OldNYJim

The next Keeler’s Kustom project in progress: Needs different wheels and tires, methinks…

I did a quick search, and it looks mostly black in there in this pic of a 1:1 C7R: I can't quite tell for sure, there's a lot of stuff in thee, but I don't see much body color showing. I think a semi-gloss or matte black would be a safe choice...

Oh yeah, I'd agree the blower is cooler in the RR. I was just surprised by the molded in pan, mostly, I guess...I haven't checked, but I wouldn't be too surprised if the 'cool' bits from the 29 fit the RR (and vice versa) fairly easily anyway.

Here you go...

The expansion from the freezing of the water gently helps gently pry everything apart - or at least gives it a good start. Free to try and worth a shot!

I started one - nothing much to report so far… I think the SBC in the 29 kits is a better piece, what with the nice alternator bracket and the fact the oil pan isn’t molded in (why did they decide to do that?!) but there was considerably less cleanup to do so far than on a lot of the more recent issues in their Deuce series. I might add any useful notes I think of to this topic for other people’s benefit - I’m doing a straight up box-stock build so I wasn’t planning on giving it it’s own build thread…

Have you tried freezing it in gallon ziplock bag of water? That has worked well for me before

The last couple of years, particularly in the summer, I kept seeing this truck driving around near where I work: Every time I saw it, it caught my eye and I eventually got to see it parked up at a little show one evening. It’s probably not QUITE in the spirit of this thread, but it WAS, according to the owner, built in the 80s and hasn’t changed much since. Fluffy dice on the mirror, an old beer tap shifter, those awkward little spot lights…I’d drive the heck out of that thing! Whenever I see that truck around town I think of this thread ?

I feel like this too, but also I have a LOT of stuff I wanna build! I’ve been working on some tricks to help me build a little more efficiently and in a more organized way to help make good use of the time I have free. Of course - the urge to carefully consider every little detail and spend as much time on it as possible to make it as good as it can be means you can’t RUSH a project, but I’ve found some ways to get some of the repetitive work that I do a lot handled in a better way. For example, every build I will probably paint a distributor. So…I printed 25 distributors and painted them all at the weekend. I often need a battery, and have a design that I did recently that I’m pleased with - so I printed a bunch of those. Little things like that. Somewhat off topic - this thread about being ‘zen’ reminded me of this ad I used to see every day in the subway in NY, promoting an addition to one of the subway lines: I always thought it was ironic that the “Zen Master” was feeling so anxious about the new subway line opening. Maybe he needed to build a model to take his mind off it? ?

That’s awesome - I love the detail of the little gold and red label on the cigar! Outstanding work as always

Thanks everyone! Hey Bob! Just the little Portrait - their cheapest model. It’ll cut an 8.5” wide piece of material, which is plenty big enough for most anything we do in scale, and it’s been a real workhorse!

Of course, if you block the ads the site doesn’t get paid anything when you visit it - money which helps keep it running and presumably funds stuff like the free photohosting that we enjoy here…

And a few other examples, achieved with the same technique…

You ever see a scale flame-job that looks cool until you get up close and see bleeds, rough edges, high edges, fuzzy spots and other imperfections that come from trying to shoot light colored flames over a darker colored base color? Here’s a technique for super clean and easy flames I’ve been using for a couple of years now that I thought some of you all might find useful. You’ll need nothing special for this process, and I did this particular body with rattlecans. I DO use a Silhouette scrapbook cutter for making my masks…but you can use pre-cut ones from eBay or Lazy Modeler or cut your own from masking frisket or tape if you don’t have a plotter to use. First step, prep and prime body as normal: Second step is NOT, I repeat NOT the body color. Here, you’ll paint the color that the flames will be. I did a solid color, but you can do a gradient from white-yellow-orange or yellow-red or whatever you would like your flames to be at the end: Next, we mask. I like a traditional classic hot-rod flame, but for this one I recreated the decal art from the new issue of the Revell 32 Roadster kit, and then cut masks out of Oramask 813 masking vinyl (usually about $10 a roll from Amazon or eBay) The cool thing with this vinyl is that it’s translucent, so I could also have laid it over the decals, or a photograph or a drawing of some flames and traced the shape by hand instead…and actually, that IS how I did it before I had a cutter. Once you’ve got your flames, lay them down and make sure the edges are sealed nicely: Next up…body color! I used an old spray can of Testor’s blue, but any color darker than the first color will work just fine. And finally…carefully de-mask! Fold the vinyl over on itself as you pull it back, starting from the widest end - if you make the vinyl do a ‘u-turn’ on itself as you peel, you’ll get cleaner edges. If you do this when the paint is starting to dry but not wet you’ll usually avoid the paint chipping on the edges. And…you’re done! Tada! The secret to this technique is that by painting the lighter color first you won’t struggle to cover it with the darker color. And the less layers of paint, the smaller the ridge that you’ve got to try and cover with clear, the faster the drying time and the quicker you’ll be admiring your handy work. This entire paintjob was done in a day, including prepping the body (and most of the time was just waiting for the primer and green to dry). So, for, say, a black paintjob with yellow flames you’ll have no problems with building up multiple layers of paint trying to cover the black and it’s WAY easier to lay down those spindly little flame licks on a body than align a big sheet of mask that doesn’t want to lay flat over the curves of a more complex body (think 40 Ford, for example). If you’re painting something with a lighter main color, say a yellow body with red flames…do it how you normally would. But for light colored graphics on a dark body this is by far the easiest way I’ve found so far. And it doesn’t have to be FLAMES, of course - this trick works with scallops or race numbers or stripes…anything you can imagine! Hope some of you found this helpful!

