Terry Sumner

Yeah...it's the photo. It's a little dark. The model is actually lighter than what appears in the photo.

Really nice work...excellent paint. On a couple of pictures there one could think he was looking at the real thing!

Thanks...you might be right. The script does kinda fade into the background.

That's the same as the brightwork on the AA/FA. First you paint the firewall with a regular 'ol gloss black enamel. The when the paint is semi-dry, you rub that aluminum dust into the paint with a soft cloth. The paint has to be at the point where you can slide your finger along the paint and it still kinda grabs your finger...a little soft. It can't be cured though because if the paint is hard, the aluminum powder won't rub into the paint. The more powder you get on and the more you rub, the shinier it gets. The powder is from an S N J polishing kit. Airplane guys use it a lot for aluminum finishes.

That color is Testors Colors By Boyd Orange Pearl.

Here's a Revell 32 full fendered coupe I built. I chopped the top myself. It's mostly all from the kit but I did change the rear suspension. I adapted the Jag rear suspension from the 28T Touring kit to fit. The headers are from the kit...from there back it's scratchbuilt. I turned the bullet mufflers on my little lathe and added muffler clamps from Detail Master. The exhaust pipes are solder. The engine is the small block Ford from the kit with added plug wires and looms from DM along with the braided hose also. The interior has a light gray flock and is otherwise kit. The paint was Boyd's. In addition to these few photos, there are a few more here on my Fotki site... http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/car-models/1932-ford-full-fend/ Any suggestions for improvement are welcome! Overall view... Hosted on Fotki Chassis... And yes I do know about the canted rear tire...that flimsy little plastic axle broke and this was a temporary repair. After the photo was taken I repaired it properly with some brass tubing! Hosted on Fotki The engine...a poorer quality photo taken with my old camera. Hosted on Fotki And here are a few of a drag car...Wild Willie Borsch's AA/FA... Did a little extra work on this one...the front tank was turned from aluminum bar stock as were the blower pulleys. I turned new front coilovers on the lathe and wound some steel wire for the springs. More of this one here.. http://public.fotki.com/tsumner/car-models/wild-willie-borsch-aafa/ Hosted on Fotki Hosted on Fotki I spent some time thinning out the interior of the Hilborn scoop as I always thought they were way out of scale in the thickness department. All the kit chrome was stripped off and the new shiny stuff was aluminum powder rubbed into a high gloss enamel paint that was ALMOST cured but not quite. Hosted on Fotki So fire away gents!

Well..learned something new today! I thought the butterflies always closed up tight. Thanks for laying that little tidbit of knowledge on me brother! Appreciate it!

Okay...so now this is one of those threads I was NOT talking about in the thread on receiving undeserved praise. This one most certainly deserves all the accolades you've received! Well done! I do have one observation/question though...since the car is obviously being displayed in a manner consistent with the engine off, shouldn't the scoop butterfiles be closed? Or did you just simply prefer to display it that way? In either case, the model is beautiful!

Well I guess I have to admit that it was the above quoted thread and one other that got me to the point I felt I needed to bring the subject up. The other was this one.... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33535 While this Camaro was really well done in most aspects, I was left wondering to myself how it picked up an award with the paint that it has on it. No disrespect meant, but the photos clearly show a lot of orange peel in the paint. The photo of the roof and the next one showing the rear of the model showed this orange peel quite vividly. But it's not the model itself that caused me to write, but rather it was the responses that praised the paint. Now I don't wish to pick on the builder at all and once again I hesitate to mention this thread. However it was one of the two that finally caused me to start this thread because I wondered if we did a disservice to the builder by heaping praise for the paint when it was maybe not deservedly so? I mean, the poor guy had to feel that his paint was excellent because of all the "great paint" comments. That model was beautiful in every aspect but the paint surface, so why would we lie to the fellow and give the paint such high praise. Maybe the commenters might have praised evertyhing about the model but mentioned that the paint probably could have been improved by colorsanding and buffing it out? I don't know, maybe I'm all wrong and I shouldn't even mention this Camaro. I apologise to the builder in advance but please don't take this badly. I've certainly been on the receiving side of some pointed crticism a number of times, but I knew the guys who were criticising my work and had asked them to critique my work. I realize you did not ask for this and for my unsolicited comments I'm sorry. I only mentioned it here so that others would be able to see what was on my mind when I started the thread.

