StevenGuthmiller

I’m assuming he just used the backside of the tape to imprint the texture. Using the tape itself to cover the dash would be WAY out of scale, much as it is for vinyl tops. Steve

Well, that's a very difficult question to answer as there are a lot of different types and designs of arm rests. But my general answer would be to look at photos of the arm rests you want, and then try to look at them broken down into basic shapes, then build them using those basic shapes as reference. The arm rests that I made for my '65 Fury were done by basically just starting with a chunk of larger sprue that I first filed into a wedge shape, and then just sanded, filed and cut to the shape that I wanted. Then, using a piece of thin plastic strip, I shaped a pad. Doing them in two pieces meant that I could chrome the base and paint the pad separately, making them much easier to detail. These took a little more work than others I have done. A little bit simpler examples were done for my '64 Bonneville. These were made simply with layers of plastic sheet. A couple of shaped pieces for the base, and another for the pad. Again, made separately for painting purposes. Yet another design is for my '68 Olds 442. These again started as a larger piece of sprue sanded and filed to the base shape. A thin piece of stretched sprue added for the ridge in the center of the base, and a pad and the "background" trim made from thin styrene sheet. Steve

Sure, when you look at it through the lens of the technology that we have today, but nothing ever stays the same. Time marches on, and technologies advance, sometimes at the speed of light! Who's to say that in the future, the designing portion may already be done for you through a huge catalog of finished designs, so that all that one will have to do is punch a computer key and have it ready for print. Then, through advancement of the machinery needed, a manufacturer could possibly have large enough machines to print 30 or 40 kits in a pop within a few minutes, or even seconds. Then of course there's the possibility that virtually every home will have a 3-D printer capable of the same speeds, and along with a vast catalog of subjects available to download for a few dollars, there would be no need for injection molded kits at all, if you could produce whatever kit you wanted for a few bucks in a matter of minutes. I'm sure at one point the concept of being able to buy a ready made frozen meal and being able to pop it into a metal box for a minute to be ready to eat was a pie in the sky concept as well. Now we don't even think about it. Steve

Just wait. 3-D printing is basically still in it’s infancy. It won’t surprise me in the least if in the not too distant future, multiple examples of a print will be able to be produced at one time, in a large machine within a matter of minutes, making injection kit molding obsolete. Then, with a few key strokes on a keyboard, the whole operation might be able to be switched over to an entirely different print within a few seconds, and the next batch of 30 kits begins printing. Someday we’ll probably look back and laugh about all of the programming and long print times that are required today, kind of like we laugh at 8-track tapes and VHS recorders today. But, in the meantime, I’m completely content with my skeezy old plastic kits. I’m probably not going to be around for the “revolution”, or at least to old to give a rat’s behind about it when it comes. Steve

Some people think that building factory stock is easy, but it does require a certain discipline that other genres may not. Steve

Decided to order some frames so that I could start displaying some of my magazine appearances before the magazines get too beat up. I'm not one for saving a bunch of magazines anyway, so this will be a way to save some of that stuff indefinitely, and where I can enjoy them. I have another half dozen or so frames on order so I can finish up my wall. Steve

Sure. If you're building rods or customs there's no need to stick to tradition You can paint your carbs anodized purple if you want. But for the stock builder, (or anything close to it) a shade of aluminum or gold is going to get you the closest to what you're looking for. That said, regardless of the colors used, if you want a model to depict something that's been driven even minimally, at least a wash or a little light weathering is going to give it the appearance of use and will really bring out the details. Steve

I don't think that any of the Alclad paints lend themselves very well to brush painting. They're designed to be sprayed and are very thin. If you want a close match, just get some Testors aluminum enamel and add a tiny touch of Testors gold enamel a little at a time until you reach the desired color. I use this mixture often for small details like bolts and such when I want something a little "warmer" in color than a stark steel or aluminum. The valve cover and drain plug bolts were done with the Testors enamel, as well as the alternator fan in these pictures. Steve

