OldNYJim

I agree on the Tacky Glue - works just like Elmer’s, but much stickier. I’ve used a regular glue gun for larger parts before, and that works well if you need a stronger (but still temporary) bond.

Doug is such a good presenter - so likable and good at communicating. This week’s video ? :

I’ve been playing with Adobe Dimension lately for 3D design - I have it as part the suite of software I (have to) subscribe to and it does a nice job of doing some simple 3D modelling and modifying of existing parts. Messed with this Jeep design on my lunch break yesterday… …and then printed one this evening: Need to tweak the some of the supports under the front fenders there to stop them disconnecting, but it’s definitely a usable first attempt. I added a few thin sacrificial planes under the back of the body to help support it when printing - just some little 0.5mm thick strips to stop the back sagging that can be easily removed when I take it off the bed…worked out great! You can see a little of what I’m talking about under the rear of the body here: Excited to try some more complex bodies (anyone seen a good 30 Ford anywhere?) but I figured I’d start with something simple. This stuff is a blast!

I’ll be REALLY interested to see how you get on with this project - you’re basically doing the same experiments as I am right now! I picked up various different colors and thicknesses of leaf from Amazon…I‘m trying to do basically what you described - use a stencil to lay down the adhesive (or Elmers, or clear paint, or whatever) and then lay the leaf over that. I think I’ve got a good technique down for larger lettering (say, 1/2” or above in this case) but I’m really trying to figure out if I can make the same technique work for MUCH smaller lettering (more like 1/8”). My backup plan, and one I use for painting too, is to do the process backwards…lay down a larger piece of leaf before paint, then clear coat to protect it, mask over THAT and spray the body color and remove the masks. Haven’t specifically tried that yet, but I do that pretty often with paint instead of leaf so I’m pretty confident it would work ok. I bet it would, yes!! I should pick some up to experiment with! Will report back as/if/when I get around to it ?

Yes sir - have tried…haven’t succeeded. The BMF tears too easily to be easily transferred from the sheet to the car. Cutting it isn’t super easy with the cutter either, for the same reasons For mirror-y stuff I would either cut a mask and shoot Molotow (or Alclad, but then you need to add a black layer first) or get some CHEAP signwriter’s chrome vinyl. Cheap stuff is best because the worse the quality, the thinner (and this more in-scale) it is… I’ve been messing with a technique to use one of these machines to lay down gold and silver leaf, but I haven’t figured it out yet…I had an entire day of failures last weekend trying to figure it out but I have some new ideas for this coming weekend that I’m excited to try…

Well, in the truck’s defense, we have no evidence that the driver’s behind isn’t still toasty warm in this pic…he may wanna blow some warm air on his feet though to stop frostbite setting in ?

This whole 3D printing thing still blows my mind. I’ve had an idea for a steering wheel design for AGES and never got around to making one…so in a quiet hour at work today I drew it up in CAD: Then had one printed within an hour of getting home: …and ready for paint by dinner time: This stuff is like living in the future to me! Amazing that we have these tools at our disposal now, and so easily available!

My wife surprised me with a cordless Dremel this evening…she did good!

Thanks buddy! Yeah, the machine will cut whatever material you put thru it (within reason - no stainless steel ?). I use Oramask 815 masking film but it’ll cut frisket just fine, or even regular masking tape. On plastic, yes - it’ll score styrene sheet really easily and also cut right through thinner gauge…I have done that myself on a few projects, but check out some of @Impalow’s builds on his profile to see some really masterful work with one of these machines. Or, even better, check out this video and the amazing grille and frame he built:

Reading thread titles is hard… Meanwhile, this came today - hobby chisel with interchangeable tips to allow you to scribe different width lines. I was struggling to clean up the window frames on something I’m working on after chopping a top - sanding was tricky because it’s a pretty thin little pillar and I can’t get a file into the spot because there’s a drip rail in the way that I didn’t want to lose. This worked great though! Good for levelling out wobbly door lines too…

Great pics, thanks for sharing Tim! There was a bunch of cool stuff there! Looks like the 'fabrication style' hot rod trend (with rivets and stamped-looking panels and whatnot) is still going strong...and I noticed a few with super skinny motorcycle-style front wheel and tire combinations up front, which I don't recall seeing too much of recently. I'm not sold on the styling of the '31 Chevy that won, personally - looks amazing from the back but a whole mess of different things at the front...but can't fault the imagination and creativity that went into it!

