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Everything posted by microwheel
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Looking good Byron. Looking forward to seeing this one under glass when finished.
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Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Thanks for the comments guys. Just a little update for today, Started working on the hinges for the rear boot lid. Got one made so I had a process down to go by. It took about 4 attempts and a couple of hours, but in the pics you will see the results. To make the boot hinges, the material I used is similar to those used for the door hinges. I started with a piece of thin diameter piano wire, to this I cut two pieces of brass sheet stock and bent it around the wire leaving enough to act as a tab on both pieces. Then I cut and shaped a piece of evergreen round rod flattened on one side to the shape on the boot lid molded on hinge and for the body side added a piece of evergreen thin flat trip. then I drilled a hole in the end of a piece of evergreen round rod and cut two pieces off of that to act as retaining washers. every thing was glued together away from the pivot points with very tiny amounts of two part five minute epoxy and, once that hardened enough, the glue points were once again touched with CA glue coated with backing soda to give it extra strength. The below pic shows the first hinge completed and in the pic you will see some of the material I used to make it. Look at the tooth pick and paint bottle to get a idea of just how small the hinge is. CAN YOU SAY EYE STRAIN?! I sure did when making it. Good thing I have a good magnifier glass. especially with these old eyes of mine lol. Another pic to give you I idea of just how small these things are to make. Anyways that's it for today. Have to make the other hinge for the boot lid, then attach it to the boot lid and body. I'll post more in a day or two when I get the other hinge made and get the boot lid attached. -
OK, I'm sure I'll open a can of worms here, but I thought I'd chime in with my two cents worth. There are a lot of great tips and advice in this thread that's for sure. But there also seems to be a bit of bashing directed at those who love detailing and those that don't. Here is my feelings on both. I remember as a kid back in the mid 60's, my brother and I buying a tube of testors glue and a few model kits and building them right out of the box with no paint and no cleanup work for flashing and ejector pins, or mold lines. Heck we never thought to even buy one of those cheap plastic throw away hobby knives. I mean we twisted the parts off the trees and glued em together. We didn't even care about fit. Afterwards when we got them built we would play with them like match box cars (for those of you that don't remember match box cars.. think hot wheels). That was the extent of what we knew about model cars. Fast forward to my early 30's back in the late 80's. A friend of mine was into building model Semi Trucks. He would pretty much build them out of the box, but he would by spray can paint and at least paint the bodies with that, and then the old little bottles of testors paints and brushes for hand painting the smaller stuff. But still there was lots of flashing and mold lines everywhere. I still knew nothing about model building, but he got me interested in trying to see what I could do. So I bought a couple of model car kits, a hobby knife, some spay can paint, a few paint brushes and little bottles of testors pants, and sat down one evening and built one of the model cars. I placed news paper on the kitchen table and sprayed the body, and when it was dry to the touch, I built the kit up. At that point I had no cares about finger prints in the paint, flashing, or mold lines. I had another friend come over the next day, that I never knew was into building models, that sat down and told me about a club he was in for model car builders (at that time I didn't know they existed), and we talked for hours that evening about the hobby. I joined the club that weekend and attended the meeting with him. I even took my recently built glue bomb with me to show them what I had done. They didnt pick apart my model and tell me how crappy it was, instead they gave me pointers and ideas on what things I could get to make my basic model building skills better. And that was the key.... They concentrated on help with my basic skills. Now all these years letter, I have found out a lot through trial and error as well as from help and tips from other model builders who have shared their techniques with me. Over the years, I have built for contests, for myself, and even been commissioned by others to build for profit. Back in the early to mid 90's I had builds covered in model car magazines,, custom car magazines, hot rod magazines and even been judged by some top notch pro real car builders, such as Boyd Coddington. But none of that meant as much to me as seeing the finished product of something I did with my own two hands sitting on my shelf, or hearing my wife tell me she likes how it turned out. What Im getting at is this. If, all those years ago, the guys in that club would have picked my glue bomb apart, and did nothing but made fun of, or told me how bad it was, I would have walked away from the hobby never to return. There are a lot of, new to the hobby, builders, here on this site, and at the local hobby clubs, and even at contests (as it was for me once). And for me, even though I have been doing this