peteski

WOW!

I'll be curious how it works out. Even at 1/8", that is still over 3 scale inches wide. And the thickness of the wire plus the plastic part of the tie seems way too thick to me. I also think it will be hard to bend that wire around the a 1:25 scale steering wheel rim (which is probably less than 1/16" in diameter). I think that even if you do it, the entire assembly will look too thick and strange. I hope that I'm proven wrong.

Cool! Is that a kit? I don't ever recall seeing that one before.

"dhoy"?

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I can't visualize how a flat plastic coated wire tie could be wrapped around the rim of a 1:24 scale wheel and look like a leather cover. Not only it seems way too thick (and stiff), it will be also way too wide. Those things are usually about 1/4" wide. that would be scale 6.25" wide! Or is the model in question 1:8 scale?

You are probably correct.

That is some outstanding work. Even with all the aftermarket items and lights, it must have taken many, many hours of fun modeling! Thanks for offering me the figures. I would love to build (and light) one of these up, but with all my planned, started, and in-progress projects I know that won't happen for a very long time.

Frogeye Sprite?! Nice! It is so ugly, it's cute. I have a Gunze Sangyo model of that car I'll build one of this days. Last year I saw one of those in-person for the fist time in my life. It is so tiny that it coudl almost pass for a child's pedal car! Must be a fun car to drive. Here is a good example of how small my xB is. One morning I was leaving work and I saw my car against a silhouette of a Dodge Ram truck of one of my co-workers. The overall length of my car is just slightly larger then the truck's wheelbase!

How about just scoring the spiral line around the rim using a hobby knife, then paint it the color of the wrap? That should be just about right for 1:24/25 scale. If your hand is not steady enough to make an even cut then cut a thin strip of plain (or maybeTamiya?) masking tape, wrap it around the rim, then follow the edge of the tape when scoring with the knife. Come to think of it, maybe the masking tape itself would make a good wrap? I'm assuming here that the steering wheel was wrapped with a long thin piece of leather (Not a donut-shaped wrap).

I agree 100% and I tried. But I find myself searching for the "meat" in between all the kudos and grattitude posts (which outnumber the "meat" of the thread by quite a bit. I gave up after few going through several hundreds of posts. I'm not trying to take anything away from the master-builder or the meticulous build quality - all the kudos are well-deserved of course, but if I could get a copy of this thread with just the build posts that would make an awesome tutorial (about the model and the 1:1 scale car).

Are those models kits or scratchbuilt? If those are kits, do they include the full interior and figures? What did you use for electronics to drive the LEDs? How are they powered (internal battery or external power)?

Well-done and great photos!

I like it!

That is one awesome looking Mini Cooper (and cute as hell too)! I drive a Scion xB (the 1st generation Toyota bB, aka. "the box"). It is a small car on American roads full of giant SUVs. Couple of years ago I was driving on a highway when I came upon a stock (unmodified) Mini Cooper like yours. It was so much smaller than my (already small) car. As I got closer I noticed a sticker on the rear window. It read "Yeah, it's got a HEMI". I never laughed so hard! BTW, there seems to be a shark's mouth on the blue vehicle reflected in your Mini - what is that?

Maybe another photetched fret (for different model Ford) would have the script close enough to what you're looking for. If the script is small, maybe a fret for a 1:43 scale model? There is a seller on eBay selling hundreds of chrome stickers of car logos. Like the ones included with Tamiya kits. Maybe you'll find something appropriate there. http://stores.ebay.com/globaltoy/Automotive-/_i.html?_fsub=3028123016&_sid=917320676&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

Same type of a hinge you would use for doors which swing out from the body (which is what most modelers use when they open the doors on their models). Then glue the stationary part of the hinge (a tube) under the top of the nose, forward of the hood opening. Not the best angle, but here is how I did it on my 1:43 Cobra model.

Comparing multi-piece cardboard tires made from several hand-assembled pieces of cardboard to 1-piece molded vinyl tires is like comparing apples to oranges. I guess because vinyl (and rubber) are flexible (unlike polystyrene which is a hard plastic) it can be molded with complex tread pattern while using a fairly simple mold. At least that is what I gather reading this thread. But to get the same level of detail in a hard plastic tire would take a complex multi-part mold (which is much more expensive to make). There also are many tires out there molded out of resin with very high level of detail but those are molded in rubber molds which makes the process workable. Unfortunately this molding process doesn't work for high-volume production of plastic model kits.

That stuff will probably come of using some Naphtha (lighter fluid) or 99% Isopropyl Alcohol. Just try not to get any of those solvents in contact with paint for more than few seconds.

It won't work very well. It is a solvent-based rubber material which will shrink as it dries (hardens). Unless the mold is very thin, the drying process will be very long and the shrinkage will be very noticeable. RTV rubber mold material hardens by a chemical reaction (not solvent evaporation), so there is no appreciable shrinkage and it will set in thick layers.

You're right. I'm not up on my bovines.

You should be able to mix candy with opaque paint (either solid or metallic) with the results mentioned in the above posts, as long as both paints are the same chemistry (same brand/type/manufacturer). If not, you might get some unexpected changes in the paint.

Exactly. I didn't feel like looking up the year and model but then the answer almost fell in my lap when I opened up the latest issue of Collectible Automobile magazine. There was an article about the AMC Ambassador (larger brother of the Matador). That gave me the approximate year. Amazing how similar the Ambassador and Matador look in the photos.

I have that kit with no instructions and it looks like parts are missing. Having a copy of the instructions would be helpful. I did some Google searches but couldn't locate a scan of the instructions. I'm hoping someone here knows where I could find a copy or a scan of those instructions. I know it is not a car kit, but it does have 4 wheels and has a 2-mulepower engine.

UPS stores (at least the ones around my area) are not part of UPS - they are their own entities. So whatever they did (packing-wise) it is their doing (not UPS). But since UPS now charges per volume (not weight) of a package, maybe the UPS store is in collusion with the UPS mothership to maximize their profit?