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papajohn97

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Everything posted by papajohn97

  1. Sharp builds Mike! Particularly like that AWB sedan (both front & rear wheel re-positioning matches old photo’s of Landy’s wheelbase mods). I have the new Moebius AWB ‘65 Dodge hardtop in my queue to do Landy’s A/FX, just waiting for warm enough weather to spray lacquer again (been building acrylic painted military models all winter). Love all your drag cars - keep ‘em coming!
  2. Very nice job Bill on one of my favorite drag car subjects (early 60’s door slammers). I built and posted my attempt at this exact H-P car a while back with an incorrect red interior, I like your correct blue interior version much better as well as the effort you put into incorporating the correct front bench seat. The seat decals really make it pop. I use to mask and airbrush all the stainless trim on model cars using Alclad Chrome lacquer over gloss black enamel or lacquer but have gone with BMF for the last few years. The Alclad method was incredibly labor (and tape) intensive and way too fragile and easy to rub off with even moderate handling. BMF adhesive was troublesome for a few years but it is currently much improved and easier to work with. The two keys I have found is 1) make sure the surface of the frames you’re going to cover are super smooth (you can sand the paint down on just the frames if you’re careful) and 2) to use a brand-new extra sharp #11 X-acto blade with very light pressure (weight of the knife handle is usually enough). If you’re not happy with the BMF job, just peel it off and try again. In most cases, you can apply the BMF at the end of the build including after bonding the clear glass to the body. Molotow pens can also help on touch-up if required. Don’t give up on BMF, with some practice it can actually be fun and fairly quick.
  3. Very cool Willys, that unusual two-tone brown over gold look’s good and accentuates the beautiful simple lines of this iconic car. Wishing you a much happier 2025 and hoping a new dog or two is in your future. Nothing better than a canine best-friend buddy to smooth out the bumps in life. Keep building & posting!
  4. That Plymouth gasser is a magnificent build. The injected flathead, red steelies with whitewalls, grey primer paint, hand painted numbers on the door, perfect period correct gasser stance,….all these little details make this one just about perfect. I would love to have this one in my collection of early sixties drag cars, may just have to copy you on this someday!
  5. Nice! I’ve been wanting to build this car with the Slixx decal set but was at a loss as the what kit I could use. So is this the Z-28 kit that you just added a BBC? Any other significant mods required other than the engine/ wheels/ tires? Great job as always Mike!
  6. Those 3D printed wheels really boost this kit into another a whole other level, nice!
  7. What a terrific project Michael! I’ve thought about trying this one after seeing the decals on eBay (“CoCo’s Slotcar Decal Store”?) but was intimidated by the amount of scratch building and improvising required for the under-the-hood details and accuracy. This Faubel car epitomizes to me the hyper-creative technological progression of these mid-60’s door slammers, mostly built by dudes with weekday jobs (Faubel was a car salesman I believe). This period is much more interesting for me to model than the corporate-controlled homogenized boring churn of drag racing of more recent years. I’ve never had any luck bending thicker copper rod or tubing for car model projects such as headers. I’ve had much better luck using 2 mm OD solder, readily available on Amazon or eBay. Please keep going on this one Michael! I need you to figure this one out so I can copy you some day! 😁
  8. I think my auto scale model subjects are related to my personal childhood memories and nostalgia. I love and build American classics from the ‘30’s through the 60’s, early/ mid 60’s super stock and gasser drag cars, classic European sports cars (love M-B 300SL gullwings and XKE’s), ‘50’s -‘70’s road race cars, 60’s -70’s F1 cars. I’m pretty much interested in everything from my “good old days” (early to mid 20th century). Current autos, sports cars, hypercars and race cars , while all being much higher performance and more technologically advanced, are all very boring to me. It must be a nostalgia thing I think. I also love building 1/32 biplanes (WNW), 1/72-1/148-1/32 WWII warbirds, 1/35 scale AFV’s and 1/350 ships (dreadnoughts to WWII carriers). I find building a variety of scale model subjects and scales has helped me to improve my skills and has allowed me to apply them across different genres. If you can build-PE bend-mask-paint-and rig a 1/350 ship, you can pretty much build anything!
  9. According to draglist.com (reference here) it ran with a four speed for both the initial carburetor version as well as the fuel injected version. Sox was able to outrun the TorqueFlite A/FX Hemi cars on most runs which was a real testament to his shifting skills.
