BDSchindler

Just like an expertly crafted and accurate model is a work of art, taking a model and transforming it into a convincing junker/wrecked vehicle is every bit the work of art. When I wrote for The Car Room Magazine, the then owner of West Coast Precision Diecast, Brian Dunning, sent me a couple of his diecast that had been returned for issues. Rather than destroy those returned cars, Dunning took those lemons and turned them into sweet lemonade but sending the cars to Manny Solano in NJ. Mike, your work is no less stellar! Manny has a talent with diecast in particular where he turns pristine diecast from companies like Danbury Mint, Franklin Mint, GMP, WCPD and others into the perfect resemblance of rusting and rotting corpses that were laid to rest in Junkyards across the country. A transformation that makes diehard diecast collectors cring when thinking about taking a high end diecast that may be worth $300+ into an undetermined worth as a junker. Here's a few examples of Manny's work in 1/24th scale. The GT-40 is originally from GMP by way of Manny's workshop. It was one from my personal collection that had issues of it's own. It was given to me by the General Manager at GMP about 10 years ago and is 1/12th scale,

Actually, no...I get more of a satisfied chuckle every time I look at it!

Check this out

Thanks guys, once upon a time many years ago, I was fortunate to land an intern spot in the model shop for the Transportation and American History Smithsonian Museums. My parents were friends with one of the heads of the Shop when I was 16 (now 57). The cars are actually 144th scale diecast cars that were manufactured by Racing Champions, the company that bought out the ERTL Toy Company and subsequently ran the itself into the ground by overproducing the snot out all scales in diecast market just like they did the NASCAR diecast market. The GMP and Franklin Mint boxes are photo reduced to 1/12th copies of real boxes that both companies packaged their products in. Assorted bottles and cans were purchased from Hobby Lobby over int he Doll House accessories dept. Dogs and Rat were vinyl animals also found in Hobby Lobby...the trick was to heat and bend the Dalmatian's leg that is taking a leak on the stack of magazines without scorching it. The magazines are photo reduced to 1/12th the original size of the covers and spread throughout. There are nearly 500 of the magazine covers in there. The dumpster was made after photographing and measuring an actual dumpster. Made from sheet polystyrene and various shapes were glued then things were heated and "beat up" to look like so many of the modern day dumpsters. Once complete, primed and painted Krylon Green and added the rust details. Some of the rust was actually a metalizing powder that you heat to give an appearance of metal...I just never heated it. After that just dirtied it all up. The decals were stock photos readily available on the innerwebs printed onto white Testors decal paper with a thin coat of fixative applied...once applied, Micro-sol decal setting solution was used to soften and let the decals actually melt to a degree on the dumpster. The fun part was the fictional newspaper that is also on the right hand side entitled "Hookers-R-Us" a Hobbiest Newspaper to Adult Entertainment. Only the fictitious front page was done with headlines like "Tiger's "Woodie" - Is It Stiffer Than his Putter?" and "How To" articles like "Stilettos for the Street!". This idea stemmed from rumors of the magazine reps attending a car show in Monterey and some after hours hi-jinks that took place (I wasn't there, fortunately!). It was great therapy for me as it took a while to shake all of the garbage that took place after I quit the Magazine. So much mud slinging that if one person just simply did the right thing rahter than try to profit from lying and orchestrating more drama than all of the daytime soap operas combined.

I am relatively new to this site and just recently found the Dioramas section here. So I thought I'd share something I built a few years back. First, let me give you a little background on me, I am a former modeler that way back when I was 17, hung up the tools for the sake of a real car and girls. For the last 15 years, I have been an avid diecast collector working within the hobby for several companies such as Lanes Automotive, GMP, Highway 61, Icons, Franklin Mint Danbury Mint and West Coast Precision Diecast. I have also written for Toy Cars and Models Magazine in a standing monthly column "A 1:24 hour Hobby". After that magazine folded, I wrote for the poorly managed The Car Room Magazine. The Car Room Magazine (aka T.C.R.M.) was a great magazine in the beginning. It was owned by a guy that more involved with himself than anything else. I know Joe Kelly for over 10 years and not once did I ever doubt him. After 2 years of "we're not turning enough of a profit to be able to pay you", I quit and took him to court for the money owed (had a contract). When I quit writing and the court case was over with me as the winner of a decent settlement, I started to think about the Diecast collecting hobby and I had a premonition. The following dumpster is filled with representative of manufactures that all ended up with Broken Dreams by going out of business. Diecast cars to represent ERTL 1/18th scale diecast, boxes representative of GMP and Franklin Mint and hundreds of copies of The Car Room Magazine. It was in part therapy as well as a middle finger salute to someone I trusted more than my own brother at times. The dumpster is scratch built in 1/12th scale and the display case is one used to house Basketballs. Enjoy the photos and ask any questions you want...

