Art Anderson

I've never owned a single Apple product (although I may change--iPhone and/or iPad sure look tempting!), but I can see a TON of wisdom in Jobs' words. In the bottom line, it's NOT what tools are in one's toolbox (education, training, etc., but WHAT one does with those tools! that is also true with our hobby--it's not the sheer number and/or variety of tools (you know airbrushes, Dremels, needle files, on and on) at one's workbench--but what we (each and every one of us do with those tools. Steve Jobs, Rest in peace--you changed our world immeasureably for the better! Thanks! Art

Yes, you sure can! I just did it, with my first Hudson kit (Tamiya Black over Modelmaster Phoenician Yellow). Worked perfectly too. Art

I use both my fingernails and a .5mm push-click mechanical pencil for pushing Bare Metal Foil down to the edges of chrome trim, and into the details of badges and scripts. Art

The plastic that AMT went to for promo's in 1962 was branded "Cycolac", which we know today by its generic name, ABS. And yes, MEK will work very well with it. Art

A very good place to start would be to have camera in hand, look for "weathered" vehicles. Take the time to see just how road grime gets on a car or pickup, With winter coming in another 6-8 weeks in the northern states of the US, such observations should be easy to make, Art

The tire sizes of those "slicks" are pretty close to Firestone Deluxe Champion racing tires as used at Indianapolis by Team Lotus and about 15 other race teams (all Offy roadsters) in 1963. They're not drag slicks, but rather a fairly crude attempt at a Firestone speedway tire of that year. Dunno what kit they might have come from though. (just a thought, are they 1/25 scale, or smaller? Art

Google works very well on the principle of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out). That said, autocolorlibrary.com has all the postwar years of Hudson paint chips on their site, just search Hudson, then the year. Now, you will need to read the chip charts carefully, as they do note that certain colors were carryovers from 1952, even 1951. In addition, when researching the body colors for Moebius' instruction sheet, I found that the autocolorlibrary chip charts also show which colors could be combined for 2-tone schemes. There weren't a lot of interior color options in 1953 for most makes of cars, including Hudson, particularly where ordinary passenger cars (coupes and sedans) were concerned. Dave Metzner, on the instruction sheet, shows a tan and brown scheme; there was also a light grey/dark grey scheme, available, the light grey in the same areas of upholstery as the tan in the pics on the instruction sheet. In all cases however, it appears that Hudson painted the dashboards the the same color as used for the primary body color (whatever color was used on the middle portion of the body shell horizontally). Hope this helps! Art

Harry, the only engine available in a 1955 Chrysler (across all body styles and trim levels) was the 354cid Hemi V8. Art

Two other things that most never think about: First, Hudson never developed a V8 at the time when V8's were sweeping the industry (I was a youngster in 1953--turned 9yrs old, and even I knew the sales and popularity power of a V8 engine). Second, and while behind the scenes was their loss of the only outside body supplier left in the industry, when in 1954, Chrysler completed their buyout of Briggs Body Company, who had built Hudson bodies since the early 1930's (the buyout of Briggs by Chrysler also hastened Packard's move to buy up Studebaker, with similarly disastrous results). Hudson simply lacked the capital to build their own body plant--they'd shot their wad on the Jet, which went nowhere fast. Art

Okey Spaulding reissued this one under his JoHan banner about 8 or 9 years ago. It is 1/25. Of course, it's a Rambler Classic, not the Rambler American, so it's pretty much a mid-sized car. Art

Except that by the time that era Volvo came about, '55 Chryslers were pretty much on the back row of used car lots--so perhaps Volvo lifted the split grille screen from Chrysler's '55-'56 Imperials? (Incidently, that the parts bin Chrysler dug into, for the front clip and grilles for the C300) Art

Not likely--no 1959 Annual series kits, nor any promo's (and the JoHan Rambler Wagon is in reality, a promo in parts, wrapped up in a kit box) had opening hoods or engine details. Art

If all you need is one, that is NOT a hard body to come up with! The actual Model A A-400/32 Ford B-400 was a factory modification of the Tudor Sedan! All you would need to do for one with the top folded, is to alter the shapes of the quarter windows, after you remove the roof. Art

Greg, early on in my resin castng time, I made the call to the manufacturer of the resin I was using, finally got patched over to one of their chemists/engineers, to get a conversion for the resin-to-catalyst mix from weight to volume. That worked very well for me--and I learned to use that from then on, contacting suppliers for that info for whatever product I was using. It's MUCH easier than constantly measuring by weight, especially since I (just as a suspect, most others) didn't have a super-accurate scale for weighing out the two parts. Just a thought. Art

