OldNYJim

Now you can dig holes twice as fast!

Fair point! Tom - did you look in-between the cushions on the couch? I'm always losing stuff down there

A shovel is a decent sized thing to misplace!

Yep, I got caught by Arrowhead about a decade ago - it was only a low value order but it never came. Also, Hiroboy - although I understand they're usually good. About 3 years ago I paid for some photoetch that they didn't have in stock and the guy messaged and said "we'll send it when it comes in". I just remembered about that!

Funnily enough, in the pic above they've parked them all in the manner that will get you a ticket if you do it with YOUR Smart car...Car2Go specifically warns you when you rent them to park them 'normally' (as in, not nose or tail to the curb) or risk a ticket.

For when you need to catch a criminal, but not a FAST criminal...

You're right - I wonder if it just has unusually narrow axles maybe? Spotted this two tone color-schemed Bentley nearby last week - wonder if that's a factory paint combination or something custom? Caught my eye anyway! And this cool BMW something-or-other. It sounded like a spaceship as the guy pulled away! Pretty cool, whatever it is: And as proof that you can't have nice things in New York, here's my one neighbor parking by braille, using my other neighbor's car as a guide of when you're definitely in the spot:

The proportions on that hot rod above are really weird. Like, it’s not wide enough and the wheelbase is too short or something - I’m not sure what it is.

What a username ??? Welcome!

Thanks for all the nice comments everyone! It's a fun little painting project! Just a regular $10 no-name gravity feed one from Chinese eBay, with my cheapie $50 Amazon compressor - nothing fancy! Did a little more on this today - shot the monster hand with some Createx pearl purple (after some 'fun' masking...): Then hit it with some Createx pearl blue: And finally, a little mist of Createx lime green pearl to make it look a little rotten at the bottom: More soon!

Interesting! I didn't know that, thanks Mark!

Digging up this old thread to ask; does anyone know the wheelbase of the AMT Parts Pack frame shown above?

Thanks buddy! Interesting about the master cylinder - makes sense! I'l have to remember that if I ever make one with the wheel on the other side!

That's a big help, thanks buddy! Just strap a seat to it and I'd drive it just like that Had some 'fun' with masking today...first up was the trans tunnel which needed to be a semi-gloss dark-grey kinda color: Not the most interesting job - but I wanted to keep the floors matt-finish so that the flocking will stick better when I get to that stage. With that done, next job was to mask up for the black bottles and hoses and whatnot in the engine bay: Tada! You'll notice that I ignored some of the molded-in hoses...I replaced those with some wire rather than try and paint them: Now that's mostly wrapped up, next job is the firewall. That too has some molded-in stuff that I want to replace...but the shape of this part is MUCH more condusive to just sanding them flat. Before: And after: More on that soon!

Thanks buddy! Small update for today - starting to think of the proper order to paint the engine - the block, trans, chassis brace, driveshaft and part of the rear axle are all molded in two convenient pieces, so it's going to take a little thinking about to get these painted properly: More soon!

Don't worry, Steve Scott has been taking preorders for the reissue of this for YEARS, and he's totally going to fulfill those orders any decade now ?

I'm interested Tom! Not in the cabs though, I can see 4 of those from my window - and a couple of black Toyotas so there's probably at least one Uber out there too on my block I should photograph one of our green cabs though for anyone interested...visitors to our place in Brooklyn are always curious about the boro cabs, which look just like the regular NY yellow cabs, but theyre a disgusting green color In other news, apparently this is the week when everyone in Brooklyn brings their Vettes out of storage: I keep spotting this McLaren driving around at rush hour - sounds NICE! I've seen a couple of these Fiat Spiders around - I like 'em! They're a Miata underneath but with Italian styling: This little 4x4 caught my eye - there's a trend lately that I've noticed around here for lowering these little SUVs and putting more interesting wheels on them: ...but this old beater truck that lives on my block is cooler, to my eyes! Seems to see daily service and probably has for a number of years now. Would be a cool one to build in scale, and a fun weathering project! Probably about a million miles on the thing, all just in this one neighborhood And finally, here's a weird wrap on a nice expensive Porsche: More cool rides and crimes against taste soon!

