LOBBS

I got really into Madden '08 for PC when I was away from models for awhile. I'm not a button mashing kid anymore so I played alot of franchise (run a team for 30 seasons) in coach mode (only call the plays, no control over players). There's an equally fervent lunatic fringe for modding Madden PC so there are no shortage of add-ons and utilities that add a ton of depth to the game. I got into creating some custom uniforms and even wrote some of my own utilities. With all of that it kind of developed into a hobby rather than just a game. My custom Chiefs uniforms I use in my franchise Anyways, I was just curious as to what other activities grab your attention.

Made some good progress on the Nova this weekend. I got the color on and then proceeding to screw it up <img src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh211/lobbs611/69%20NOVA/IMG_4569.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> A little more orange peel than I would have liked but the orange clear started spitting on my last pass. She had been sitting on the stand for about half an hour, normally that's long enough for things to harden up enough to move it over to the dehydrator. Of course, I picked her up by the back wheel wells and proceeded to put a couple of finger prints in the paint job. She'll probably be taking a bath and I'll get to do it all over again. I also got the interior painted and ready to detail. I went with Tamiya light sand with Testors Light Tan for the carpet and inserts on the seats. <img src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh211/lobbs611/69%20NOVA/IMG_4570.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> I'll probably jump to another project for awhile because it'll be couple of weeks before I can make it to the hobby shop that carries Tamiya paints (I only get to go when my wife has a Dr.'s appt. that puts us on that end of town).

Sweet!!! I constantly find myself picking up Hot Wheels that are similiar to what I'm working on in 1:25th. I eventually want to do some mini versions of my builds. Any good sites to check out to get started?

That thing is gonna be sick!!

Man, I love seeing everybody's take on this kit. Are those steelies with dog dish caps? Great work as always Tom.

Gorgeous build, Lyle. Everything about her is just on target.

I've been watching this one since day one and it's coming along great. Have a good trip to Iowa, I don't get back nearly as often as I should.

Looking good, I've been wanting to do a '67 Elky for a while from the '66 which is essentially the same tool as the wagon. I've been wondering what issues to keep an eye out for. MJ, where did you find the cowl-induction hood for the '67? All the ones I've been able to find were the wild Outlaw style.

This is just a quick heads-up for the LSx transfitters. The T-56 in the Revell Camaro SS/Firebird is huge compared to the 4-speed in the kit and takes quite a bit of fitting to get the engine/tranny to sit level. You can keep the stock crossmember is you completely remove the round mounting nub. I ended up sanding away about half the thickness off the underside of the tranny tunnel and taking a little off the profile where the bellhousing butts up against the tranny tunnel. From there, it's a matter of filing away on the top side of the tranny aft of the bellhousing until the engine sits down on the engine mounts without picking up the floorboards. I tried to get some pictures but the changes were slight and hard to photograph. Hope this helps

Alright, I need an opinion. I'm up in the air about the interior color. I'm torn between Tamiya German Gray and Tamiya Desert Sand w/ Flat Earth inserts in the seats. Here is Dave McGowan's Silverado which inspired the color choice for the Nova. I've seen cars in a similiar color with either tan or gray interiors and both look equally good.

Another amazing build, keep them coming

Work has been insane lately so I'm just now getting the Nova in primer. The body has been given a full shave and haircut. The emblems, fender louvers, fender turn signals and vent windows in the doors are gone. I also filled in the door handle dimples and the door/trunk locks. I love how primer always makes every little defect pop so I'll have some clean up to do before she gets some color. I also decided on the wheel/tire combo. They're gonna be modified MPC Motorsports Chevy Ralleyes that I've been holding onto these for years waiting for the right project. They fit the tires in the Revell California Wheels series. I'll be stealing the kit's center caps and trimming down the back halves of the California Wheels '69 Vette wheels to use as the beauty rings.

Here's my version 3.0 that I've been using for a few years now. It's a downdraft style booth with a Dayton blower I ordered through my old job and takes a 14" x 25" filter below the stage. It's way overbuilt from 3/4" MDF. I just realized I hadn't cut the hole for the fan in the first pic, it's centered in the floor to hence the down-draft design. If you're thinking about building your own, I highly recommend this article by Klaus Raddatz. It was a godsend in designing mine. Klaus' article on airbrush booth design

I know alot of guys are looking to put an LSX motor in these things so here's the combo I came up with for a good LSX crate motor. <img src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh211/lobbs611/69%20NOVA/IMG_4465.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> <img src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh211/lobbs611/69%20NOVA/IMG_4467.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> I started with the LS motor/T-56 tranny from the Revell Camaro SS/Firebird then added the top end and front engine cover from the Revell '01 Z06 Vette. I didn't see any interfence fit problems with the Camaro/Firebird set-up but I liked the look of the accessories on the Vette cover better. The oil pan on the Vettes and Camaros is way too shallow in my opinion so I stole one from the '99 Silverado. It's nearly identical in depth and pickup location as the '69 Nova pan. I also had to bring the oil filter and starter over from the truck kit. The Vortecs and LS motors are all basically the same architecturally so it's a reasonable swap. It's way too late to risk the compressor coming on and waking up the wife and kids so I'm hoping to get this all in aluminum tomorrow. Here's a hint at the body color on the smoothed engine covers. MM Dark Bronze under Tamiya Clear Orange (thanks gowjobs I told ya I'd find a use for it someday). I've got to wait and do a final color match to the body before I can clear and polish these out. <img src="http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh211/lobbs611/69%20NOVA/IMG_4469.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /> Now, if I can finally get the clear undercoat off the replacement grill Revell sent me (I swear they laid down the clear with a trowel), I can get the body in primer this weekend.

