jbwelda

those are nice trucks. what color are you going to paint it? i wish someone would make a FJ60 Toyota Land Cruiser!

yeah you guys are right, respect and thanks for the tips and tutorial!

Chris Etzel, of Etzel Speed Classics once asked me to send him a photo of the Offy motor he cast that i used in my T. Problem is, as probably everyone knows, his company went out of business. But i figure he probably would still want to see one of his creations in use. So does anyone have any contact info, preferably email, that i could contact him on? Or if you know him point him to this site and send me a pm or something? (I will take some better close ups for him) Many thanks as always!

>That's going to haze the plastic. well as mentioned you will be polishing the haze off but if you want to prevent it put future on it before the superglue and it wont haze the plastic. as far as being too labor intensive yeah it is but ive never had any luck with scratchbuilding compound curve glass and like i say i *have* had good luck with the technique i suggest. "labor intensive" doesnt really seem too germaine anyhow...we are building scale models of automobiles...EVERYTHING is labor intensive if you ask me. anyhow, after youve futzed around for a couple hours trying to get sheet styrene contorted to fit a windshield opening you might want to reconsider the technique i suggest. its actually not too bad, the worst case ive had took about 20 minutes to polish and apply the future.

nice imp; i think i would rather have one of those than a manx but its a close call. on the paint booth, make sure you got a proper fan. you *did* read the post about the guy blowing up his garage while using a homebuilt booth with an non or poorly insulated and fume proofed fan, right?

actually since its cracked and youre ready to call it junk, you cant lose anything by trying to fix it. ive had decent luck before depending on how badly its cracked. you might try spreading it apart and putting some elmers glue in the crack, then letting it set well, 24 hours or so. then polish the outside (you might have to actually sand it first if there is too large a ridge formed by the crack) so it is nice and smooth, do the same on the inside. use a polishing cloth kit and follow through to 12k grit. when youre done with that, dip it in future floor wax, let the excess drain off onto a paper towel and let it dry. ive used this technique and you can not really even see the former crack (vertical, from bottom toward top, about 1/2 was up to the top) unless you look really really really close. like i said since its junk you might as well give it a shot. if the elmers doesnt hold it well enough to polish, try carefully applied superglue and then start in on the sanding right away.

cool chevy, thats a 409 under the hood? >Testor's paints CAN be worked with if one has a good dehydrator-------other than that......you better have a LOT of >patience. or live in california. but a dehydrator is an excellent idea, i use mine all the time and like i say, im in california! still it cuts down a multi week dry time to overnight practically. and they are cheap.

sweet! are you going to lower it significantly?

well i think im pretty safe in saying, *our* model club would probably arrange transportation for you if you wanted to offer up your collection!!!

wow that is pretty cool! i am really diggin how youre adapting body panels from one model to another! like modern day tuner customizing! that black one is wicked too but its neat to see the nissan where it still looks reasonably stock, just off kinda. how did you get the body to sit so far over the chassis (low, i mean) or is that just posed with the wheels stuffed into the wheel wells? cool works.

seriously, what i need is dude here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=17854 to flame the nose of this body! i have no experience with fancy paint jobs like that but this body is just dying for some realistic flames! thanks for looking!

finished fiddling with the body and now about to apply final decals and seal them. a few more photos to bring it to the top and also show the undercarriage, then its under glass for sure! first a shot of the body off chassis: now some undercarriage shots, some better quality than others. shot from above showing reflection of chassis: kinda blurry shot of motor bottom and driveshaft: closeup under motor and front end: closeup of aluminum tube driveshaft with white metal u joints: car sitting on glass from the rear, note number decals i plan to use: left side profile: and finally, straight on shot of the nose and front end. looks like its sitting to one side but its actually level:

does anyone else get the cold-shoulder, borderline rude attitude when they go to michaels? here in sacramento i swear i get that everytime i go to either of the two outlets i know about. kind of off topic i know but ive come to think im better off not even being tempted to go there. i always walk out of the place kinda pissed off. not from major problems, more just from getting a brush off if i try to get some help or guidance. maybe its just locally and other outlets are fine. or maybe its just me but honest, i try to be nice.

ok so I found some time to put time in on the ever-continuing project and I've got the chassis done and the body just in need of a few fiddles and I am gonna call it (and post it) Under Glass! hope that gives some idea of the finished product. when I get the body to fit nicely I will take more and post them in the Under Glass section, probably later this week! here is a little fact sheet I wrote up a couple years ago giving some idea of where I sourced parts: 2005 NNL Western Nationals Oh well, there’s always next year! 4 Years In The Making…(mostly shelf sitting)…and still counting AAM Resin ‘27 “T†Turtledeck Roadster Body, Dry Lakes Racer Molded in hood & custom track nose Etzel’s Speed Classics Offenhauser Motor & Transmission Resin and white metal, with complete wiring and plumbing Southeast Finecast Morgan V-8 exhaust header Monogram ’30 Ford Woody Frame, Narrowed & shortened Z’ed in rear Smoothed and filled R&D Unique Metal Dropped Front Axle & Suspension “Suicide†mount Radius rods scratchbuilt from R&D batwings ‘27 Ford lever shocks Revell Orange Crate Halibrand Rear End & Suspension Aluminum drive tubes Replaceable gears (just kidding!) Scratchbuilt Aluminum Driveshaft Detail Master U-Joints Steelie Wheels Front & Rear S&S Specialties spun aluminum covers Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland Buick Finned Brake Drums Ford backing plates Satco M&H Racemaster Cheater Slicks Highly Polished White Metal Radiator from Southeast Finecast Morgan V-8 Detail Master Moon Tank Scratchbuilt tie-downs Scratchbuilt Floorboards, Panels and Firewall Complete Chassis Wiring including Brake Lines and Fittings Paint, Frame: Krylon Sun Dried Tomato Paint, Body: Tamiya Orange with Black Trim Builder: J.B. Welda Sacramento, California

