bill-e-boy

I use something similar to @NOBLNG that I got from a craft store. It is silver plated and soft I wrap it around a metal thread screw to get even spacing of the coils I also use coper wire strands from power cables as in pix

Finally got some colour on this sucker And clear coated. The base colour is a Testors enamel so I did not want to clear coat with a hot lacquer so got some Humbrol Ultra Clear. All went swimmingly but horror the front left guard crinkled. Not sure what caused this. The Tamiya under coat which is lacquer based had been left for about a month and the Testers Pacific Blue went on OK Some sort of reaction even after letting the Testors gas out for nearly a week. I have sanded the guard and spot primed and recoated with Pacific Blue. It's now serving time in the hot box and I will clear coat the guard over the weekend - fingers crossed Other than the guard the rest of the paint on the model is primo except it is fairly soft - need some wait time while it hardens Such is life - will spend time with a quick build while waiting for the paint to harden Thanks for looking

69 Torino CJ in the weeds with big inch wheels - plan is slammer style with dark grey metallic with black Cobra stripes

Kudos to the master As always an excellent built and a well earned accolade

Not much progress as it is summer down this way and try to take some time off. Got away for a few days over Xmas and New Year and a lot of summer events in the weekends since. Covid lock down has stopped that now I attempted to drill the steering column for a shifter and indicator but the drill bits I have did not like drilling round material. I put in an order for micro drills with a larger shank. Set it all up in the Unimat Mill and drilled for the pin size I was using - perfect. I have ordered more of the micro drills Set up of the column with steering wheel attached and a quickie mock up in primer

One of the methods on the real trucks and cars is to cut the centre of the x-frame and rebuild it with channels parallel alongside the transmission with a new trans mount

The Tamiya bottled primer is my go to primer. Just make sure it is well stirred before use - I use a Trumpeter battery powered stirrer Tamiya bottle primer is great as spot putty and sands well and does not fall apart when sanded. It looks to have a fine particle structure Tamiya bottle primer is also great as a primer when thinned and applied with an airbrush. I thin about 1 part primer and 2 parts lacquer thinners - general stuff like 3M thinners. I am to tight to pay mega bucks for a thimble full of Tamiya thinners. The airbrush primers sands well prior to top coating. The air brushed primer works with Tamiya bottle acrylics also thinned with lacquer thinners. It is perfect under their lacquer series of paints too. I have also used it under Testors enamels but ensure it has had a few days to gas out beforehand though. 300B below was painted with white primer and mica red all from bottles. Also clear coated with Tamiya lacquer clear and polished out Doesn't look too shiny in pix but it is

Chrysler 300B restomod Rat rod - a parts box build up

Got to get back onto this one Coz I have been spending time with this - only needs headers and some small details to finish And my @tim boyd tribute that is now in primer

Looking good - love the colour Rodney - looks lie some has been smoking in your coupe and dropped it. I think a lot of the distorted parts - especially the roadster windscreen frame - are a manufacturing issue. When plastic is moulded the dies close first then the plastic is injected, next is a cooling phase then the mould is opened and the parts ejected. If the cool down time is too short the plastic is still a bit soft and can distort out of the mould. Another issue is if the die is not being cooled correctly - a number of issues can cause this - can also cause distortion. In the case of the seat the shot time is too short and not enough plastic is injected into the mould. I too have a roadster with a bad screen - I have emailed Revell but have not heard back yet. Must be time to rattle their cage. I checked a first release and all of the parts are good so it would seem that the contract moulder that Revell are using has a poor QC regime in place Sorry to steal the tread but the more we raise the issue the more likely there will be changes Cheers Bill-e-boy

Looking good Bill - an easy swap that builds into an old timey rod I did an AV8 conversion when the kit was first released - the one with the nailhead motor

I was attempting to drill the column turn and shift levers but it all went pear shaped. Back to square one unfortunately I need to invest in some PCB drill bits to do this as suggested by Daniel above - the search is on

Hi Francis I have just come to this through another post. Such amazing work happening here I have a Unimat 3 lathe/Mill that is similar in size to the Sherline. Your work is an inspiration to me to further my machining experience beyond the little parts I have done to date. I doo find that I machine a lot of small parts to replace chunky model parts in the kits I build - mostly hot rod And Happy New Year to you and all your followers - New Years Day is nearly over here in NZ Cheers Bill

Noel Those hoops look amazing The are on my to do list but it will happen I googled the Unimat 4 and it looks like a re-motored Unimat 3 with a different paint job. If as good as the "3" an amazing machine I have re-motored mine with the smallest 3 phase motor I could find and an inverter - instant control of speed from zero to 8000rpm - max hertz set at 80hz No changing belts/pulleys - I now use the original motor on the milling attachment

