bobss396

Excellent question. I transfer drill from one part into the other pretty often. I have even glued 2 parts together with a water-soluble glue and slpit them apart later. I have made up quick-and-dirty "drill jigs" from styrene scraps. I have learned to make the clearance holes bigger than I would expect. For an .031" pin, I use .040" so the mating parts fit together easily. Some I open them up if I have to, it permits a larger glue-line and will be stronger. I have a couple of holes I need evenly-spaced in a modified rear axle, the items to be located are .093" tubing with a .047" hole, the spacing is .50" and not critical, they do however have to be lined up. So I will fixture that.

I have a bunch that were being chucked out at work, boxes and boxes of 50. So if one snaps.... grab another. I like them in my Micro Mark drill press. I do use mainly HSS drills, I have lots of them as well. I did pick up a 60-80 HSS index at a show... a really poor design, as the plastic case that is difficult to open even with both hands. I picked up a 1.0 mm thru 1.6 mm small case at a hobby shop, handy sizes, but 2 of the 6 were improperly sharpened, the rake is backwards. So I have a big number drill index, 1-60 that I used in my shop. Now I work out of 3 old endmill plastic tubes, some drills I have tagged with the size. I also have some envelopes with real small drills, .013 to around .025.

It definitely looks better stock rather than custom. Someone makes a '52 truck grille, 3D printed. I'll see if I can come across it. Nice work. I have a Foose kit somewhere here.

Shiny black paint is tough... a lot of shiny black paint is tougher... nice work.

Nice rendition. Those were great cars, I had 4 station wagons, a '79, an '80 (for parts), an '82 and my last was a '84.

The carbide drills are fragile over HSS drills. They mainly break when they break through or when they bind up with chips. They are best for starting a new hole as they don't tend to wander off.

I have a good NASCAR junkyard to pick parts from. I scavenge roll cage pieces all the time. I have more plastic stock than most hobby shops. I but up .093" tubing #223 when I see it. Works well for any cage work.

I have been a judge in many shows over the years. I have judged the best-of-the-best entries and the worst-of-the-worst too. There was one class with around 6 cars entered, it was a general class and didn't attract many entries. So we had to come up with 3 that we had trophies for. It came down to the winner being the one that had a driveshaft in it. I recall leaving parts out as a kid if they were problematic. Junior classes are always interesting, quality has a wide range. Unfortunately there have not been too many entries at shows in later years. Sometimes there are only 2 cars entered where it used to pull 10 or 12.

I like the bumpers quite a bit, were they in the kit? Probably not. Really, check out what Ron Coon has. He's a super easy guy to deal with is and is also a racer.

Some years back there was a palpable fear when molds were going to China and the entire kit industry was going to implode. Hence I grabbed kits a little at a time, now I probably still have 250-300 un-builts and maybe 25 started (and stalled...). I have known a couple of "modelers" who while they have not built ANYTHING in 25 years, they have over 5000 kits and are still buying. I was selling at a show last fall and had a couple of bites when I offered everything I had on the table for $1000. There was over 100 kits plus other things I had for sale.

I am going to pick up some Future or Quick Shine and try it on something. How long does it dry before it reaches maximum hardness, will a dehydrator work? Do foam brushes work over conventional brushes?

I hold most parts by hand when I'm drilling. I have padded tweezers (aka parts launchers..) before. I also use a small Palmgren vise quite a bit, it is 1.5" wide and less than 1" deep. Pin vises are good to hold round parts. If I am making parts that need pinning, I make them extra long, drill the hole where I want it and remove the excess. An old machine shop trick, adding a :handle" to the part.

I got one on sale at Hobby Lobby. I was supposed to do a '55 Chevy gasser build-off with my brother, but he bailed on me. Truth be known, I'll be using the AMT kit over the Badman.

Bleu and Brie fixing to nap.

Engine turning in scale, I saw that someone used a round pen eraser held in a drill chuck and it worked. I built my 1st Badman, I was probably 12. I thought that it was a GREAT kit... I recently got another.... hoo-boy does this take a ton of work to look 1/2 way decent.

Most of the Modelhaus stuff brings a good buck. Someone on eBay sells some now and then and they are like $250 and up.

In 1975 I came VERY close to buying a 1962 Caddy hearse for $600.... I had my hand on the $$ in my pocket while on the car lot. Bailed at the last second due to family pressure not to buy it. That is a nice build. I need a tow car for a stock car trailer and this may work out. Ideally I would like the Johan ambulance, but they are pretty expensive.

I pin quite a bit of my stuff. I use .020 brass wire, .032 and ,047 brass rod quite a bit. I bought 3 lengths of 1/32" stainless steel pins from McMaster-Carr, 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4". I'll save the core from wire wrap wire which is .010". I have used staples to attach door handles and mirrors in the past,paper clips too, also floral wire which is dirt cheap. I have 2 pin vises with drills in them permanently, .027", .039" for distributor wires and 1/32" pinning. Of course I use mainly CA glues. Sometimes it sets up real fast.

I sold 2 at a show last year, sealed kits from 1978, they sold fast. The last ones I have are opened, but they should still fetch a decent price. Likely a wash with the new kit pricing which I bet will go for $40-ish.

Keep 2 for sure. My girlfriend having the 2 sister cats, she always says that it was a good move. They are a lot of fun.

Thanks. I still am not liking the small diameter tires, I may try something else that fills the wheel wells a little more.

Mr. Ivan checking out his new box.

Time for me to blow out my Midnite Cowboy stash while they still hold value.

He was really the only one who could run hard with the #3 car. Gone way too soon. He was good in Indy cars too.

I don't bake out anything hand painted and for that I use Tamiya or Vallejo acrylics. Otherwise I use rattle cans only. A couple of lacquer-ish primers, car touch ups, Extreme Lacquers and Tamiya for the most part. I started having issues with the primer bubbling (Mr. Hobby brand) so I let them gas out for 15 or so minutes then into the dehydrator. Now I do that with everything. After 2 hours for the primer, I can top coat over that. The rest of the paints I'll go 2-3 hours before doing another coat of color-sand between coats.