jbwelda

but wait... how do you know thats not a metal *replica* of a corvette??? hey im trying for you guys...

oh man that is SO classic!!! i didnt even connect that when i saw the tip! oh theres gonna be some red faces in the "mea culpa" department next month! seriously though i am laughing with you not at you, G&J but you gotta admit thats one for the books! kinda like leaving the "l" out of "public"!!!

i think i have the opposite impression from khart: i think its tamiya hands down. the nozzles are great, the paint flows well and is reasonably thin for a buzzcan, i havent had any problems whatsoever with running or fisheyes or any of that sort of thing, though i do live in a warm weather area so maybe thats a factor. the only criticism of tamiya paint i can offer is that the clear is too thin to polish easily (have to be very careful on raised surfaces or youll cut through into the color or worse, the primer) and also there seems to be a bit of a distribution problem of late because my LHS seems to not be able to keep all colors in stock. that said though i tend to stick with what i know so maybe ive not given the MM laquer a fair shake. i do know i got tired of the heavy coats that spurt forth from MM enamels and the long drying time without a dehydrator. however i still use their flats and clears...

i am way out of my depth here but let me add a couple things... first off god bless the guy who said: >JBWELDA's street Cheetah and Offy powered lakes car (is it finished yet?) but thats not my street cheetah (if only)...i just contributed some slobber to the thread about it. and no the lakes car isnt done yet but its on my workbench and i hope to get some more done before NNL West this year so thanks much for bringing it up! ive been meaning to get back into it but things just keep coming up. its another i started as a "quickie" project but its gotten so nice now that i really have to concentrate to lay hands on it, but... as to the best ever, i dont really know cars but ive been more than impressed with everything ive seen (in mags, never seen the work in real life im afraid) by augie hiscano, by juha airo, and by steve boutte (please excuse the misspelled names). each for their own reasons: augie hiscano for his work with metal in creating actual miniatures of cars, juha for seemingly being able to come up with seemingly perfect never-made models from a old glue bomb palmer body and steve boutte for his obvious eye for style and the ability to manifest that vision into something physical. and that dave shulkis guy from back in the dawn of the era, i remember some stuff by him in car mags that i totally dug when i was a kid. and any of jerry cardinals brass constructions. and any of roger lees brass top fuel cars and for that matter everything else he has lying around the house. oh and that one cats lotus sevens (they are caterhams actually) hold a place close to my heart. and lets not forget bill geary who constantly amazes me with what he posts here. i would have to say that turbine car has to rank high even though it was a build of a stock car and didnt involve a wild design (but what could be wilder than the design of that car to begin with?) my friend jerry amaral certainly has his moments as well as does our mutual friend jerry (im drawing a blank on his last name but he lives in fairfield california and his cars often show up in contest coverage...starts with an "s" (jeez how embarrassing)) and ive seen so many blow-mind models at the NNL each year whose builders i dont even know! its just kind of overwhelming. those guys are all in my top ten and while im sorry i cannot name specific models im pretty sure a top 50 models could be made up of just their stuff.

more pics are in the under glass section!

heres a few more pics that show some different angles and/or more details: first a detail shot of the back showing the quick change rear end and the taillight details: next, a detail shot of the right front running gear, featuring polished aluminum radius rods and tie rod etc: then a further away shot of the passenger side: and from the front: then a shot of the motor from above, and you can see more clearly the polished aluminum firewall (yep the motor looks a bit crooked compared to the body...another legacy of the "aw its just a quick rebuild" philosophy that came to bite me in the butt!): finally, another shot of the interior showing the helmet and some other details: again many thanks for looking and feel free to comment, positive or negative, i can take the heat!!! this car will be at the NNL West if the good lords willin and the creek dont rise (and if i am not in london that weekend) so drop by and say hello and take a look in person if you get the chance!

i was following this on the workbench section and i have to say it really turned out sweet! its an inspiration to me and im going to try to find and buy this kit to build myself! really great work there...kind of a shame you dont get to keep it for yourself but im sure your customer will be overjoyed with the way it turned out!

hi jerry glad you finally made it here! thats some total awesome stuff! just like in real life: put it on the table and watch the jaws drop!!!

so here are some (only slightly, unfortunately) better photos of the big tub i just finished up: view from the back, note scratchbuilt taillights, rear fender mounts, Jaguar XKE steering wheel, and cut-down headlamp stalks with found headlamp buckets: a shot of the pair of skulls along with windshield frame and window, rear view mirror, top of seats etc. also note the polished aluminum firewall: profile from passenger front, showing front wheel fender detail and three fenders shown to good advantage: interior shot showing cut down and drilled seats, scratchbuild fuel tank, wooden floorboards with fasteners, huge 6 volt tractor battery, lap belts and other dubious details such as the stuffed pillows on the seat buckets: finally another profile, this time from driver front side like i mentioned im not real happy with the quality of my photos but i did rearrange my lighting and took a few more ive not looked at yet. if they turn out better or add anything to whats already here i will put some of them up too! comments of course welcome especially if youve built one of these monsters and would like to share photos of yours as well!

