OldNYJim

Pffttt, I’m a real hack compared to you…but thank you! A little more hackery today… Printed up a master cylinder, and made a linkage to the hand lever: Now, reference pics of the master cylinder placement and type for a 1952 Midget are hard to come by, and this almost certainly isn’t accurate…but I think it COULD work and was the easiest way for it TO work, so I’m relatively happy. Luckily, it’s almost completely hidden under the seat anyway, but I don’t want to have brake lines running to nowhere… With that completed, the only major component left to test fit was the rear nerf bar. I mocked up the kit piece and really couldn’t find much reason to completely remake it (for once - ha!) so I cleaned it up, drilled it for some pins to make final assembly easier and called it done: Actually, that part caused me to do some deep thinking…really this part SHOULDN’T mount to the body, and wouldn’t on the real car…but my goal with this build was to build the best version of Monogram’s first car kit and not to build a perfect Kurtis Kraft Midget. I said in my first post I wanted to keep the essence of this kit, and I really didn’t want to spoil the pretty simple lines of the body by hacking away at a bunch of it to allow for mounts and brackets and stuff that WOULD be on a real car, but that would detract somewhat from this recognizably being a Monogram Midget. This is a tribute to that early 50s car kit, and I’m allowing some intentional inaccuracies as compromises to achieve that. Same thing with the frame - it’s not a perfect replica of a real one, but it’s the right style and fits around the constraints of the kit parts. So, sticking to my original plan, we’re going to pretend that the nerf bar runs through the body to some hidden mounts on the frame that don’t interfere with the overall look of the car and still allow it’s clean lines. I can live with that 🤷‍♂️ And, with that, time to strip it all down and REALLY get to work…time to start paint prep - the brass parts need a bath in a solution to stop the solder flux eventually ruining the paint and I started with the frame this evening: Also started a little prep on the bodywork to get that in primer and see what all it will need…I’m basically at the stage now where I’m opening the box of this kit I’ve made, and now I need to see what prep and detail work the manufacturer (me) left for me! Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Upload option also missing on mobile version (Firefox for iOS on an iPhone)…

This info is REALLY helpful - thank you Mark! There are a decent amount of pics online of the slot version, but finding good reference pics of what the plastic kit version were like is tough…REALLY appreciate it!!

Do you have one of the plastic kits Mark? Would love to see a pic, if you do! And thanks for the info!

Been working through printing up this 3D file that is a (somewhat) replica of the 1:24 Revell Hot Shot Midget kit from the 60s: The file isn’t great - it’s taking a lot of work to get parts close to print-ready (and I had a ‘short shot’ on the print on one corner, hence the little pink repair piece) but I’m pretty pleased with them so far and excited to get the rest of the parts printed so I can start painting them both

Next couple of bits of progress on my Midget build… I’m getting the last bits of construction done on the frame so I can get it cleaned up and prepped for paint, but I hadn’t figured out the little ‘luggage rack’ that holds the gas tank. Why this little rack is used rather than bolting the tank direct to the frame, I’m not sure…protect the tank from damage and vibration maybe? Regardless, here’s a 1:1 example, albeit on a pretty dirty and beaten up frame: I tried bending up a brass wire version but it was tough…tried a few techniques, and I got a couple where the shape was good, but getting a tiny solder joint and smoothing it out nicely on in-scale wire was beyond my current skills… So, I printed one…it’s REALLY delicate but it was the second best solution I could figure out: I think that 1:1 frame in my reference pic has been lengthened a little in the back compared to the plans I have - my tank overhangs the back of the frame more, but it fits inside the body A-OK and looks about right to me…couldn’t find good measurements for these tanks so I’m eyeball-engineering a lot of this to get as close as I can… In other news, I had already figured out the brakes once and resin cast some disks for all four corners, but when I was inspecting the original kit wheels the rears look like they have molded in drums…they could’ve easily made them look like disks if that’s what they were representing, but I think they’re drums. So, I pulled some pre-printed early-Ford drums (to match the early-Ford axle) and tweaked them to fit, and had my first chance at actually seeing this thing on all four of it’s wheels at the same time: Actually, I didn’t fully re-assemble the front end for this pic, so it’s raked low in front, but it was exciting to see this cute little frame kinda-together! Next job is brake master cylinder…need to figure out where IT should live and how it interfaces with the brake lever (remember, no brake pedal on this one)…and whilst I’ve been working on this I’ve been slowly printing parts for my (kinda) replica of the 60s 1:24 Revell Hot Shot…gonna build a couple of these at some point: Soon as I learn some figure painting skills anyway… Thanks for looking - more soon!