for a long time, I still am learning something all the time about building models, and a lot of it comes from trying new things, and failing at it at first. Some of these new builders will learn, just like some of us that have been doing it for awhile, give them time to develop and encourage them. When they try their hand at extra detailing, remember, they will get better. If your an experienced builder, don't forget where you were when you started. The model industry is struggling to compete for the young people these days as it is. Especially with the video game market and smart phones, and Facebook. When you see someone who isn't as skilled as you, who posts their model on here or elsewhere, or are at a contest and see a model that you feel doesn't deserve to be on a table beside yours, just remember, you were that person once. And we need all the new modelers we can get to keep the hobby going. I still make my share of mistakes model building, and I don't claim to be as good as some I see on here, but I keep learning and I keep building for the love of it and so do all of you who build, be you a top level highly skilled detailer, or the modeler who loves to build out of the box. So to the skilled detail builders, I say, if you don't want someone that doesn't add a ton of detail to their models, telling you, your not having fun, and your over doing it, then don't knock them for not adding the level of detail you think they should. Give then tips, help them learn. But don't complain about what they aren't doing yet. Or what they might leave out, or what they might have forgot to do. Giving them tips helps them, bashing their builds doesn't. And for those of you who build more simplistically, believe me when I tell you, those of us who like to go all out and add lots of detail on a model, are having our share of fun doing it as well. We have gotten where we are, by trying new things and testing new products, and researching subjects to build. We are here to help you if you want it. Just like we help each other to continually improve. This is just my two cents, and I know its a little off the main thread topic. It just bothered me to read some of the back and forth bashing that was going on. And I wanted to remind everyone that we are in this hobby, all of us, high level detailers and basic builders alike, for the love of it.
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Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Just a quick update, took care of the over sized gap on the bottom hinge on the LH side door. you can see how the gap is a little too much in this pic. And in this pic, it is corrected. More updates as I get more done. -
Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Hi Tom, I have used Zap A Gap myself for many years. However because of where I live now, I would have to drive 4 hours to the only hobby store on my side of the state that still sells it. The little hobby store that is only a hour away from me sells the Extreme power labeled brand which I'm sure is produced by Bob Smith Industries. It works OK though for what I use it for. I use the Medium level stuff. I'm not found of the thin or extremely thick stuff because it's a little more work to control it when applying it. I seem to be able to work with the medium stuff the best. I mostly use it for gap filling anyways, and it works well for that when mixed with baking soda. I mostly use Tenax-7R and Ambroid Pro-weld for assembly, and for those times I need a strong bond between different materials, I like 5 minute and 30 minute two part epoxy. There are times I still use Testor's liquid cement as well as Tamiya's liquid cements, but not very often. -
Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
These next few pics hopefully give you a idea of how the doors sit opened on their hinges. Next up will be working on the boot hinges and getting it hung in place. Then it's on to cleaning up the body work and getting it ready for primer. To be continued............ -
Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Today I worked on getting the LH side door hung. I started by removing the molded on door hinges as I did on the RH side. Then I filed groves where the new working hinges would be placed, using a round jewelers file. Then using two part 5 minute epoxy, I glued the hinges in place and set the model aside to dry. I then went over the edges of the hinges on both doors with a little bit of CA glue mixed with baking soda to fill in any gaps around the hinges and to give them extra strength. I plan to do just a tiny bit of filler work on the bottom hinge on the LH side, as seen in this pic, to clean up the space in the area where to two hinge halves meet. This will get done before primer and paint. I then sanded around the edges of the hinges on both doors where I had added CA glue with baking soda. When done with that I un-taped the doors and checked them for function. The next two pics show both doors un-taped and closed to give you a idea of the fit. continued below.............................. -
This is looking good. I love the style of this car.
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You picked a perfect color for this build that's for sure. Nice work!
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Fantastic interior paint work.
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I always liked the mid 60's ford galaxies. My uncle had a couple of them he bought new back in the day. Your build is looking good. I'll be following along with ya for sure.
