Danno

Nice rice.

Nice.

Nice.

I think you are right, Doc Crank.

Editing a reply to a five year old thread? Good man. Too many of us don't think through our posts long enough.

Too funny!

Wow, Harry! You got a good-looking rear end!

Very nice . . . even as a taxi!

What JB said!!!!!!!

Would it be a half-woody?

Great builds!

More beautiful Monte Carlos! Gotta say I really like the uniqueness of Bodine's paint scheme. It's subtle yet it really stands out!

It just keeps getting better!

Thanks, Andre, Don, and James! Ed, The resin body and interior tub are by Shawn Carpenter. I got it directly from him at a swap meet. It sat for a few years while I tried to decide what to do with it. Once I decided to do the rescue van, I knew I had to open up the back doors! The van was my first resin build. And, I had to jump right in with an ambitious project, didn't I? One issue was material. I tried aluminum tube, brass tube, paperclip rod, brass rod, even nylon RC aircraft aileron hinge material. I just couldn't get things together in small enough dimensions to look right and hold up. Remember, at the time I was a little ham-fisted due to the twin surgeries (that was back in the palm-cutting days). All of that was aggravated by two other factors: engineering and adhesives. First, the back end of the panel has a forward slope, requiring the upper hinge to be longer than the lower hinge ~ just the opposite of door hinges on passenger cars. Secondly, because of the degree of slope the conventional method of running a continuous pin through both hinges while fabricating and gluing the hinges to the doors and the body just would not work. Trying that method initially, I got doors that swung up rather wildly ("Lambo" style). I settled on two parallel planes for upper and lower hinges. That in itself created havoc for me when it came to getting the hinge pins parallel and coordinated enough to open at all. I eventually got the angles and hinge arm lengths figured out and then encountered that third factor. Adhesives. My first resin. I had settled on styrene hinges, patterned after the actual van hinges. I carefully fabbed the hinge arms and drilled tiny holes for tiny metal pins. Then I notched the body and the doors to accommodate the male/female halves of each hinge. That's when I encountered the problem of attaching the styrene hinges to the resin body. After several failed attempts with the various adhesives I was accustomed to using, I used epoxy for the first time. My first attempt with epoxy failed after a few repetitions of the open-close-open-close cycles. I realized I had made the hinge arms and the notches in the body too smooth! The epoxy hadn't gotten any "bite." So, after the van was painted, finished, and polished, the hinges gave up the ghost. So, I had to file away the epoxy, leave some filing grooves in both tiny halves and the re-install with epoxy. The 'final fix' has held up for years now. But I was never able to match the original paint finish on the exposed portion of the hinges to my satisfaction. The bad news is that T&E engineering is a PITA. But the good news is that I learned (the hard way) how to do it right the next time.

Interesting vehicle. Good first effort at weathering.

Very nice!

Thanks, Carl!

B!tc#in'!

Beautiful, Paul.

Larry, Chris, Carl, Thank you! Appreciation from peers means more than anything else! Carl, the real challenge was hinging those rear doors ~ getting the hinges to swing the doors open in a realistic motion and aspect, leaving the doors looking right in both open and closed positions was a bear ... especially since I wanted hinges that would be sturdy enough to withstand manipulation without being unrealistically oversized. It took several failed attempts before I got it right enough. The wrists/hands both healed wonderfully and life became far better after the surgeries. For a period of time, both wrists/hands were bandaged and sore. The Lovely and Gracious Mrs. B loved it, because she could 'put' me somewhere in the house, out of her way, and she knew that's where she would find me whenever she wanted me ~ ~ ~ I couldn't get up or move around without help. Fortunately for me, that only lasted a couple of days . . . but it's still one of her favorite periods of our married life, so she says.

Thanks, Mark, Sam, and John! Glad you like it. The detailing was the fun part. Evergreen plastic and general craft store stuff was the starting point for much of the equipment. No aftermarket on board!

Premium price, maybe . . . but $700? I think we'd hear a mashed cat choir.

Killa!

Thanks, guys. Glad you like it.

Looks pretty good, Greg, from what can be seen in that pic. Got more? Love to see them. Great idea.