Ian McLaren

Today is engine day, plug wires injector lines, blower belt idler and some detail painting, this afternoon is fuel pump, barrel valve at start on the throttle linkage. Not much overdrive here (soft tune up) I'll probably change the upper pulley

Chassis, driver controls to install, steering gear, Oberg oil filter mount, Dzus plates and weight bar. Then the color can be applied

Progressing, body tin is roughed out. Not really thinking it would work I tried the tin out of the Green Elephant to save time due to the restraints of the build off. Turns out it was pretty close, can't be used as is but made a useful base and time saver over scratchbuilding the complete assembly.. If there is time left over I can try some detailing that I was going to ignore on this piece of the model.

Final positioning of the chassis to body, several adjustments had to be made to allow proper clearances to be maintained all at once, chassis ride height, body ride height, tire clearance and engine positioning. The engine needed to be lowered in the chassis to allow the body to be low enough for proper ground clearance while maintaing the hat to body relationship as per the real car (very low). This also required some additional grinding for roll bar and tire clearance. Adding to the complexity was the fact that the engine could only be lowered so much before an issue with header to upper frame rail came to light. These are things that don't normally happen when building a kit based model but become facts of life when scratch building a recreation and were also present when building the real cars. Having been there and done that on this particular car, I feel these issues enhance rather than detract from the modeling experience. In this particular case it also brings back memories of the things, places, events and people (many of whom are no longer with us) associated with this car. To set their final positions the firewall, dash area top, and front bulkhead had to be templated and revised several times before everything fell into place. From here forward the heavy lifting is complete, and now the focus is on adding details, wiring, refining surfaces, refinishing and final assembly. Still a long way to go but I think there is a faint light at the end of this tunnel.

Thank you Francis, Except for the body (Competition Resins), the fuel tank, engine (pan to injector) ,bellhousing,Lenco and shifters, wheels, tires and differential are self printed the Mallory / Joe Hunt magneto is scratch built from aluminum. To clairify all of the STL files are purchased, mostly from Ron Olson @3D Model Specialties although most of the files have been modified for this specific model.

Thanks Tim, I have a friend in the Canadian Postal Service and we were talking yesterday ( he's far enough up the chain to have a viable opinion) he guesses that I can start expecting the decals arrival in the second week of January given they were coming in from the states. Fingers crossed and mean while I keep working on the Pinto.

Thanks Daniel! So far I'm satisfied with how they are turning out. I have been watching how you did the decals for the Badman and would like to give it a go, but I think I come up a little short on the talent deal for that.

Progress on the chassis and drivetrain. Engine, firewall, bellhousing and Lenco all aligned on internal tube that lines up with the pinion. Mallory magneto built (aluminum) rear body support assy in progress. Roll bar/cage fabricated but not completed with head restraint bars (can't be installed until chassis, seat and seat belts finally installed. Correct early M/T short valve covers and Jomar stud girdle printed and painted, with blow by fittings installed. Lenco shifter printed and detailed.

As promised here is a bit on how the decals are being done First photo is the basic graphics and the included details, The second photo is the printer I'm using ( a standard inkjet printer like most people will own) Photo three a photo of the graphics program I use ( I'm not endorsing this product, just showing what I use) The basic work screen ( this is from the GIMP program but most graphic programs will look similar). Lets talk about the printers first. Both laser and inkjet printers can be used to create decals instead of the comercial products and techniques commercial decal manufactures use but there are limitations and drawbacks to both home units. The main one being they don't print white as a color so any white in the decal has to come from either a white body on the model or from white decal paper. Secondly both machines print in translucent ink so the back ground color of the body shows through when using transparant decal paper (the back ground will change the look of the ink and color changes with show through the decal) black lettering is mostly immune to this but even it has some transparancy. If you use white decal paper the colors look correct but the body color behind and around the decal is white ( requires very carefull trimming of the edges and there wil almost always be a very narrow whte edge where is trimmed). Also hole in letters for example an O will have a white center and so would have to be cut out (no fun!)The main difference between laser and inkjet prints is that the laser ink is mostly water proof while the inkjet ink desolves when wetted. Laser decals can be used as printed if not gotten too wet for extended times, while inkjet decals have to be clear coated to protect the ink. There is a company producing a non recoat inkjet paper that is supposed to solve that issue, which I used on the Eddie Hill Top Fuel Car with fair success. But it has a dull surface and needs to be cleared either before of after installation to look correct. I used to do all my decals with a laser printer but switched back to inkjet for one simple reason. Resolution, is much better with inkjet when dealing with low to mid priced printers, and so small product sponsor decals are much sharper with an ink jet as opposed to a laser of similar quality. I'll touch on graphics programs briefly, almost anything on the market will do what is needed for basic decal production and the prices vary hugely and the differences are usually in capabilities that are of no rewal value to design and printing of most basic decals All of these programs have a learning curves of varing difficulties for even simple opperations but some are more intuitive than others. Options for these range from FREE open source programs to multi thousands of dollar for full function commercial offerings, but they all will do basicly what we need. There are work arounds for most of the short comings I have listed but they add to the difficulty of creating a creditable decal set. Receintly I had a project that I was trying to do the decals for and had spent many hours on, finally I contacted one of the best professional decal manufactures, sent him all of my research, discussed options and different appraoches, and had him do these decals. They are far superiour to what I could product because of the complexity and subject matter of the project. Some times you just need more talent and better equipment, but most of the time you can produce just what you need if your willing to put in a little effort.

