Art Anderson

The Olds "moving assembly line" was little more than a hand pulled conveyor, with could be pulled from station to station, but stopped at each workstation. Ford's improvement (if you will) was a continuously moving conveyor assembly line. Art

Indianapolis Motor Speedway , September 20-22. Friday, September 20: 8am-5pm Saturday, September 21, 8am-5pm Sunday, September 22, 8am-3pm Model & Pedal Car Contest entrants do have to pay admission to the grounds, and will receive a pass for Sunday although they will be able to pick up their cars after judging on Saturday. No entry fee either! Come on down! Art

The first time I saw a guy do that, I nearly passed out laughing!

Another "trick" that certainly Model T owners liked to pull (and even Model A Ford owners as well, as those had hand-operated spark timing--"spark advance" was to take their cars "Window Shopping". It works like this: Again a well broken-in Model T (or Model A) engine, carefully timed, can be made to run VERY slowly, even with the car in high gear. With the engine well warmed up, and on level pavement (this works best on smooth pavement), slow the car down, with the spark lever completely retarded, until the engine is merely idling. Now, Model T's and Model A's are almost legendary for low-end engine torque, and it is possible to literally slow the car down to a walking speed, with the engine turning so slowly that with the hood open, you can actually count the revolutions of the cooling fan very easily 1-2-3-4-5.... While the vast majority of US-built Model T Fords have no entry door on the driver's side of the front seat (roadsters and touring cars), a Model A driver could actually open his door, step out of the car, and literally walk alongside it, then climb back in, sit down, and gradually accelerate the car to as fast as he wants to go! A great many brass era cars (and even larger cars well into the 30's, could be put in high gear at speeds as low as 5mph, and made to accelerate smoothly (albeit sluggishly!) to ordinary driving speeds--a lot of people did that back in the day--my Dad almost never used 2nd gear in any of his flathead 6cyl Plymouths--he'd just start out in low, and at about 7-8mph, shift into high, all the while claiming that using second gear meant more wear on the clutch and wasted gas!). Most cars could do this to some degree in the years of long-stroke, low compression engines. Art

One of the neat "diocentricities" of the Model T Ford (indeed of many other cars built in the day of manual spark advance and an individual ignition coil for each spark plug!) was that a Model T Ford can be started "on compression". It worked like this: A Model T, having a "buzzer-type" induction coil for each sparkplug, and a mechanical "timer" (works just like an old fashioned distributor, except that instead of "jumping" a spark inside a distributor from the rotor to an electrode for each plug wire, Model T timers use a small roller that actually makes contact with a smooth brass contact as it revolves around inside the body of the timer, making direct electrical contact to send a charge through the wire to the plug). A well-broken in T engine, if shut off with the low gear transmission band engaged, can be made to stop with one piston just past "top-dead-center" under compression with a full fuel charge in the combustion chamber. With the engine still hot, and the ignition switch turned back on imediately upon the engine stopping, the buzzer coil for that cylinder will build up, within a few seconds, an electrical charge sufficient to ultimately send a spark across the electrodes of the particular sparkplug--and the engine will start all on its own (the engine has to be not only fully warmed up, but certainly on the :"hot side" of warmed up). Jokesters learned to play with that--it went like this: The driver would pull his car up to a group of people, shut off the engine with the transmission still engaged, quickly retard the spark all the way, turn on the ignition, get out of the car, walk toward those spectators, and when a few feet away from his T, he'd turn his head, whistle at his T (as if calling his dog!), and presto! That T would start up all by itself, and roll toward it's owner! In the earlier days of the old-car hobby, a Model T gathering wasn't complete without some character making this little trick happen! (My dad related similar stories about an uncle of his who would have great fun doing this in front of unsuspecting bystanders!). Just a fun little thing that some people used to do, to amaze their enemies, scare their friends, I guess. Art

