OldNYJim

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?

That’s a REALLY useful comparison. I’d bet that the Hasegawa stuff is some variation on chrome vinyl wrap material - it sounds a LOT like it from your description. Same stuff they use to wrap 1:1 cars sometimes - it HAS to be a little stretchy so it covers curves nicely, and with a little heat will lay down even nicer. I’ve got some here that I’ve been meaning to experiment with…

I too, hit the Lobby of Hobby this evening…they had a bunch of stuff reduced in the embossing powder section including some decent looking heat guns down to $5, so I grabbed one of those just in case I ever find a good use for it. Picked up another ‘34 Ford pickup kit, just because I can’t leave them on the shelf apparently, and one of these because I didn’t have one already: Then I got home and the latest MCM was in my mailbox…and they put one of my projects from last year in there! Thanks MCM-ers!

Got mine today - super fast delivery and the best one since the re-launch (in my humble opinion). Keeps getting better and better - great work everyone!

Good post @alexis! Only thing to add to that is that Steve SAYS he knows where the car is, and has been collecting donations to buy it back for quite some time. Whether that's true or not, who knows - guess we'll see it if ever reappears!

I nearly picked up one of those AMT 40 Ford ‘Woody’ (actually not a woody) kits at my second-most-local Hobby Lobby probably a year ago and decided I didn’t need it that day. I’ve been having ideas on how to build that kit ever since, and still didn’t get one. I need to get back there I think if I still think about it a year later…and I know it’s not even THAT good of a kit ?

Good idea fellas! I’m not doing it for this one, but I’ve got a version of this kit sitting on the shelf waiting for exactly that treatment! @mchook - that’s a really kind offer, but the kit actually COMES with a boom and parts to build it like that already! I’ll probably do that one later in the year here That sounds like a cool project - all this stuff is time consuming but it’s fun! Makes me respect the people who are REALLY good at designing parts who sell their files - I’d always rather support one of them and buy something if it’s out there. Pity I keep thinking of weird stuff that I have to develop myself ? Mini update from this evening’s time at the bench - finished up the design for my bedsides and did a test print: Also made motormounts and started a trans tunnel, but they’re not very interesting… more soon!

Nailed it dude! Nice job!!

I really like how this one’s coming together! The extra little details you’re adding to the engine bay add a lot - and I’m still loving that color ?

Thanks fellas! Thanks for the heads up - I did a BUNCH of research on Ford FEs this week - you’re right, that Deuce motor isn’t one ?. I DO have the Foose kit, but I already robbed the motor out of that one… If I could’ve found a Mysterion parts kit I likely would’ve just used the frame from that and saved myself a BUNCH of work (or at least had a good starting point) but here we are ?. What kind of signs do you do? This week’s project was mostly centered around the motor, seeing as that was holding everything else up. I considered buying one of the AMT kits that has a better FE, but I really didn’t want to wait for one to show, and Hobby Lobby/Michael’s didn’t have anything useful. So, I laid one out in software so I could print one: I couldn’t find a good printable FE online, but I found some useful parts and robbed what I could and recreated what I couldn’t. I wanted to use the kit oil pan and valve covers ideally so it took some figuring out to get this layout to proper scale AND have those AMT parts fit ok…a couple of elements are slightly off now as a result, but it’s WAY better than what the kit comes with. First rack of parts right off the printer: And some snipping, cleanup and curing later we’ve got something to work with: Whilst that stuff was printing, I was thinking about battery boxes - I’d seen this cool design for a 50s Pepsi cooler that someone sells a file for online, and figured that would be a fun little detail. I’ll paint it to match the body, most likely, but if someone peers in close enough they’ll see what whoever built this thing repurposed a little cooler: Next project was an ‘wooden’ insert for the roof - I had the idea of carrying the hole-theme through into a few other little details but mixing in some different materials and finishes…plus, I was thinking of how old aircraft wings are assembled with the slats and wanted something that looked like that, a little: And in place: Next major thing to figure out is the bed…I’m undecided if I’ll run a tailgate or leave that off, but I printed a quick design of one anyway to play with: Tricky thing will be coming up with something that still looks RIGHT on top of that weird frame, but still ends up looking like a 34 truck…it’s a design challenge, but I like design challenges… Quick end-of-week mock-up - now I know for sure how the engine and trans fit I can get to locking them in place and getting serious with the interior stuff: Thanks for looking, more soon!

I have a technique I like to use with a fan brush and two colors of whatever brown paint I have to hand…doesn’t need to be anything fancy… If you go to this thread and scroll down towards the bottom I posted some pics of painting some grain:

Their website is a disaster - I’ve had two different subscriptions and two different log-ins for their site, sent countless emails back and forth with them, and even written reviews for them that have appeared on that site…and I can’t access the site, can’t read anything behind the ‘paywall’ and never have been able to. I’m not a complete derp when it comes to technology but it just doesn’t work… Say all that to say - I hope some of this interesting-sounding info makes it’s way elsewhere at some point!

No wonder people like putting a Chevy engine in a Ford so much ?

Copying and pasting that for future reference - very informative! Thank you sir - that made things a LOT clearer!