Plastheniker

Oscar, this is simply perfect and really looks better than the original car! Hard to believe that the body is not painted.

Perfect build as usual!

Wonderful replica of the world's best-designed bike ever. But - were is Werner and, even more important, Meister Röhrich?

For about 35 years I always own two cars: an everyday car and another more or less exotic (in Germany) car for fun. Stupid questions are inevitable, since only people without car expertise ask questions - the others don‘t need to ask. Among all odd experiences these are my two most bizarre dialogues - up to now. In the nineties I refueled this Esprit, because of his proportions obviously a mid-engine car. Someone approached and asked: ”Is this a Porsche?” First I thought that this was a joke, but since the man did not look very intelligent (to be polite) and I wanted to get rid of him I replied: “Yes, brand new model.” But he wasn’t yet satisfied. He walked around the car, stopped at the rear lid and said: “She has a very large boot!” I pointed at the louvers of the lid and replied: “Yes, very big, but these vents are really impractical. When it is raining everytime I stop the luggage gets wet.” He really seemed to be convinced that he had just seen the world’s most stupid car. In the eighties I was waiting for someone and stood near this Caterham Super Seven. The picture shows that the protruding air filters and the front suspension were clearly visible. A group of (say 18 year old) experts stopped and the leader said: “I know these cars, they have a VW bug chassis.” I replied: “Yes, but the chassis is turned by 180° in order to have a front engine car.” The bigmouth seemed to be impressed., therefore I continued: “ But now the rear wheels are steerable. One has to get used to that”. Since he looked really staggered I pointed at the Union Jack below the windscreen frame and said : “English. It’s really true, everything coming from England is odd.” I think it was Einstein who said (at least approximately): “I do not know if the universe is unlimited. But I do know that human stupidity is unlimited”. Since the latter episode I know that he was right.

Thanks for your comments so far!

Curt, You are absolutely right. Any self-made wire wheel, even those made with the simplest techniques (up to now I saw about half a dozen more or less simple techniques), is better than the best plastic wheel. I have no doubt that a modeler of your skills will master any technique. As I said before (I think): If any questions occur please post or send a PM. Here is another picture sent to a forum member showing the construction of the wheels

Fabrizio, up to the eighties the R 16 was a common sight in Germany, and being honest I didn't like it very much in those days. Your model, however, is simply fantastic, perfect, better than the real vehicle. By regarding your model I became a R 16 enthusiast.

Ray, a clean build of a technically highly interesting car - excellent choice!

Hi, As far as I know this Dodge L-700 was the very first truck kit. Since the latter was issued in the sixties by an almost forgotten manufacturer named IMC it should be no surprise that probably this truck kit requires most time, effort and skills to make a model withstanding the scrutiny of today’s modelers. I found the following major problems: In those days opening doors were standard on car models. Fortunately this was dropped in the eighties and nineties. I say “fortunately” because many well-built models were spoilt by opening doors which didn’t fit properly when closed: Door gaps were varying and way too large, and often these doors didn’t even follow the shape of the body. Also the doors of this Dodge kit fit very poorly. Since there isn’t even a door stop you can peep through the wide door gaps. Moreover the clumsy (working) door hinges are completely out of scale. In my oppinion the only solution is adding door stops, making equal door gaps, gluing the doors well-aligned into the door openings, and replacing the monstrous hinges. The mirror braces are way too thick. I replaced them by self-made units from hypodermic needles. The windscreen rubber seals are not replicated. This makes the windscreens look so odd that the seals must be added. If you build OOB the alignment cab/bumper will go wrong. This becomes evident by an unrealistic huge gap between cab and bumper. The trailer bed was extremely warped. I had to mill down the underside of of the bed completely. After gluing on a fitting sheet of thick styrene the bed was plane and the missing details could be restored . There were numberless minor fit and cast problems which, however, were easy to fix by comparison. Finally I found that the result repaid all the pains, because this kit made a really unique and attractive model at a favourable price.

Darren, thanks! Jacobus, dank je wel! Wat is je favoriete champagne?

Christiaan, incredible detailing and really convincing weathering - excellent job! But who is the ugly guy approaching the truck? BTW if you have no tool for resizing your pictures look for the free nSonic JPGCompressor. It is simple and fast.

