OldNYJim

Nice start! I like the color combination!

Even when you add a little weathering your builds are super clean Steve! Nice job!

I took a break from this one to learn some techniques with my lathe and work on a coupla builds for shows and whatnot…but dug it out again this past week and did a little Polished out the body and gas tank: Did some assembly on the engine and got it in the frame: And started assembling the forks after I found some springs I’d been missing for the springer front end - couldn’t resist a mock-up with the tank on to see how it’ll look: Just gradually working through and adding a little piece here and there whilst other projects are stalled for paint-drying time or whatever. More soon!

That's weird - do you have a screenshot of the message?

Oh wait, nevermind ?

"I LOVE ANAGRAMS" ?

Their post says it'll include two engines, so I guess it'll be those! Works for me! I really like those wheels - I'll be ordering a few of these for sure... Thanks for the info everyone!

So, old kit experts, what do we know about this Topolino kit (at least, the bits that aren't new tooling)? I never saw one of these I don't think (although I might have one of these bodies somewhere if memory serves me correctly)

Nice maskin’!

I was trying to figure out how the clutch would work - but the pic explained it all! Ingenious!

One that got missed, for people enjoying these (but I’d recommend showing support by subscribing to his channel):

Spotted at the gas station this morning - super clean!

I’m REALLY enjoying this video series! I hope they keep going for a long time - this was a great one!

Thanks Dave! It’s one of mine too! Today’s adventures…replacing the kit steering shaft with a machined aluminum one: Machining a Moon-style tank and cap to replace the kit piece (largely because it was easier than trying to fix the visible seam where the two pieces meet on the plastic version: And I looked through my stash for a nice metallic purple to use and found a can of Ford Ultraviolet pearl purple… …so after I’d spent a couple of hours cleaning up all the parts and getting them into primer I shot all the stuff that needs to be purple - pretty color! And that’s all so far today - tacking the graphics on the side will be the next paint project, but in the meantime I can start on the engine…more soon!

Their secondary definition is much closer to the mark to me:

I’m sure they’re both perfectly functional chairs that work just great for what they were intended for! I would rate my skills closest to the second chair - but it’s nice to have goals to shoot for!

Wasn’t really sure where to post this - but I guess it’s about as ‘other’ as they get, so here we are… Was really glad that Atlantic reissued this one - it’s been on my ‘want’ list for a LONG time. I love the new box art, and I’m sure I’ll end up building a green one, but I really wanted to built a replica of the original box art from ‘71: Something I like about Tom Daniel kits is that you get straight to the getting…first step, paint the body and start making it look like the thing on the box ?: So, first job will be clean up all the purple parts ready for paint: The firewall and dash is ok by 50-year-old standards, but I figured I could improve on those moulded-in gauges and switches a little: I spun up some aluminum trim rings on my lathe (which was tricky - the material is a little too fragile for my Taig really…) and then drilled out those switches ready for replacements…I might make some nice polished aluminum ones actually rather than these wire ones that I have in there right now… Having a blast messing with this thing - it’s so different to what I’ve been building lately, it’s fun to work on something big and beefy and industrial. More soon!

Few pics from inside the box, if anyone’s curious:

Thanks for bringing this thread back to the top Noel! Speaking to your point, you're exactly right - there isn't a good clear criteria or clearly defined standard on what level one has to reach to be termed a 'craftsman' (at least not in the context that we're talking about here in this thread...). And I wonder too if many craftsman even refer to themselves by that term? Or is that the equivalent of calling oneself 'handsome' - a term better given as a compliment by others than as a label you give yourself? Regardless - your point about different types of build really got me thinking. Is an immaculately put-together out-of-box build as impressive as a full scratchbuild Winfield-esque large-scale wonder? Probably not, put side to side...but I think a true craftsman would approach each project the same way - whether it's cleaning up mold lines on a Tamiya curbside kit or scratch-building 96-spoke wire wheels and lathe-turning the rims. That same desire to complete the task as perfectly as possible is probably still there. I can't answer definitively - I'm just ASPIRING to be a craftsman here

What a great story Claude! Enjoyed your thoughts on this subject!

That’s REALLY interesting! Thanks for sharing! I’ve done some funky stuff to set up 1:1 oval cars before but didn’t know about the salt-flats tricks! Cool!

I wish these model companies wouldn’t keep it a secret which stores exactly have their product - just tell us which ones have stock!

Interesting - do you have to (generally) run a softer suspension setup on the salt to add mechanical grip, or am I back to front? Basically, yeah! Actually, I found a good photo of a 1:1 tire stencil and used that in this case, but either way works… I kinda ran out of pieces to add to this, so it’s getting towards being done here - added a resin parachute, a couple of fuel lines, some photoetch screws and dzus fasteners and then used some thinned white glue and some fine white embossing powder to add a little salt. Not going too wild on this one - just wanted a fun quickie project for the shelf! Thanks for watching everyone!

Interesting - thanks for the review! Bet it would kitbash nicely with the Revell Model A frames, for those so inclined...