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Robert Burns - How good is he?


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AKA Too Many Projects, he sells on Facebook a few times a year. Many of us have seen the exhausting array of mostly obscure American cars he offers in 3D printed resin, either in white resin for about $65, or tan resin for around twice that. I've been waiting for a Fairmont Futura for a long time, so I thought I'd pull the trigger on a white resin example to see just how good Mr. Burns' products are. In a word, very good. This was a bit of a leap of faith because I have never seen this particular body before, but judging by the others that can be seen on the interwebs, I knew it would be something that can be worked with. These cars don't come with interiors, chassis, or wheels, but you do get the body, bumpers, grille, mirrors where applicable, and all separate lights in clear resin. You also get clear-ish printed window bucks that can be smoothed and used to vacuform glass. Obviously these are for experienced builders, as scratch building will be necessary to complete the model. But you get a good head start on an offbeat car that you want, that no company will ever kit.

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To me, the most important thing by far is scale accuracy in terms of proportion and dimension. Since these are scans of real cars with lots of editing to make removable parts, the overall proportions are quite good. The grille is a very tight fit into the body, so a bit of filing will be necessary to allow for paint clearance. Everything should be fit first before painting just to be sure. All scripts and emblems are there, but are faint and will probably disappear after sanding and priming, so photoetch parts or decals would be nice to have. The lines in the white resin are very fine, so sanding and priming won't be an issue. The more expensive tan resin is supposed to be higher resolution, so I may give that a try on the next body I order. If you have been wondering if you should order something from Too Many Projects, the answer is yes. Be advised that he is a busy man, and this car took nine weeks to deliver after payment. But for most of us, working on something else while waiting is not a problem.

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Thanks for the images and review! I was perusing his site, and was ready to take out a loan from the Irish Mafia to fund the many kits I'd buy! But, since the most interesting subjects need everything else to be bashed or scratched, I relented. 
Surely, I'd pull the trigger if he offered a 1970,1971,1972 Dart Swinger that'd work with the Revell 1968 Dart GTS (340 from the AMT 1971 Duster 340 would more than suffice).

Do you feel that the 'glass' bucks would polish-out to a clear? 
At a minimum, those bucks would work as templates for Evergreen et al. styrene clear.

Water your plans for the Futura? Monogram 1987 Thunderbird for the frame/chassis/suspension? 

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I have been watching these models in various threads here.  They appear to be designed really well as far as body proportions go.  One thing that really bugs me about them is how thick the bodies are.  That is very apparent on the A-pillars.  If the windshield installs from the inside, they will not look very realistic. If it goes in from the outside, it will be difficult to glue it in without the glue showing.

I'm not sure why they are so thick.  Even home 3D printing ls advanced enough (especially that brown resin) to make the bodies much thinner, and the resin should be robust enough for a sturdy body.


As for the windows bucks, they should be usable for making vacu-formed (or smash-molded) windows from thin clear PET sheet.

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2 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

Thanks for the images and review! I was perusing his site, and was ready to take out a loan from the Irish Mafia to fund the many kits I'd buy! But, since the most interesting subjects need everything else to be bashed or scratched, I relented. 
Surely, I'd pull the trigger if he offered a 1970,1971,1972 Dart Swinger that'd work with the Revell 1968 Dart GTS (340 from the AMT 1971 Duster 340 would more than suffice).

Do you feel that the 'glass' bucks would polish-out to a clear? 
At a minimum, those bucks would work as templates for Evergreen et al. styrene clear.

Water your plans for the Futura? Monogram 1987 Thunderbird for the frame/chassis/suspension? 

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No way on polishing the glass to a reasonable level of clarity. Clear resin isn't very clear in large parts, but it reads well on smaller parts like lenses. I made the bucks and I make all the vacuform glass from PET-G for the Master Caster offerings, so vacuforming this is no problem for me. As the bucks are resin, they should last for many pulls. We'll see.

As for the plans, mild street machine with an EFI 5.0, T-5, and nice wheels kind of like I am planning to build my 1:1 Futura. This car is 1:25 scale, and the MPC Fox chassis fits very well, so I'll lengthen it to Fairmont wheelbase and overhang and call it good. Because the dash and most of the interior is the same or similar to '79-'84 Mustang, it won't be much problem, with only the interior 1/4 panels having to be scratch built. I may offer resin copies of the interior tub to Robert, since he is looking for builders to do the interiors on his cars.

