Ragnar

Very Nice! You have captured just the right look with your Mods, and Paint work! CHEERS!

Nice Build! The colours work well together. CHEERS!

Here are the basic tools: Hobby Knife with #11 Blade, a chissle tip blade also comes in handy Sprue Cutters, get a good one with thin sharp blades. You really need this tool! Pin Vise with a set of wire guage bits. Tweezers for handling small parts during assembly. Razor saw with 52teeth per inch, you will find many uses for it. A good set of Jewelers files a must have. A set of rifler files optional but very handy for getting into areas you can't work on with strait files. Assorted Sand Paper: 150-280 grit for rough work, 600 grit, 800 grit, 1000 grit and 1200 grit for final body prep. A good set of paint brushes numbers 3,1,and 5/0 to start. Get good quality Brushes, cheap ones are a waiste of money! Assorted paints both aerosol and bottle paints, I sugest Model Masters, and Tamiya to start. Leave the Automotive paints until you have some practice with the model paints. for the Glass like finishes you see, you will also need sanding pads and clothes in 3200 through 12000 grit, polishing compound, I use Novus #2 polishing compound, followed by NOVUS #1 sealer, Flanel cloth for polishing. There are several other tools that make building easier, but these are the basics. For glues you will need Liguid plastic cement, CA, Epoxy, and glue made for clear parts. You will also find that flat tooth picks are handy for applying the glues. CHEERS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! CHEERS!

Well I'm 63 and I built my first models when I was 6 or 7 years old, so I have no idea what my first car model was! I remember Building Airfix models of early sports cars, and several Hot Rod kits in the fifties, But the first ones I remember were the the early AMT Roadsters, and some Arora kits. They were all pretty bad! CHEERS!

WHERE in Florida? I live in Jacksonville, and the local track has just closed down. I need a place to race! CHEERS!

I wish a MERRY CHRISTMAS, and MANY HAPPY NEW YEARS For all of YOU! REMEMBER THOSE WHO ARE GOING IN HARMS WAY TO SERVE THEIR COUNTRY IN YOUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS DURING This Time When WE ARE CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF CHRIST! CHEERS!

Micheal back teamed with Ross Braun, it is what all the others have been dreading! I just wish the FIA, and Bernie would quit messing with the rules! CHEERS!

On any surface that I have worked on with putty, and/or any surface where I have used multi coloured parts, I always shoot gray primer first, even if I want a white bace. This gives better coverage on these surfaces, and stops ghosting from happening! CHEERS!

Nice Group of Deuces! CHEERS!

The Worst Kit, Had to be The Old Revell 56 Ford Victoria with the multipart body. None of the different Body sections would line up leaving large gaps. I spent several days working with putty to get that old kit to look right. This was the first kit that I had used a lot of putty on( 12 years old), and I ended up doing it over several times. I ended up removing a lot of the body trim working on it, it became my first Customised Model Car( I had started out to build it with all the Chrome on it). and I actually took a second place trophy with it. When I think back to that old kit, I realise it made a better modeler of me, But I still hate those kits! CHEERS!

If you want it to be pre World War 2, use the frame and running gear from the 29 Rat Rod, and a thirties flat head. I like the Rev/Mon 37 ford flat head. Put on aftermarket center water port heads, eithe a two deuces manifold, or a two into 1 adapter manifold keep the thirties style two bulb distributor. Use wheel from one of the cars or trucks made during the thirties with skinny black wall tyres from the same period. Keep the paint simple, ie. Black Dark green, red or one of the other colours available during the thirties, flat or semi gloss, they didn't have the high gloss paints that started showing up later, except on very exspensive luxury cars. Keep the interior period correct, no bomber seats or fance tuck and roll upholstery. The Hot Rods of the thirties are all about speed, so everything they could remove was removed. The Frames were simple C-Channel afairs, no fancy tube frames, they were often drilled out to lighten them, even though it weakened the frames. They all used Banjo, or in the very rare case quick change rears and many of these early rods had the rear axle mounted directly to the frame rails without springs. Z-ed frames were very, very rare. The Hot setup was a 38 Flathead. bored 3/16", and stroked 1/4", 8:1 Heads( the fuel available limited compression ratios ), Two Singles, or two early 2 barrel carbs( no 97s), hooked up to a mid thirties Ford Truck Toploader, With weed burner stlye exhaust. The rearend gear was often 3.27 to 1. The most popular body was a 28/29 A Roadster, with a cut down Deuce Radiator surround and grille. Of course the first thing they did away with was the fenders. CHEERS!

