torinobradley

Cool! I have this 1/18 die cast! I think it would look pretty mean with a stock height tall roof and a tall tunnel ram on a paint matched motor? Maybe paint the tunnel ram black, gloss or flat, with a red hourglass on the front, just to make it look mean (black widow). It's looking pretty good so far and I'm sure, whatever you decide, it will be a looker! I went with the kit's 6 pack but cut away the 'bad' parts of the engine and replaced them with better looking ones. I cut out and swapped the front cover, water pump, oil filter, fuel pump, heads, starter and motor mounts. In retrospect, I guess it would have been better just to trade the intake and the trans onto a more accurate motor I guess that's what happens when your OCD... Mine's been roadstered, channeled, z-ed, shortened, raised, cut, detailed and is still not half done. Someday, I really got to finish a model... Seems like we should have a "post your '34s" thread...

I have to say, considering my current project, this one is inspirational. How did you end up tweaking the ride height? Beautiful!

The 1965 Sebring #3 Car in Mecom Blue. (see previous posts for pics of the real car.)

I got a little bit of an update on the GS. In between family time, friends time, party time and recovery time, I was able to spend a little while at the bench. I didn't like the way the rear vents looked as they made the body look like it was 2" thick. So, I started working on it by hollowing out and trimming the area around the inside of the body. Then I sanded the back so that it was all flush to the openings, then cleaned em up a bit and here I am. I put an un-altered body next to it so you can see the difference. I took the kit provided fuel cap and started trying to clean it up by sticking it on a dremel stone and using chisels, files and a hobby knife to make it look more like the real car's. I ended up with a modified cap that may be usefull on another build, but not this one. So, I grabbed a parts box roll bar, cut a chunk off, chucked it in a drill and went to work. A short time later along with some super glue, a mini pin and a little piece of wire and I ended up with this... I thought it came out okay considering how small it is. Should look right once it's painted. Then, I turned my attention to the rear fender vents. This body is supposed to be one layer of fiberglass thick so the kit body needed some work here too. I ground out and sanded the inside and then trimmed up the outside. Then hit is with a sanding stick to true everything up. Here's the results. Unaltered: Altered: Along with this, I have been working on the interior and a few other parts. I have been sanding the carpet from the floor and removing molded in details that are not present on my chosen subject. I have also been truing up and correcting the chassis in prep to adding the photo-etched details. I will update again soon. Enjoy and as always, comments and critique welcome!

Looking really nice. Looks like we're getting that ol rivalry back with two Corvette Grand Sports and now an FIA Cobra on the bench...

Great! Tell em I sent ya.. lol

I'm an Adams fan! I also like Terry Pratchett. And, just discovered two of his series have been brought to film/TV (Hogfather and Colour of Magic). I'm going to have to look those up.

The current incarnation of a club is the ATME (atme_satx@yahoogroups) and we meet the last Sunday of each month. Usually we meet at the Jim's at O'Connor and I-35 but things are supposed to change. I would love to see lots of the San Antonio guys out there to talk, swap, live and breth models. Let me know if you need any more info.

I just ordered that book and it shipped this morning. Mind you, that book is going up in price or at least appears to be. When I did the search, a couple came back at under $20 but when I went to the sites listed, they were $80+. I got lucky and found it for $28 and some change shipped. The kidney bean halibrand wheel is just for the spare. The kit has a not very nice looking spare molded with the rear body bracing and since I was opening the trunk, I needed a killer looking spare. What better wheel to buy than an HRM one! I am looking for a suitable tire that would fit in the space allowed. I have so many plans for this car and hope to keep the momentum. I'm shooting for a "Holy Cr..!" Type of reaction on the order of many of the awesome builders on this page. Plans include making vacuformed replacement parts to make the hood, trunk and fender skirts thin to scale, all the chains, cables, lines and wires on the real car, every paint and chalk mark, every brace, nut and bolt. Hopefully, putting it out there will keep me honest and working on the car. So much to do, so many new skills to perfect... Thank you all for your encouragement, support and suggestions. I look up to so many of you on this board it's unreal and your kind words are like nectar of the gods...

