OldNYJim

Mine was today! ? Got the new Deuce sedan reissue… and a new airbrush compressor - same as the old one, but with a tank…

Mine came in a bubble mailer - Amazon hasn’t got good at shipping kit boxes yet apparently I wonder tho if sellers have any say in the packaging used for sending their merch, and they need to specify to put these kits in actual Amazon boxes? Seems dumb that I can order $3s worth of pencils or something and they come in a huge box, but a kit comes stuffed in a padded envelope... Still…price was good and my LHS doesn’t have any of these, so…

I told the kid at the tire shop that my Mustang was ‘in gear’ to make sure he didn’t accidentally crank it and drive it thru their planter at the weekend - he said “oh…it’s a stick? Cool!!!” Im sure he’s seen plenty before, but I was surprised it was uncommon enough to be worth mentioning. I suck at driving my wife’s (auto) Passat - I’m always trying to pump the non-existent third pedal and reaching down instinctively to change gear when the autobox isn’t quite doing what I wanted ?

Three that stick in my mind as my all-time favorite builds, and ones that I want to make my own heavily-influenced-versions-of would probably be, in no particular order… @tim boyd’s stretched out T primer rod - I’m not going to post a photo without his permission but here’s a link to a shot of it: https://public.fotki.com/funman1712/tim-boyds-124th--12/boyd-street-rods-ra/boydstreetrodsratro/dsc0122.html Closely tied with his little blue blown “Olds Rod” that used a Beverly Hillbillies Oldsmobile body to make the Oldsmobile version of a T-bucket…can’t find a pic of that one right now ? @John Teresi‘s take on the Iron Lung showrod (build thread below): And Pat Covert’s 3-window Deuce converted to a roadster from twenty-plus years ago: Excuse the poor pic, couldn’t find a good shot of it online… So many builders inspire me though and I’m constantly seeing cool build ideas - and the really REALLY good ones stick in my mind years and years after seeing them - and I’ll eventually collect the parts to build my tribute to all of them!

Agreed - that razor-thin A pillar makes me think it’s not real, the wiper arm that has no wiper, the weird shape of the top of the front bumper and a bunch of other little things. Still cool tho!

Coupla three swap meet finds today… Revell 37 Truck kit, $10 AMT Silhouette and trailer, $5 This cool T-bird custom, $5 And this Premier Corvette, which doesn’t look much like a Corvette but was cool enough that I wanted it… Made in Brooklyn! Not far from our last apartment if ‘Brooklyn 21’ was where I think it was…kinda cool! This one didn’t follow me home… …and this would’ve had potential but the really good stuff was all overpriced… $10 for a pair of old AMT wheels, then another $10 for the tires…booo… Still, happy with what I did bring home!

And the Kent Fuller kit is up for preorder: https://atlantis-models.com/preorder-keelers-kustoms-kent-fuller-dragster-1-25/

That looks great with the blue wheels and baby blue stripes

Yeah, that Testor’s lacquer is TOUGH to remove for sure…had the same battle with (I think) that same purple

Well, we’re into that stage of a build where you’re just endlessly priming and sanding and priming and sanding…but we’re getting closer to being ready for paint now, finally… Finished up the tin work for inside the hood and shot a base of primer on the body to see what would need attention… And, as you can see, printed a curious bystander… Couple of rounds of filler, and we’re getting closer…did some careful work on top of the front fenders especially… Not done, but closer! While that endless cycle was happening, did some work on the dash…spun up a flower vase, like the early Beetles used to have and added a grab handle: Still need to fix those recesses at this point, but it looks about how I imagined… And then, onto the engine - which actually builds up nicely, if a little unconventionally compared to a regular domestic kit engine: What I’d like to do tho is give this a similarly smoothed-look to match the rest of the build, like some builders do with their 1:1s: So, a little cleaning up and simplifying later… Turned a simple air filter, alternator, pulleys and oil cap on my lathe and added that 3D printed distributor and drilled everyone that will get wires and hoses ready for, err, wires and hoses, and that’s another piece of the puzzle completed. Plenty more to do, but I’m excited to be almost at the color stage now…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Yep! That too! https://youtube.com/@claykemp?si=7phh4xHCsFxwa6qE

This is incredible, inspiring work - on what looks like a somewhat disappointing kit. Kudos to you on all the upgrades and details you’re adding!

I haven’t built one of those, personally, but one of my modeling heroes and one of the best builders of oval stuff is Clay Kemp - his Instagram is a goldmine of amazing work on all kinds of oval cars: https://www.instagram.com/claykemp112?igsh=MW9pMDQ1eTYyc3Q1cQ==

I’ve always wanted to build one of these…I’ll be watching!

