Ken

Okay, I actually didn't get home on time. I had to run and cover a police chase ending. So I was at work a couple of hours later than I planned. Anyway, I did get some work done on the chopper. I decided that I was satisfied with ride height, so I left it there. I got some primer on the engine to check for seams and such. I have some filling and sanding yet to do on that. I did make some handlebars. It took a couple of tries and they aren't bent to shape yet, but they are on the bike with pins. The pins are so that I can dry-fit them before painting. Here they are in their unbent glory. Now on to the other bits and pieces... still need to come up with a color scheme.

I am using pastels for the weathering on my M1 right now. I have heard and read that you can use white pastels, chalk pastels, not the oil, to make a sort of slurry for whitewash. When it dries, you can rub off selected spots to simulate wear and tear. I am going to try this on a 1/72 T34 I have laying around. I use both pastels and washes for weathering. I love the MIG pigments, although they are a bit pricey. I will PM you with my details.

Alright, there ya go!!! If anything, these choppers are quickly rekindling my enthusiasm for building. Glad to see you are pulling yours out!

Yeah, I have one of the Tiger 1 3-n1s when they first came out. I got stalled by all the little bits and thingies. I keep pulling it out and banging away on it occasionally. I also grabbed one the updated King Tiger kits as well. That one is a bit further along. It is at the really scary part... Camo painting time. I think I will go with a winter scheme. That way I can screw up the camo and then cover it with whitewash The new 'smart' kit stuff looks really cool. I have a Panther on the list to aquire. I have to finish the 1/48th one I started first Back to the M1. The hull will get restarted tonight with a much lighter coat of the anti-slip texture and then hopefully some paint this weekend. Then I just have to start all the baggage to load in the bustle rack and such.

Hey Jody, let me get home and dig around a bit. I think I have a set of wires that I can toss your way. It would just be the rims though, no tires.

Man Izzy, you tease!!! Crack that baby open and give us a review!! Besides, it might just be something that will bust your slump. I almost ponied up for one of these from Hobby World the other day. I decided to wait a bit. Eventually, I will have to break down and get one as I believe these to be the best looking Ferrari... Wait just a second as I put on my nomex underwear for the flames that are sure to follow that last remark...

While the Revell kit does not have all the bells and whistles of the Tamiya kit, your example shows that it build into a very nice example of the breed. Great job on the kit! Don't worry about the girls, every once and a while you gotta do, what you gotta do

Yeah Clayton, I also have never really had a problem with the testors stuff either. Well, except for their chrome/silver in the little bottle, I swear, that stuff never dries. The truck is looking good so far. Don't worry about the 'haters' giving ya ###### about not finishing things. If the missus gives you problems about your bench time, do what I do... Ask her if she would rather you spend the money on your girlfriend? When things calm down and she lets you back into the house, remember to get some flowers first....

Here is an idea, go back to the original commie theme. Make the exterior just killer. Great paint, great graffics, great rims, the whole shebang. Then black out the windows, but leave one rolled down. trash the interior, I mean just horrible. Rotted seats, maybe some dead rats and moldy bread, rusty chain steering wheel, torn headliner, got to town on it. Use a 4 cyl for an engine, but make it really greasy and grimey. Then it would really be a commie themed car. Great looking on the outside, but so horrible on the inside, that nobody in their right mind would want to own it