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2 hours ago, peteski said:

I have been watching these models in various threads here.  They appear to be designed really well as far as body proportions go.  One thing that really bugs me about them is how thick the bodies are.  That is very apparent on the A-pillars.  If the windshield installs from the inside, they will not look very realistic. If it goes in from the outside, it will be difficult to glue it in without the glue showing.

I'm not sure why they are so thick.  Even home 3D printing ls advanced enough (especially that brown resin) to make the bodies much thinner, and the resin should be robust enough for a sturdy body.


As for the windows bucks, they should be usable for making vacu-formed (or smash-molded) windows from thin clear PET sheet.

The body is somewhat thick, but not as thick as others I've seen. Cutting the hood out will be a fun time. The pillars can be thinned with a motor tool and a drum sander, I may do that. The glass does install from the inside, fits very nicely, and the vacuform units I'll make will also install from the inside and should look fine.

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As someone who has a number of Robert Burns' excellent bodies, I can vouch for the very good quality of what he has. Yes, the bodies are a bit thick considering, but I can believe that's done for a more practical reason such as making sure that the body file survives printing (very thin, unedited A pillars can be a problem), and to make sure the body gets through to shipping with no issues.

As far as the glass bucks, they're made so that it can be mounted from the outside......pretty much like a 1:1. Yes, you're going to have to take some time and smooth and polish out the bucks for vacuforming, or if the glass is not too complex, they can make good templates for clear stencil sheet. I have glued this in just the four corners with no fogging CA, then with a very fine bead of epoxy to keep the sides in.

Here is a pic I got of his Cutlass recently as I was test fitting the front and rear glass templates............

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Yes, they will need some finessing to make them fit a bit more flush. I'd also need to make some sort of flange for the quarter windows so the glass would fit there nearly flush.

I should mention that Robert has reached out to me to ask if I'd like to do test prints of his upcoming bodies, as he knows that I have a 3D printer. I told him I would and give a bit of a critique if there are changes that might be needed for said model. Interesting enough, I was on a site (Hum3D) the other day where Robert is getting some of his files. The 3D renderings there don't offer interiors either unless you pay a HUGE premium ($900), so I can see why he does ask for help when it comes to someone that can make and cast interiors and whatnot.

I did get a file a while back that did come with complete interior, but I gotta tell ya, it was done in an .obj file, and it's a job to convert what's needed to an .stl file, edit the parts to withstand printing, and then smooth them out to make them presentable to be built.

Not for the faint of heart in the least. 🤯

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Mike, I want to add that is a VERY good looking Futura! One of the nicest I've seen of that car and one that's much wanted among us out here in the "lunatic fringe". I thought about getting that one myself, but my heart was won over by a '77 Chrysler Newport four door hardtop, and a 1960 Plymouth XNR concept car that Robert has on his latest list.

The Plymouth I actually thought about scratchbuilding recently, so this saves me a LOT of work! 😁

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Interesting. I think the Future Attraction body looks more accurate to me. This one looks a little thick in the B-Pillar.

I am not taking anything away from the excellent quality of his products. I had one of his original Future Liners that was stunning.

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17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Here is a pic I got of his Cutlass recently as I was test fitting the front and rear glass templates............

Bill, it looks like the tan resin is very similar to the white in that I can see the same chevron looking grain at the edges of the horizontal panels on both the Cutlass and the Fairmont. The only gripe I have on the Fairmont is that the emblems are too faint. I will try to foil cast them before I finish the body for paint. I noticed on the Buick Sport wagon that yellowsportwagon posted (what a nice car) that the emblems are loud and proud, so I imagine that it was in the file that way, or maybe that's what Robert meant when he said that some bodies don't print well in white resin. Either way, it's not a serious problem.

17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

I should mention that Robert has reached out to me to ask if I'd like to do test prints of his upcoming bodies, as he knows that I have a 3D printer. I told him I would and give a bit of a critique if there are changes that might be needed for said model. Interesting enough, I was on a site (Hum3D) the other day where Robert is getting some of his files. The 3D renderings there don't offer interiors either unless you pay a HUGE premium ($900), so I can see why he does ask for help when it comes to someone that can make and cast interiors and whatnot. I did get a file a while back that did come with complete interior, but I gotta tell ya, it was done in an .obj file, and it's a job to convert what's needed to an .stl file, edit the parts to withstand printing, and then smooth them out to make them presentable to be built. Not for the faint of heart in the least. 🤯

A bit beyond my pay grade, I have to say.