You do such beautiful, clean work Dann! What an inspiration! I always enjoy following your builds!

Thanks buddy! Good question! I agree with the others who say that the Tamiya kit is a little nicer, but I wanted to do a build with an engine! I'm planning a Tamiya one next, and then try kitbashing the two together! I figured it would be a good exercise to build one of these box-stock (ish) first though to get an idea of how it goes together and anything to watch out for. I'd really like a display of all the colors of original-genration Miata, so a blue NA with the Tamiya kit will probably be my next build. Just a tiny update, seeing as I'm posting anyway...got some clear coat on there! Looks SHINY! A couple of little specs of dust that I'll need to polish out (which is almost impossible to avoid seeing as I'm spraying this in my apartment), but not a bad base for a polishing job in a few days!

Ohh, I'd LOVE to see the photo etched bits! Very cool! I'd like to make some photoetch parts for one of these too - but if I do some searching I'm sure there's a set commercially available. Just a small update - got the body color on! I used Createx opaque red - I shot some on a spoon over a few different bases and compared to a red Miata that lives down the block from me and went from there. This paint dries flat, so it'll need clear, but I don't mind having clear coat to polish rather than 'bare' paint anyway - makes it a little easier to not cut through the edges to the base, even if it's not how the 1:1s are painted. More soon!

Thanks Vincent! Started doing some assembly on the engine today...love the look of the shiny chrome with that candy red block and trans! I had to sand smooth and BMF the air filter to get it perfect and remove some mold lines - the BMF covered it perfectly! More soon!

Gorgeous photos Bob! LOVE seeing a nice Miata or two! That photo of the three NCs is AWESOME! What a cool shot! I bet you had a BLAST! The looks of the NC took me a while to get into - that comment you always hear about them looking boat-ish rings a little true - but I would LOVE one! Actually, I think I'd like YOURS Interesting too that it drives BETTER than an NA - I figured with the extra weight they'd be WORSE than the early cars - now I REALLY wanna drive one!

A little update - got a bunch of chassis pieces painted...I used Createx sealer, Tamiya Chrome and then Tamiya Clear Red - love the look of these! Whilst I'm waiting for those to dry I shot the little canopy that mounts to the front of the cab with some Createx Opaque white and Opaque red - I'll hit this with some matt clear when it's dry to make the finishes consistent and make it look fabric-y: And after cleaning up all the ejector pin marks and shooting some sealer I started the paint on the wooden cab pieces that make up the doghouse - I've got a specific idea of how I want this to look, and it'll take a few steps, but for the first one I shot some Createx Transparent Red. More on that soon! Thanks for looking fellas!

Fotki went done on Tuesday, I believe - should be back now! Thanks for the nice comments everyone!

A small update, seeing as I'm messing with this thing today and was replying anyway... The interior tub piece on this kit actually has three functions - it's the interior tub, the inside of the engine bay AND the underside of the trans tunnel all in one piece. So, it's taking a little considerin' to paint it right. I shot it with grey primer before realising that some of it needed to be red, so I masked the engine bay part and shot it with some Createx red sealer: Used some tape to mask out a couple of bits I want to keep white: And shot it with some trademark Miata red: If you ever take the trans out of a Miata you'll see some body-color overspray in the trans tunnel over the underseal, so I let a little paint get in there too, not that it'll be super easy to see anyway... I've been thinking of what I can do to bring out some of the detail in the underside of the hood too: I'd like to do a more detailed build down the line that adds all this detail, but for this one I'm thinking of maybe trying to do something with paint to add a little depth maybe? I'm nervous to do a wash in case it looks dirty, but making it look a little less flat would be cool. More soon!