thanks for the comments and compliments folks, it looks even better with the windshield in place! i will try to set up a photo shoot this evening and post some decent pics in the under glass section later tonite. some answers, to the guy who asked the scale, it is 1/8th scale, the scale of the monogram big t, big rod, big drag, and this example, the big tub. this model has never been reissued since its introduction at least as far as i know and as i recall back in the day this was probably the least desirable of the "big" line of cars, hence its relative rarity these days. oh and the color, it is tamiya light blue pearl right out of the can. unfortunately the finish is marred by a bit of orange peel, some yellowing brought on by spraying model master gloss clear over it and some sloppy or non existant body work that comes under the banner of the "oh its just a quick rebuild" mistake i made when in initially began the rebuild. that said, it still looks pretty good if you just dont look to close and believe me it looks about 10,000 X better than it did when it arrived at my place from ebay! i did spend a lot of time fiddling around scratchbuilding parts for it. cant see it in the photos but you cannot believe how long it took me to find plastic floorboards with knotholes! (just kidding of course...i made those knotholes!)

right now ive just posted some "almost finished" photos in the "on the workbench" section, but will soon post more and better photos of the completed item in the finished display section. heres a preview, but go to the workbench section to see a couple more: theres not a whole lot stock about this one, started out as a quickie restoration but ended up doing a bunch of scratch building and kit bashing and i think it turned out pretty good...

> Why do your pictures look like negatives . not sure what you mean. they dont look like negative images to me so maybe you mean why do they have that kind of frame around them? i think thats part of how photos get displayed here, i dont really know. but i do know if you click on that top part you see the photo enlarged instead of trying so see something in the small one here. many thanks for looking though!

ive been posting a bit on and off about this big tub that i started as a quickie rebuild of the glue bomb i got off ebay a couple years ago. it expanded out over its build-life, and some of the "aw its just a quick rebuild" tude came back to haunt me a bit, but i have been chipping away at it and now all thats left to do is mount the cut down windshield. if all goes as planned i will get that done tonite and then take some proper photos for the display case! a couple of cluttered shots, you can see the aluminum firewall, skull shiftknob and cycle fenders front and rear: a shot from a bit higher you can see the dashboard and seat tops, as well as the rear american mag wheels: finally a look from the back where you see the halibrand quick change rear end hanging out, along with scratch built taillights and some rear fender detail: really fun build but i do wish i had taken more time on the body before painting it, and the componets, frame, motor, body, rear axle could have been aligned better. but in most cases i had to half-break the joints apart to begin with, so it really did turn out pretty acceptable overall. and with the windshield on (you can see it on the white stand in the photos), it will really look low slung and aggressive. i could have lowered the front end another half inch though...i had visualized the oil pan almost on the ground, but as it turned out its a realistic height from the road. i might still go back and weather this but for now i think im calling it done! see more photos soon in the "finally done" section!

wow, thats very cool and it looks like you got the doors to fit real well. i see a little of the lil coffin in the body but maybe its the angle of the top chop. thats really looking good.

the slot car kinda doesnt capture the "look" i see in the photos of the real thing. it looks a lot more "blobby" than the real thing. probably so it will roll over without breaking trim pieces off.

one thing to the freezer trick: stick it in a pan of water or run water over it before you put it in there. that way the water freezes and expands and tends to make things fall apart better. i also soak in castrol super clean to strip any paint and i notice it also seems to help dissolve glue bonds. but if the plastic is all melted from too much glue, its junk

heres a quick update on city styles model club and our latest meeting this past tuesday. mostly we are planning our project car(s) that we traditionally build and then raffle off at the west coast NNL in feb (this year i think its actually early in march). we left our october meeting thinking maybe we would build a gasser (one of the themes for the nnl 08) from a chrysler magnum wagon. it was visioned to be on an older frame probably with a vintage hemi firepower motor and either hilborn injection with tall stacks or a typical gmc blower and injection. but this month i think we decided to switch platforms for the concept to a PT Cruiser, again done like a vintage gasser, probaby a straight tube axle under the front, etc. i believe there is some talk about altering the wheelbase so it will be pretty interesting to see what kind of synthesis of modern retro and true vintage styles we can come up with! right now we are still gathering the parts and will meet up individually in the pre-christmas days to plan our initial parts inventory and get going on component parts. there was some debate over where exactly to get a suitable PT Cruiser but i think the concensus is they are a dime a dozen on the bay so Mario was going to find one and buy it pronto so we could get going on the bodywork. when i get the motor basics together i will start posting photos of progress in the workbench section. i typically build and detail the motors for our projects, and some here might remember the lincoln V12 i built for one of our giveaway cars last year. only member Jerry Amaral brought completed models to display this time, one a beautiful candy apple red with dark fogging 63 Chevrolet, very nice interior and very cool stance that enhanced the subtle custom work. he also brought another new build, but i forget exactly what it was i myself brought four resin bodies i recently "won" from ebay: a 53 studebaker panel van phantom(?), a 34 piersen brothers type chopped coupe, a 53 lowrider custom chevy and a 56 ford panel van phantom(?), the latter of which was sent by accident with the others. everybody seemed to think they were pretty decent quality and totally buildable, though a couple of eagle eyes thought the back of the body was a bit crooked. most everyone thought the best of the bunch was the Stude panel van, which is the one i originally bought from this particular vendor. if youre in the sacramento area, please feel free to join us, last tuesday of the month at the Round Table Pizza near Folsom and 51, right next to Riverside Hobbies. we usually get going around 6 or 6:30 and break up around 8 or however long anyone wants to hang out. dont be shy about bringing stuff to show and share, new kits, works in progress, finished models, whatever...bring em! hope to see you there!

the paint on the steering wheel looks great! nice job on that interior.

