ScaleDale

Tanks. Dats Da Plan (DDP) dale

Casters use existing kit parts to build up stuff like this and there isn't anything comparable to a modern day Ford engine on the market, so it would be a tough build. Maybe someone with good CAD skills and access to either an actual motor for reference or an engineering file could do it, but it wouldn't be cheap. Personally, I'd love to see the line of Ford Racing crate motors available in some form from either the regular or after market. especially the Aluminator. That's one sexy hunk of alloy. Dale

This is a chicken-egg question. I am going to use Tamiya Pearl Clear (TPC) to finish my ProMod 49 Merc. It has Micro Reflective Thingies (MRTs) in it to make it look Ultra Groovy Cool (UGC). I'm going minimal on the decal side as drag cars go, just a major sponsor emblem and a few contingency stickers, but I can't make up my mind if they should be above or below the TPC layer for the UGC look. My going thought is to go ahead and clear it with the TPC and add the decals when it's all gassed out, then seal the whole thing with Future. Stickers change all the time on drag cars and are added on top of any overcoat, then waxed in for aerodynamics. Thoughts? Dale

Didn't note your location. Kablooie = highly explosive. Dale

Those are excellent primers for the reason that is vexing you at this point. Go with the alcohol thing. Get it from the hardware store in the paint section. Handle with extreme care. It will go kablooie on you if you give it the chance. Dale

The distributor is in the back because Revell either doesn't know about engines or thinks we won't notice the difference between BBF and BBC or Mopar distributor placement. The engine included in that kit isn't a Ford. Dale

Are you kidding? Me?? Never! Just kidding... This is probably the main reason I got into scratch building. I'd get to a point where assembled units come together and, um, wouldn't... So I'd either Dremel it to death or toss it and build a custom unit to fit just right. I found this to be the case with Revell Mustang bodies and their finished chassis. Drop the body on the durn thing and it won't go. Now I do the body first and keep it handy as a reference while I build the rest of the model, checking fitment as I go. Fitment. That's a word I never heard until I got into auto builds and hot rodding in general again. It's a British term for how assembled units fit and work together. Cars, big and small, often have "fitment issues". EDIT: I just finished shoe-horning an oversized aluminum radiator with an electric fan into a 1:1 '68 Mustang that came with a cooling system for a 6 cylinder. Didn't plan for this and had to replace the whole radiator mount to do it. And now I'm a welder... Dale

Be a bit more specific. In the '60s the original altered wheelbase was moving the rear wheels forward shortening the wheelbase. Now it's moving the front wheels forward to lengthen it. Both alter the wheelbase. Dale

All the "man" stuff didn't impress me, but I love the "cave"! Dale

I remember Annette and Darlene for sure... ######!! Now I can't get that song out of my head... How about Flash Gordon with all those Tree People that looked like, um, trees. Great fight scenes. Dale EDIT: Sorry. Didn't know ##### was a cuss word here. I'll keep it clean from now on.

Welcome to the 10% club... Dale

That's about right. I was around 10 or 11 and we moved to the burbs when I was 9. Dale

NooooP... Way before that. Gotta build that model one of these days. Dale

That's a bit fast, in my opinion. How well a dehydrator works is more a function of the weather than anything else. When there isn't a lot of moisture in the air, a coat of paint (lacquer} is ready for another coat in around 4 hours. It's really important to not rush painting and let it dry out before adding more layers. The general rule is that when you can't smell any paint fumes, then you can think about hitting it again. Even with fast drying paint and an airbrush, a paint job is a week or two project for me. It's the last step for most people and the one that is the hardest to un-do. Note: Dr. Cranky does his body paint first. With the hard part out of the way he can sit back and have fun with the rest of the build. Dale

Me, too. What was that submarine drama? Silent Running? Remember Sky King? How about Commander Cody? Super Car? Soupy Sales? Revell and Monogram as seperate companies? Parts Paks new on the shelf? LHS with Friday night slot car races? Tube televisions as new technology? Underground radio? Payola? Flag starters at the drags? Sunday!! Sunday!! Sunday! At Milan dragway. It's Dyno Don Nicholson in his alcohol burning fuel injected ford Falcon burning down the track at 120 miles per hour!!! Sunday!!! What is this, trolling for old guys?? Full disclosure: 66 next month and building my first 1:1 drag car. Dale

This happened to me in a 60's vintage VW beetle. Crashed right into the drivers side door in the dead of night. It was unusable. (Both the door and the deer) I called the local Southeastern Ohio authorities to report it and they asked me if I wanted the meat. It was out of season. I was on the road and turned it down. Dale

