Russell C

This is the answer to "what do you get when you cross a VW Beetle with a Citroen 2CV?"

The area of grass at my apartment complex goes crunch when I step on it. The trees and shrubs look so sad. I hand water mine out front (apt. managers are cheapskates on turning on more water in times like these). Also entertaining to go get the late afternoon mail one day and then just two days later muse how 108 degrees feels more pleasant than 116.

The reason why I'm following. Fabulous work.

From this April ebay listing, this guy's choptop idea had me thinking of a Bonneville Salt Flats version, if the kit was available for cheap .........

Define "simple" -- Brizio style. One of your previous cars ended up being a fairly simple chicken coop. =)

It was one of those afternoons today. Sure is nice in the fall-winter-spring here, though.

If you are poor but have the requisite tools and scrap material, you can make 1/25th scale '70s-era General Motors window cranks with this method. Or at least something which looks somewhat similar to those, anyway. The ingredients in the photo below are, left to right: 1) spent (or unused) aluminum rivet rods that are a bit over a 16th of an inch in diameter - I simply eyeball these things with no particular precision for dimensions 2) scrap insulated wire, preferably a light gray which has aluminum spiral-wound wire within it, where the insulation looks like it would be the same diameter as a window crank knob 3) a motor tool 4) a file 5) pliers with parallel-closing jaws 6) a #70 drill bit 7) a pin vice 8 & 9) not shown - an X-Acto blade or razor blade, and a hard smooth surface The procedure: Chuck the rivet rod into the motor tool, and file the end into a slight dome shape. Then use the pin vice to drill a starter hole into the side of the rod as close to the end as you can get it. The rod is soft enough that this is easier than it sounds. After that, use the motor tool to drill the rest of the way through the rod. You'll need a pliers like the one shown since the small bit of rod will heat up enough that you can feel it if you only hold it in your fingers. At this point, I used a sharp pair of wire cutters to cut off the rivet rod to about 3/16" in length. Don't lose it in the carpet. For the crank end, use a razor blade/X-acto blade to score the insulation, and strip a quarter inch or more of it off the wire. Then dip the exposed wire into some diluted Elmer's glue or touch a small drop of super glue to the exposed wire to keep the individual strands from unraveling. When that's dry, bend the still-insulated part of the wire at the point where you stripped it to a 90 degree angle. Now use the blade against a flat surface to cut off the rest of the wire - that will leave you the smallest amount of insulation on the wire, at a right angle to the bare wire, which is the rotating knob at the end of the crank. At the far right of the photo below, that's the itty-bitty result. Put a drop of glue at the center of the knob's surface to prevent it from popping off the exposed wire. Now thread this into the rivet rod piece, to a length that looks appropriate for how long the crank end should be, and touch a bit of super glue into where the wire goes through the rod. Use your wire cutters - mine are the really small fine type for jewelry work or small electronics - and snip off the excess wire. Drill holes in your interior panels the same diameter as the rivet rod and install. The finishing touch is a drop of silver paint (or other appropriate color as needed) into the center face of the knob. If all has gone well, you will end up with a window crank that looks like this: Not super perfect, but for my use in an upcoming muscle car WIP thread, it'll do, since the kit had zero window crank detail in the interior tub. An alternative way of making the crank end would be to use fine aluminum or silver colored wire which you could stuff the stripped insulation material onto to create the knob, and then crimp flatter with a small needle-nose pliers. There may be photo-etched cranks out there, but no offense to the sellers, they still look like flat layers of metal glued together.

There is a way around this, with some work, if you take the custom route. I always thought Big Horns were really tough looking, but the cab was too short and maybe the hood was a bit too tall. So what I did was to do a photo alteration (seen at my 'no time for these project ideas' thread) where I sectioned the lower part of the hood and made the cab taller. Wouldn't be a real Big Horn, but it might be an entertaining custom.

Another option when web sites don't have a built-in translation feature is to copy the website address and drop it into: https://translate.google.com/ What usually happens is you get a clickable link in the 'translated' box, and when you click on it, it gives you a reasonably well done job, but sometimes it can't figure out certain words or phrases.

For those following along, I haven't forgotten about this project. What was stumping me were the wheels. As most car guys know, the wheels can sometimes make or break the look of the car. While the Aurora tires seem to be about the right height, the wheels were just nowhere close to looking like the 1:1 MG wheels, so I thought I might be able to find some toy in a similar scale which I could steal the wheels from. No luck, though. Another more laborious option would have been to lathe-turn some plastic into dome shapes and then index drill 15 holes into each. I was thinking that the Gowland & Gowland kit (a.k.a. Revell version) wheels / tires that were too tall, but I just got one really cheap from ebay today, and I think I can lathe-turn the inner part of the wheels smaller and into more of a correct dome shape. But at least all the holes are already in these, and the separate hubcaps look quite accurate. The other bonus here is now I have a left-hand drive dashboard and a windshield frame, which was missing from the Aurora glue bomb. The one reason why I still prefer to go ahead with using my cut-up Aurora body is the deep color of the plastic. It sure shines up nice, and it looks like super smooth glossy paint. I've gotten really lazy in my old age about paint, when old polished plastic is a viable option.

