OldNYJim

Great start!! Looks like you’re traveling that same road as I am…I ALMOST went with a Flathead with this too, but I might end up giving it some more mid-60s influences when it comes to paint and details and I figured the SBC was a better choice if I want to end up with something a little closer to the Roth-refreshed Tweedy Pie than the late-50s original. Would like to see more on that build! Dennis Lacy is doing his usual OUTSTANDING work on a T-bucket too right now:

I try and get in a couple of hours a day, minimum - and if I’m not working on a particular thing I still try and achieve SOMETHING, or practice a new skill or even just tidy a little. I challenged myself this year to hit an hour a day of PRODUCTIVE time every single day, rain or shine, and mark off on a calendar when I managed it. I’m on a 90+ day streak right now, and I find that the longer the streak the more I wanna keep working. That’s 90 hours of focused building (or at least, practicing some skill) that I might otherwise have spent on the couch or watching a show or whatever that I wouldn’t have had otherwise probably, and I’ve enjoyed it being a part of my routine But also, I keep remembering something that I saw famed lowrider builder Armando Flores say in a GREAT video - if he has 5 minutes spare to work on SOMETHING, he’ll take it (and his productivity and results speak for themselves). I’ve been conscious of taking any little bits of down-time in my day to try and think “ok, what can I do right now so I’m ready for doing something more later…” Of course, if it ever feels like a JOB I’ll take a break too - I already have a real job and I don’t need a pretend one ?

I’ve got a bunch of unfinished projects on my bench, but this one keeps gnawing away at the back of my brain so here goes… Most people here probably know Roth’s Tweedy Pie T bucket; but it wasn’t really a ROTH build. Bob Johnston built it in the 50s, originally with a Flathead and then later a Small Block Chevy, and Roth ended up buying it, making a few tweaks to fancy it up because he had promised Revell a car for that year and hadn’t built one…and just like that, 11 million replica model kits were born. I’m not building a replica of that car at ALL, but I’m definitely going to be heavily drawing my own inspiration from it. Some more info on the Tweedy Pie here: https://kustomrama.com/wiki/Tweedy_Pie There’s obviously a perfectly good kit to use to build this project - but I don’t have one, so I did some parts-box digging. So, here’s what I’ve got to start with - a Small Block Chevy, some whitewalls and reverse steel wheels that may or may not make the cut, an AMT body, and the one Revell Tweedy Pie part that I WILL use on mine (seeing as how it started this whole train of thought in the first place) - that heavily chopped 32 (34?) truck grill: I also printed a 32 front axle and a few other bits that I may or may not use… First thing I liked about the Tweedy Pie is that wider-than-normal body. That was done on the 1:1 to help it fit over 32 frame rails better, but they had to narrow those significantly anyway for it to work, so I’m doing it for aesthetic reasons only. I like that little body looking a little squarer to improve the proportions a little. Original: Slice and dice’d: I too will use a 32 frame on mine, although honestly it would be easier just to use some square bar…quick wheelbase mock-up on some Post-It’s so I could figure out where to chop, and a parts-box AMT street rod frame as my victim in the background: And much chopping, measuring and gluing later and we have this: Excuse the styrene ‘pins’ - they’re just waiting for the glue to dry to fill a bunch of holes I won’t be using… Quick mock-up with the body on: I need to be careful to leave enough room for the engine - this thing is SHORT… Next job was mounting the axles - using a suicide perch up front with the leaf spring mounting on top of it to drop the nose a little: And the rear mount is a little over-engineered-looking right now but it’ll all be hidden when the body and seat are in place…I can see this little thing being fragile so I’m taking the chance to build in some big beefy mounting points where I can to toughen it up - I learned this year that it sucks when a contest judge picks up your build wrong and breaks it… The banjo rear end is a parts box piece, and the spring is one of the spares from the Atlantis Mooneyes dragster. And that’s about where I got it so far…it’s a cute little frame tho! I’ve left some ‘adjustability’ in the rear end so I can tweak it up and down, but it’ll definitely have some rake either way…next jobs will be some more ‘roughing-in’ of parts to get the look in my head - probably the headlamps and gas tank. Thanks for looking - more soon, soon as I’ve done more!

That seems to be the case here too - the Walmart is 5 mins drive from both a HL AND a Michael’s and had one of these kit displays last Christmas

Need to turn the welder down, is all ? Some amazing beautiful work here - thank you to everyone who posted so far! Feeling suitably inspired to make something of my own this weekend!

Oh nice!! I didn’t know they were getting that one, but I’ve been wanting one of those!

I’m trying to get better at hinging doors - I’ve never been good at hinging ANYTHING, so I watched the F1 race coverage today and did some scribing, hinge bending and careful gluing. Used some micro-magnets to hold them closed, although it’ll need a couple more to get them to align perfectly how I’d like repeatably and consistently

Both spotted in the grocery store’s parking lot this morning - one of those little Slingshot three wheelers, and a cool old 90s Saab. Apparently those Saabs are pretty quick, and take to tuning well!