When I was resin-casting, I investigated clear resins. For starters, polyester resins (chemically the same stuff that is the basis for the catalyzed putty we modelers have come to use, also same as fiberglas resin) don't work well with any sort of silicone RTV, as the catalyst (hardener) tends to leach into the rubber, leaving the surface of the clear sticky for all intents and purposes, forever. That leaves clear polyurethanes. The best of these are "water" or "optically" clear, but they do require special handling. I never had a problem with these clear resins curing properly against "tin-cured" RTV, but they take special handling. Most of the really high-quality optically clear polyurethanes are slow curing, and emit CO2 as they begin to kick, or set up. The only way to prevent CO2 bubbles in the clear parts is 2-fold, from my experience: It takes a vacuum chamber to literally suck the CO2 out of the still liquid, but mixed, resin, and then to prevent any subsequent bubbles from forming, a pressure tank capable of holding at least 75psi for a couple of hours or so. The last thing is the addition of heat, at least low heat. I found that when I pre-heated the molds used for headlight and taillight lenses, that heating the molds to at least 150-degrees or thereabouts before pouring them hastened the cure dramatically, and after removing the filled molds from the pressure tank, baking at 150-degrees for about an hour ensured that once cooled to room temperature, the finished parts were rock-hard. Now all this is based on experience 1993-1999, so it's quite possible that clear polyurethanes have changed since then. Also, it is possible, I am sure that higher-tech clear polyurethanes have been developed that require platinum cured RTV. Art

I've got a couple of Boot Hill Express kits saved here--something about a wild idea of mounting that hearse body on say, an AMT 1907 Thomas Flyer, make a believable "brass era" hearse out of it (those early motorized hearses used bodies that were taken almost directly from the plans used for horse drawn units only a few years before. Art

Plastic Scale Auto Builders Chat C:\Users\Modlra\Favorites\Plastic Scale Auto Builders Chat.htm Art

I second this one! Back in my resin-casting days, I dealt with a few hoods having those "cutout grooves" on the bottom side. I quickly tried gap-filling CA, and it worked PERFECTLY to stabilize the upper surface so that "ghosting" didn't happen, and of course, with cleanup on the bottom side, and a bit of detail work--VOILA! Art

OK: Plating plastic model kit parts as we know them, is done by vacuum-plating. This is a process whereby the plastic parts are coated with a very high gloss varnish or lacquer clear coat, then the parts are placed in a vacuum chamber, and all the air is drawn out. Once the vacuum is achieved, electrical current is shot through strips of pure aluminum, vaporizing them--and this aluminum vapor collects on the parts, taking on the shiny, virtually "wet look". The parts are then removed from the vacuum chamber, and given a protective clear coat (otherwise, the molecularly thin coating of aluminum would simply disappear within hours, if not mere minutes. It's this transparent topcoat that can determine the color of the plating: For a silver, chrome effect, simply a clear coat is used. However, if a gold-tone look is what's called for, then clear yellow is used. For gold parts, you can take already plated parts, and paint them with Tamiya Clear Yellow, or use one of the Candy Gold sprays. One thing to keep in mind: Transparent colored paints can be made darker by simply putting the stuff on heavier--think multiple coats here. To illustrate, think of say, colored transparent PVC report folders--if you were to stack up multiple sheets of say, clear yellow, the more sheets in the stack, the darker the color--it's exactly the same wiht say, Tamiya clear colors--the more coats, the darker the color. Hope this helps!! Art

We had Ken Leslie's '49 Merc Custom at the Goodguys Model Car Contest at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this past weekend--awesome OOB build that one! Art

Of course, a 2dr Brougham would be cool too? Art

Looks as though the left elevator trim tab tore away. With a total of 10 feet of wingspan clipped off, leaving ailerons only 40 inches long, it appears to me as though that missing trim tab acted like an aileron when the pilot used elevator to keep the nose up in that last screaming turn around a pilon, forcing the plane into a roll to the right, which took him off course, toward the spectators. It appears that he tried to correct, but at 500mph, he could not react before his Mustang nosed up into a snap roll, which at that proximity to the ground, was almost guaranteed to be fatal. Terribly sad, especially more so given the death toll and injuries on the ground. Art

No contest! Revell's is pretty much state of the art for the 21st Century---the AMT kit was tooled in mid-1962--end of statement. Art

This Saturday: Goodguys Rod & Custom Show at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Model car contest, entries start at 8am, judging Saturday afternoon, awards on Sunday Morning. Now, if you are worried about what happens if your car wins a trophy and you can't be there to pick it up? No problem--we've shipped out trophies before! And, do not worry if you need to leave for home Saturday, and you entered a car: Judging should be done by no later than 4pm Saturday, so there's time to pick up your entry. Cost? (everyone always gets uptight about this, I know!) Admission to Goodguys at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is $18, which is good for ALL THREE DAYS (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), and parking is included in the ticket price! There is NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE for entering the model car contest. As a special note, we will be very sure to get pics of the Best Of Show Winner, and send those to Goodguys headquarters in California, as Goodguys has instituted this year, a "Best Of The Best Of Show" Winner nationwide. So, I know there's gotta be several hundred of you only a daytrip away from Indianapolis Indiana--and as for directions, MapQuest and Google Maps have the directions--but IMS is at the intersection of Crawfordsville Road and Georgetown Road in Speedway IN, which is on the near west side of Indy. Indianapolis is accessible from Interstates 65, 69, 70 and 74, plus numerous US Highways--it's the "Crossroads Of America". So, Come On Down (or Up, or over here, or over there!) See ya at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend! Art Anderson and Brian Fishburn

If memory serves me right, AMT went to using Cycolac (orginal brand name of ABS plastic) in 1961, which didn't have the warpage problems of the original plastic used for promo's--"Tenite" which is acetate plastic. JoHan didn't make that transition for another year or so. MPC came on late enough (1965) that they used Cycolac from the get-go. Art