For the fenders, I wonder if the Tom Daniel armored truck show rod is something that might be usable? The hood doesn't look right, and the grill shell is way off, but the shape around the headlights resembles the Loadstar's. http://www.revell.com/model-kits/cars/85-6899.html#.WSeqp4UT6TU

Today we might need re-hydrators. My patio temp/humidity thing claims it's 2%, and the announcer on the Dbacks game said the same level a while ago, and a couple of the online weather sites put it at 7%. I'm thinking all the cracking noise going on outside is the wood and rubber and plants and animals drying out.

Paraphrasing from a classic '70s movie, "think ya used enough putty there, Butch?" I can see the direction of the '57 Chev front, but will be watching to see what can be done with the T-bird back.

And this one is still my favorite of Kurt's dioramas. Even better when seen in person, it just reeks of 'dry, neglected dusty vehicle.'

Go Greyhound.

One of my favorites of Kurt's dioramas.

WIP thread here, "Saving Rancho Gluebomb." A who-knows-how-old buildup from some earlier unknown builder gets a new lease on life.

Was skeptical how this particular save would work out or whether it would be worth the trouble, but it turned out quite fine after all. Good job!

Chris "cpspoogie" Price, from the post immediately above, happens to be the ebay seller I got this gluebomb from. I contacted him late last night through the ebay system (not knowing he was also here at MCM) to let him know where this estate sale/garage sale item ended up. Meanwhile, if I can get to it, I'll take some "under glass" photos tomorrow and post them in that section.

Congrats, and honored to meet you! Took these pics yesterday at the awards banquet (li'l blurry) and afterward when everyone was packing up. Honored to provide the inspiration for the build, and it sure had the look of a Klingon Kruiser to me!

For those who attended GSL 17, you saw 4 entries in the Small Scale class, including my gasser taxi, but only 3 awards were given out. What prevented me from achieving at least 4th place? My model was disqualified. I totally spaced out one of the cardinal GSL building rules: thou shalt not utilize a pre-painted body in any class except Box-Plus, where the specific build-out-of-the box effort involves using the pre-painted body which comes with some kits. It's a rule probably from the beginning of GSL, basically to reward building and finishing, with the original intent of preventing guys with lousy painting skills from hiring a skilled painter to finish the body. Parts/components/bodies (from whatever source) are collected, assembled and paint-finished by the builder, that is the whole idea. What I spaced out is that the Checker taxi in its "Sunshine Cab" livery is a pre-painted body. No worries, I was assuming the small scale class would have as many as 8 to 15 models, and my gasser taxi wouldn't be a contender no matter what. There's no harm or penalty for entering uncompetitive models. My objective, which I achieved via various compliments I got, is that it looked neat and was a fun idea which inspired others to look into doing small quick fun die cast conversions for themselves. Notice also that in the couple of posts above, I inadvertently prompted a couple of guys to get nostalgic about an old Checker dealership. What a fun hobby this is!

Well, these aren't lakes pipes on this one I built way back in the early 1990s, and it probably wouldn't fit the bill for at least one other reason .....

The gluebomb in its original form was a slammer, with a non-opening hood, no engine and half a chassis with an early Ford transverse spring & axle glued directly to the bottom of the bed. From the Ranchero parts pile I got later, I used its full chassis, and ground off the rear axle & exhaust and more or less filled in the holes. This is still a slammer, so don't look closely at the fill-in work. Being jacked up that far, and sporting the original issue AMT '40 Ford number/class decals for what I'm guessing is the old NHRA Altered Gas category, my reading of the rules for 1962-ish indicated this car needed at least some kind of quick change rear axle and suspension, and some kind of exhaust. Now it has that, via various scrap parts I had. (It still may not meet A/G rules, but the decals weren't my choice, I'm just going with the original builder's likely intent.) Two more finishing touches, the NHRA decal from the same 1962-era AMT decal sheet which provided the flames, in the corner of the windshield. Plus, the 1962-tagged California license plates I photo-altered and printed on photo paper, and double-side taped in place. Bonus points to any of you who get what the visual pun is with the plates. Now, I'm basically done with the restoration, but the "under glass" photos will have to wait until I get back from the Salt Lake City contest, where this one will be on the display table. I'm flying up tomorrow morning.

Very cool, and I'll additionally confirm that in person when I see it tomorrow after I arrive there.