OldNYJim

It’s Frame Assembly Friday! Got the front and rear ends on - the rear took some fiddling but after some careful measuring and gluing I got it all straight and proper: The front was basically as-kit, except for the fact I inverted the crossmember to drop it a few inches...and with that done I could get the engine in and do a quick mock-up! I wanted a kinda roller-skate look with a wider front end than you often see nowadays - so I shimmed out the front axle so the tire edges are the same front and rear. I like how the rear looks with those accent-piece pink coils! And a quick mock-up with the body too - it’s looking pretty 90s Street-rod I’d say! More soon!

Outstanding inspirational work - I’m interested to see how you handle those door jambs!

Had a couple of days of prepping, sanding and priming parts this week, so didn’t have as many updates worth sharing. Made a little progress here though... Smoothed out those headers and changed the tips for some straighties rather than some bendies: Then shot them with some Molotow: I want to use SOME of the kit chrome on this build, but not nearly as much as it comes with...going for more of a monochromatic look like people used to do (just not pastel peach or mint green in this case ?) so I stripped and cleaned up a bunch of the suspension parts and got those painted and cleared ready for installation too... (Ignore the frame, that’s for another one I’m doing...) Whilst I was thinking about suspension pieces I decided I didn’t like the rear coil overs that come in the kit...they’re nicely done but I thought I could maybe improve on them a LITTLE. Now, the kit frame has two locators for the rear axle that wouldn’t work in 1:1 but make it easier to build, so I made things harder on myself by chopping them off. It looks better, but means that these little shocks will play a big part in locating the rear end properly. I made a little jig to make sure I could make them identical side to side relatively easily and made a pair that, whilst not totally accurate to a real shock are at least sturdy enough to hold the car up properly and not fall apart: Got them in paint ready for some assembly tomorrow: Finally, whilst I’m waiting for paint to dry so I can assemble some stuff, I cast some resin brake disks to swap out the kit drums and shot them with a little Rustoleum to give a little color variation from the Molotow and Alclad I’ve used elsewhere on the build so far: I’m running out of parts to paint, so some more-interesting stuff soon! ?

This looks GREAT! I really love that paint especially - super clean build!

Ah yeah, sorry, should’ve clarified! Not expecting anything to be happening right now, but we go maybe four times a year so if there’s anything later this year or already planned for next year I’d be interested to hear about it! Or any long standing clubs in IN or Chicago maybe?

Impressive section job - really nicely done! I like Josephine too - nice paint!

I agree 100%. Even the best looking metalizer never QUITE looks like metal to me. There’s a tonne of people whom I look up to who can lay down Alclads etc BEAUTIFULLY...but there really is nothing that looks like metal like metal. Or wood, or rubber or.... Anyway, as always the updates here are a joy to behold! Beautiful!

PS: before someone says it, I realise there’s a clubs and shows section - but it says it’s for announcements and info rather than questions...so here we are ? Feel free to move if I judged wrong, mods! Sorry and thank you ?

My wife has family in Valparaiso and visits a few times a year - are there any good model clubs or model shows in IN? I did some Googling and searching the site but my East Coast geographically-challenged self doesn’t know anything much west of Jersey ?‍♂️?. Could use some local knowledge please!

A Car-en

Thank you sir! I always enjoy really detailed threads too! I like seeing all the little steps! I didn’t go for a SUPER glossy dipped-in-syrup look for the frame, just not too lumpy ? Frames are HARD to polish, too many chances to burn through on the edges, but I gave it my best shot anyway! I like picking up supplies like that too when I see something useful! Got a bunch of weird wires and cords and stuff here! The engraving was an experimental technique which I’m going to keep working at. My Silhouette scrapbook cutter has an optional attachment that allows you to insert a pen or pencil in place of the blade. Good for card making and so on, I guess - you can have it duplicate a design multiple times and have it look hand-drawn. Instead of inserting a pen into the attachment I put a regular pin into a pin vice, inserted THAT into the machine and used it as a scribe with the cutter tracing the design onto some aluminum sheet. I actually used a little material from an unbranded beer can in this instance - my brother in law is a craft beer fan and a lot of small breweries don’t print their packaging like the big ones do. Their cans make great scratchbuilding and experimenting material! I’d like to try some other material from my stash and see what I can come up with - maybe see if I can trick the machine into doing some embossing to make nice bead lines and so on. Thank you! ? I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to have something worth posting each evening on my builds - but today was mostly sanding and prepping parts. Tomorrow’s adventure is messing with the kit headers: There’s an ejector pin mark on the back that I wanted to fill, I didn’t want to use ‘diverters’ (or whatever they’re actually called) for the optional underfloor exhaust system, and I had an idea for another little change I’d like to make too. More on that tomorrow! Thanks for looking everyone!

