Snake45

What's that old saying--"Like trying to herd cats"?

I'm doing it Pro Touring, more or less, and am using the 18" wheels and tires from the "Resto Rod" issue of the AMT (ex-MPC) '69 Mustang. I posted a question down in the Questions section about disk brakes and got some great help and ideas. So I made some disk brakes out of four 1/2" washers and some scrap plastic. Finished the shaping on the first one and took a couple pics to see what it would look like (I'll be painting the calipers bright red before I'm done). I drilled lower axle mounting holes on the front end of the chassis, and I think this stance will look about right. The front wheel has the disk brake in it (it slipped out of place because it's not glued to anything yet, just sitting in there), the rear is just a plain black wheel back. Which looks better? Meanwhile, in the paint shop, the color is on and I'm working on building up a good clear coat to polish out. Using Krylon Crystal Clear, which takes several coats to build up to a polishable finish (the stuff dries VERY thin).

As mentioned, I found four 1/2" washers yesterday and worked with those. I made a simple little fixture to turn them by hand against some sandpaper to take off the original goldish finish and give them a little circular wear pattern. Then I made the caliper portions out of some scrap plastic--the ID tags off the sprues of a Monogram '65 Mustang molded in red. Would have been easier to use plain sheet styrene but I wanted to use red plastic so I didn't have to worry about painting a perfect line where they meet the disk. Here's the four disks with the red tabs superglued on, and the first one has been filed down to shape, as per the nice photo above: I WILL paint the "face" of the caliper units bright red but wanted to go ahead and get an idea of what this would look like, and take and post these pics. Here's how it looks in the wheel: And here's the chassis, the disked wheel on the front (the brake's not glued to anything yet, and slipped a little out of place), a plain black backing on the rear. Does the disked one look better, or plain black? I had about two hours in this altogether--was it worth the time?

You're 'bout three days late on that one.

Bingo! (And now that Breaking Bad is over, you're probably right.) Would you have gotten it if I'd cropped out the back of Raylan's head?

This has come up on my model airplane boards viv-a-vis vacformed canopies on some limited-run kits. It's a function of the type of plastic itself and it can't be stopped or reversed--there's no fix and all sorts of things have been tried. If the plastic is going to yellow, it's going to yellow and there's nothing you can do about it. And for those who will say this is a function of sunlight--I have a kit (about a decade old) with a yellowing canopy and that box has only been opened twice in all that time--once when I got it and a few months ago to look for that yellowing. Another copy of the same kit, about the same age, had no yellowing at all. It's just the (bad) luck of the draw. BTW, some have tried bleaching such yellowing canopies by deliberately exposing them to sunlight in a window, as you can do to bleach out darkened decals. It doesn't work.

Very nice! What's not to like?

So in other words, just keep building whatever drag models you want between now and Jan 1, business as usual. Without a common theme of some sort, it's not a "group build," IMHO.

Wow. Absolutely amazing work! I don't think I've ever seen one of these things with as much detail as you put into this one. I'm about to start a Hawk "Freddy Flameout" and your work is VERY inspirational to me--you're giving me something to shoot for with that. Well done and model on!

Beautiful build! Just stunning! Speaking of Sky King, I understand there's just been a new kit released of the Cessna 310. I think it's in 1/72 scale.

I think I ordered one cheap item--maybe it was two--from JC Whitney when I was 16. I continued to receive catalogs from them for years and years, I think four times a year, maybe six. Any profit they made from me, they spent in wasted postage on me five or six times over. I think I still have one or two old Whitney catalogs, kept around just for nostalgia. And then there was Auto World, the JC Whitney of the model car/slot car world. I still have a couple of their catalogs, too. The prices in them make me cry, to say nothing of the long-departed kits. If I could just go back to 1966 with, say $300 in my pocket....

Well, I'm driving on and building at least one Altered anyway.

The '68 350 hood vents were identical to '67; the '68 396s got the 8 fake "velocity stacks." In '69 both 350s and 396s got the 8-stack type.

I think the AMT '53 Stude has something similar. They might be a little longer but of course you could cut them. http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/automotive-cars--pi/studebaker/amt-1953-studebaker/11.html#media

I didn't have a camera but I once saw a semi rolling down the road with a flatbed trailer. On the trailer was a rollback, and on the rollback was a pickup truck. I'm not making this up. It was truck-covered truck with truck filling.

Was over at my folks' today and went through my Dad's massive junk hardware drawer and found a number of thin 1/2" washers that should make lovely brake disks. Shouldn't be too much trouble to fake up a little red "hat" for four of them. Will post pics when I get them done. Thanks again for the help!

That came out pretty darn nice!

What kind of talk is THAT for an American! This is the Land of the Free and the Home of "Hold My Beer And Watch This!""

One week is tight. But I think I could get something together in two weeks, or by the end of the month.

Was looking through some 1969 Rod & Custom mags yesterday and saw a pic of a double-motored Fad T--on the street, no less. Pretty good definition of "wretched excess."

That's what you call a Hillbilly Deora!

Nicely done!

Thanks all for your very informative posts! I learned a lot! Since "plain back" seems to be a viable option (the protective plastic backing plates), I'll just go with black wheel backs for the moment--at least until I see how I like the whole build all together. I tried the Revell Chevelle disks behind these wheels and thought they looked excessive--if I'm going with visible disks, I think I want a little air space around them to define them. I think 1/2" washers would give me the look I want--next time I'm at the hardware store, I'll pick some up. Thanks again for all the help. And Plowboy, that '66 Impala model is outstanding--I thought it was a real car for a minute!

That's what I thought looking at the photos. Thanks for confirming.