bill-e-boy

What a nice clean build with fabulous paint job. You deserve the accolades

Did this a few years ago. Mostly spare parts from the AMT 29A Roadster and T Bucket kits. The rest from the parts boxes Paint is Tamiya white undercoat tinted with a splash of green

I second what Steve has to say. Take it easy on yourself and don't be to pedantic about ratios. About 2/1 lacquer thinner/paint has worked for me for years. And I say about as some paints require a little more or less Easiest way is to dump the whole bottle into a larger mixing jar and put the thinners into the original paint jar, give it a shake and dump it into the paint twice. I try to always start with a fresh jar of paint to begin with. Then paint away to your hearts content

Looking good What is the colour on the exhaust manifolds - it looks like it has a blue tinge to it like zinc coated screws have

After worrying about bleed through on the paint over the red model I needn't have worried. The red dye did not bleed through with either methods I have added a tuck and roll strip to the hood liner. I have some grooved plastic strip that was prefect for the job. I will add some to the pick up bed cove when I get that far I have been toiling away at getting the body all cleaned up ready for paint. I chose to delete the gas tank filler as I will be using the Lil John saddle tanks. There were quite a few sink marks around the cowl so took a bit of time to get it looking OK I also cut the seat riser form the Lil John kit and left enough behind the rear of the seat as this will cover a notch where the extended chassis rails clashed with the cab. Checked the fit of the seats - looking good Also have been working on the firewall recess and toe board. Need to make a small transmission tunnel for clearance so this point I have ground away the floor board and firewall ready for this There is still a mountain of small things to do but getting there Thanks for looking

Alan - with extended cab and longer hood (bonnet) it looks as though it has had a mild chop - looking good I too am dreading the doors and making a hood fit as with mine I lengthened the wheel base a tad which you do when you lower a car in the front if you can. I see you have extended your wheel base too with some added at the front. It stop the car looking like it is tripping over IMO Up date soon - I have been doing a lot of small but time consuming jobs

Been away from the modelling desk for a few days. Had the grandsnots over for 10 days and they do not leave much time to be at my desk. My what a lot has been going on I am worried about the red base model colour and the intention is to use light blue I sprayed the RPU doors last night with Tamiya white surfacer and one of the doors Tamiya Platinum Silver out of the small jars. Thinned it with lacquer thinners as usual The choice for this paint is because a while ago I painted a Revell 56 Nomad with it as one of the colours. I messed it up and brake fluid would not touch it so must be bullet proof. I will spray the silver door again with the surfacer then with the Testors blue I used on the chassis and engine Keeping my fingers crossed

Nice pix The lead photo - 1956 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer - I have one of those but not in that color. Not a common car

@tim boydThis looks good - will need to keep a look out for it when and if it gets down here in New Zealand. The Ford pickup is on the shelves so here's hoping @alan barton Looks like Oz and NZ have been embargoed by USPS along with a few other countries due to BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH shipping conditions. So our wait may even be longer I have heard of guys importing car parts from the US with the ship not even docking in NZ and off loading in Oz with added shipping costs to get it here These are certainly changed times

Hi Bill Good to see you back at the bench and good luck with the project - I'll be watching with interest I did not know Revell did a "Switchers" model - wasn't that MPC lol Cheers Bill-e-boy

I am taking note of your hinge diet @Kit Karson and I will certainly copy your work to get the hinges looking better I have been working away ever so slowly on my build - life has a way of getting in the way of modelling time I did not feel that the bare board underside of the roof was in keeping with the theme so I cut out a hood lining from some .010" sheet stock In the process I get rid of a couple of nasty ejection pin marks Next up is prep work on the body. This issue of the kit has some much flash it is unbelievable. It also has these little nubs in hard to reach spaces - it looks like there may have been some corrosion in the mould. At least rust does not hit plastic as our stashes would be a pile of brown stuff from all the years of hiding them away. I don't remember the older orange version having this much flash or marks. I will have to check a newer version I have to see if it is any better. It took me the better half on an evenings work to get around the outside of the fender unit. I still have the inside yet to do I can't wait to get some paint on this with my newly acquired Paasche Model H airbrush. I score from the local auction site. This is the third or fourth used airbrush I have picked up and all have been in a sorry state mostly with paint build up in critical areas like the mixing cone and internal ways. As all users of airbrushes know the old adage of "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" applies Enough rant - onwards with the build

Bob the A-bone is coming along nicely. Sad about the windshield frame though Some kits do fight us and it seems to be those that we want to do a quick build with Battle on and hopefully there will a fix for the windshield

@Kit Karson Kudos to the local model shop... is it still around? - Sadly no. That shop closed up years ago but we do still have one that opened up at about the time it closed. We have been fortunate to have a model shop in our provincial city where I live and I hope it manages to continue trading in these troubled times.

@Kit Karson-KK ps did you buy your kit in country? Hi Kit - I bought kit down here in NZ from local model shop years ago - at least I am certain that's where it was sourced from The kit was opened over 20 years ago to donate the frame and other parts for the sister build of the Royce Fisher Tribute T pickup posted in this forum The left over T and A parts are mainly what I am using here. The original idea was to make a modern style pickup but I just needed the nudge to get it done So here we are............

