OldNYJim

Few pics of my finished Atlantis Mooneyes dragster build. I was planning on close to a box-stock build, but the more I dug into it the more I ended up changing...really glad they brought these back though! What a GREAT kit! Painted with Createx paint, added some machined aluminum parts, RB Motion rod ends and Highlight Models Moon pedals and a resin parachute. Thanks for looking!

Nice print! Does someone offer files for those parts that you’re printing or are you drawing them yourself? Excited to see your progress with that machine!

Good tip, thank you sir! I get my wife’s car serviced at the Honda dealer right by there…I’ll take a look!

Huh, I never saw those 32 Sedans in the HL near me - got lucky at Christmas…Walmart had them so I got one there instead. I’d pick up a few of those for $18 a piece just for some of the parts!

Thanks everyone! No kiddin’ ?. I’m sorry - I try and usually reply to any questions…if I missed one of yours before just bump it to the top again and I’ll reply! No disrespect intended, and I always appreciate all the nice comments you leave!! Re. those tank straps you asked about, I found reference pics of the car with three types of those straps - either wound compression spring type ones, metal ‘loops’ or what looked like some kind of rubber hose. I went with some bent wire for mine…the spring type were coolest and a guitar strings would KINDA look right to replicate those, but the wire ones were the easiest to replicate in scale, I decided… Tonight’s little bit of progress…getting the wheels on! Not a super exciting process, but these spindly little frames are really easily tweaked and warped so I was worried about everything still being aligned right even though I spent some time early in the build trying to ensure it would go together ok. I intentionally left a little play in the receivers for the rear axle so that i could tweak it a little if it needed it, and ditto the front wheels. Spent a couple of hours just casually playing with it tonight and using some slow-setting CA glue to install a wheel at a time and tweak it to try and make sure the ride height was right and all four wheels touched the ground ok… The camera lens makes the front look a little wonky, but they’re straight in real life, promise… Oh, and I got the ‘chute installed ready for more detailing tomorrow (needs the pull handle and cables and so on…) Got a bunch of little details still to add here but it’s getting closer! More soon!

A little more on this little fella this past week… Got the ‘tins’ polished out and ready for installation… Made brackets and mounts for the pedals and got them mounted to the floor, which was the next part to install once the axle was in place: Not that you can see them particularly well, but you’d definitely notice if they WEREN’T there, so… Fun fact: a couple of pics I found showed some variation of the words ‘NO STEP’ on that floor panel, so I added that to mine too…but like the pedals it’s not super visible on the 1:1 OR the model. I know it’s there though… Next step was getting the steering linkages in - another fun fact, one early iteration of this car had the steering box offset despite there being a perfectly good bracket for the box welded to the frame. Why? Who knows, but I did the offset box and angled rod anyway… It’s starting to look like a thing! I ordered some of those nice RB Motion rod ends for this build, so I got linkages made and installed too: RB Motion makes such nice parts! Next job is making the rear hubs and disc brakes - but I did a quick mock-up for my own amusement: More soon!

Tomorrow’s experiment…see if this YEARS old Model Master ‘Krome’ foil that I found today sticks better than my latest sheet of BMF…

Got a few bits today - hit Hobby Lobby to see if they had any new kits - they had that Hot Wheels Camaro but nothing much else that grabbed me - found some Model Master BMF-alike in the clearance aisle though! Got an order of RB Motion rod ends through too - I think the ones I picked up are a little too small but I didn’t study them closely yet… Oh, and picked up some Satin clear and some of HL’s polishing sponges to try

If you didn’t see it already, you guys are gonna love this thread…

Sounds sensible to me! I’m no expert tho… ?

Haha, yeah, I have a stash of those 29s...built three so far but got probably a dozen on the shelf... I really like the Createx black sealer for black paintjobs (with a gloss over top) - its the thinnest, easiest to spray, best covering black I've ever used. Definitely recommended...but these tricks will work with about whatever paint you wanted to use

I love nice craftsmanship like that! I almost like it MORE when people make that effort when its something you'll never see as soon as a coat of primer hits it...would be easy just to do a nice simple slice and CA glue it back together and sand it smooth - but it's WAY cooler to do it the harder way

Parafilm would work, or regular old Tamiya tape or similar - or even Silly Putty if it's an awkward-to-mask spot! Key benefit to this 'backwards' technique is that it's MUCH easier to shoot a dark color over a light color that the other way round - so for something like your first example in the top post there you would only need a relatively light coat of the black over the orange color, cutting down on big edges and paint build up (and thus making it easier to remove the masking). Of course, it'll sometimes happen that the black would pull up instead when you're removing the mask...but it's WAY easier to touch in the black if you have a little flaw than it is to try and touch the color of the flames back in... Here's another similar build with the same process (but a slightly more complicated paintjob with some pearls and florescent and whatnot):

That looks really sharp - and I agree on the wheels, those are really nice! Looks super clean!

What really stands out to me is those super-clean stepped joints where you altered the frame - nice work!

It looks like the challenge there is also going to be fixing/replacing those raised panel lines after sanding That said - are they meant to be panel GAPS? If so, I’d be inclined to scribe them now whilst they’re still there and then rescribe them when you’re done shaping that fuselage

I’ve been looking for a 60’s-era helmet for a drag build I’m doing…any tips on which kits come with these? I have a bunch of Paddy Wagon police helmets, but that’s not quite the right look ?

Whoopsie

If that's the worst thing we've got to worry about - life is good! ?

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Yeah, you'll need the squeeqee to work out the water and air or those bubbles have no way of escaping...

Although, I will say… …they spelled ‘Competition’ wrong on the box ?

I’m so glad Atlantis is bringing these old kits back - and I hope they keep doing it! I’ll be grabbing a few of these I wonder what those front tires represent in 1:1? I like the look of them - I can see those getting used on some of my hot rod builds

What Peteski said - and, to add to that, the piece must be IMPECCABLY clean and free of any dings or scratches before you lay the film down

Did you click into the thread I linked to in my post? That shows exactly how to do that, with pics... In short, shoot the flame color first, use the INSIDE part of the mask (not the part you would usually use) to mask, then spray the 'main' body color over top. Works best when the 'main' body color is darker than the color of the flames...