Another one done with Alclad “Pale Burnt Metal”. Steve

Thank you Dennis! You're projects are inspiring as well! Steve

Fabulous looking interior Dennis! I agree. Sometimes replacing the floor is a big improvement. Especially if your plan is to use a different modern chassis and the floor pan and frame are integral to one and other. Of course, I usually blow apart the rest of the interior as well, if nothing else but to make it easier to detail. Especially the door cards. When I did my '68 Coronet, everything was basically based on the floor pan from the Revell '68 Charger kit as I was using the chassis from that kit. Sometimes you can end up doing a lot more work than anticipated though. The only remaining parts from the original '68 Coronet kit were the front and rear seats, and a very small portion of the door cards. Everything else was either modified from the Charger kit, or completely scratch built. Steve

You can get even thinner clear plastic sheets than 0.01. The stuff that I use routinely for replacing kit glass is 0.007 “clear lay film”. The same stuff they use for overhead projectors, etc. Extremely flexible, but still might cause you headaches with wraparound glass such as the ‘59 Ford. Steve

Certainly make sure that any depth modifications to the interior tub are made with the understanding that the chassis fit can be adversely affected. It’s not always possible. Steve

One of the biggest reasons to remove door panels and rebuild them (aside from enhancement of the details) is because a large majority of older annual style kits used convertible interiors in every kit regardless if it were a convertible or hardtop. I like to rework these convertible interiors to make them at least closer to accurate for a hardtop vehicle by removing the convertible top mechanism bolsters, or “wells” from the rear door panels and replacing them with closer to accurate hardtop door panels. This can be illustrated by this Johan 1965 Plymouth Fury interior that I modified a few years ago. Steve

Do it all the time. Steve

Steve

Okay. We can do that. I don’t have much interest in talking to anybody who closes their mind, takes everything said as a personal attack and is more interested in protecting a brand than having a simple civilized conversation anyway. I've added you to my ignore list, so that should make it easy for both of us. You have yourself a fabulous life. Steve

Well, I don’t always post solely for the benefit of the individual that I’m responding to, but to anybody that might get anything useful out of it. More information is always better than less, but yeah, I understand where you’re coming from. Steve

Looks terrific! Steve

Yeah, I should probably get one of those at some point. Seems like it would come in handy to help eliminate “flying part” syndrome. 😁 Steve

No, it didn't take a few days. It took 50+ years of experience. And again, you're bringing your emotions back into it. I'm not "cutting Rustoleum down". I'm merely citing facts. If you're interested, the reasoning for the number of coats are as follows. With the primer, I'm using an initial coat or two to achieve full coverage and using it to check for body work imperfections. The remaining 2 or 3 coats are used as guide coats to insure that body work is to my standards, and to make sure that there is an ample barrier against the hot solvents in the lacquer paint to be used. With the color coats, the airbrush lacquers that I use are somewhat transparent in nature, so more coats means more color uniformity, color depth and uniform coverage. The number of clear coats not only helps to provide depth of color, (ie, helping the color to "pop") but as I utilize a cutting and polishing regimen on all of my models, the more clear that you can apply without obscuring detail, the less likely you are to burn through the clear down to the color coats, or beyond, during the process. I've been using this process for the past 10 or 15 years and in that time, I might have encountered one instance where a paint job had to be stripped due to a paint issue, so it's been working very well for me. If I were using Rustoleum, I would fully expect to have to cut that number way down to 4 or less coats, and it's my opinion that my paint work would suffer for it. Believe me, I've used numerous different types of paint, including Rustoleum and other enamels over the past 5 decades, and I've never had the type of paint success with my projects as I have in recent years. Seams to me as if I'm on the right track. Steve

Okay. I'll buy that. Steve

What paint did you use? Steve

No disrespect Bill, but it’s a model car. The only real requirement is for the primer to be smooth. If you can achieve that without sanding, I don’t see any disadvantage that’s going to matter with something that’s going to spend it’s lifetime indoors sitting on a shelf. Steve

Well, whatever the reason, it seems to set faster on the card than on the parts. Steve