Excellent job as always JT. Or being more precise: Excellent jobs!

Probably you have noticed this topic by member Curt Raitz http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81345 Curt re-discovered this old topic started in 2007 by member Yad' who left the forum obviously in 2008 http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=6659&hl=%2Bmaking+%2Bwire+%2Bwheels#entry808443 His topic is about his technique of making wire wheels. Curt adopted Yad's technique with marginal modifications in his own a. m. topic. This re-discovered technique is very similar to my obsolete technique described in the 1984 article of a German modeling magazine (depicted at the beginning of this topic). The results of my obsolete technique and Yad's technique are identical. I did not explain my obsolete technique because though very simple its results are no match to my modern technique. As said:"When using the obsolete technique the spokes are applied directly to the plastic wheel halves. This technique is okay for very narrow rims as bikes, motor-cycles and and very few vintage cars, where all spokes are fixed very close to the centerline of the rim well , but on all other cars this looks completely unrealistic". Now thanks to Curt you can compare the results of my simple obsolete and my present technique. Because Curt adopted Yad's technique without changing anything essential I recommend to choose the original link of the former member Yad' and Curt's link as well . Here are some more pictures of wheels made with my present technique. I think the additional effort of the present technique pays off. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=78461 http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80009 http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81255 http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81024 (scroll down for a second car)

Fantastic, looks simply perfect. My favourite model of the last weeks!

Robert, you really hit the nail! I sign every word.

Lee, I use PE parts almost never. Particularly PE wiper blades look way too thin in my opinion. Moreover they are designed for modern cars and simultaneously they are very big. The small wipers of my model are simply several parts of bright wire bent and pressed into shape. I didn't find suitable wipers in my spare box.

Chris, Niko, the two-piece soft platic tyres were of course not usuable. I used suitable rubber tyres from my spares box, but I cannot tell from which kit they came originally. As always on my models I used self-made wire wheels. I described the technique here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=77554 As said in the tutorial, once understood the technique is really simple.

I would have really been delighted if I had had such a neighbour in my youth. Or, being more exact, such a car! Skip, indeed today, compared with the sixties, building such a kit is ducksoup. We modeling veterans remember: Viscous, slowly drying (as you said) tube cement, no super glue, no BMF, no Alclad, no airbrush, no Plastruct or Evergreen products, no PE materials ... and even worst probably parents who considered modeling as a complete waste of time and money. Today's modelers live in Cockaigne.

Thanks to all for your replies! Ed, exactly this is what every modeler has to learn first. It doesn't matter when, but how one finishes a project. Bill, you are right, but tackling this problem would be quite difficult. Considering pros and cons I think this minor shortcoming can be accepted.

Hi, The truism “More perfection - less fun” is true for 1:1 cars as well as for model kits. I am always delighted when I have a reissued kit from the early days of styrene kits on my work-table. Opposite to the nowadays almost perfect Fujimi/Hasegawa/Tamiya shake-the-box kits they are still a challenge, and they have mostly unique subjects. If the finished model is presentable this is first of all the achievement of the modeler and not of the kit manufacturer’s engineers. This said it is probably understandable that the following model is one of my favourites among more than 100 finished passenger car models that I still own. It is a 1991 Matchbox re-release of Revell’s 1956 Austin Healey 100-6 first released in 1959. My kit had the typical features of those early days: a multi-piece body, opening hood and boot lid, two-piece soft plastic tires, solid plastic “spoke” wheels. As I read recently: “This kit is not for the faint of heart”. Nevertheless the overall quality of the kit is amazingly good if you consider its age. It really deserves to be reissued again and again . The latest reissue by Revell was in 2010 and it is still available at many hobby shops. I started my kit immediately when the 1991 Matchbox re-release was available. I chose a typical and in my opinion the most attractive colour combination of the original car. I hope you agree.

Excellent and interesting job but once more incomprehensibly little response for an outstanding model.

Immaculate job! Glad to see that I am not the only one posting European trucks in this forum.

Excellent job in every respect. No need to say more.

Really interesting and very well executed models. Each would deserve its own topic and more pictures.

It would be interesting to know which kit you used. I think besides Fujimi and Marui there was at least one more kit.