blunc

this site: http://www.modelencyclopedia.com/ is a treasure trove of information and old model magazines, you just might see a very young Tim Boyd in a few of them.

the Dodge Deora may have been built about a year before Richard Carroll's creations appeared and may have been the inspiration for some of them. I too was one of the teens drooling over Richard's beautiful, well thought-out and functional creations, along with all the other great builders of that time (like Tim Boyd) they inspired me to build "out of the box". Maybe Richard could be persuaded to donate his award winning models to the Model Car Museum in Utah where a few other modeling greats are currently exhibited.

Those wheels done with wire really look a lot better than the fishing line version. Your wire wheel jig looks similar to another one I've seen on this forum, a great tool for a great feature.

"Land Shark"

what if it's right-side up but backwards, or maybe only 90 degrees off instead of 180 degrees?

I noticed and really like the extra work John put into all six of the carbs on this engine. Bravo!

it's probably a good that I most likely will never get to see this in person because I would inevitably spend close to half a day looking at it and saying "WOW" at all the amazing work and details you have created on this build. BRAVO sir!

Hey Kenn, This looks a lot like a "community build" type of challenge, this thread may get moved there to go along with all the other community build challenges By the way, I really enjoy seeing how you wrestle amazing cars from raw plastic, BRAVO! Mike

I apologize to John for further side tracking/hijacking his build thread, I will keep any additional comments in this thread focused to this build. John, I look forward to seeing how this all comes together.

Art, respects back at ya, I agree that machinists or fabricators can and do make adapter plates for these types of valve covers and if such an adapter was in evidence on John's engine then he could just say that his valve covers are mounted with an adapter plate. I'm no stranger to fabricating on real cars, I have a '63 TR4 that has a 2.8ltr Ford V6 in it, which I have configured with a Ford electronic distributor connected to a GM HEI ignition module mounted to an external HEI coil and a heatsink I machined down from an electronics assembly. I never have to worry about having good spark on this car and can get inexpensive factory replacements to repair with (just not "Triumph" factory replacements). All of these car mods were done without hacking up the original Triumph parts, instead, new/fabricated parts were adapted to Triumph mounting points. I suppose to make an exacting point that I could have said that the valve covers on John's engine for this build do not seem to match up with the head castings in a way that would have been done on a real engine and doesn't exhibit an adapter plate to resolve that issue but I failed to make those exacting points. Anyone that cares to can make any comment they care to regarding any of my work that I have posted in this forum and/or any work I plan on posting in this forum, if comments are helpful/constructive I will most likely thank the poster...if not helpful/constructive, I will give those posters a response deserving of their post (most likely no response at all).

Bad Roger, NO COOKIE! it looks like you totally missed Harry's point, when I read Harry's post I saw that Harry was commenting on the actual car and not John's amazing interpretation in scale form of a custom car that was probably built as a "poke" at car customizing ideals. Kind of brings to mind the "Klingon Kruizer" award I've seen at some contests for outlandish custom creations, which is really a tribute to a building style that melds great building skills with sometimes horrifying creations that are like a train wreck you just can't look away from.

I have some "cents" regarding your "2 cents". Many people here enter contests with their own creations, this in itself means they're going to be judged and/or criticized on their work. This doesn't mean that "bad things" will be said about them. There is a difference between a personal attack and expressing how you feel about a build that is being exhibitted (or posted). Here is what I would consider to be a mean statement: "I see that you forgot to put a master cylinder in your 1962 Bel Air with the fantastic paint job, you really suck at this, don't you?" Here is what I would consider to be fair and helpful judgement/criticism: "Your 1962 Bel Air has a fantastic paint job, I noticed that there was no master cylinder, it may have affected how you placed in this class." In this particular example, the builder may have forgotten to put in a master cylinder or may not have known that a 1962 Bel Air even had a master cylinder (hard to imagine...right?). A receptive builder might say: "Darn it, I knew I was forgetting something." A too sensitive builder might think: "Haters gonna hate." Both of those statements actually point out the same strengths/weaknesses, the first would not be accepted well unless you were real good "buds" with the builder, the second SHOULD be accepted well by the builder if the builder actually wants to place in a contest. If the builder doesn't want to place in a contest then it's just a show and the builder doesn't care to place.

Art, regarding the valve covers, (IMHO) Mark's point wins in this case. The flanges of the valve cover don't match to the heads in a way that oil and engine fumes will be contained under the valve cover in a realistic way. Does John even need to defend this issue which some feel to be an error? NO WAY!!!! I'm not trying to stroke John's ego here, (I have previously pointed out to him what would be an error on a real vehicle) but I'll surely stand up and say he can "build it that way if he wants to" since that's what everyone here does anyway. I see that Harry calls this piece a "recreation", there may be differing levels of "recreation" but it may be fairer to call it an "interpretation" (or just an amazing piece of 3D art). I greatly admire John's skills and creativity and hope he will continue posting his creations (or "interpretations") since they inspire a LOT of the rest of us with the possibilities lying dormant in formed and raw plastic.

the rivet counter in me is really enjoying this build. seeing how you translate what seems to be intimate knowledge/exposure of the real parts down to scaled parts is informative and inspirational, just seeing that it can be done (with hints on how it was done) gives me ideas on how I can improve my own skills. I really appreciate that your hinges duplicate or mimic the real hinges.

I have done this also (and sometimes wonder why other advance modelers DON'T do this) and feel it's a simple way to add more realism to a model. Thanks for making this tutorial.

the fiber optic idea is a great one, I have seen/worked with some of the hair-thin fibers, my wife wanted some sparkly bits added to some angel wing costume she was doing and acquired a cheap fiber optic kit that was battery powered. the new white LEDs are perfect for this application and would run for a long time on a couple "coin batteries" connected in parallel (I have done this for some table centerpieces a couple years ago). the trick will be in getting the fiber optic lines glued in and run to the light source without being seen.

regarding the your ball joint solution, I was wondering if you have an internal gap between the bevel head screw and the covering cap... it's possible that the head of the screw may knock the cover cap loose during extreme travel if it's a real tight fit, unless you bevel the slotted side of the screw also.

what, no torsion bar suspension? bummer. amazing work anyway, excellent solution for the "ball joints".

I have the 59 caddy & impala, the wire wheels are the same, they don't look like the real KH wires I have seen, the photos of the tbird wire wheels look exactly like the impala nd caddy wire wheels. I feel it's safe to assume the kit makers didn't make a special KH wire wheel mold since they already had a decent looking wire wheel set in these kits (even though it doesn't look like real KH wires IMHO). The KH wire wheels I've seen that had the tri-tip spinner was inset into the wheel lug cap, these kit wire wheels don't seem to represent that style.

great work (even if the hinges are "normal")

hmmm, time for an abnormal hinge then.

The wire wheels in those kits aren't really KH wires.

I suggest suicide doors would solve your hinge problem.

definitely looking good so far. don't worry about the wing window frames that have broken off the doors, just trim it back a bit so it looks like it came that way.

if you don't mind a little extra work at this point, I suggest attaching the boot and doors with removable pins at this point so you can get them properly aligned and sanded so they match the surrounding panels.