Misha

Having had built targets, I mean armour, before, I would say you have achieved an excellent build of the M-41! Actually there are a lot of armour techniques and bits & pieces that can be adapted to automotive subjects, especially in terms of weathering. Once again, congrats on a great build. Cheers Misha

Praying for you Harry... hoping for further positive news! Misha

Looking great Ben! I like the primer look - remember a lot of rods looking that way back in high school... Also looking forward to seeing more of your work on the forum. Cheers Misha

Like your body modifications Jonathan. If it weren't running thru the Outback, it would look deadly lower to the ground. Are you sure about switching to RWD? Looking forward to your build! Cheers & G'Day, Misha

Thank you all for the comments! Extra encouragement at this stage is very good to hear. Since we are a bit low in the final entry tally at this point, would a suggestion to extend the deadline by fifteen days due to the more "out of the normal", dare I say "out of the box..." style of theme that has us building to a different standard, be possible? We would still be done with voting by New Year's. Nonetheless the deadline approaches! Been busy outside the house past couple of days, so a bit behind. It is beginning to look like was meant to be. More work tomorrow night! Cheers Misha

Thanks Jonathan! Ready to call it a night after getting about two thirds of the distributor wires in. Very thankful for the magnifying lense & light, only way to get photo etch parts into the right spot. Used wire looms with DM distributor kit. Fuel lines are solder wire with crimps. Block has received a black wash on top of Alclad finished. The front water pump and belt assembly with alternator are only mocked up in position for the snapshot. Upper right has the brake m/c mounted to the booster, getting plumbed tomorrow. The headers have received the Tamiya weathering pastels for a heated look. In the foreground is the oil filter mounted to an adapter plate for the remote oil cooler mounted under the rad. It still needs to be painted, oy vey! To the left is the rad assembly with coolant tank mounted on the side. It still needs further paint detail, wiring and plumbing. Haven't mentioned the battery box yet... Then there's the custom oil ventilation plumbing to install too! G'Day to all AussieBallers! Misha

AussieBall Update Entry #18 - K-5 Blazer With a very busy summer and little spare time for building, whatever did happen occurred in spurts. Now with the deadline drawing near and the wet soggy conditions outside there's lots of time!! The biggest change to the body has been to add flares and carve out the wheel wells for bigger boots. The Jeep Rubicon kit has been a gold mine of parts, in addition to all the other Jeeps in the stash. Ended up using the fender flares reversed, tires with rims and the rock runners for my roof rack sides. The roof rack attaches to the roll cage thru the fiberglass top and was built using plastastruc, armour mesh, and the rock rails. It incorporates a high mounted plate holder, antenna attachments, tool rack, rear lights, plus all that storage! The rear bumper was scratch built around the 53 Ford pickup bumper with the addition of armour kit hooks and Grandt Line bolts. Getting more into the drivetrain now, using the kit's somewhat odd SBC, with a number of changes under the hood. The extreme heat to be encountered called for a custom rad with engine oil cooler below it. In addition an overflow canister and electric fan complete the package. The unit was scratch built around parts box ribbed rad sections adding the framing and hose connections with plastastruc. In addition the dusty road conditions require a cleaner air source for the Holley Double Pumber that is achieved with a snorkel set and sealed air box. Utilizing the custom air cleaner with the spare wheel rim, plus a bit of electronic gizmology the Blazer will ride with a snorkel on the passenger side (ie left side/port). As well the steering gear and brake m/c have been switched to the driver's side. The Blazer now has its final coat of TS Camel Yellow, ready for polish and detailing, and the undercarriage is slowly acquiring it's running gear. Still a lot of work to get done. Today began plumbing & wiring the engine... More paint to finish on parts. Nearly all chrome bits have been stripped and redone in Alclad. Enjoy the snapshots. Cheers Misha

If looking for various paint schemes and one uses Pinterest, try doing a search under a number of titles, (eg. C3 Corvettes, Racing Corvettes, Greenwood...) and it will yield more visual references than a Google search. Cheers Misha

I picked one up today, at first thought it was the detailed kit, so was surprised that I paid top dollar in Canadian funds (just over thirty bucks!) for a snap kit!!! It is a nice kit, yet very much overpriced.