Sweet looking Mopar, Marc. I got kinda worried when I started reading back thru the last year on the board and didn't see any posts from ya. It's good to see ya knocking them out again.

The dust is made when the guys have to DA sand out mismatches between cutter passes and appears to be every bit as fine as what settles out of a jar of paint that has sat for awhile. I would already have to sift it with a fine screen to the remove bits of the broken down sanding pads.

I had a eureka moment at work tonight and I'm trying to figure out how difficult it'd be to follow thru on. I'm a QC inspector at a tool and die shop doing aerospace work. My hands are pretty much a shade of perma-gray from handling aluminum, titanium and stainless parts 12 hours a day. I have to wash my hands at least a half dozen times a day or my wife won't let me anywhere near her when I get home. As I watched the gray water swirl down the drain it occurred to me that I might be able to make use of this mess I deal with every day. To make a long story short, we make a whole lotta metal dust at work and I don't like spending $9 an ounce on Alclad metal paints. Would it really be as easy as stirring up some aluminum dust into some clear lacquer to mix my own paint or is their more involved? If it goes on an airplane, we machine it so I could come up with pretty much every type of aluminum, titanium, stainless, brass, copper, etc. known to man. If not clear lacquer what would be the recommended medium to use? I'd like to be able to use Tamiya's rattle can clear if it's possible because I know it's properties. Thanks in advance.

I had forgotten about the Revell '68 Firebird. I've picked one up off the shelf before and given the box a once over but never bought one so I'm not sure what would be involved in converting it to a Camaro. I'm still holding out that eventually Revell will come around and do one right. It worked on the Nova . Ultimately, I want to do a build to pay tribute to this. Mark Stielow's '67 Camaro, later dubbed the "Red Witch". It single-handedly changed my thinking about how muscle cars should be built. Prior to seeing this car, I was all about drag racing like most of my high school buddies (she was built in '96, I graduated in '97). Stielow is a genius and pulled off many engineering feats modifying the original suspension on his Camaros for maximum handling more than a decade ago. Now you can buy a 1g+ kit off the shelf for nearly any classic iron.

I know I've seen this discussed in the past but I can't for the life of me remember which kit it was. For some reason, the '67 annual sticks out in my mind as the one to track down. I'm ultimately wanting to combine the distinctly '67 elements with as much of the better detailed Revell '69 kit as possible. TIA

Not a KC-area native (grew up in west-central Iowa until '93) but have found a home down here. The wife and I bounced back and forth between Independence (where she's from) and BS when we first got married. Finally, bought a house out here for the schools. Back in my single days, we used to shoot pool down at the 24-hr pool hall, I believe off of 63rd and Raytown Rd. What club did you belong to? The only one I know of is the Slammers. I've toyed with the idea of joining but I don't know if I'd ever have the time to really bring much to the table.

Yeah, my oldest boy when asked why he painted his mom's table, replied that he was wanting to build cars like me. Here's their first efforts from a few years back, they would have been about 5 and 3 at the time. I'm pretty sure these are the only builds that have survived long enough to actually get pictures taken. Sorry about the weird Day-Glo effect, they were taken with the old digicam right before it shot craps.

I've been lurking around for the past couple of weeks but I finally made myself go down to the hobby room to survey the damage. Last July, I got a phone call at work from my wife telling me to get home quick. She had been upstairs in the bedrooms putting away laundry and sorting out kids' clothes that no longer fit to take to Goodwill. The baby was upstairs with her and the boys had been down on the main floor watching TV and playing. Then she smelled paint. At some point, the boys (now 7 and 5) snuck down to the basement and into my hobby room. They had decided that they were going to build one of daddy's cars. My oldest boy grabbed a can of Tamiya Italian Red off the bench and proceeded to "paint" my Z06 Vette project. To make matters worse, he did this on her kitchen table and needless to say it was everywhere. I was able to get that mess cleaned up by wiping everything down with iso alcohol. After that was taken care of, I went down to my hobby room. In their search for parts, they had dumped the majority of my kits into piles on the floor. Having already reached a point of frustration on several of the builds I was working on at the time, I shut the door and walked away. That was more than a year ago now. A couple of weekends back, I checked the board and saw all the good reviews on the Revell '69 Nova. Back in high school, I'd wanted a 68-72 Nova bad. I just missed out on one my senior year. I had $4k the guy wouldn't come down from $5k and I couldn't talk my dad into floating me the difference. This was the spark I needed to go down and clean up the hobby room. I didn't even bother to sort anything out, just started grabbing trees and putting them in big plastic totes. It felt like I was going in after the tornado struck and had to figure out what the storm took. Luckily, other than the Z06, none of my other projects luckily had been touched. Life and family have interrupted my hobbies before and I'm sure will again. I've come to realize that I'm just not going to get to every project and need to scale back on what I have and what I take on. For now, I'm excited again about building. I'm going simple with the Nova to get any easy "win" under my belt before I jump back into some of my more involved projects like my long-term '69 Vette. EFI'd Hilborn BBC with T-56 six speed 20+" Torque Thrust IIs from Revell '59 Vette, widened in the back to fit the flares Italian Red interior I'm just getting around to moving all my pics over to Photobucket, it seems that Imagestation is no longer around. Anyways, the Nova is taking a bath right now to get the mold release off so I'm hoping to make some progress by this weekend.

I'll throw my vote in.

I work in quality for a tool and die shop. We primarily CNC parts for aerospace (Boeing, Northrup, McD) and some medical devices. I usually spend most of my time inspecting production on our CMMs but lately have been tied up writing inspection programs for the new parts we have coming in.

Now that HT General Lee is awesome!!