I’ve tried Elmer’s (the various varieties) Aleene’s Tacky Glue and Modge Podge. Of those, I like the Aleene’s best, personally - the extra stickiness it has compared to the others just means it works better for me. The purple Elmer’s works pretty well too especially where you want a less visible glue joint - with the added bonus that it’s purple when it’s wet and clear when it dries. What I’ve been doing lately though, is using double sided tape designed for scrapbooking. There’s a bunch of different widths available and you can get it in either a masking-tape-like thickness, or something much thicker that helps if you have poor fitting one-piece ‘tub’ shaped one-piece like a lot of the older kits have. It seems to work well, so far - super quick and easy to do, no mess, and stronger than water based glue. Obviously, this trick wouldn’t work on something like a Revell 29 Roadster where there’s nowhere to hide the tape, but it works good for what it works good for! I’ve heard of people using non-fogging superglue (designed for foam) successfully too, and Donn Yost has a video on his YouTube channel where he demonstrates a trick for using regular styrene cement with good results

I did an experiment this year and last year to see what would work best for me, as a builder, to get the most done. Last year, I had a list of everything I wanted to build - about 1 kit per month for twelve months. Some were simpler, some more complex, but I went in with a plan and finished them all. Actually, all twelve and an extra one. This year, I decided to kinda roll with it and see what happens - I wouldn’t put any pressure on myself to build anything in particular, to see if that freedom worked better for ME to get more done. Because, honestly, 12 builds in a year was kinda tiring, and sometimes I had to force myself to work on something even if I didn’t totally feel like it…. This year so far, I think I finished 4 builds, with maybe a couple more to come. The main thing I’ve noticed in this experiment is that there’s a lot of wondering WHAT to work on next, out of the 50+ projects in my head - that lack of a bigger plan for the year has NOT worked for me. I was kind of working on the theory that working on whatever thing I felt like at the time would lead to more enjoyment, and getting more done…but nope…just a bunch of half done things. I kind of suspected that would be the case, but I wanted to take a year to experiment and see what came out of it. Something I did pick up, from a podcast for artists that my wife (a semi-pro artist) was listening to, was that this lack of direction (despite many options) is common amongst ‘creatives’. The show she was listening to recommended lists of ‘someday’ projects, however big or small - ideally with a mix of larger and smaller projects that you’d like to do SOMEDAY but haven’t done yet. Then, when you’re figuring out exactly what to build, you’ve got twenty or thirty (or a hundred) options right there waiting for you, that you’ve probably been working on in your head already. Next year, I’m going back to having a list ?

For that price for a decal sheet, I'd buy the whole kit for $18 at Hobby Lobby instead. Of course, that only works if you're close to a Hobby Lobby...

That's a beautiful build! I love the grenade on the suicide shifter!

Thank you all for the AMAZING show - and thanks to the sponsors for the great raffle, winner's prizes and trophies. I had a BLAST! I'd love to make a meeting some time (hopefully in a couple of months when work slows down some...). Thanks to all of the club too - appreciate the effort you all went to!

The one in our store actually GREW in the past year...the extra space is filled with Gundam robots and Star Wars kits and so on, but it did grow! Encouraging to see!

Actually, what we're looking for here is 'upscaling', which is absolutely a thing: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom/super-resolution.html Hard to say for sure without seeing the actual image(s) in question, but it IS somewhat possible to make a fuzzy image crisper, and often even SHARP and restore missing detail, which would maybe be enough to achieve what is being asked for here...

An ALPS printer wont help you with that (you could print a larger version of the same image, as you could with any printer, but it wont clean it up or add any quality to what you're printing) - but it could likely be enhanced with Photoshop or similar. A good (that is, as high resolution as possible) scan of the photograph would be a good starting point, and then the image can be worked with from there

Beautiful work, as always

The more of those Atlantis reissues (of the ones they got, obviously) the better! Approaching $50 for a Red Baron or Beer Wagon is a LOT…that’s like a buck fifty a part almost ??

Some more 1/32 releases announced this morning:

Where does one go to see this list of new kits that they’ll be getting? Glad to see the Revell 55s in that list - wish it had the 30 Coupe and 32 Roadster on though, but seems like they’re skipping those (or can’t get stock from Revell)

Good question! I saw some AMAZING displays today, as it happens… Aside from revolving, this one had custom-machined LED spotlights plus a printed vinyl wrap to match the model: This one was even more complex, with routed pieces to support the model and some clever routing to hide the wiring for the lights: Simple, but effective: I think this is the stand that Scale Motorsports sells (sold?) And even just something simple like this ‘frames’ a model nicely, I think:

Some pics from today’s show…I tried to get all the cars, plus a few extras that I found interesting - really humbling and inspiring to see so much AMAZING work all in one day. Full album here: https://public.fotki.com/NewYorkSpeedShop/scale-models/model-shows-contests/ipms-duneland-2022/ And some preview pics below:

IPMS show here in NW Indiana today - brought home some goodies from the swap meet. Not the best 40 Ford kit out there, but I never built one before and it was cheap… This has been on my grail list and I finally found one for a good price…I REALLY want the Offie variation, but I was pleased to get my hands on one of the two regardless: I’ll never turn down a cheap TD kit (and actually, these are selling for way too much money online now…) One of these, because it too was cheap and I never built one…is this the kit where the body isn’t very accurate? Time to research… My second Ala Kart purchase in a week…I have three ideas in mind for building there, and now I have two in stock ready for whenever I get to them… And a bunch of $1 Tamiya paint, some (apparently) still good Testors Boyd rattlecans for a buck a piece and the AMT Blueprinter set with three or four engines in and a set of custom grilles: Came home with a trophy too, but I didn’t particularly deserve it ??

YES! This is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping we’d get to see in this thread - so much beautiful craftsmanship! Is it weird that lately I find a well built frame even more interesting than the more glamorous components that attach to it? Thanks to all who posted pics so far!

I looked for an existing thread for this particular subject but didn't find one; but I'm always really inspired when I see a nice well-done scratch-built frame, be it for a hot rod, race car, oval car, minitruck or whatever. There's a bunch of builders on here putting together really nice frames from little more than styrene rod and bar - I'd love to see more of those, and hear about your favorite materials and techniques! Inspire me!