OldNYJim

Glad to see this one back on the bench - nice work with the design for those spindles!

Revell Olliegram

Salt-flats Bug that I’ve been very casually messing with for a few months…getting closer to being able to paint it, soon as I figure out a seat and steering wheel…

On a related note, my buddy Joey was playing with making a belly tank out of one of these: I picked one up to try it myself but didn’t mess with it yet. His mock-up looked cool enough for me to want to try it - and these kits aren’t super expensive as a starting point… Link to his Instagram (he has an awesome turtledeck T and a little tiny VW-based C cab truck that are worth the price of admission alone…): https://instagram.com/wagtag_rodshopandfab?igshid=YTQwZjQ0NmI0OA==

Great work so far - made me think of this build that I’ve been following on YouTube (only a Chevy instead of a Ford):

Nice tune-up Dave - thank you! I didn't specifically notice any, but did this update add any new features?

I picked up this file of a 150 gallon tank today to play with: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/belly-tank-lakester-150-us-gallons-model-kit-custom-diecast Looks like this, straight off the printer: Measures at around a scale 12 feet at the size I printed it at (so a touch shorter than the ‘big’ tanks, but actually bigger than I imagined one of these would be, having never seen one in the flesh…) For anyone who’s ever interested in buying a 3d print of something that you find a FILE for, but not a vendor selling prints, Cults3d offers an option to have the items printed and shipped to you when you check out. I haven’t used it personally, but may be of interest to any of you who don’t want to invest in a printer… Another tank size from the same designer: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/p38-bellytank-extended-20-streamliner-lakester-body

I think the preferred term now is “Dairy Product Delivery Specialists” ?

Stupid auto correct Apologies to any inebriated sailors out there tho - no negative inference was intended ?

I’m excited for the Fiat - always wanted to build one of those. Actually, I’d also like to modify one into a Barchetta 595, a 90s limited run production car designed and masterminded by McLaren F1 designer Peter Stevens:

Something I’ve been pondering on this kit, that I’m interested to see how you tackle, is the lack of a separate frame for the windshield. Great work on upgrading this old kit so far!

Atlantis is doing a free mystery kit with any $50 purchase; I KINDA wanna order something just to see what the kit is…but I’ve been spending like a drunken sailor lately. If anyone DOES take them up on this I’d be curious to see what you get!

Bonus half-day at the bench (happy thanksgiving!) - good chance for some more work on the body! Last night I shot some intercoat and then gave the body another light buff with an 8000 grit pad just to ensure it was nice and flat ready for the next steps: Next, some work on the tailgate…I designed a bootleg Ford logo a while back that I had never used and this seemed a good project for it. Cut a mask and laid down the same olive green I had already used on the drivetrain: That’s “York” as in “New”…not sure why my brain thought of that but some homecity-pride tends to show up in a lot of my projects somewhere… Next up, I needed to remove the mask and lay down another intercoat so that was a good opportunity to lay down some decals too. My backstory for this build is that it was maybe an old NYPD T that ended up getting rodded. Not totally impossible, although the ACTUAL NYPD Model Ts were black, and carried a subtler livery. They DID have some T pickups but basically as a historical recreation this thing is all wrong. The same brain of mine that made an Alternate-Universe Ford logo where Ford has a different name also thought this thing should be ivory, so…there it is. ?‍♂️ Decals applied: Another intercoat later, and back to the tailgate…cut a second (fractionally smaller) version of the same mask and laid it down marginally misaligned. Intentionally…but that sometimes happens unintentionally too… A light mist of white: Next up, a coat of dark green to match the decals: And after all the masks are removed: Not the most exciting masking / painting process (and that big photo really reveals the cleanup I need to do on it still before locking it under some clear) but it has a little more depth than just painting one pass of paint on there and looks pretty good held in my hands I think. Just a mini update, but more soon - thanks for looking!

I would be surprised if Atlantis didn’t have some kind of sale in the next few days - they have almost weekly 10% off coupons and less frequent 20-40% off deals. Round 2 has a few kits on Amazon marked down from the usual $35-40 to 33% off too right now (maybe with more to come when it actually IS Black Friday) I find general tools are a product more likely to get discounted to must-have levels…paint brushes, airbrushes, digital calipers - last year I got an ultrasonic cleaner (which is super useful for all kinds of modeling projects)…stuff like that.

I have one of these started and I immediately failed at overcoming said desire ? Turns out, for those so inclined, the Deuce chassis from the Revell 29/30 kits will very nearly drop right in there with very little grinding and cutting. Just mentioning it in case anyone reading this thread WAS curious about going down that path (although I haven’t fully explored it all myself just yet…) Good start ADL! Glad to see you back at it!!!

