Big John

A slight tangent, something about "they'll be doing it 1:1 next. I was lucky to find this on line, a 3D printed GM Duramax block I think in 1/2 scale, bores are 1.625 di. 3D printed with all the oil & water passages, mounting bolt holes. Including the production data info. Way Cool.

Amazing work on the wiring and close up details, as always François! Those chrome pens certainly work well even up close. Looking forward to seeing parts from the new printer, does it have an even higher resolution? Thanks, J

This looks like pretty good reference http://www.cg-models.com/moteur50.en.html Would the Pocher kit be helpful?

The one that seems to be missing is the 1967 or 70 Thunderland Thunderbird with the Allison engine. Mine is lost in the parts box somewhere in the shop.

Quest for perfection is what many of us aspire to.

NOOOOOOO! Not the 59 Chevy!!!!!! I Can't Look!!!!

So, Pierre, what was your overall experience with this kit from FPP? I have several but have yet to build one, any hints? Thanks again for sharing with us.

World is the second word in Auto World, a great model car catalog back in my youth, predating on-line sales.

She's a beauty...Excellent detailing and weathering, thanks for taking us along on your build.

On my noon walk I came across this incredible Chevy Fleatline doe the the MAX! All the bells and whistles, so to speak. The last is the Trunk latch.

Thought at first it was the gas cap but couldn't visualize how the hatchback opened. Ah the days of compacts. Hard to see from your pics but, does the gas cap have the details too? Really needs a hemi.. Hemi Gremi!

The RC car market has had some very nice contemporary tires however they tend to be in 1/8 scale and nothing vintage. Great for large scale hot rods.

Nooooooooo! Nice touch the orange wheels matching the accent striping. You even a Gremlin on the front fender, should be able to mold that for the back round thingie... can't be the gas cap, key hole cover?

Two Dapper Dudes! And the 34 Chevy is a beaut too. What color?

What a sleeper with the V8. Your cousin should be able to do a mirror image in photoshop st give you a template for the decals.

Hard to make up my mind... either Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, Zeplin's first tour with Jethro Tull opening 69, but probably Crosby Stills and Nash with Joni Mitchel opening in 69.

Les' comment brings us back to the question expressed in another thread about "Why rubber tires and not cast resin." For me it is an esthetic choice going back to my youth and the models of the 60s. But this is another subject.

The one advantage that I see in the relm of 3D printing for the high end builders would be in the tooling of more accurate tires. Mr. Wingrove's process already requires several steps to tool the hard resin final mold and the level of detail will be much more accurate. I had considered scanning the old tire ash trays that were a marketing tool and abundant in many service stations here in the states back in the day. They appear to be 1:6 scale but have all the tread and sidewall details of full size tires. Thank you Noel for another thought provoking discussion.

I stand corrected, and rightly so. I lost my focus on the title of this thread (My wife calls it ‘playing the Devils idiot’) and I did not mean to minimize the skills, abilities, and pure dedication involved in hand fabrication of models. I am also a great fan of Mr. Wingrove and am inspired by his books on model building, and deeply respect the work of those who are so gifted. I hope only to aspire to a fraction of that ideal. So I grant you then that 3D printing is simply the act of producing kit parts from which we can build our models. I will however contend that the drafting aspect is still much more involved that just doing layout work. The 3D work we do in ‘Model Space’ and still contend are solid forms, can be used to provide dimensioned layout sheets as would be used for hand fabrication. However, we now have the technology available to have our models milled or print as a kit in any scale. 1:1500 through 1500:1 (as an example.) To date my only 3D printed kit has been in collaboration with Mad Mike on the 1965 Indy DOHC Ford, and yes we did digitally drill every hole for the bolts and linkage. Mike even went as far as to create all the hose fittings, linkage, bolts, nuts, and hex socket cap screws, some with holes for safety wire. The dilemma is that in order for Mike to print the model in 1:24/25 or even 1:43 he had to go back and fill all the holes and fuse/union all the nuts and bolts, etc. to the larger units. For the sake of argument then can we also say that any machine work which involves the digital programing of mills, lathes, and routers would take those operations out from under the heading of scratch building?

Thanks for your kind words. The miller is a Chris Etzel resin kit which had a assortment of metal castings and photo etched parts. He also used Top Queen/Willis Finecast wheels and tires for several of his kits. Yes, this is one of my favorite color schemes.

Or my modified Brum customized Bugatti type 57.

Any of my Etzel kits, especially the Miller Indy winner.

As I see it, the basis of our hobby is to create scale representations of our favorite, historic, or fantasy vehicles. To that end we use a vast variety of tools and materials to realize that vision. The selection is nearly limitless in scope, paper to plastics to metal. I think that most of us started off in our youth with commercial kits as a basis for our building and progressed to more sophisticated construction and detailing methods as our dedication to the hobby grew. CAD drafting and its associated 3D printing are just a couple of the newest tools and materials to become available to us. To those who believe that CAD drawing is “Just putting parts together” really have no concept of the amount of work that goes into our drawings. The CAD detailer creates every nut, bolt, screw, and complex shapes as 3D solids and surfaces within the CAD program. Just like any other discipline within the hobby, once the parts are shaped and ready for assembly we are all just putting together our kits be they machined metal, cast in resin, or printed in a plastic medium. Going beyond the basic assembly of our kits, all the detailing and finishing is Scratch building. Model On

Song Bird was Sky King's airplane's name.

Nah, that's the wood grain showing through. As Peter said, it was great to se how the 1:1 Sears Motor Buggy was designed and built. Something that most of us would never imagine, you captured so well. I especially like the tie down straps for when the top was down. If you don't mind, what CAD program are you using? Nice organic shapes to the top and the dimond tuck seat is deelightful . Thanks again for a fun ride.