CabDriver

I’ve been eyeing this one lonely Beetle kit in our local Hobby Lobby for three months, but the box had had the seals broken, then had been taped up again and had THAT ripped off too and then finally had some different tape holding the lid in place. Saw the manager lady in the kit aisle and said “can you do a little discount on this?” and she said “You know, that’s been on the shelf there for a year...I can mark it as damaged if you wanted it, but I can’t accept a return if I do” so I checked it real quick and it all seems to be in there...paid $6 + tax! Score! And the box isn’t THAT bad, on the top at least... I probably would’ve paid the $18 they wanted for it anyway, even if the box does say it’s a 37 Ford on the side ?

Brilliant, I’ve been waiting to find a place to order the latest issue. Thanks Dave!

Thanks fellas! I like the metallic burgundy they did later on, on these - that’s on my to-build list! Meanwhile, I prepped a BUNCH of parts today, and got base colors on everything ready for primer. I’ve been referencing @Italianhorses’s recent build of this same kit, and he’s smart enough to paint a bunch of the same colored parts all at once, as I’m sure a bunch of you are. So, I figured I’d do some smart building for once here and not prep and prime and paint every individual part one by one like I normally do. Not sure why I’ve always done that, but hey ho ?‍♂️? Did a little detail painting on the engine...I don’t really enjoy curbside kits because of the inherent soft detail that you get stuck with out of the box...but I’m intentionally building this one out of the box so I’m running with it: I already know that I rarely if ever turn my builds over, so I’m not sure why I care what’s under there, but I’d feel like I’m cheating if I didn’t make SOME effort anyway, so I used some Silly Putty for the more tricky masking around the engine and shot some metalizer colors on the block and trans just to add a little visual interest here, then added a black wash and some light drybrushing. Oh, and while I was at it, added some detail paint and a wash to the brake discs and calipers: See - I learned to batch paint parts, for efficiency ? More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I appreciate you taking the time to explain, thank you Francis! The way you described makes much more sense! I've had a yearning for a lathe for a while here and I'm trying to learn a little more about that I will and won't be able to do with it aside from the obvious. Thanks again for the insight!

Outstanding as always Francis Beginner’s machining/fabricating question - is it possible to make a part such as the ‘body’ of that distributor cap, with the eight outer holes equally spaced around it, with a lathe? I’ve got to assume there’s some easy-ish trick to making a part like that and getting the spacing and angles perfect on the holes, but I can’t quite visualize how it’s done with my almost-zero machining experience...and I’m not sure what that trick is called to be able to Google it and learn more ?

Last year I built a Revell Miata, and made the resolution that I’d build another a year on to see how I’ve improved as a modeller...and it’s nearing the end of the year so I thought I’d better get going on this year’s box-stock skills-test and see if I’m any better than I was a year ago ? This is last year’s build - it was ok...some fit and assembly issues on the Revell kit that I’d know how to handle better when I try this kit again, but I decided to take on the Tamiya kit of the same car this year and see how that goes: The Revell kit is full detail, which the Tamiya isn’t so it’s not a COMPLETELY fair comparison...but also they’re both Miatas and I’d like a nicer Miata build to put in my display case so I’m going with it ?. Will keep (mostly) box stock and concentrate on how my prep, paint and assembly chops have improved since I did the last one. Picked up a can of GM red for the body...a lot of 1:1 Miata owners use this as an easier-to-find alternative to the Mazda Classic Red these cars came in from the factory for touch ups and whatnot...they’re INCREDIBLY close to being the same color, and close enough for the girls I go with... The body needed some massaging and smoothing out before I could get to the primer stage...some bigger mould lines and imperfections that we’re used to with modern Tamiya kits, but this one was issued 30 years ago so it’s not too bad considering... All smoothed out, and some panel-line excavation later... The mirrors for this kit are on one of the black parts trees, so you’ll need to hit those with a coupla three coats of a lighter primer so they match the body... All set and in white primer to help that bright red pop nicely: I let this shrink up overnight and touched up any little imperfections that I’d missed before laying down the color itself...crept up on it with mist coats so as not to risk any wrinkling of the plastic: The original Miatas were a single stage paintjob, but they later switched to having a two-stage with a clearcoat, so seeing as this particular brand of paint needs clear anyway I guess I’m replicating that kind...so next up was some nice glossy clear: Already looks better than last year’s ? More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I agree with Dennis - I really like think this nailed that current “modern traditional” look well (as did the green Deuce in the final SA) On a slightly related note,and I’ve posted a thread about this before but I’m interested in your answer - what do you consider the big trends in hot rodding generally right now Tim? And where do you see us going next in rodding (both in scale and 1:1)? I’m seeing a lot of those nice traditional colors but built in a slightly cleaner style than some of the ‘real’ traditional hot rods, but I’m not seeing a big movement towards any particular ‘big thing’ (like we had when rat rodding/patina rods were HUGE a while back, and then more recently the big interest in TRoG type projects). Do you have your crystal ball handy there Tim? ? ?

