OldNYJim

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 ?

Progress! I was trying to find a solution to wanting airbags on the rear axle, and then my brain said “Revell 32 Ford…duh! Use THAT axle” - so I did! The front axle works pretty well too, as it happens… Found some trailing arms in my spares stash - no idea where they came from but they worked PERFECTLY! Need to find something short and stubby for the front too… Note I’m building this as tho the airbags are in their ‘deflated’ state, so I can justify having this thing sit on the deck and have it still be SOMEWHAT feasible, hence the uncomfortable driveshaft angle. Still need to find a good spot for a gas tank, battery and radiator…. Oh, and I started some bodywork - just a little smoothing-out and cleaning-up before primer: I’m having a blast with this one! More parts-box-raiding soon!

Oh wow, thats bananas! ? ?? Looks like a good start! Love the engine!

Ollie Lobbie

I like to shoot my Alclad when the black base is still a little tacky - not WET, but slightly sticky. My theory is that it helps the Alclad stick a little better, but I have no scientific proof that that works…but I don’t have a bunch of trouble with Alclad being too fragile to handle generally (within reason…)

My carpet is SATURATED with model parts ?? Thank you! I really like the extreme proportions of a lot of rat rods - but I always think “imagine if it had a nice paintjob too!” This will probably be like that. My wife managed to break her 1:1 today which threw my evening into chaos, but got a start on a frame. If this was a more ‘serious’ project I would’ve tried making a birdcage-style tubular frame (and actually, that’s on my to-do list for next year), but for this project I went with plain old scale-2” square bar Plenty of work to go, but I’ve got it where the body slips right over it and you can’t see any of the frame - next job will a few more bars and then hanging all the stuff off it! TGI the weekend! More soon!

I’ve been thinking, inspired by this thread, that it would be a fun annual tradition to work on some kind of parts-box build and use up a bunch of stuff I have sitting around that might otherwise just keep gathering dust. It’s not like I don’t have a bunch of in-progress projects already, but I did promise myself I’d do this this year, so here goes… Didn’t really have any clear idea of what I was going to build; I’ve got a bunch of 30s Ford bodies sitting around and various Impalas and whatnot - but whilst digging through my stash I found this Flintstone cutdown Lincoln hot rod body that I didn’t have a particular plan for: Found some piecrust slicks, some Impala wheels and some Mustang tires - just the kind of junk (I mean, quality parts) someone might have lying around… I’d like bigger rear tires and smaller fronts ideally, but I’m resisting the urge to immediately fire up my 3D printer and make some… the idea is to USE existing parts, not create preciously un-existing ones… They’re not bad tho - might find some different front tires. Also found a spare Atlantis/Revell front axle and a rear axle from a….??? Next I went looking for engines - I was gonna use the (somewhat inaccurate) Lincoln engine from the AMT 25 T kits but it was too large…but I’ve got probably ten Revell SBCs sitting here. I’d kinda like something more interesting…but I’ve got some blower parts to play with: I know I said I wasn’t gonna print any parts, but I had some extra Vette valve covers left from another build so I’ll likely use those: Found a lonely single AMT custom seat, and a decent sized radiator to cut down (not sure what this is from, but I have probably twenty of them…) And with the addition of a parts box battery, a little racing steering wheel from something and one of those Revell fuel cells that isn’t worth installing in your 29/30 build because you can’t see it I’ve got a decent starting point for SOMETHING! I’m thinking I’ll scratchbuild a frame, figure out some air suspension so it can sit in the dirt without me feeling bad that it wouldn’t work in real life and have a wonderful Christmastime playing with styrene! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Assuming the missing part is missing, gluing it back on won’t help much… I’d pick up some solid aluminum bar of the same diameter and scratchbuild a new set - brass works too, but aluminum is the right color already and it’ll be a little easier to work than the brass would . If you’ll need to solder multiple pieces tho, obviously brass is the way to go. Plain old styrene round bar would do the trick too though to fix rather than replace

Definitely! The Ace Hardware near us had 20-something dusty old bottles on the shelf, for $5 or so a piece. Once news got out that it was about to become hard to come by, it disappeared before I even got around to picking up another bottle…wouldn’t be surprised if one or two modelers picked it all up while they could

Yes, and THAT product is also discontinued. Hence the price for the one and only bottle on Amazon being $50. There's a whole thread on it, somewhere here. I wouldn't doubt it's an acrylic paint - but that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe for any and all plastics. As you correctly noted from the photo you posted of the various chemicals in the product's makeup, it may be acrylic but it certainly isn't WATER based like some people interpret 'acrylic' to mean... Was the part you tried it on a spare that you didn't need? Fingers crossed you dont need it, because that paint crazed it pretty good, it looks like...

