jbwelda

are these "models"?

ive always had very good luck with testors nozzles too, at least until they clog up which sometimes happens the third or fourth use of the can despite clearing it by the time honored tradition of inverting the can and spraying until clear (air blowing out). tamiya as usual puts them to shame though. keep in mind i never mastered an airbrush so my options are limited.

yes bob that part about not sanding the final metallic or pearl coat took me a while to figure out. a friend of mine who paints customs for a living is the one who hepped me to that...sanding the metallic or even worse the pearl just totally kills the lustre and effect, making pearl look like crappy metallic and making metallic just look grainy. instead i shoot some clear over the final metallic/pearl (or clear pearl as with my latest attempt at a custom finish) and then wet sand and eventually polish the clear hopefully never burning down into the color and/or pearl. one of the things i got back into modelling over was to see if i could actually create decent paint finishes. it was a revelation to find a polishing kit and even more to figure out the sanding between coats, even primer, part. now i gotta learn to use an airbrush though tamiyas paints are so nice i find im not even motivated to head for the airbrush now.

that box art is SO darn funny! is that thing a 4WD or what? i saw something like that driving down the street the other day and about pissed myself laughing! your build on the other hand is looking great and i can appreciate that style. but this sitting 3 ft off the ground thing on those funny wheels, man some people must have a lot of spare change.

youll still want the catalogue from maryland miniatures etc...theres a whole lot of cool stuff in there!

do you sand the primer and paint between each coat? i do and i rarely see ghosts from body work. then again i dont do full customs or radical restyling so maybe thats why i dont experience the problem your seeing. as ismael said, it has to be smooth to the touch to be smooth to the eyes and thats where i generally have problems...i typically leave too much putty on the first couple passes of primer but between nearly polishing the primer between each coat and smoothing the ghosts that appear early on in the process i generally end up with smooth body panels. it also seems to me that polishing the primer makes it harder and that may well serve as a sealer to prevent later ghosting. thats a totally unscientific opinion though.

if you dont mind me asking, what do you find objectionable about it? looks pretty fine to me.

sorry to double post this but see the contests section for announcements of two contests coming up in northern california! dont know how many check that section regularly so i beg your indulgence in posting this pointer here.

Two contests coming up in Nor-Cal in the next couple months: First is put on by my club, City Styles, out of Sacramento, the contest will be in conjunction with the Golden State Street Rod Nationals at Cal Expo on October 6, 7 and 8. This show and contest will feature a swap meet, raffle, tech tips and demos and is open to all ages from beginner to advanced. There will be trophies for Best Paint, Best Motor, Best Interior and People's Choice, as well as awards for the usual categories. There will be no additional charge to enter the contest so bring all your best models. There is also free return admission on Sunday the 8th to pick up your models. Hours for the show will be 9am - 5pm Friday and Saturday and 9am - 3pm Sunday...Awards will be presented Sunday approx 2pm. The actual car show may well be open into the evening on Friday and Saturday, I'm not clear on that part. For more info on this contest contact: Roy Kinji at roy_kinji@cable.comcast.com or 916 552-2441. The other contest is coming up in just a couple of weeks, in conjunction with Billetproof 2006, Saturday Sept 16th, 9am to 3pm, at the Antioch Fairgrounds in Antioch California. This contest is sponsored by the Bay Area Scale Hot Rodders Society (B.A.S.H.R'S.) and is open to all ages with awards and prizes for unspecified categories to be presented in the afternoon. Again there is no separate entry fee so bring all your best models (NO BILLET cause its BILLETPROOF!) and the car show itself is really something featuring the best and worst of rat rods, suede rods and all that super cool tattoo boys and girls stuff! For more info on the Billetproof show check www.billetproof.com or call Sean Langer at 925 229-9303. Both these shows and their host "big car" programs promise to be total fun and a chance to show your best. The Billetproof show itself is well worth the trip from anywhere in Cali, it has attained almost legendary status in its 5 or so years of being. City Styles and BASHRS invites all modellers to participate in these two contests and we hope to see you all there!

might not be to everyones taste but neither is another 57 chevy! its to my taste though and i like it! will be posting some pics of a silvia im working on and also almost completed (yeah right) the toyota mr-s i posted about a few weeks ago...stay tuned for tuner ville!