I was working on the 'cuda build off from another board and got stalled... For some reason I got bit by another bug. I had this Tamiya kit just sitting in my stash and it kept screaming at me. Eventually I had to shut it up. I cracked open the box and starting cutting and sanding. Before I knew it, it actually started to look like something. I have to admit, that this kit is typical Tamiya. The thing is pretty much falling together. I fixed a few inaccuracies with the kit, but I didn't go hog wild with the updates. I am trying to keep it box stock. Anyway, here are some pics. Yup, its a tready thing. The kit is boxed as an M1A2, but it is really an M1A1 with some A2 stuff thrown in the box. Business end of things. I added the non-slip texture with paint. I went a little too heavy on the upper hull, so it took a bath in CSC and neeeds redoing. It is not a Marine issue M1A1 as I did not like the look of the Marine-specific Dazzler that goes on the turret. So it will be an Army one, but it was Clayton and some chats with my brother that got the bug started. This is the commanders station. The periscopes are close to what the real ones look like. The real ones have an anti-laser coating that changes color as the viewing angle changes. Unexposed, developed color negative film backed with BMF works well to replicate this coating. The pictures do not show the weathering that is going on right now. I am not going really heavy on the weathering as most guys tend to overdo it in my opinion. These workhorses tend to get dusty and such, but not nearly as trashed as some make them out to be. Dragon just came out with an accurate and awesome M1A2 SEP that will eventually join the stash. The next Tamiya M1A1(I found them on sale a Hobby Lobby for about 1/3rd the sticker price) will be built as a Marine specific unit and be joined by a Humvee that is in the works. Eventually, I hope to add a TOW equiped LAV to the mix to match a picture my brother took while in the sandbox. That will be quite sometime down the road though.

Okay, so I ended up having a 12 hour work day yesterday, so nothing got done. Good thing that the wife works late tonight so I will have three hours of uninterupted bench time tonight. Hey John, I went to the bookstore yesterday during lunch to get the latest Traditional Rod and Kulture, CK Duluxe and picked up the latest Linux Journal(but that is something completely different and OT). Well, they had the latest issue of EasyRider mag there as well. On the cover, somewhere behind the scantily clad lady, was a bike that could have come straight from your builds. If you get by a newstand you should at least check out the cover. I would buy it, but then I would have to explain the ladies to the wife Anyway, I hope to get the stance and the frame finished up tonight. Once I do I will get some pics uploaded and update the thread. Of course, I also have to get my M1A1/2 back on track as well...

Okay, I started one a couple of months after they first came out. It stalled and has sat ever since. After seeing several of Ratrod's posts and takes on these kits the itch came back. One of the local places had them on sale for 7 bucks so I grabbed one. I started with the frame and extended the top bar and bent the lowers. The tank was next and it was made from sheets of .40 plastic laminated together. I then carved away anything that didn't look like the tank I was after. A couple of coats of evercoat metal glaze and I was good to go. Then I tackled the front forks. Following some of Ratrod's pointers I lowered the front forks to a better height. This is where I got too. It sat for a bit while I debated how to get it lower. Seeing the latest post by Ratrod got me started again. Once more with hints and tips from the Rat, I got the front even lower and the rear came down a bit as well. I am still not happy with the ride height as it sits right now. I may blow it apart and chop some more out of the forks. I will have to wait and see. Anyway, this is the end results of last nights work. Notice that it now only takes two sanding sticks to hold it up instead of the three in the first pic. I would like to lower it to one, maybe one and a half sanding sticks height. I will have to figure out if the front can go that low with the frame I have made. Again, I will have to sit and stare at it for a bit before deciding. Color is undecided as of yet.

The tank construction is completely ripped off from you. Just sheet plastic sandwhiched together. Then I just carved away anything that didn't look like the tank I wanted Putty also helps smooth things out. Yeah, the front forks are really long. I actually switched them out for a set out of one of the other bikes, which one escapes me right now. That lowered the front end enough. I thought about sectioning the upper bar and pie cutting the lower. Of course, then that leads to repositioning the belt drive and such, but it should be too much work Keep the updates coming and I will try to start my own thread on mine to keep you apprised of the going ons. Thanks for the ideas.

I can only second this comment. I did actually start one of the revell choppers due to your inspiriation. Not to hi-jack your thread, but here is my take. I gotta work out how to get it to sit lower. I look forward to your updates as they keep me movtivated to work on mine. Yours newest will definitely blow away the receiptiant. He is one lucky guy.

I must have missed the first post as well. Very Glad to see you doing better! Hope the recovery goes by quick.

