LOBBS

I've been wanting to build a large motorsports garage diorama/display case for quite some time. Something along the lines of a scale 100' by 50' (4' by 2' in 1:1) building with 5 or 6 bay doors, a showroom, lifts, the works. I want to build it out of something durable (to survive future moves and curious kids) with scale correct thickness walls. From what I've seen, most of the pre-fab garage kits are made from thin plastic or resin and buying textured sheets from Plastruct/Evergreen to face a core of another material would be approaching prohibitively expensive. While weighing my options, a thought struck me. I work for a tool and die shop and spend most of my waking hours around CNC machines. One of those things could kick out the walls of a scale garage in 1/4" or 5/16" sheet in nothing flat. Now the chances of getting some after-hours time on a Mori would be around slim to none but Craftsman just put out a mini-CNC that'll handle plastic. Of course, reality set in about the time my wife told me I couldn't have a $1900 toy to build a garage for my other "toys". As marriage is an art form of compromise and negotiation, I countered with the prospect of making garages, displays, etc for others to offset the cost. Now in the "I'll think about it" phase, I'm throwing some feelers out to see if there's a market. With CNC, everything from the basic 1 or 2 bay garages up to the limits of the imagination could be offered in several different textures (cinder block, brick, cast concrete, stone, woodgrain) at a cost that I believe could certainly compete if not beat what's currently available while being scale correct in thickness and thus more sturdy. Good, bad or indifferent I'm looking for input. TIA.

Saw the commercial on TV over the weekend and thought if it can cut wood it'll cut plastic. I'd have a hard time convincing the wife to let me drop $1900 though. I just switched jobs to do quality for a tool and die shop a few months back and we do mostly CNC machining so I could handle the programming end of it. Big dreams man, big dreams Sears Craftsman CompuCarve http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?...UseBVCookie=Yes

We're expecting baby #3 any day now but I've known since my wife got pregnant that I was gonna have to considerably scale back any expectations of any real time on the bench for quite awhile. When I got back into the hobby about five years ago, I went on a buying spree picking up pretty much anything that even slightly piqued my interest. Of course, I made grandiose plans for each and every one and bought a lot of kits for no other reason that I needed this or that part for a kit bash. I kept up this torrid pace for a couple of years but never made much headway on the building side of things. For the first several years of our marriage, I worked 6 and 7 days a week so my wife could be home with the kids. The majority of the rest of my time, aka non-sleeping hours, was dedicated to being a father and husband (as it should be). At some point, my sons (now 5 and 3) ransacked my old hobby room. I'll never know the how or when it happened as it can be days, weeks or sometimes months between trips to the bench but it was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was absolutely disgusting and disheartening to see 30 or 40 kits worth of parts, trees, tires, decals, instructions sheets, boxes, etc. strung haphazardly across my hobby room floor. It took me nearly a year to bring myself to even step foot in there again. I almost quit the hobby in frustration. Lack of time, a huge mess to deal with, life and work changes all had taken there toll. Instead, I decided to clean house. I chose a half dozen or so projects that really got my juices flowing. I wrote up a detailed build sheet on each of those projects (kitbash pieces, aftermarket stuff, paint scheme and colors, what needed to be fabbed, etc.). Everything in my stash not needed to achieve these goals became fair game to find a new home. Over time, I've Ebay'd off the kits I could guarantee as complete (those that were still sealed and/or sealed in the box) or those that I've pieced together and know are all there. What's still left I'm sorting through to find logical groupings to put up as part/junk lots on the 'bay or to use as trade fodder to minimize what I need to buy for kitbashing purposes to finish those projects. To make a long story short, it took a disaster to make me realize that I had gotten in over my head as far as kit acquisition goes. Would I have liked to build every single kit I had purchased? Of course, but it was never a realistic expectation given the life constraints that must be lived within. I still find myself stopping into the hobby shop to have a peek and eventually I'll start buying again, however at a more measured pace. Sorry for the long rambling but it felt good to vent a little bit.

I put my vote in on the Nesco as I've had one for several years now. I'm pretty sure I got it on sale at Wal-Mart for around $30 a couple of years ago. I've never seen the extra trays but I'd love to have a set or two.

Does anyone know of a vendor offering up decals printed on an ALPS from your own custom artwork?? I've been wanting to get a sheet of logos printed and the only way I'm going to get them the way I need them is to have it printed with a white ink underlayment. I tried printing them on white decal paper but there are many very small open spaces in the artwork to cut out after they're printed. That leaves me with ALPS or screenprinting as my only options. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Not much time for building lately (back to 6 days/wk at work) but I've had a little time to play with my new Xara drawing software (snuck onto my work 'puter). Anyways, I couldn't get one design to print on my inkjet at home; the ink would just bead up on the paper. I finally got some laser decal paper and made it to Kinkos to get them done. Now my question is will the Tamiya TS clear I'm using damage the decals??? This is my first experience with laser printed decals. It's just Detail Master laser decal paper if it makes a difference. TIA

Wow, that first pic is amazing!!! Looks like someone got their hands on the shrink-ray gun.

