Bainford

Welcome to the forum, Steve, and welcome back to the hobby.

Nothing wrong with second guessing. Heck, I did it three times just this evening at the hobby store.

From your photo, it looks like your attempt to cut and polish has been successful. I don't see a problem with it. If it was mine, I would carry on.

If the model is assembled, you might be up a creek. If the windscreen has been heavily waxed, you might be able to scrape it of with a chisel shaped toothpick or similar, though in my experience CA adhesion is not affected by wax. The only real CA removal method I know of is to sand the glass until the glue is gone, then polish back to clear & shiny. Obviously, a clean job of it can't be done on a finished build.

What is a 'dovetail' hauler? I think your comment regarding many being home built is on the money. Almost anything running around this area in the 60s or 70s was home built, or built-to-order from some local welder/fabricator. Nonetheless, I am interested in haulers of that era so I'll be watching this topic to see what I can glean.

I can't comment on the 1k clear, but I always apply metal transfers after all clear coating, colour sanding, and polishing is done. The same with decals in many cases if, on the 1:1 the decal represents a sticker that is applied to the car, such as a contingency sticker or factory applied vinyl stripes, etc. This often demands trimming away all of the clear carrier film from the edges of the decal image before application. If the decal represents a painted graphic, I always put it under the clear coat. Like anything, there are exceptions. On my current build, which represents a car with a lot of factory applied pin stripe tape, I chose to apply the decals before clear coat as the very thin pin stripe decals were very delicate. Also, with some more complex finishes, the decals are applied when the process demands it, or allows it. There are no hard rules here, though. Many builders put all decals under clear coat, and that's cool, too.

Good question. I am not really wire-wheel savvy. There are subtle differences between one wheel and the next (aside from actual spoke-count) as occasionally discussed by knowledgeable forum members, but I don't know what these differences are or where to look for them. 15" wires are offered in Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Classic British configurations, but aside from the knock-ons they all look similar to me. Perhaps the knock-ons are the primary difference between them all. If that is the case, the Jag wheels most closely match the photo you posted of the Cobra. One thing I can say for sure; all of the Italian wheel offerings are not correct for the Cobra.

NICE!

Welcome to the forum, Ryan. Some cool builds there. Nice hobby room, too.

Have a look at USCP. They have some very nice wires on offer. 3D Printed Wheels 1/24

Good looking Impala. Nice foil work.

Cool Buick. Nice detailing. I never knew of the BM version.

I would be careful with Simple Green. I believe it uses similar ingredients to Castrol Super Clean. Simple Green is milder than CSC, but CSC can really mess up some resins, so I would caution against using Simple Green, too.

I built my first model in March 1971, about a month past my 5th birthday. I have been trying to identify the kit in my adult years, but haven't as of yet. It was a 1/32 scale 1960s T-Bird, molded in a robin's egg blue, and probably a snap-together. Perhaps the best identifier is the wheels. They were a smooth disc with a single raised line bisecting the wheel (or possibly two raised lines forming a cross on the wheel), and were probably un-plated. I believe this kit may have been part of a series, as some time later a friend showed me a model he built which was a different car molded in white, but had the same generic wheels. If anyone has an idea of what kit this was, please let me know. Though I was only five at the time, I remember the event well as it was an evening of discovery and revelation of the highest order. Like most (all) of us, I was a car nut from the word GO, and had lots of car toys. But even at that young age I had no interest in fantasy. Realism mattered a lot. That evening, as I was playing with my toy cars in the living room, Dad said, "I've got something to show you." He went into the kitchen and pulled down three boxes from a high cupboard and set them on the table, and I could tell right away from the images on the boxes that whatever was inside, it would be about the coolest thing I ever saw. And I was right, for this was the moment I was introduced to model car kits. They were built AMT kits; a green Chevy of some sort, a blue '65 or '66 Galaxie, and the '63 Corvette, painted red and on a trailer. I was stunned. The accuracy and realism in the molding and details was so much better than my toys, and I could readily identify them from cars I saw on the street. Dad took a tube of glue from one of the boxes, removed the wheel chocks for the trailer from their sprue, and glued them in place to secure the Vette and show me how it is done. I was sold. But the best was yet to come; he brought a fourth box down from the cupboard, the 1/32 scale T-Bird, and gave it to me to try my hand, and I was off and running. So, it's all his fault.

USCP has several 13" wheels, some with tires, and they have them in the Minilite style. Check here: Search - 13 inch As mentioned, Scale Production has several 13" wheels and tires as well, ScaleProduction 1:24/25 - ScaleProduction 1:24/25 Excellent quality and great people to deal with. International shipping takes time.

Cool Impala. I'm really digging the hide-aways.

Fine looking Bronco. Nice work.

Super nice! That's one good looking Camaro.

Beautiful Charger. Stunning paint work.

A lovely model, David. Very nice work on this wonderful classic.

Man, that brings back memories. When I was in my teens a spare tire was my only air supply. I mainly used the 15" spare from Dad's Dodge pickup. Using a bicycle pump I could manage to get 52 psi into that tire (I was a scrawny 130 lb teen, and that was all my weight suspended on the pump handle). One tire had enough air to get the body mostly painted. Starting at 52 psi, I had to secure the body really well to the top of a spray can so I wouldn't blow it right off (I did lose a couple onto the garage floor), then continually adjust the airbrush paint-flow as the pressure depleted to the point the airbrush wouldn't pull paint (Badger 200, siphon feed). Then I would allow the paint to set-up while I jammed another 50 psi into the tire. That allowed me enough air to put on the 'wet coat', and to clean the airbrush. Many of my paint jobs at that time were dry and streaky from too high pressure. Doing most of my building during the winter in an unheated garage, it didn't help that I frequently did this at temperatures below freezing. Ah, the good ole days. Dedicated to the hobby.

Welcome to the forum, Tony. Some top notch finishes you have posted there. Looking forward to seeing these on the forum. Cheers.

Welcome to the forum, Glen. Nice builds. I dig the weathering.

100 ml is the capacity of a standard Tamiya spray paint can. One can is more than enough to paint a 1/25 scale car body. It does make me wonder how much of that 100 ml is actually paint. Presumably that is the capacity of the whole can, including propellant. The Tamiya LP lacquer paint bottles are supposed to be 10 ml of paint, though there is a lot of air-space in those bottles so I measured the contents of two bottles and found them to actually have 8 ml of paint in them. Assuming a 50/50 thinning ratio, that equals 16 ml of (airbrush) sprayable paint in one bottle, and that is enough paint to cover a typical 1/24 scale car body. Assuming the Tamiya spray can is at least half full of paint, that is 50 ml of sprayable paint. Spray cans are, of course, much less efficient in paint consumption, but 50 ml is still a lot of paint. I have only sprayed a model a couple of times with a Tamiya can, but there was plenty of paint and then some.

Some people have suggested using a surface sealer such as BIN or similar, though I don't know how effective these are. The one solution that has been known to work over the long run is covering the interface between the tire and wheel with BMF. It can provide an effective barrier to prevent the chemical reaction from taking place between the two parts. However, if the tires themselves are on a path to self destruction, it won't help that.