peteski

Decal setting solutions can soften and attack Future. Why didn't' you wait until after decaling to apply the clear coat? How about applying another coat of Future after decaling to blend things in?

Yes, the 3-d printed parts from Shapeways will have some wax residue, and will also have slight texture (from the printing process). I rinse the parts in Bestine rubber cement thinner (Heptane) or in lighter fluid (Naphtha). Then the parts need smoothing - a sandable primer should do the trick. Then I agree that the smoother and shiner the base coat is, the more like chrome the Molotow paint will look like. If you think about it, the "real" mirror-like chrome on cars is as smooth as glass (so it reflects light like glass). The same applies to any reflective silver finish (like Alclad II or Molorow chrome paints).

Getting way OT. Taking this offline. PM sent.

Yes, IMO any car looks good in white (especially with black trim and beige interior). I owned few white cars myself (including my current daily driver).

Yes, this is a lovely part of the U.S. My favorite season is Autumn where the leaves on trees turn all sorts of wonderful colors. But the Summers and Winters have been getting more and more unbearable in the last several years. We are currently going through a lengthy bout of tropical heat and humidity. Not pleasant at all. And winters have also been weird. I wouldn't mind cold temperatures and lots of fluffy snow which is easy to clean up, but for a while now the snow storms are usually a mixtures of rain,, sleet, heavy snow, and freezing rain which crusts up on top of the snow. Really difficult to deal with, and also very destructive (broken trees and power lines, collapsed roofs, deep potholes in roads and many other unpleasant things to deal with). But regardless, I'm sticking around.

I didn't realize that there are whitewall tries available for 7" diameter rims.

That's the one. Black marble-looking box. While the car looks good in black I will likely do it in red (like my original build), or yellow. I like the contrast of the black grilles and window frames against the body color. With black body, it all just blends together.

Well, there were some photoetched parts available, but not many, and nothing for this specific model. Plus, I was still a beginner when it came to building models. At the time what I thought was really cool was the fact that this model seemed super-detailed when compared to other models. It came with working suspension, spark plug wires, and even illuminated lights! I mail-ordered it from Model Expo (I was getting their catalog in the mail). They also ran full-page magazine ads (in FineScale Modeler Magazine) and one of those was specifically about this model and how close it was to the real thing. It enticed me to buy the kit, even though it was quite pricey to me. The unbuilt model I swapped for, which I own now, is the Testors reboxing of the OTAKI model. It features a black car (the OTAKI box had a red car on the box).

Thanks Jeff! The Paystar ones (without the sprue frame) look like what I'm looking for. I'll owe you one! PM sent.

Yes, sellers were always trying to maximize their profit. But the current eBay pricing structure is enabling all those unreasonably (IMO) priced items to be offered for sale for extended period of time. Yes, it is all good - capitalism at work.

This was before digital cameras. I do have some photos/negatives. I snapped some photos on a 35mm film with my trusty Nikon FG SLR camera. I send few to Scale Auto Magazine and those got published, but I have others. I would have to see if I can dig them out and scan them. The model was built with no aftermarket parts (they weren't available back then).

Make that unanimous 1:2 scale! Or at least a 3rd vote. Like it has been said, looking at the size of the car as compared to an adult parson they look to be half the size of 1:1 cars.

Thanks guys! I'm not a regular truck builder and I won't buy a complete kit just for the air horns (which is what I only need). But if one of you truck guys has a spare set of uncapped air horns, I would be interested. Otherwise, I might give those at http://aitruckmodels.com/ a try.

There was a lengthy thread about him, his models, and the eBay listings. I don't recall, but I think some are resin and some plastic kit build-ups. Those built-ups are selling, so they must go over the reserve price. I agree that even at those seemingly high prices, with the amount of time he spent on building,he is not getting rich, but he is enjoying his hobby and is generating some extra income which he can easily use to buy more kits. Some people might just enjoy building models and they have no need to keep them. So, they sell them as complete models. If their build quality is good, the will get decent price for their models. The point I was simply making (in response to your post) was that there is a market for build models (resin and plastic) where the selling price is more than a price of the unbuilt kit. I know it is an exception rather than a rule, but it is real.

But someone here will always come back saying that what you consider "stupid crazy prices" is simply just your opinion and that the seller has a right to charge whatever price he wants. You can beat this thing to death and you wont win. This is capitalism at is finest. BTW, I agree with your thinking of which prices are reasonable, and which are stupid crazy. As I said it time and time again, the current eBay listing price structure enables sellers to list things for months or years for what you and me consider stupid crazy prices. They can list and re-list with no fees. In the early days of eBay (been on it since 1999), you had to pay a insertion fee and the percentage of the starting bit price, whether the item sold or not. If you priced an item outrageously high and kept on re-listing over and over (because it would likely not sell anytime soon), you would go broke. Back then, many listings started at 1 or 99 cents. No Buy-it-Now either. Those were the days when eBay was actually usable.

I know those are annoying (as are all ads to me), but while you say you're fine, some men might need some extra perking-up. According to the ads, the problem effects a good portion of the aging males. There is an ad for one of those drugs where at the end they show a silhouette of the couple in bathtubs. One wonders why . . .

I've build one of these kits decades ago. Its photo was published in the Scale Auto Enthusiast 1993 Gallery (and to my surprise made the cover too). Few years later I actually made a swap with one of my model club's buddies: I gave him my built model and he gave me a complete unbuilt kit. My plan was/is to build this kit one more time. My building techniques have improved over the last few decades, so this build should be even better. Reference photos always help, and your photos (both the model and the 1:1 car) will be great reference for when I decide to build mine. Thanks!

How about the guy on eBay regularly selling his well-built kits for thousands of dollars? There is a market out there for everything.

Great shots! Thanks for uploading them to the forum. That way they'll be around for as long as the forum is around.

Not really. He just likes getting paid for them using his name and likeness in those ads. Celebrity endorsements are popular and create nice additional income for those celebrities. Those endorsements don't really mean that those celebrities actually use those products.

So you're implying that only Fords are considered fast cars? Sorry - couldn't resist.

Is there an aftermarket source for 1:24/25 scale air horns? I'm looking for horns with a standard round "trumpet". If not, if someone has couple spares, I would be interested in a swap/purchase/PIF.

Looking good! I wonder how much shrinkage there is (as compared to the original master pattern) when you make a copy of a copy? Don't both RTV and urethane resins shrink as they set?

If you are trying to build an accurate model then that wire (0.016" diameter) is a bit too large for factory stock wires. Bu it is a good representation of some high-performance wires used in hot rods, pro-street cars and such.

Sure, but you chose to live there. I'm in Northeast US - if I wanted tropical heat and humidity I would have moved to Florida. I didn't sign up to have to deal with this unrelenting tropical weather in the Boston area! You can have back, thank you!