Hawk312

Ok guys.....assembly finally beginning. For the chrome pieces, I used duplicolor black base coat, which I rubbed out to a glossy finish. I then used Duplicolor chrome. I think it came out decent, with a polished aluminum look to it. I drilled out some of the mounting holes in the block and painted the insides silver for a machined look. I had to make all of the bolts, because I am too lazy to use bill w`s great tip here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=27930. To make mine, I just used some left over plastic sprue flattened on six sides with a pair of needle nose pliers, and then cut with a hobby knife. It`s hard to tell in the pictures, but it actually is pretty convincing in person. Here is just a test fit of the heads. I drilled out the manifold mounting holes around the exhaust ports and the front of the heads. I think this makes for a much more convincing appearance. Ive found that the drill bits "bite" into this material more quickly and sharply than typical kit styrene. I am not sure exactly why this is, but I am assuming it is because of the more brittle nature of the material. Back to building.....please let me know if you have any questions.

I came across some pretty rare Corvette models that I couldnt pass up because they were so cheap. However, they were built, and the builders were sloppy with what appears to be tube cement. Also, one of them looks like it could have been built 20 years ago or so. I am trying to disassemble and restore them, but am having a tough time disassembling them and removing the cement. I have tried nail polish remover with acetone, but it doesn`t seem to have had any affect on it. Any suggestion?

Thanks guys. I am also going to be giving a more descriptive step-by-step run-down of everything I am doing once I have everything figured out. This is a new experience for me. I was able to get color on the block and water pump. As you can see, the texture looks convincing straight out of the box. Besides sanding the mating endges, nothing has been sanded, filled, or modified from the way it was when I unpacked it. My favorite part has to be these heads. Again, the rough texture is straight out of the box. I sanding the areas around the exhaust port and the front and backs of the head with 220 grit, then primered and sanded smooth with 1000 grit. I then applied Testors Aluminum metalizer and buffed out the sanded areas. I think this gives a realistic appearance, compared to 1:1 heads. The idea is to have them look like a set of aftermarket AFR or Edelbrock headers. Here are the soon-to-be-chrome parts with a base coat of black. Almost all the imperfections and texture are gone after some sanding and 2 applications of regular primer (not high-build primer). Again, next time I think I can get away with just one application if I use some high-build primer. Thanks for looking. More to come soon!

I was actually pleasantly surprised with the strength of the parts. I was worried they would be too brittle to really work with. But I find myself having no concern at all about breaking the parts when I am handling them, even when I am going to town sanding them down. Anyway, finished sanding some of the parts again. The block and other soon to be orange parts are now in white primer. I was thinking about going just a little custom, with chrome oil pan, valve covers, an timing cover. I was thinking maybe aluminum heads too. What does everyone think?

Guys, Again, I apologize for the delay. Everything is now in primer, most of it ready for color: Here you can see the contrast between the sanded surfaces and the bare "textured" surfaces which have had no sanding. In the foreground, the oil pan and timing chain cover were sanded with 180 grit sandpaper followed by 220 and on up. I used a cheap Krylon primer, which is very thin. Next time, I am going to go with a high build primer, as TDR suggests. It would have made my work alot easier. There was a little more effort needed to sand away the textured surface than I initially thought, but still it wasn`t too bad. I have mocked up the block a couple times, and it is a very convincing replica, much better then what you might see in the typical model kit. Here, the heads were just sanded smooth on the bottom and then primered. The textured surface looks close to scale, IMO. The oil pan was a little tricky, trying to be aggressive with the sanding, and yet trying not to create any new curves or lines. The pulleys and oil filter were the tricky parts, just because they are smaller and more awkward to work with. I may sand these a second time, and use a file to clean up some of the recessed and hollow areas. That`s it for now. I should shortly have this in color for you. I think I am going to go with Orange, just so everyone can see the details a little more clearly. I will be posting pics as assembly begins.

Thanks bill. What do you use to cut the brass rod so cleanly?

This is incredible work! Yes, you MUST make a kit for the rest of us! I have a question though. What are you using for fan belts? And what size are the nuts and bolts you are using? I am going to try to use some on my TDR SBC kit, which is also 1/8.

Guys, I apologize for the delay. I am working on this kit, and will hopefully have some pictures up soon. I am trying to decide where to go with a few things. Overall, I am very impressed with this engine. It seems almost every detail is there from the real 1:1! And the texture on the block is perfect.

