OldNYJim

Ever onwards, next thing was building the engine. I actually built a lightly detailed one already, but cracked open another kit so I could make a more detailed version... The inner edges of the engine aren't super flat (and glue won't stick to them very well anyway), so I flattened the two engine halves on a diamond file before glueing: Next up, flattened a couple of imperfections in the back of the shroud and masked with some poster tack before painting it black to match the box art (which I'm loosely following here): Then assembled the bulk of the chrome bits and the 2-piece shroud after drilling the engine for plug wires. In that little baggie are some 3d printed distributors that I had made - I'm going to use one on this build The coil is a pretty prominent part in a Beetle engine bay, so I used a nice machined one for this, and in this pic you can see the pulleys I made from PE parts and some tubestock - they still need a little tidyup at this point... And here's the little bracket (which actually bolts together to hold it tight!) that'll hold it in place Like so! That generator is scratchbuilt too, and has a little hole in where the real one would...and a commutator too! I used the kit carbs, but swapped out the oil filler for a machined piece with a photo etched cap, then (carefully) wired her up and added the fanbelt: Looks cool in the chassis! And looks cool hanging out of the back too! I'm pretty pleased with it! Did a couple of other tiny bits in the last couple of weeks too - fixed some rough edges on the signwriting And started scratchbuilding a dash More soon!

I was missing a part from a kit (actually, a whole sprue) and contacted Round 2 - they sent it almost exactly 3 weeks later and then it arrived a week or so later.

Ohh, too cool! Thanks Eric!!

Do either of the kits have the cute pop up lights as a building option?

I think its meant to be the filter on the pan, yes. Part 125 looks like a starter motor to me

I've got a big roll of signwriter's vinyl here that someone gave me - it's designed to be used on vehicles and and store windows and stuff. It's not ideal - proper frisket would be better as it's translucent and thinner...but the price was right on this stuff and it kinda works!

Thanks guys! For anyone interested, I was googling for pics of built examples of this kit (some of the directions are vague, at best) and found this STUNNING example! Bar: set! https://www.facebook.com/pg/theartofscalemodelingbyeerokumanto/photos/?tab=album&album_id=873092072761148

Ohh, I messed up ALL of them - and its particularly obvious to me in these bigger-than-life pictures...but I'm pretty pleased with it as it looks on my bench here! It would've made more sense to just outline the letters after, or do the black first...but its slightly easier to lay the vinyl masks up this way and get it how I wanted. Thanks for looking fellas!

Onto the chassis and interior next...my chassis had a flaw or some damage right out of the box that will need some attention - it'll be ALMOST completely hidden anyway when it's done but it was bugging me so I had to fix it... I cut out the affected area and used a couple of strips of styrene sheet to get the thickness right and build it back up A little filler to smooth it out and it'll be perfect! I painted the underside black to simulate undercoat, and then painted the interior floor Tamiya flat aluminum. Whilst that was drying I painted the trans tunnel, the front axle, the seats and some inner doors that I scratchbuilt as the kit doesn't have any I imagined the interior looking like all green vinyl to match the body - but it was too much green, so I added some black to the seat and bottom of the door cards - much better! I didn't really like the molded-in lapbelt on the seat, so I added a little photoetch and some matt vinyl sign material to the seats I like it! More soon, or as soon as I get to it!

So, after the paint had dried a couple of days and I was confident I could mask over it I designed some graphics to get the build name on the doors. I cut out the design on my vinyl cutter to make masks - you can just see the cuts on the vinyl if you look closely: This might get confusing with regards the order of events, but it'll all make sense in the end... So, first I masked up the doors: And laid down a Createx yellow-gold pearl base color Then, after that dried for a couple of days gave a gentle gradient from the edges with Tamiya clear red and orange Next up, I masked again (after a couple of days of drying) with this kinda 60s looking funky spiral pattern... And misted on some Createx opaque white. I chose the opaque Createx because it covers REALLY well over any color, but you can mist it on lightly to get some variation in shade too And remove the mask... Confused yet? I was. Next up, I applied masks for the actual lettering... And sprayed black And, carefully started to demask... Looks ok so far... And tada! Needs a touchup on the edges but nothing major - and then it's ready for clear!

So, this is a build for a contest on the Coffin Corner showrod site where members submitted names and everyone got someone else's name and had to build something to suit it. The contest finished last month, but I had a name left and still wanted to finish this one! Well, start it, finally...I've had since September The name I got was "Stink Bug" - and I kept thinking and thinking but I kept coming back to the (obvious) idea of using a Beetle kit. I picked up a Tamiya kit, and a Revell one too but neither of them inspired me much as hard as I tried, but then I saw this AMT Superbug kit on Amazon Daily Deals and had it delivered for $18 ? Its a nice kit - shows it's age a little with some flash and sink marks and stuff but some really nice pad printed tires and some option parts and stuff - a couple of choices of building options and tires and glass and decals and so on. I actually built the engine up already as per the instructions but decided I wanted to do a more detailed one once I was finished, so I have another kit on the way and I'll come back with some more details on that later. I figured whilst I wait for that I'd handle the body. First up, I glued the separate hood on to see how it fit. I'll leave the trunk lid off so the engine is easier to see - plus I've heard from people who've built this that the trunk doesn't fit anyway with the engine in The fit isnt awful but can definitely be better - so I filled those recessed trim lines on the nose so I can rescribe them and where the top of the hood meets the body will need some reshaping. So, I shot some primer to get an idea of how much work lay ahead Not awful - but the windshield needs a little tidy up, those gutters have some flash, and I need to rescribe the lines on the front and level them out nicely. Some sanding and rescribing later... Whilst the hood fit nice there were a couple of little gaps visible that let light in - really hard to see, but enough to bother me from certain angles so I tucked some round bar styrene in there just to resolve that. Late in the build, if you follow the directions, they tell you to add a couple of mounts inside either door to mount the chassis to the body. I didn't want to mess around with gluing parts to the inside of the finished painted body, so I mounted those now too Fits great! I sprayed the inside of the body flat black, and then sprayed the rest with Createx Pearl Emerald Green - this stuff lays down NICE This is before I've cleared it too! I laid down a couple of layers of clear so that I could mask over it for the next step - this color REALLY pops in the sunlight! Next up, I'm going to lay down some graphics on the doors there - something vintage gasser inspired