Pity it's discontinued...but yes, if you can find it, it's great for certain jobs

Ok, I’ve been thinking about this post since I read it, and I’m gonna start myself an annual tradition! December Parts Box Build! Seems like a fun way to use up some of the stuff I’ve had left over from whatever I’ve been working on all year - I’ll post a thread tomorrow once I’ve found a spare body and enough old junk to build something. Would be cool if anyone else was inspired to do the same and posted a WIP too!

Agreed - and I’d still be interested in seeing screenshots of the Lychee layouts that aren’t working out

Agreed! Nice rule-breakin’!

You’ll definitely see the primer pop through if you’ve only laid a light coat on and then sanded back a little - doesn’t look like any cause for concern from this end If you were painting something transparent colored (a candy, or something that doesn’t cover very well and requires multiple coats) then you might have more issues, but that color you’re using looks pretty opaque. When I get a little dust or grit in my paint I’ll sand back to where it’s smooth and then carry on where I left off - no biggie (and best to fix it now rather than try burying it and ending up with a mess)

Gorgeous paint (predictably enough ?). That color looks GREAT on there!

Not TECHNICALLY (at all) model car work, but it’ll have an El Camino parked in front of it eventually…recreating my friend’s bar in NYC in 1:25 as a Christmas gift. All styrene sheet and bar, aside from the lamps which I 3D printed… She had an Elky at one point, so my idea was to give her the bar this year, and next year’s Christmas gift can be the El Camino. Her husband owns a cool Harley chopper, so I’ll make that at some point too, plus she owned a old Triumph roadster which I’ve got on her ‘gift list’

Have you actually built one?

Right on both counts! Guess we'll see! I'll try my best! Nothing some patience and perseverance can't take care of, hopefully...

Let me guess, it’s a garbage kit?

As that video I linked explained well, the inability to modulate the power output is something of a hindrance for anything other than drag racing, but they ARE cool! I just, coincidentally, had fallen down a rabbit hole of researching these when I saw your post. And you’re right, they WOULD make for a fun modeling project!

Another one for my Atlantis collection - eventually I’d like to build one of each of their car and bike kits I think: I’m excited to dig into this one (but I’d also kinda like to do their kits in chronological order of release, which means I’m starting with the Cadillac and a couple of the Tom Daniel kits before I get to this…)

Nope!! People ran them, and they really did what they said they did (apparently). There were various cars (and bikes) running them and achieving impressive numbers in the quarter mile; excessive demand eventually killed the company when they couldn’t produce them fast enough to keep up and started sending incomplete setups to customers expecting them to make it all work themselves. The company owner went to jail for mail fraud, and the concept died right there and then. An interesting video on them can be found here: (Sorry for the thread hijack)

Oh, it probably paid for itself already this year in printing parts rather than buying them…but I’ll still pick up some aftermarket parts when I see them, or try and support people designing cool print files rather than designing my own if something is out on the market already. Sometimes it’s nice just to KITBASH or buy a resin something rather than print every little thing. All part of a balanced diet ? It’s a nice tool to have though, definitely!

Thanks fellas! I’m still plugging away on this - I decided on a solid orange for the paint, because I still didn’t like the first two paintjobs…finally found a shade I actually liked on this little T, even if it isn’t as ‘fancy’ as the previous two efforts. It’s funny, the first two ideas came out how I imagined them, and I liked the COLORS - just not the ‘feel’. My brain works weird, I know… Went to Michael’s this afternoon and looked at every rattle can and didn’t find anything but found an acrylic that I liked in the end… Seeing as the frame was always going to be black, I couldn’t be TOO indecisive with THAT…I’d usually paint any type of exposed frame in a gloss finish, but decided on a satin finish this time to see if that helps all the chrome pop a little more: And….that’s the shameful progress in the past week. Lots of prepping parts for chrome though, which will be tomorrow’s project, and then I can get started on getting this thing to ‘roller’ status…at least the pile of parts is getting bigger I guess ? I set myself a month to build this, and with Thanksgiving this week if I get everything in chrome that needs to be I can have a fun Thursday eating turkey and assembling some stuff - exciting! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!