jbwelda

but a can of compressed air, used carefully, will go a long way toward reaching all the cracks and crevices...

i dont think ive ever seen the toyota EM kit but i have the later carrera on my shelf...its nothing on the order of these 356B/C kits, believe me. you just have to see and hold these to know just what youve got there. ive always been disappointed in other EM kits after first having found this one. i dont know the parts count on the 356, but its, literally, a bazillion. boxes literally bulge, esp the old testors ones i have. and actually you have to watch it if you buy the testors versions, because the boxes are so flimsy and full, the top of the coupe gets bent over from the weight of other kits on top of them, and your roof posts get bent or broken. thats how nearly all the kits i bought were, thats why i got them so cheap too. i figured i would use the motors and chassis on various things or dioramas, or chop off the tops to convert to race cars or speedsters or something. of course now you buy them in a nice reinforced fujimi box in all kinds of variations, but i believe back on original issue the coupe may have been the only version available. totally cool kit, buy it if you see it. even if you just built it curbside the dimensions all look right and the remaining detail seems to me to be spot on. then you can use that engine stand to hold up a V-8 block in a garage scene!

so as not to further hijack the thread on the holy grail ferrari i thought i would start this one up. much was said there about the porsche 356 enthusiast model from fujimi. as i mentioned i happened into a case lot of these in the testors box for a very low price. all ive actually built is the motor and transaxle along with the very cool motor stand so i thought i would show those who are unitiated into the wonders of this model just what they are missing...and also to let those who have it realize the rewards of building at least part of this spectacular model. so heres some pics of my long-ago build of the quad cam carrera motor (known to grenade itself at the slightest provocation) and also the pretty darn impressive transaxle assembly that mates to it. first up a view of the motor on the stand showing the side view: i modified it a bit, added oil lines to the tank in back of the shroud (for the dry sump crankcase i believe these motors sported) and wired the dual plug setup as well as some small changes like added screen to the air filters etc but essentially it is more or less right out of the box. here is a view of the bottom showing the drain plate and plug, muffler detail and the almost too cool engine stand: and finally a close up of the motor itself showing more detail: notice the carb linkage, cooling fan detail and all that other magnificent quad cam delight! now heres something that is usually glossed over in most kits as far as detail goes but not in this kit! the tranaxle, first a shot of the back (business) end... note the throwout bearing (!) and arm and overall incredible level of detail: and finally a side shot of the transaxle showing the brake shoe detail (!) along with one of the hyper-detailed finned brake drums: one should also note that things dont stop here...there are disk brakes and many many more parts to build either the earlier B coupe or the later, improved C coupe along with a million options in between on everything from the wheels (which are another whole story in and of themselves... never have i seen such finely detailed porsche wheels ever in my life outside of 1:1) to the brakes to a lot of stuff ive forgotten. anyone needing a cool mill for their porsche or vw models need look no further than this kit! not that it was easy to build...as i recall not much really fit together all that well out of the box and a lot of fiddling around was necessary to even make it fit together as well as shown but to me the result is well worth the effort! hope you enjoy; sorry about the pic size and quality...and man at this size every imperfection just jumps out at you...it looks much better in real life. and i need a new photo host so i can resize these darn things!

so no one else has any tips to offer this beginner and newcomer? what are you all holding out for that book youre planning on writing and making a million on? thats kinda weak if you ask me. i thought the idea was to share knowledge not hoard it so you win some obscure contest with all your "secrets". or maybe i just did such a grand job? somehow i doubt that...

>just the fact that the lug nut studs poked through holes on each rim and would not be seen when the hubcap went on >was cool right but this car was meant to be used with their garage kits with the idea you could build it in all states of assembly...including the totally cool engine stand in which to display the partially assembled motor complete with exposed crankshaft and pistons! and about the brakes, yeah the lug studs are cool...but how about the FULLY DETAILED brake shoe business that gets completely hidden if you put on the exquisite finned brake drums! now THATS what i call an enthusiasts kit. does the ferrari that began this thread have anywhere near that level of detail? ive never seen another kit that has... ps: i bought a case of the fujimi 356 boxed in the ###### testors box, just for the parts and possibilities, that quad cam motor is the real stuff!

