Custom Mike

Great to see another of this sweet kit getting built, and with you building Doc, I know it's gonna be a good one! My frame had lots of sink marks too (Street Machine issue), I'm willing to bet you couldn't find a frame for this kit that didn't have all those sink marks!

Not much of an update, but I did get a little bit done on the bed today. I polished up the tailgate and mocked the bed up, and I need to see why I have such a large gap around the bottom of the tailgate and the front end of the bed. Once I figure that bit of trouble out, I'll figure out where to attach the chains to the tailgate and get the bed finished off!

Thanks Ken, I'll keep building, you keep watching! Since I'm sick as a dog, this is not much of an update, but I did get a little bit done on the bed today. I polished up the tailgate and mocked the bed up, and I need to see why I have such a large gap around the bottom of the tailgate and the front end of the bed. Once I figure that bit of trouble out, I'll figure out where to attach the chains to the tailgate and get the bed finished off!

Thanks Phil, I can't wait to see you start out on yours! OK, since I'm home sick today, I got a bit done while I was feeling somewhat decent. I figured out where my colors were going, masked it all off, and laid down some Tamiya TS-10 French Blue, let it set up, then laid down some White. Once it's cured for a few days, I'll re-mask and lay down some Silver in the middle. If you look closely, you can see the separation between the White paint and White Primer, that's where the Silver will go! I'm still not sure if the ducts on the doors will be Silver, or Black like the instructions call for, I'll figure that out later, where's my Day-Quil?

Yes he does, and I can vouch for his quality, he does some beautiful work!

OK, I'm finally going to post my completed "Naked" build. I did this one on commission for a guy who can't build any more due to arthritis. It's an original issue Monogram 1934 Dusenberg SJ Slot-Car kit, originally released (If I recall what he said) in 1964. And the kicker was, he wanted it built as if I was back in 1964. Heck, I was born in December of 1963, I would have probably ate half the parts! What he meant was, no decals (They were worthless anyhow), no mold line removal (They were minimal, why can't they do that today?), and no fixing of any flaws in the kit. He wouldn't even allow me to clean up the parts when I removed them from the sprues, so I worked very carefully, and it came out nicely, even without painting! Being that the customer is always right, I built it the way he wanted, but begged him to let me polish the plastic, and paint the driver's goggles, visor, and the plate he sits on, so he allowed that much. This kit went together beautifully, and Robert was extremely happy with it when I delivered it to him,. He took it for one lap around his track, then put it in his display case, never to be driven again!

OK, here's my entry into this CBP, a Tamiya Lamborghini Countach LP500S. I picked it up at Hobby Lobby awhile back on clearance, and recently had the idea to paint it up as my second Carolina Panthers themed vehicle. I had started in on it a few months back, getting all the mold lines (And there were a few bad ones on it), and priming it, then the '50 Chevy P/U took over so it got moved to the side. Enter this CBP, and I have an entry, lucky me! It's one of Tamiya's old motorized kits, so it basically a curbside, all it's really going to have is a cool 4-color paint scheme and some of the Panthers decals Ricky (A good friend over on Scale Avenue) made for me a few years back. So tighten up those chin straps, here we go! The kit, with that pretty yellow price tag.... A close up of the price, I bought it mainly to steal the rims and tires! Body lines removed, and some Dupli-Color Primer-Sealer thrown at it! The remaining parts, did I mention this kit was molded in the dreaded RED plastic? Let's hope my Primer/Sealer does it's job! Why, you may ask, am I calling it The Camborghini? Because of our Quarterback sensation/NFL Rookie Of The Year Cam Newton! It'll get a Black/Panthers Blue/White/Sliver paint scheme laid down, and I think I know where each color will be, but that is subject to change at any given moment, so don't ask where they're going! Next set of pics is the body in Dupli-Color White Primer, and so far I have no bleed through of the Red plastic, so I'm very happy! I'll hopefully have some more progress on it tomorrow, I've been on call all weekend and I'm going to bed!