What settings should I use on my printer?? No instructions on or in the package. I'm using a Canon MP500 inkjet and Testors decal paper if it makes any difference. TIA

You could give this stuff a try if you're looking for aluminum mesh. I ordered it from my local train guy but it's listed in the Walther's catalog. Aluminum mesh by Scale Scenics #652-3500 It's sold for small scale dioramas and is real expanded metal.

Great Googily Moogily!!!! That thing is every kind of BAD!!

Looking great Izzy, what color did you use on the interior?

Here's the new tank dropped down into it's location. Still have a little shaping to do on the new inner fender that's required to make it fit. In 1:1, it's a pretty tight fit between the firewall and the inner fender. Even after thinning the kit firewall almost paper-thin, I still had to add a little material to the inner fender and file out the kit inner fender well. It's still pretty rough right now but when I get done it'll be hard to tell it's been modified. No concerns about interference with the suspension/tires. TIA for looking.

Absolutely beautiful Bob!!!

Robert Peeples on the HHMB saw my attempt at an oil tank for the Revell Z06 and offered to cut one for me on his lathe. I sent him all the info I had and today the part came in. He asked nothing in return for his efforts other than I help someone else out in the future. So, in return I will be casting this piece and offer free resin pieces to the first 10 people interested in performing this correction of the great Revell Z06.

This is my first attempt at a multi-color job. There's a little bleed-under to fix on the hood but overall I'm pretty satisfied. Colors are Tamiya Gunmetal over Tamiya Black, hashmarks on the driver's side front fender will be Tamiya Italian Red. I'm hoping to get the hashmarks done in the morning and maybe the clear on and polished by the time I go back to work Wednesday morning. Thanks in advance for looking

Now that I've got the basic slug in metal, I'm thinking things will go much more smoothly once I get it transferred to resin. I'm already planning on pouring rubber soon on a T-56 six-speed out of the '02 Camaro so making a casting of the slug won't be too big a deal. I really appreciate the offer as I admire the work that you do, especially your Vettes. Kyle "LOBBS" Laubscher

I don't have access to a lathe small enough to deal with this type of work so I was pretty much stuck finding something close and working with it. From the dimensions I got over at DigitalCorvettes the tank is 5.5" by 20" or .220" by .8" in scale. After talking with Jim, one of the maintenance guys at work, he suggested an old #2 drill bit. We took some measurements and the shank of the bit came out at .219" and he donated an old dull one to me. Let me tell yeah working with high-speed tool steel was a lot of fun :roll: but here's the result: This is the tank upside down but it measures .219" by .801" after I put the concave radius on the bottom. After looking back at my reference pics, the tank sits in the fenderwell at a slight angle (top towards the motor)and the top of the tank is not perfectly flat all across. Part of the top is level when installed at an angle in the car so I have to put a facet on the top of the tank. My next step will be to make a casting of the metal billet and work with the resin copy for the final shaping of the top of the tank since it is the most visible part of the whole gig. This metal is just too hard to work with and I don't want to go back down to work on my holiday weekend to use their equipment. When I get the top right, I'll add the flange that's about 1/3 of the way down from the top and make another casting of the finished tank in case I ever decide to build another one of these again. After some eyeball engineering, I decided the full length tank can be duplicated on the model. I'll have to thin the firewall down to almost scale thickness and rework the inner fender a little. On the inner fender, I'm getting ready to attach a piece of .030" sheet stock on the suspension side of the kit inner fender, shape in the notches where it meets the frame and file out the original kit inner fender. This will leave just enough room for the tank to drop all the way down and attach to the frame like on the 1:1. I really need to figure out why my camera does this purple tint thing in macro mode. Sorry for the long post and thanks for looking.

Looking great as always, Izzy, can't wait to see it finished. You don't mind if I use yours as reference while I'm working on mine do ya? LOL

Great work as always Marc. It was good to chat with ya again at the Heartland Nats.

Here's the response I got over there. Hope it helps all those working on this mod to the Z06 kit. Hi Lobbs, The oil tank is 5.5" in diameter and 20" long. It has 3/8" diameter supply and return lines on 1.5" centerline and a 2.25" filler cap. The dipstick is off to the side and is yellow. The tank is cast aluminum and the filler cap and supply lines are black. Cap has white letters. Below are some drawings from the manual that may also help you with your model building project. Sam http://home.insightbb.com/~c6z06/oil%20sump%20pictures.htm

:shock: Wow, that's awesome!!

Great work on your Blazer Billy

Lookin sweet there Darin, can't wait to see it done

After seeing the pics you've posted I decided I'd probably be better served starting from scratch on the tank. I've got a post over on digitalcorvettes.com looking for dimensions. Planning on building it to those specs and shortening it til it fits right.

Those pics are great Izzy, just what I needed to get this project movin