Ohh, congrats!!

I entered a few builds in the hot rod category and tried multiple times to even make the page load properly so I could even SEE my entries, let alone vote for them. The page was trying to load maybe 500 images and would always time out for me (on multiple laptops, desktops, iPads and phones that I tried it on). As such, I have no idea if anyone even SAW my builds, or was able to vote for them. I’m happy @TimKustom’s excellent 29 won in the hot rods though! Congrats Tim! Holding out hope I maybe won one of the raffle prizes instead ??

I miss Regular Guy - it was ALWAYS an entertaining thread when he started one

Be nice if they got some more of the Lindberg 37 Fords - missed out on those before!

I've had some parts from them, including their Uncertain T clone body, and have been very happy indeed

I have a mental list of cars I dreamed about that I'm going to build at some point! It's a fairly short list - in the last decade I've only dreamed of a pearl orange 69 Charger, a stock red original version Viper and just last week I 'found' a patina'd old MG sports car that I had just seen mentioned in Road and Track...in my dream I found the body and fenders sitting next to a dumpster waiting to be hauled off and I decided they needed to come home with me

What a wonderful tribute to your friend Tim, I loved reading the story behind it! It's a stunning model, beautifully detailed and also beautifully intentioned. I'm sure he loves what you did with it! You did a great job on restoring/finishing it off!

Oh WOW! I don’t have anything much to add that hadn’t been said already, but builds like this are inspiring, humbling and make me want to push myself harder to get this good! OUTSTANDING work - thank you for sharing!!!

I think I picked up the Gunze version once, trying to save a few bucks compared to buying the Tamiya kit...I think my version came with rubber seats for some reason. I like the race version of this car that Tamiya put out too - I'd like to pick up both of those. They're definitely gaining value it seems like...

The white wheel and gauge surround in the black one is cool though (I realize I’m not helping ?)

I’d go for the tan if it were mine...the interior is so tiny that it’ll be hard to see if it’s black and all the nice clean work you always do will be less eye catching. That said, I like the black too ??

Huh, interesting! I like how Tamiya handled that on both of those kits, it makes what would be a fiddly tricky part of the build into a much more enjoyable one. Thanks for the insight!

Looking great, so far! I've been wanting to pick one of these up! Ohh, what did they do with the tooling that was clever?

I've wanted to build one of these forever - love these little cars! I'll be watching!

I enjoyed the Impala part of this project, but I'm REALLY excited to see the Vette part! ?

@traditional - the flames on that burgundy car are INCREDIBLE! How did you achieve the white pinstriped edge? Looks PERFECT! Some great builds in this thread! A tonne of eye candy!

This week’s cool (ish) sightings... This drove past our house - sounded healthy! I’m a simple guy - I see a Miata and I take photos like it’s a Ferrari 250GTO that I just spotted ? Never saw that plaid trim on the doors on one though, I assume that’s aftermarket And some high quality Hoosier parking that amused me Coloring inside the lines is hard ?

That’s also how you get an old rare kit that you’ve wanted forever reissued ??