OldNYJim

Glad to see this one back in rotation! Fabbing exhausts is about a -1 on a scale of 1-10 of things I enjoy, but you always do a nice job of that

Next car kit from Atlantis, presumably…posted on their Instagram today:

Convert the ambulance kit back into a surf wagon ? This is looking great David - enjoying this build! Nice work on the little details

This is coming together nicely! Nice work!

I never knew those existed - but they’re cool! I need to pick up a set of those…thanks for alerting me to their existence! I assume there’s no detail on the flipside?

That looks like a great base for the color!

Oh man, now I GOTTA build that ?

Yessir, there was definitely some flash to deal with. And I’m with you on the ‘cambered look’ - a little on a racecar is cool, but the ‘flattened’ look isn’t my favorite. That said, I’m going with it on this one, because that’s kinda what happens with these things I guess if you really dump them down - the rear in particular, due to the suspension geometry. I did a heavily-lowered Beetle a couple of years back and did it in such a way that the extreme-camber thing DIDN’T happen, then every show I took it too, someone told me I forgot the camber ?. Oh well ?‍♂️ Thank you sir! A little more progress today… Got the body mostly polished out and waxed: I was determined to use a photoetch center section for the steering wheel, but couldn’t find a spare hoop that would work…decided to fire up the lathe: And just made one… I was planning on painting it, but the color of the copper DOES kinda work well with the theme…need to decide on what to do with the center cap too…right now it’s just a little threaded bar that the wheel spins onto… Speaking of wheels, I wanted a gunmetal center for the wheels with a billet-looking outer, so I shot some Tamiya acrylic… …then a coat of intercoat, then masked with some Silly Putty: Note: if you leave Silly Putty for a few minutes it’ll start to flatten itself out and seals the edges really nicely… Next some Hyperchrome over the satin silver: And some careful de-masking…(and a silver pen for the lugs…) Still some work to do on these, but I shot the 3d-printed tires today too so that I’m ready with those… The pile of ‘finished’ bits is starting to build up now… Pile of unfinished bits is still pretty big tho ?. More soon, soon as I’ve done more, thanks for looking!

Atlantis had a 20% off sale last weekend, so I took the opportunity to grab some kits I was missing from my collection… And this one only barely fit in the photo booth… I’ve got all their 1:24 / 1:25 kits that they’ve issued to date now…just need to actually build them ?. NOTE: I got the Boss Fink kit because as best I can tell it’s basically the Roth Tweedy Pie minus the wheels and tires but with a big Ed Roth, and I want to build a ‘conventional’ Tweedy Pie replica…

Thanks fellas! Thanks Bob! I didn’t actually paint it yet - need to make sure it fits the body ok… It’s paint week here - working thru tonnes of little parts and prepping them for base colors…did some slightly more fun stuff too tho… Painted the interior panels…they started off peach: Masked them for the second color of the three I had in mind…couldn’t find the exact color I wanted in ‘regular’ paints, but this Crayola paint worked well ? Then, shot a coat of intercoat and then remasked for the third color: Then de-masked: Carpet color will be brown, so that’ll tie together the orange tones and the brown on the interior (hopefully)…masked the chassis for embossing powder: Applied some custom mixed powder over Testors brown enamel: I’m excited to see the interior all together… Meanwhile, have been clearcoating the body - this is coat five of seven: Painted the license plates, first with white, then clear lacquer, then Createx black - you can remove the Createx with an alcohol wipe, leaving the white copy and border visible: Found a gauge face that would work for the dash - it’s not super high resolution, but it’s better than the ‘no gauge face’ the kit comes with… Then went thru the dash and started adding switches, a ring for the speedo and some photoetch…not quite done with this yet, but the little metal switches really catch the eye and add some nice detail when you see it in real life: Still PLENTY to do, and the way this kit assembles doesn’t really encourage building sub-assemblies so it’s touch to get any ‘big stuff’ together, but hopefully that means it’ll come together quickly at the end…thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I was in Hobby Lobby, trying not to buy any kits but I never built this kit and I always wanted to, so… Plus some copper and aluminum rod, to feed my lathe

I was constantly looking for something just like this, but really cheap, for mixing up paint, glue, epoxy…any kind of liquid I’d use at my bench. Picked up some tattoo artist’s mixing cups - they’re REALLY cheap, come in a few different sizes and you can pick up handy dandy little stands or racks to hold them if you need such a thing: https://a.co/d/6TBLJdD

I just got some from Amazon… https://a.co/d/elFey2d An alternate listing: https://a.co/d/fHD2Cvd

This is absolutely outstanding work - and the weathering you did on the underside is first class. THANK YOU for sharing!

That’s a GREAT looking build Bob, and you’re so close!!! I’d love to see this one completed - this kit is on my to-do list too…git ‘er done!

I was thinking today about how, in literature, they have the ‘canon’ - a list of books that are considered must-reads and important works that have stood the test of time. That got me to thinking…what are the must-build classic kits that a builder attempting to know kit history and consider themselves ‘well read’ should build in their lifetime? Not necessarily just easy to build kits that fall together, or kits that we personally could build often, but ones that are important somehow to the landscape of scale modeling? I’m thinking, say, the Red Baron (probably one of the best selling kits of all time), or maybe the Revell 32 Fords, or the AMT 40 Ford or the old Revell double kits or…. ?‍♂️ I’d be interested to know which kits people here consider to be not just GOOD kits, but CLASSICS?

