Russell C

Fun thing is, your work on the rear suspension / coilover shocks in January last year is what motivated me to begin on my own GSL "Common Kit Class" entry, even though didn't get around to my coilovers work until this past couple of weeks.

Tiny hand-made wire rings to put around knob bases is my not-much-of-a-secret.

A classic! How could I forget about that one!

Seems this Revell kit's chrome trees weren't too happy leaving the factory, the rear radius rods were both snapped in two. My kit also had the thoroughly warped windshield frame and one incomplete wheel trim ring, but I'm using different wheels and only need the windshield frame uprights to go with the removable hardtop I plan. The rear radius can be fixed with some ancient brass tubing I have with wire inserts in the ends. Added a little beef to the axle mounting area since the arm ends looked a bit too thin, and cut a section of Plastruc tubing to match the widened arms, then sliced that in half with a razor blade, so that each half could be the "other side of the axle" bits for these arm ends. My next trick - inspired by "89AKurt's" fun with the rear shocks/springs - will be to separate them into upper/lower caps, to accept 2-piece shocks and real metal spring coils.

That seems to open up the possibilities of using other kit's bodies of the '29 Ford, but off the top of my head from not knowing all that much about what the other kit manufacturers put out, the only other '29s I can think of are the Revellogram '29 Goodguys / Rat Rod pickup versions and the really old Monogram '29 ragtop pickup and the current (?) AMT Woody / Pickup, and their often re-released '29 roadster. I was thinking of the old Monogram red & black phaeton kit, but when I looked that up, the kit is labeled as a '30, plus I was two years off for the sedan / sedan deliveries Revell did and re-did that were '31 bodies. All of those flat-grille versions from '28 to '31 look the same to me, but other guys are way better on knowing what kits had what bodies, plus what the subtleties were from one year to the next.

Huh. Wonder what the active ingredient is. Unless I miss it, it doesn't say at their site. Degreaser, and paint is a form if grease, sorta. https://leatherchemicals.co.uk/product/norsol-solvent-leather-cleaner/

I'll confess to cheating, sorta, a tip I learned from the late Bob Paeth maybe 2 decades back at one of the GSL contests where he showed us how a stiff paper disc screwed into a motor tool shank will work as a good circular saw, for lack of a better description. Details on that tip at my comment reply with two more photos at this Panel Cutting thread.

I showed how I lengthened the frame back in March in the "What did You Accomplish Today" thread, but here it is again, where I grafted the front part of the "sectioned frame option" onto the highboy frame. Another thing I did a while back came from reasoning that if the front part of the differential is chrome in the '29 Revell kit, the back part should be, too. I did an online search for custom Ford 9 inch axles and there are places offering a chrome or polished stainless steel separate cover, so I sliced off the back of the pumpkin so that I could spray it later with a really shiny chrome silver paint.

Yep, gotta bring at least something to GSL. If only I had more time, and/or less other obligations that would then free up more hobby time .... Yep, actually bought the Revell kit at Hobby Lobby back in Sept 2021, then figured out more or less what I was going to do this past February and showed a couple of photos in the "What Did You Accomplish Today" thread after that, and only just this week got enough photos collected to start a WIP thread. Time gets away from me too often, so I'd better get cracking in this!

You never heard about the GM slant engine equivalent to Dodge's slant 6 because it doesn't exist. That's the fun of model building, even when it flies in the face of reality or physics because — as legendary model builder Cody Grayland said many years back about an implausible item in one of his models — "It's just a model." I didn't originally plan to do a GSL "Common Kit" entry (the Revell '29 Ford roadster, 4th paragraph down in the Class descriptions at GSL's site) but I did plan to put my GM prototype slant engine idea into a much newer Chevy with an opening hood. After thinking about it a while, it dawned on me to put it out in the open in a street rod where the story might be that the 1:1 rod builder aims to use a really obscure engine to set the car apart from other more traditional or mildly radical Ford rods. Here's the basic ingredients: the kit engine right side block sliced off to switch around and extend the left side (a slant opposite from the Dodge engines), a potential chrome / ribbed oil pan extension sourced from an eBay Red Baron glue bomb I got over a year ago, and a modded one-outlet water pump/front cover piece from my engine parts scrap pile, since I don't think I want the kit's chrome one with the alternator bracket over where the passenger side exhaust / intake pipes will be (the Dodges put it over on the exhaust/intake side, but I'll make that decision later). Two of the kit's carb trio should be fine under the kit scoop. The kit's intake manifold plate under the supercharger can serve as the new right side of the block, along with a textured scrap piece that'll have heat-stretched sprue as reinforcing rib extensions. The new Dodge-style intake manifold is a spliced-together / filed flatter pair of exhaust manifolds from an eBay Revell '69 Vette glue bomb I got back in 2016 (it's become quite a redistributed scrapyard among my several projects - more on that in a future different WIP thread and in my Quicksilver WIP). I'm not a fan of electric fans in street rods, so a fan from the scrap pile will do fine. I'm pretty sure I can hide the splice of the valve covers by putting an inset plate area in that'll have the long "Chevrolet" logo letters decal on it out of the Revell '60 Impala hardtop. I built an Isuzu 4-cylinder to be an exact replica of my Chevy Luv 1:1 engine, except for the headers. I had the right engine in my top fuel dragster. I built the Y-block the right way for the right '56 Ford Crown Victoria those go in. Trust me, this will be facing the right direction. I put the engine in my '66 Beetle for the last GSL "Common Kit" category facing the right direction, didn't I? Trust me, this will be a sensible build. That is to say, model builders will see the collective sense in it all. Hey. I resemble that remark.

