OldNYJim

Yes please! That would be an AWESOME article! Congrats on a great year of builds…and the great magazine articles!

I thought about 3d printing a single rim with holes for the spokes, just like a real one - would make it super easy to assemble (relatively). I didn't get as far as figuring out how the hub would work though - it would be nice to be able to do something with the spokes passing through the rim to help keep everything straight and secure, but it may be too many holes in too small of a part to be feasible...

Blimp-rod

See what I mean about rabbitholes? I don’t even care about blimps and now there’s TWO kits I want ??

A little more this evening (I’m motivating myself to keep achieving some stuff every night so that I have something to post - it works pretty well!) Working on the front end this evening, getting some mock-up done and making sure the wheelbase is still correct after some parts-swapping: Used my 3D printed front axle, the linkages from the kit (albeit modified to remove the steering link, which I’ll be re-making) and a little modification to the frame so it all aligns nicely come assembly time… I didn’t want to modify the frame too much, so I’ll be relying on some classic rubber rake to get the stance I’m looking for. I need to figure out the exhaust, so I got the engine mocked up somewhat: And seeing as I was doing that anyway it’s a good chance to check the fit is ok again with these extra pieces in there…still good! As you can see I’ve been doing some cleanup on the body too, but still some more to do on that before I can try another cost of primer… And that’s another hour’s progress at the bench - next jobs are finishing up the work I started on the axles, cleaning up the frame and figuring out those headers…and maybe getting the body far enough along for paint this weekend. More soon, thanks for looking!

It’s those rabbit holes that’ll get ya! I saw the Goodyear blimp on a show over Christmas and thought “how come that was never a kit?”. Turns out it was! And it has an illuminated message display on it like the real one, and a (rudimentary) way to display your own messages…and now I’ve been watching blimp kits on eBay.

More impressive if it was scratchbuilt for sure! Which is funny to me, in a way - it makes me think of those guys who can build an amazing brass frame for a project rather than modify a kit piece, or print one. Clay Kemp, for example, does this a lot…and yet, when the build is done they’re painted and you might never know the difference compared to if he had made it out of styrene. It’s impressive because he did it a HARDER way…and, luckily for aspiring craftsmen, a 3D printer will rarely be the hardest way to do something.

I love that little slingshot so much! The proportions are great, and I love the bodywork you did

Yes sir! I have a bunch of these magnets…the doors seem like they close right into the correct position fairly well, but I may hide one in the trunk lid just to help it position properly… Thanks brother! Thank you for the info - I actually have been stealing parts from the ‘woody’ kit (that isn’t a woody) for this build so I should take a look and see what engine is in that one…will report back! Some minor progress, seeing as I’m replying anyway… Designed and printed the leaf spring for the front axle - I made them one assembly for now but I can separate if I need to later on: Whilst the printer was running, I tweaked the wheel design and reprinted those, printed some headers for the Flattie and an intake setup: Check out the detail on those carbs! I stripped the chrome on a few bits whilst the printer was running, and then broke out the resin supplies and cast some brake backing plates: Need to fix or remake the one with the ‘short shot’, but nothing major… And I also needed to do something about the half-hollow rear axle so I cast a Quickchange initially… …but it interferes with the leaf spring and I don’t want to TOTALLY re-engineer the suspension if I don’t have to, so I found this whatever-it-is in the parts box and it’ll work just fine: These axles are hard to improve without totally redoing those big clunky ‘brackets’ where where the linkages meet…I’m going to do my best to get those more in scale though without cutting everything apart and starting over. Need to add a u-joint to that axle still but it’s a start… Lots of little jobs done, but nothing that amounts to much - sometimes it be like that! More soon, soon as I’ve done more…I wanna get the frame figured out this week hopefully so I can keep on rolling (pun not intended)

Operative word there ? Always enjoy your threads Bill - always educational and inspiring

Can’t make me ? That car, in that color, isn’t too far off what I pictured this build looking like from the start! 40s look great in blue and white! It’s reassuring to see from the pic you posted that even in 1:1 getting that chrome trim nicely aligned on the doors can be tough…

I’m of the opinion that you’re doing it the right way NOW - painting on the sprue won’t get such nice results…and you’re getting great results! Cleaning up those mold lines before primer is a relatively minor job and adds a LOT in terms of a nice finished product; you’re clearly skilled with an airbrush and some simple prep before priming will just add to that!