  10. Very nice job and really cool to see a kit that my brother built nearly 60 yrs ago! I feel your pain on the tweezer lost part projectiles, I spent a good 40 min sweeping the floor of my man cave today as well as picking through my dirty garbage can in search of two lost parts. I’m getting good at reproducing lost parts! 😁
  11. Hi David, Thank’s for reaching out! I’m planning on including this model in a “display only model collection” at my local club show next September ‘25 so I want to hang onto it until then. I would build another one for your wife but this one was a giant project for me and not one I’d relish repeating anytime soon. Another modeler on this forum (M W Elky) has built a beautiful version of both the ‘64/‘65 and the ‘66 Seaton Chevelle match race cars and may be another source you. His posting is here. If not, reach out again to me after next Sept. and I might be willing to let go of this model. cheers, John
  12. Fabulous build Tom! Those Fireball resin rims are a big improvement over the kit wheels and the engine bay detail is impressive (especially the wiring on the firewall). Neat clean meticulous paint, decal and foil work makes this an all around winner to me. Bravo!
  13. Oooohhh! That’s sweet. The white, the gangster wide whites, the red steelies with stock caps & beauty rings, classy-curvy-sexy….I think I’m in love! So nice I wanna copy it! ps: fabulous paint work and all-around meticulous craftsmanship. A+!
  14. No source, just a WAG! I guess my guess was wrong! Model on! ps: I’d love to give a listen to that old LP, let us know if there’s a link to a digital copy of it that’s accessible without a paywall.
  15. The only memory I have of DoT is Nicole Kidman. She was at her absolute peak of babe-ness IIRC….and the only redeeming aspect of that really stupid movie. Most racing movies are bad. Grand Prix and Le Mans had mediocre to terrible scripts but made up for it with amazing racing footage. Ford v Ferrari was better but no where near as good as the Blaine book it was based on (“Go Like Hell”). Ferrari bombed but I thought it actually pretty well done script/ acting/ editing/ directing and accuracy-wise. I’d love to see Hollywood make a movie based on IMO the best racing book of all-time “Black Noon” about the tragic ‘64 Indy race but it would probably not appeal to audiences not interested in racing history. PS- oops! Totally forgot Rush. I thought it was so-so but I have a personal fetish for 70’s F1 cars so it’s one of my favorites because of all of the tall air boxes!
  16. Thank you Bart for the detailed description of your wood painting technique. I was surprised to read that you use acrylic dark brown paint for brush streaking the wood grain. For me the use of dark brown (burnt umber) oil paint thinned with mineral spirits and using a coarse brush works really nicely when applied over the tan acrylic base. The thinned oil paint is very forgiving and has the advantage over acrylic paint in that you can keep repeating the brush streaking until you’re happy with the appearance (it takes 1-2 days to dry). Once the oil paint streak coat is dry, I then airbrush a thinned down application of the transparent acrylic orange or yellow. Here’s a pic of a WWI aircraft prop I did using this oil paint wood grain technique: On your next wood paint project, you might want to try this thinned dark brown oil paint technique and compare it to the results you get with the dark brown acrylic streaking.
  17. Very nice job on this Merc woodie. Did you do the wood grain by brushing oil paint over acrylic tan? I learned to do it using a technique posted on a WWI airplane kit website (here). Airbrushing thinned Tamiya transparent yellow (X-24) or transparent orange (X-26) acrylic over the wood grained area really makes it pop. My only complaint with this Revell kit is the absence of the stock flathead V-8 which is a mystery to me because the rest of the kit is pretty much stock.
  18. Fabulous scale modeling! Really impressed how well you opened the doors and trunk and you were able to get them to look pretty flush with the adjacent body when closed.
  19. Just grabbed a bunch of upholstery decal sets, $4/ ea!!!! Grab ‘em before they’re gone! Sad to see another model car AM business fold but nice to hear it’s a retirement and not due to health/ owner passing.
  20. Thank you Trevor. I’ve been building mostly aircraft, ships & AFV’s over the last year and want to get back to adding to my door slammers. I have four of the new Moebius ‘65 Dodge kits in the queue and hope to start them soon. Stay tuned!
  21. Thank you Tom! I posted the ‘65 Sox & Martin A/FX Plymouth here and the Al Eckstrom ‘65 Golden Commando 2% car here.
  22. Beautiful build! I second the motion on the engine detailing!
  23. Your son did a great job on this build. Love the color. Hope he keeps building and posting on here.
  24. Dang that’s nice! Your photos using the garage dio can really fool one’s eyes, if I saw these pics anywhere other than this forum, I would have assumed they were pics of an actual 1:1 El Camino. Great job!
  25. I looked over this kit at the Tamiya stand at OrangeCon yesterday and was totally blown away. I’ve considered Tamiya’s 300SL Gull wing to be the best 1/24 auto kit out there over the last few years until I looked this kit over. Unbelievably detailed engine parts (particularly the Weber carbs), separate machined metal velocity stacks, metal transfers, injection molded chromed window trim pieces (no foiling required!)…..WOW! I’m not even that interested in early Z’s but after examining this kit I have to have it! I would have bought one from Tamiya at the show for the $50 retail but they only did display there, no sales. Ordered one from Burbank House of Hobbies last night for $39. Tamiya has hit it out of the park on this one, hoping they continue to put out more classic sports cars (or just about any vehicle subject) with this level of tooling and detail.
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