My word, that’s a lot of gauges! I can’t even think of what you’d need all those for. Speed, gas, revs, water temp...maybe a clock ⏰...then seven more for good measure ?

A little more bench time today - LOVE workbench Sundays! Shot the carbs and intake parts with Alclad and then plumbed them - I’m not sure if silver fuel lines exist, but the satin silver rubber cord I have here looks close enough to grey that I can say they’re grey if I have to ?: I wanted to do something for the transmission pan rather than just paint it and install it, and I had the idea of a little aluminum plate like the photoetched ones on the top, so I invented a parts company and drew up a logo... Then messed with it for WAY too long to get a layout I liked and engraved it on a little sheet aluminum to make the piece: It’s REALLY hard to photograph, but the engraving came out pretty nice - I’ll seal that and the pan with some Future to protect it from tarnishing (does aluminum tarnish? I guess it might eventually...) and make it look a little more finished before installing it onto the trans. Excuse my dirty finger - I usually have paint on my hands somewhere, and today it was black’s turn. Then, finally for today, a couple of quick mockups with the wheels I chose for this...This build seems to be leaning in a kinda 90s street rod direction in my mind, and these Boyd tri-spokes look pretty cool with it I think: The overall tire height is about a scale inch less than the kit tires, so coupled with the 3 inch-ish drop I gave the front and whatever I can reduce the rear by should have this thing sitting a fair bit lower than Revell intended. More soon!

Even cooler! Thanks for the info Snake!

I don’t know the answer - but I LOVE those seats! I’ve been looking for some like that for a project! Eagerly awaiting a response on where these parts are from from the MCM hive mind so I can track some of those down! ?

Oh wow, that’s gorgeous! Those lines ?. That’s just about perfect looking, to me! Is there a thread on this one Bill? I’d love to see more of it!

That’s really helpful, thank you! Funny thing - I was thinking the other day I’d like to make something Boydster-y...looks like I found my starting point! ?

Good news! My generic-brand streetrod radiator came in from Jegs! ? I added some hose-receivers top and bottom - I haven’t quite decided what kind of hoses I’ll run but I didn’t want them just disappearing into a hole, so I used some silver tubing for those. Then I wired the fan (man, that red wire was tiny - looks about in scale to me though, and correct if we pretend there’s two wires hidden inside it powering the motor) and added a drain plug and some other little bits - need to find a cap I like for it now! Didn’t go too crazy because you won’t see most of this when the engine’s in anyway but I wanted to do something to detail the kit part a little: Weird thing - I originally painted this gloss black to match the body but it looked awful - when I mated it to the grill shell it made the grill look real bulky and lumpy, so I stripped it back and reshot with a semigloss instead. Not often I have to strip a part because it looked TOO good ??. Id been waiting for some nice machined pulleys for the engine too - I took a shot on the ones I liked hoping they’d work ok but they’re just too deep compared to the kit part to work without moving the engine or messing with the frame...so I guess we’re using the kit part this time. Again though, they’re mostly hidden when the radiator is in and the hoses are on so not the end of the world... More soon!

And a couple more from our block - some sort of Merc that caught my eye, and a nice Rolls Royce - LOVE that red leather roof and interior!

What are the engine and parts options in this kit? I often see them listed on eBay for a fair price, but I’ve never actually seen what’s in the box...

Got lucky with a low-humidity day yesterday and shot a little clear: Got a couple of specks of dust in it that I can see, but nothing that won’t buff out...need to start making the rest of this thing now while the body does a couple or three weeks of drying...

Ohh yeah! Now we’re talking!!! ?

@IbuildScaleModels, out of interest, how soft is “too soft” for a rubber tire? Presumably any RTV mould material will sustain the weight of about any kit and is tough enough to make a tire that you can stretch into a rim. What’s the problem that you are running into with them? Mainly asking because I was just contemplating doing the same thing myself - mix some resin dye with RTV and see if I can make some usable tires!

Finally something worth seeing in our neighborhood after weeks of nothing more interesting than the UPS truck ?

That was it! Thank you!!! I grabbed one in Target last Halloween so I could open it up and see if the skulls had changed...and yep, they weren’t there! ??‍♂️? Thanks buddy! Got the frame polished (which took three repaints before I got it where I was happy) and the block painted - these two bits took me a few tries and were holding up basically everything else, so I’m glad they’re done finally! Haven’t seen valve covers like those since the nineties...I thought they’d fit this build tho! More soon!