I grew up in the mountains where it would often get down into single digits and/or negative temps. I learned early to keep my paints warm when painting. I would keep my paints standing in warm water when painting, and used an old hair dryer the my sister had quit using as a painting stand to keep the parts I was painting Warm. This was one of those old Bonnet type dryers. I just made a frame to hold the bonnet out of clothes hangers. After painting I would leave the painted items under the hood for three or four hours to dry. CHEERS!

I dropped out of a local club, due to two brothers who controled the Model Car Judging. They would enter their Models in the catagories the other brother was judging and they always took top honours, even when there were cars entered that were far superior to theirs. I hate it when people reffer to our models as toys, or just plastic. My father asked me in 1974 when are you going to stop playing with those toys and get a real job? Those toys as he called them were Pro Grp7, and Grp27 Slot Cars, and I was making quite a bit more per year than My Father was at the time. Believe me it was a Real Job, and those Cars were far from being toys, we were even testing bodies in a miniature windtunnel to get the best balance between down force and drag. The Company would mold bodies based on those tests. Pro Slot Car Racing was a very big thing at the time, but then in late 76 it all crashed . Some People will always think of Scale Autos as toys. I entered my first Model Car Contest in Charlotte N.C. in 1960 with a customised Revell 56 Ford, I had removed all of the Side Trim, shaved and decked it, Frenched the headlights, modified the grille, and rolled the pans. I also puttyed the joints on the multi piece body. It was sray painted using my first air brush( a Paasche) with Testors Light Yellow and Black. I was very proud of that model it took third in it's class. I was hooked and I entered every model contest I could find for the next few years, even after I Started Building 1:1 Hot Rods. When I look back on those early Models I realise that they were no-where as good as I thought they were at the time. Well I'm now in my Sixties and The Models that are being done today and entered in the shows are far superior to all of those old builds. I don't enter many shows now due to my health, but I believe Model Building helps me get through each day. Like the post above My time means a lot more to me today than ever, so every hour I put into my models is very important to me. I am now working on creating models of the real Hot Rods I built when I was Young. CHEERS!

Nice Work Jairus, but then you always do great Paint Jobs! CHEERS!

The 55 looks Great! You have chosen some interesting subjects for your builds. CHEERS!

I voted real. CHEERS!

Cool Rod! You got the look right. CHEERS!

That is Outstanding Work you have done!! CHEERS!

Small World, I'm also from Jax! CHEERS

I did a folding top for a 36 Ford about Thirty years ago. I used thin brass, soda can material, and brass rod to make the folding frame. Everything was cut to size with a Nibbler, and a drimel tool, then finished to the correct shape with Jeweler's files. I used thin China Silk, the stuff used by the free flight model aircraft guys to cover their super light weight rubber band powered airplanes. I dyed it with Ritz Fabric dye. When the Dye was Dry I cut out my top canvas using tinplates I made from studind the real thing. I attached the top canvas using contact cement that was sold at the same hobby shop where I bought the China Silk, it was a very thin cement that you brushed on both parts and then let stand for about 15min. before attaching the pieces together, This Stuff was VERY UNFORGIVING. I figured I had put over two hundred hours into that top. Even though the model won several awards over the year after I finished it, I have never made another working convertible top. It was Just to much of a pain to do!!! CHEERS!

You can try NOVUS #2 being very careful not to remove all of the paint. Then use NOVUS #1 to bring out that last bit of shine, and to protect it. Use a circular motion with both of these. You really should do the whole car to keep the amount of shine on the car equal! Get a NOVUS Polishing kit, it has instuctions on how to use it. The only way this will work is if the scratch is very shallow, and you have a good deep paint coverage! CHEERS!

Another worthy project. I wish I could build as fast as you do! CHEERS!

Nice 40!

Nice early FlatHead, the distributer makes it 41 or earlier. The Chassis Looks great. CHEERS!