Same here in all three of the stores local to me - even going back two years the stores were a real mess…boxes and stock on the floors, in the aisles, everything a mess Not sure how a large chain like this even would ALLOW their stores to look so unpresentable and messy, but it LOOKED like no one cared and they were going out of business long before they actually were. Surprised no one ever fell over a box or something and sued them

Those kits are surprisingly detailed and well-done for a self-proclaimed Snap-kit - they’re a fun build!

Had an AWESOME weekend visiting South Bend Indiana…partly to visit family but secretly to check out the National Studebaker Museum - particularly because they have a Midget and I wanted to try and get some detail shots up-close: Now, not everything about this car is useful as reference for me…it’s a different frame, different engine, I’m pretty sure it’s been restored…but there were some useful little details that I’ll get to later… But, I came back excited to work on this build and, although tired from some travel, got a few little bits done this evening… Started to scratchbuild a dash. The kit part is fine, but I wanted to add a little depth to the gauges so I can recess the faces down and add some lenses…nothing too exciting: I got a good reference pic of the brake lever and hand fuel pump of that 1:1 car today, so this evening I remade the kit parts… The 1:1: Side note: taking pics of this car were kinda tricky - it was behind ropes and signs and jammed in between other cars, but I got some semi-useful pics of about everything but the back. New brake lever, with kit part below it: The little button on the top of these levers is an engine kill switch - they’ll use that while racing to momentarily kill the motor to aid in cornering, apparently… This part will nudge up closer to the body, but I needed to make sure it cleared the hand fuel pump also, so I made that next: Now, I’m actually not matching the 1:1 parts I saw EXACTLY here, I’m really using them as a reference and mixing them with the kit part’s design, and like about every part on this build, still some shaping to do and detail to add, but a couple of mini-projects off the list anyway… Oh, and here’s a bonus pic of my 1:1 reference from today next to a regular size car - he’s a cute little fella! Thanks for looking - more soon!

Weirdly, I had a post that wouldn’t, copied the text so it wasn’t lost, made a new post with a single word, edited that post by pasting in the original message…and it worked! None of the ‘naughty’ words in the original copy, just wouldn’t post the first time and did post the second time… Post here: Posted from Firefox for iOS on an iPhone

A little more progress; tonight, modifying a part’s box seat…. Found one that fits pretty good… Reshaped slightly, added that distinctive circular headrest that a lot of these Midgets ran: And I ALMOST could’ve left it at that, but the look of this is too sixties for me (no shock, it’s from a Mid 60s Mustang) and I imagined just a plane Jane no-frills simple racecar seat with just a simple covering and it’s ready for the track. NOTE: I don’t KNOW, but my research leads me to think that these early 50s era cars didn’t have fancy tuck’n’roll patterns, and were a lot more utilitarian…seems like as you get into the 60s more a fancy upholstery job became much more common - so I’m going with the simpler option here - even tho I really wanted to do tuck’n’roll… Mixed up some more epoxy, rolled it super thin and laid it over the seat and shaped it a little: This Tamiya epoxy carves, sands and shapes REALLY nicely, so I can add more detail once it sets up for a couple of days. The finished build will probably have a driver’s helmet sitting in the seat, so I sliced off the driver figure’s head and carefully scribed the helmet separate: And a test fit after a little sanding and a spritz of primer: Tomorrow I can add a little material so the seat fits snug to the leather ‘collar’ around the body, but I want to keep the two parts separate so the seat can be removed to expose the gas tank back there and give a peak at the rear axle. Just a little update, and more to do on this part but I hadn’t posted for a few days…more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