And another Martin Aveyard project! I’m still appreciating his Model A coupe…

A comment I’ve seen more than once on your build threads Steve is “but you won’t see it when it’s done” - particularly relating to your masterful detailed-up interiors. Those comments are somewhat missing the point, in my opinion. Same way I stop at the rural stop sign in the middle of nowhere on my commute home every day even though 9.5 times out of 10, there’s no one to stop for and no one would see me if I didn’t. Like a modeling conscience! If you don’t do it, you’ll always know you didn’t… Plus, of course, we get to see those details whilst they’re in progress, even if they may not be very obvious when the project is done. All part of the journey!

Following on from my previous post, and Tim’s comments above, I broke out my new Roadster frame and compared to an original ‘96 version. Turns out, as Tim notes, there’s some nice corrections, including that improved curve from the mid to the back of the frame…but best of all for me is that they DID do something about those awkward-to-clean-up ejector pin marks hidden down in the floorboards on all the original kits. You can kinda make them out here - there’s eight in total, plus the copyright notice: On the new one…not a single ejector pin on the bottom of the frame. Still has the copyright notice, with updated date, but WAY WAY WAY better:

Interesting to note that this frame is the only one in the Revell 32 Series (I think) that has the notch in the frame rails for the exhaust. I hadn’t immediately spotted that. About the worse part of this entire series of kits for me was the awkward ejector pin marks on the floorboards under the frame. I didn’t unwrap my kit yet, but if they did something to help make that chore less chore-like then that would be a real bonus

I just got an iPhone 13 Pro - T-Mobile had a good deal on them. I like the Pro model because it has three lenses, including one for close-up macro type shots. Seems to work great for me! My wife’s Canon SLR camera still has it beat on about every level, but it’s amazing how good phone cameras are now…

I never tried it, but I'd look at a pair of earbuds for a perfect little piece of mesh to go on top of one of those pieces. A lot of them even have that nice dome shape already

Thanks fellas! I’m down! Love me a showrod! Just plain ol’ styrene bar! This frame isn’t particularly realistic or detailed, but you’ll barely see most of it when this thing’s sitting on the shelf… I would love to see that! I’ll do some digging… Had a busy week - been finishing up some stuff I was building as Christmas gifts, but got a little more done…most interesting of which was some headers. I wanted to have them shoot forward, out of the (redundant) wheel arches and then wrap around the lip and back again. They look kinda weird without the body in place tho…also dissected a spare Revell 29 floorboard, inverted, for a floor for the interior: I’d got far along enough with the frame that I was confident I wouldn’t have to modify the body any, so getting some paint started was today’s project. First up, sandable primer (took a couple or three coats before I got the body as flat and nice as I wanted…) Then black enamel… I let that set up a while, then polished it, and then shot some Alclad: Then, Tamiya clear orange: Was going for a kinda Hot Wheels Spectraflame effect with the candy over the metal finish - I think I like it! Got some more paintwork to do still, but it’ll get a coat of intercoat tomorrow and then I can do the next part. Just a little progress, but I always enjoy when the body’s in color - more soon!

I was the only bidder on this kit on eBay, which arrived immaculately wrapped and packaged (almost mummified)… Twenty something bucks - contained the kit on the box art (a four-in-one including a roadster pickup variation), plus a complete molded-in-red AMT Model A roadster packed carefully in the same box too. Score!

I like the long bed, no hood…but with the shorter wheelbase ?? (I know that wasn’t an option). Looking GREAT - keep going!!!

It’s only dangerous if you’re in California…but luckily I’m not ??

That my wife’s car ran at all with battery terminals like this (and that random disconnected wire on the positive side…I wonder what that should power?) Glad I popped the plastic covers off to take a look…of course, once I’d SEEN it, I had to FIX it ?