Mothersworry

Got this fer Christmas, Scalextric 1/32 scale Batmobile from the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton as Batman.

Picked this up recently, 1/32 scalextric Batmobile from the 1966 TV series Batman.

Welcome to the wonderful world of foiling, boy are you gonna have fun. There are all kinds of tools, techniques and whatnot fer the application and use of this stuff but in my opinion, cutting/trimming it is fairly straightforward...it just takes practice...the more ya do it the better ya get at it. I've been using Bare Metal Foil fer more than 50 years and in my experience I've found that all that's necessary for me to be consistently successful in cutting/trimming it is a brand new Xacto brand #11 blade in a #1 handle, a light touch and a steady hand. I've used surgical blades/scalpels to trim foil and found them to be unnecessary. Foil is thin, it cuts very easily and doesn't take much pressure to cut it. A thin, very sharp blade such as a scalpel could too easily cut more deeply than necessary, into the paint and perhaps thru the paint and into the plastic below. It's even possible that if you cut to deeply trimming the foil that when removing the excess foil you could remove some paint with the foil (I've done this). Additionally, when trimming the foil you may (and you will) from time to time go off course and cut into an area that you didn't want to. With a very sharp blade such as a scalpel the damage potential can be much greater than with an Xacto blade. Again, this is my personal experience fer cutting and trimming foil, my process and it works fer me. It may work fer you, it may not. Fer what it's worth. The foil work on this Maverick wuz done with an Xacto #11 blade. Also the tail light panel and the cowl were masked with Bare Metal Foil...but thats another topic.

I hope this doesn't take this thread too far off point but a good friend of mine owns a '69 Talladega so I can offer some small insight into these unique cars. Briefly...Talladega's were "package cars", built solely to homologate the modified Torino body for NASCAR, avaliable only one way...no options at all. The only possible variable wuz color, one of 3, Wimbledon white, Presidential Blue, or Royal maroon with a black hood and cowl. All Talladegas had Whitewall tires, 428 CJ with SCJ oil cooler, C6 auto trans, an open 9 inch rear axle and a Black cloth and vinyl bench seat interior. The body changes unique to the Talladega included modified front fenders, flush grille with pickup truck parking lights/signals behind the grille, unique header panel and an extensively reworked rear bumper that wuz installed in place of the original Torino front bumper to provide a sort of "air dam" effect. Additionally the rocker panels were reworked and "raised" 1 inch higher so the car could be lower than the standard Torino as NASCAR measured ground clearance at the rocker panel. One point of contention has been the single speaker AM radio. "Officially", no radios were installed by the factory, however, my friend (the Talladegas owner) has said when he that while he wuz working at a Ford Dealer in '69 he did see a Talladega delivered to the dealer from the factory with a radio installed. I built a model of my friends Talladega from the Monogram kit, the kit is a very well done representation of the real car, far superior to the AMT version, although it is 1/24 scale.

Life's tough...it's tougher if yer stupid.

I wuz preparing a Pinto Funny Car body today to paint the rear bumper and I thought I would share my technique for masking off areas of a model that I don't want painted. I only apply masking tape to the body (the good stuff, Tamiya or 3M) for the demarcation line than the rest of the body is covered in Glad cling'n seal plastic food wrap. I then apply tape to seal the Glad Wrap to the demarcation tape and close any overlaps in the the Glad Wrap. Fer what it's worth...

Thank you fer yer comment, acoupla shots of the other side of the room. About 55 or so Jo-Han kits in the one display case.

My workshop has been posted on the forums previously but I thought some pics in this thread might be useful regarding storage possibilities since you have essentially a "blank sheet of paper". The space is roughly 13'x16', I used Ikea kitchen cabinetry as it can be custom tailored to fit any space and task. The Ikea quality is pretty good and it ain't too pricey. You can literally build (order) cabinets (with drawers), cupboards as well as storage within the cabinets and drawers to suit just about any space or task. The lighting is 5000 to 6000 Kelvin to best simulate natural daylight. Fer what its worth.... View of the main work bench with the paint Booth on the left and the secondary work bench in the foreground. The cupboards above provide additional storage.Another view of the main work bench with TV and additional storage to the right of of the "desk" where I do most of the building. Storage on the shelfs for in progress projects with storage above in drawers for misc. goodies like resin parts, photo etch, decals, foil, wire and detail stuff...etc.Secondary workbench, another Ikea piece. Messy stuff gets done here, cutting, grinding, resin clean up and soldering and electronic work. Dremel hanging with cable to hand held tool holder controlled by modified Dremel foot pedal (can take Dremel down to zero rpm). Ultrasonic cleaner and dehydrator are also on the table. Paint Booth mounted on Ikea cabinetry. Compressor below in sound suppressed compartment with storage for misc. painting supplies. Manifold and pressure gauges mounted on the side of the paint booth.Drawer below paint Booth with storage for airbrushes, gloves, bottles, mask and other such stuff.Storage next to paint booth for solvents, part mounts, spoons, partial spray cans, strainers, funnels...etc.View of my "work desk" with storage drawer below. Gun cleaning mat provides a a model friendly padded surface to work on.To the right of my "work desk" is storage for various hand tools.90 degress and next to the hand tool storage are drawers containing all the various bottle paints, enamels, lacquers, and acrylics. Also various metal and metalizer finishes MCW lacquers and Scalefinishes enamels and lacquers other supplies related to brush applied paints.Next to the paint bottle drawers is storage for plastic (Evergreen stock), paper supplies, filler putties and misc. storage fer Model parts and such.

Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience. ~Mark Twain

Sums good, mores better, too much is just right...applies to sex, money and horsepower.

Here ya go...

Of course Model kits are toys...all my life when I went to a store like Kmart, Topps, Kresges, Woolworth's, Korvettes, Ben Franklin's, Hudson's, Sears etc. and now Hobby Lobby, where would I find the model kits...in the toy department...Toys! They're toys, I know, I play with them everyday. I play by collecting them, I play by building them, and I play by admiring them after I've built them thinkin I did a pretty good job no matter how bad it really is. Yeah, I don't push em around the floor anymore makin vroom, vroom sounds, but in my head I'm runnin up revs and dumpin the clutch on the Johan Pro Stock Maverick I've been workin on. I truly enjoy playin with my toys (model kits), been doing it all my life (I'm 65 now), so over the years I've gotten a little better at playin with my model kits..so the finished product looks a little bit better then when I wuz a kid. I have never taken myself so seriously to think that my assembling a plastic model kit in a really clean or precise or detailed way makes me sum kinda Craftsman or Artisan...it just makes me someone who's gotten a little bit better at playing with his toys.

Sooo...after readin sum of the previous posts in this thread I wuz intrigued (and amused), did I miss sumthin? Should I be gettin my Models Cars Magazine every month?, every two months? every quarter? or whenever. So I went to the Model Cars Magazine subscription page (the contract) and read it thoroughly. Guess what...it's whenever! No where is it asserted or even suggested that I should expect to receive an issue of Model Cars Magazine monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly....just that I can expect a given number of issues within a given time period...period! So I just (today) re-upped my sub fer 12 more issues, I dunno know how many issues I have left on my old sub...maybe 2 or 3 but no big deal, I got no plans to die rich. Gregg, yer doing a wonderful job on Model Cars Magazine and you can count on my continued support. Lookin forward to issue #226...whenever it gets here.

Thanx fer posting this...nice to know when sumthin new comes up for consideration. Unfortunately no real discussion of this "new" chrome paints durability wuz offered...that is the question...can it be handled without damaging the reflectivity. All of the current Chrome "paints" are too fragile, is this one any better? I dunno, the video didn't tell me.

Alclad Candy red over Alclad silver base. 2K clear next...

Thank you Robert.

Thank you fer yer comment, Norm (Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland) cast up the headlight assembly for me from the Danbury Mint Doane Spence Roadster diecast.

'32 3 Window Coupe, body courtesy of Mr. Fluck at Drag City Casting. Buncha parts from Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland, Model Car Garage and various kits. All "Chrome" parts are finished with Alclad.

Epoxy. This kit is circa 1954, while building it I found both Tenax and Tamiya liquid cement were, for lack of a better description, too aggressive. Even when used sparingly the plastic softened more than modern styrene and seemed to shrink somewhat when dry. Additionally the joints created using the modern cement seemed quite weak and prone to cracking, suggesting that the plastic itself had been changed in someway where the liquid cement was applied. Fortunately I discovered the problems with the modern cement before the build had progressed very far and finished the build using epoxy. Fer what it's worth...

D.A.B. Models # DAB24-022 1/24 scale printed hood pins. Available from Spotmodel.com.

Not a bad kit, fer something tooled in 1955. Built this from a mint kit last year. Only real problem I had building the kit wuz that modern glues (solvent cements) didn't get along well with 68 year old plastic so it wuz built mostly using epoxy. The tooling fer the '55 Chrysler no longer exists as it wuz updated to '56 specs.

Thank you fer yer comment...yup, Alex wuz very talented with body work and paint. He owned a Body shop/collision service but also built Custom cars and has had several of his cars shown at the Detroit Autorama over the years. Here's some pics of his '64 Galaxie that wuz featured in the March 2007 issue of Rod & Custom magazine. I will be posting some more of Alex's builds from time to time.

Thanx, thought it might be a Buick but I wasn't sure. Looked more Caddy to me than Buick but what do I know. Post amended.

Custom Buick done by my late friend Alex Test.

Thank you fer yer comment, the display is a reproduction that my wife gave me some time ago.