swede70

A very beautiful build - thanks for the inspiration and ideas. Lovely to examine your work. Mike K.

Greetings, A bit of web research and following up leads afforded by friends turned up a means to secure 1:12th sidewall tires markings appropriate to this topic. It seems early in the production run Firestone Sports Car 200's were fitted, and then a changeover was made to what are termed Goodyear Wide Tread GT's. Joseph at Fireball Modelworks affords us a comprehensive range of ALPS-printed tire markings in 1:24th and 1:25th, whereas I asked nicely if his Goodyear Wide Tread GT art could be blown up to 1:12th as per my request. The answer was in the affirmative, hence some news to jot down if you find yourself in like need. Thanks... http://www.fireballmodels.info/ Mike K.

Greetings, The following is a short run down of what will be a composite wheel intended to facilitate clean paintwork as well as add needed dimension to the standard 15X7 Chevrolet Rally wheel on this application. Most of it is simple, although molding the tire as well as the assorted bits and pieces might take a little time. I'd expect to fill a standard 1967 Corvette Firestone with clay on the inside, effectively cast two-thirds of it face down in two-part urethane, combine two castings to alter the section width, and finally scrub off the sidewall tire markings prior to the creation of a final two-piece mold. From left to right then may be seen the as-delivered Revell/Monogram Rally wheel, a solitary trim ring, next a spacer cut from the back of a Revell 1957 Chevrolet whitewall tire insert (also in 1:12th scale), a solo Rally wheel cap with a thicker and more rounded bottom aspect, a Rally wheel 'center stamping', and finally - a Revell/Monogram 1967 Corvette finned aluminum wheel positioned upside down (you may now catch your breath!). Below from left to right may be seen a standard Firestone tire from the Corvette kit, a later 245-14-70 Eagle ST, whereas to the far right will be found a wider Firestone made up of two vinyl tires with two added tread 'ribs' to mimic a Wide Oval section. Given I am sitting on about twenty of the thin 'stones, I thought I'd cut up two just to see if meshing a pair was possible, if the resultant tread patterns might be coherent, etc. What is afforded is a fairly convincing Wide Oval period pattern. The spacer is employed to create a gap between the base and the center wheel stamping proper. The outer extent of each of the five wheel stamping ovals punched in stand to be finished next. I want the outer extent of the stamping to smoothly fall away with the white spacer solely responsible for holding the trim ring up and level too! 1:1 restoration specialists afford Rally wheel paint in the correct silver with just the slightest green tint, whereas soon I hope to purchase such. ...difficult to discern, but the tire is wider, a slight gap is seen between the trim ring and the center stamping, while the center cap rides higher than before. Try if you will to imagine the five slot 'pockets' cleaned up. ...side-by-side then. ...some material has been added to the top of each front bumper end to differentiate the shape of part from the standard chrome-plated steel bumper that is the more typical fitment. This would be the option VE3, while it helps to sand down the mounting hardware slightly in addition to rounding the top corners looking back. Thanks... M. K.

Greetings, Formerly believing that Tamiya aerosol tints were best reserved for McLaren Can Am windscreen or perhaps Lotus F1 topics, I was slow to try their products on an otherwise ordinary production model kit 'glass'. I feared it would go on too heavily, be difficult to control for even application and perhaps etch the surface of the clear plastic I'd wish to apply it to (understood as something other than an R/C shell). Not really a problem in practice, although the front windscreen had to be redone multiple times for the sunscreen along the top was less evenly applied than I desired. Thanks... Mike K. ...not terribly out of line even if it first appears dark. Something to recommend then. M.K.

Greetings, My hope is to reproduce the 1969 Z/28 tested by Car Life magazine in their August '69 issue, it being an example featuring the JL8 four wheel disc brakes, the dual Holley cross ram intake, the chambered exhaust system option as well as a front Endura body-colored bumper. Definitely eyeball searing, the actual vehicle was finished in Daytona Yellow w/black stripes combined with a yellow Deluxe interior w/black hounds tooth inserts. Things I want to achieve here are limited, with emphasis placed on coming up with better standard wheels and tires, proper four-piston caliper detail all around, a reshaped front bumper to reflect the Endura issue contour, along with other reasoned changes and updates. I'll try to skip explaining reproduction of the obvious, reserving attention for those aspects of the project that seem unique. Mike K.

Greetings, If it helps or if it might be of interest, I think TSM is doing a series of BRE 510's in 1:18th resin. Delays have been encountered time and again, but it's said these prefinished diecast/sealed shell resin models are coming. Maybe visit the Pete Brock website/page to find updates. Thanks... Mike K.

Very neat wheels and tires - tricky I understand in 1:12th given not too many options exist. Looking very nice... Mike K.

Greetings, Sold for not so much money on eBay, try searching for copies of a special thick softcover annual done by Petersen's Publishing in period titled simply 'ENGINES'. Within each they break down Detroit's then-hot V8's and such consistent with relating the nuts and bolts of each design, and multiple bare block and cylinder head shots are afforded. Also consider plugging in 'AMC block' into a Google image search and you'll not fail to find multiple shots that can be saved and put in a particular order to help inform your scale efforts. Hope this helps... Mike K.

Greetings, Just a guess for also being Michigan-rooted, but I recall the urethane bumper surrounds (or fill panels) being painted silver. I know I could be wrong here, but if such a remembrance translates into further application to find the truth (ha!), then maybe scribbling in response wasn't so terrible a thing for me to do. Neat topic - good luck! Mike K.

Greetings, Mostly 'known' elsewhere as 'Swede70', here I pop up on what surely seems the most active kit board I've examined. Ex-librarian with a passion for print reference research in-depth to support the building of what I hope are accurate period road racers and relevant homologation specials. I'm always willing to share notes in relation to technique and the pooling of reference resources to serve the common good, and am generally accepting of all interests championing technique and process above all. Whatever I do won't be a secret, whereas I'll try to lend reasoned value for my presence here. Although hardly a prolific builder, most of my time to date has been spent on select 1:18 diecast rebuilds consistent with doing what I want in the larger scale. Indeed - a lot of 1:18th models of domestic musclecar topics simply aren't well tooled, although for refinishing this and scratch building that there is much to recommend. I do cast items in resin, hence if something is obliquely spoken of within the space of my infrequent posts, indeed a chance exists that I do a few clones for those so-inclined to attempt matters similar. Please feel free to contact me if mysteries exist in relation to tearing down specific tools, if refinishing mysteries confound, etc. for I'd be pleased to lend value thus. Topics interests: '68 - '71 SCCA Trans-Am racers. Homologation specials as suggested above. Police packages in a contemporary vein. BMW Neu Klasse anything (i.e. BMW 2002's, CS 3.0 coupes, etc.) American Motors high performance oddities (i.e. Rebel Machines, SC/360 Hornets, etc.) Mark Donohue anything. Kind thanks for acceptance of my registration here... Mike K. Fraser, MI.