Off the interweb, just a couple of minutes ago... Some new Aoshima wheels, they will look good on the F430 I have going right now. Tamiya 180SX, gonna be a slight tuner/racer boy look. I am thinking of taking the extra front end from the Nisimo R34 and adding it to the 180SX along with the rear end treatment. Gonna have to wait till it shows up before I know for certain Then I ordered this Sileighty as well. As infrequent as re-issues are from the Japanese companies, I figured I show get 'em when I see 'em. Add finally, I got this Trueno/corolla. A recent article in one of the Tuner magazines got me interested in the body style again. This one comes with an understated aero package, which is good by me. I don't care for the over the top wings and such. I am starting to get the tuner bug though... Now I just have to sit and wait by the door... Let the Pee-Pee dance begin

Are you gonna put a nissan engine in it?

Got mine started, but I keep getting side tracked. I thought I would go with Tamiya Haze Gray as the body color with red wires and accent. Kind of like Lyle's Gray ghost... only not so cool!! I think that my second one will be closer to this... I know, it is not a 32, but the spirit will remain. Of course, I could do this with any of the myriad of revell 31s that I have...

Animal House was just on this past weekend. I made my wife watch the last hour or so as she had never seen the movie. LXG has been shown recently with some of the behind the scenes stuff thrown in. They made extensive use of an RC car for some of the scenes. Yours looks the part exactly.

Reportedly the word 'Kemp' is slang for a car or truck, any make or model. I don't know if this is true, I think it may have been a regional term and not used in the widely circulated mags. Usually, most people nowadays know it from the KKOA- Kustom Kemps of America. Here is a link to their history page http://www.kustomkempsofamerica.com/history.htm

You can also search out the 'Blue Star Moms' in your area. I have done a bunch of stories with them. They will have addresses and such to help out.

Heck, if you are in the sandbox, I will send you a ton. Both myself and my brother are part of Uncle Sam's Misguided Children. I was a grunt back in the 80's and my brother was an LAV commander in thepush to Bagdad. In my job as a bloodsucking journalist, I almost made it over there myself. I wouldn't have been the only ex-marine photog. Surprisingly enough, there are a bunch of us that are marines that work for the networks... unfortunately, we aren't the ones writing the news.... oh jeesh, now you got me started. I really shouldn't drink scotch and read the boards. If you head to the sandbox, let me know. I can help out with more than models. (cigars and other stuff... I swear my DI lived off of tobacco, you aren't a hollywood marine are you) Man, my grammar was horrible.... I really shouldn't drink scotch and surf the boards,,,,

first set of wheels with the body color around the baby moons. Testors sells their laquer in jars. Thin it a bit and flow it around the baby moons. It may take a couple of coats to get the depth of color, but it will be worth it. I think that the problem with getting good pics of the second set is that they are either BBS style or wire wheels. There are so manyreflections, that the camera's resolution and flash create problems. See if you can shoot the wheels on a sunny day on a covered porch or a cloudy day. This will minimize the reflections and help with the pic. Oh yeah, a wash of either thinned black paint or india ink would help the second set of rims .

Try the V-dub engine with the supercharger from the dragster

That one had me rolling Are we thinking of the same one? Cause the one I have is based off of their excellent full detail kit. You might have gotten a bad run of it, but I don't think that this comes anywhere near 'worst kit ever' The Edsel while not I car I like, is a great kit along with the Starliner. Both have great proportions and detail. The engine in the Starliner is one of the best FE engines in scale. Again no where near 'worst kit ever' I will support you on the Arii Caddies, but you have got to go and look at the Monogram 59 caddy again. Once more, a model that when it came out was ground breaking. It changed the way most people thought about Monogram models. It was the peak of a run that started with the musclecar kits like the 70 Chevelle and continued on through the NASCAR craze. Monogram brought out the Caddy to rave reviews and stunning success. It firmly placed them on the same scale as Tamiya and Fujimi in the car market. The detail and molding in the 59 caddy were unheard of from an American model maker at the time. AMT had just started its own run with the introduction of the 66 Nova and the like. Have you built the 59 caddy. It goes together very well. Almost too easily. I still have one left from the original pink run and several from subsequent runs. Heck, it spawned the 59 coupe, the 59 impala and the 60 impala too. This was a kit of the decade contender and no where even in the same room as some of the other kits you have mentioned. Sorry to get on the soap box...