Great idea Stuart using the rear wheel arch from the Nomad, never have thought of that, plus altering the interior tub is another solution. Welcome to the workbench, your work in making a nice straight body looks bang on. Cheers Misha

Great looking Camaro Terry! Really like it without the stripes, gives it a more stealthy, aggressive look to it. Terrific build, thanks for sharing it. Cheers Misha

Great to see the roadster nearing completion! The colours really pop out against the black scheme, metallics are bang on. It was worth the wait ?. Cheers Misha

Actually all three cars are very distinctive. The road racing version, included with the UNCLE car requires some surgery on the rear end body, as it is truncated, whereas the UNCLE vehicle is longer and has the turbo exhaust flaps in the rear valence. This modification would not be beyond the more accomplished builder, it's certainly on my build list.

Thinking of you Harry. Hope that the docs are right and you'll be on the mend soon. Prayers and thought s to you and your family. Thank you for sharing the news on the forum, for over the years this community has grown to be a family of its own. We're all pulling for you! Misha

Great project Bernard! Especially enjoying the historical aspect of Hot Rodding you've provided. With the many deuce variations out there, it is very refreshing to see the direction you've taken. I'll certainly will be following this one! Cheers Misha

Lovely build! A great addition to your cabinet. Cheers Misha

Welcome Thomas, you're skills are very inspiring! The care and attention to detail really shines in your work. The engine bay is magnificent, paint is bang on, and the headlight covers give it the final touch, bravo! Looking forward to seeing more of your skills at play, Cheers Misha

Great subject Phil, I too will follow your build closely. Often thought of detailing slot car bodies, the old AMT Mecom Hussein and Monogram Scarab are current WIPs, so this will be interesting. The collection of Gurney cars you're building is a wonderful tribute! Cheers Misha

Deuce Days Vicky In celebration of the Pacific NorthWest Deuce Days our club, SPAM (Scale Plastic Auto Modellers) decided to host a display of scale Dueces and alike vehicles. I had originally envisioned completing eight examples, after all I had eighteen months. Two weeks ago I realized that even having scaled back to a Bonneville style Roadster, and a heavily modified 5 Window Coupe on the DD Twin Engine rail frame, both projects were very much WIP!! It was then that I whipped out the recently re-released 32 Ford Victoria, an original kit hardening back to the early days of AMT. I had built this kit in the early 60s, then molded in black and, not painting the body, had it built in a Saturday afternoon. This kit suited my two week schedule and would allow me to deviate from excessive detail and long builds. Finished it up time yesterday and the show is on tomorrow. There have been many rods out on the streets and the town is quite excited to host the largest gathering of Deuces anywhere! Vancouver Island prides itself on winding rural roads. Living out in the Cowichan Valley we can hear the exhaust roars as various rod runs are being held today. Below is a listing of the build and some photos of the Deuce Days Vicky. Cheers Misha Features: Channeled body and suspension lowered a scale two inches all the way around. Rad has been chopped by three scale inches and uses the fan from the 34 Ford. The firewall was scratch built with Plastastruct sheet and finished with Alclad Chrome. Wishbones and front axle have been drilled out. Brake lines installed and the exhaust is from the recent 30 Ford Coupe. Wheels are stock wires with 29 Ford hubcaps. Headlights are from the 34 Ford and taillights from the RM Deuce Series. Paint is Humbrol Sky Blue enamel with a white primer canvas top. '37 Ford Flathead is from the pick up kit. Generator, starter, fan motor, and plugs were all wired. Fuel lines from the twin 97s were added along with oil pressure gauge line. All chrome was striped and redone with Alclad metallics. Running gear is finished in Tamiya Italian Red. The stock interior side panels were detailed with door framing, lower door panels receiving the same ribbed treatment as the firewall. The custom steering wheel was utilized and control stocks added to the steering column. The rear window was modified to feature a roll down option and the side windows made to pop out. The headliner features the canvas roof underside, red leather sun visors and a rear view mirror. The red leather was achieved with Avejo acrylic paint brushed on.s

