The Creative Explorer

Thanks John @pharoah, yes they do. But taking up the workbench is one thing, I can handle that. But they also take up the paintbooth and that is more inconvenient.

I use Tamiya and will not use anything else anymore! definately the best choice (although I don't have access to the Testors)

It seems like the rideheight of the '68 is just fine. The '69 looks lowered.

I've been looking everywhere, but I can not find the files. I am affraid they got lost during a harddrive failure.

Don't forget the moldlines on the exhaust.

I always look forward to the Dakar, but this year was dissapointing. Not a whole lof of competition. Cancelling some stages didn't help that either. I'll hope that next year will be better again. During this Dakar, I suddenly was wondering if they ever get back to Africa. There is less terrorism and hopefully declining. who knows..

You mean in a smaller diameter? That might actually be a good idea, I will look into that. Thanks. Oh; basically no acces to aftermarket stuff at the moment. Got laid off a couple months back and family is now financially prio1.

Thanks David, I think I did the way it was suppose to. However, I did mount them in the framerails, but that was done for strengthpurposes. I will try to mask it in the end, but on the side of the frame would be to weak I think. The only 'big' issue I have that I haven't really decided on, are the tyres, I do want to keep the original look as much as possible and make them into a whitewall. But I am not sure whether they are wide enough for the rodding style. I don't want very wide tyres, so I am in doubt where to go. @Modelcarjedi; you are correct; they are such a nice canvas, and a nice change from the '32 Ford.

They do custom mixing, as long as you can provide the correct colorcode and name, I always look it up in the lechner? catalogue online and if it is in there, they can mix it.

Thank you guys! Well, I had some disaster going on. The car was nicely prepped and primed, sitting to wait for me to the end of the Dakar. So, last friday, when I finished the Dakar groupsbuild, I started on putting a very nice red on it. It was looking so awesome! So, day after; I started to clearcoat the body, but I haven't used rattlecans for about 8-9 years?, but I remembered all the important lessons as soon as it went bad. I had the clearcoat dripping of the body on several spots, making it look horrible. I let it cure over the weekend and was hoping to sand the runners and add some more clearcoat. Well, that didn't go to plan. the amount of clearcoat was not thick enough to handle that, so I went through the paint. Got it all smooth again and primered it back. but for some reason, the primer made a reaction to the other paint, where the paint was 'open '. I had to use spray-putty to get it some sort of smooth again. It took me yesterday all day to get it somewhat nice again, but not great. I am off to the store, to get me another rattlecan of paint and hope for the best. Frustrating.

Thank you guys, and I hope it will work out they I want to! I want it to be clean and stylish and dare I say it'a hint of elegance :-) Thank you Espo, I did made a fix for me yesterday; unfortunately before you posted yours, I cut some holes in the frames, lowered the I-beam into the frame, until I got the desired height (as low as I could get the tires in the fenders haha) and glued them together. Then I cut up the I-beam, making a independent front suspension, giving me the needed clearance for the oilpan. It is still very rough, but I need to work on it some more. As it looks now; I think the firewall can be the way it was, but I did had to cut up the floorboard for some clearance for the longer gearbox. It will be all a tight fit, but it seems to work out. For now I am back to the '65 Corvette, I have to pick up a can of paint and start finishing that big boy. Then I can go back to the '37.

It has been a while since I build a hotrod, I believe it was the 1937 Ford Sedan build a couple years ago. So it was time for me to get started on one, I began the pickup a few months back, but didn't do anything but sanding the parts. Deciding the direction was the hardest with this one, it is not a simple hotrod. I started with lowering the suspension and soon was also thinking of upgrading the engine. I decided to take one of my resin engines (428 Cobra Jet) and make that fit into the truck. I am still in the 'development'-stage with this truck, but hopefully I can soon really start with this one. Until I got satisfied and found that I was looking for. The front axle drops in the engine-compartment, I need to fix that. This is the flathead V8 that came with the kit, I wanted to go with it, but decided later to use one of my resin engines But with the axle dropped in the framerails, it doesn't leave room for the engine. This is the engine of choice; Ford 428 V8 Even though the engine is a little bit bigger, I think it will be a better fit. I also opened up the sides of the hood, a bit classic hotrod style. Because the gearbox is a lot bigger, some extra room was needed in the interior Smoothed the sidesteps And added some plastic to the rear of the frame, it will make it look beafier. Smoothed the firepanel And the cabine; I got rid of the driprail, hinges and doorhandles The 428 Cobra Jet intake manifold, not the one I think I will going to use. The interior is one piece molded tub, it makes it more difficult to paint and detail, so... I cut it up for more convenience The holes in the fenders got filled, I will not be using the bumpers and than those holes look silly and rod unworthy. Also started to patch some new plastic in the interior The fenders are starting to look a lot better Still working on the interior tub Back of the frame is almost done And I finally found an awesome manifold for the project, I think it came for a C3 corvette, but I am not sure, it will be adjusted and made to fit the 428, giving the Ford 4 2-barrel carb's!

