Bainford

NOBLING has great advice, invest in an inexpensive caliper. Absolutely necessary for good scratchbuilding. My personal preference, both professionally and in my hobby work, is a dial caliper. It would help to know what sizes you need in 1:1, but when working in 1:25 scale, the following Evergreen round stock will get you close; - #211 measures .040", equals 1" in scale - #221 measures 3/64" (.047"), equals just shy of 1.25" in scale - #222 measures 1/16" (.062"), equals 1.5" in scale - #212 measures .080", equals 2" in scale - #213 measures .100", equals 2.5" in scale There are other sizes both smaller and larger available, but these sizes should get you pretty close for most chassis work. If you look at the numbers above, you may notice a very handy conversion for working in 1/25 scale, and in most cases 1/24 scale as well. In 1/25 scale, 1" = .040". That makes the math easy; .020" = 1/2 inch, .060 + 1.5 inches, .080 = 2 inches, etc. Also, as has been pointed out on the forum in the past, 1 mm + .0397" (roughly). .0397" is only .0003" away from .040, a negligible amount in our hobby, so millimeters, for our intents and purposes, equals 1 inch in 1/25 scale. Very handy.

Yeah, excellent point. I have found that when using Tamiya extra thin on Evergreen .010" or .005" styrene, the glue nearly dissolves small parts. I certainly softens sharp edges and other hard-fought detail. Sparing use of CA can be very helpful in these situations.

Future will ruin the sheen of the satin black hood.

I think the '66 Malibu Street Rat had a variant of those wheels, too. EDIT: Just checked, they are not the same wheel as the Vette.

Looking good. The colour looks period perfect.

I use BSI almost exclusively, also. My brand of kicker is BSI, and I have found absolutely no deleterious effects to paint or clear parts. I apply precisely it with pipette, and have done so a thousand times. Never any damage to paint or glass.

Very cool! Nice clean work. That’s a couple of sweet Chevys, there.

CA does stick to paint (almost anything really) but the bond will only be as strong as that of the paint. In my experience the bond is not appreciably weakened by kicker, if at all. I’ve been concerned about this too, so have looked for weakness but not detected any. I use kicker pretty much every time I use CA.

Very cool. I’ll be watching this build. I just bought the Merit version last month, myself. I didn’t realize Atlantis had reissued these.

It depends on what you are looking for, but I can highly recommend Hobby Link Japan. Great service, great selection, fair prices, and their Private Warehouse feature is useful. scale-models (hlj.com)

I have not used it myself. It may or may not remove chrome, but pretty sure it will not screw up your parts, so ok to have a go. Other chrome strippers include bleach, Castrol Super Clean, Easy-off HD oven cleaner (NOT the fresh scent stuff). There are other chrome removers as well. Many products will remove the shiny chrome, but the clear lacquer undercoat is more difficult to remove. It is not necessary to remove the undercoat if all you want to do is paint the part. However, the undercoat can obliterate a lot of fine, molded detail on the parts. It is often desirable to remove the undercoat in order to restore this detail. Fresh Castrol Super Clean is sometimes successful at removing this undercoat, though I have had better luck with brake fluid. Brake fluid can be messy to work with, though. Perhaps 91% or 99% isopropyl alcohol with remove the undercoat, too. I have not tried it, but it does work well at stripping lacquers.

Probably the same line of thought that required Prototype GT cars such as the GT-40 to have a luggage carrying capacity. This discussion on carrying a spare reminds me of Lotus trying to get a 23 through scrutineering for Le Mans in 1962. The Lotus 23 had four stud wheels on the front and six stud wheels on the rear. The scrutineers failed the car because the four-stud spare it was carrying could not befitted to the rear. A mechanic was quickly dispatched back to the shop in England where parts were gathered and emergency modifications were made, then hustled back to La Sarthe for a last-minute thrash to fit new four-stud hubs to the rear of the 23. Scrutineering again failed to accept the car, saying that if the original design required a six-stud hub, then certainly a four-stud hub is unsafe. Colin Chapman had a fit and declared he would never return to Le Mans again. True to his word, he never did.

Minimalist, I like it. Might be more appropriate branded as a Lotus.?

Very nice, tidy Cougar. Excellent work on the script foiling. The colour suits the car. Well done.

Excellent tutorial, Kurt. Well done. Lots of great, useful tips there. The big take-away for me is the texture paper as belt material. I have searched for suitable belt material in the past, but never knew of this stuff. Thanks!

Excellent work on the tires. They look fantastic. Clean mounting of the scoops. Nice work all around. I appreciate the comprehensive documentation of the build.

Wow! Beautiful XI. A stunning model, great save. You nailed the look. I never knew this kit existed. I’ve got some searching to do.

Sweet Shelby, Gil. Proper detailing and clean work. High marks all around. Very well done.

Man, you sure do get into some cool subject matter. This looks like an interesting project.

Are the wheels steerable, i.e., does the duct need to be flexible?

Awesome! Very cool on both counts. You captured the vibe well, nice work..

Nice! Great old school style. Tidy build.

Cool little Nash. I really dig this build.

Beautiful Jag, Randy. Looks great. The BRG suits it well. I’m so glad we now have a decent and readily available kit of this wonderful car.

Cool look. I think the black over green is the right way to go. Looks aggressive.