hmmm yes well this is going to be a long thread here i predict. whole books (well, magazine articles) have been written about painting and i personally count it as one of the most challenging parts of model building, as do many others, if that is any consolation. now about your situation: you currently are going to paint a body that has been painted already and then stripped. if it has not been stripped perfectly or if there was any damage to the plastic on the body outside, and especially if you havent done any customizing or modifying to the body...my thought would be to go buy a new copy of the kit so you can start with a fresh clean body...its gonna be difficult enough already. if though you cant afford it (hey we all know how that is), or cant find another kit, or did a bunch of customizing to the body, then so be it but remember every imperfection is gonna show ultimately unless you correct it somehow. now to the paint thing, first off i wouldnt bother with the flat black paint, i would go directly from the primer to the gloss black. if you havent done any body work to the body and are going to be happy with the surface you have, you probably dont even need the primer. black is one color that will pretty much cover anything. that said, the normal sequence of painting would be to prime the car, check for flaws in the bodywork or surface that you need to fix, lightly sand the primer with a pretty high (fine) grit paper, usually with water (aka "wet sanding"), reprime until happy with the bodywork, then one more thin coat of primer over the entire body. now when i say sand the body, im actually addressing your question about the grits. i am unsure about the grits you have there, typically i use about a 250 grit for really coarse work, about a 500 grit for more medium and about a 1000 - 1500 grit for finish sanding. but different papers have different ratings even though they are the same courseness...or something, i never figured out exactly what was going on there. you also need paper that is water resistant because youre going to be using water to sand with, as lubrication and a cleansing and clearing medium. the idea of using different grits is to use them in progression: paint, then start with the coasest grit appropriate (on smooth paint thats gonna be pretty fine) and sand the whole piece. then take the next finest grit and do it again, and then again with the next until youre at the finest you have. the purpose of each of these was to take out the scratches left from the previous grits, down to a more or less microscopic level, or at least fine enough that your next coat of paint will fill them. the purpose, then, of the FIRST sanding was to smooth the raw paint (or primer) you just shot and remove any runs (hopefully not) or dust specks or other problem areas like orange peel (a rough surface of the paint caused by one of many reasons) and then following sandings are essentially to remove the scratches caused by the first sanding and subsequent sandings until they no longer matter. these two previous paragraphs apply anytime one sees a term like "sand the body" (in other words: easier said than done). at this point you have a fully primed body to begin painting on. personally i would then give it a light but complete final sanding with fine grit sandpaper, wet as above. try not to break through on the high spots especially if youre going to be finishing with a light color or "glamour" finish, like pearl or deep clear or candy, etc...because in those cases this stage is critical...any variation in the base will probably be visible in the final product. so now you can lay on some color. there are lots of postings and will be lots of posting on this subject because its the heart of the matter, but basically you want to lay down some color, let it dry, then either build up some more color or lightly sand the color finish ("color sand"), again with pretty fine grit, being very careful not to break through to the primer or worse yet the plastic color. repeat as necessary to achieveat some point you want to shoot a final coat ("flow coat" is what its sometimes called) of paint that will "flow" out and smooth itself. note that during this step you may have gone through more than one iteration of paint-sand-paint-sand etc before the flow coat was put on. at this point you let the whole mess (hopefully not) dry. let me explain "dry". if youre using for instance model master enamel paint...and you live somewhere like oklahoma where if i recall correctly you have damp and stormy conditions even during the summer, that little word "dry" is gonna make a big difference. because especially if you spray thick coats (and you will have a hard time avoiding that if you are using spray cans) its gonna take a LONG time to dry. like on the order of a couple weeks minimum. if you have a food dehydrator, you can speed that time up considerably. but if you get impatient and start trying to sand on paint whose skin is hard but is gooey underneath, youve just ruined your paint job. so drying time is a must. most use this time to either build other parts of the model or work on other projects (or lose interest completely!) and note you have to let it dry after EVERY coat of color that you intend to sand. primer dries pretty quickly though even in damp climates laquer ditto, like tamiya spray paint, highly recommended, dries very quickly. i dont know about hardware store brands like krylon, seems to me they usually dont take too long either but im in california where its hot and dry so sometimes the air itself is like a dehydrator! anyhow if youve followed along this far, it gets easier from here, sort of. so now youve got this dry, painted body, but you may look at it and think, yeah it looks painted but it doesnt really look "real". and thats where you start to figure out why they call them "finishes" on real life cars. you gotta "finish" them. before you can do that though, most people spray clear over the final color coat, and that can involve a senario much like described above, with spraying, sanding, and spraying again until the clear is just the depth and consistency you want it. this has the added benefit of when we get to the "finish" stage, there will be something to "finish" instead of the raw color flow coat that will be underneath the clear...this is good because it will give you some leeway before you sand just a little too much on that highlight and the color of the primer starts showing through! the dreaded cut through at the last stage!!! woohoo its happened to all of us and it aint pretty! so, im about out of breath now, but if you followed so far i will let someone else forward on with the hard part, or really if youve done the color and clear well up to now you will actually have a very presentable "finish" just from that. oh couple of clarifications: in my explanation ive been shooting paint like it was holy water. theres a problem with that, a few actually: 1. paint is thick, a lot of paint is really thick. unless youre building a flat sided lead sled, its gonna hide a lot of detail if you put it on too thick. thin is good but very difficult to achieve with a spray can without a lot of practice. 2. thick paint takes a long time to dry, mentioned above 3. paint is also expensive...if its tamiya its very expensive. 4. to keep thick coats of paint relatively thin, you need to sand each coat. this becomes very difficult in tight or detailed areas. you might want to shoot one coat on those areas then mask them off until the final coats so they dont get too much buildup by the time youre all the way through the cycles. anyway dont let this scare you, in fact in your situation you wont have nearly the long chain of events described here but do remember: black is the #1 worst color for hiding bodywork or waves or imperfections in the body of a car. on the other hand its pretty easy to make look decent to very good esp if the body panels are straight. anyway im sure many more will add to this and even if not believe me ive neither scratched the surface (npi) nor am i even an expert, ive just had a few years experience and painting has always been the most frustrating thing until i finally kind of got the hang of it and by "it" i mean spraycans. i think "real" painters use airbrushes but ive not gotten that far yet. do some outside reading too, like i said theres a million articles covering this subject in depth...as deep as the finishes! ps: a couple more things: 1. primer is thin and dries quick and is easy to sand. thats why you use primer to check your body work initially instead of using "real" paint...especially the part about it drying quickly and sanding easily 2. tamiya paint is worth every cent you pay for it: it sprays thin (otherwise pretty much impossible for a spray can paint), it dries fast, it sands well, and it looks absolutely killer. the downside as mentioned above is cost: its pretty expensive but like a lot of things in life, you get what you pay for. the only issue ive had with it is the clear: it sprays so thin its hard to build up a decent coat for final polishing (not really gone into in my explanation above but thats what gives paint a "finish" that looks real). 3. do NOT spray tamiya paint over just about anything except maybe primer made by another manufacturer, or if you do, test on a scrap piece of plastic first. tamiya is rather "hot" paint and has a rep for ruining underlying paint from different manufacturers. its not a good idea to spray other manufacturers paint over tamiya either but ive not had problems with that at least as far as shooting model master clear over tamiya color...again test if you care about your paint job! 4. model master makes a laquer line as well as their typical enamel. its far better as far as thinness and drying time goes...almost approaches tamiya in that regard but i dont think it gives as smooth a finish as tamiya. youre likely to find what ive found: if its tamiya its usually the highest quality around. hope all this helps!