>The "Key Word" here, for any hobby shop is "Pre-Order", which apparently the shop you questioned didn't do. well, in fact, thats exactly what he did, and many of those who asked him to preorder for them (and hence got priority when the kits arrived) got theirs. but then there were no more. thats my point. making just enough to satisify preorders (and seemingly not even that in many cases) seems an odd way of doing business. but like i said, maybe its just the distributor he is using (great planes i believe)

yeah those are the ones i was thinking of, minus that 500 run ihobby kit. but i assume those are for sale and in stock, so maybe its just a matter of the distributor that my LHS uses?

btw jairus, thanks, that makes sense.

maybe i should clarify: i dont mean model king and i dont mean RC2, i mean this round two outfit who is advertising the new AMT releases. i understand that model king is an independent corp and probably doesnt have money to burn producing more kits than they can sell, and from what ive seen their releases stay on the shelves or at least this same LHS has a lot of model king on the shelf. what i mean is for instance this new, what is it, 60 or 61 fairlane (sorry, the LHS guy had a list but ive not got it handy, but i think you guys know the recent releases i mean) and coming in the future the munster coach/dragula, double dragster kit, etc that he warns are going to come and go just as quickly. really my question is, whats the point? i mean if you know for sure 5k copies will disappear overnight, and on top of that some X thousand may sell as well until the market gets saturated, and then you would think you could sell the remainder over the course of the next year, why would you not just do 10k? wouldnt the savings in tool set up etc more than cover some storage while you shill the kits? maybe this thread should be moved to rants and raves? and ed, the people in there now arent up to three stooges level at all; those roles are safely in the hands of bush, cheny and rice for some time to come. until the trials start, that is.

i recently went into my LHS and asked about the releases coming from the new AMT and was informed that a good number of them have been out pretty much on schedule but he (the LHS owner) didnt have any in stock. when i asked him how come, he said that they immediately sell out and become unavailable from his distributor. sometimes in a matter of a couple of days. then they become unobtainium unless and until a second run is made and gotten into the distribution channel. i believe he said same was true with revell to some extent but particularly with the "new" AMT. So whats going on here? a "limited" run of 5000 pieces (im guessing) sells out within a couple days of coming out? why are they limiting the production run if there is such a demand? is there such a demand what with the much vaulted "dying" of the genre (model kit building i mean, presumably because all the youth are glued to their ipod or iphones or whatever)? if you could sell double your run right away, wouldnt you do it? He also said they are leasing the molds from AMT, is that true? if its true are the terms of such leases that you do X number and then youre done? does that save tooling wear or something? just curious because so often these "limited" run things make no sense to me. if you want to sell your product, get it out there where people can buy it. appealing to "collector" mentality, if thats what this is, doesnt work until 20 years after the sale, people!

looks like you did an excellent job on those roth cars, congrats! im currently attempting Wilhelms Wonder, and have ruined one body so far (broke off the tip of the very delicate fin, might be able to recover but for now i had a separate body i stripped and used). all these kits were very challenging as a kid; not sure ive made massive improvements since then! after WW i will attempt tognottis king t, which was recently restored and repainted by gene winfield, and on display at the sacramento autorama and probably associated shows as well.

i dont remember the front sitting up like that photo; i think the body was just not seated properly on the frame when the photo was shot. the body and frame are separate entities so you can really examine the craftsmanship. there are just so many details to explore there.

thats very interesting, that was one of my all time favorite cars too. i saw it in st louis when i was probably 12 or so and fell in love with it right away. so where is the car now? i think the photo i posted above was the original taken back in the day. do you have any photos of the rebuild? wow, the el matador! whats even more amazing though is whats under the body, just wait, youll see what i mean!

aw i was half jesting in my post above. ive been there and done that and thats exactly what the benefit of years will do for you: give you perspective. im just saying dont expect deals all the time. one thing i didnt mention though: cheaper is not always better. theres an old saying: those who buy cheap buy often. thats one thing getting old will do for you: teach you that you got better things to do with your time than repeating the same repairs and even if its cheaper once, its not cheaper when you have to do it 5 times. oh well evilone, just thank your stepdad and be happy you got someone around to help you. a lotta people are in the same situation you are but dont have anyone to lean on for help. you may even be in that situation one day.

what are you, like 15 years old? thank your stepdad for caring enough to help you. next time he wont and you and your deathtrap will be stuck along side the interstate at 3am. and while youre at it, fix your car and stop blaming all your lack of attention to it on others. and stop whining about how much it costs to get it repaired when youre getting a far better deal than it sounds like you deserve. yeah its expensive to have someone else save your a$$, so get your hands dirty and do it yourself! *then* you might start to appreciate what people do for you, even if you only have to pay bottom dollar for it. or consider riding a bicycle. not a bad choice all things considered. hope that helps!

I just spent a weekend in the vicinity of Jerry's near-completed recreation of Bill Cushenberry's legendary El Matador http://www.hotrodsonline.com/halloffame/Matador/index.html And let me promise you: this recreation is going to set a completely new standard. Brass fabricated complete rolling chassis, unbelievable body work and replica recreation, just too sweet. I'm afraid your reporter didn't take any photos to post here but maybe Raul did and will post a couple. Words don't describe what one photo will! If you know the scratchbuilt sprint car he built and showed last year, he says thats elementary school while the El Matador is graduation! Congratulations Jerry, you got a real killer there! Raul will tell ya too!