Good info, thanks Mark! They did a bunch of these things, apparently...I wouldn't mind seeing that Mustang come back too!

I'm excited for the Mod Rod A Kart, whichever version it is, but this REALLY got my interest: I never even saw this kit before, but I want one!

That’s a good deal!

(So, to answer your question, I would pick a big SUV next time and take all the luggage I wanted )

We did a road trip in our Miata for two weeks with my then fiancee (now wife) a few years back. We used every available space in the car for luggage - the trunk was CRAMMED full of soft bags, the glove compartment had rolled up shirts, the little center console had socks and we had another couple of totes on the shelf behind the headrests. We still ended up having to compromise on what to take...we took all of her stuff and I bought some tee shirts and stuff on the road as did laundry when we could Was surprisingly comfortable doing 6-7-8 hours a day in the little NB....but I was ready for a day at home after two weeks of driving

Watched this one this evening - REALLY enjoyed seeing and hearing more about this build. And the book is AWESOME! Can we have a video where we get to see all of the book? ?? Awesome work dude - keep them coming!!!!

It still amazes me seeing that forest of supports you need for bigger parts like this - haven’t been brave enough to try a whole body yet (although I’d like to find a good Willy’s Jeep to print sometime soon…)

Managed to grab another Atlantis Mooneyes dragster - brand new on eBay (admittedly, listed as having a damaged box) for $17! ? Arrived today - the ‘damaged box’ doesn’t look any different to the undamaged boxed kits I have here already, and it was better packed than most kits I get in the mail. Score!

My wife's car, and my current daily, is only the second auto trans I've owned and driven in 22 years of driving - I still drive around with my hand on the shifter and occasionally forget myself and depress the non-existent clutch when pulling up to a junction ?

Yessir! They're great for that - but the vinyl is often too thick to be in scale, and doesn't always react well to clear coat. What I like to do is use a masking material like Oramask 815 on the same machine to cut custom paint masks and airbrush whatever lettering or graphics you come up with instead: Full step by step here (or in the current MCM!)

Dumb question, but can you just angle it diagonally (as in, nose down towards the build plate, tail in the air) using the rotate feature to make it fit? Might be a simpler way to be able to print it all in one go and not deal with slicing it up... (EDIT - I know that's not what you were asking - but just an idea)

Good topic! Last year I started trying to be more organized when it comes to inspiration, and started saving ideas into a photo-host. Sometimes, I'll see a pic and think "that would be a cool build" and store it away so I can pick up a kit and start collecting the parts to work on it at some point, and other times I'll pick up a kit and THEN go looking for inspiration. For example, last year I wanted to build an AMT '57 Chevy. I'm not really a 57-Chevy kinda guy - they're neat, but I never saw myself building too many of them. Trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I went searching for 57 Chevy reference ideas - and now I've probably got ten or twelve that I'd like to build. Pics here, for anyone curious: https://public.fotki.com/NewYorkSpeedShop/11-cars/reference-material/57-chevys/ I really like this book - I've bought probably 4 or 5 copies of it and given them to creative people I know and have at least three copies of it myself - and whilst it talks mainly about writers, painters and musicians a lot of it carries over into what we do too. It talks about how to gather inspiration - but also how to take what you've seen elsewhere and make it your own...definitely worth a read (or worth picking up a copy for a few bucks).

Funny you say that - I was just thinking that same thing this week about one of my projects...like you say, it kinda feels like cheating to let the machine do all the work. Mind you, it felt like cheating when I started using my scrapbook cutter to make plastic parts and it felt like cheating when I first resin cast some stuff and it still feels like cheating when I cut paint masks and don't have to do them by hand too ?

Standard showrod parts count ? Is that one yours, @Casey?