StevenGuthmiller

That is really sharp, and exceptionally well done! Nice work Mark!! Steve

I agree to an extent. I pretty much always mix my own colors for interiors and the like, but I'm a real stickler for accuracy for body colors. Being an almost exclusively "factory stock" builder, I like to get the body color as close to correct as possible, and I figure with Scale Finishes and MCW using factory formulations, I'm not going to get it any closer by eye. Especially when you look at a particular color on ten cars on line, and get basically ten different shades! Steve

Okay, I'll bite. 1. Subject matter is everything! If I'm not completely excited about the subject, the build will ultimately become a chore. 2. Box art is completely irrelevant to me. 3. Brand of kit is irrelevant as well. 4. I have several "favorite" procedures in the building process. I like foiling and I enjoy the painting process. I also enjoy to a large extent the process of scratch building and modifying modern kit parts to fit into vintage body shells. Nothing is more rewarding to me than seeing a bunch of parts come together seamlessly that were never designed to fit together. I don't like polishing paint, although I feel it's a must on every build, and chassis work kind of bores the hell out of me. 5. Parts count is also not a consideration for me. 6. Type of kit matters little to me as well. I'm not afraid to fully detail a curbside kit, or turn a highly detailed kit into a curbside for that matter, although I don't remember ever doing that. 7. Options really don't matter to me either. I suppose it's nice to have some optional stuff, but if the kit doesn't have something that I want, I'll find it somewhere else. 8. The only suggestion that I would make is to be certain that the body proportions are absolutely correct Far too often, our expectations are dashed when a highly anticipated kit finally arrives and is found to be a misshapen mess. As far as 7 cars that I would like to have goes, I really can't answer that. I love so many cars and my tastes change so frequently that I really couldn't be definitive. But you can rest assured that they would all be American cars built between 1949 and 1973! Steve

You can really make it easy on yourself and take Dave G's advice and just order a bottle from Scale Finishes. There is no possible way to go wrong with their product. Steve

Granted, pearl paints were not available in 1970, but a pearl paint will give you a more "in scale" look in 1/25th scale applications than many metallics will, so in the case of model cars, pearls or "mica" colors can often be more desirable than metallics. Steve

Very nice John!! You know it's interesting, but just this evening I was digging through parts boxes looking for wheels, and I was amazed at how common these Lancer style caps must have been as custom options in some of the old annual kits. They just seemed to keep popping up as I dug! Steve

With figures, washes and highlighting are really crucial to create realism. I am by no means an expert on painting figures, but I think that I did pretty well looking back on it now. These are a bunch of Dungeons and Dragons figures that I painted more than 35 years ago. They're pretty beat up and dirty, and the pewter is showing through in some places, but you can see from these pics how I depended heavily on washes and highlighting. Just to put them in scale, the women "warriors" in the 4th photo and the skeletons are about 1 inch tall, and the dragon in the final pics is a little over 3 inches high. Steve

The eyes are what always look bad in most instances. I haven't painted any figures since many years ago when I was on a Dungeons and Dragons binge. (I never role played, I just liked painting the figures) The biggest mistake made is painting the eyeball white followed by a black dot in the middle. Although it might be difficult to get this detailed on something very small, here is a general tutorial on how to paint eyes on figurines. Steve

The vast majority of chassis and engine parts are coming from the Revell '68 Charger kit. Steve

Primer is on and I think it looks pretty good. Steve

Thank you Carl. I haven't been able to spend as much time working on this project as I would like, but I have been able to get a few small things underway. The wheel base of the Revell '68 Charger kit is just a bit too long, so I have been spending a small amount of time moving the rear suspension forward rather that shortening the chassis. Likewise, the rear suspension is a bit too low in correspondence with how the chassis needs to sit in the body, so I've also been working on raising the rear end a bit. I will also need to widen the track a bit so that the stance looks a little better. I have also re-done the door panel that I had previously finished. The panel "cupped" somewhat from a little too liberal use of liquid cement, and I wasn't particularly happy with the "finned" portion of the panel anyway, so I purchased a sheet of Evergreen #2545 "Metal Siding" to replace it with and re-built the panel completely. I'm liking it better. The real test will be in a little while when I prime it. Steve

I agree. That bothers me as well. One more reason to ignore these vultures when they offer anything for sale. Personally, I consider any Modelhaus kit as a recently discontinued model kit and value it as such. There are some that I would like to have, but honestly, if I hadn't bought them over the past 30 years, do I really need them now? And if the opportunity to pick one up ever does arise, it's not going to be through dealing with one of these crooks. Steve

There are several different Duplicolor clears. I use the one in the short can called "Perfect Match" "Protective Clear Coat Finish". It works very well for me as I polish all of my models, but it doesn't gloss all that well straight from the can. Just wanted to let you know that polishing will be very beneficial to the finish. Steve

All I see are lines upon lines of text. Steve

I use Duplicolor primer and clear, but you can use pretty much any good lacquer primer or clear coat that you wish. Steve

Yes, the basecoat is lacquer. 2 oz. should be more than enough. When I painted my '68 Olds 442, I used less than 1 oz. Steve

That's my point. We some times tend to take things far to seriously. Just let it roll off of your back. It's not worth the confrontation. By the way, this is the best that I could do. Steve

If you ever want to shed the '57 Olds, give me a shout. Steve

You're probably right, but in this case, it's not even close to a Paul Hettick creation. Steve

Oh, I don't know. I did pretty well with mine and traded it along with a few other parts and a glue bomb '64 GTO for a complete Johan 1968 Olds 442 kit. It's pretty much on line with every other Johan kit from that era. It was never really meant to be a kit with an opening hood and engine. Johan should have just left it as a curbside kit and it wouldn't have been any different that any of the other Johan kits from '59-'61. Steve

I can concede that point as long as everyone agrees to condemn anybody that refers to factory stock building as "boring", or any number of other more abrasive terms which I have often heard. In another recent thread, several members felt that they were being disrespected over the same wheel remarks, but nobody seemed to be bothered by the old geezer "get off my lawn" and "mobility scooter" statements about those of us that prefer stock. It is a two way street. Steve

I didn't know for sure if they did the '62 Ford sedan or not, but I knew that they did the wagon. Steve

Yeah, I've got a few Modelhaus kits that I will probably never build that I would let go in a heart beat for a tiny fraction of what this guy is asking. I believe that I still have a '58 Edsel, and a '56 Cadillac. I had a '59 Pontiac Bonneville at one point. Not sure if I still have it. And I have a Modelhaus '56 Dodge Custom Royal. I'm certain that I never paid more than $80.00 for any of them. Guess I should have bought more! By the way Mike, apparently the '62 Chrysler wagon that you speak of, which never existed in kit form, isn't worth nearly as much as the quite common '60 Plymouth wagon. This '62 Chrysler can be had right now on ebay for $187.50. Steve

This of course is not the first time this kind of thing has shown up on ebay, but it just kind of boggles the mind when it does. Why would you even waste your time putting it up on ebay? I suppose because, just by chance, there might be some brainless idiot that might buy it! For the record folks, all of my models are now for sale! All original kits at $3,000.00 each! Steve

Maybe it's time for all of us to consider selling some of our Modelhaus resin kits. Stumbled across this Modelhaus built '60 Plymouth wagon on ebay. Is there really any reason why a resin re-pop should be worth more than the original kit? What are these people thinking? You can either spend $1,899.95 for this not particularly stellar built Modelhaus model....... Or you can spend $99.00 on this completely pristine, unmolested original. I'll let you decide. Steve