That’s a great thoughtful response Steve and I’ve thought about that too. As someone with SOME scratchbuilding skills and SOME 3D design skills, I’d like to counter that while in my experience you COULD work through a kit and re-design and print about every part, some stuff is just WAY easier to do the ‘conventional’ way than with a computer. For example, say I want to detail up a muscle car firewall, like you’re so proficient at doing. I COULD take the kit part, scan it, make a 3D model, duplicate all the electrical geegaws and bolts and wiring and whatnot and then print it in super-high resolution…but the much easier method would be to do it how you do. Sand off molded-in wiring, drill some holes for miniature bolts and detail as you see fit, and I bet you’ll be done a lot faster than if you started from scratch and printed your own pieces. Printers definitely have their place, and are useful, but they will no more make a exception craftsman out of an average builder than photoetch and resin parts do now. And for that…I’m kinda thankful! I WANT to have to do that work and feel proud for having done it

That’s a fine looking build too! That’s the Revell kit, I assume? I want to build one of those too! Today’s progress…first up, I wanted to fill that hole that’s revealed by not running a hood (so I used a piece of the hood…) Next job before I could get to priming was a test fit of the 3D printed Flathead I’m using - I don’t want any surprises or to be cutting up the firewall after paint…I used the bellhousing from the kit engine to mate the Flathead and the toploader trans together: (Those motor mounts will be skimmed down some once the glue is good and dry…) Test fit in the frame - it fits! And, the moment I’ve been waiting for…first coat of primer to hide that fugly blue color: And a mock-up with those 3D printed wheels and tires: Considering how much I had to sand on this body to get it straight and how much I’ve hacked it up, that’s not a bad start! But now the REAL bodywork begins… Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I didn’t spot the half time ‘spottiness’ until I looked at these photos again - I wonder if some of that might be some fuzz from my camera or image compression. It definitely didn’t jump out during normal naked-eye viewing. I’m super pleased with their work though! Thanks for the recommendation! And yes, I sent them print ready Illustrator art - they had me make one tweak to it before it was how they needed it, but nothing major… I made an Adobe Illustrator format file, but they’ll work from anything vector based as I understand it. And Peteski’s right, some of them DO have a white layer underneath (I wanted the light colors to remain opaque if they’re laid down over something darker…) I tried them - sent them art made to their specifications and on their template and they never replied to my request for payment info. I gave them probably 6 weeks then gave up - business lost ?‍♂️ You got it Joe!

Another day at the bench… First project was figuring out how to attach the dash to everything else. It USED to attach to the interior tub, until I stupidly opened the doors and made that impossible ?. I ended up gluing some tapered plastic pins to the back of the dash, and some receivers inside the body - perfect push-fit every time! Everything clears… And the doors still close properly! Next thing I wanted to wrap up before primer was figuring out bumpers. 40s look completely different to me without bumpers; it changes the whole look of the car. I decided early on I’m going for a more traditional look, but I don’t like how far the rear bumper hangs out from the back of the body on a 40 (although I get why), so I removed the mounting brackets from the frame and tucked that thing in nice and tight: I couldn’t decide between designing some nerf bars for the front of the car, or modifying the stock bumper…I tried dropping it down low (looked ok, but too wide) narrowing it (looked better, but covered too much of the grille), removing the center section (looked like the center was missing), having no bumper at all (looked like the bumper was missing) before ending up with ‘nerf bars’ made out of the distinctive upright ‘teeth’ on the stock bumper: I haven’t seen this done before, but I like it, and I think they’ll look cool in chrome! Another step closer to that first coat of primer…thanks for looking, more soon!

I'd be happy with a Rattler too! I suspect the Keeler's Kustom will likely be that T bucket project we were just talking about, and maybe this for the dragster?

