jbwelda

heres a couple photos of the Buick cum Morgan/MG/Rover V8 i was talking about: as you may be able to see, i built this with the typical MGB V8 induction system: two SU carbs and a big air collector/cleaner and all the ducting to support it. it also was equipped with weber carbs and also with an electronic fuel injection unit, and as i recall the white metal kit includes all those options in exquisite detail. the motor i built also used the Morgan V8 header system, which as you can see looks straight off an american street rod. i know this isnt in direct answer to your question but its something to think about...

so what kind of car do you visualize building? a dragster? a real modern day tuner? a vintage scca racer? that decision would narrow down the scope of appropriate wheels. about the V8, unless its a drag car i think you should set it up pretty low key. a street tuner sleeper but with a chevy V8 under the hood. personally i think i would have side draft weber carbs, and i would actually use a small buick V8 that was later used in the UK in MGs and Rovers and Morgans. now that would be a cool hybrid: a japanese vintage tuner with a brit V8 that is actually an american V8! you can get a white metal Morgan/Rover/MG/Buick V8 from southeast finecast, im sure a google search would turn them up. i built one a few years ago just for a shelf model, i will take a pic and post it here just for ideas. anyway have fun with the model!

another option, if it is available in sweden, is castrol "super clean". particularly if the paint is testors enamel, i have removed obscenely thick layers of it in only 24 hours, and it doesnt harm the plastic at all in my experience.

i just won this studebaker sedan delivery resin body and cant wait to get it! http://cgi.ebay.com/1953-Studebaker-Sedan-...1QQcmdZViewItem it looks pretty good from the pic, anyone know the casting quality and dimensional accuracy of this guys work? got a couple of other bodies from the same guy as well:

yes youre right about the clear: tamiya right out of the can is (surprise!) almost too thin to polish. i suppose my favorite clear coat is still model master, the non-laquer one (though i thought the clears were all laquer...but now that they have out a "laquer" line with a clear, im not so sure). but like i mentioned, if the paint is nice enough to not clear over it, i tend to just brush some future on the decals to preserve them. i hear future shoots through an airbrush for great effect, but i am personally airbrush challenged. that may change soon though.

i wet the tip of a q-tip with the universal solvent/lubricant/cleaner/sanitizer (saliva) and gently rub over and around the decal after its fully dried. maybe even dip a clean brush in some water and swish that around a little bit with the q-tip. then i usually either clear coat the entire body or brush future over the decals.

spoke to norm yesterday and he says this wont be available until early 08, january i believe he said. still some parts to cast. and it will be 100$+ (120? i forget exactly) because it is of course a complete kit and over 80 parts. right now i cant wait to get the bonneville go kart; ive had a real urge to build one of those lately.

the polka dotting plumbing must be the bungi cord... thanks for the compliment and the comments!

wow i want one of those! i already got in an order for a resin bonneville go kart so im calling tomorrow to add this! now what im thinking is the twin cam lotus motor from the gunze lotus elan or the resin/white metal one (R&MoM?), or even the coventry climax from the tamiya super seven. lower it down a lot and use wobbly web wheels. heres a funny vauxhall story: i go out in the desert to death valley quite a bit and there is a little town called Darwin right near the entrance to DV, and this little mining town that is basically a ghost town is a haven for vauxhalls! theres about 4 or 5 of them scattered around the area! anyway i feel the urge for a death valley diorama coming on.

one thing to remember with metallics and pearls is that you cannot sand the final color coat. doing so will dull the metalic/pearl particles and will totally kill the effect. to successfully get a good finish on a metallic or pearl finish you must either shoot the color so well it doesnt need further manipulation such as sanding or polishing (pretty near impossible with buzz cans) or you should spray your color and then clear coat it before further manipulation...leaving the underlying "glamour" metallic or pearl untouched.

some progress pics, its getting down to being done soon! aluminum firewall in raw form: and firewall in place: now just has to be trimmed a bit with black, and given a final simichrome polish heres a shot of the front wheel/tire with fender mocked up on it.: note headlamp bucket peeking out from behind tire, they are actually on and complete but this photo was taken earlier scratchbuild 6 volt battery and bungi cord to hold it down, battery cables to ground and starter solenoid had not been installed at this point. note dimensions were from an Interstate big 6V tractor battery...then i couldnt find a suitable Interstate decal so i made do with some diehards. you gotta be flexible sometimes. i told you i would take you for a ride; i didnt tell you it would be comfortable! unfortunately the only place i could find to gracefully place the battery makes the passengers comfort a bit problematic. oh well he should build his own car anyhow and in the case its a female she can sit on my lap. now that the firewall is fitted i can clean up the body, polish the exterior, mount the dashboard and build a windscreen, and this thing will be done or close. sure has gotten involved from what began as a "quickie" restore!

these are the models i like to see!!! good work sir! be sure to post up the finished product...

ive basically used my polishing kit...at 12k it starts looking like chrome.

another thing to think about is that if youre building a 1/25 car and want a really gnarly motor, you can use a slightly larger 1/24 motor and/or accessories. but as others have implied, in many cases you can mix and match, it just depends on how it looks to your eye.

i would be the last one in the world to applaud a new 55 - 57 cheby kit, but in this case i am very pleased to hear about this black widow. now just hopefully its correct and doesnt sport some bling donk wheels for the youth market! i actually cant wait to see this on the shelves. anyway hooray on the nova but i would like an accurate 63 or 64 nova with a six or a 283! is there even such a thing or are all of them altered wheelbase drag machines?

great choice for a project, great job so far! i have something i can try that weld thing on right now. i was thinking about laying down a bead of epoxy and dimpling it with a dentist tool as it dries. killer job, stay with it!

