Steve H

Nice work Samuel! I don’t want to take business away from Iceman, as I just had a great experience dealing with him, BUT… if you google “bootlace ferrules” you can get a package of 300 of those “stacks” in various sizes for about $10-$15. Look forward to seeing how you tackle the rear deck openings. Cheers, Steve

Hi James, good looking engine, and great choice for body colour. Looks good ? Cheers, Steve

Hi Jeremy, well… it’s going very slowly, but hopefully you will still like it when we reach the finish line. I have a long way to go, but I also feel like the “worst” is behind me. The front splitter is going to require some head scratching, and probably at least one failed attempt. Hi Steve, I have always liked, (and still do like) pro street cars, but I’m really into the pro touring look right now. Ya, this thing would be a handful in a slalom for sure… but man, it would be fun.

Hi all, I’m always on the hunt for interesting and “different” wheels and tires. I placed a fairly large order from Michael at Scale Productions recently and thought I would share my experience. First, the website has LOTS of detailed information, and he has lots of very nice wheels and tires. His aluminum trim rings are extremely nice. Each wheel and tire has outer diameter shown in mm’s so you know exactly what size you are getting. Most of his stuff is geared more towards tuner type cars and race cars, but there are some good options for muscle cars and pro touring cars. My only slightly negative comment would be that there are no quick shipping options, but really that’s not a big deal. There was an issue with my order which, after an email exchange, Michael shipped replacements for the parts in question. Good service and absolutely beautiful wheels and tires. I will definitely order from him again, and would highly recommend his products. Cheers, Steve

I got my first order from Iceman a few weeks ago. Great looking products, excellent service, and quick shipping. I placed a fair sized order and there was one part that had a flaw, I sent him a photo and Joel replaced the part quickly. Very nice to deal with someone that you know will stand behind his product. I will definitely buy from him again. Thanks Joel!!

Finally, a few things in paint!! I’ve been itching to start getting some of the parts in final paint. The wheels seemed a really good place to start. Hoops are from JPS, centres are from the Foose Impala, tires are from Scale Productions. I ordered a handful of parts and a couple of engines from Iceman a few weeks ago. Great products, and excellent service. So , for this build I’m going to use his 572 cross ram engine. Haven’t played with it too much yet, but I think I will need to change the oil pan. The other change will be the valve covers, Joel’s are beautiful, but I found some ‘59 Caddy valve covers that fit his heads almost perfect. If you’ve been following, you know I am really happy about this. MOST… of the test fitting is done now. The chassis has been on and off a lot. I’m close to being able to have some paint sessions and start assembling. I’m still nervous about the final chassis to body step when I get to final assembly. It’s going to be tricky ?. The next steps will be setting track width, and fine tuning the ride height, which is already close. Once that’s done I need to tack everything in place for what will hopefully be a last mockup and see how all the parts and pieces come together. Then fabricate a front spoiler/splitter, and build the engine. Cheers, Steve

Thanks Nigel, it is rewarding once complete. It’s not a “difficult” task, but it is tedious. Thanks Richard, hopefully all the elements will come together and look like they belong.

Coming along very nicely Steve! Nice details on the engine. Cheers, Steve

All kinds of awesome going on here as usual Kurt. Thanks for being OCD! ? Gives the rest of us a whole bunch of inspiration. I would say it looks like you’re almost done, but I have a feeling you will find a few more details to add. Cheers, Steve

Hello Francis!! I have been checking in from time to time, but not always commenting. Your craftsmanship is amazing, and getting even better!! These opening doors will certainly set the bar to the almost unachievable level. The trunk details, and grill are top shelf. Keep up the awesomeness!! I’m always watching, just sometimes silently. Cheers, Steve

Agreed, you are missed Carl. It was always good to have him chime in on a post. Take good care my friend!

Great looking Impala Jim! That paint really pops in the sun… “shiny”. Nice detailing under the hood too. Cheers, Steve

Yep, what Spike said! I think the red headlights are a simple but very effective touch. The Iceman hemi is perfect in it. Great build all round Bob! Cheers, Steve

Ok… so it’s been a few minutes since my last update. Haven’t had much “quality” bench time, but I have been nibbling away bit by bit. Just a small update now, but should have more soon. So, all the “chrome” will be blacked out, or murdered out if you prefer. I don’t want the grill to look like a black blob, so it has always been on my to do list to “open” the grill. I had a plan “A”, “B”, and “C” for the front end depending on how things went. I started by opening the smaller, lower grill first, if that didn’t work out then it would be on to plan “B”. My concern was the thickness of the vertical ribs of the grill not being thick enough to survive the sanding process. In the first picture you can see that the vertical ribs are set back and thinner that the horizontal ribs. Before… lower grill open… And all open… Apart from this taking a ridiculous amount of time, I’m very pleased that plan “A” worked!! I’m embarrassed to say that this was about 4.5-5 hours of tedious sanding. I could be a bit aggressive to start, but needed to take it slow as I really wanted to use this grill, and not plan B or C. I think this will achieve a “lighter”, look once painted black. On the lower grill, the outside edges have a larger opening in the egg crating. I’m considering maybe putting the turn signals there. Next up will be cleaning up the rest of the mold lines etc., then remove the chrome headlights, and prep for clear lenses. Although opening the grill really wasn’t a big step, it was a relief to finally get that piece done. The hood required a LOT of sanding and fiddling to get it sitting decent. To be fair, some of the fitment issues were due to the wide body alterations. I have it really close to fitting now. The arrows in the below photo highlight one of the problem areas. The gap was much too wide there, so I added some thin styrene strips to tighten things up a bit. Better… but as you can see, it will need a bit more finessing. There were many areas of the hood that needed attention, the other difficult area was under the lip at the leading edge of the hood. When the hood was closed it kept sliding forward and out of alignment. I don’t have photos to show what was happening, but after a bunch of massaging it now closes and stays put, without sliding forward. That’s it for today, but I’ve been working on the engine compartment and should have another update very soon. I also have the engine now, but haven’t started assembly yet. As always thanks for having a look. Cheers, Steve

Hi Greg! Great looking truck, and I love the low stance. Looks like you are working your usual magic here. Cheers, Steve

This came together nicely Bob. That hemi is a beast! I’ll check it out under glass. Cheers, Steve

Great looking build John. I REALLY like that colour, and the interior colours look good too. As the others have said, your foil work is beautiful. Cheers, Steve

Very cool car! Nice work on the side scoops Samuel. I’ll be watching. I am also glad you went with only one rear axle, much better look. Cheers, Steve

Beautiful paint Michael. Lots of great work here, and it’s all coming together nicely. Cheers, Steve

Greg, you are definitely one of thee most organized builders. I always enjoy, and learn from your posts. I will screen shot this page “just in case” I need it in the future. ? I was born in the USA, grew up here in Canada, and went to school during the metric transition. I still prefer using metric for my hobby stuff, just simplifies it for me. Thanks for the info!

I highly recommend spending the extra money on a quality pin vise. I stepped up to Tamiya and Godhand pinvises about a year ago and what a difference! Way better feel. As for drill bits I like the Godhand bits that have the same size shank, that way you don’t need to constantly change collets to fit the bigger and smaller bits. For me that was a game changer. I also much prefer metric size bits as apposed to standard or numbered. In 1/25 scale, 1mm is equal to 1”. So choosing a .5mm bit is equal to 1/2” in full scale, easy peasy… I know there are many of you that could tell me how big a #72 bit is, but I could never be bothered to learn what size all the #’s are. That’s just my 2 cents.

Sadly I can now confirm Roger passed on Jan. 4th. I received a reply to a PM I had sent to him from his wife. Even with the information Pete posted above I was hopeful that it was somehow incorrect. This news hit me pretty hard. Like Carl, I didn’t want to believe it. Anyone that follows my builds, knows that I loved Rogers work. He was an extremely talented builder, I absolutely loved his “style”, and he was definitely one of my favourite people on this forum. He was always more than happy to share with all of us. As mentioned above he definitely leaves a hole here in the forum. I wish I’d had the opportunity to meet him in person. After reading his obituary, I realized I had much more in common with him than just model cars. I’m 2 years younger than him, but as Steve G mentioned above, it certainly makes you realize that life is short, enjoy it!! RIP Roger, you will be missed my friend…

Cool looking project Bob! I like the stubby look. I recently placed an order from Iceman, the products are fantastic quality, and the shipping was quick and reasonable, even up north here. I would highly recommend checking out his website. Cheers, Steve

Very nice Jim, love the “shiny”! Good colour combo too. I’m a huge fan of the aluminum exhaust tips, pretty much all of my builds get them. Actually, every one of my 1:1 vehicles get them too… Cheers, Steve

Man I hope this is not him. With his avatar name “Plowboy” the farmer part seems to fit. This would be absolutely terrible. His last post was the day before… His profile shows he visited on the 17th, so I hope that was indeed him. I’ve never met met him, but I know we would get along. I sure hope you’re wrong Pete.