It's hard to say if more data from the sensor will help in this application or not. If I read right, your son's camera is 12mp and the Nikon you're looking at is 24mp. My canon is 18mp and I consider it super sharp. The issue here is that the image is being stripped of most of it 's detail when it's loaded up to a photo sharing service like Photobucket. The image you posted is compressed 85% down to around 1 megabyte and it's probably 10 or more on your computer. When you get into DSLR cameras, it's more about the size of the sensor than the number of pixels crammed into it. Big buck pro cameras have sensors the size of a 35mm film negative (so called full frame) and most of the consumer ones have smaller ones (crop sensor). Big is only better if your printing posters. In regards to depth of field, there is a smartphone app called Simple Depth of Field or Simple DOF for the iPhone and probably something like it for Android. It lets you dial in the lens and distance to subject and see the near and far focal points in terms of distance from the camera and the actual depth of field. I was surprised at how shallow it can be when you are shooting something small up close like a model car. That's how I wound up at f/22 trying to get 6 inches of model in focus. Look it or something like it up for your phone. Use Photography or Depth of Field as a search term. Dale

I read about a guy who made a bench apron of sorts out of an old shirt or something. It tacked to the edge of his bench and tied around his waist to make a big basket to catch those pesky runaway parts. My problem is flying parts. I cut something and bing! Lost until I've scratch built a replacement and find it stuck to the wall or something. Dale

That camera, the eos 400 is the XTi and is out of production. My first DSLR was the eos 450 (XSi) and it is out of production. My current camera is the Canon 7D and is not out of production. The 100mm 2.8 macro is one of my prize lenses and one of the worlds sharpest. It's also $800 and overkill for model photography. That said, don't put that kind of lens on an outdated camera for model photography. What you do need is a tripod if you don't already have one. One of the reasons most photos aren't sharp is because the camera isn't steady and a tripod will fix that. It will also let you stop your lens down. The smaller the aperture you use the more of your subject is in focus. It's called depth of field. A tripod will let you shoot at f/16 or lower (higher numbers are lower...go figure) I use f/22 and a timer for my close up shots. My exposures are around 1/2 second long. Lenses can be the death of DSLR owners, at least the death of their pocketbooks... I use my 100mm macro, but I also like my 50mm f/1.4 Canon. I have a 28-75mm f/2.8 Tamron zoom that will focus close and gets a lot of use. If you have a camera shop, take a look at it. If you want a macro that won't break the bank, look at the 90mm macro from Tamron. They have a 60mm macro, too. Dale

I do a lot of digital photography and I'm active in a forum for that hobby (don't tell those folks I called it a hobby). We find that people who have trouble with computers and cameras are dumping the photos directly from the camera to the computer. Since these are different animals they sometimes don't seem to like each other. The best compromise is to get a media card reader and plug it into the usb port of your computer. Remove the card from the camera and insert it into the reader and let the computer do it's thing. That way they don't have to talk to each other. Kinda like a hooker in a dark alley. When the computer is done, it might ask if you want to erase the card. If it does, tell it NO... Put the card in the camera and have the camera format it. Cameras know that stuff better than computers do. Have fun. Disclaimer: I use nothing but Macs. My wife has a nice HP laptop, but Windows is the most irritating thing I've ever had to deal with, including superglue. Every time I turn it on I have to sit through 20 minutes of updates between Microsoft and Kaspersky. Dale

NHRA requires Goodyear tires in Top Fuel and Funny Car with a max wheel width of 16 inches. The open wheel cars mostly run the big stuff - 36 x 17 - 16 at $800 each. with all the flex in the sidewall, I’m not sure what the FC boys run under those carbon fiber skins. I’ll go look… That altered is probably running something less. Dale

If I get out to Discount Models next week I'll let you know. The owner is a president or something of a local model club. I'm not a club guy. The shop is in University Place and I'm in Lakewood. Both are near Tacoma. Dale

Nice photo and model. What's your photo setup? What background and lighting? Camera? The pic is nice and sharp, but the depth of field is off. What f stop did you use? I have one of those table top studio things with a mesh cloth light tent and florescent studio lights. My camera from my other hobby is a Canon 7D. I shoot my models at around f/22 to keep everything in focus. Dale

I have that and it's great. Just got a big pack of blades for it. Paid $35 for mine at Tacoma Train. Dale