>4) Attach a "spacer" that extends about 1/8" below the tip of your new >#11 blade to get the same width all of the >way around the lense. (You can figure out how far the spacer should >be from the blade if you use a photo for >reference measurements...or you can just approximate.) thats a great tip that i always forget when the time comes to implement it. im seriously going to cut this out and post it on my wall. many thanks for reminding me!

if they are in the upgrade set that would be a gift from God. personally i look at that and i think if it were me i might try to get away with painting the edge of the clear lense with chrome, or better, BMFing it. maybe even build up a bead of 5 minute epoxy around the clear lense and then BMF/paint it.

wow thats killer! are you going to sell that body? if so...

perhaps contrary to popular opinion, i dont think kids are turned off by cars or models of cars per se these days, i think they are turned off by a certain *era* of cars. that era of course is where many of us draw our main inspiration from. if you stick a low rider or a tuner sort of model in front of them, i, anyway, see a lot more interest. this is at car shows with adjacent model shows. just last weekend i saw numerous kids who you might think were totally absorbed in video game generation oohing and ahhing over tuners (these three kids im thinking of in particular) and also the lowrider contingent. and at least a couple of them engaged me in exacting kind of conversation about how you do this or that, and when i held forth he soaked it all in. i was pretty impressed and surprised at the level of interest among the young people there, but for the most part they were interested in modern trends and not our (speaking for myself here) generation. it does have to be said, though, that most of them want to just be able to buy them, instead of build them. sometimes its hard to get across to them that these models took a lot of time to hand build, they werent just bought off the shelf at wally world or targay.

>So why do the model companies think that the way to get the kids involved today is to market these "gimmick" >kits? they neatly sidestep the issue of so-called "toxic" substances exposure. no glue, no paint, dont know if the decals part come under this or if they are just easier to deal with. > We didn't need them 30 years ago...why do we need them now? we used to be able to have fun with very potential life threatening activities. no more bag o' glass or bag o' vipers or anything anymore. dang. i remember running around in the fog of a DDT truck and playing on the SAC runway on Guam as B52s probably loaded with nuclear weapons screamed 100ft overhead. and playing in ponds of what was probably at least 50% jet fuel. and shooting bottle rockets at each other. and who can forget the immortal lawn darts? and thats what i think largely drives this: consumer liability and just making it easier for parents to stomach for their dear children. tell you though, we went through about 50 snap kits at our "build and take" this past weekend at the NSRA nationals and all the kids seemed to dig them!

jairus i think that was back east for "thanks for the tips now if you can give me some advice on wiring..." so ajulia, im not sure what i am seeing in that photo but it looks like the wire youre thinking about using for wiring, what, spark plugs? if so and if youre talking about 1:24 or 1:25 scale, those look way too big. dig into that dell (hey good thinking on that one!) and look around for some thinner wires or go to your hobby shop and get detail master ignition wires in the color you want. but you should be able to find something in that computer to use, remember, and i dont mean to be too elementary, but in 1:24 scale everything should be 1/24 size of real life. a spark plug wire in real life is what, about 1/4 inch so the wire you need is 1/24 of 1/4 and my head already hurts...point is, you shouldnt even be able to see it in a photo like you posted. anyway hope that helps and keep on buildin!

dang! now you did it! made me go out and buy another kit!!! thanks a lot man!!! (ok girlfriend is out of the room...) seriously, thanks a LOT man!!! i got the earlier one you show there, with the motor. dont know when i will get to it but im planning another nissan assault this winter.

you might try some castrol super clean on a rag. seems to me i removed some tampo printing with it one time. or if you just want the plastic finish, dunk the body in a bowl of super clean for an hour or so. next i would try laquer thinner on a rag. that shouldnt hurt the plastic and ought to burn those suckers right off there!

just thought i would report back on the model show. pretty good turnout, especially on sunday when the judging was (people from out of town mostly who probably didnt want to come earlier to drop off their models and then have to return sunday to pick them up). i would estimate maybe 100 -120 models on the table as well. we had a "build it and take it" session for the kids on saturday that went over real well. if i recall correctly the give away model was a 34 ford and we probably had at least 30 kids total over the course of a couple hours over working on putting them (snap kits) together. i was really amazed at the interest in some of the kids eyes, a number of them even came over to the contest area and said thanks and really had a look of pride and joy in their eyes. lots of people eyeballed the models and there was a lot less than usual of "hey how much is that?" obviously expecting that it is a 20$ diecast, plus it was amazing how many people mentioned having old buildups out in the garage or still secretly thinking about building a model of their (or their would-be) car. some highlights included ralph henderson bringing out his mega bad 1/8 scale deuce roadster he posted photos of here not too long ago, jerry cardinal showed up sunday with a whole boxload of his more than incredible brass rods, featured in last months model cars mag...he even had two newly completed ones but im afraid the details are escaping me because i just kinda get glassy eyed in the presence of his work if you know what i mean. we had a wide range of subjects represented from our builders in city styles club, plus a few folks who found out about the contest on friday when they visited the nationals, and went home and dug out their new or old builds and brought them down to enter. lots of prizes were awarded, i did a bit of judging, and i believe ralph and jerry both took home some hardware, and a fun time was had by all! the actual NSRA Nationals in 1:1 scale was great too; lots of boyds wheels and billet stuff but plenty of variety to keep ones interest! many thanks to all who came out and to city styles model car club in suckramento for putting it on. i know roy took some pics so if and when i get them i will post em!