I don't always add details (so-called "superdetailing") to a build, but sometimes it's fun to do it "because it's there" on the real vehicle. Sometimes, it's a challenge to find that reference pic showing something that I've always thought of doing, perhaps something I've never seen anyone else do before. One of the beauties of having been primarily a model car builder over these past 60-plus years is that in our area of model-building, there's always been room for just about any level of building/detailing, with no real animosity or denigration toward those who do or those who do not. In short, it's pretty much a matter of "different strokes for different folks"--almost like real democracy it seems to me. A neat thing about this model car building hobby of ours is that over time, we've become pretty willing to allow, even acknowledge all levels of model buiolding. For example, back about 30 years ago or so, I was intrigued by the concept of "curbside" models--models of cars built to look like what we see going down the street, parked at the supermarket (after all, when one thinks about it, we don't often see cars on the street with their hoods raised, all doors and the trunk lid opened up). This one came about during the time that JoHan was repopping older models as "retro promo's", with no opening hoods, bare-minimum detailed undercarriages, and certainly no engines under the hood. That made the builder concentrate on paintwork, foiling the chrome, finishing and detailing the interior (bearing in mind that all that work could only be viewed by looking in through the windows). The concept of models built "out of the box" seems to have come from IPMS/USA at about the same time as car modelers discovered "curbside". This seems to have been introduced by their modelers as a way of encouraging newer or younger builders to stretch such skills as they had without the pressure to add that last bit of rigging, brake lines, cockpit seatbelts/safety harnesses--the builds strictly limited to just the parts supplied in the box, the model built exactly according to the instruction sheet, with only paint, finishing and decal markings being allowed to come from other sources. This category spread very quickly to our rather independent-minded part of the hobby, and soon became one of the most competitive areas of model building with often seemingly "razor thin" margins separating the winner from 2nd place. Hopefully, this model car building hobby of ours will keep on being as "accepting" as it has evolved over the past 50-plus years--room for all styles, space gladly made for all levels of model building (and that includes all levels of adding extra details). In the meantime, it seems to me that for the superdetailing fanatic, a real challenge could well be building that model curbside or "OOB"; experiencing the strict limitations of those types of builds. At the same time, I would hope that newer, less-experienced builders, and certainly those of us who've never quite gotten up the courage to try their hand at adding super-detailing to a build to give that a try as well. Each level of construction can be a challenge, and who knows? Somebody might just learn something new in the process (and that can't be all bad, can it?). Art

Those "nails" are actually simple screws with a very steep thread to them--that "thread" is what held them in place. Virtually all AMT and JoHan promo's from the early 1950's used these, even nearly all AMT "annual series" 3in1 kits 1958-64, and JoHan's similar kits 1959-through the end of the 1960's at least. Originally, those "screws" had slotted heads, to make them easy to assemble on production lines as promo's, and we kids used screwdrivers to put them in when building our 3in1 customizing kits as well. I've removed those many times by simply gripping the head securely with a plain old pair of "slip joint" pliers, and then twisting the head SLOWLY to the left (they are conventional right-hand thread), at the same time carefully "pulling up" on the screw head. This can take several tries, but almost always I've been able to disassemble the promo chassis from the body without resorting to any heating of the screw. Art

Actually, the Italeri Opel Blitz truck kit would be an ideal choice, as its chassis and engine are identical to US-built Chevrolet trucks from the late 30's through at least the late 50's. Art