bump it to the top!

it gets better when he starts asking for pakalolo...

many thanks for the tips (no pen, uh, pun, intended) on the pens; went out today and bought a .005 black and a .005 red and will be using them on my next normal scale (eg: not 1/8) build!

ok andi thanks a million for the info. ive also got the triumph tiger kit and maybe the same ducati kit you mention, and one of those norton manx kits from protar i think. havent built any of them but one day... thanks for the info on the price too, given that i think i will let the one i saw sit for awhile and troll around on the 'bay for a better price. by the way ive owned, over the course of many years, a cb160, a CL(i think it was) 350 Dream, and a CB (again as i recall) 450. nothing up to anywhere near the standard for a modern bike but still very cool street machines for around town or out in the open countryside (here being the foothills of the sierra nevada)

i recently ran into what appeared to be a fairly vintage kit, of a Honda CB something or other, i think probably a 250, motorcycle model in 1.8 scale i believe. from the quick glance i got at it (i was with the lady) it looked to be Revell Germany and maybe from the mid 90s or so. the bike itself was from mid 60s and was not the "big bore" 450 or even the 350, something smaller maybe even a CB160. as i recall it had low pipes but im not sure about that. any one recognize this description? do they come up on ebay often? i assume they are good detail, right? and the scale would be perfect to match a Big T or similar! i believe the model was in the neighborhood of 35$, that is to say, a pretty expensive neighborhood. any advice on that one?

