CabDriver

What a good attitude Tom! Merry Christmas everyone! Santa was good to me this year - got a dehydrator (which I’ve already converted/ruined so I can use it for drying bodies): And another Revell 29 - plus Hobby Lobby and Amazon gift cards: Mostly though I’m thankful for my family all being healthy and everyone making it through a rough 2020! Oh, and some of you may have seen the miniature sandwich board I made for my one friend who owns a bar - it’s a semi-replica of the actual one she’s been hauling out onto the sidewalk every day for the last 20 years (COVID closures aside in 2020)...it was a HUGE hit! Was nice to gift someone something I made and have them REALLY love it and be blown away by it: Giving is as good as getting! Happy Christmas y’all!

Huh! Didn’t know that! Every day’s a school day!

Really really enjoying seeing this come together - amazing work!

Great start! I too love the antennas coming through the fin! Way cool!

Thank you sir! Just drilled out the kit ones to make ‘em hollow! Exactly right on both counts sir! I like it because the cleanup is easy and there’s about zero chance of damaging anything...and if you don’t like the results just rinse it off before it dries! I still use regular lacquer primer and clears too, but the more I use acrylics the more I like them. I wouldn’t necessarily say they’re any harder or easier than regular lacquers to apply - just a little different! Having a busy week before Christmas, but got some pinstripe decals and the gauges on the dash and into clear: And added a little BMF to that grill to bling it up a little - need to burnish it down some more but it looks cool on there! Got the steering wheel and shift knob in clear too, whilst I was at it... Got a little imperfection in the clear on that wheel but I fixed it and re-cleared and it shrunk down nice as it dried, and tightened up some to look less dipped-in-syrup. Oh, and shot the valve covers in some clear too so I can start working on the engine: I’ve been waiting for some parts to come to Morgan Automotive for the engine but they don’t seem to be dispatching orders or answering emails right now so that might slow me up - but plenty of other stuff to work on. More soon!

With Christmas coming I wanted to make a little gift for my friend who owns a bar in the city - so I figured a miniature of the sandwich board she pulls out the front every night and lists the specials on in chalk would be a fun little project (and gift). A photo I found online of the real thing, for rough reference: I want to make this thing sturdy enough that she can show it to people and have them handle it so I’m taking some liberties with the exact proportions and dimensions but it’ll look something like that anyway... Made the two boards: Primed, then painted tan, then brushed a little woodgrain detail on: A little salt: And black: Next up, squared up that hand lettered chalkboard in Photoshop and printed it: Glued in place with some Elmer’s: Next, added some chipboard-looking card to represent the unpainted rear side of the chalkboard, and added some brass hinges: I was going to add photoetched screw heads, but you can’t see back in there anyhow... Added the chains that stop it doing the splits: Made a little sidewalk-looking texture from some styrene sheet and attached to a wooden base (actually a lid from one of my wife’s fancy candles), and did some weathering with pastels and a black wash: And all done - fun afternoon project!

Cool to see this one pop up in the current Model Cars Mag! Was cool to see it again!

It looks like a great build - thanks for the reply Pete! Would love to see more photos as and when you find them!

Which got me thinking - this trick would actually work well to pull ANY texture off about any part so you can replicate it to use on a different part. I definitely need to hit Hobby Lobby tomorrow and get some supplies to mess with - they have some GREAT textures papers and cards that might work well too for finer patterns

A little progress, despite a busy week... Started working on a bed cover - haven’t quite decided how it will affix and/or hinge but made a frame out of styrene square rod and a top panel. More to go on this still before primer... Got some paint on a couple more engine parts, and gave the block a black wash - I didn’t want it looking too ‘showy’...not dirty, but not showy either: Should make for a nice looking mill with some detailing: Finished smoothing out the 40 Ford dash, picked out a steering wheel and resin cast one of my little skull shifters that I like, then shot them with Rustoleum silver ready for a nice Candy Red. I’m using Createx Candy for these, which requires that balancer in the second bottle (actually to thicken it up a little rather than reduce it like you might think) Some airbrushing later... This Createx paint often lays down a little lumpy but usually flattens right out as it dries so hopefully this candy will be the same - although I haven’t used this particular one before. Guess we’ll see! It’ll all be getting a good healthy clear coat anyway before further detail painting... And finally, shot the headers, air cleaner and oil pan with Alclad and Spax Stix metal tones: And that’s all for this installment - oh, and I painted a bunch of spoons to try and get the red I had in my mind. Still experimenting on that... More soon!

Absolutely outstanding Pete - I did a quick search for a build thread for whatever that engine was going in but didn't find anything...but this will give me something to study for a while! ? Thanks for sharing!

I would really like to see more of whatever this project is!

That suspension, like all your work, is a work of art in itself. Stunning!

I love this! Is it a little piece of vinyl, or similar, under the paint? Love the timing marks too!

Aww man, that looks amazing! WAY cool Tom!!!

A lot of the old AMT kits had bongos - I've never seen a uke but the recently-reissued L'il Gypsy Wagon has a little fiddle, which would be about the right size and loosely the right shape to modify into a ukelele

An excellent start! I'm excited to see it with the tape pulled off too! I would've shot the white first and then the pink, but it looks good in the pic above to me!

Nice setup! Same here - not much sun in grey Indiana right now, so if I invest I'll likely need the 'baker' too. I'm really excited to see the bananas stuff you come up with with this thing! I think you're getting 99% of what it's possible to get out a scrapbook cutter, so this is the next logical step!

It's really cool that they've priced these at $16 rather than $30 or so like I expected. For that I'll grab one of each just for slump-busters and to fill out my AMT Slammer collection!

Good news! Still curious what that white rectangle where the roof insert should go is all about...I assume the art just isn't finished unless they're putting some factory-esque wooden framework or something in there

Those 3D printed parts look great! I've been casually looking at one of these...did you have to buy something to cure the resin or does it set up ok without UV light? Think of the crazy frames you'll be able to make with that thing!

You might also notice a broken alternator bracket, when you get that far. Every one of my kits had had that part broken (and sometimes with chrome over the split, so it was bust before they even chromed it.)

There was a bunch of discussion about this on the Ollie’s thread when they had stock of these recently - if you ordered from Amazon it might well have just been a seller who had bought a bunch of them from Ollie’s and resold on Amazon.

Love that color!! ?

Absolutely! And actually, the weird mix of skills that helps me with my job actually came mostly FROM modelling! Working with architectural and engineering plans I use scaling every day, knowing how to paint is useful, knowing how to cut vinyl and some knowledge of glues and soldering, LEDs, all kinds of stuff - and on the best days I get to design something in scale and see it blown up to real life size! The ultimate modeller’s job! ?