Seat construction, (1) (Photos in order) seat back and cushion panel cut to width and formed around upper and forward bars ( held in place with twisted iron wire to act as a clamp during fabrication and soldering) (2) marking side template (3) Rough cut side panels (4) Fitting and marking edge with a sharpy marker) (5) Remove area in black to refine shape (6)side panels soldered in place (7) Edges folded over upper side rails to form the seal to the body tin. I didn't cover the basic soldering techniques but I will post a tutorial if requested. For a change of pace and to get away from the soldering fumes for a while, next up will be the steps in the design of the decals for this build.

The chassis is progressing, I will some of the process further into the project regarding the fabrication, I have also fount wheels and tires in the spares box for this project

Thank you Brian, I'll be showing some of the process regarding the brass fabrication in future up dates as well as other construction methods I use.

Thank you John So am I, I've been looking forward to building this model in 1/16th for decades

Very cool project, I'll be following. I loved your Dynacorn comment, they were at best just a starting point and there were times a piece of flat sheet would have been less work. The products currently on the market, though not perfect, have made restorations at least a little less challanging.

Daniel you just keep forging ahead, with inovative solutions to modeling issues. There is hardly an update that goes by when I don't pick up another valuable tip. You just keep making all of us better modelers.

Part of it is still in Calgary, it resurfaced about a year and a half ago. I'm going in early January to photograph and measure it. I've been thinking of doing a proper version of the car when it still had the Boss 429 in it ( Chuck has Decals). I know the front half was cut off and I assume lost, years ago. But with measurements from the cage section and the photos out there that show the front half, I think I can come pretty close. I'll post some photos here of the original.

I'm with Daniel on the plating, and the control arms are great as usual. Don't fear the joints, if they were well cleaned,properly dry fitted and the correct flux was used along with sufficient heat the joints are close to indistructable

Just for reference, north of the boarder version.

Starting off with the chassis, all brass and based on the photo showing it on top of Norm's Pontiac forits trip to Spokane to be certified. The photo in the lower right shows the chassis being built and you can just see the roll bar of the titanium chassis in the background. Also shown are the very early stages for the chassis sides out of the jig

Another new project, with the BubbleUp car stalled due to the Canadian Postal strike and indecision on the direction of the R-M Camaro Pro Stock: I'm starting a new model of a car I have history with. It is also a car that has a history of it's own. The story starts when a gentleman by the name of Mickey Thompson spent $6500.oo on an all titanium chassis for his latest car ( a funnycar chassis normally sold for $2000-$2500 at the time). The car had a firery if not stellar career, first with a Boss 429 and then a more conventional Hemi engine. It went through several bodies and at least 4 fire suits but it did meet with some sucess as well as an AA/FC. Eventually it was retired and found its way to Calgary Alberta Canada and began a second career in the lower ranks of the original Pro Comp Series. A short time later Norm Rousseau (RIP) took ownership of the car and it aquired BBC power in the form of an injected 512 C.I. nitro engine as an A/FC. Run for a part of the season in this form the Achilles heel of the titanium chassis showed itself in a proliferation of stress cracks that could not be stopped or repaired. The decision was made to copy the original chassis in 4130 chrome moly tube with a few updates required by the Chevrolet power and rule changes. The next spring the new combination started to compete in NHRAs Division Six. This is where I joined the team, and it soon became apparent that injected nitro just was no longer competitive with the blown alcohol cars and was much more expensive to run. The change was made to BB/FC with a new blower and Lenco three speed transmission. This is the version of the car I'm going to build. We raced the car for the next two seasons, primarily match racing with three other local funnycars as a booked is show aswell as the NHRA divisional meets. This is another bucket list build that I've wanted to build for decades, I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to ask questions or just comment when the spirit moves you. BTW that's me nearly five decades ago beside the car between rounds

Sometimes you have to back up to move forward. Such is the case of my BubbleUp funnycar model project. I knew going in the only body available had some proportion differences to the Bonin car (not errors just based on a different slightly newer original). I made all the adjustment I thought necessary and started the graphics assuming adjustment could be made to get the correct look. This turned out to be the wrong approach. I contacted a proffesional decal manufacturer and together we came up with an acceptable solution. This however has resulted in removing most of the graphics I had previously done. Now if Canada post could just get their act together and get the decals here (plus everyone elses mail), I should be able to enlarge the green lower panel at an angle to match the decal stripes touch up the existing white area (some adjustments and repairs in this area have also been done) I should be able to finish and have a much better model that is much more accurate. Here are the photos of the step backwards .

Thank you Francis, sanding small printed parts seems fairly easy and so I thought a body would be similar, wrong, your reference to rocks is very appropriate for sure.

I can only echo what everyone else has said reicently regarding the rad and it's construction and perhaps Francis said it best. Well Done!

Francis every time I see one of your updates you manage to take the mundane and elevate it to a higher level, making each piece a model in itself. It truly is like watching a real car come to life piece by piece, simply amazing!

Daniel, I am so impressed with your scratch building skills and your perserverance to find a way to make it work. The intake manifold and injector stacks being the perfect example as is the Sun Super Tach, both are simply amazing. I always look to your builds as a source of inspiration and a resource when I am faced with a new challange. You are the real deal when it comes to defining what an all round modeler is and I am proud to be able to call you a friend!