ive not looked up these pens but i assume they are sealed, in that you use them until they go dry then throw them away and use a new one. if thats the case, whats the longevity? and any tips on keeping them from drying out if they arent used all the time? i use those gunze pens (dont have one handy to quote tip size) and i find they dry out very quickly once opened. i have found that if you tape up the circumference where the cap sits on the pen, the pen lasts much longer. i do have a problem getting a whole panel-lining session completed without the pen going dry temporarily and i have to put the cap on and let it "rest"...then it seems to work ok for a while. given the above im looking for other options for panel lines. i also use india ink on a quill sort of pen and that works well but the convenience of a pen cant be beat.

the one thing (two things actually) that i dont like about it is that it seems to really stick to skin (when youre trying to stick it to something else) and its kind of hard to clean up completely from pieces youve used it on...until you know the secret to both situations. the secret? it sticks best to itself. that means if you take a little gob of it and push it on and off some that is sticking to a panel or your finger, it will clean itself up by sticking to the gob of itself and lift pretty much completely off the surface in question and/or your hands. but i usually only use very small amounts of it to hold tiny parts for painting or position; what i describe above doesnt seem to be as much a problem when youre using relatively large amounts of it like in the photos above.

best ones ive seen come with that esci ford escort rally car but i assume that pretty much long gone. i swear someone made resin copies of those though, maybe rep and min of maryland? and i think southeast finecast in the uk had some white metal ones. dont know about the 5 vs 4 bolt business though

City Styles Model Club is proud to announce: National Street Rod Association will host a model show and contest at their annual Golden State Nationals Car Show, Oct 5 - 7 at Cal Expo in Sacramento California. Events and entertainment at the model show includes: - Free models for kids to build during "Make and Take" Saturday - Model building demonstrations and tips from City Styles Club members - Trophies and celebrity picks - If history remains consistent, there will be at least 100 models entered and on display. No extra charge to enter models in contest; all modellers will be given a free pass for Sunday to pick up your models and attend the award ceremony, scheduled for noon on Sunday Oct 7. All models entered for awared judging must be submitted by 5pm Saturday Oct 6. Aside from the model contest, this show features the very best of west coast and beyond street rods and many other interesting vendor booths, special attractions, autograph sessions etc and is always a whole days worth of interest at the very least! For further info contact Roy Kinji, (916) 427-2948, or attend one of our meetings, last tuesday evening of the month, at the Round Table Pizza on Folsom Blvd at approx 48th Street in Sacramento! Bring your work to show! We welcome new blood and styles at our meetings!

just wanted to let everyone know that THE coolest 1:1 scale rod show on the west coast, BilletProof, is scheduled for sept 15 in Antioch California... and i believe it includes a model contest/show. remember its BILLET PROOF so leave the bling back in the hood! further details are available at their website, for which i will hazard a guess: http://billetproof.com check it out, its always a blast esp for vintage rod fans!

does that bumper sticker decal say: "I <heart symbol> LOVE MODELS"??? thats funny! someone needs a proofreader. and "Ask Me About My Grandchildren"??? :D

i assume you havent had this answered yet but there are a lot of manufacturers out there...one good way to find them would be to pick up a copy of a model magazine (like maybe our sponsors here!) and take a look at the ads and the articles and i think column specifically about this. you should be able to find just about anything. some specifics though, replicas and miniatures of maryland have a vast inventory of resin and metal parts for motors, and a place called, i think, gibson engines sells complete motor kits to upgrade kit model motors. actually ebay isnt bad either, just search for "resin" in the model cars section.

wow that is awesome and nice save on the lettering, those flames look great now! those were some cool magazine articles on the real thing too.