17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Mike, I want to add that is a VERY good looking Futura! One of the nicest I've seen of that car and one that's much wanted among us out here in the "lunatic fringe". I thought about getting that one myself, but my heart was won over by a '77 Chrysler Newport four door hardtop, and a 1960 Plymouth XNR concept car that Robert has on his latest list.

The Plymouth I actually thought about scratchbuilding recently, so this saves me a LOT of work! 😁

I'm really happy to finally have one. The next car I will buy is a '67 Marlin, I really like those and they are stupid rare in 1:1.

I used to own a '78 NYB with the 440.

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I got it from an impound yard, the owner was going to turn it into a demo derby car. I talked him into using an '80 Impala instead, and took this one home. After repairing the power windows, door locks, seats, A/C, trunk lock, tune up, new tires, etc, I sold it on ebay to a guy in Cincinnati who could not believe his good fortune in finding a rust free AZ 440 NYB.  He left me the most glowing feedback I've ever received. That was my good deed for the day.

12 hours ago, Len Woodruff said:

Interesting. I think the Future Attraction body looks more accurate to me. This one looks a little thick in the B-Pillar.

I am not taking anything away from the excellent quality of his products. I had one of his original Future Liners that was stunning.

It was pretty nice too, but try as I did - for years - I could never buy one of those. Eventually poor quality knock-offs started to appear on ebay, and thus began the downward spiral.

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19 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

Yes, the bodies are a bit thick considering, but I can believe that's done for a more practical reason such as making sure that the body file survives printing (very thin, unedited A pillars can be a problem), and to make sure the body gets through to shipping with no issues.

Is that really necessary?  You of all the people, you know first hand how sturdy resin 3D prints can be.  Some 3D resins are similar to polystyrene, and there are thousands of injection molded styrene kits out there with thin A-pillars shipped problem free all over the world.  To me that excessive thickness detracts from the fidelity of the model.  It makes it clunky.

If the entire body was printed thinner, it would have less mass.  It could safely be wrapped in paper towels and placed in a sturdy cardboard box (just like most resin-cast kits are.  Those survive shipping just fine, and many of them have bodies (and pillars) pretty thin.  The MGB GT transkit I bought recently has resin cast parts, and the body is as thin as the original plastic MGB.  That kit's master patterns were 3D printed, then cast using urethane resin. It survived shipping from UK to USA without any special packaging.  The thickness of the bodies is a real put-off for me.  Otherwise those look like very good renditions of the 1:1 vehicle bodies.

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All I can say is the man must be doing something right. As of right now with the screenshot I took of his page, he has 360 comments and climbing. Each of those comments has several requests for models. To each his own about the thickness of the body, and he no doubt has reasons why he makes them thicker as he's the one that's printing and casting them.

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1 hour ago, realgone58 said:

Bill, what are you planning for the interior for your '77 'Yorker? I want to buy one of these soooo bad, but I in no way can build a scratchbuilt interior for it. 

Oh, I'll have to cobble together something out of scratch.....especially the dash. The dashboard to my eyes are simple flat panels that I can shape and add gauges. The seats I can get together with whatever's in my parts box and go from there. The "loose cushion" look can be had with some putty and half round tubing of different sizes.

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I have 4 bodies from Robert but luckily they have easily found donors for chassis and interiors. I ordered three more on this last run and while it's pretty pricey, the stuff I will have may never be offered in a plastic kit so I can have something I would otherwise wish for.

The accuracy of his bodies is what drew me to buying from him. I need to get mine done soon.

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I would also say very good! 

I got his 1970 Dodge Polara 4 door. I’m going to make it into a replica of my dad’s driver from the early 70’s. It was probably the car I was brought home in. It was a REAL looker for a 4 door- light turquoise with a black vinyl top and interior. It had those funky 15” wheel covers with the dark gray paint treatment that you also saw on ‘69 Chargers. I got mine in resin from Fireball Modelworks. 

For the interior, I’m stretching the tub from an MPC ‘77 Monaco 4 door. For the dash, I’m going to try to cobble something together from some old junk E Body dashes I have. 

For the chassis- I’m using an old MPC ‘65 Monaco unit, with some modifications. The engine will be my favorite- the one from the Revell ‘68-‘69 Dart kits. 

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6 minutes ago, CapSat 6 said:

It had those funky 15” wheel covers with the dark gray paint treatment that you also saw on ‘69 Chargers. I got mine in resin from Fireball Modelworks. 