Not anymore, I may do another one at some point. The tables (4 of them 4' X 6.5') were repurposed for storage shelves that among other items like the 9 totes of race track and household stuff, now have the boxes from the Diecast samples sent to me by manufactures to review for magazines (about 300 that I kept, the rest were given away or donated). That gave me room for the desk, paint booth and various power tools.

duly noted...makes sense too. Currently, I keep all of the brushes in a long plastic airtight box like a pencil box. I just got them out to demo for the photo. Thanks to everyone. Now if I can just get this room setup the way I want it, I can get back to doing what I want to do. This is my former "Racing Room" that for 10 years housed a 1/32nd scale slot car track that was fully landscaped and lit. it was 120' of Carrera Racing surface that for many years, brought a lot of fun to my son and I. Over the last 4 years, I can count on one hand how many times we've used it. It got to the point that more things were being placed on top than anything else. We needed some extra storage space and since my son is now a freshman in college and rarely home, well it was time to take it down. Part of this room was also used as a photo booth for pictures of higher end diecast cars and assorted vehicles from when I wrote for Toy Cars and Models Magazine as well as the poorly managed The Car Room Magazine (yes, those are diecast on the wall). Honestly, I think I had more fun detailing the track than racing on it (note: that is real dirt for the shoulders mixed with a heavy amount of thinned out elmer's and spooned along the sides of the track. it took nearly 2 weeks to fully dry.

That was exactly what I thought. I found one that was great. Modular but huge with a huge price to match it's size. By all means, copy away! Thanks for the help on the pictures, JC. Not sure what happened there...I've posted pictures on other boards with no issues. Pretty simple really, would have been easier with a drill press. Wood is 1X3 pine (cheap), 1/4" Plywood for the backing, 3/8" hole bore and a 3/8" countersink.

yeah, i know...working on it...ok, i give up...first attempt at posting pictures here. setup a picture and it just clocks time... http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661731/large.jpg http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661740/large.jpg http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661735/large.jpg

So when returning to the hobby 6 months ago after nearly 30 years away from it, I apparently didn't remember the avalanche of hand tools that get used and the chronic searching for tools on a cluttered unorganized workbench or searching through bottles of paint that used to drive me nuts (of which, my wife says is a short drive for me). I looked at all of the commercially available workbench organizers, tool racks, shelving systems, yadda, yadda, yadda (apologies to Seinfeld) but the cost was...well, it was just sad. So I went into the garage and grabbed some of the surplus/scrap lumber collecting dust, a healthy handful of drywall screws, palm sander, trim saw and power drill. With a plan in mind as opposed to paper, set to work...the end result is a wall mount or bench-top 32" wide paint rack that will hold lots of paint and a 32" long tool rack that will hold 100 hand tools (Paint Brushes, knives, files) as well as a section for Glue or whatever. I only did some light sanding and then some Krylon spray paint since this is for me. I have 3 friends that have asked me to build one for them. Total cost...well the lumber was scrap, screws were surplus but seriously...less than $20 total for both including paint plus a couple of hours of labor. hosed up the pictures...see second post in this thread

I was over at Harold's (HRM) just this past Saturday and I have to say the Dragonsnake cobra is gorgeous. I saw some mention of the 68 Shelby Mustang from HRM also. it is well done as is all of HRM's items. My personal pick is the FIA Cobra with the "Trunk Bumps"...then there is the Z06 Corvette and the...oh hell...they're all great!

Beautiful work!!! I'm just returning to this hobby after a 30 or so year hiatus this is one of those projects that makes guys like me go... "Ah, forget it! Check please...we're done over here!"