Thanks everyone for all the encouraging words. I am stoked about this project and really want to push my abilities to the edge with it. VRM will be coming out with a line of paints with the Mecom blue in it and as this is a long term project, hopefully it comes out in time to use it on this car. Otherwise, I might be forced to use the Pelham blue Caddy color that is the closest match. That's the plan, any way...

I put the frame aside to work a bit on the body. I started by grinding out the inside of the cowl vents until I could see the white edges of the vents starting to show through the back. Mind you this was with a very small burr and working very slowly. Then using a new blade, I trimmed the vents so they were open. After this one was done, I followed suite with the second side. I then tried to gently cut out the doors and trunk lid. I have a few cuts and marks to clean up but the deed is done. That's all for this weekend. Stay tuned for more...

I have started the Accurate Miniatures Grand Sport Corvette. My goal is to replicate Chassis No4 in it's 1964 Sebring trim. To begin with, I got the Accurate Miniatures kit: Along with this, I have purchased the MCG Detail set, VRM Decals, HRM Halibrand wheels and tires (for the spare), HRM upper control arms and exhaust headers, along with MCG nuts, bolts and screw heads and Detail Master velocity stacks. The velocity stacks are not exactly what I was looking for as they are a bit long and not hollow enough for my taste. I may go ahead and make my own so I can include the small jet tube inside. The VRM decal sheet is amazing! Almost every detail is on this sheet and this sheet does 5 cars! The gauges can be made with black centers or silver centers and you can actually read them! Almost every detail is on there including radiator stickers, inspection stickers, gas filler indicators and even the copper strips my chosen version has down the back of the car for the CB radio. I have had this kit in my collection for some years now (since it came out, actually) along with the detail set and was only receintly inspired to build it. My good friend Cratecruncher on AF builds world class models and encouraged me to build such an animal. Three of my kits fit what I like to build along with the potential to build it to the max. This Corvette Grand Sport, the Gunze Cobra Daytona and the AM McLaren. This one won the opportunity and away I went. All other projects were put on hold and this one was dropped on the bench. I ordered the remainder of the needed parts and the Grand Sport book and I am set. I started this kit several weeks ago in my spare time. Not by opening the box but by doing as much research as I could regarding the actual car. Bookmarking websites, finding out just what tires and paint were on the car and all that stuff us anal modelers do. It wasn't until Friday when I actually cut the first part off the sprue and dug in... The frame has slots on the bottom of it because of the thickness of the casting to prevent the plastic from caving in as it cools. These needed to be addressed so I started shoving plastic into the notches, let them dry and started hacking them down to size. For the most part, all is pretty smooth but it will take some more filling and sanding to make it all pretty in gloss black. All the cast in mounts and brackets were removed so they could be replaced with the photo-etched wonders in the MCG kit. One of the first modifications to the GS Corvettes was moving the battery to the rear of the car. So, I cut off and sanded smooth the battery mount on the front of the frame. The AM frame also does not have any front spring detail. It only has a boss on the bottom of the frame where the lower control arms sits. I started to grind this off with a ball bit and a low speed mini cutter being careful to avoid the radiator mounting support. Once the area was fairly flat and matched the inset area indicating the bottom of the frame, I switched to a smaller bit and started to grind out the pocket for the spring. In the pictures, you can see the unmodified frame (groves and all) along with the modified smoothed frame, one of the spring pockets has been flattened and the other hogged out. Here is the frame with both hogged out and ready. Next, I got out my trusty Flex-I-File and after giving the entire frame a once over, started to thin down the radiator supports. The kit supports are about twice as thick as they look on the real car. You can see the difference in size on this picture. And here is the thined support with just a little cleanup left.

Okay, actually... I have been doing research as I am beginning the #004 Grand Sport in it's 1964 Sebring colors which is Mecom blue. In my research and talking with everyone, it appears this is the scoop. Steve at VRM was very helpful in this information: The Caddy blue called Pelham blue poly is what is usually attributed with Mecom blue. It came out in Spring of '59 for the 1960 cars so this is some of the confusion about the year. The Mecom blue is a modified Pelham blue (per Mecom, themselves). VRM will be coming out with it's color line which will have Mecom blue. That being said, the color difference appears to be minimal and only the severely anal (like me) will even be affected by it... Unless you fall into that category, Caddy Pelham blue should be fine... I found it locally for about $15 for a half pint. The paint shops can even put it in spray cans if you want.