Thanks Bob! And thank you David! I’m only getting a lot done because it’s the weekend ? A little more today…felt brave enough to mask on the body so I laid down the next few little bits of detail painting…I’m not going WILD on this one, but had a couple of little touches I wanted to add… All masked and ready: All I’m doing here is adding a couple of little highlights…a couple of small scallops coming off the top of the headlamps, painting a stripe on the hood and adding a little strip of gradient along the sides… Paint shot! And some careful de-masking later… Nothing too crazy, just a couple of little touches… Whilst I was painting, I 3D printed a tiny Ratfink and shot him in Wicked Color silver then candy orange, and whilst that was drying shot the fabric roof cover with some craft acrylic that matched the color I wanted: That Rat Fink was tough to paint…still not quite done… And after I didn’t feel like painting any more today, I did some more work on engine parts…the kit distributor looks undersized to me (and was going to be about impossible to wire) so I printed one and spun up a mount for it: Even the larger one I printed is still TINY, so excuse the poor photo… Got it painted, made some plug boots and got it wired ready for installation: And that’s about it for this weekend…thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

When you see the 1:1 bike in the truck, it’s not immediately obvious just how wild the bike is too! Nice work capturing that John!

Thanks fellas! Appreciate the nice comments! So, the body is awaiting some more paint… I shot a couple of coats of intercoat just to make doubly sure I don’t end up hurting it with the next steps, but whilst that has been sitting and waiting I made some more progress… Picked out my base color for the interior and started laying it down…I originally thought tan, but decided on a nice peach to tie it to the body… These parts have a couple more colors, but they too are in intercoat purgatory… Ordered some photoetch - not all of this will end up on this build, but I’ve been slowly collecting Highlight Model Studio’s VW and Mooneyes collection… Shot a bunch of pieces in a flake silver… And then shot the same Tamiya clear orange over top: Reprinted one of the bumpers, because the first one I printed had a super-thin wall thickness and it got broken…thickened them up and made a new batch: And whilst the paint is drying on the engine block I started looking through the rest of the kit pieces and identified some areas for improvement…spun some pulleys on the lathe: Then those pulleys made the alternator (generator?) look bad, so I made one of those too: And then the air filter looked out of place so I made one of those: Not a tonne of progress since the last update, but I’ve got a bunch of stuff in primer and various parts waiting for clear so I’ll get to start making some sub-assemblies soon - exciting! Thanks for looking, more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Got some nice photoetch by Highlight Model Studio in the mail - excited to get to use these! Some of them will probably end up on that Beetle they’re in front of…

I had one of these when they were first issued (95, 96?) and completely ruined it. Glad to get a second chance at this one!

Mine too! ? Yessir! Haha - yeah, I’m not normally a fan of that squashed-out look, but that’s kinda how Beetles look when you REALLY lower them, I guess…but it still makes me feel a little weird ? So, small update…spent all evening playing with the airbrush, which is my favorite thing to do, pretty much…shot the first color, Createx Pearl Orange over top the fluorescent base color: Using the bright base really helped bring this color out - it can look a little too brown even over a while base but I’m pleased with this color. Not that I’m smart enough to leave a good thing well enough alone…next step is some Wicked Colors Pearl yellow to add some highlights… Really happy with how that looks - it practically GLOWS under the lights of the photobooth…not done yet though… I wanted to add some gold flip to the whole arrangement, so I mixed up some Pearl-Ex bright gold with some Future clear: I few mist coats of that over top my work so far - any of these mica powders seem to help blend together gradients when used over a similar color, and in the sunlight you get an extra layer of sparkle and color-flip on top of what we're already getting from the paint. A subtle change, but makes a big difference under natural light: And then, finally, one more layer for tonight…I didn’t want the gold flake interfering with this last color, hence shooting it before adding some ‘lowlights’ around the bottom edges: Plenty more to do on, well, everything - but I was excited with tonight’s progress! Thanks for looking, more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

This is coming together great Steve! Nice work on detailing that engine, and the brake master…nice touches!

Especially criticizing a well-respected member who has since passed away… I still love this build, for what it’s worth - I wanna build one just like it!

Thanks guys! @David G. - that plate looks good, I’ve been wondering if I could make a tool with the 3D printer with a female and male side so I could ‘stamp’ plates for real…haven’t played with that idea too much yet though… A little more progress today…first some tedious but necessary work - filled some holes in the floor, tweaked the recesses that the new seats will sit into and closed a gap or two that needed closing… Also, I’ve been preparing the interior parts for paint, and they’re mostly pretty good, but I didn’t like the steering column…turned a billet one on the lathe faster than I could’ve cleaned up the kit part… Won’t be SUPER visible on the finished build, but better than the blobular kit part at least… Then, onto some fun stuff! Well, actually, a bunch of tedious priming, filling, sanding and repriming… …but got it about there eventually… Last chance at a mockup before I get into paint… I’m going with a pearl orange paintjob on this one, nothing too crazy but with some little details at least…but to make the orange really pop I’m shooting it over a fluorescent base. I laid down some Createx white sealer first, as the fluorescents aren’t fluorescent if you don’t… Gave it a wetsand once it dried, got it level, and then….. Yep, that should be bright enough of a base ?. I’ll let it set up overnight, nib out any flaws and then it’s time for the ‘real’ color…exciting! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!