Pete J.

Wesley or do you go by Wes? I was looking at my posts and would like to extend an apology. I noticed a rather flat tone to my reply's and hope you didn't take offense. Some times I get a little caught up in the detail and forget to complement people. Your work is outstanding. I am honored that you were using my prior work as a reference and would like to extend an offer for any detailed information of the original car or photos of my build . You have given me a significant complement and it is appreciated. Thank you.

Not entirely sure what you are looking for. I will admit on this model I glued the engine cover in place because I built an engine on a separate stand because when the body is in place, you really can't see much of the top of the engine. It just seemed a shame to spend that much time on the engine top and then hide it. If I recall, I did have to sand the edges of the wing down a lot to get it to fit and the top of the deck took a ton of work to hide the seams. This is the best shot I have of the rear deck cover. I hope it helps.

What most people don't know is that this is a very old Tamiya kit and even though it is a great kit from the time period, it really has a number of fit issues, especially in the body. Lots of filling and sanding required. Here are a couple of photos from my second build that I like best. Thanks for asking.

Tim, maybe you can explain this because I can't. Why is there so much pleasure in doing something over again until you finally get it the way you want it? I don't now. I am on my fourth try on some clips and am enjoying each try. I assume that you do too! Very nice brass work! Keep it coming.

It is not an easy build and to do it right is a challenge. You have done a great job! Congratulations. I would know. I've built two of them with the SMS super detail kit. This is an old kit and stuff really doesn't fit as well as todays new kits. Congratulations on getting through it. Any pictures of the body? That is one of the more impressive pieces.

Not unusual, especially if you rescribed the panel lines. They often refer to this as ghosting and it happens with body work of all kinds. The lacquer thinner in both the Dupli Color and Tamyia s causing the plastic to swell where the orignial surface was disturbed or where the plastic came together in the mold. Several light coats of paint, allowed to dry for a couple of days should stop that, but if you spray a heavy or "wet" coat on at the end, the lines may come back. If it is not metalic paint, you can sand and recoat but build up the paint first so you are not spraying on raw plastic. That will only make the problem worse. A little trick to over come this is thin super glue. A very light coat will protect the areas you worked and stop this, but you need to do that before you prime it. I also make sure I soak putty with super glue after it is sanded and cured. That helps seal it and it sticks to the plastic better.

Just a bit of information on compressors that you might find useful. Most of the "home" or garage type of small compressors are made my Ingersol-Rand and rebranded under a lot of other names like Craftsman, Dewalt, Campbell Hausfeld, etc. This shell game has been going on for years. Not that it is bad, but if you know about it, you can often get a good deal on a quality compressor without having to spend the money for a name. A quick eyeball of the actual compressor and the pressure regulators will tell you a lot, especially if you can compare them side by side.

Wow, that is a loaded question. First the compressor. Any source of compressed air will work but the best is a source that gives you a consistent volume and pressure. That can be anything from a soda fountain container of CO2 to a huge commercial compressor. Most airbrush compressors will work to give you what you need to run an airbrush and only an airbrush. The kicker is that they are nearly silent and can be used in a room without disturbing anyone. You do pay a price for that quiet. If noise isn't much of an issue, any quality regular shop compressor with a storage tank will do the same thing, but they are generally not quiet. They also can generally do things like fill up tires and run some air tools. They are also relatively cheap. You can pick up a nice little pancake compressor(pancake refers to the shape of the storage tank) for around $150 or less. You will also need a moisture trap with them. I generally don't recommend getting a airbrush/compressor combination as there is no advantage to it. There is no such thing as a compatibility issue with the two. As long as the compressor gives you the air you need then it doesn't matter who made it. Oh just to make you smile, I had a hook up for a while when I was starting out, that used a spare tire for the air source. That was back when you could buy a spare tire and rim for about $20 and gas stations would let you fill them for free. Sounds funny but it worked. Now, on to the airbrush. You will get all kinds of advise here from Harbor freight cheapies to high end professional models. If you haven't worked with one before the get one with a lot of flexibility. That means a double action with changeable tips and needles. The best example I can give is the Badger 175 Crescendo. The best set has three tips, hose and a couple of jars and can be had for less than $125. The one down side is that it doesn't have an adjustable needle stop, but for a first airbrush it give you a lot of adjustment and it is a good middle of the road quality brush. Parts are also very available. Personally I own 4 airbrushes because each one of them does a couple of things better than the others. One of those is my trusty old Crescendo and by old I mean well over 20 years old. It has been rebuilt several times but it still fills a spot in my suite of brushes. It is a good starter set. I am sure there are others that do as well, but it is the one I am most familiar with.