I finished this midway december, but until this weekend hadn't time to take some good pictures of the beast. So; here you go: It was a really nice kit to put together and there is room for lot's of detail!

How about closing this topic, the childish behaviour of the topicstarter clearly indicates he has no interest in it whatsoever.

No thank you, All the new AM's all look the same, I am a car enthusiast and I am interested in the whole species, but they don't do anything to me, they all look the same or with minuscule differences; no thank you. The only modern AM I can appreciate is the Rapide, but I'd rather have a 'real' AM, like a Virage from the eigthies; beefy, manly cars! haha.

It doesn't make sense, I don't think it is just license, nor the price of it. If it would be too much, one would know before developing the kit, so something after making agreements came into play, stalling the project. It's not as black and white as we think it might be.

I am making these in 1/8 scale, I don't know what the type is though: FireRods Halibrand 1/8th wheelset for '65 Corvette Revell

A company is usualy profit-based, what is your angle on 'the company'? Do you want people to pay you for information?, what is your business-model?

Thanks Chris and Craig! @Mr. Metallic; do it! the kit itself goes together very well, the decals are horrible. I would go for an aftermarket set, if they exist.

This was build during the 2017 Dakar, in which we had to build a Dakar-vehicle. I chose the Pajero and build it box-stock, knowing I finished it yesterday and had more time in the end, I would've detailled it more. But it was a good exercise. I hated the decals though, they reacted bad to Sol and were sized wrong in some spots. Hate decals. I learned something about weathering and I finished my first build of 2017! haha! Maybe I'll build more than the 2 or 3 from last year.

Thanks guys! @Erik Smith; the chassis and engine are from the kit, I didn't add them myself. Finally some time and the mood for updating the project, even though we are 3/4 on the way of the Dakar; I can say that I have finished. The car is ready and I even got to exercise on weathering with it, not completely happy, especially on the decals-department, both a mix of not the best decals and unskilled with decals, made me hate them. Now I know why never make racing cars haha The pictures: I made the light a bit more realstic with some BMF Added decals to the seatbelts And the finished dashboard; if I had some more time that I knew off, I could've detailled it a bit more Backpanel glued And added to the chassis Rearpan and parts added Dry-fitted It seems to fit quite good, I guess this is where the expertise of Tamiya comes in And time for those horrid decals: They react bad to Sol, they start to wrinkle and it doesn't come out. the fit is poor and the sizes left and right are different. I'd rather have decals with only the letters, I'd rather mask and airbrush the colors on De body is on the chassis Weathered the tyres with the Tamiya weathering stick Made an impression of the wipers And starting to weather (or at least an attempt to) The engine is clean in this picture And not so much in this one Almost ready Sparewheels in the back Weathered the underside And I airbrushed some flat lacquer over the car, to keep the pigments attached and not getting my fingerprints in them

Thank you guys! @Renz I was/am affraid that it might happen to mine too. But so far; the decals work, even though they are oldfashioned, poor-sized and with a lot of extra film around it. @droogie I initiated a groupsbuild during the current Dakar, therefore it couldn't be timed better haha I must admit it is paint-wise a challenging and slow build, lots of parts need greater surfaces of different colors and the chassis needs to be done together with the body, so you can't start assembling before that has been done. I usually start painting the parts, start prepping the body, while I start assembling the chassis etc.. But with this one I couldn't. Anyhow, I now started with the assembly of the parts and we had the first week of Dakar and I think I am ahead of the schedule, but the Decals will be a gamechanger I am affraid of. Starting to primer the body: Discovered that I didn't had the proper white in stock no more, just a bottom. So I used Vallejo Air. When the body was drying, I started to detailpaint other parts. And finally time for assembly! The engine is finished and can go in. With the shocks, radiator and intercooler, it starts to look like something Rear shocks And the start of the interior Back to the paintbooth again, this time to paint some details black.

So, everyhting to aside; for the next two weeks, during the Dakar, I will be working on this Pajero. I initiated on the Dutch IPMS board a groupsbuild, to build a Dakar vehicle during the Dakar event. It has to be a Paris-Dakar participant and basically that is all there is for rules haha. I've been wanting to build this one for a long time, even sold it along the time, and got one back for this build. It will be hopefully a nice detailled model, trying not to make shortcuts and trying to achieve a good finish. But the deadline has to be thought off. So far on day 1 and 2, it is a bit of dissapointment of what I got done; parts from sprues, engine glued together and started on sanding the parts. No more, no less.

Thank you Dave, and the interior is box -stock, no adding, no modifying... So, the last update for a few weeks, since I cleared my agenda for a 2-week Dakar groupbuild. I tried my best to finish up the bodywork for the Corvette and at least got it in primer. It took me al morning to get it prepped and it took me the whole afternoon to get it into primer. But, it is there; the body is primered and put aside for now.

And I couldn't be happier if I were right.....hahaha As Luc mentioned; the German IPMS did mention new tooling highlights ( I missed reading that at the German site), so the odds are with us!