ubermodel

Yup, there you go, basically the same as the stuff I use. And isn't it nice of them to mail it to you for free? Maybe next they'll start mailing out photoetched parts and polishing kits if we're lucky!

Speaking of mirrors, I'd like to add a little tip: sometimes the kits' mirrors do come molded with a little lip around the edge, but the center of the mirror will have a small sink mark in the plastic. Or in the case of a body-color side view mirror, they have a small chromed plastic insert that usually doesn't fit very well. What I've been doing is taking a small piece of chrome mylar film, cutting it down to correct size and gluing it over the existing mirror. The mylar I have is perfectly flat and looks much more like a mirrored surface than a chromed piece of plastic.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll test out each one and see what works/doesn't attack the plastic.

Hey Bob, how are things in the LIARS Club? Haven't been down there in several years. Sanding is a last resort I didn't want to have to do. I had the bumper perfectly straight & smooth and would prefer to just dissolve the glue rather than attack it, but I may just have to bite the bullet.

So I'm working on an old release of AMT's 1969 442. I strip the bumpers and clean up all the mold lines, till they're nice 'n smooth and ready for replating. I give them one last once-over and notice that a big thick honkin' glob of Zap-A-Gap CA+ (the one in the green bottle) had somehow been kind enough to affix itself to a nice smooth area of the front bumper. I read somewhere that nail polish remover is good for removing crazy glue, so before I try it on my bumper I test-soak a small piece of AMT's soft grey styrene for a few minutes, which sure enough softens up the plastic. Can't have that, nuh-uh. Can anyone recommend a solution to soak this particular type of plastic in that will dissolve the glue but leave the plastic totally unaffected??

Bluesman Mark wins a Kewpie doll!

Looks great so far. Are those dog dishes included in the kit or aftermarket?

Two tips I use for replica stockers- 1. Tamiya semi-gloss black spray bomb is marvelous for things like radiator supports, A-arms, frames, starter motors, etc. 2. When painting the engine block, I airbrush Testors Model Master enamels thinned with lacquer thinner, and I always decant a little dullcoat into the mix before spraying. Factory stock engines were never high-gloss, more like semi-gloss, and this method works better than painting and then dullcoating on top of the paint.

That wheel looks like it's being eaten away by some Plastidids (let's see who here is a real die-hard and know what I'm talking about).

I don't think they're anything other than the manufacturer's goof. My '67 didn't have them either, nor did any of the AC and non-AC '67 full-sizers in my library. I guess they could represent the AC hoses, but the AMT '67 is a non-AC car. Here's a pic of the real thing:

Cousin Itt's ride from the Addam's Fanily Movie! Lookin good.

Good news. Hope she'll be with you for a long time.

That's because Plum Crazy was not an available color in 1969. However, if you're feeling really ambitious, I do recall seeing, in an old issue of "Guide To Muscle Cars" from 1985 or so, a photo spread of one of three 1970 Chargers supposedly converted by a company called Creative Industries into a 1970 Daytona. It was a Plum Crazy 440 6-pack car with a sunroof. Sounds like it would be an interesting build. Here's a link to a lot more info: http://www.superbird.com/70dcd.html

This is such a great idea! Just don't leave any stiffs in the back for too long, or your "Corpsevette" will also be a "Stinkray".

I think that kind of contraction only takes place in neutron stars and black holes..... Regarding enlarging resin parts, check the last reply I made a few weeks back in that "shrinking parts" thread. I had some success heating the mold in an oven (as heat causes it to expand) and then casting a part before it cooled off). This worked okay with small molds/parts, not sure if it would work so well with larger ones. Plus it kinda ruined the mold after two or three tries.

I used it recently on a wooden cabinet door. Spread a very thin bead along a tongue-in-groove joint and sure enough, as they say on the bottle it foams and expands....the little I used seeped out a bit. The bottle says it can be used on non-porous surfaces like metal & glass, but also says you need to moisten one (or both) surfaces first....not quite sure how one would moisten glass. I don't think it would be good for gluing engine halves together, but it might work well for windshields - anyone try this?

Uwe, that looks just like a special Tasca Ford prepped Torino Cobra that was featured in an issue of Musclecar Review about 12 years ago.

That is a very neat build. What tires did you use, are those the old hollow AMT Polyglas GT's or some other tire with Shabo lettering?

Yep, you can't go wrong painting a Mopar B-5 Blue. In fact, I think I'm going to paint my house B-5 Blue.

VERY nice job so far. Love the way you removed the molded-in wiper arms from the cowl so cleanly.

Lots of experimentation. Now that I think of it, at the time I was also experimenting with enlarging small parts. I found a method that worked pretty well, but please use caution and common sense if you try this as it involves heat. As everyone learned in elementary school, heating something generally makes it expand. I tried taking an existing resin mold of a steel wheel, one that had seen better days, and before pouring the resin I heated the mold in my oven for several minutes. A microwave oven won't work, as there's no water content to heat in a rubber resin mold, and I don't remember the particulars regarding what temperature or how long, this is going back several years. The result was a resin wheel that was slightly larger than one made in an unheated mold. As with the shrinking procedure, to get appreciable results you'd have to perform this several times over.

Sorry Jairus, signature has been added. James W., if I ever start resin casting again I'll definitely make them available. 'Til then, click on the link in my signature for a couple of other neat things I've been working on.

Wasn't really that tedious, just a lot of waiting. The final glue "master" is actually a couple of years old now, so could be it's shrunk a bit more and is even closer to the right size. If I ever drag my Bel-Air out of mothballs to finish it (it turned into one of those ultra-detailed but never-finished works-in-progress) I'll have to repop a few new resin pieces.

How do you shrink model parts that are too big? In building the AMT '62 Bel-Air, I noticed that the dog dish hubcaps are too large in diameter, perhaps 2-3 scale inches. I needed a way to shrink them, and this worked pretty well....provided I had the patience of a saint. All you'll need is some Elmers Glue and resin mold-making compound. Due to its nature this method only works for small parts. First, make a resin mold of your part, in my case it was the Bel-Air hubcap. When that cures, brush a thin layer of Elmers Glue onto the surface layer of the mold, making sure to coat all areas, and to eliminate all bubbles. Place it somewhere warm to speed drying time. Once dry, fill the mold approximately 1/4 full with Elmers Glue, and let that dry fully, then repeat that step until the mold is full. You can't fill it all in one step because too much glue at once will just fill your mold with mush that won't dry. Let it sit for a day or so, then carefully remove from the mold. You should have a duplicate of your part, made completely of dried Elmers Glue. Take your new part, place it in a small container where dust won't get on it, and let it sit somewhere warm and dry for a week. As Elmers Glue "cures" it actually shrinks, so your part is getting smaller while you wait. Now, the part that requires patience: after a week of drying time, your part will be smaller, but to get noticable results, you'll have to repeat the whole process two or three times, using each successive shrunken part as a master to create a new resin mold from. Once the part is the size you require, make a final mold and you're ready to create as many resin copies as you need. Yes, this process is a pain in the ass but it worked. In the photo below, I was able to shrink the original hubcap a little over 1/16", which worked out to almost 2 scale inches, and the final assembly showed a lot more of the steel wheel's detail.

Yeah, I did the artwork way before I heard any news about the Mach 1 retool. I guess whoever wants to will just have two choices, PE parts or plastic. I did set it for just about any 70 'Stang variant (Boss 429 & 302, plain jane with a 351C, or whatever). Thanks, I'll get in touch with Fotocut and see if they can handle the fine detail.