Art's comment means I should make a similar statement about my on post. Micro surface sanding sticks are intended to be used wet. I use a distilled water with a little alcohol to break the surface tension of the water and they will last a long time.

Look up 75 mm figures. That is very close to 1:24 scale. Should be able to find a fair number of choices.

Yup, that's the place. This is the source for them. They are the ones that make them. One tip. First time it is worth it to buy a few of the tri-grit ones. That way you can get a feel for what you need most. Then on the reorder, buy the single grit ones. I found after using the tri- or dual grits one is was using one part far more that the other and would wind up keeping a lot of sticks around because one part was still good, but the other was shot. Oh and by the way, I generally put together a group order with friends and buy them 100 at a time. That way I reduce the per unit cost of shipping. I've been buying from them for over 20 years. Good people.

Here is a little hint for you. When you make your own decals on a inkjet printer, they give you a fixative to spray over the decal. That fixative is most often a fast drying lacquer. You can clear coat with just about anything as long as you go very light and let it dry. 10 minutes is not enough. Over night for lacquers is about right. One very very light coat then another and build up about three light coats. That way the solvent in your final coats will not dissolve the top coats and cause them to wrinkle. Be patient. If you get in a hurry trouble will follow.

I am surprised that no one has mentioned The Italian Job. A bunch of Mini's running around like they are nuts. That would be both versions. Also one of my favorites but it doesn't necessarily fit and that is the Steve McQueen motorcycle chase in The Great Escape. Also almost every Bond Film ever made had at least one great motor vehicle chase, whether it be car, aircraft or boat.

These guys are right, there is no "one size fits all" formula because there are way to many variables. Here is a list. Paint viscosity, paint density, airbrush nozzle size, air pressure, temperature, humidity, thinner formula and type of gun. I am sure there are some I am leaving out here but that is the majority. First you have to decide if this is going to be something you are going to use over the long haul or is this a one time deal. If it is not a one time deal, then get a notebook and start keeping notes. Choose the airbrush and nozzle you are going to use and pick an air pressure. Do not vary these once you start to test. Then measure your proportions carefully. 50/50 is a good place to start. Then do a test. Are you getting good atomization and is the paint arriving at the surface with sufficient thinner to not give you orange peel, but not so much that it runs. If not increase or decrease the thinner and try again. Keep doing this until you get the finish that you want. Then don't change them when you paint. Too many people tend to fiddle with all the settings every time and never really get an idea of what really works. If you change two or more settings you never can decide which one did what you wanted. Paint is a science if handled that way. If not then it is black magic. Oh and by the way, I paint with DuPont Auto lacquer and my mix ration is 5:1 or 6:1. This is because the paint comes out of the can like honey but it is really good quality paint. This is really the extreme that I am talking about.

Steve, I have four air driven painting tools. Tamiya HG, Tamiya super HG, Badger 175 and an Iwata HPL-50. Each is unique in it's own right and does a particular type of painting better than the others. None is a good universal tool that does everything. In my mind it is very much like having a drawer full of screw drivers. Yes, you can drive a phillips head screw with a flat blade screw driver but it isn't the best tool for the job any more than the wrong sized phillips head screw driver is the best tool for the job. But it is also like comparing a DIY handyman to a machinist. Each has different needs to do the work to their satisfaction. The DIY guy doesn't need the precision of a dial caliper to measure the fit of a coat hook, but the tape measure that the DIY guy uses wouldn't work for the pricision that a machinist uses. Each owns tools appropriate to the job and skill level that they need. Same with airbrushes. I use my Iwata for putting a good lacquer finish on large areas such as 1:12 scale auto bodies. I would go nuts trying to do it with my super HG. Where the Iwata does it in three passes it would take hundred with the super HG. Having said that do I believe that every builder needs four or five airbrushes. No. I have them because I want to do modeling to my standard and having four aids me in accomplishing that. It also has taken a lot of time and effort to learn the proper way to use each of these tools. The finish I want requires that . That is why I like having multiples and I didn't mind spending the money for them. Not a choice that everyone can or would make.

