Chris V

The cost of AM-licensing appears to be prohibitive...

They’re only sold separately - and currently there’s at least seven sizes available: For a comparable and slightly more affordable alternative, you can look for “Hook Broaches” from DSPIAE.

There’s a hobby product called “Grabit Stix” for this very purpose.

Nothing surpasses pinning the parts with piano wire for precise positioning and alignment. Whenever possible I slightly bevel the edge of the hole with a small mill bit to create a small deposit for the glue so it doesn’t ooze onto the surrounding areas when the parts are joined.

Sheesh, give it a rest guys... I still don't get the number of people who take offense if nothing in the monthly news fits their personal taste. As for "butchering" the kits, you can hardly blame Round2 for (pointless) tooling alterations that happened under the previous ownership, and you can't expect them to spend fortunes tooling up new parts for every single reissue - only to complain that the new parts or decals weren't exactly the ones you wanted.

Another issue common to all versions of the '34 tooling is the difference between the main body and the door top/roof-assembly: The two pieces differ by more than a scale inch in width by the rear edge of the doors: Luckily the solution is pretty straightforward: Cut out the center sections of the main body with a razor saw, making sure the cuts are perfectly parallel. Carefully sand the edges of the upper piece smooth, making sure to remove an even amount from each side and test fit along the way. Reinstall the upper piece. When the glue has set you repeat the procedure for the lower piece making sure to keep the corners in a right angle: MUCH better:

I figured I better stop hanging around the "General" and "Industry Corner" sections of this place, and actually post some of the stuff I'm working on. Thanks to the "Daily Dose" (of inspiration) posted on Facebook by Drag City Casting, I've decided to replicate this late fifties' style Hot Rod: The build will be based on vintage Monogram parts with just a few miscellaneous parts from other manufacturers thrown in to fully capture the look of the car. As some of you may know, all early issues of Monogram's 1934 Fords suffer from a mold-misalignment making the lower part of the body flush with the beltline molding. The issue wasn't corrected until the early eighties, when the tooling was altered into the ZZ Top "Eliminator". Thus I'm using one of the subsequent Thom Taylor '34 Cabriolet issues as donor for the main body, while the roof, rear filler panel and stock chassis with bumper brackets are from a seventies "Early Iron" Series '34 Ford Coupé: Out of the two (Monogram) Buick Nailhead engines available in 1:24 scale I chose the one out of the somewhat commonly available "Orange Hauler" - Parting out an "Uncertain T" for the project just didn't seem like a viable option... 😉 The rolling stock is mainly sourced from the Revell "Skip's Fiesta" Series issue of the 1959 Ford Fairline Skyliner, which features 1:24 scale Oldsmobile Fiesta hubcaps with Monogram's large whitewall tires originally found in the 1958 Ford Thunderbird and 1953/57 Corvettes: To add a bit of "Rubber Rake" I chose to use the smaller tires from the Lindberg reissues of Pyro's old Cord Convertible and Auburn Speedster kits up front, as the tread and sidewall detail closely matches that of the Monogram tires, only smaller: As you can see, their inside diameter makes the smaller Lindberg tires an excellent fit for the large Revell/Monogram wheels, which can also be found in the more recent Revell-reissues of Monogram's 1958 Ford Thunderbird:

Not that I'm aware of... Robert Burns ("Too Many Projects" on Facebook) offers a 3D-printed ´41 Convertible, '50 Special Sedanette, '52 Roadmaster HT, and a '57 Caballero 4 dr. Wagon, but he's not taking any more orders at the moment due to a backlog.

Well that kind of haste is a recipe for disaster - regardless of what tape you use. Very few paints beside very “hot“ automotive lacquer basecoats will hold up to such quick handling.

I had to refresh/restart the checkout process a couple of times, but eventually it worked. The issue seemed to be the way the website validates the address using google maps.

The Tamiya LP-series lacquer paints generally cover very well. Though the metallic black and metallic orange are no exception (unlike the regular orange), you can use a colored primer to reduce the amount of paint required for full coverage. The metallic orange is a brownish orange hue, so an oxide red primer works well. Though many swear by Tamiya's primers, I've previously experienced some minor chipping along edges of even thoroughly prepared/cleaned surfaces, so I now use a slightly "hotter" brand of industrial primer for better adhesion. Some have experienced issues with the Tamiya's tape harming the painted surface - mainly on their acrylics which take ages to fully cure.

I've been browsing 3DScale's website looking at various wheel sets. It's very hard to tell how good the plating looks from the pictures available on-line. Considering the price, I'd really appreciate to hear your thoughts on the quality of the tires and the plating before pulling the trigger.

It's a gamble when to buy and when to wait - especially in those cases where licensing issues are effectively prohibiting any future reissues of even fairly recent kits. I've often kicked myself for passing on good deals in the past, and regretted spending fortunes on kits I've later been able to pick up for a song and a dance. I know it's been discussed elsewhere on this forum, but an explosive increase in the cost of licensing is the reason why no Ferrari kits have been issued in recent years. It felt like an absolute steal when I was able to pick up a Hasegawa 1958 Ferrari Testa Rossa for the equivalent of $ 100 a few months ago...

I haven’t seen that pattern before, but Scale Production offers the Recaro “Sunset Stripe” pattern with some of their resin seats.

A well renowned resin caster is currently working on an authentically detailed ‘30 Coupé body conversion in 1:25 scale