Ok guys, here is the SBC engine kit. The kit contains everything you see here, most of which you would see in a Chevy long block in 1:1, plus an oil filter and alternator. As what appears to be a slight hint of custom, it appears the crank pulley is an under drive pulley. Nice touch! Packaging For this one, I completely unwrapped everything, but most parts were grouped together this time when they arrived. The cylinder heads were grouped together in a single package, as were the valve covers. From memory, most of the smaller items (pulleys, alternator, etc.) were also in a package together. The engine block and oil pan were individually wrapped. The complete set of parts, about 5 or so packages, were then wrapped together in bubble wrap and then surrounded by peanuts. All parts arrived without issue and in perfect condition. Again, it seems like it would take a lot to damage these parts in shipping the way it was packaged. I am impressed with the packaging in both this kit and the Mustang kit above. Impression The texture on this kit is not as noticeable, likely because of it`s size, especially compared to the Mustang body. I think I am actually going to leave some parts like the heads, block, water pump, and alternator alone and not sand these smooth, as the texture looks perfect compared to a real 1:1 block! Everything appears to be accurate and proportional compared to the real deal. I actually have handled a few real small block GM engines, and this very much reminds me of the real thing. One aspect that surprised me a little is that all these parts have holes where bolts should be. But this is accurate to the 1:1 parts, and I will probably make my own bolts or find some very small hex nuts which would look more convincing than molded in detail anyway. The lack of bolts would also make the parts themselves good candidates for dioramas. I already have visions of a 1:8 scale garage scene! :o There are so many possibilities I can think of with this kit. It would work in the `32 duece kit as a straight basic "plain Jane" block, maybe with a monochrome theme. Or maybe in the `82 Z28 or `85 Iroc kits, to represent a Z or Iroc that had the aging, tired stock block replaced with a new Chevy crate motor. Lord knows, there are plenty of them around in 1:1 scale. Or maybe paint it Pontiac blue and drop it in the `81 Trans Am kit. As I mentioned, it would work in a diorama; maybe a garage scene where one of the above are getting a heart transplant. I am pretty excited about this one, so I think I am going to start building it first. Now only if I could decide on wether to go with a 60`s/early 70`s Chevy Orange, a late 70`s/early 80`s blue, or a basic crate motor black.....hmmmm.....

I am going to start off with my impressions of the Mustang body. The kit contains the body, a seperate hood, trunk lid, doors, and bumper. The body is similar to "Eleanor" from Gone in 60 Seconds. Here is what the bare body and hood will look like before any prep: Packaging I deliberately left the doors, trunk lid, and bumper in the original packaging so you get an idea of how it will be packed when it arrives at your door. Each piece, including the body and doors, are individually wrapped, tightly wrapped in fact, in bubble wrap. Then the entire lot of parts are wrapped in bubble wrap and surrounded by peanuts before placed in the box. My pieces arrived in absolutely perfect condition. Judging from the amount of packing material surrounding the parts, I don`t see much chance of the parts being damaged in shipping, aside from a forklift driving over it. I was very delicate with the parts while removing the bubble wrap to be careful not to damage the parts. I`m not sure how much care needs to be taken with these, but they seem more resilient than I initially thought. Impression The body appears to be accurate, more so than the AMT body, but they are close, IMO. The texture is, well, unusual. As you can see from the photo, there are lines in the mold indicating the resolution of the "printer." The best way I can describe it is if you could imagine what dropping your display properties in Windows down to 256 colors would look like in tangible, able to handle material. I took some 400 grit sandpaper to it, and it seems to "level off" pretty quickly and easily, sort of like a high build primer. I will be posting more about that as I post in progress pictures. The windshield and rear window are molded into the body. I am going to attempt to remove these and replace with clear stock styrene, which should be interesting. Overall, it looks like this should be a pretty nice `67 body once it is sanded smooth. I kinda wish I would`ve had something like this when I built my "Eleanor" a few years back. Next, I will be taking a quick look at the SBC kit. I will be posting more pictures shortly.