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Great start, love the color combo especially the flames.
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Trabant Universal - Progress Report 11-23-14
microwheel replied to Tom Geiger's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Nice work Tom, The detail is outstanding. -
Roadkill's '68 Dodge Charger "General Mayhem"
microwheel replied to JTalmage's topic in WIP: Model Cars
This is really turning out nice. Love the scratch made door panels! -
Really looks good Bob.
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Getting back into the hobby with Project Beater Bel Air
microwheel replied to Jon Geddes's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Looking sweet Jon. -
Great subject Mike, cant wait to see how this comes along.
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32 Ford Roadster (For Eds Cruise-In Community Build)
microwheel replied to 1/24DragAndStreetCars's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Nice work so far. -
Hi Robert, outstanding scratch building skills my friend. I look forward to more.
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Nice work Byron. Everything looks clean and nicely detailed.
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Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Morning Guys, OK this where I am at this morning with mini mouse. I started working on getting the doors hung. Because of the type of hinges I made, I have to hang the doors before primer and paint. I will have to work carefully when it comes time to primer and paint the Mini, but I have had to do this before in the past, so it shouldn't be a issue. At this point I am working on the RH side first to get a process that works for both sides. First I removed the molded on hinges from both the door panel and body area. Next, using a round jewelers file, I filed slight grooves in the areas where the hinges will be installed, this is to allow for the hinges to set flush to the door and body. Once this was done, I taped the interior panels, interior tub, and chassis to the body for alignment. Next I taped the door into place, and test fitted the hinges for alignment. Then I mixed up some two part 5 minute epoxy, and applied really small amounts to the groove in the door panel and the underside of the hinge where it will rest in the door panel groove. After this sat for about 30 minutes for drying, I mixed up a little more epoxy and did the same process with the body side of the hinges as I did with the door side, and then allowed everything to site for another 30 minutes for the epoxy to cure up enough to remove the tape from the door. I will let everything sit through today and over night to allow the epoxy to fully cure and harden, before moving on to the other door. Here are some pics of some of the process. I hope to post more detailed pics when I work on the LH door. In this first pic you can see the grooves that were filed into the areas that the hinges rest. The Door sides of the hinges have already been epoxied in to place at this point. In this pic Both the door side and body sides of the hinges are epoxied into place and setting up. In this next pic, after the epoxy has set up for 30 minutes, the tape was removed from the door and body. The next two pics show the result of how the door will swing on the hinges. ( after these pics the door was closed back up and the model set aside till tomorrow so the epoxy can fully cure). I also took time to clean up the mold lines on the front fenders (or wings for you UK guys). More to come as I get more done...... -
Hi Rick and welcome. I'm from up around the Traverse City area. I've lived in a few towns around West Michigan, from Grand Rapids (can you say Ryders Hobby Shop.. LOL) to Big Rapids, and now just North of TC. I haven't found any Clubs up my way yet either. Like you, I built a hobby room in in my garage and heated it. I build year round now (when I have time), I still haven't constructed a paint booth yet, so painted is a little tough in the winter, but hopefully that that will get done before this winter.
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Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Hi Pat, thanks for the info. I have seen the boot floor cover on some with a carpet overplay, and some without. I haven't decided yet which way to go, but I am leaning toward, just like you said, a thin sheet in body color. -
Revell's Original Mini Cooper Final Assembly
microwheel replied to microwheel's topic in WIP: Model Cars
Hi Geoff, Cant hurt to give it a shot and see if the postal service would let it come through. As for the artist paints, I could look in Hobby Lobby and see if they carry those colors. It cant hurt to see. BMC colors are hard to get here in Northern MIchigan. Very few local paint shops even know how to mix them. I got lucky when I went to paint my MG Midget with the local auto parts store doing a color gun shoot of it and getting it almost a perfect match to the original color. They use DuPont based paints, and I went with a single stage paint. But to take the BMC color chart to them, they would be lost, when it comes to using it to try to mix the color. And because they use DuPont based paints, the Ditzler color codes would be useless to them as well. By the way, your S turned out great. Hope mine turns out half as nice.