Jantrix

I've had it leave a residue. I hope you don't have that issue.

I recieved my parts last week. Pretty happy. I will start this one soon.

Slowly but surely. She's finally on all four paws.

Thanks Claude. The original plan for this was something of a super rat rod. When I decided on the kart idea, it was easy to switch gears. Dennis Neal, a friend and terrific modeler on my Facebook modeling page suggested the 3D printed injectors after he'd done one. It was a no brainer really. I'll hit the interior parts with some dullcoat today.

A little work on the interior.

Gary, glad to see your work on the forums again. This looks terrific. Well done sir.

This kit is double tough to get low in the rear. I added lowering blocks between the spring and axle and ended up with the axle nearly on the frame. And it's still not low enough. I thought the rake looked cool so I left it. To get much lower will take some chassis surgery.

This is my WIP for the Chevy. There really isn't a huge mystery technique. Layer your body color paints in thin coats. I stagger my primers. Grey in one area, red oxide in another. Then two body colors, one over the other. When dry, wet sand gently in the areas that will weather the most either by salt, sun or water. This is the important step. The sanded surface is rough enough to catch the wash and create the surface rust appearance. I just thin down some burnt umber with water, create a wash, and brush it on, using more in the areas that will rust more. If theres too much, I wick it off with a paper towel. If your not happy with it, a toothbrush and water will take most of it off, and try again. Enjoy.

Thanks guys.I'm glad you like it.

I thin them down with water and use them as a wash when weathering. Very effective for the surface rust type of finish.

Sadly Rich hasn't been around in a couple of years.

Thanks Dann. I'm not looking forward to masking off the windshield for the black border.

Well, perfect would involve someone else doing all the work while I stand by with a cold glass of porter. ? But yes, things are pretty good on our little ten acre farm. I've a chicken coop, full of these odd little animals that leave little butt nuggets all over the place. Four goats that never seem to get enough food or attention. A garden that is doing very well. Our first heifer will arrive next week so I'm very glad I got the fence finished. I just turned 52 and the plan is to pay off the place by 63, and be on solar and wind by retirement.

The interesting thing here, is that the article was written by our esteeemed Mike Finnegan in 2010, which predates Roadkill by two years. He has a long history of automotive mayhem it seems.

I took some time off this week but the weather was lousy, so I got some time at the bench. Always a bad news/good news situation. The front end might look a little weird, but these Vette/Miata type karts aren't generally built by professionals in a custom shop, but rather by Mr. Joe Average, with a Sawzall and a welder. Designs always seem a bit wonky and borderline street legal.

I'd bet you are right. The Hot Wheels section was always nearly empty, except for the larger vehicles. I'm sure it would come as no surprise to any of us, but the reissues of Twin MIll were always among the fastest cars. The track itself It wasn't pretty, it was built using a lot of scaffolding and double faced tape, but it was well enough thought out and assembled, that most of the low center of gravity cars could make it through a full run. Only a few of the boosters were used. The technician in me, was impressed and the 8 year old in me, was in Hot Wheels heaven.

There was a Toys R Us in Jacksonville that for one winter had a huge hot wheels track. The manager built a 4ft tall platform and on it, built a huge gravity race track for Hot Wheels in a 35'x25' area. He created a racing league and they'd race evenings and weekends. Absolutely free. Parents and kids got kinda crazy trying to find the perfect car for racing. Metal chassis was a must have. It was fun to watch. I brought my sons and their cars a few times. Then one day it was all just gone. Rumor was that corporate found out and nixed it because of the loss of sales square footage and because it was done with sellable product. I never saw that manager again.

What it comes down to for me, is time. To achieve the level of quality you are stiving for takes time. My wife and I have a small hobby farm (on top of our 9-5s) and there has never been a greater time sink in the history of mankind. I've been able to finish two models in the last two years. To put more time in per model would reduce that even further. I would not be happy doing so. So I have broken down the qualities that make a great model (in my opinion) and picked the two most important to me. Cleanly built and unique. I have the time to accomplish those and I'm happy with it. It has been a personal struggle to reach the craftsmanship detante between the two halves of my brain, but it has been accomplished.

I have some limited experience with injection molding. When a mold is first put into service, the amount of material injected, the temperatures, the mold and ejector speeds and cooling times, all need to be dialed in via trial and error. It is very possible, that though some of these first batches of kits may have those issues, but as they get the settings dialed in, the work could improve.

Super clean and well throught out. Terrific work.

Quote of the year right there. Time and again I yank out a kit for a "simple" build and before I know it there is a list of modifications that need doing to bring the model up to my expectations. Terrific work on the helo. It looks very authentic and would get a lot of attention on any contest table.

The problem with this is that every part has mold lines or ejection pin marks tht need to be cleaned up. This is very hard to do keeping the part on the sprue.

Very nice work. I like it.

I had a '73 release that came with a terrific set of Minilites. There wasn't much else of quality though to my memory.

I've had the same realization many times. Every little dust spec on full display. I like it a lot. Great kit. Can't go wrong with a primer grey hot rod.