Hello everyone! First, I`ll give a quick introduction. I have been posting on the MCM message board for a while now, and most of my subjects are large scale, which you may have seen posted in this sub-forum. I mostly build 1/12 Corvettes and Camaros, but I have hundreds of other models of all scales from 1/32 to 1/4 (Revell`s visible V8 engine), and from all years from the 20`s to current production cars. But since I am partial to the large scale models, I was excited when I was asked to provide independent reviews of TDR Innovation`s products. I`ll try to do my best to give a builder`s perspective on their products to give everyone a clear impression of what to expect, and along the way maybe even incorporate some of their items into some of my projects. I will be taking a look at the following products: 1/25 Scale Miss "E" Car Body (`67 Mustang "Eleanor") http://www.tdrcatalog.com/servlet/the-85/mustang-eleanor-1968-Ford/Detail 1/8 Scale GM 350 Basic Crate Engine http://www.tdrcatalog.com/servlet/the-110/1-fdsh-8-scale-350-SBC/Detail I will be prepping and building both of these, and taking pictures and giving my honest impressions along the way. Please look for my posts and follow the progress in the coming days. I have already unpacked both these kits, and will be giving my impressions on both shortly. Please feel free to ask questions.

Thanks so much everyone! I really appreciate it! Yep, they are the kit wipers, believe it or not. They absolutely require bending to get them to fit right though. Without modification, they stick out about a scale foot from the windshield.

I know I`ve said other projects have made me want to quit building, but this was by far the most challenging project I`ve had yet. It shouldn`t have been so difficult, but it seemed to have fought me every step of the way, taking almost 5 months to complete! Anyway, the guy who is getting this is the same guy who got the Burgundy one, so no mirrors or door handles again since this is going cross-country. Building this had me on pins and needles since he wanted the JL-8 brakes on this, and he sacrificed a $600 FM `67 Corvette die cast to send these to me. He also sent me the resin wheels, which have some real mass to them, and are much wider and heavier than the stockers. This meant alot of frame modifications, which was fun, without looking like anything was modified since he still wanted a factory appearance. The exhaust also had to be re-bent with an open flame, and then sectioned off to get it to fit. Shocks had to be moved to the inside of the springs. The kit plastic axles needed to be replaced with aluminum. Another real challenge was the black stripes, which are completely masked off this time. No decals. The color is PPG Sebring Silver. He wanted red interior, which I thought was unique. And of course, the period correct window sticker, and California plates and inspection sticker this time. Sorry for the lousy pics. The weather isn`t cooperating here in the Northeast, and I need to get this to this guy. The lug nuts:

I think this one has been even more challenging then the L-88. The buyer of this one wanted this one to be Sebring Silver with black stripes. The kit only comes with the white ones, so the black ones had to be masked, which was alot of fun. The silver is correct PPG laquer. This person also wanted the special order JL-8 disc brakes all around for this. He had a set that he shipped to me, and yes, these are the brakes from the $600 Franklin mint `67 Corvette! :eek::eek: He actually sacrificed the die cast for me to put them on this model! He also had a set of mini-lite wheels and tires, which you can see in the chassis pic below. The rear tires were wayyyyy to wide to fit in the stock rear chassis, which meant alot of modification! The interior had to be red as well, which was even more difficult than the white, but I think it was worth the effort. The interior was sprayed using interior dye, which I think came out pretty convincing. Again, painted wood grain, flocking, etc.... The engine in the chassis....pretty typical. Notice the cutting that was needed in the rear, now covered with white plastic. Let`s see...the wheel wells needed to be cut out and widened. The frame rails needed to be cut back around the gas tank and then reformed with styrene strips in order to narrow them. The shocks need to be moved to the inside of the leaf springs to make room. I just switched the right and left leaf springs to get the mount point on the inside. Notice the driver`s side exhaust pipe is shorter than the passenger side. I needed to heat the pipe over an open flame to bend it, and then cut a section out and splice it back together to get the proper length. Notice the minilite wheels, which are resin molds. I am not sure who makes them, but the need a lot of work to get them right. Here are the JL-8 brakes. Because of the extra weight of the tires (solid resin) and the wheels, I had to use aluminum tubing for axles.

Thanks again! I`ve seen your incredible work on these kits as well, so i really do appreciate the compliments! Since it looks like I may have some major free time in the future with the way things are going, you will have to let me know when you guys are meeting up again. I want to make one of these meets!

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I hope the new owner is just as appreciative.

