samdiego

Hey, thanks. That explains a bit

I've gotten lucky a few times in the gluebomb gamble. My favorite is this original issue Monogram Grumman Gulfhawk from 1960. (don't hate the plane in a car forum) It looked like a rookie had failed in the very first step on the instruction sheet. It's a critical trapping of the working landing gear between the fuselage halves. He missed and it went back in the box. His technique was to place the part and then squeeze glue around it. It was pretty easy to get apart and blueprint. He didn't paint anything either. I was even able to clearcoat and save most of the decal sheet. These were a pretty advanced kit for Monogram at the time. All of the control surfaces work, the canopy opens and the landing gear operate by pulling the propeller out and turning, push the prop back and it freewheels. Even the tailwheel retracts. Today, it's obviously 50s style engineering, but it was a fun build. My Dad had built one of these when they were new. It was one of the few of his models that I just could not resist and of course I eventually broke it. I was pretty happy to get this one for $5.

With all of the mergers and acquisitions It's really gotten to the point where you can't trust the model box anymore. I think we should lobby for model origin information to be posted on the lid or 1st year of release or something in the fine print to let us know that the trusted and respected Revell-Germany box we paid for contains a turd made by some other company years ago.

I've worked with the Buegler striper and I was fairly impressed. For me, it worked great for freehand flames. cobraman is right, youtube has a lot of pinstripe videos. The extra footage with the Ratfink DVD is of a striper's party. They show Von Dutch lettering a hood, awesome.

Not hiring me as chief muckity muck. I had the opportunity to hang out with Norm Grabowski at a few of the Del Mar Good Guys Shows. The guy was a riot. Since then I've been surprised at how many times I've been able to pick him out in some really questionable movie roles. Hilarious, wish I'd had that ammo a few years ago. The Big T comes close to Norm's T, doesn't it? Except for the flames. It does have the chopped '32 shell. They used the Manta Ray as a tow car in Bikini Beach

In the mid 70's my sister's '64 Tempest was parked, in gear, parking brake off and pointed toward the house. In the middle of the night, a short started a fire under the dash. Just as the Fire Dept arrived, the starter went off, inching the blazing car toward the house until a Firefighter grabbed a log from the woodpile and blocked a wheel. The car was a total loss (honestly, it would have taken only $35 worth of damage to do that) Scary occurance, though

That was awesome. I remember those but didn't have one. Wonder who Mr.Kelly was?

It was totally a practical thing. When they were using the stack style fuel injection in drag racing, it was SOP to plug those holes with something. Tennis balls connected with line were easy to make. A lot easier than to do it in scale. As far as kit cleanup goes, that just part of the price of admission. I'd rather have to spend time hating the cleanup than to not have the kit at all.

Technically, you have to get a look at the title. If the owner's name is something like Jezebel, Delilah or Jennifer, then chances are it's a girl's car. Or you can check out the rear shelf for the stuffed animal collection. You can label the Miata a girl's car, but it would reveal your complete lack of appreciation and understanding of automotive history and great design. Ever notice that nearly every car magazine list of "great" cars includes the Miata? It has the standard stuff: 4 whl independent susp, Coilovers, 4 whl disc brakes, rear wheel drive, rack and pinion, double overhead cam, 4 valve hemi head, fuel injection. It'll cruise all day at 90 with one finger on the wheel without beating you up. Cruise one up the Coast Hwy on a typical SoCal day and tell me you didn't have a good experience. My Dad was one of those Vets who came back from WWII with an affinity for the British Sports Car. I grew up in a few MGAs, I was too young for his T series phase. The Miata strikes me as the logical evolution of those. After driving mine the Sergeant said "If MG could have done this in the 50s, they could have taken over the world". Mom usually had Impalas, by the way. Before I found mine, I would poll owners in parking lots. In my experience most cars elicited some praise of an attribute (It's nice, It's got a lot of power, it's something). The first response by Every Miata owner, regardless of gender, was "I love this car". My vicious 1994 WereMiata reflected in the blood red door of my 2012 Camaro. This was easier than decorating for Haloween I'll see your 'Burban and raise you one series of "S" curves.