A little more this weekend…spent a bunch of time doing basically nothing - lots of sanding and priming…a couple of major steps completed overall tho… I’ve had a very particular colorscheme in mind for this one since I started it…first step of that was this pukey Vallejo Olive Green: Next major thing I wanted to get rolling was the bodywork. Laid down some Bondo to fix some glue damage on this old original body: I like using styrene to fix things wherever I can, then the 2-part Bondo which is this light blue stuff. Once I had it sanded smooth… …time for a little primer to see how straight this thing actually is… Actually wasn’t too bad! Needed a little filler to blend the trim pieces I added at the top of the not-doors, and a couple of little spots but nothing major. For jobs like this, I really like the regular red Bondo…it DOES shrink if you’re not careful, but for little tweaks and fixes like this I’ve found it works ok. A little more sanding and tweaking and we’ve got something almost ready for paint: I gave the body a few more little tweaks at this point - for final fine tuning I like Vallejo plastic putty - it’s great for fixing any micro scratches or pinholes and you can mix it with water to thin it way down. And finally, after all that sanding…some color on the body: This is the first couple of coats - I’ll nib out any dust or flaws tomorrow once it has shrunk down but the shade is just what I had in my head. A nice vintage aged-looking white/cream - and the exact opposite of the black that this thing is MEANT to be. Not a huge update; but getting paint on the body always FEELS like a huge update ?. More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Yep, that sounds like something I’d do ?. Thanks for the heads up (I would’ve looked at a reference pic eventually and worked it out, hopefully…) A little more this past few days…printed some tiny hand grenades… …to make a shift knob: Didn’t quite get this one drilled perfectly (they’re small and hard to hold) but I printed about 50 of the things so I’ll figure it out ? The seat back sat a little high for my liking so I chopped a couple of inches out of it: And as you can see I found a windshield that will work (flipped a Revell Deuce roadster part backwards and reshaped it a little: Some hot rod builds like a very careful curation of parts to meet a specific vision - and some are awesome because they have a bunch of stuff that happened to fit ok, sometimes used wrong, but still end up looking cool anyway. That’s what I’m going for on this one - less designing parts, more parts-box digging. Tried a few dashes before finding that a Model A dash from the current Revell kit fits pretty well, long as I don’t mind running the steering shaft right through the dash. Luckily, I didn’t mind that and it’s the kind of slightly-messed-up funky engineering I wanted this thing to have, so that’s another part mostly figured out: Sprint car steering wheel is from the same source - I love these wheels and have to make an effort not to put them on everything… Side note: The interior floor is sitting a little high in this mock-up, but there would be room for Lefty’s legs if he wanted to drive it, promise… Oh, and I got a vintage Bomber oxygen tank printed as a gas tank, plus a period correct Autolite battery mounted right out back: I’ve got a particular paintjob in mind for this one so I’m excited to get all the fabrication done to where I can start laying some paint down…getting closer! Trying to find some 50s Cadillac bullet taillights in my stash but I don’t have any 50s Cadillacs to rob them from…need to dig through some more kits and see if anything I have on the shelf has a set in the box… Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Love that color!

I had no idea that was even an option! They should tell people about that!

On a related note, Mooneyes dragster kits are under $17 on Amazon right now…I’ll be grabbing a few more for the exact reasons discussed above… https://a.co/d/4TYy9IW (not an advertisement, no relation to the seller, not a paid promotion etc etc) I’ve been grabbing multiples of these Atlantis kits just to have them to hand for future builds…so many awesome parts to steal for all kinds of period-correct 40s-60s hot rod projects!

I think the STOCK car looks 100x better than what Barris did with it - it’s such a beautiful, elegant design

Nice haul! I’ve got a couple of those to build - am I right in remembering that this kit has the skeleton figure in the box?

I’ve got a few kits I consider staples…actually, not even specific kits as SUCH but kits of particular cars I know I’m going to want to build a lot of. Model Ts, Model As, Deuces (any shape or window count), 34 Ford trucks and VW Beetles…if those were the only kits available to me for the rest of my life, I probably still wouldn’t run out of projects to accomplish…but those still only constitute probably 50% of my stash…

Thanks fellas! Nice build Earl…I’m planning a box-stock version too! Some more progress… Printed some adapters / wheelbacks to get the rear wheels mounted: And finally got this thing up on all fours: Still playing with ride height, but it’s nice to see it not on blocks so I can start tweaking the stance… In case anyone is curious, a Revell 32 Ford firewall fits this curve of the cowl GREAT - just needed to slice off some material on the bottom edge and we have a firewall: I don't need all that set-back though, so I smoothed it over: As you can see, found some parts box valve covers that were more interesting than what I had printed…no idea what they’re really for, but they were a perfect fit! Read a great thread on The HAMB about interesting small radiator options - people have used all kinds of rads from forklifts, old tractors, compact cars and so on…I decided that sounded interesting to me so I found a 1:1 sprint car sidepod radiator I liked and printed an approximation: Not that it’ll be very visible anyway… Next fabrication job was a floor…a good source of transtunnel material is dollar store party noisemakers - whatever these things are called: Not done yet, but started building that to figure out pedal placement and so on… Next up, some more printing - I wanted a 3x1 intake setup like the original Black Widow so I printed one today: Plus some header options - looks like the short ones are going to work best: Mocked up: My measurements were sound and they clear the steering link on the other side ok too: And that’s about where I am so far…plenty of fab to do before I’m ready to start laying down paint, but it’s getting closer! Thanks for looking - more soon!

Someone here (I’m pretty sure it was @Impalow) sent me a link one time to some paper candy wrappers that were the EXACT same paper as you see in cigarette packs - silver with the tiny square pattern. I ordered some at the time, but now my Amazon history doesn’t show that it ever existed, nor that I ever purchased it ? Might be a good lead to check tho - wouldn’t be surprised if Michael’s or Hobby Lobby carries a similar product