GMasterG

They look great. Thank you for the response. I find it bizarre that I can’t find this part from all 4 kits. No matter, I will design and 3D-print a replacement. Cheers.

How are your builds progressing? Could you help out a fellow journeyman? I can’t locate the steering linkage in any of the 4 kits that I’m building. It’s part #38 in step 6 of your instructions. Could you take a look and see if you have the part and if so provide a picture of which sprue tree it’s on? Many thanks.

…….and decals. Including some headlight covers made from thin zinc/tin plate:

The Foytmobile gets a clear coat:

Thank you Rick. I’ve never tried that before. I will do so with this paint job.

Front bumpers done:

Thank you, these photos are great reference material. I appreciate the time you've taken to post them and share your techniques with me.

I need to mask this to be able to spray the top sections of the body gold. Has anyone been through this exercise in the past and have any tips that they could offer as to the best approach?

The Foytmobile gets a few coats of ‘66 Ford Poppy Red. The automotive paint has been nice to work with:

Thank you, Todd. I've designed the shock absorber in parts so I can simply print the components that I need. Cheers

Some progress wiring one of the engines. I’ve used 0.7mm aluminium tube into which I’ve slotted 0.4mm solder. The dizzy is the original from the kit that’s been cut short and placed at an angle. I can’t raise the height of the air cleaner because that will cause clearance issues with the hood: I will try 3D printing a coil. If anyone has any suggestions as to where I should locate the coil I’d be grateful for the guidance.

Main body color done and trunk/boot cut out and hinged:

A little more time this afternoon as the rain pours in Nairobi so I decided to design a shock absorber as well:

Old is gold. I would count myself as old-school as well but I never had any opportunity to use anything other than brushes when I was a kid and into my early teens. Some early challenges in life meant that I didn't return to the hobby until I was 40 at which time I bought an airbrush and started experimenting. I bypassed the entire rattle-can stage of the evolutionary process; I've never used one.

Thank you, Pat. The paints are lacquers by SMS and the clear coat is HK 2k automotive. After spraying the base colors, I air-brush Mr Hobby Levelling Thinner over the wet lacquer and it creates a natural, smooth gloss that for the most part I don't need to wet-sand or polish before clear coating.

A pool, some palms, a little Mombasa heat has provided some inspiration to design some coil springs to replace those that come with the kit. Nothing here is to scale but I'm happy with the basic design and I can re-size everything once back in Perth (for some reason I forgot to bring my vernier calipers on holidays with me). I've left the stirrup until I decide if it should be a separate part or integrated into the other end of the coil.

The Cale Yarborough car gets a clear coat: I’d never sprayed a 2k clear coat until June of this year and within seconds I’d ruined a good 2 months of work on a 69 Boss 302. I managed to rescue it and in the process learned a lot about spraying 2k clear coats. I call this my reflection test and 5.5 months on from that first fail I start the sanding/polishing/finishing process with a better base than most of my early finishes. Whilst doing the clear coat I was thinking about how to finish the grille and I remembered some very fine metal mesh that I’d purchased for another task on another car but it was wholly unsuitable. I think this might work proving that one project’s trash is another’s treasure: So far so good:

I've experienced the very same dynamic with these 4 cars, Bill. I was a WW2 plane builder until the beginning of the year when, on a whim, I bought a Dodge Challenger to build. When I reached my limits I bought a Camaro and started on that and found I could advance it a little more so and so the Challenger got a little more work done to it. By my 8th build I'd mastered bare metal foil trim and applied that to the previous 7. By the time you've BMFed 8 models consecutively on a Friday night you can retire to the couch satisfied that you've conquered the skill!!

Thanks Sean. I've not heard of Polar LIghts kits before; I don't think they ever made it to the Australian market. I was very pleased with the Hardee's car as a first build.

My last weekend of building before heading to Kenya for 3 weeks. Body painted, cleared, and decaled. Engine progress Interior complete Fuel cell 3D-printed (separate bracing on its way). The diagonal bracing on the roll cage is a bit weird. The trailing arm has a little locating pin on the end which would suggest the existence of a reciprocal locating hole somewhere in the rear floor pan but there isn’t one so I had to drill it. There is a hole in the front bar work to fix the leading arm but the arm is short by about 3mm so I simply fixed it to the bar with CA glue. The white base color is from SMS and the clear is from Outlaw Paints. Both are local Australian manufacturers and very nice lacquers to work with.

Some production-line preparation over the last couple days including painting all the rear shocks, fitting and installing the rear end, and test-fitting the drive-train. A little prep-work to detail the underneath of the fuel cell the bracing of which I will paint aluminium.

A little detail added to the first of the interiors. So far so good. I added the bezel to the fire extinguisher using 0.2mm solder, used a decal from a sheet of generic dashboard decals from Interdecal, flattened everything out with some clear and then added a drop of clear resin over the extinguisher gauge.

Chassis and roll cages for Yarborough, Parsons and Baker. Still waiting on some Poppy Red to arrive before I spray the AJ Foytmobile

I don’t like the base of the window frame for a couple of reasons. Firstly it has no profile which doesn’t make sense intuitively. And secondly it’s not a very smooth curve from one side to the next. So I’ve used some plastic strip to address it.