I had charge of doing the one and only 1/24 scale Johnny Lightning "Coca~Cola" collectors assortment (OK, so the Ertl Bantams were 1/22 scale--but they fit in pretty well), in late summer 2004, just after Playing Mantis, the parent company of Johnny Lightning was sold out to RC2 (owner of such as Ertl, and AMT-Ertl). I and my product development partner at JL had just started seeing test shots of the following 1/24 scale diecast models done under the Johnny Lightning brand: 1957 Ford Courier (sedan delivery), 1951 Studebaker Commander Starlight, and the 2004 Ford E-250 cargo van. These were to have been packed in a 12-model assortment including three 1/34 scale Coca~Cola truck diecast models, but one of those disappeared while in its tooling mockup stage somewhere in the licensing approval stage (never to resurface!), so being a part of the RC2 "Empire" by then, the Automotive Subjects manager for Racing Champions Ertl gave me a list of "1/24 scale" Ertl castings to choose 3 more subjects that could be painted and decorated as Coca~Cola vehicles. From that list I selected the Ertl Collectibles 1946 Studebaker pickup, 2000 Dodge Ram Quad pickup (which became the only time that was ever sold to the general public other than as a True Value Hardware Stores promo!) and the 1/22 scale 1940 Bantam pickup. Having a couple of neat books in my library of historic Coca~Cola vehicles (Coca~Cola vehicles almost always were/are owned by franchise bottlers, not the company itself) which were painted in one or more approved Coca~Cola color schemes (Coke was one of the first companies to create standardized paint schemes/colors/logo's for delivery and service motor vehicles). Couple these castings with authentic publicity photo's of Coca~Cola vehicles and the correct standard Coke colors of red, yellow and white, and using those photographs, the assortment of 12 vehicles (2 each of 6 different subjects) we went to production, but just one production run was made. The 1940 Bantam Pickup was one of three models of that vehicle done by Ertl Collectibles; the other two being the '40 Bantam Panel Delivery, and the very rare 1940 Bantam Roadster pickup (Bantam built just three of those for a large auto parts store in Atlanta GA for use as delivery vehicles--perhaps the last roadster pickup trucks ever produced in the US on a factory assembly line, and the only time that Ertl allowed that model to be produced outside of their promotional model business). Art

Exactly, but you said it much better, and a lot more concisely. This was AMT/Ertl's attempt to make windshield and back glass that would fit more flush with the outer edge of the rubber moldings, giving the "look" in those areas of the real truck cab, instead of the "sunken in" look of the glass in model car kits done up to that time in the late 1980's. Only problem is, they didn't follow up nearly close enough in the test shot stage of development, to ensure that the tooling for the glass or the cab openings would make the edges of both parts match up correctly all the way around the clear part. If you don't have any Evergreen styrene strip, you CAN use a good quality air-dry (single part) autobody spot & glaze putty, applied with a small knife blade on the inner edges of those openings (moldings) where you see from test fitting the glass beforehand where any gaps might be. A good putty that is readily available at auto supply stores and even many of the Big Box "Marts" is made by Bondo, coming in a fairly small tube for consumer use. Just use your Xacto knife (or any similarly small knife blade to "smear on" this putty on the surfaces of the molding next to where the glass with mate up to it, let dry, and smooth out with a needle file and some 400-grit wet or dry sandpaper. Simply keep repeating this, test fitting after filing and sanding, until you get a good mating edge. When you get it right, the glass will fit cleanly and perfectly, from my experience with this very same pickup kit. Art