Those happen to be my favourite 15" wheel covers. They were installed on cars which were originally shod with the 'Recall' [W27'] wheels; they're going on the Revell 1970 Charger kit (with correct tyres as well). Speaking of tyres, where did you get the ones you're using? 

Sounds like you dad's Polara was Q5 turquoise originally.

Good call on the chassis -- separate subframe just like all 1966 & up C-bodies.

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2 minutes ago, 1972coronet said:

Those happen to be my favourite 15" wheel covers. They were installed on cars which were originally shod with the 'Recall' [W27'] wheels; they're going on the Revell 1970 Charger kit (with correct tyres as well). Speaking of tyres, where did you get the ones you're using? 

Sounds like you dad's Polara was Q5 turquoise originally.

Good call on the chassis -- separate subframe just like all 1966 & up C-bodies.

Yeah- I dig those wheelcovers. Once again, you and I seem to like the same stuff! I have a real one in my basement from an old junkyard trip. I already sort of forgot where I got the tires from. I believe they are the ones from the newest MPC ‘78 Dodge Pickup. They have to be, judging by how clean they are!!! 

I think this chassis is the only way to go on C Body builds. The C body chassis is just different enough to warrant it. The B Body chassis is sort of close, but the K member is very different. I think if somebody wanted to master one based on the MPC ‘65-‘66 Monaco chassis, that would be the way to go for most of Robert’s C body offerings. 

I did go on www.paintscratch.com and got a can of 1970 Turquoise. It looks a little darker than I remember, but fortunately, they sell big cans, so I’m going to test it out on something else before I shoot this body. 

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32 minutes ago, CapSat 6 said:

I did go on www.paintscratch.com and got a can of 1970 Turquoise. It looks a little darker than I remember, but fortunately, they sell big cans, so I’m going to test it out on something else before I shoot this body. 

A great site, albeit flawed (to an extent). I reference Hamtramck Historical for , among other things, the paint codes. IIRC, Q5 --and its darker relative-- date to at least 1968 (earliest car I've seen in Q5 was a '68 Barracuda Formula-S 383 hardtop). 

I wonder how the Johan '68 Fury A38's chassis looks? There aren't any screw posts/holes from what I remember... 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am currently working on interiors for the 74 LeMans and 77 Cutlass. I have already done the interior for a 73 GS but will have to adapt it to Robert's body. It has a slight ridge around the windows inside the body that I have to adjust for. If you can find a tub that works, the rest is just a lot of looking at pictures and lots of Evergreen! The bodies have great detail and proportions, at least to me.

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17 minutes ago, DoctorLarry said:

I am currently working on interiors for the 74 LeMans and 77 Cutlass. I have already done the interior for a 73 GS but will have to adapt it to Robert's body. It has a slight ridge around the windows inside the body that I have to adjust for. If you can find a tub that works, the rest is just a lot of looking at pictures and lots of Evergreen! The bodies have great detail and proportions, at least to me.

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I just got files from Robert to print the interior for his 1960 Plymouth XNR concept model that I have on order, along with the wheels and chassis. He and I were talking back and forth, and he mentioned that in the future since a number of folks either have 3D printers, or can have things printed, he may offer interior files for those that want them when they buy the bodies.

I think that's a GREAT idea as this is a VERY prolific part of the hobby now. As I've been saying for a number of years------3D printing would be the next wave in car modeling, and it certainly has arrived.

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Agreed. As cost and quality of printers comes down, it becomes more accessible. I don't know how many people can scan full size cars and develop the files, though. Interiors are time consuming to construct (lots of small pieces) but once done can be infinitely replicated in resin if 3D is not an option. That's my route. I have talked with Robert as well as Paul Hettick and will be developing interiors for his Collonade GM's over time.

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8 minutes ago, DoctorLarry said:

Agreed. As cost and quality of printers comes down, it becomes more accessible. I don't know how many people can scan full size cars and develop the files, though. Interiors are time consuming to construct (lots of small pieces) but once done can be infinitely replicated in resin if 3D is not an option. That's my route. I have talked with Robert as well as Paul Hettick and will be developing interiors for his Collonade GM's over time.

I've seen the sites where Robert is getting a lot of his files, and some of them include interiors. One of them (Hum3D) wants something like $900 for the interior files?? YIKES! I don't know if that means they'll convert them to other formats for that price? It seems to me from some of the pics I've seen, they do have the interior. It may also be that he's paying the price for those files and he wants to recoup some of the cost in at least offering them for sale along with the price of the bodies.

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