The point of this whole post is FUN. It was fun to build, fun to post and fun to read the confusion that ensued. It wasn't about building the model to accepted or implied standards, it was about the enjoyment of building for and seeing the reactions. Bravo, Bob, bravo! Reminds me of a Revell '57 I had built with this craft store glitter paint so many years ago. The flakes would have been half an inch across in real life but it sure sparkled...

The 351 Cleveland in a DeTomaso Pantera at full power sure does it for me... Something about Italian design with that big ol' V8 thundering on... Oh, those newest racing Vettes are pretty wicked sounding as well.

Looking awesome so far! Can't wait to see it completed. Don't forget the chrome trim on the taillight louvers! My brother had one of these (1:1 scale) and even thought it was a repainted, rag-tag, rusted-out, piece, I still remember it fondly...

Why not just get the Vette kit? It's fairly common and fairly cheap, plus you get a Corvette kit in the process? Barring that, you can just put an ad in the wanted section to see if someone has an extra set.

It's good to see this story had a happy ending. Considering this was a Model Factory Hiro just adds to the amazement! I'm not saying that all models aren't valuable, I'm just stating that the starting kit value was several times over what the majority of kits cost and the subject was rare. I've been lucky so far and aside from a younger brother playing crash-up derby while I was in the Navy and an ugly apartment escapade, haven't suffered too many losses. Knock on wood (bang head on table)...

Well, years ago I was part of the Alamo Squadron IPMS where us two car guys were kind-of a side effect... After that the STAM with Don where I pretty much fell off the edge of the earth for a bit. There are still hangers on for the STAM and they show up at the local shows, just no meetings. There is also the ATME_SATX that is trying to get off the ground. They have monthly meetings the last sunday of the month over at 281 and O'Connor. They're a yahoo group so you can look them up that way. Any way you slice it, anytime I can spend some time with like minded people would be time well spent to me. Heck, you just wanna meet at a restaraunt and talk cars, let's do it! I'd love to see some of your stuff in person, as well as get tips and tricks. Anyone else in this frame of mind? Oh, and I am so jealous of all you MAMA's boys (and all the other great clubs). You guys get a lot of models, people and vendors at your meetings....

http://www.etsy.com/shop/SteampunkSupply?section_id=6241656 Watch part grab bags... Oh yea! All those cool little gears and such...

I don't know if they still do but the HELP! line of parts in the auto parts shops used to have a small pack of about 6 or 8 nozzles. I used to buy them all the time but haven't really needed them that much since I learned about inverting and clearing the tubes of paint (spray upside down until no paint comes out). Another tip, if you paint has been sitting for some time, make sure you shake the bejeevers out of it... Learned that one the "have to go buy another can of paint even though this one has never been used" way...

I just saw someone had used a watch winder/set knob for a cap. I have also seen gas caps in everything from resin to silver. It would all depend on what you want it to look like. Wheel knock offs, little knobs, toy parts, other model parts that look like caps or even fuel caps from different subjects would work. Just got to match the idea to the part.

Pretty interesting so far! I'm a big fan of posable steering on these type cars and am intrigued by your suspension setup. Needless to say, still watching this build...

There is a nice model car in the top of the Tenpenny Towers but unfortunately, you cannot take it. It's one of those objects you can't grab. I have a whole shelf full of Nuka Cola trucks and Toy Cars at my shack. I'd bet most of us here that play the game do as well... I thought about doing a model of one of the cars they have but have so many other projects on the bench now and no time to devote to them. I will be watching this one though. It's off to a great start! When you get this one done, you going to start on one of the others?

Awesome job with the weathering on that Rusto-rod! Looks like a hard driven daily driver! Oh, and you need an alignment my friend. By the look of those front tires, ya got a bit of a camber or toe out problem. Very inspirational! The headers appear to be scratched. Are they? Nice job all around!