Well as the OP, I must say I agree totally with your last post Danno. I can't begin to tell you guys how hesitant I was to even bring up this subject in the first place. I really thought I was going to be branded as a malcontent, then drawn, quartered, tarred, feathered and burned at the stake! I guess I just got sick of all the "good job, the paint is great, nice clean build" quotes when in fact those descriptors did not fit the model. And I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised that this thread did not degenerate into the bowels of hell like I thought it might do. There has been some meaningful discussion of many points and it has not resorted to name calling, etc etc. Good job all!

Man that is very very nice! Just wish your photos were better so we could see that great detail better...

Very nice job. I like how you've taken care of the basics and got rid of all the seam/mold lines. The paint is nice...looks like it's been buffed out...no orange peel showing. About the only suggestion I have would be to put a bit of flat black on the windshield blades. That chrome blade would surely scratch the heck out of the windshield right? LOL

Now I'm not the best builder in the world and I may be branded a grinch for bringing this up. But this has bothered me a little for a while now. I really wonder if we are doing the right thing by praising someone's model when it clearly is in need of, shall we say, better technique. I mean, in the Under Glass section every now and then you'll see a model that has some bad flaws garner a bunch of comments praising the model when it really needs comments pointing out these bad flaws. Now I'm not talking about something minor, I'm talking about the major, really obvious stuff. For instance, you look at a model where the paint is all orange peel and someone will comment, "nice paint", when it's clearly bad. Or a comment like, "nice clean build", when there is glue on the windshield or the body parts are clearly ill-fitting. What kind of message are we sending the modeler? I think maybe it gives the builder the wrong impression that his paint is good when maybe he might be better served by gently giving suggestions on how to get rid of that orange peel. Same goes for other types of bad technique, of which there are many. Like hoods that don't fit right, decals all silvered, glue all over glass and/or paint, ill fitting bumpers, mold seams left on chrome parts, a tire not on the ground, and more ad nauseum. Now before you all go nuts on me, please don't think I'm advocating criticising everyone's models. I'm certainly not. I've been around a long time and I do understand that it is not proper netiquette to criticise someone's model when criticism is not asked for and I would never critcise someone's model unless asked to do so. I also realize that not everyone wants to build high quality. And that is fine with me. Everyone should build for themselves for sure. My only problem is with heaping praise on something that CLEARLY shouldn't be praised. And I emphasize the word "clearly". In other words..if the paint is badly orange peeled, then possibly we're doing the modeler a disservice by telling him his paint is good? Better to say nothing than to lie??? Maybe we could have a section like on the ARC forum that is for modelers to post their stuff when they are inviting constructive criticism....

Romell, Just curious on your technique for bending the brass tube. It doesn't appear that you've annealed the brass first as I see no evidence of heat applied. Or did you polish the brass after heating/annealing. And if you didn't anneal the brass, how well or should I say hard, did the tubing bend in such a small radius?

Lookin good so far! If you're interested in any good technical info, go here... http://www.straightlinemodeler.org/ there is lot's of good stuff on this site.

Looks good Bernie! And I can say that as I have seen the 1:1 in the garage! Gotta tell your dad to break that sucker out more often....maybe thursday evening bring it down to the cruise night at the Windjammer at Misquamicut Beach? TJ and I are riding down on our Harleys that night. Doesn't look like the weather is going to be too good for Wednesday night on top of the garage at Mohegan Sun this week...sposed to rain tomorrow... Terry Sumner

I actually owned a 1:1 71 Road Runner in the blue color with the black stripe segments back in 1973. But it ony had the 340 in it instead of the big block. I thought it was a dog. Always had problems with that Carter Thermoquad. It had the 4 speed with that pistol grip Hurst shifter. Made a lot of noise but wasn't very quick.