A couple of observations here: First, thinning paint for airbrushing. A very good way to see what properly thinned paint should look like in your color jar is to spray (gently and softly) paint from a spray can into your color jar. As it fills up a bit, tilt the jar, notice how the paint "sheets" down the inside of the glass--it flows down the surface of the glass jar in a manner VERY similar to 2% milk--visually that is my standard for properly thinned enamel or lacquer paints for airbrushing on models. With water-borne acrylics, however, they don't like being thinned nearly that much--use the recommended thinner for these paints, and the paint mfr's suggested thinning ratio and relax, even though you likely won't thin water-borne paints nearly as much as lacquers or oridinary enamels, it will spray just fine. As for how thin is too thin, bear in mind that lacquers can be thinned a lot more than enamels or waterborne acrylics, as lacquer behaves a good bit differently on the surface painted (it starts to dry very quickly once sprayed onto a surface), where enamels are much more prone to "runs and sags" if thinned too much--and waterbased paints? They have their own quirky behavior if sprayed on using too much thinning, When I use say, Testors or ModelMaster enamels, I use Kleen Strip lacquer thinner (available in the paint department at Walmart in quart or gallon cans), as it does a much better job than does enamel thinner for airbrushing, and in the bargain, the lacquer thinner "flashes off" (evaporates much more quickly than does enamel thinner), but I still use the visual effect of how 2% milk "sheets" down the side of a glass tumbler as my guide--if my enamel paint slides/sheets down the inside surface of the color jar just like 2% milk, it's properly thinned. And no, there really can't be a set "formula" for thinning bottled enamels or even bottled lacquers, such as MCW Automotive Finishes (or Scale Finishes Acrylic Enamels), as no matter how careful the manufacturers or bottlers of these paints are, no two bottles of their product can be automatically expected to be exactly the same consistency (thickness or thin-ness), so I find that my "eyeball chemistry" here works very, very well (I've been doing this for decades now). Next: Even though the Badger 350 is a "low end" single action, external airbrush, it is, for this type of airbrush, VERY close to equivalent to the Passche H series, and even the venerable Binks Wren--both of these are designed to the same principles as your Badger 350, and an awful lot of winning model car paint jobs have been done with this type of airbrush (including myself--having used only this type of airbrush since my very first Binks Wren acquired in December 1962--I now use Paasche H airbrushes exclusively. Your Badger 350 (like the Binks Wren and Paasche H) is as simple as simple gets for cleaning, too. For cleaning this type of airbrush, no matter the brand, the tools and cleaning solvent are very simple, and inexpensive! For a cleaning solvent when I use enamel or lacquer, I use ordinary lacquer thinner, in a sealable glass jar (I'm using a 3.5oz Aero Gloss Model Airplane Dope Thinner jar that I've had for a good 35 years for this, but a baby food jar (one of the larger sizes) or even a Ball Company Jelly Glass jar will work just as well). For quick color changes, with either lacquers or enamels, I simply use a plastic eyedropper (which any Walgreen's or CVS Pharmacy stocks--and they are cheap). I open up the material control all the way (no need to remove this from the airbrush for a quick color change, or if using lacquers or enamels) and simply immerse the tip into the lacquer thinner. I then draw lacquer thinner up into the eyedropper and push it into the large (where the airbrush jar coupling slips in!) end of the material control, and squirt the thinner through the material control, and let my pressure off the rubber bulb, which pulls more lacquer thinner backward up into the material control. By palpating (squeezing and releasing the little rubber bulb on the eyedropper, and keeping the nose of my airbrush in the thinner) the eyedropper, this flushes thinner back and forth through the material control, which will flush the thinner out of it more than sufficiently to remove all but the most minute traces of the color. I pour out all the leftover paint in my color jar into another resealable glass jar (this is where one of those inexpensive jelly glasses with the mason jar type lid on it comes in handy!). If I am using rattle can (spray can paint), I generally don't save the leftover, as it takes only about a teaspoon worth or even a bit less, to completely paint a model car body with an airbrush. Any leftover paint is not going to be significant enough to worry about saving. (however, if I'm mixing my own colors, I then get extra Badger paint storage bottles (Michael's and Hobby Lobby both carry those, BTW), take the Badger color jar off, put the lid from one of the paint storage bottles on it, and use the new glass jar with my airbrush (Badger jars fit all three types of external airbrushes in common use today, BTW). If I have to clean out a color jar, after pouring out the waste paint, I use cheap paper toweling to wipe out as much of the leftover paint from the jar, then wet some clean paper toweling and use that to wipe out the jar itself until clean. For cleaning the color jar lid and delivery tube, I use the ModelMaster soft clear plastic paint "droppers" (Hobby Lobby, and most decent hobby shops carry these, in multipacks which are also inexpensive, considering that these plastic paint droppers can be reused again and again for cleaning an airbrush). I flush the delivery tube in the same manner as I flushed the material control nozzle of the airbrush, and dip the lid into the thinner deep enough to fill that with thinner, which I then wipe out clean and dry with paper toweling. Total time for me to clean my Paasche H this way? About 5 minutes, and no disassembly is required. For cleaning the material control and the metal top of the delivery tube after it's sat and dried (and especially if my last use was with enamels, I remove the material control, and unscrew the outer "tapered" part from the needle inside, and then "ream out" just the needle with an ordinary pipe cleaner soaked in lacquer thinner, finishing that by flushing it with lacquer thinner. Do not use a pipe cleaner on the inside of that tapered body that the needle goes into--push a pipe cleaner too far inside that part, and you can actually split the metal at the thinner, delicate front end, and even the tiniest split can cause your airbrush to hold drops of paint and then "spit" them right onto your paint job! Same cleaning technique works with the delivery tube (both parts). Time to do this? Maybe 10 minutes max. The thinner I use for cleaning up the airbrush (and it gets the call for cleaning brushes too!) does get pretty dirty after awhile, so I simply pour that off into the jar holding my scrap leftover paint, and simply screw the lid back on tightly to keep paint fumes from escaping. if it gets too dirty, I will pour that out into an empty soda or beer can, wrap that tightly in a couple of those thin plastic bags that supermarkets and convenience stores use in much of the country, label it as to what it is, put it out in my recycle here (a recycling center will separate that out and send it to a hazmat center in most cases for disposal (at any rate, it isn't a lot of material generally, so it really should not cause much of a problem for disposal--depending on your local laws or regulations--but that's true of any solvent you might use for airbrush cleanup). Of course, water borne acrylic paints clean up with water, just don't pour it down the drain though, but you can let it sit open and the water will evaporate, leaving behind dry solids. I hope this shows that cleaning up your Badger 350 need not be a major surgical operation. By contrast, the higher-tech, much more delicate internal mix airbrushes, such as the Iwata, Badger 100, 150, and Crescendo or Paasche's similar internal mix airbrushes (either single or dual action) do take a lot more time, and the disassembly and reassembly of some rather delicate and tiny parts. Art