No pics yet, but I just picked up an 02 Miata - I LOVE it!! I've wanted one forever, and it's totally living up to my expectations so far - and exceeding them, actually

Interesting! I've just started messing with these too - I sprayed some black, right out of the bottle at high PSI 3 days ago and left it. Had a minute to work on some stuff today, picked them up and they were still tacky. This is over Tamiya primer - but the other Createx colors I've sprayed before have worked GREAT! Not sure what to make of it...

Paddy Wagon: http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/paddy_wagon.html

That thing got a Hemi?

Thanks fellas! Just a little update - got the silver laid down on all the parts that need to be candy yellow. Well, most of them, anyway... I got one little drip of paint on the interior part that I was hoping would level out, but didnt...so I had to sand that back for a recoat. Noone would probably notice, but I'd know it was there... Much better! More soon, when the weather allows!

http://www.showrods.com/showrod_pages/flameout.html

They make a lifeguard tower, a billboard and a skate ramp too https://www.boundlessbrooklyn.com/collections/boundless-brooklyn-model-kits

Here's a weird one from my collection:

I just meant I was interested to know i have a couple of those kits here and I doubt I paid much for them - I was just curious really. I'm still gonna build em, even if they are worth more than I suspected!

Are they rare, out of interest?

Today, I learned that AMT has included different chrome spear guns in TWO different kits!

I got this gift for my birthday from my Mother In Law back in the summer, and I've been thinking I wanted to tackle a (mostly) box stock showrod build for a while...so here goes! I'm going for a straight replica of the box art - I think it'll look great with the miniature display box that comes with this kit: This is really nicely done kit, for the most part - a huge sheet of decals, the miniature box, an AMT toolbox sticker and 4 (!) sets of glass in various colors First up, was ordering some supplies, so I got some Tamiya rattle can black for the 'body' and chassis, and spent some time looking for a yellow/gold candy that would match the box art nicely. I think I found it!! First up, gluing the engine halves and prepping the engine parts You can't see the engine in the box top art, but it's on the side of the box so I'm going to replicate that. Candy yellow block with plenty of chrome. Whilst I'm working on the yellow parts I figured I'd prep all of them and paint them all in one go - especially as they're going to be a multi-coat process. Next up was the pontoons - I smoothed out some little imperfections with some putty, and added some thin styrene strips to help locate them good and square One of the pontoons has a little red and white flag on, and the other a chromed speargun. Fun thing to note - the instructions show them reversed, not that it makes any difference to the build. The flag has a locating hole, but the speargun doesn't, so I drilled some holes in the back of the gun, carefully so as to not mark the chrome on the top, mounted pins, and made a couple of holes in the pontoon to help locate it when it's done. Excuse the wonky pin - it moved when I was photographing it as the glue was still drying. Next up, the rear aqualungs. I clamped them together overnight to dry, smoothed them out and primed to check them. Then, I assembled the regulator valve and some of the pipework The headlamps have some little shark fins to attach to the top of them. I was trying to think of a decent way to be able to keep the parts separate so I can paint the lamps black and the fins yellow like the box art easily...but they're too small to pin really and there's no holes or pegs or anything to locate them so I decided to glue them now and mask later. A harder painting job, but it'll look better in the end With them done, I glued up the 'body' and used a bunch of rubber bands to keep it in place overnight. As this will be gloss black, I really want to make sure that seam doesn't show so I'm going to prep this part carefully Whilst I was looking at the body, I came up with the idea of having a little working interior light in thereto illuminate it - kinda like a fish tank has! There's not much interior detail, but I figured it could be a cool detail to have the windows glow a little. I spent some time researching LED lighting kits for trains, dolls houses and stuff like that but couldn't find anything cheap enough or small enough. Then, I was getting off the train the other day and walking past a local grocery store and they had some little 50 cent light up keychains. Perfect! That little light, in the bottom of the pic, will work perfect! Small enough that I can hide it in the 'lid' of the body, but bright enough that it'll look cool and I can mount it in there with some poster tack or similar so that I keep this thing basically box stock. And a quick test...excuse the blurry photo... Perfect! You can see a little filler showing through the body here - there were some sink marks that I cleaned up in there before gluing it. Whilst I was messing with the interior, I decided to mock up the floor (which incorporates a seat and the pedals) with the periscope that also acts as steering in this design. The fit of the periscope to the floor wasn't great - really sloppy...so I found some plastic rod that gave a nice snug fit, drilled out the floor and inserted a short length of bar in there Worked perfect! Now it fits without even needing any glue, although it'll get a tiny drop when it's assembled anyway. So, with most of the candy yellow parts prepped and test fitted I'm just racking them all up ready for primer, then silver, then candy yellow Need to wait for the snow to clear here though, its way too cold to do any painting at the moment. Plus, I ran out of room on my turntable pretty quickly, so I need to find something else to mount them on. More soon though!

I got mail! I've been looking forward to getting this in my hands. 3d printed 'Certain T' body

When I lived in the Upper East Side, most of the 'beggars' were wearing more expensive clothes than I was ??‍♂