Where did mine come from. Only has date stamp on the bottom of one of the running boards. But on the box lid But wherever the kit was moulded they left behind a lot of flash Started working on stance. I had to cut a section out of the back of the cab for the raised frame rails and rear suspension link rods Also had to file a little from the front guard valance to get the front down. Sits at about 6 scale inches at the front of the running board which is low for an A-Bone Cab cuts Check out my flashy butt I had to cut away al of the bed supports from the guards to get them to sit over the frame and for the running board supports to meet up Lastly stance which is improved heaps Thanks for looking

Kit - fabulous use for the extras and your work is top notch Alan - good progress too. Have not seen the Meng nuts and bolts but will search for them as they look like what we need when we deal to kits like we do I have been a little side tracked with getting my spray booth up and working and building a new office - I work from home and was using a port-a-com office but I sold that Anyway progress thus far: Filing the air cleaner to shape. I used a piece of round bar to act as a guide when shaping the ends A couple shots of the motor with air cleaner fitted with a scratch built filter element and a view of the finned oil pan The chassis is up on wheels for mock ups. I have not yet fully decided on the wheels so they have not been glued yet Which leads to a quick mock up Not happy with the too high stance of the rear so will work on that. I have started on the fire wall recess and some of the interior parts as well

That is an excellent video. It reinforces a tutorial we had at the local model club I attend held by a figure painter. The interesting thing is they use huge brushes for fine detail work. The important thing to to load up the brush and shape it before application. Using smaller brushes such as 2-10/0 the same applies Often paint like Tamiya acrylics are too thick and need some thinning to work well. Water is a slower thinning medium than X20 thinners and helps. I too find that you only get one chance with Tamiya acrylic paints as any further coats tend to clump up paint application and his can be frustrating For really small detail a tooth pick is OK but I prefer a sharpened bamboo skewer - it seems to work better. Easy to clean - just wipe it off The other thing than can be done is mixing paint colours to get the exact colour you want. The tooth pick comes in handy where you put a couple of drops of colour to be mixed with one or two drops of colour B etc. I use old business cards and dish style frost plugs for bigger amounts. The frost plugs just need to be wiped off when finished with. Also keep your hands steady as mentioned in the video by grounding them on you work surface. Sometimes small items need to be held in some way so that it can be moved for working on it. Alligator clips with long handles are good for this The main thing is to practice and practice and then practice some more

I am a Mopar guy and any chance to have a hehe time at the expense of Ford or Chebby guys is too much of a chance to waste. It turns the table somewhat - by putting a Ford into a Chebby. I like it LOL, more LOL and ROTFLOL

I have a few over the years - a couple of Celica - a 1990 and a 1994 - both are curbside with good chassis detail A 1996+ Supra - this is full detail and a goody The above a depictions of cars that I have owned or in the case of he Supra still do The Lotus 7 is a gem but watch the rubber tires they perish with age Have built a couple of planes too which are good too I have a Jaguar Mk II yet to be built and these are full detail and are very good - one pops up here from time to time In general Tamiya is most probably one of the best if not the best model maker out there. They ditched the motorized toy thing a long time ago

Great pic's - lots of inspiration Is there a trend for fenders and phat fendered ones too

Spent a bit of time this morning tidying up and setting up the spray booth Front overview shot shows booth the the top, hot box at bottom right and compressor bottom left, Drawer has airbrush parts, paint bottles and general stuff The air regulator at the top is set up for two airbrushes Shot from the left shows storage bins and compressor below The hot box has a light on a dimmer and a circulation fan for paint curing - acts the same as a dehydrator I built this years ago but had to tip it on its side to work here. Just having something roomy to let the paint dry without dust getting at it is a godsend The storage are to the left has bins and space for the cyclone separator - used for purging the air brush when cleaning. It is half full of kitty liter which soaks up the liquid And finally - the spray booth in all its glory. There is a filter behind the sacrificial cloths which are held in place by six spring clips The LED strip light gives out heaps of light helped by the white walls. It has a reflector fitted so that the light does not shine into my eyes when working The booth was made up from custom wood boards then painted. The fan I have had for a while and was a NOS fan I picked up from a swap meet. The adaptor for the exhaust hose was made from a home brew kit can that was the perfect diameter for the job I am an electrician so that helped when I wired it all up The paint booth and two airbrushes are all set to go

Cool work What would look real cool would be swages on the rear wheel tubs mimicking the bed swage lines - just a thought as it looks like you have the skills to do it

Looking good That Testors Boyd clear is like rocking horse droppings these days - this is the perfect subject for it

Bob that came out nice I have found that if you colour sand most enamels and acrylics that after the first sand let the model gas out for another day and it hardens further It is normal to see colour residue on your polishing cloth if you have not added a clear coat. You just don't see the clear on the polishing cloth

Moving along nicely Kit I have been slowly beavering away The chassis components and engine are painted so have started paint detailing and engine wiring I now have a unicorn in the house A bit of stretched sprue filling the gas filler hole And have started cutting up the fire wall for recessing I feel the air cleaner in the Lil John kit is a bit small so I machined up some plastic like I did for the oil pan. Did that then had a Eureka moment and grabbed some ally flat and machined that up. Nothing beats the real deal Now I need to shape up the air cleaner and make up an air filter element More to come NNZ has just gone into total lock down - we now have community Covid cases in Auckland - we haven't been in a total NZ wide lock down for over 12 months Hope it does not last too long