foose car. The interior was right from the kit, but two toned in my own colors. I did create a headliner since there wasn't one. The kit itself was pretty well engineered. The glass literally snapped in place. Around 9am I decided to mask off the bed strips and paint wood grain! As beat as the 1:1 truck looks, it had new wood in the bed. Here's a 2am progress shot. I had the chassis up on wheels and drivetrain installed! The kit did have one flawed wheel and one misformed tire. One of my recommendations to other builders in this event is to have a second copy of the kit. I didn't this year! And a fit test at 6am. Note that this is right as the wet sanding dried, and the rust hadn't started yet! And that brought us to noon on Sunday and the big celebration on FaceBook as everyone posted their finished builds. There were about 40 models finished. Others didn't quite make it. Some quit early, and others just ran out of time. Since that day, several more models have been finished up and posted. I was very pleased with my performance and end result this year. There were other years I finished quicker and years I didn't finish at all. This is a fun event and you learn a lot about building strategies and how long different steps actually take. It causes you to think and build in a more logical way on your regular builds. I find myself getting more done quicker since I got involved with the project. In the end we are amazed at how well the projects came out! Edited February 9, 2018 by Tom Geiger removed duplicate photo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jhedir6 Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Fantastic Tom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobthehobbyguy Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Nice work. Love it a high tech beater. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfmanJedd Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Love the weathering and color! Nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1930fordpickup Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Nice Work Tom. Nice vision. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Len Woodruff Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Nice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
espo Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 Very impressive paint finish. The exterior weathering looks very real to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damodelguy az Posted February 9, 2018 Share Posted February 9, 2018 nice, this a sweet kit to build, some of you guy have this weather look down to an art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisR Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 NEAT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KWT Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Very nicely done Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nacho Z Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 I just read your post. I have to say you nailed it. I posted my 24 hour build earlier today, before I read your post, and I have echoed several of your thoughts. Great minds think alike!....lol. Your truck looks good! Nice job on it, especially considering it was a 24 hour build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slusher Posted February 10, 2018 Share Posted February 10, 2018 Fantastic Ford Tom! Wonderful copy of the original! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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