I'm so hopelessly right-handed that back in the day when I built my CRX, I could not force myself to leave it LHD. If I ever end up in a British / Australian driving area in a stickshift car, I'll probably end up plowing into a tree or a building or another car while trying to figure out how to shift gears.

One these years (not this year) I need to dive into my retirement career of doing eclectic graphic arts servicing for model vehicles - decal creation/reproduction, 3D artwork for 3D printing, and photo etch artwork. Years back at one of my jobs, I was in the graphics department for a nameplate manufacturer that did pretty much all 'custom' short- / medium-run work of nameplates, machine tag items and some aerospace etched items. I can tell you from firsthand experience, photo etch is not as simple as you might think. First off, the process involves acid etching of metal, in which a photo resistant layer is applied to a sheet of metal, and then artwork is needed to produce clear/black film mask that's placed over the metal where all of that is exposed to light. The part of the photo resistant covered by the black mask remains resistant to the acid while the exposed part is washed away in the development process. After that, the metal is acid etched, and after that the remaining photo resist must be chemically washed off, and then the sheet is cleaned and polished. Here's a simplistic link illustrating the process: https://www.iqsdirectory.com/articles/metal-etching/photochemical-etching/basic-photochemical-etching-process.jpg There's no cheap way for any acid etcher company to do just a couple of logos. Photo below of what we did for a guy who sold limited edition 8th scale steam tractors, where in order to make the run worthwhile, he needed dozens of parts per sheet. This is an 18" x 12" sheet of brass. A hobbyist with his own home etching could do tiny runs, but would still need the artwork for the film mask, and even that is not as simple as just black lines drawn onto a clear film. Acid etches both down into the metal and sideways. In paper-thin metal, that's barely any problem at all, but the thicker the metal is, the more the artwork needs to be oversized around the perimeter of the object to compensate for the uppermost areas of the metal being eaten away the longer it stays in the acid in order to achieve a deep etch. The oversizing varies from one metal type to the next, and interior area holes/shapes need to be undersized. I think the brass sheet here was a reject because somebody forgot to undersize the artwork dots for the etch-through holes, and every single hole on this sheet ended up unacceptably too big in diameter. For something one-off like what you need, either 3D printing is the answer where you could talk a pal into including the little bits you need into some other print job, or maybe you could find someone with one of those plastic sheet cutter machines (that operate like an inkjet printer) who could cut out what you need.

In tribute to the Santa angle of this evening, didn't think of it until a short time ago, but a little research revealed that the Fred Astaire version for the 1970 TV special of the same name is only a decades-later cover of the original performer. Alan Jackson cover here:

(found the primary image below on the internet last year, but I used my graphic arts skills to alter it with more details, and where I additionally added virtual lights and snow to the upright version of the same tree in the lower panel)

Update, after several years of inactivity. Was feeling stumped on how I was going to find a mint condition original silver foil Quicksilver decal sheet, and whether I could cobble together other flame decals that I like better. Twin problems solved days ago via Want Ad requests fulfilled via Ken "BIGTRUCK" and Thomas "Blacksheep214"! No offense to Tom Daniel or Monogram, but I think the Revell '56 Bel Air flames in the middle/upper right will work on the sides behind the front fender cutouts, and I'm reasonably sure I can splay out the two in the middle/upper left a bit to cover the hood, which will lose its huge scoop in favor of a cowl induction shape. Haven't been totally stagnant on this project in the intervening years -- I filled in the back taillight panel and shaved off the round bump below the window, whatever that's supposed to be. In my pursuit of standard front/deeper dish rear rally wheels, I used my mini lathe to precisely separate the trim rings off the rally wheels in a '69 Revell Vette glue bomb I got years back. That same bomb is donating its basic GM front frame clip/suspension. Another '69 Z28 donates its firewall and fuel tank, where I'll either narrow that tank to fit between the molded-on frame or make a platform for the full width tank to go on the frame, such that it would like a fabricator would do for a 1:1 car. I make the glue bombs I've bought earn their keep! That Vette has donated its front fenders, roof, grilles and interior to another WIP that I should post one of these days ...

No offense to the movie people or whoever came up with the movie car -- but they should have used your design instead, in my opinion.

Cost me a bundle to go through graphic arts school back in the day, always need to keep my hand in it. Sooner than later, I need to start my own permanent retirement career of doing basic inexpensive concept photo alterations like this, along with decal replication/creation, photo etch artwork, and even 3D parts artwork. I'll drive off that bridge when I get to it .... Yep, farther forward front axle looks great!

Courtesy of a very handy trade with one of the other guys here. Last time I saw an uncut sheet was my original kit I bought back in either 1973 or '74. Will be going into my rebuild/mod project that has been tragically lagging behind for years. The one white speck by the edge near the "E" in the lower panel was not a chip in the decal, but happily just some large dust bit that popped right off when I touched it.

I've got the "Ohana" (Hawaiian for "family") rank probably because I have over 1400 posts here since 2014. Don't have a clue what the "6/6" bit means, though. Gregg who created this forum is a Hawaii resident, thus some of the Hawaiian words here & there in the forum.

Didn't see this old thread back when I first joined, but a word search within it turned up what would also be my first choice, the P1800ES.

On the way through the nearby neighborhood on the way to the grocery store, a bit after noontime.

? Irks me as a Yank (not right today but very recently) when American TV programs run subtitles for a Scottsman who's speaking English. I can understand perfectly fine, don't know why.

Dunno. Did my own bit of photo-altering to see what more open space behind a really short version would look like, and then a bit less so, like your cropped image. I'm still leaning toward the longest version ....

Custom grille, too, if I read that right in the scan images of the instructions: https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/monogram-instructions/automotive-cars--pi/ford/1931-1940/monogram-1936-ford-/

Instrumental ... with classic cars. ( I'm old enough to remember when all but the convertible there were new cars )