To make it easier with the tub interiors I have cut the side walls off to detail these I did this with a 56 Dodge custom Royal Lance resin kit I did a little while ago And Tamiya tape is the go to for this. Foil can pick up paint when you remove the foil - not a great moment when that happens Steve G is the master and and seeing his interiors gives me hope

Looking good Bob - the shine is not too much - a bit like unpolished gloss. Just need a refrigerator company logo to finish it off. lol

A great job Alan - on my wish list to do some day I like you burnt Ozzy grass for your phot shoots. Also makes a difference seeing right hook hot rod too as most kit builders down this end of the world , me included, leave them LHD

Nice looking chop job. Metallic paint can be a bitch at times though That would be a hairy ride with an elephant and cross plies out back lol

I apologise if I used any unclear words or phrases but I include the following: "In the following I make no excuse for using tech talk when describing machining operations " But yup I suppose we Kiwi's do use words or phrases different to people from other countries and backgrounds Just you guys in the northern hemisphere are living in a world upside down to us LOL

Thanks for the kind word guys The reason for machining in ally was I am building a billet hot rod Steve - your work is outstanding - I too have made columns from plastic when I need to paint them, but yours are way ahead of what I have done Having a lathe has added more dimension to my model building - its the small things that when machined make a difference to the process of building models

In another post I was going to use an aftermarket ally steering column but the hub length was too long. The after market column is a nice unit which is made as one whole piece. This lead me to thinking about machining one up. I have a Unimat 3 lathe so this should be an easy project to acomplish. I remember reading in one of the Gerald Wingrove books where he explained how he broke down major assemblies into smaller pieces then assembled everything to make the whole item. My thinking was therefore to machine the hub and for the shaft use regular ally tube - in this case 2.4mm (don't remember the inch size but as I work mainly in mm it does not really matter) as I was applying GW methodology to my project. In the following I make no excuse for using tech talk when describing machining operations So first order chuck some 5mm ally bar in the lathe and machine to major size and face off - I made two - one at 3mm and the other at 3.5mm Next I spotted the end with a centre drill for drilling out to fit the tube Then drilled 2mm deep with first a 2mm deep drill followed with a 2.4mm drill bit - I have recently splurged on drill index 1-5.9mm in 0.1mm rises Next up was turning the taper - the compound slide was set over to 5deg and a short taper machined to leave a step at the junction with the boss A simple operation. Next was clean up and polish with Autosol for Aluminium Next was parting off leaving a tit for the steering wheel to fit up to the column Then fitting the tube up to the hub(s) - to be glued together with superglue back at the bench And fitted to the steering wheel This was an easy project that took about 45 minutes from start to finish and I ended up with a spare column for another project. I often make duplicates as you get set up with all the tooling etc and more importantly the mindset. I recently needed a coil so I made up four - unfortunately I did not document it

Meanwhile I have been busy with paint prep on the body components. A primer guide coat to check for SNAFU's which were cleaned before second primer coat Always a good milestone getting primer on. It took a lot of effort to get rid of flash, sunken areas on flat panels and ejector pin marks and blending the changes in The to do list is getting shorter: - Fit doors - this part I fear but I will re-read Kit's methodology for the doors - Sort out hood and radiator placement - not sure how this is going to work out yet - complete chassis construction - Detail chassis - Add some more detail to motor - Paint it See a short list - LOL Thanks for looking

Hi All In the last post I filled the hole in the Lil John dash. I was not happy with the shallow engraving on the dash so I smoothed it out for some photo etch I have had for yonks. I painted the dash dark blue flat with semi-gloss clear to match the rest of the interior The slot at the top of the dash looked a bit blah so I cut some silver plated craft wire long enough to fit into the slot - 3 pieces worked OK This is a huge improvement - looks better with less magnification Next up was the steering column. I have an after market one as shown but the hub is too long for this application. The billet dash is a S&S item that I cut the supplied gauge faces and glued to the back. This was glued to the dash with some Tamiya clear which was also used for the gauge glasses For a more suitable column I machined a hub to fit some 2.4mm dia ally tube and fitted to the Lil John steering wheel. I actually machined 2 hubs 1x 3mm dia and the other 3.5mm. I will use the 3mm with a column drop that is waiting for paint

Thats how it is done

I made a stand for the bed candy I was not happy with the bare look to the rear end. I tried the rolled pan that is in the kit but it is a bit blah. I had removed the moulded in tail lights but could see that it was not going to gel with the overall theme. Also it looks like it does not fit very well either and it would be a glue on part later So I have used a simpler approach and filled in the gap between the bed rails. I also filled in the under part too Waiting for the glue to set up I moved on the the cab interior I am using the Lil'John dash so need to fill the steering hole I will replace the blah dash detail with some photo etch More to come Thanks for looking