Vande

I have been working on this as time permits, I just keep forgetting to update. I bought some washes and started trying to learn how to use them. For some reason I can't get the washes to flow into just the right spots, I have had to brush it over the area and go back after it is dry with some brush cleaner on a qtip, and it cleans right off. Once I thought the washes looked good, I cleared it with a matte coat to even everything out.

Ordered the kit, in the meantime, hoping I can get some help on a couple things. I know the car is Ford Race Red, is there anywhere to get it in a spray can? I want to duplicate the car as best I can. I know there is a ford blue available for the engine parts. Also, is there a paint code for the rims? The car has a dark almost slate color on the rims. Also, is there anyone or anywhere that makes window louvres for a 1/10th scale? I was looking through the pictures, and she added them to the car, and it doesn't look like the kit carries them. I am not that good at scratch building, so I don't know if I could manage to make them myself. I figure anything I can get ahead of time will make it easier when I have the kit here, which will hopefully be the end of the week, and then I will switch to a build thread.

I have the reference photos, hers is the super snake, i have interior/exterior/engine shots of the car. I want to build it for her as a thank you for some things she helped me out with, and I know that car is her pride and joy. I think the only thing I will not know how to do is a decal she has on the rear window that i have to make sure is on there. I am probably going to jump on ordering the kit in the next couple days.

I am hoping some of the folks on here can answer this question for me. I am watching a couple sites to pick up a 1/12 2010 GT500 kit. My question is, I am not a ford guy, can this kit be built to mimic a 2012 GT500? From what I can tell from the reference pictures I have found, they look very similar, but I do not know that much about them. I want to build it up as a replica of my mom's car she bought. I have all the photos of her car she posted, and I am hoping to do it without her knowing, but I don't want to spend the money for a large kit if it will not be build-able to match her car. Also, if it can be done, is there anyone on here that might be able to help with a decal I need for the build? It is a very specific decal that will be completely custom. Thanks folks!!!

I had thought about doing something like that, actually I had built a tank out of a large pill bottle to put between the bed and cab, but after I looked at it, this struck me as something different to do. Hopefully when I get a little further along, it will look more like what I have in mind, I hope.

Got a little more done on this one, here are a few pictures: I had an issue with the primer I used as a base coat, it dried as it was spraying, but with the overall look, it looks like there was dirt on the hood and roof when the truck was painted, so I decided to leave it. I now some may not like it, I just thought it was unique, and didn't clean it off. Haven't seen many comments, but still slowly plugging away on this one.

Got the majority of the semi frame together and painted today, a couple pictures: Going to paint the other two tanks a different color to break everything up, my thought is someone doing this sort of work would spray everything in flat colors and make sure there was nothing shiny on the truck to attract attention, as though the entire thing wouldn't attract attention! Will do a brown wash on it tomorrow to give it the dirty appearance it deserves.

I have made a little progress, I am slowly working through the wrecker portion of the truck, hope to make some more progress today! Salted the grill: Salting the wrecker frame: Catch all shot: Rims sprayed with camo black: Assorted parts I need to work on: Have to finish cleaning the grille up from the salting: Wrecker bed is almost done: Wrecker frame, still needs a few areas hand painted and some more muck/mud: Comments/criticisms are always welcome!

Finally a little progress! I have been working on it slowly but surely, on to the photos Long ways to go, this was my first attempt at using the salt technique, it wasn't too bad, but it is a challenge to not overdo it.

Thankfully the snake is small enough, every time it struck at the cat, it couldn't get an angle to hit the cat. He is actually doing great, and looking for more of them. We have had a snake explosion on the property the last few months. I swear I had a moment last night looking at the snake and the model kits, and I was trying to figure out if the snake was to scale for an interior...

I have to share this. Below are 2 pictures taken about 15 minutes ago of my workbench, and something that I never expected to have on my bench, or in my garage! This is a very alive and very young southern california rattlesnake I took from one of our barn cats this morning when I realized what he had. Hopefully tomorrow we can get hold of the Sonoma County reptile rescue, I am hoping to avoid killing it if I can get it somewhere safer... Just thought I would share, hope to see some other interesting things in here!

