jbwelda

>I would happily pass on my unused paint to others if the USPS would allow me to mail it. I didn't know the post office had a problem with bottled packaged paint. I know it does with aerosol cans but I think that's because of explosion dangers. That's one way of saying I would love to take some of your paint off your hands Joe. I could use it to get better with my airbrush. One other item I might bring up is the difference in airbrush designs. I don't mean single vs double action; I mean like for example my Paasche is what I think is called an "external mix" airbrush, meaning the air and paint are mixed at the nozzle, not inside the brush, as are the "internal mix" brushes. does this affect the amount of paint used? I have read it does make it difficult to get a really nice smooth finish right out of the jar (vs internal mix). I assume the internal mix is the more accepted style, but the external mix is much easier to clean. jb

I must have missed this the first time around so thanks for bringing it back up, that is fantastic work and that ratted out jaguar is so perfect! jb

finished this one up this evening, nice to have something done at least! looks pretty kool but I gotta say, just from handling this thing I can tell it was one beast of a motor and probably not very balanced at that. everything seems off camber and very difficult for me to hold still or grab somewhere secure and that whole thing with the blower mounted sideways and its all just kinda hard for me to take in! what I mean was it was more fiddly than it looks and was pretty challenging in its own right. turned out nice but I ended up breaking the stand trying to get it to line up (way more difficult to do than it looks like it would be). that kind of "get out of bed on the wrong side" of challenging. still quite a neat looking little mill and probably look neat in a digger sort of rail. this was entirely out of box except the turned aluminum distributor and of course the wiring and detailing. fit and finish was atrocious in some areas, particularly the two piece scoop with the seam running right up the sides, and the absolute refusal of the front drive belt pulleys to line up with their hole in the block and pin on the blower drive. still looks funny down there so I just haven't been looking down there. other than that and the above mentioned inherent clumsiness of the one-head-missing design, and of course the prodigious sink and ejection pin marks in the most awkward places, the thing went together and fit together well especially considering the era. any comments criticisms questions cheerfully responded to! jb

wow did I just find a home for this:

thanks for the run down on the differences. as you say the Revell one is 2X in cost but if there is improvement maybe its worth it. I have been in London a few times in the past 10 years and I was amazed how many of the original cars I saw running around the admittedly tony neighborhood I was in. but they seemed to be all over the place. correct side drive of course jb

Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland make a few different ones, down draft, side draft, diff sizes. they are especially detailed. jb

I was going to suggest the Tony Nancy kit for front wheels but also that Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland have 19" photo etch motorcycle wheel and tire kits that are direct replacements for the tony nancy wheels. you might look into those unless you think the kit ones are acceptable, I know they looked pretty good to me too until I saw the PE ones. you might want to use some of the tony nancy front end and other miscellaneous stuff from that kit. great job on the frame and concept, this will be a killer jb

stick it in some water first then put it in the freezer. if you are lucky it might come apart. the problem is if it was glued with "solvent" type glue, that actually melts the plastic together you might have a mess on your hands. if it was put together with surface adhesives like super glue it should come apart. if super glue was used, you can get debonder that will undo it in most cases. hope that helps jb

you need to really hairy eyeball the mating surfaces of the chassis/interior to the body, something there is binding and forcing the chassis to warp. if there is a typical all-windows-in-one "glass" tub, look all around it and see if it binds on the interior sides (again assuming a typical interior tub on top of the chassis). another place I have found this to happen is if the interior is attached to the body insides, it sits too far down and makes it so you have to force the chassis in, basically bending it in the middle and causing the warp. in this case you can often get the engagement pins front and rear to engage and look ok, but the stress is causing the wheels to sit on different levels. hope that helps, the problem needs to be studied close up and have your cordless dremel handy for last minute modifications in hard to reach areas jb

looks nice but just curious why you say its better than the Tamiya kit? I do know the roof is easier to paint in a prototypical way using this Revell version, but what else have you noticed? ive built a few Tamiya ones and haven't ever noticed anything too drastically wrong with them aside from some tricky masking if you want to be nuts on accurate. I would like to try one of these Revell Germany versions just to know! jb

wow this is a very inspirational build and interesting to watch in progress. about your headers, I would shorten them. I like that they sit parallel to the ground and I like those bolt on tips you're using, I would just shorten them so they end where the door begins. I totally dig that louvered rear cover and just everything about this, those front wheels, everything. jb

