curt raitz

You da Man!...

First NNL Model Car Show to be held Hollister, California on Saturday September 22, 2018. Hosted by the Monterey Bay Scale Auto Association model car club. Map on how to find it:

Hey Batman I like it so far, but are you gonna be able to squeeze a "Caddy 500" into this thing?

At one of our club meetings I was browsing through the May 2018 edition of "Hot Rod Deluxe". I came across an article on the "Bird of Prey" a 1955 T-Bird street-able gasser owned by Jim Jard. Showed the car to the guys and stated "this would be a fun build". That's all it took...got my hands on an AMT 1956 T-Bird, rounded up all the parts needed to build this car. Just had to do a few modifications to the 56 T-Bird to make it look like a '55. Filled in portholes and side vents. reworked the front end of the chassis and installed aftermarket straight front axle and springs. Moved the engine back in the chassis, opened the trunk, hinged the trunk lid and engine bonnet. Decals were home printed. Overall I had fun building this model and it kinda looks like the real car. The real car: The model: thanx for looking...

Hey Batman, "Off the Wall" is a very good description of this car! I know you'll do it right! c'ya The Quail-Man...

We be here with the California Connection, Steve Allemand (NorCal), John Teresi (SoCal), Chris Sobak (Phoenix-former NoCal) and myself (NoCal). Man is this a big show and there are a lot of cars here, lots of tanks, planes, ships and figures too!

I just kept grinding away with the dremel, and it is really fragile. I did have to do a little re-inforcing along the way.

The 1969 Camaro ZL-1, one of the first "Muscle Cars". Built from Revell's excellent kit #85-4056. This kit dang near fell together on it's own. Modifications included opening the front grill, AMT Goodyear "Polyglas GT" big 'n' little tires, Model Car Garage Detail Set MCG-2068, plug wires and fuel lines. Paint is Model Master No.28108 Hugger Orange covered with multiple coats of No.28319 Ultra Gloss Clearcoat. Thanx for looking...

Here's my 2nd KinDigit Design build of one of their cars. This one is the '55 Nomad. The majority of the build was building the interior. Seats are from the AMT 2004 Pontiac GTO, headrest removed and resin cast. Used Plastic Wood to form the interior. Wheels are from Revell's '57 Chevy Bel Air Easy-Kit. Modified to duplicate the wheels used on the Nomad. They were then resin-cast and turned on the lathe to open the back of the wheels. The bumpers were turned over. Paint is Scalefinishes Cadillac White Diamond Pearl and Oldsmobile Cashmere Beige. The model is on it's way to KinDigit Designs shop in Salt Lake City... Thanx for lookin'...

This is a model of my friend Joe Hernandez's full scale 1955 1st Series Chevy Pick Up. I was able to find a '54 Chevy Pick Up Cab resin conversion from Star Models. Started with the AMT '50 Chevrolet Pick Up kit. I had to modify the rails on the bed by slicing along the bottom of the rails and fold them over to get them flat. The conversion did not come with "glass". In 1954 Chevrolet went with a one piece windscreen, eliminating the center post. I stuffed the front windshield on the cab with Light Weight Stone Clay. This clay dries as hard as stone when exposed to the air. After it dried, I sanded it to form a buck for vacuum forming. This worked really well and I was able to vacuum form a correct windshield for the cab. Chevrolet also moved the license plate to the center on the bed and the rear bumper has a cutout so you can see the plate. Joe's truck has a Mustang II front suspension (Revell's 1937 Ford Convertible) and a Camaro rear axle (AMT '67 Camaro). He also has a Turbo 350 transmission (BNL Resins) mated to the 6 cylinder engine. As always playing with a resin conversion results in modifications as you progress through the build. Homey Joe and his truck: The model: Thanx for lookin'...

We had to move the Hollister NNL back one week, to Saturday September 22, 2018. The Elks Club canceled the "Big Car Show" for this year, but assured us it will happen in September 2019. They assumed the model car show wouldn't happen as well, but we have reserved the Lodge for the 22nd. Please help get the word out on the date change, thanx

No problem, doing my part to keep Herb Deeks in business.

Herb Deeks still sells the photo-etched spoke kits. Saw him at the NNL West in Santa Clara, the IPMS in San Jose and the SoCal NNL in Chatsworth. He had plenty of them for sale!

Me too....

Yep, Mr. Perez and myself will be attending. Raul even thinks he will have a car built by then!

Scalefinishes carries a Quaker State Green, and being as though the Indy Porsche was sponsored by Quaker State it should work.

For Scalefinishes paint, the primer I use depends on wether I'm working with resin or plastic. I use Duplicolor primer on resin, I've found that Tamiya's primer does not adhere to resin very well. Nothing as enjoyable as removing masking tape from a multiple paint job and having the paint/primer peal right off the resin body. And yes I do clean the resin body and lightly scruff it up before spraying the primer. On plastic I use Tamiya's primers, both the gray and white. I have not had any problems with Scalefinishes paint (both the enamel and base coat) on any of these primers. I use ModelMasters UltraGloss Clearcoat and/or Tamiya TS-13 Clear over Scalefinishes paint without problems with either. Can't tell you how automotive paints react with his paint, don't use them and probably never will.

Raul Perez, Gilroy California built the Alfa Romeo B.A.T. 5 car you saw.

Yes I still have CD's of MRRN magazine. PM me for information, etc.

If you are going to the Desert Scale Classic this coming Saturday in Phoenix, it will be there!

I was looking for something to build for the "Light Commercial" category in the upcoming Desert Scale Classic. I came across the Heller Citroen Fourgon Type H delivery van. I remember "Wheeler's and Dealer's" rebuilding a Fourgon van on the "Velocity Network". I thought it was a quirky little van. I had my local hobby shop order one up for me. Plus I found a nice Guinness Beer decal for this van from "Motobitz". I wanted to display the model on a street scene with a dude making a delivery in Ireland. I needed to find a figure, beer cases, kegs and a hand truck. I found some milk cartons from Larry G Scale (made a mold of the cartons and resin cast a big bunch of beer cases). I also fired up the Unimat 3 and made a keg (made a mold of the keg and resin cast a bunch of these). I scratch-built the hand truck from brass using the one in my garage as reference. The wheels/tires are from my 1/43rd scale parts box. The delivery dude is a figure from Tamiya. The Guinness Beer decals I copied, sized and printed for the crates, kegs and delivery dude's shirt. Here's the van with it's cargo before I put the top on it. I used a display base from my buddy Raul, covered up the asphalt with cobblestone from Plastruct. thanks for lookin'...

Warning you Danno...there's three of us coming from NorCal. Steve Allemand and Raul Perez are tagging along this year. I warned them about you guys, but they still wanna go! c'ya

Very, Very Nice... I had been looking at this offering from Jimmy Flintstone for sometime. You've inspired me to give it a go, happen to have a couple of Moebius Hudson's on hand thanx

Thanx and yes we will be having a NNL type model car show in September.

Mark the chrome pinstripe is from "line o tape". It can be found in a number of places.