Ok...so I am pummeling you guys relentlessly with these. Anyway, this is for a customer who is actually buying two of these from me, possibly three. He wanted this one to be just like it would come from the factory (the other will be modified). It is a little different for me, as this is the first time I tried the white interior, which is alot of fun when you are trying to cover the molded black plastic, and when you are dealing with super messy black flocking that is attracted to the white painted seats. This is also my first burgandy car, which was mixed using the paint code from `69 and is PPG laquer this time. This is also the first time I used the body color bumper. As usual, period correct window sticker, chassis markings, firewall markings, "text" on hoses and wires, brake lines, painted wood grain detail, etc.... Also, this person wanted a motor city license plate, which is why I chose Michigan for the license plate (correct `69) and made it a personalized custom plate for him. Since I will be shipping this cross-country, some of the chrome pieces (mirrors, door handles, etc)will be shipped separately, which is why they are not installed. Let me know what you think.

Here was the inspiration for this model guys: http://www.autoblog.com/gallery/2007-rm-au...88-corvette/#11

Thanks guys!! You all are too kind! And the antenna is being removed. Thanks Harry. I really don`t have any real secrets other than just follow the same process as you would with a real car. Typically on this kit I will use all duplicolor paints and primers straight from the can. The one exception this time was the blue stinger, which is testors laquer. So I usually start with bout 3-4 coats of primer, sanded with 1000 grit when dry. I try to sand in "X" formations to keep it as flat as possible. If I am concerned about bleed through from the red plastic (I was on this one with the light blue), I will follow up with a couple coats of silver. Otherwise, I usually follow up with about 6-8 coats of color, sanded with 1500 when dry. Next is the clear, another 6-8 coats at the very least, sometimes up to 10 or 12. I usually allow it to cure for a month, then wet sand carefullly starting at 1500 then moving to 2000. Follow that with 3M rubbing compound, then meguires swirl remover, then tamyia compound. Thats pretty much it.

Ok, first a little background on the subject. In `67, you could order a vette with several engine options, but rarely was the L-88 option selected, as it was basically a racing engine installed in a street car. It was notorious for it`s overheating issues and was just plain unfriendly to the average buyer. But it was fast. In all, a total of 20 L-88`s were made in `67, and many of them became race cars. If you have a real one of these today, there is no way you would accept anything less than $million for it. So, this one is a little unique compared to what you normally see from me. I`m sorry guys....I must be driving you crazy with all the 1/12 Corvettes and Camaros. :icon16: Anyway, I took the L-71 tri-power 1/12 `67 Corvette kit and converted it to an L-88. I also wanted a rare color scheme, and to my knowledge, only 1 L-88 was made with this color scheme, and only 4 other non L-88`s were made in these colors. Since the kit doesn`t come with blue decals, I had to mask these off and paint them on. You`ll have to forgive my photography skills. For some reason I can`t get my camera to properly capture the blue stinger. It is much more blue and less aqua in real life. There were alot of modifications needed to convert this kit. The radio details had to be sanded off, and since it is in such a tight location, it was really difficult to do this and not damage the dash. I sanded and puttied and primered it like 4 times to get it right. The firewall needed to be modified since these cars came without heaters. The overflow tank was scratch built. The radiator needed modifications and the radiator shroud was correctly not installed. The filter on top of the carb required more creative scratch building, and took forever to get right. The foam around the edge is real foam. And of course, wiring and plumbing with "text" were added, and labels and chalk markings were added to the chassis. And, as usual, a correct `67 window sticker and license plate were added. Please let me know what you think!

So true. I had a 2001 Trans Am, and off the showroom floor with just an air lid and nothing else, it ran 13.1 at 111mph with a 2.2 60'. For those who can`t appreciate those numbers, a Ferrari 360 will run close to the same at 12.9 at 114mph: http://en.allexperts.com/e/f/fe/ferrari_360.htm My current hawk with just a $100 LS6 cam and springs, tune, and full exhaust easily smokes the Ferrari, still sounds stock, and still gets 28 mpg on trips!

Niiiiiccce!!!! WS6`s are intimidating to begin with, and that black makes it so much more ferocious.

Thanks again everyone! The weather was nice today, and I decided to take some more pics, since I wasn`t happy with the way the others turned out. Here you go!

Thanks again everyone! 93Z, the detail set is great, and I can`t imagine building one without it. It is frustrating sometimes when gluing the emblems on, but worth it in the end. The emblems also have a goldish tint to them, so I usually end up spraying them with chrome paint for an accurate look. The weather was nice today, so I decided to take some more pics, since I wasn`t happy with the way the others turned out. Here you go!

Thanks 99. I managed to find an engine pic here, but it`s not very good. I have an engine pic in the thread for the orange one, an they are pretty much identical: