Russell C

Wow - thanks! Can't say that I remember seeing it as an AMT kit, but if I did 30+ years ago, maybe that's why "Jeep" was stuck in my mind.

That's what this eBay seller is asking https://www.ebay.com/itm/ANYONE-KNOW-WHAT-THIS-IS/124145998809 about what looks like a soft plastic toy car body on a 4x4 kit chassis. Sometimes the toy manufacturers do a halfway decent job of replicating actual cars or car concepts. I have it stuck in my mind that the body is a 'sorta copy' of an AMC mid-70s SUV concept, but I can't spot anything like that in Google image searches, so I'm probably wrong about that …. it still looks familiar for some reason.

Many other useful tips on basic model scratchbuilding in that video!

Welcome! Ignorant Yank that I am, didn't know what "West Country" was in regard to England 'til I did a Google maps search of Devon and Somerset. Dropped into the Google Streetmobile at an arbitrarily chosen road spot to see what it looks like. You-all have a lot of green stuff there, a bit different from the land of cactuses and rocks where I'm at.

Regarding the quad reflector setup I mentioned a few posts up, it turned out to be easier to add two lathe-turned & polished thin ones to the double reflector assembly. More visually interesting. Now to make two more for the rotator in the red lens.

If there was a way that a filter would show me only car-related / model related ads, I'd turn off my AdBlock. Otherwise, if it weren't for some of the guys mentioning it, I'd never know of these problems.

Some more on the police car lights 3 posts back: from my pile of metal bits, two aluminum collars that were the perfect size from some disassembled electronic device (remember, everything ever manufactured on the planet contains bits that can be repurposed as model car parts) are now the horizontal rotating light reflectors, filled in with Bare Metal Foil and polished to a mirror reflector shine with Simichrome metal polish and then superglued onto a scrap chrome rod from some kit. Doesn't look bad as just double rotating reflectors, but I'll see if I can lathe-turn some solid aluminum rod into additional wafer thin reflectors to make these into quad units, which should make 'em more visually interesting. Haven't taken the one good red lens off the AMT trucks parts tree just yet ….

So many other obligations to take care of, so little hobby time. Finally managed to accomplish something after months of inactivity. Used my mini lathe to reshape a translucent ballpoint pen clicker down to a taper matching an old red AMT trucks emergency beacon lens I had (the one without the sunken area). Then I jammed it onto a grinder bit to put in my motor tool so I could turn it at a much higher speed to polish it. Not half bad, needs just a bit more polishing. It isn't an overly soft plastic, but I need to be careful about putting too much heat into it from polishing. This helps to get a police car project back underway that had stalled out on this detail.

That'll work!

Non-turbo. Brick shaped vehicle now with additional drag on the roof.

Label me as mostly cold-hearted - while my condolences go out to the family, I'd also wager a large amount of money that the label for the cleaning product emphatically said "harmful or fatal if swallowed." Ladders have warning labels about placing them on uneven/unstable ground. Guys work under cars supported by a single jack, or on live-connected electric machines without switching the breakers off. If one of my own immediate relatives was killed this way, I'd be sad, but still hold it entirely against the relative, rather than find a way to send the blame elsewhere. With the rights of having things to use comes the responsibility of knowing how to use them correctly.

That one. Around 30 years ago when I worked as an airport shuttle van driver, I picked up a bunch of lab company co-workers and one of them brought up that awful dream, whereupon every one of the other guys said he'd had it. Wasn't my place to break into their conversation, so I didn't, but I thought it was hilarious that I'd had the same one, too. I still do, which drives me nuts this many years later. Or the variant where if I don't pass the final, I won't graduate. Had the loose wobbly teeth one too many times, also. Always nice when I wake up and they are still planted in my jaws solid as a rock. Another one is more fun, but scary to consider in real life: upon approaching the top of a flight of stairs, instead of taking forever to step down each step, I can slide rapidly down 'em like a skier, barely hitting the upper edge of each step. I'm a pro at it in my dreams, and in real life, all I can do is count the number of broken bones I'd get from the first attempt to see if it is possible.

I assume you're not serious about that ...........

That's fabulous!

Funny thing is, if I said it belongs in a junkyard, that would be a compliment, too!

That was also my first reaction. But now I'm not so sure. Could be pretty close to correct, but we perhaps have an optical illusion going on from the slammed stance, and maybe because the area behind the rear wheel arch might be too short horizontally.

Complete with the classic Molotov cocktail igniter in the gas filler neck! Good job.

There's the Monogram Miami Vice fake Ferrari Daytona, not that those are of much use. Myself, I cheat by using the online plate creator sites, and then use my Mac's photo manipulation program to correct/sharpen the colors, and my obsolete CorelDRAW program to precisely size the plate image as needed. So far, my Canon inkjet printer and glossy photo paper spits out good enough printouts. Haven't tried yet to emboss the letters out from the backside using a dried up fine point ballpoint pen, though, but it might work to make a visible 3D stamped letter appearance.

Saved this brass parts sheet from two decades back, a double etch one where the first etch was halfway down into the metal on the top sheet surface, then it was flipped over and another pass was done for an etch-through. If I remember right, this sheet was a total reject because the holes were not undersized enough to prevent the acid from ultimately making them too big in diameter. There's an 'art' to the whole process. Run the sheet through the acid too quickly, and you don't get a deep enough etch. Leave the sheet in too long, and too much of the metal disappears.

Having worked several years in the graphics department at PMA Photometals, which did both ferric chloride etching of brass, stainless steel & copper sheet, and nitric acid etching of zinc braille dot signs, I can say firsthand that the nitric acid was a nightmare for the owners to deal with, while the ferric chloride was easier, and could be replenished and used again after straining the waste out of it. But to do top-quality etching, they used professional grade photoresistant film applied to the sheet material via a machine for that task. When the photoresist didn't stick right, that produced lots of parts that went straight into the scrap barrels. Additionally, there was a specific "art" for oversizing the artwork to correspond with the thickness of the metal. Remember, the etching not only goes down through the metal, it goes sideways into it, so the uppermost part of the metal is eaten away more so than the bottom area, and the resulting tapered slope of the metal depends on what strength of acid you're using. On top of all that, this process really doesn't smell very good. One of these days, I'll re-learn how to do the artwork, but when I get around to offering P.E. parts for sale, I'll turn the actual etching over to the pros and let them deal with the hassle of chemicals, metal acquisition, prep & disposal.

I still had my '73 Luv when I was in college at the time I built my "utterly inaccurate technically correct" Rock Island NASCAR Mercedes, and since I lacked any 1:1 reference photos for racing V8s, and since the model was wrong in so many other aspects, I just used my pickup's engine for an accurate reference. The kit that provided the basic block and other bits was the (if I remember right) Tamiya Opel Blitz 1/35th scale cargo truck. My dad machined the air cleaner cover out of aluminum, and the Isuzu letters were individual ones cut from one of the Rock Island decal sheets I had.

You weren't kidding, major boatload of ideas. Stole at minimum one, myself.

Missed this somehow until tonight. Fabulous build! Although also troubling how folks in the future still haven't licked the problem of runaway rust. ?

Ditto, just scrolled through Bill's whole photo pile there and it reminds me I need to be more obsessive on an assortment of detailing.