My 1:1 is a white 2012 Audi Q5 Prestige with the S-line packages on it. The S-line packages take the chrome trim and replaces it with black trim. They kept the chromed Audi rings and the rest of badging chrome. After taping all of the chromed badges off, I used black Plasti-dip spray to cover them. Works well for this situation as it avoids paint chips since it is rubberized. It's been in place for 3 years now and no chips or significant signs of wear through Washington DC heat to cold seasonal temperature variances and hand or car washes. It does spray on somewhat thick but depending on the material being covered, it may take a light coat or 2...at least it did over chromed plastic 1:1 car emblems In so far as a covering for modeling (I don't refer to this as a paint since it really isn't), I could see it used on radiator or heater hoses since it is a flat rubber and has the right patina to pull that off. I could possibly be used for interiors for a leather/vinyl look but you need to mask off finer details as it will be thicker than paint. It might be a great base for flocking floor boards since it will peel right off like dried liquid latex. So if you screw it up, mistakes are easily fixed. For tires, I don't know as the materials used in vinyl kit tires tends to leach and might cause a real mess. While I have never seen kit tires leach, tires used on Diecast like Danbury mint, Franklin Mint and the like have properties that can leach out and destroy table top finishes. These are made from the same material as kit tires, or so I'm told. Additionally, apparently you can thin it down for spraying since there are those out there that have bought it by the gallon and used it to spray entire cars (1:1's) via body shop style paint equipment. How and what to use? No clue. Google it or search it out on YouTube. Lowes carries the brush and spray version in a couple of colors...black, white , red and yellow...maybe others.

Cool Project, reminds me of one that a friend of mine, Rick Hanmore did in 1/24th diecast for the Danbury Mint...57 "Phantom" El Camino. Rick both a street version and Hot Rod

ahhhh...Summit Point WV...Love that track! Driven it many times...racing, solo one. been a while but you never forget your first one!

Funny, I never really thought much about Hot Rod in scale until I started reviewing Rick Hanmore's designs for the Danbury Mint. It was these 2 cars that did it for me... LDC Kookies Kar I am working on a Danbury 40 Ford Coupe. I'll get some pics later

Tim...I am another one who just re-entered the hobby after some 40+ years out of it. When married life turned to being a husband and father, I hung up the tools and turned to diecast to keep the automotive fires burning. I also wrote for Toy Cars and Models Magazine as well as the utterly mismanaged, now out-of-business, The Car Room Magazine. I have met a lot of good friends in the diecast business who worked for The Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint that are master modelers as well as former diecast designers. Detail like this is rarely seen in diecast and certainly hits the upper 5% of anything I have ever seen. In fact, your builds come very close to what is produced by Marshall Buck from CMA Models!!!! I saw the feature article in Model Cars Magazine that landed in my mailbox yesterday and when I saw the pictures of just the rear end...I suddenly realized I needed to throw my shorts in the trash (again! ). Outstanding work! Brian Schindler

OK...let me clarify... CV Boot rack and pinion boots I think the sprew/Dremel idea may be the best one for what I am looking for...thanks guys for the help

Looking for either a commercial product or fabrication to replicate/simulate rubber boots used on suspension and drive trains (such as on a rack and pinion or cv boots) in 1/24th scale. Anybody have any thoughts?

I forgot about a book written by Trevor Legate on the Ford GT-40 (publisher www.velocebooks.com). It has the Production and Racing history with an individual chassis record. The appendix has exploded drawings like the 5 below

I just got a set in 1/24th from TDR Innovations (via Shapeways) and it looks good so far but judging by the size of the manifold, I think it's setup for a smallblock. comes with the stacks and the rest...here's just the manifold

Very nice work, indeed! Holman/Moody now owns the rights to the GT-40 program. Ford Racing sold the whole kaboodle to Holman/Moody. I met Lee Holman, who inherited the company from his father, John Holman. When Lee walked into the facility in NC, he found several shipping containers that contained engines, body parts, body bucks and 50 frames complete with VIN #'s for 1968. Lee has been building continuation GT-40's for some time now. Since they all have VIN numbers assigned in 1968, he is required to build them to "at least" 1968 specs. You too can own one for a mere $1 million to start. While Lee chases after every company that is selling a a GT-40 for a profit, as a hobbyist...you may do well to contact him and he just might help you with anything you need. Lee in the vest on left, me on the right and Lee's gt-40 in the foreground that he currently runs in Historic races. Behind Lee under cover is a GT-40 being built for Tim...ah, well...it was code named "Toolman". Here's some more pictures of the car above and another in for maintenance

A couple of products, yes but most will be via Acme. Acme also bought out many of the Lanes Automotive tooling.

confirmed...any small block would work.

I know the person that actually designed that kit for Franklin Mint yers ago and I have an email out to him. As soon as I find out, I will post it. I would imagine that just about any engine will work with a bit of modification. Just a note...nearly every diecast car made has its origins from a kit...many of them from several kits. Danbury went the extra mile where the designer (a very good friend) also made corrections as needed to produce the final results. So chances are an engine from a known kit may suffice.