Really nice collection Russel! It's going to be quite the weekend to celebrate the Duece in 1:1 and in scale. Looking forward to it. Cheers Misha

The excitement is building!!! The 1:1 Deuces have begun arriving on Vancouver Island and Phil Dauphinee has been keeping watch at the terminal. A big surprise was seeing Daryl Hollenback's 2016 AMBR winner come off the ferry and Phil captured its arrival. Check his photo albums for more. I'm excited by finishing my entry to the model show, a quick two week build of the 32 Vicky. She's all set for the ride across the Malahat and to Victoria's Inner Harbour for Pacific NorthWest Duece Days Cheers Misha

Great looking build Pat! Really hard to tell its a model rather than the real item. Your photos really give it the authentic look, especially with the bit of Sun flare. Thanks for posting your work, Cheers Misha

AussieBall Entry #18 Chevy K5 Blazer July Update Since getting back home nearly three months ago the yard and life in general has occupied a lot of time, although the Blazer has undergone some major changes and further additions with the body receiving its first coats of colour! After going through various Jeep kits in the stash I found the recent Rubicon kit to be a gold mine; deciding to use the wheels and tires and converting the rocker rock guards into the sides for the new roof rack mounted onto the rollcage. Once the tires were mounted and being mindful of Aussie regs, it was obvious that flares were required. An earlier model Jeep yielded its flares with the front mounted backwards on the rear fender. Once mounted front and rear fenders were trimmed allowing for plenty of wheel travel. Overall it has also given the sedate Chevy a bit of an attitude. In addition to scratch building the rest of the roof rack, I also came up with a rear bumper using the one from the 53 Ford F 1 with tow hooks scrounged from a target... err, armour kit. The rack has mounting points for pick & shovel, radio antennas, licence plate bracket with light and rear back up/work spot lights. Occupying the centre of the cargo area and rollcage is a covered stack of two spare tires with brackets mounting them to the bed floor. I used a prescription bottle cut to size. In its unprimed state it resembles Green Slime! The area between the roll cage and fender wall is occupied by twin fuel cells and jerry cans with water. At the tailgate end will be a tool crib. In addition to the modified fender wells, the body trim was removed along the sides and tailgate, giving it a base model appearance. Since the stock bumper was not being used, I fabricated a roll pan to fill the void. Additional locating holes were drilled for the saddle fuel tanks. Once all the body work was complete and primered, it was ready for colour. For me paint is the big hurdle to completing many of my WIPs. For this project I began using rattle cans when we were down south, hardening back to my early youth out in the driveway in Saskatchewan. Back home I've carried on using Tamiya Camel Yellow for the body and Gunmetal for the frame and roll cage. Looking at Gunmetal I keep wondering about hitting it with a dull cote to take some of the shine off. It seems once I get started the momentum builds and the confidence increases with the airbrush and paint mixtures. More one does, the more one learns... I've included a few shots of the progress so far. On a related issue of Australian road regulations it is important to note that the stretch of road north of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory has had the speed limit lifted (Aussie politics with a new right wing government in the Northern Territory asserting its right in the face of the federal government). The June issue of Automobile describes their road test of a Bentley coupe along this route, reaching 200 mph! This has an interesting impact on the running of the AussieBall, as speed, and not stealth is required for the run once in the Northern Territory which amounts to a third of the total route. Time to mow the lawn again... Cheers Mates! Misha

Nice build Albert of this classic kit! Especially like your green colour choice for the wheels, really pops out to make it unique for a rat rod. Cheers Misha

I'll be following this one for sure Bill! This is my favourite of the current reissues this year so far - there's so much packed into the box. Great start on the colour and those interior decals are a neat addition. Cheers Misha