thanks casey...clear as mud jb

Skip, I like the way you think! Actually its more a matter of what my eyes can see and my hands can do...and some of the worst offenders are going to be covered by side panels, firewall, cowl etc. thanks for looking and the kind comments! sorry it takes me so long to get through one of these project but other stuff always seems to pop up, but if I am nothing else, I am persistent. by the way, a question on a point of order, I just got moved from the workbench section to the drag racing section. actually this is going to be a diorama, but the question is, when this is finished and I post the finished set in the Under Glass section, is it going to get moved from there as well? another point of possible interest, when this is completed I mean it to mimic the following photo, with the figures being replaced by figures of Japanese people in roughly the same poses as the original photo of the American racing team of old. don't know just yet what exactly to do about the figures, that's a bit beyond my capabilities, but that's what I have in my minds eye, such as it is. jb

Mooneyes is owned by a Japanese firm and the original (as well as at least one repro) mooneyes dragster is owned by that company. the original mooneyes dragster is currently undergoing a restoration in Los Angeles and will then either be returned to the Don Garlits museum in Florida or shipped to Japan for display. so what I am presenting basically is the restored mooneyes dragster drawn by a modern Japanese tow car, just as might actually be in the current era. everyone has a 60 Ford tow car...I sort of like different, especially if I can rationalize it. and no I don't think the second hoop is hidden by the upholstery...photos I have are pretty clear on that and the second bar hoop I am talking about is plainly visible in photos of the reproduction...its a stretched frame vs the original. also I don't believe the top portion of the motor is on backwards...there are reasons I don't think this is so though I cannot recall right off hand what they are. what is wrong is I did not align the fronts of the top portion with the front of the lower portion and it wasn't clear (to me) that they should align until after I was done cementing them. I personally find that revell motor lacking in more ways than poor fit but after building one I am sure the second I did would be much better. its just that after I checked out the AMT version the Revell one just sort of faded into the background for me. (edit: just looked at an unbuilt parts pack chevy motor and it appears you may be right about the top part of the motor as it does kinda look like it might fit better the other way around. oh well its done now and not being used but thanks for the tip, might make it work better next time I think of using the PP version) many thanks for the comments and for looking! jb

man really love that chassis detail and painting and the interior is super! that's going to look nice with all that and the body paint and wheels! jb

the plan calls for a trailer and I have been vacillating on what to do about that, original thought was to modify one of those revell midget trailers but that doesn't seem practical since I would basically have to rebuild the whole thing. so I happened to remember that the old Revell Mickey Thompson Attempt 1 had a trailer at least in the original issue, and since that vehicle basically uses the same frame as the Mooneyes Dragster, I figured it ought to be close. I have one photo of the Mooneyes team loading the car onto the trailer and this one looks the part pretty well: single axle, simple construction, no frills transport for the rail. so I picked up an incomplete Attempt 1 on ebay with the trailer intact and when I see it my heart sinks. compound warpage, both front to back and side to side, add in the fenders were warped in a different direction and imagine my consternation! so I put it under weights for a while in hopes it would straighten it but no go. so tonite I decided to cut it apart, reinforce it, and glue it back together in a hopefully flatter state. oh yeah and I need to widen it about 7 mm to accommodate the wide track of the Mooneyes vs the narrowed Attempt 1, but I have to retain the tread pattern width in the rear for the close together slicks. I first attempted to flatten it out front to rear by supergluing some 1/4" square plastruct along the underside of the driveplates. that worked pretty well, they sat a lot flatter at that point. then I cut the connections between the two driveplates and cleaned them up some. of course I forgot to take a photo of the trailer before I began! I then drew up a template of how I wanted it to be and cut some new connectors, you can see in the photos that the thing is fairly level now, I'm going to let it sit overnight and contemplate it a bit before gluing it together tomorrow. ultimately it will be painted yellow to match the dragster and tow car, and some other running gear will be added as well and of course some Mooneyes decals. meanwhile, the chassis continues to be refined: added some under cowl detail like brake and clutch pedals, brake master cylinder, hand brake linkage and handle, tachometer and wiring, hot switch, kill switch and wiring and ready to set up the steering box. comments, suggestions and criticisms always welcomed! thanks again for looking! jb