youre right about the heat but i discounted the statement about 200 degrees because no way is it going to get that hot in there...if it did everything would be ruined. i mentioned the cold because i think there is potential for the plastic to become brittle but thats just a gut feeling. certainly if its going to approach even 150 in there i wouldnt want anything i valued in there at that temp.

i would be a bit nervous about this i think, especially the cold temp part. one good thing, the "wind chill" wont affect them because they will presumably be out of the wind inside the storage unit. i would try to go through the kits and sort or prioritize what you put in there and what you keep at home. if your stacks are like mine i could probably potentially write off half my kits if it really came down to it but would not want to lose the other half. maybe you can store them in your bedroom where you wont need any space now except to sleep? moms will probably love that eh? good luck on it; at least youll have a nice place to build now!

maybe this will help: I fixed it, thanks Jah bill, Jairus your img tags were messed up

yes i love that rack and the side windows to see the inside!

dont want to ask g & j anything at this point just want to point out i noticed in the latest issue you used my question about how to get or make some small u joints. i am proud to have asked and again thank jarius for that great illustration! keep it up folks, the peoples representatives!

what gregg means is that when you press the "reply" button there is a link "Add image to post" under the "post a reply" textbox, to the left side of the text box.

i sold my 74 thing on samba recently. hated to see it go especially since i probably rinsed 20K$ through it over the years but it went to a nice home. one love jah bill

nice bug-rod there! i saw a couple of similar ones but with their roofs chopped off at a recent poor-boys (local car club) "midnite mass" (basically a drunken party with cars) but they wouldnt let them in! kinda strange because to me they carry on the true rat rod idea but with german cars. but i digress... as usual

theres a lot of different discussions about how to do "realistic" panel lines on models going on in the other forums so i thought i would bring it up here and maybe everyone can chime in on their method. i say "realistic" but thats pretty hard to judge. lets just stick to "doable" and then "realistic" is a bonus! personally i alternate between using india ink and using a gunze very thin line black marker. unfortunately the marker generally runs dry about half way through a job and thats pretty frustrating. i wrap the cap to pen in masking tape to keep it from drying out quickly and that sorta works. but i have my best luck with india ink applied with a quill sort of pen (sold specifically for india ink i think). i like it because its easy to remove if you goof up, whereas the marker is a bit harder though it will still come up especially from a polished surface if you finess it with a toothpick. in fact in using a marker i often purposely apply too much and then go back with the toothpick and remove it from the panel leaving it in the panel line and can achieve some decently straight lines like that even when the panel line is very shallow due to the molding or too much paint (typically my problem is the latter). like i mentioned in another post i personally like the look of a black panel line; to me it represents what i see in real life better than trying to get fancy with a darker shade of paint than the panels it is separating. but it also looks very bold on light colors so i suppose there is a place for the fancy thing. so, how do the rest of you approach the lines? i notice from a lot of models displayed here that many dont bother with the panel lines but to me its like a wash: you dont know what youre missing until you try it.

personally i like dark panel lines on light colored cars. they look right to my eyes and i go out of the way to analyze the look of light color cars that i see for just that feature. all that business with doing panel lines in a darker shade of the body color seems like a waste of time to me because when i see a car in the light i see black in the panel lines.

super nice! i do have a question: that number roundel on the back that goes over the scoop on the right side of the body...is that a separate decal to go over the scoop or did you somehow stretch the decal to fit? looks very cool like that. i have a couple of this model but dont remember examining the decal sheet too closely

can a gremlin really be a "mainstreamer"? i mean they couldnt have sold more than 20 of them worldwide!

oh. i guess i didnt read it close enough. there ought to be a law!

nice build and VERY cool photo. did you airbrush it (the photo i mean)? that dark bkgd looks very cool with the yellow for contrast

yeah i would like to meet juha airo. he creates some very nice stuff seemingly out of thin air. one guy i really wished i had met was augie hiscano or even seen some of his cars in person. i met mark gustavenson (sp) at the slc museum once. nice guy but im not showing him any of *my* builds! ed roth was one guy i met when i was a kid and sort of stayed in touch with over the years, on and off anyway, but esp once he moved to utah. i would like to meet gregg and jairus one of these days! i saw gregg at a NNL west one time but he didnt look like he wanted to talk so i didnt intro myself.