Superb work! None better Tim. This is going to be crazy when done.

You are right. brain fart!

If this is a true HVLP(high velocity, low pressure) then I do have quite a bit of experience with it. I originally bought mine when my Badger 175 went up and I had several 1:12 scale autos to build. It has proven to be a very useful tool, but I have to say, I didn't buy a cheap one. I bought the Iwata HLP-50 and it was a couple of hundred but that was a long time ago. To go into a huge explanation of what an HVLP gun is and how it works would take several pages, but luckily Paul Budzig has just added a YouTube video on the subject. Here it is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Zs89hoyNM0 Now a few personal bits. This is a very precise tool and requires some work to master. It works similar to an airbrush but there is a lot about it that is different. I will leave that up to Paul to explain but I will say this. I bought the Iwata with three different tips and use all of them a lot. The Iwata's sweet spot is about 13 psi but it takes some doing to adjust the paint and the three different air adjustments to get it right. I like the Iwata because you can get an attachment that lets it use the standard siphon feed airbrush bottle which is very handy. It also makes it easy to keep a spare bottle of thinner around to clean it up at the end of use. Knowing what I do about this tools, $20 seems too good to be true and this doesn't look like a true HVLP gun. One too few adjustment so it may just be a cheap touchup gun but for $20 what do you have to loose. If it doesn't work but you need that type of work done, then you paid $20 for a lesson. Good Luck!

Ok, I'm going to go shut the mill and lathe down. I got nothin!! Pete out, Boom!

I just searched "microcar woodie" and this was the first photo that came up. A little stunned it was that easy.

Norm, I have read the story about this and you had to be exceptionally lucky to meet this man. Of course the aviation community is quite distressed about what happened to the original engines. I do understand why he did it and don't blame him in the least. After all, he was responsible for bringing the entire aircraft back to the US. The 100P was never really well known until after he had converted the engines back to auto engines. The problem is that these engines were, as well as can be determined, two of 7. There is only one know to exist in its original format and that is a partial test engine which is incomplete. It is driving me nuts because I am trying to figure out the plumbing on the originals. The difference is that front and back engines were quite different. The rear engine had the supercharger mounted on the left and the front was mounted on the right. The rear engine was also fitted with a gear box to reverse the rotation out of the engine. This is just the basics. I am having some real challenges with divining the ignition system. It seems that there may have been a remote magneto where as the auto engines most often had a cam driven distributor system. Very much a challenge to get this all figured out. Like so many, I would like to pick his brain on what he did to convert the engines.

Tim, glad I could contribute to your knowledge base. That is what I like about sharing with other builders. You never know who is going to give you that one tip that you really need. The engines are 1:24 scale. That is definitely and odd scale for an aircraft and would make this a very large model but it is really a tiny aircraft. The wingspan in scale is about 14". This is really one of those machines that if it didn't make it faster it was taken off. Very minimalist. This philosophy is likely what caused the accident that killed Scotty Wilson. I have not read the FAA accident report yet but, I have read several aerodynamic studies and it seems that there was minimal rudder authority. Any adverse yaw could put the air frame into flight regime from which it could not be recovered. Not a slam against Scotty as he was a highly skilled pilot, but this was an aircraft that was designed to fly at the edge of the envelope and any time you do that, you increase the level of risk proportionatly. Thank you for your comment on the coolant pipe. You are right, it is these sublties that go unnoticed and are the real challenge to get right. Thanks for noticing! Now back to the bench. Thanks Tim.

Dave actually there were several reasons but mostly it is just much better to machine than 6061. It is harder so the chips clear tools and drill bits better. It is less likely to gall to the tools and it polishes up much nicer. The other reason is that it has a higher melting point. Now that doesn't sound all that important, but I am using superglue to temporarily secure parts to do some finish machining. In this photo the cam covers have been glued to the block to skim each end to get a perfect match. Then they were drilled for the wire pins that will be used for final assembly. CA glue has a strong enough bond to hold for light to moderate machining. To disassemble them, for the engine turning, all I had to do was heat them with a propane torch. The super glue gives up quite nicely when heated and a quick soak in acetone cleans off any residue.

Yes indeed! It is going to be quite the challenge. Thank you of looking