yeah sorry about the photos, for some reason the photo host i am using is getting kind of buggy or something, and i cant seem to resize them... yeah i made the radius rods, tie rod, steering rod and some other stuff out of aluminum tubing, looks much better and is definately straighter than the kit parts. the frame was pretty sketchy alright and i made it worse by cutting out some supports, but then added an aluminum tube front crossmember and did some supporting with epoxy. the frame on this car (i bought it built on ebay and tore it down to restore) had glue all over and needed a lot of work, work that of course doesnt really show because it was removal instead of building i was dealing with there! you might notice the stands i built for supporting the front and rear axles, we are on the same wavelength on that one! im starting on the floorboards tonite. one love jah bill

got a bit more done over the past few days, mounted the motor for good, mounted the radiator and grille shell (this is going to need to be revisited due to the problems installing the...), radiator hoses. also by popular demand, i stuck the body on it and the tires and wheels temporarily mounted, while it was up on its stands: and here it is on the ground (glass actually): finally a three quarter front view: again please excuse the crappy lighting on the photos, i have to build a proper photo box one of these days! anyway all is not exactly a bed of roses at this point. for one thing the body sits slightly off center on the chassis and the real problem is not the body or frame, but instead the traction bars between the chassis and rear axle. i already have cut and bent them to non-realistic angles (luckily theyre mostly hidden) and they still interfere with the channelled body. but it at least kinda fits. second is even though ive painted the body, tamiya light blue pearl followed by tamiya clear, ive found in my rush to get started on this "quickie restoration" i overlooked several body things i would now like to clean up...like the bracket kinda things meant to hang the kinda dumb running light lanterns, and those holes on the lower part of the body for the exhaust system. but at this point i may do a quick and dirty on that, throw some primer spots on it and call it "in progress" until (like a real life project) i find the time and/or funds to make it better... then the front end is essentially ok except that the right tire assembly is very loose though not in danger of busting off immediately. this came about from a "good enough" attitude when i spent a bit of time redoing the front axle completely, and now its caught up with me. all that said its coming together pretty nicely and i am learning a lot about modelling in this scale, especially about building *strength* into every assembly, which i have been trying to achieve mainly through the use of pins and epoxy, but of course some do slip by! one love jah bill

wow thats looking great harry! i love these 1/8 scale models, it make my eyesight seem good again! one love jah bill

well, its been a busy summer but ive still be progressing on the model front, primarily the big tub "quickie restore" thats become a bit more complicated. hope these photos dont turn out way too big but here we go: heres a shot of the motor mounted in frame with steering column and wheel: this one shows the motor and front axle: finally heres a shot of the engine front, showing the solution to the coolant cross pipe i spoke of some time back. there will be a single hose going from the center spigot to the radiator top...turned out looking pretty acceptable: i am to the point of attaching the radiator and shell, then will cut a firewall for the deeply channelled tub body, then build some floorboards and rudimentary seats and (hopefully) call it done! oh yeah then theres the cycle fenders for each wheel, and mounting the wheels and tires themselves. coming soon... more photos to follow as things progress! one love jah bill

jairus thanks for stifling the urge to LOL at that question re: the oil filler tube, it took about a minute to realize how stupid it was. probably my lamest question of the month (but the month is new still!). anyhow now that mystery is solved (and maybe i take a nap), thanks for the pic too...that explains it all. a picture is worth a thousand words and all that. i didnt know the internal details of water porting so thats quite interesting as well.

thanks folks; i think youve helped me decide to use the standard chevy covers...at least for now. jairus about those coolant ports...i will connect them together using some polished aluminum tubing and to the upper rad opening with rubber hose. one question though: if those are coolant, then what is the thing sticking up in the front center of the manifold? i believe that is where the coolant port for other intake manifolds resides but since this manifold will be using the two ports on top, im not sure what to do with that (the manifold is already glued down so i cant easily just cut it off flush). should the cross tube also connect to that as well? or could the ports be connected to each other and then the center thing be used to return coolant to the radiator? or, not knowing exactly how the coolant is ported around in the block and through the manifold, would it be in the realm of reality to make some block-offs for the twin coolant ports and instead use the center thing for mounting a single coolant return port? just thinking out loud here and trying to minimize last minute alterations... anyway many thanks for the replies, it clears up a question ive had about this manifold from the beginning... anyone have a good link to a photo of this setup in real life?