For minor body seams (where I might join two plastic parts together) and even for dealing with even fairly nasty mold parting lines (especially where there is mold misalignment--pretty common in older model kit tooling) I have used "gap filling" or "medium viscosity" CA glue for the past 25 years or so (since about the time Zap A Gap and Goldberg SuperJet (my preferred brand!). I use Bob Smith Industries CA Accelerator (most hobby shops having a decent RC plane department stock it, or it's available online at Tower Hobbies) due to the simple fact that it's liquid, but absolutely does not disturb painted surfaces nor does it attack bare styrene. Within a minute or so, I can work the CA filler down with needle files, and if I need to use a bit more, any low spots will show up as shiny spots--just add a bit more CA, spritz with accelerator, wait a minute or two, and repeat with files and sandpaper--easier and quicker than any putty--plus it absolutely will not shrink. For really large areas though, a good grade of putty gets the call on my bench, even though it slows down a build, due to needing to dry thoroughly. Art

I'm being told to expect the 300B in stores by early November. So, we'll see. Art

When I do another one (and the '55 C300 production kit is calling me pretty loudly right now!) I likely will use a metallic gold automotive body color, simply because the Testors metallic gold #1144, while nice and bright, doesn't stand being handled very much--and even after several hours "cooking" in my food dehydrator, the gloss black I used to paint the wiring looms on the valve covers tended to "pick up" the gold more than I would have liked. Unfortunately, there really is no substitute for Testors #1146 Chrome Silver, as that is the same color (an unfortunately type) of aluminum paint that Chrysler used on engine blocks, bell housings, oil pans and cylinder heads from their start in the middle 1920's until the late 1950's, so that color was necessary--but again, after several hours in the dehydrator, it still tended to rub off on my fingers during final engine assembly. Art