Some more car stuff incoming: Let the speculation begin!

Thank you!! Still got to figure out the frame, but I’m trying to get the body handled so I can at least get it in primer and start the REAL work of getting it all straight and nice… Speaking of which, more progress on the body was the last couple of evening’s projects. First up, adding some trim with half-round styrene bar: Once the glue has properly set up I’m going to sand it to shape and get it how I imagined…I figured I’m better off starting with something a little oversize so I’ve got some ‘meat’ to sand down and work with… Added some firewall detail too…same deal, this will be sanded down and blended in so it looks more like stamped metal: And whilst the glue was setting on those bits and pieces, I started adding some inner trunk-lid detail. I don’t intend to ever display this build with the trunk open as far as it is in these pics, so most of this won’t be super visible, but I wanted SOMETHING in there: This weekend’s projects will be getting that body in primer, hopefully, and then doing a little kitbashing of the kit engine and this 3D printed one…spoiler alert - I’m not using MUCH of the kit engine… Oh, and I need to figure out bumpers (or no bumpers…). More soon!

This is an old thread, but a subject that comes up semi-often…I had been looking for a source of custom decals for a while and was BLOWN AWAY by a company that @peteski recommended to me by the name of Fusion. I sent artwork to them right before New Years and got my sheet back by the following Wednesday…that’s three working days from ordering to in my hands for custom printed one-off art. OUTSTANDING service. Good quality product, they responded to emails fast, kept me posted on the status of my order and I couldn’t be happier. Thoroughly recommended! I did a simple test sheet as a trial order, but I’ll be putting a bunch of work their way… https://fsdecals.com/

Me too! ? I’d like to do a ‘stock’ one, then maybe something influenced by the original Hot Wheels casting - candy paint and surfboards!

Got mine in NW Indiana today - looks like another great one! Thanks everybody! (The cat wanted to be in the photo)

Came here to recommend this. We had Verizon at $100+ per month and got an offer for T-Mobile home internet. It's a little box that you just plug in the wall outlet, no additional wires or cables required. They recommend you put it by a window, which we did, and it works great. Gets better service than our T-Mobile cell phones, and haven't noticed any dropouts or issues having used it for 6 months now. Have a couple of laptops, an iPad, a couple of TVs, both our cellphones my desktop computer and our home security connected up to it - works great! $50 a month, works better and faster than the Verizon connection that we had before. Definitely recommended!

There ARE a lot of 40s lately huh? It’s cool seeing what other people are doing too! Agree too! The USUALLY nicely done bodies in these AMT kits makes it worth the extra effort for me - but even without messing with them a bunch it seems like most of these kits still look great on the shelf. Tiny bit of progress, seeing as I’m replying anyway…started cleaning up that frame. Removed the exhaust and started patching up the couple of floorboards I had to remove in the process. Tomorrow I’ll go through and scrub the detail off the remaining floorboards so I can detail it back up and have it look consistent… On my lunchbreak today I found plans for a 1:1 40 front axle and used them to draw one up and made a file I could 3D print…it’s not perfect and I had to make some concessions to make sure it would have a chance of not bowing over time, but it’s a big improvement on the kit piece anyway… And finally, I did some hunting on Cults for the wheels I had in mind for this build. Went to buy the file, and discovered I bought it last year and forgot. Thanks past-Jim! I had to lighten the contrast in these pics so the detail would show properly - I’ll take some more pics when I’ve shot a little primer on them: Another evening at the bench, another tiny bit of progress…and some more rabbitholes of research to fall down so I can do the next steps (tomorrow’s subjects, 40 Ford firewalls and 40 Ford floorboards ?) More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

I never did a Deora, so here’s a Deora! Not sure if this particular issue is the best - I would suspect not given those hamburger-meat tires, but it WAS the cheapest one listed on eBay that particular day…I paid $12 and change. I really only wanted a Slant 6 engine for a project I’m lining up, but I HATE splitting perfectly good kits if they’re something I’d actually want to build…so I may still end up buying some Deora parts to achieve what I was trying to achieve…