Still $25, delivered, on Amazon with Prime right now… https://a.co/d/cbvynZO

Thank you!! Some more progress this week… I’m modifying the interior somewhat to kinda smooth it out and simplify it - trying to hit that balance between TOO simple, and tastefully simplified…made some new ‘fabric’ inserts to clean up the door cards, plus smoothed out one of the two dashes that come in the box: Started gluing in some filler pieces for the turn signals too - I’m MOSTLY leaving the body alone apart from a few tiny little fills and de-clutters… Somewhere I’m adding detail back in is under the (front) hood - the kit doesn’t come with any of the metalwork you’d normally see on a 1:1, but even if it did I’ve lowered it so much now it would probably be useless. Cut some card templates and started making my own… I think I’d like to leave some open spots in there so some of the suspension pieces peek through a little, but I’m not totally set on that yet…piece looks like this, in place: Next up was finding a gas tank (modified from a Polar Lights Beetle kit) and making a tank for the air ride: I need some little air compressors to fill the tank…found a cool file by Matty’s on Cults3d that actually had a tank too…but most importantly had the compressors I needed… That tiny doodad is the remote to control the ride height, in case you were wondering… I was struggling to figure out what I wanted to do for seats for this thing…I wanted something simple and different to the kit’s stock seats, even tho the whole interior on this kit is REALLY nicely done. I tried some parts box seats, which I KINDA liked… …but they weren’t really in line with the smoothed-out concept I’m going for…but I think THIS could work: Separated an extra rear bench seat and tried it in the front and immediately LOVED it…I don’t recall seeing this done before (although I’m sure it has) but I think that’s the winner for me. Probably going to add some accessories to the interior for some visual interest - boombox and a cooler maybe? LOTS to do still, but I’m nearly done ‘sketching’ with parts here…it’s starting to come together! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Got to see the Northern lights right out front of our house (kinda, anyway…)

I don’t know if you HAVE RTV resin already for this project, but I’ve seen people use this stuff for similar projects: https://a.co/d/iRP3Ka4 Benefit is, you roll it into a ball, press it onto the thing you’re replicating and then it hardens whilst maintaining it’s shape - no need for dams or boxes

Yeah, you definitely need to watch where you’re riding - gotta dodge all the pebbles and cracks in the sidewalk for sure!

I rode one of these in Florida a few weeks back and really wanted one for running nearby errands now I’m back home… Segway electric scooter - hits around 15, has traction control and ABS braking (!), regenerative charging when you brake or ride downhill, super-bright head and brake lights, digital display… Charges in 3.5 hours and has a 15 mile range or so (although not if you’ve got it cranked to flat-out mode like I have currently) and you can install a software upgrade that will give you another 10mph or so if you’re feeling brave. Fun little summer toy!

I actually don’t have any of those kits, but I have a couple of the Revell boots here somewhere for sure…thank you! So, next project on this one, now I’ve got the body sorta half done is figuring out front and rear suspension. I really like these air-ride Beetle setups: I like the technology, I like that you can sit a car right in the dirt and raise it up in seconds and I like the relative simplicity of them, so I’m going to modify my Revell pan to somewhat resemble one of these… First step, a 3D printed dropped front axle (designed for the Tamiya 1:24 Beetles, but works ok here too with a little rescaling): I modified the chassis a little to mount the front end (the kit has part of this detail molded in) and modified the kit swing arms to fit, but nothing too complicated… The rear end needed some tweaks too so I could get the wheels I’ve chosen to snuggle into the arches - I relocated where the wheel centers land relative to the swing arms (which is kind of a cheat, but would work in 1:1 too I’m pretty sure) and made some new, more angled, driveshafts to reflect what dropping the rear end this far would do to them… The airbags for the rear end will sit just forwards of the driveshafts up against the floorpan, which meant the stock Beetle exhaust (which I think routes backwards to provide heat to the interior?) won’t work anymore, hence the aftermarket exhaust… It’s much cleaner looking anyway, which I like, so I’m happy with that… And as you can see, I selected a wheel - something kinda modern, VERY simple, kinda classic and not something you see commonly applied to a Beetle…these are Smoothie rims by Slowly’s Models: I’m doing the stages I think of as “sketching in” the build right now - just getting the major components kinda in place and correct before working back thru and adding detail…next job will be the interior. Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Well, that was a wasted trip ?

If your Michael’s DOES have models, they have 50% off regular priced items right now in the Michael’s app - I’m going to check out my local store this morning

So, I started a drop-top Bug build earlier in the year and got REALLY close to finishing it but there were three or four little things bothering me about it, and I had three or four more ideas on things I could do…but I really didn’t want to ruin the work I had done on it already. I’m still kinda nibbling away at it but I wanted to try a version with a ‘clean slate’ too. Luckily, styrene is cheap(ish) so I’m going to do just that…picked this up from the Lobby of Hobby for under $10 a while back… Now, clearly, this is the sedan version - but I like how these kits go together (they practically FALL together, in fact) and it was cheap enough I won’t be mad if I ruin it… First up - roof chop! I’m really not any kind of a Beetle expert, and I doubt I’ll ever become one - there’s so many subtle variations between different models that it’s tough to keep track of them all…but an obvious difference between the regular sedan bodies and the drop tops is the height of the belt line and the shape and height of the top of the windshield: So, first step on this project was separating the pillars from the body, adding some super-thin gauge steel rod for strength and reassembling with a flatter top piece: I need to add back in the rubber gasket detail that I’m missing here, which makes the frame look too large…but first, I added some height to the doors to more accurately reflect how the 1:1 drop tops look: Only just getting started on this one the last couple of nights, and obviously plenty to do…I’m sure I’ll make some mistakes that will jump out to VW aficionados but this won’t be a stock build by a long-shot anyway so hopefully I have some wiggle room…next job will be squaring off the top of those pillars and adding whatever you see from the top view… Thanks for looking - more soon!

That’s a great color!