Oldmopars

I love it, these old Japanese cars are cool. The paint looks great, the stance is cool, but hard on the kidneys. I would own a 1:1 of this car in a heartbeat. Awesome!

I must say that when I saw what you were starting with and what you had planned, I thought it was a terrible idea, but then I watched what you did with it and I am totally blown away. This thing turned out very cool. Great job. Its good to be wrong sometimes.

Man, I love this. I had seen the Bug trailer combo many years ago, but never thought to do a model of it. This thing looks great, can't wait to see it done.

Very nice looking stuff, I can't wait to see it come together.

Well, not much of an update as I have been moving at a snails pace on this one. However forward progress is being made. I got the dozer part of this build back out of the box and finished up a few things. I did not want to glue the track carriers to the inner arms because I would have to leave it that way and paint it together and that would not work well. So, I drilled out the sprocket "Pins" and replaced it all with aluminum. I was then able to prime the track carriers and the main body. I can not assemble and disassemble as needed. This this needs a ton more work, but at least the main body is in primer. I have a lot of little parts to shoot and then start the weathering on the main body. Something like the last 2 pictures in the goal.

BTW, if you want a liittle shine to it so it looks wet, just add a little Future floor polish to it and when it dries, it will still be a little wet looking. And Yes, we have desert here. Annual rain fall for my house is about 8in per year. So, very very dry. Humidity of less than 20% normally.

It seems the more correct term for this would be Molded, or Cast Carbon fiber. It looks like other Molded materials.

You have to be careful with the scale size of the mud, but I have used this effect before too. I just use fine dirt from my yard (I live in the desert) and water and Elmers Clear glue. If I want to add different layers of color, I can add some paint to get variations of color in the layers. This can work for anything from a heavy caked mud truck to light dirt on the side of a car that has not been washed in a while. Now, if I could just find a way to Spray it on without totally ruining an air brush.

BTW, for those of you tired of spending the money on expensive solvent glue, I have been using MEK and it works great. I have even mixed it like above and it gives it some body if needed. Main ingredient in solvent glue is MEK, so it works just like any other. I saved an old Plastructs bottle with brush and just refill from my quart can. $7 for a quart is way cheaper than the $5 or so for the little bottles. I have used the old sprue and MEK to fill, weld, and even make small parts. Works good. **PSA** MEK is hazardous, use appropriate PPE when using. That is all.

So, this has been a slow month for modeling. The sun is coming out here and the weather is getting nice and my brain is more focused on my Motorcycle and motorcycle trips this summer than on building models. ADHD sucks sometimes. However I did get the trailer painted and played with some deck options. These are made out of Popsicle sticks. It puts the 1:25 scale size to just over 7in wide. I did some light weathering and scratching through to the "Metal" BMF I put under the paint. Still have more to do, but it is getting there.

Look for Castrol Super Clean, same stuff.

Well this is my second attempt. I need to weather it up a bit to make it look more like the deck of a truck used to haul a Dozer, but I think I am getting there. These work out to a scale 9in, so a little wide, but not too bad.

Yep, I used to live on the WET side, but I moved a few years ago to the dry side, where the sun shines. I still work for a company in Kent, but work remotely from home. I have friends and family over there still too. I have not been sorry yet that I moved. Even if just for the difference in traffic it was worth it. I never go anywhere that I can't exceed the speed limit if I wanted to because there is no traffic even at "rush hour".

Very cool. I live in the Yakima area.

Nice project, it looks like the sleeper is custom made using the original doors from the kit(molded in Yellow). I have this kit NIB and plan to do it someday, I will be watching.

Very nicely done, the weathering is outstanding and all the little details really make it pop. The interior is full of details too. Great job.

I am working on the deck of my low boy trailer. I want to use real wood and found Craft Sticks in several sizes at HL. Now I need to decide the proper width for the boards. I did some looking on the web and all I have been able to find are 3in, 5in and 7in deck boards, however when I measure the deck boards on the fake wood that comes in the kit, it is 10.75in wide. 10.75 in scale is .43 and would require fewer cuts and fewer overall boards. Have you seen 10+in deck boards on trailers? I have done some redecking of trailers and I just do not remember how wide the boards were.

B.R.B.O has taken all of my time, the deadline is sooner. But I may drag it out this next week and do some updates to it.

I like it, looks good. Coffee cup and clip board are a nice touch. I did the same on one of mine. Very nice

Well, not a lot to report here, but I have been moving forward. I got the trailer put back together. It was in pieces because the previous owner had done a very poor job. Huge gaps, tones of glue, mold lines everywhere, sprue tabs, and total misalignment. Now it is back together and is not perfect but as good as I can do with what I had to work with. Some parts I just could not get apart due to the massive amount of glue. Those I had to just sand in place or do what I could. I found some real thin Balsa wood at a Airplane hobby shop in town. I may use it to replace the wood on the deck. I can stain it and even dent it up a bit. I still have the original deck "wood" so if it turns out bad, I can try to make the plastic "wood" look good. I plan to add some Foil to some area where the tracks of the Dozer would run. This way I can scratch up the paint down to bare metal to look like the real thing. As it is, its not real impressive, but it is progress.

I love Baja's. I have owned several and wish I still had one. I look forward to seeing this progress, your doing great so far.

Back in the early 2000's when I was still in the Air Force, I had an Airman working for me that had a Trans Am GTA or W30(I think). It looked just like this, I think it was an 89. We spent a whole weekend installing a bunk of performance parts including new headers and a cat back, pulleys and all kinds of stuff. When we got done it was pretty quick for what it was. It was in near perfect condition, white,leather, etc. Beautiful car. The following Tuesday (2 days later) he was late to work. Some moron in a pickup ran a red light and ripped the front end right off the car. Totaled it. I ended up selling him a 4 door Dodge Aspen that looked like it was a former Government car so he would have some wheels. I felt bad for him, the TA was a really nice car and it would be worth a little bit today as it was a low production optioned car. This one that you are doing is the twin to that car, brings back memories. I look forward to seeing it done. It looked like this:

I would post a picture, but I am too embarrassed by what I have currently. As of now I just have a shelf with my models collecting dust. I would like to have something better, but it works for now. In truth, I enjoy building them, but once built I take pictures and share them here, but other than that, no one else cares. I never show them to anyone and I don't think my family has any idea what goes into them either. So, some day I may box them up and sell them or rip them apart and build something else. I don't ever see me having a large display case full of my finished models. I have been building models for over 40 years. The only ones I have are the ones I have finished in the last 2 years. The rest (many) are long gone.

I agree, I am glad someone else is doing the 1/43 stuff. I have enough trouble with the 1/24-1/25 stuff. I can barely hold on to the parts. Can't tell you how much time I spend on the floor looking for parts I have dropped. Straightliner59, it is looking good. I will enjoy seeing the finished product.

The leveling "levers" are a joke on the 359 kit. If you want the to look real, you will need to scratch build something. You could just cut them off, or leave as is and just ignore them. When I did mine I cut them off to scratch build something in their place, but never got to it. I had to extend the frame as it is a log truck. In the end I never got around to making anything as I forgot. In the end, you don't miss them. So, its up to you.