And you're afraid of BMF...why???? That looks great buddy, you shouldn't fear it, you've got it nailed! Now about the dome light and visors, how did you make those babies, they look awesome!

Beautiful polishing on that body Steve, that should be one sweet ride when it's done!

Hideously ugly chassis Brian, it looks like just about every car I was under back in High School! That is some great weathering, I'll leave stuff like that to you and Doc, I just can't bring myself to ugly one up like you two!

Ron, that tailgate is gonna be the tough part. There's nowhere near as much plastic to drill into on the edges of the tailgate where the chain goes on the 1:1, so I'm gonna have to find a different location and hope I can make it look right. Once the tailgate gets polished, we'll tackle that part!

I bought mine as a "bagged" kit with no instructions (Bah, who needs 'em! ), so after a few tries, I discovered the windows went in place much better from the outside. I still have the gaps no matter which side I install the glass from though, I'm trying to find a way to close them up and not make it look bad. So far my wheels are centered in the wheel wells, but I haven't attached the interior to the cab yet, so there's still a chance for the fronts to get screwed up. My back wheels are dead-center, so either I got lucky when I did my wood bed, or the Modeling Gods were smiling on me that day!

Nice work so far Robert, and thanks for the heads-up on the cab/engine/driveshaft issues, I'll know what to look for now. I'll give you a little heads-up too, the windshield ends up with a gap around both sides and the bottom edge, at least on mine. I'm still trying to find a fix for that little issue!

Right now it's just formed so it lays there, but I have some thin brass sheet that I'm going to try to make some straps out of, we'll see how successful I am with that, they're gonna be really tiny!

Thanks guys, I wasn't sure about the dash pad at first, but I really like the looks of it now. I've got a small update tonight. First up, I re-did my rear brake lines to be more accurate. The brake lines now go over the axle like normal brake lines, I'll add a bit of black insulation from some 22 gauge wire when they are glued in place to represent the flexible parts. Now onto a bit of work on the bed. I looked at the reference pics I have of the chains for the tailgate, and found there's really no way to attach the chains in the same way on the model version, so I came up with a way to do it. I bent up some small pieces of 26 gauge wire, trimmed them into tiny "u" shapes, drilled a pair of holes in the bed sides, cut some pieces of chain, and carefully glued the u-shapes into place. As soon as the Clear cures on the tailgate, I'll find a way to attach the chain to it and get the bed completed! Measure? Nah, I'll just eyeball the holes and hope I get lucky as usual! One of the 26 gauge u-shapes undergoing a test-fitting, it actually worked! Here's the chain I'm going to be using, it's from the model Railroad section of Hayes Hobby House, along with two pieces of heat-shrink tubing, I'm still not sure which one I'll be using to cover the chain. Here's the chain and u-shape next to an X-Acto blade just to show you how small these pieces actually are! And the chain in place on the sides of the bed, it looks pretty good for not being 100% accurate!

Johann, those are my pins, i had to buy my own so she wouldn't kill me for using so many! I've got a small update tonight. First up, I re-did my rear brake lines to be more accurate, and to keep Alyn from coming over here and whacking me over the head because they were wrong. The brake lines now go over the axle like normal brake lines, I'll add a bit of black insulation from some 22 gauge wire when they are glued in place to represent the flexible parts. Now onto a bit of work on the bed. I looked at the reference pics I have of the chains for the tailgate, and found there's really no way to attach the chains in the same way on the model version, so I came up with a way to do it. I bent up some small pieces of 26 gauge wire, trimmed them into tiny "u" shapes, drilled a pair of holes in the bed sides, cut some pieces of chain, and carefully glued the u-shapes into place. As soon as the Clear cures on the tailgate, I'll find a way to attach the chain to it and get the bed completed! Measure? Nah, I'll just eyeball the holes and hope I get lucky as usual! One of the 26 gauge u-shapes undergoing a test-fitting, it actually worked! Here's the chain I'm going to be using, it's from the model Railroad section of Hayes Hobby House, along with two pieces of heat-shrink tubing, I'm still not sure which one I'll be using to cover the chain. Here's the chain and u-shape next to an X-Acto blade just to show you how small these pieces actually are! And the chain in place on the sides of the bed, it looks pretty good for not being 100% accurate!