they are...I got one. that's what kinda gave me pause when I saw this topic because I thought if anyone was going to do them it might be reps and mins, but he is probably too busy to take it on. whatever its gonna be great to have those kits available again; I wanted to buy one or more but just never got in the right place (in front of me) at the right time (with money burning a hole in my pocket). jb

either the silhouette or its trailer...pretty kool for a throw together! jb

that's a great article and very nice look at whats in the box too. nice to see the reaction in the comments section too. I cant wait for mine to reach from hlj. jb

well picked up a fairly trashed original Attempt 1 kit the other week on ebay and after surveying the contents decided I got less than what I bargained for so I decided to make some lemonade out of these lemons. first of all that kool berserk half a Pontiac V8 with the supercharger hanging off it! and there are TWO of them in the kit, plus a totally kool engine stand to display the second motor on if you don't want to "upgrade" to two of them in the frame! I actually bought the thing for the trailer to use in another project, but it is terribly warped; I'm letting it sit with weights on it to see if that helps. I will probably end up reinforcing it with plastic tubing but I was trying to avoid a major job. but meanwhile this display engine is a terrific slump buster and is pretty darn detailed. I believe I remember 30 some parts per motor, and some of those are very detailed (cogged drive belt and gears for instance with nicely engraved hex nut heads) but some are just totally ruined with deep sink marks, check out the valve cover breathers...the bigger ones in the center cover I stripped and cleaned up and then reshot with Chrome Silver and foil but the small ones I could hardly see and what I could see I didn't like! the headers which I don't show here because they are still in a rough state, are some nice weed burner downswept pipes that were one manifold piece and four pipes that had to be jigged up to keep straight during assembly. typical early 60s Revell fiddlyness, but it looks good when its done halfway cleanly. paint on block is Tamiya metallic blue and rest is mixture of metalizers and mostly model master enamels and metallic shades. nearly complete now so probably first and only post here, comments and criticisms gladly accepted! Now am I correct in thinking this Attempt 1 only came with the trailer and open parachute, and none of the reissues through the years included those pieces? this one I have has the trailer and all the pieces to it including a nice trailer hitch, but does not have the open parachute, though the exploded open pack for it is with it. I always liked that open chute when I was a kid, used a couple of them on different builds over the years. many thanks again! jb

I find a dremel, older cordless model currently, one day I will replace it with a stylus, to be really really handy in that final fitting phase where often no matter how many times I have dry fitted parts, there always seems to be some interference when doing it for the last time. it allows you to get into tiny corners with a mini grinding bit and relieve just a very little bit at a time in a very controlled manner. also I use it for removing or relieving big areas by thinning the material first before making the final cut. I really use it a lot despite initially thinking I would not. and my batteries have lasted about 5 years the first time, then their replacements are on about their third year with no problems. david you should get hold of dremel and tell them the problem; when I had a problem with a replacement battery they sold me, they just sent me another one and told me to keep or discard the bad one. turned out to be my charger wasn't plugged in properly but by the time I figured that out I already had the replacement. edit to add: this thread caused me to go out and see what I could score a Stylus for. Seems they might not be currently manufactured, or maybe distribution is spotty or targeted, like they do seem to be in stock at Lowes for 70$ or so. anyone know of any deals? jb

>I recently sold the artwork to Scale Racing Replicas (Chuck Naylor). why would someone buy the artwork without plans to sell the decals? Makes no sense. So of course someone is going to be selling his designs presumably on decals. just pointing out the obvious jb

its difficult in California but you notice that one had the "FARM USE" plate on the back; some states let you register vehicles as farm use and you get around all requirements for roadworthiness pretty much. and in California, certainly if any of these were registered as their source car year, they would be exempt from pretty much anything. then there is the "just do it until you get caught" school that I subscribe to for the most part. jb

BP trades as Arco out here in the west and I think I heard something about them divesting themselves of the entire USA market sooner than later. I never go to Arco stations: the lowest prices attract the scum of the earth. hardly a time goes by that I am in one (in someone elses vehicle for instance) and some drama doesn't happen. We call em "AM/PM Murder Marts" around here. A good place to get robbed. Plus they don't even take credit cards. Now that's ghetto right there: debit cards only. With the usurious interest charging quick check cashing in the back. jb

>burn to the ground in a bonfire of butthurt. love it! jb