I used a cluster of 4 inside trays from Archway Cookies as a group of industrial buildings in an HO scale diorama of a fantasy space complex. Sort of a streamline modern Quonset hut look. I painted them gray with a bit of window and door detail added. This is a Hallmark Christmas ornament in an old Cassette tape holder (look it up). The rock wall rocks and stump are from the yard. The model on the stump is from a 1/24 scale trophy

I'd really to see Monogram repop the 1/8 Jaguar E-Type. A redo of the large scale Aurora Fuel motor would be great too.

On the flip side, I knew a girl at the University of Arizona in the late 70's who claimed her father invented the flashcube. When these were new I figured out that you could cross the wires and trigger the flash in your hand. I'll figure more of them were lost to this in my house than were used for photos.

Recently, one of my nephews presented me with this, a freebie he'd scored somewhere. I've had two of these already, one when Lindberg first did it in the 60's and the more recent rerelease. I was pretty surprised to find much of this one cast in a really translucent metalflake red styrene with white tires. Anybody else run across one of these? This kit is pretty much for parts only as the frame has been broken into many little pieces. I'm glad it wasn't high on my wishlist. I would have cried if it had been a Monogram E-type Jag in this shape.

One of my favorite Bare Metal Foil tools is old business cards. I'll use a folded over corner to work foil into tight areas but one thing that surprised me was how well they polish the foil. I use the matte uncoated cards (or the inside of most matchbooks) and burnish just as hard a the part will allow. There almost seems to be a coating that this removes and takes it to near mirror finish without any scratching. The drawback would be that you can't really get into small recesses. I also use bus cards as scrapers to remove paint and glue or to absorb both from unwanted areas. So make friends with your HR People and you can score boxes of cards from former employees. I use toilet paper, folded into a half inch thick block and dampened to press foil into shapes. This will press the foil into very small areas without tearing. Again squeezing as hard as the part will allow. I'll use a bench vice to squish foil into things like this 1/8 scale license plate style club plaques and such.

This started when I realized I'd lost the bell for a steam locomotive in HO scale. I chucked a short length of sprue and held the tip of an exacto against it until it was bell shaped. While it was still spinning I touched it with a piece of 1200 grit to smooth it. The whole op only took about 10 minutes. It looks a bit rough in the photo, but the actual bell is smaller than your cursor, prob. One of my signatures is the addition of custom shiftknobs. The Dremel technique occurred to me when I needed a grenade for a Revell '32. Worked like a champ. Then I decided to try a beertap for the 1/8 Big T. This started as a jackstand from a 1/8 kit That was followed by the flaming Bowling Pin for a Big Deuce project. I've also done a radio mic for a '58 Impala that's hard to photo I have a few Dremels but my favorite is is a 750 rechargeable, mostly because they are a little weak and spin slowly enough that they can work styrene without melting it. A couple that didn't need to be lathed. The top photo is a pair of tumbling dice. The Bud Tap handle shifter is for a custom semi-tractor. The eagle is carved from sculpy

Normally I wouldn't argue the point, but I spent my share of time in and around that car. Absolutely a Bubble. I remember washing around the 2+2 emblem and wondering what that meant. Odd I know, I don't see any mention on the web, but like most UFO sightings I know what I saw. My circle ran a lot of Pontiacs in the mid seventies so I was fairly hip to Ponchos. I had a '68 400 Firebird 4 spd. Mom had Bonnevilles. Ron had an SD Trans Am. Ron's Dad had uber connections to PMD that went back to race sponsorships in the 50s. Again, I touched it!