Yes, small zip ties, I saw it on someone's build on here, thought I would give it a try, a thin strip of styrene was used to mount them, then a spray of satin plastic fusion, and a silver dry brush

Did some work on the radiator, hopefully it will look good once it is done.

Some updates, not a lot, I need to re-do the radiator, it did not go according to plan... I started on the front bumper, I drilled out the lights, glued in a couple of shoe rivets, and will run recovery chains or something similar through them later on. I tried to see how steady my hands were with the two lights, I can see I am not steady at all anymore.

Thank you. I am working on it slowly, I primed the front bumpers after joining them, and I am working on re-doing the radiator using the zip tie trick I saw on here, not sure how it will turn out, but I am gonna try!

I have been gone for a while, had a deployment, then retirement, and now I am starting to work on some kits again. I have been reading through many of the threads here, and one in particular gave me a huge amount of inspiration to go way outside my comfort zone, and do a completely non-stock build. I also enjoyed reading many of the back stories, so I decided to give it a go. So in the theme of post-apocalypse wrenching, I present the beginning of the story. So while driving there wrecker through the new world, the engine started to give out. While looking to find somewhere to hole up, they found an old big rig garage, and decided to change the engine out of the truck, sorta. I have already done some additional work, will take photos once I get progress. I am thinking of changing the wheels/tires over to offroad, and I think I may keep the GMC frame, and mount it in a way that looks like they cut the front clip off, and lowered it on to the shortened truck frame. One question, does anyone have photos or a link to any builds showing a "stock" peterbilt 359 conventional engine? I have never built one, but would like to keep some realism to the build....oh who am I kidding, I am trying to Cranky on this build...or somewhere between Cranky and Ira....

My wife and I were at the local thrift store the other day, I picked up a model that is missing many of the pieces, including the sidecar, but looks like with a little work, could be a nice model. The only thing I could find on it is this: http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/21st-century-dragon-wwii-german-seat-468302346 Does anyone happen to have more information on it? I am hoping I found something cool, I watched a guy walking around with a 12th scale porsche kit he found right before I walked in...

I have the engine about 85% done, no pics atm, but will get some taken this weekend. Next up is to work on the interior. Slow going on this one

Since I had to re-do the paint, I changed it up a bit!

Thanks for the kind words guys. Like I said, the theme was accidental. I had painted the engine block red, and while piecing everything together, I ended up with a couple parts (the oil pan and the carbs) While I was looking at it before I put the scoop on, I noticed the shape and colors really reminded me of the iron man suit. So I ran with it. I do have to redo the paint, when I went to pull the masking, it ripped some of the paint up and off. I have noticed folks talking about custom decals, is there anyone on here that can make them? I have all the logos I need, except the old style lettering for the car name.

Okay so while working on the engine for my impala AWB/Gasser, I stumbled on to a color combination that gave me a theme idea for the car. I will be slow working on this one, but here are a couple pics. Most of the parts are being snagged from one of my new kits, here is a shot of my most recent purchases. On to the good photos: More once I get some more work done!

I love the idea of the ragtop, anyone know if there are any builds with anyone adding a ragtop? Not sure how to pull that off... Thanks! Vande

Alright, now that photobucket is done being rude, here are a couple pics of the slow progress! Here is the body with the offending piece that was removed: And a shot to show what I am working towards, a nice smooth rear end!

Got the rear end almost 100% done finally, between sanding and filling and sanding and filling I have something like 10 hours just on the rear end...Will get some pics here in a little bit. I do have a question, maybe I am not searching right, but is there any builds or anything on how to do custom interior components like speaker boxes? I want to try and do a crazy stereo along with the batteries and such for the hydros (old school style). I have seen a few builds before with the waterfall style boxes, but they were always finished, nothing on how they were built. I forgot to mention, if I can find it, the interior paint will be a real old school color, plum crazy.

Thanks guys! I have a lot of plans for this one, I still have to finish smoothing the body, and molding in the rear end, and smoothing the roof lines before I do much else. I want to build something that is just over the top with a vehicle people usually wouldn't customize. I will try and take some new pics this weekend of the rear end, the photos don't do it justice, the multicolor setup is hard to see what it looks like. I have been reading a lot of build threads, and I am looking to put a lot of work into the interior, and I am looking to have a fully wired sound system, and detail out the suspension. Will have more soon!