>I would hire real live artists to create exciting boxart, to inspire the builder. i think that one in front of auto zone is pretty inspirational! i am totally with you on your choices and especially wonder why this one hasnt been picked up by anyone: >5. Aston Martin Vanquish thats a bad ride. i also love the newish same-class cars from Maserati, i forget the designation. theres an exotic car dealership down the street that gets them in occasionally... i also would love to get some old iron with good parts count and vintage or offbeat accessories whats wrong with that vette? ive got one on the shelf and when they came out werent they supposed to be state of the art? or am i thinking of a different vette? the one im thinking of was a "pro shop" issue if i remember right.

that IMC GT40 really isnt that challenging, im serious. it was one of the first models i built when i resumed model building in the early 90s. it was an IMC too, that i had just got at an auto swap meet here for 10 bucks or so. heres some photos of it. i do admit it had its moments including the fiddly suspension and the nest of snakes exhaust system, and i was pretty proud of the job i did. i pulled it off the shelf a couple years ago and tidied it up a bit, took apart the rear deck and made it hinge properly, put the pipes together better, added some detailing and cleaned it up, but i was pretty impressed with how well it actually seemed to fit together despite me being kind of shy of the parts count. but my example anyway had nice thin chrome and not all that much flash. that said, in posing it for these pics, i notice i left some flash on one of the intake scoops, gotta clean that up. its build total box stock other than a bit of detailing wire that you can hardly see, and painted with hardware store gloss white, and decals were still usable and near perfect. heres the giant hand monster showing just how well the panel lines can fit if i messed with it a bit more: no hand monster and the panel line widens a bit, but 10 minutes would probably fix that.: the motor looks nice and the underhood area as well: heres a look at the back where you can see everything more or less lines up as it should. note the tilt front end will fit better as well with some fiddling: i didnt do any heroics here, it was maybe my 5th or so fairly serious build since i began again essentially after a layoff of 30 years. i do remember some clearance problems and some fit issues that had to be dealt with but my skills were not what they are now and they arent all that even now. anyway the point is, this kit isnt all that scary even if it seems so. oh #1: the doors do open and as you can see fit pretty well. i forgot to open one for the camera. oh #2: also built the chaparrel with similar results, though i didnt paint that one, just polished the white body. again i dont recall any real show-stoppers there.

heres one place, in australia, who sells sheets of racing stripe decals. ive used them and they are good: http://members.optusnet.com.au/pattosplace/home.html not sure where on his site you have to go to find them but dig around and you will. they come in a number of colors and he has all kinds of other decals as well. they are probably ALPS printed. you can also buy stripe tape and lay your own down, but you need to find the very thin stuff. i have some but dont remember where i got it. another way is to look on ebay or at swap meets for bags full of decals, or swap them with others who have them.

>I have an FJ55 but not an FJ60 so we are just reversed there, like you I'd be happy to have a kit of the other but would >prefer the one I own. OT and sorry for that but if you ever want to go for a wheeling day or two east of the sierras, drop me a pm. i go out to mono lake down to death valley quite often and it would be nice to get a pic of our rigs together.

maybe i misunderstood the point but: >hard to find the FJ40 there are numerous FJ40s being sold by either fujimi or aioshima, i forget which. i dont have any but they look to be well done and there are a number of variations. i would like an FJ55 but i dont personally own an iron pig. i do own a FJ60 (pictured above) hence the interest. i would also like to see a volkswagen thing but again not so sure anyone would agree and the guy above who says yeah i might want it but not enough other people would to make it reasonable to invest in it.

i built an imc gt40, wasnt too bad. built one of the chaparrels too. but one thing i never built or finished anyway is an orange crate. probably tried that one two or three times when i was a kid and looked at starting one as an adult. just too much fiddly parts with too thick of plating and too many ejector marks. i always loved the car though and always wanted to finish up a nice one for the shelf. anyway whats hard about a lot of parts if they are well engineered (in my experience those fujimi 356 kits have some fit problems at least the details do)? we all add a bunch of stuff anyway, and typically more fiddly than straight out of the box. i just build discrete components and to me the more parts the better, given decent engineering and production values.

>Multi-media superdetail kit for Tamiya's 1/12 Lola T-70. I've heard that one is in the works. i would buy one of those! heres a couple things i would like to see kitted, but im sure im close to the only one: nissan figaro: maserati typo 60 aka birdcage: lotus elise/exege: toyota land cruiser FJ 60 wagon (choice of insurgents worldwide): (if you look close you might notice the fuel injected 327 insignia on the side) brabus smart car: those would keep me happy for the year. oh, tamiya quality please.