SUBTLE??? You have a way with the art of understatement my friend! LOL Looks cool.

There were a LOT of things that genuinely made the 50's and 60's much simpler...as compared to now that is. Just a few... No electronic leashes (read that cell phones) No computers Carbureted cars, no electronics...any guy could easily work on his own car Drag strips everywhere...no driving hours to get to one. Could watch TV with Rabbit ears or just an antenna with a rotator. No computerized national credit reports or ratings All toys were much simpler Heavy drugs no where near as prevalent as they are now. Kids had much more respect for elders and Police. Not as much crime as today..(as a retired cop I can vouch for this one) There are many more I'm sure. But I don't agree with Mark...the 50's and 60's..in spite of the major problems he mentions...were genuinely more simple. Let's see how many more examples other guys can come up with that made the years gone by more simple than today...

Hmmm...don't believe I ever had that particular problem. But what I remember most is that 73 Plymouth's HEAT! It had no air conditioning, the seats were bench type black pleather, the floors were black rubber mats and the outside air intake duct was metal and ran right alongside the exhaust manifold. The "fresh" air coming inside was super hot so you never even opened the vents! Add to that you were wearing a medium gray LONG SLEEVE shirt, tie, black wool pants, black socks and black corfam shoes! This made for a tortuorously hot day in that cruiser. They let us remove the tie and open the top button if it got above 85 degrees! A few years later we finally got short sleeve shirts and a straw hat for the summer months...

For sure! And the check has not been late even once in 14 years now! I'm hoping to live long enough to make more money in retirement that I did in my 22 years! LOL

Speaking of sirens...in 74, my first cruiser was equipped with the mechanical siren mounted on the inner fender housing. The switch to activate it was under the dash..a simple 2 way switch. Catch was...it was wired to the car's horn button. When you threw the switch it changed the horn button from blowing the horn to running the mecahnical siren. As long as we held the horn button down, the siren would spool up...let off the horn button and the siren would spool down. So you gotta imagine how it was in a chase. We're driving like crazy trying to chase down the perp while also trying to stay as safe as you could. But you had to have one finger on the horn button to make the siren work, use one hand on the radio handset to call in your speed, location etc etc and keep steering the darn car! Cap that off with brakes that only worked on the first time you hit them above 80 and it made for a wild ride at times! Ahhhh...memories! LOL

Don't know if you know about the Two Lane Blacktop dedicated forum or not, but here is the web address if you're interested... http://twolaneblacktop.yuku.com/ As I said, it's a forum dedicated soley to the 2LB 55 Chevy! Lot's of great info there...

raymanz and others who agree with him: What I'm about to say is not meant as a slam against you personally. I may be in the minority, but I'm tired of guys who feel it necessary to attempt to influence others to "build for yourself", if at the same time you denounce contests. These kinds of blanket statements can only be taken as slams against judged contests. I say that if you want to build for yourself, you are doing so whether or not you enter a judged contest. The argument may be made that if you build for a contest, you are not "building for yourself", but rather are building just for the contest. Yeah..so what? For some modelers like myself, building for a contest IS "building for myself". My goal is always to get better. When I build for a contest I try to build as best as I can. After judging, I talk to the judges to find out what I did wrong so that I can improve. Also, I always judge so I can learn from other judges what they see wrong in many models. Contests and competition are what has elevated this hobby to the state of excellence that it enjoys today. I believe dissing contests as something other than building for yourself is the wrong thing to do. For those of us guys who like building for contests, we don't need someone to stand up and state publicly that we shouldn't enter contests as that is not "building for oneself". The shoe could be on the other foot...contest guys could stand up and shout out, "Build for Contests", and if you don't you're not a worthy modeler! I ALWAYS build for myself. And if building a model to the best of my ability, then entering it in a contest and doing well or even not so well pleases me, then I would say I've certainly "built for myself".

Looks purty good!