What an awesome build - I love seeing someone using those old paints on a project! What’s the deal with the whitewalls - are they vinyl rings, or paper or what? I guess they weren’t decals if they’re ’stick on’…

I always enjoy seeing that Cobra - that’s such a great build I’m in the middle on this discussion, personally…I’ll sand primer when it needs it (to remove peel or imperfections) but also if it looks paint-ready without any extra effort I’ll usually just roll with it. Whatever works 🤷‍♂️ My two favorite weapons in getting to paint-ready quickly tho are the filler primer that Harbor Freight sells (if I need something thicker to fix or help with whatever needs fixing) or if I need something thinner I like Touch N Tone gray - it lays down like Tamiya gray but it’s $3 for a regular size can

Thank you!! Did a serious spring clean of my shop today, so a little less progress than normal for a weekend, but a little anyway… Today’s project was the steering box - not super exciting, but I scratchbuilt one to replicate an Evans Denver setup, which was one of the hot tickets for this era of Midget, apparently. It’ll be completely hidden under the dash though when the body is in place so I didn’t go nuts with it…it’s basically there to hold the wheel in place - ha! The steering wheel itself though, IS very much visible, and the kit part is actually nicely done…so obviously I went looking for ways to improve upon it and ended up making my own. Main thing I would change if I had my way would be to make the rim and center separate for easier painting, so that’s just what I did… Rim: Center: Center snaps right into the rim: And looks like this in the car: Little side project I’m working on also, that is mostly relevant to this thread, is a printed copy of the Revell Hot Shot, which was a 60s 1/24 Midget kit that was released as a somewhat successor to this one. Actually, it was a slotcar, then a really simple curbside-type static kit, and actually is probably even simpler than this earlier kit that I’m building…figured it would be nice to have one of those on the shelf too, even if the print file I found is going to need some work to make a decent replica of the styrene kit it’s modeled on. Just a fun simple project to mess with while I’m working on this more involved build: Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Latest addition to my Atlantis collection…

Another couple of days bench time, another couple of little projects completed. Starting to work through this thing front to back, filling in the parts missing… First part missing was some plumbing - not super exciting, but the upper pipe particularly took a couple of tries because the real ones taper…ended up stretching some sprue over a candle just a little to get the look: The lower one coming out of the side of the block runs to a water pump run off the crank, with a second piece running into the bottom of the rad. Next thing to tackle was the carb and manifold setup - this is how it looks on the kit block: I THINK that is supposed to replicate something like this: So, I started making something like that… Not quite done yet, have some more shaping and detailing to do, have the linkages to add, and I can’t figure out where the fuel lines should run…anyone know? Next challenge was figuring out the exhaust…I was hoping to use the kit piece, but the kit block is too short, and thus the pipe spacing is wrong now. So, what I did was slice it up and get those pipes where they need to live now: Filled in the gaps and sanded to shape (roughly, for now…), and replaced the rest with some aluminum tube to match the kit part, but hollow… Looks like this (and clears the new leather stuff I made this week…) Still looks like it would burn your arm pretty easily, so I guess the solution is not to put your arm on it 🤪 And finally for today, figuring out a gas pedal. Now, I REALLY like Moon pedals, and I wanted to use one, but figured they weren’t around early enough to be appropriate for this early-mid 50s build. Did a little research, and found that actually the very earliest examples were made right after the end of the Korean War…right in the time period I was thinking. Would one have found its way onto a typical Midget like this in 54, 55? Probably not…but I like them, and I learned a thing, and rewarded myself but allowing myself to use one. Resin cast the largest variation of a Moon pedal that I found in my stash: It’s actually a little small still, for the scale of this build…but there’s not much room in the footwell of these little cars anyway, so if Dean Moon HAD made a slightly smaller version, I’m sure that would’ve been preferable: I need to angle it up a touch so there could be proper travel, but it would JUST clear the in-out box if it could move, so I’m happy with that. No brake pedal required - these cars run a hand-operated brake which is still on my list to tackle. Not sure where the driver rests his heel - none of the reference pictures I have of this era of car show anything in this area to make it more practical to drive, but maybe you’re so crammed into the cockpit of these little things anyway that you can’t move too much anyway 🤷‍♂️ And that’s the last couple of day’s progress - next thing I really need to lock it, now I know where the gas pedal lives, is the cowl mount steering stuff and associated framework for that…more soon, soon as I’ve done more! Thanks for looking!