An alternator bracket and a dipstick? A good friend's father was a master mechanic with serious Pontiac connections. Ron's Mom's car was a Red '61 Catalina 2+2 4spd with the 421 SD that pretty much had to be ordered by the part and assembled by the owner. And that Women could hit her gears! Still in my top 5 list

But, in the cost of a kit, I would think that decals would be relatively cheap. And why do companies pass things that they know aren't right? I've dealt with tolerances tighter than my decals need to be, it's not that hard to do especially with a computer generated piece. The '49 Woody hood emblem decal was off by an 1/8in in width at least. C'mon , nobody noticed that? Mobius seemed truly surprised when I complained about the yellow stuff vanishing on the first Hudson Hornet sheet, especially the iconic air cleaner decals, which were a huge selling point for me with this kit. They were fairly quick to correct the lack of white underprint and sent replacements that were perfect. Round Two already had an excuse in place for a similar issue with the Grumpy sheet and had no plans for correction. The scale of the license plate thing isn't so bothersome as just getting the ratio correct, 1:2. Call me, I'll set up the next sheet for you. I've spent 30 years dealing with computer generated graphics.

Some of those kits lose nothing in comparison to today's tooling. The above mentioned CB750 is an awesome kit. The original included a drive chain that went together exactly as the 1:1 with metal links. (I still have the parts from an original chain that I was to young and impatient to assemble at 10 years old). Another favorite of mine is Tamiya's Renault Alpine A110

I forgot the inspiration for this post, The Revell '49 Merc Woody. The decals themselves are more susceptible to Setting Solution but don't try using the "Mercury" lettering for the hood in one piece, it's not even close to being spaced right. You'll need to apply them one at a time. The wood is printed nicely but the panels don't follow the shapes of their locations exactly and are a little small. Do they test these and just go "Oh well" or what? To this layman, the decal sheet would seem to be the least expensive way to add a lot of punch to a kit, new or old. I really like what Revell and some others have come up with in the last few years design-wise. The sheets for the Woodys and the '48 coupe were outstanding. One last thing, I still miss Brian Bordon, who drew some of the most awesome model car graphics ever for Revell in the 90s

In my experience, one huge variable and question mark in this hobby has been the decal sheet. While I've an intimate understanding of printing and digital design, I'll admit some ignorance of the waterslide process and how the end product could vary so greatly, not only from manufacturer to manufacturer, but from kit to kit as well. I'll remember the low point as Revell's sheet from the Tom McEwen '57 Chevy Funny Car in the mid 80s. They were huge, they refused to lay flat and were resistant to any known setting solution available. So vital to the finished piece but so worthless. Revell's Mustang GT sheet from '07 or so was awesome. They went down perfectly and fit like a mitten. Even the tiny lettering for the rear badge hit each engraved spot and Micro Set worked just right. But the same company's instrument decals for the new '49 Merc didn't fit at all and wouldn't soften no matter what solution I used. What is the material difference. Was there a different supplier? Why do Cartograph products melt into a paintlike finish and others resist? Most recently I bit for the '6 Nova because of the Grumpy Jenkins sheet. Unfortunately the printer didn't add an underprint of white for the yellow lettering. Again so vital but so useless. Another arena where the aftermarket has picked up what the majors have dropped. And license plates. Have you ever noticed the variety of of sizes and ratios? I don't get it. The majority of US tags have been mostly 6 x 12 in the last 50 years. Why is this so hard for decal makers to capture? Okay, I'm done

Tim's been one of my favorite writers on this subject for a long time. I've got his entire Street Rodder run, before the model car ban. I always liked Tom Gaffney too. I wish P.J. O'Roarke built model cars. And I secretly consider SAE to be hugely helpful in the great Model Car Resurgence of the early 80s. Thanks Gary.

What "other" magazine? never heard of it

Yeah, but hasn't everything been covered a gazillion times somewhere? It still went 6 pages. Where's the harm? An Early Corvair, for the gazillionth time.

The windshield may sit lower once it is finalized. I trimmed away the large mounting tab to gain clearance for the dash. The vent windows will determine the angle. The A pillars do look a bit long in comparison with Oldnslow's photo, an issue that's compounded with the up-top in place. The paint is 1 Coat purple. I liked this kit a lot, AMT did a really nice job on the interior, especially. The new wheels and tires are cool also.