Christopher, you and a friend over on Scale Avenue both suggested the same thing, so I checked it out, and I'm glad I did, it looks incredibly good in person! Johann, I'm smoking Pall Malls right now, but I'm willing to bet any brand's foil would do the trick. Thanks for all the comps guys, now I've gotta get back to it, this baby won't build itself!

Bob, Evergreen makes some small half-round that works great for trim, I've used it a few times myself with great results!

OK, we're back at it, I tried the foil trick on the tail lights, and let me tell ya, it's beautiful! I've got enough foil on hand now to last me for a few hundred models, it works that well! I also got the final piece installed on the wood bed, and received my PE radio face from Rick over on Scale Avenue, so we've got some progress to show ya! I sprayed some Craft Bond on the foil, placed the tail lights on the foil, and let it dry... One hour later, we have beautiful tail lights! The back end piece on the bed, now to get the tail gate cleared so I can assemble the bed! Notice how it's higher on the ends than the middle? Yup, the wooden bed is slightly warped! And the PE radio face that Rick sent me, gotta get some paint on this baby! I painted the radio Semi-Gloss Black, removed the excess paint, and added some Tamiya Clear Green to the display area, I may go back and redo that, we'll see. I measured off the dash and centered the radio... I cut a notch in my my piece of dash pad/leather for the radio, and attached it to the dash, then set the gauge inlay into it's home... Then the PE face for the gauges was added... A bit of Black wash... And finally the Detail Master Krome Foil strip, a straight pin for the glove box lock, and a drop of Testors Clear Parts cement was added to each gauge!

OK, we're back at it, I tried the foil trick on the tail lights, and let me tell ya, it's beautiful! John, this may just change your mind, we'll see! I've got enough foil on hand now to last me for a few hundred models, it works that well! I also got the final piece installed on the wood bed, and received my PE radio face from Rick over on Scale Avenue, so we've got some progress to show ya! I sprayed some Craft Bond on the foil, placed the tail lights on the foil, and let it dry... One hour later, we have beautiful tail lights! The back end piece on the bed, now to get the tail gate cleared so I can assemble the bed! Notice how it's higher on the ends than the middle? Yup, the wooden bed is slightly warped! And the PE radio face that Rick sent me, gotta get some paint on this baby! I painted the radio Semi-Gloss Black, removed the excess paint, and added some Tamiya Clear Green to the display area, I may go back and redo that, we'll see. I measured off the dash and centered the radio... I cut a notch in my my piece of dash pad/leather for the radio, and attached it to the dash, then set the gauge inlay into it's home... Then the PE face for the gauges was added... A bit of Black wash... And finally the Detail Master Krome Foil strip, a straight pin for the glove box lock, and a drop of Testors Clear Parts cement was added to each gauge!

Chuck, that is some beautiful work on the finned valve cover, and the OHV version looks great too, you plan on having that stuff cast?

Thanks Phil, it's a near match for the Panthers blue, so I grabbed another can of it for the one I'll be doing for this CBP, let's hope it looks better than that Charger, that Revell Uptown Charger kit is a dog!

Doc, can I post a previously built unpainted model?

Fred, it's on the back of the lens. I've already been told by someone else on the forum to try the foil from the inside of a pack of cigarettes, so i'm going to check that out. They're just way too plain right now, they need something to create some depth!

Christopher, thank you for that tip, I've been trying out different things since they look very plain with just foil behind them, I'll give that a shot!