The headlights are different from the '55 kit. On the '55, they are separate chrome parts, but on the '56, due to their being painted, with just that thin chrome band around the leading edge of the bezel, Dave had them molded as part of the body shell. Art

But of course! My entire goal on this model was to have it ready in time to spring it on you guys in Massachusetts, show you what real muscle looked like back when I was a kid. Art

Ed, just to clarify here: Other than 7 years of building box art models for AMT Corporation and Lesney-AMT, I never actually worked for either company--that was an "independent contractor" thing. Art

Ed, I wrote "....probably the most precisely tooled model car kit I have ever built....", and that says a lot, given that over time, I've built model car kits from just about every manufacturer (including Tamiya, Hasegawa and Fujimi). As for development time, this one came down actually rather quickly, as it's based (as was the actual '56 Chrysler lineup) on the '55. Ordinarily, I suspect that it takes a good 12-13 months to bring a new model car kit of any significance to market, be that back in the "old school" days or now in the 21st Century. Where once it took a fairly large team to develop and tool a new model car kit, anymore, I suspect that with CAD, and certainly with CAM, the sheer number of people needed is quite a bit less. That said, it probably takes about as long today as it did 30-40-50 years ago, as some things, particularly at the tool making stage still can only "move" so fast. Art These were quickly shot this afternoon, before I had to leave home for work. Bigger pics, and better poses probably tomorrow. Art

Here it is, all black. Moebius set a real standard with their Chrysler 300 letter car kits--it's probably the most precisely tooled model car kit I have ever built, and that's saying a lot! Of course, about 90% of the 300B is carryover from their '55 C300, which meant that on a couple of newly tooled parts, locating pins were in the wrong place, but this kit is the second set of test shots--those errors are the reason companies do test shots of new tooling. In short, everything fits as it should, and just right, not too loose, not too snug. Art

I thought the body looked familiar---NICE WORK! Art

Wonder if I'll see this thingie at Goodguys at Indianapolis next weekend? Art

How often do we see u-joints on real cars? Well, ever since the advent of the so-called :Hotchkiss" drive system which is the primary system used to transmit power from the transmission to the rear axle in a rear drive, front engine car (except for cars such as 1906-1948 Fords which used torque tube drives). Hotchkiss requires a universal coupling (flexible joint or coupling) at each end of the driveshaft, and literally 10's of millions of American cars have been built using them.--they are just as visible on the underside of the car as any other detail. Next question? Art

Well, at least Jeep can't sue the maker of that thing for "infringement"! It's grille has only six slots! Art

More than likely, both the Ford "spinner" and the Studebaker Bulletnose came out of stylists doodling around with aircraft themes during WW-II, while thinking up new automotive designs for the coming postwar world. Art

I've used Modelmaster Wet Look Clear over Testors flat enamel, and it worked just fine. This is the dash from a test shot of the upcoming Moebius '56 Chrysler 300B that I completed about a week ago. On the factory stock car, the entire interior is upholstered in a mix of natural cowhide and matching vinyl "imitation" leather, AND the lower part of the dashboard is painted a matching shade of gloss tan with the center section in gloss black. I airbrushed Testors "Flat Beige" (from the little square bottle) first, then masked off the top of the dash and the center section, airbrushed those with Tamiya Semi-Gloss lacquer. After drying these colors in my food dehydrator (about 2 weeks at room temperature will do very much the same thing), I masked off the Semi-Gloss Black on the top panel of the dash (yeah, the tape slipped as you can see, but that got touched up with a fine brush and more of the semi-gloss black after this pic was taken!), and airbrushed some Modelmaster Wet Look Clear lacquer over the entire lower face of the dash--it worked quite well, as you can see. I think the key here is to make certain that the flat finish enamel paint needs to be completely dry before using Modelmaster lacquer, which itself is a fairly mild lacquer--it doesn't "craze" plastic, for example. In the bargain, because this clear lacquer is literally water-clear, it didn't alter the shade of beige noticeably either. Art