Yep, that’s all I was saying - looks nice in the front, high in the rear. The illustration on the box art is more like how I would want the rear fender-tire gap, if it were my build Of course, my opinion is just that, and worth only what you paid for it 🤪

Their built-up example there looks SUPER high in the rear

That’s why the window is down 🤪

Thanks for the info Alan! I did some digging and found the company making the repro Hot Shots… https://slotcarstore.net/pages/1-24-HOLESHOT-MIDGET-Body-Windshield-Driver-Chrome-Tree-and-Decals-W140125.html Not cheap, but it’s a SUPER niche item too, so I don’t think the price is unreasonable… Yes please Tim!

Oh, forgot to post this…if any of you have Instragram, a little clip of the working steering…was glad to get that wrapped up this week too! https://www.instagram.com/reel/DGtZumcJ2Hg/?igsh=Nmkzd2IyM2k1aWtq

Thank you sir!! A little more progress…I’ve been trying to figure out how I wanted to handle that leather trim around the body; it needs to be a different color than the body so I could just mask it and paint it after, but that didn’t feel like the BEST solution. Plus, I wanted to bulk it out a little, make it look a little less flat and add some creases and wrinkles and make it look a little more dimensional. So, the last three evenings were spent carefully scribing out the leather from the body… The remaining part was REALLY fragile, as you can imagine, but I ran a little gap filling superglue into the top to bulk it up a little… Then, next up, mixed up some Tamiya 2-part epoxy and laid it over top: And then spent a couple of hours just kinda shaping it and adding some subtle little wrinkles and half-folds and creases just to make it look a little more fabric-like: This leather, on a 1:1 I THINK is mostly to protect the driver’s arms and shoulders from what I suspect is a sharp-ish bare aluminum edge on the body, and it seems like those leather pieces are generally pretty flat…but I’ll be painting this part plain old black and I know from playing with this trick before that once the parts are black most of that detail disappears or is MUCH harder to see, so I’ve added a little more thickness than is probably normal to help combat that. I’m still really new at this style of sculpting but it’s fun to mess with…once this piece sets up I’ll be able to sand it to fix any flaws (and also thin it down somewhat in a few spots to make it look pulled-tight) and also drill it for some little pop rivets that I still need to figure out how best to achieve. Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Awesome builds, @alan barton! So, for the Hot Shot, how did you go about building that? As best I can work out they’re basically a body, a chrome tree for the nerfbars and suspension and a driver figure - is there some kind of frame under there too? And did you have whatever wheels and tires those came with originally?

Interesting development, for anyone interested…I found files online where someone had recreated both the Monogram Hotshot AND their Quarter Midget and had made 3d printable versions of them available. Grabbed the Hotshot to check it out…I don’t have a REAL one to compare to, but I started printing a couple this evening to check it out…. I’ll post a link once I’ve checked them out fully, but if they’re garbage I won’t waste everyone’s time…

I wonder what ELSE they got, if anything. The new tool Tijuana Taxi, the Beer Wagon, Ice T, Rommel’s Rod…I remember the Baja Beast was announced a while back by Revell then pulled…I’d love to see Atlantis get all that stuff…