Art Anderson

Lost in all the discussion of oil production seems to be, the sheer cost involved in finding new sources for petroleum, and developing fields that are found. BP just announced a new find in the Gulf of Mexico, and they spent nearly a billion dollars to find that, given that it's under roughly 4000 feet of water, and about 250 miles from the US Gulf Coast. Face it, the days are over when a J Paul Getty or an HL Hunt could go prospecting for crude oil on what was literally a shoestring, the cheap oil has pretty much been found. Art

Andy, Producing the hydrogen isn't the issue, rather it's the infrastructure for producing and delivering it. Already in testing is a method of producing hydrogen by wetting aluminum "foil" that is made with an alloy of aluminum and a very common metal (can't remember which one), which makes the aluminum very corrodable in water. The result of aluminum reacting with water are three things, hydrogen and aluminum oxide (which can be re-smelted back into aluminum again) and the small amount of the metal used to contaminate the aluminum to begin with. Aluminum is the most plentiful metal on the surface of this planet, from my read of the articles talking about this process. It appears that this concept has a lot of promise. As aluminum smelting is done with electric furnaces, air pollution can be controlled at the power source as well, hydroelectric, even nuclear. This process is under development at that Big Ten University right across town from me. Art

If I've learned but one thing in my 65 yrs on this planet, it's to NEVER SAY NEVER. I've known people who were alive when "If God had meant man to fly, He would have given us wings!" was the watchword, yet my Dad was born just 6 days after the airplane. I guess I am old enough to remember adults talking about those modern cars of the 1950's in very much the same disparaging terms we're reading in this thread--"These danged new cars just don't look like cars, they don't take any skill to drive, you can't work on them"; all that sort of stuff. Of course, those were people who were elderly back then, they remembered the horseless carriage, cars with brass radiators and brass trim that had to be polished by then-10yr old kids for their parents. Regardless of the power source, an automobile is, underneath all the frappery, a mechanical device, pure and simple, nothing more, and very little else. It won't much matter what the technology, what the fuel source is, or the means of propulsion. As long as there are people who want to get from here to there by mechanical means, there will be somebody there to make the vehicle for them to do just that. We are living in a transitional age, but of course, except for only a few periods in history, mankind has always lived in transition; of course transition today being at warp speed compared to centuries past. Saturday, I was at Auburn IN, walking through the ACD Museum, and guess what? In addition to all the gleaming Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs there (along with a smattering of Packards, Cadillacs, a Rolls Royce or two, and some 50's and 60's cars), I saw several dozen very basic automobiles, Zimmermans, Eckhardts, and a few other long disappeared makes that were as basic as basic gets. And, not all of those early cars on display used gasoline, either. There was an early steam car (Locomobile, I believe), and a couple of Pope-Waverly electrics. But, in comparison to even a 1930's car, they had one universal characteristic: They were primitively basic--little more than a chassis, a motor of some sort, a few gears, perhaps a chain drive, a simple tiller connected to what could best be described as go-kart steering, wooden wheels and some even had solid rubber tires. But in a real sense, they were just as modern cars, a combination of mechanical transport, and appliances. Now, who knows what the ultimate fuel source will be for the future? I sure don't, and I question whether anyone truly does. What I am certain of, though, is that there will be something come to the forefront, likely from a very sustainable source as well. In the meantime, while the fuel sources of the future are debated, developed and brought to market, there are numerous other sources for the interim, many of which have yet to be really tapped into. So, in a lot of ways, IMO, much of the argument, the rhetoric, while making for spirited conversation, is just that, rhetoric. Art

About 10 yrs ago, I started on a stock '32 Ford frame, for what will become, eventually, a completely stock '32 Ford roadster (Yes Virginia, there were stock ones!). Here are some things to ponder: Revell's 1/25 scale frame is accurately dimensioned, and the side rails are correct in their drop and "fishbelly" curves, which is a plus. However, there are problems, if one is to be accurate. For starters, the fender/running board reveals, while correct in their layout, have a sharp "corner" along that dimpled in area at the bottom, while the 1:1 is actually "filleted" where it curves outward at the bottom edge, and that edge, which is where the trailing edge of the front fender, and the running board bolt directly to the frame ('32 Fords had no separate splash aprons, as seen on Model A's, the frame was the splash apron as well!), that "edge" being rolled, not sharp and angular. As for filleted, that means that the bottom of the reveal is "rolled" into the edge as well, making a cross section like an upside down question mark. The fillet is easily done with spot and glaze putty, and a bit of sandpaper work. Here's a pic of a stock '32 Ford chassis I did from the Revell unit: I started by removing some of the kit floorboard from the frame rails, where the crossmembers had to be added. The center crossmember was cut from an AMT '32 Ford Victoria frame, as that one is pretty accurate, and having the rails securely spaced apart by the remnant of the floor, it was easy to make that crossmember fit where it needed to fit. I added the corner reinforcements that Ford used to stiffen things as much as they could (the Deuce frame was notoriously flexible at the start, the corner braces on that crossmember served to stiffen things quite a bit, and are on just about every stock Deuce that exists today). The rear crossmember on a stock Deuce is a bit trickier--the one in my pic was made from 13 pcs of Evergreen, and is both angled, and tapered per a line drawing I found in a book on the Deuce. The biggest issue, besides scratchbuilding this crossmember is, in addition to its shapes, it is also positioned just behind the rear axle, with a simple curved arch leaf spring that has its leaves "swept forward, to attach to mounds on each outer end, level with the centerline of the axle. My frame has yet to get a stock front crossmember--for that I will use one from a Revell '29 A pickup, that is more than close enough. Art

I turned 8 in the summer of 1952, and along with that Dad started bringing home Revell's Gowland & Gowland Highway Pioneers kits. Now Dad never built a model of any sort in his life, but having been born in 1903, he not only could proudly claim to being just 6 days younger than the airplane, but also to have seen examples of nearly every HWP model car in 1:1 in his younger days. Those kits started out (and stayed at) a mere 39-cents. Cokes were in 8-oz bottles only in those days, cost a whole nickel, with a 2-cent deposit, a quarter pound hamburger (Pre-McDonald's if you please!) were a whopping quarter at any drugstore lunchcounter or drive in restaurant, which with an order of fries at 15-cents and a frosted mug of root beer a meal for a kid did make! In the middle of the 6th grade (early 1956) I acquired a rather large morning Indianapolis Star paper route (150 dailies was a LOAD for an 80lb, 57" tall eleven yr old, bicycle or not!), and discovered Levi's at the same time. Now Mom would spring for all the JC Penney plain pockets jeans I could wear out, but if I wanted Levi's, then I had to come up with the extra cost out of my pocket, or about $1.50 additional for the privilege of that dark blue seam placket that showed when they were rolled up at the bottom, and the obligatory little red tag sewn into the edge of the left back pocket! Same with shoes: Parents declared they would keep me in leather shoes, but if I wanted sneakers to wear for play in the summer, they came out of my paper route and lawnmowing earnings--US Keds cost me about $2.50 a pair, and would last just one summer, before a combination of wear on the concrete sidewalks and my big toe growing through the tip ended their useful life. Our next door neighbor bought a new color television at Christmastime in 1955 (we didn't even have a black and white TV for another 4 years) and invited us to come over on New Year's Day to watch the Rose Parade in NBC's Living Color. Living where I do, in Greater Lafayette IN, we are underneath that aerial Interstate route from Chicago to Florida, and those old prop driven airliners (you know, the ones that had round piston engines, with dozens of sparkplugs all firing off) would drive our TV's nuts constantly during prime time. Enter the Boeing 707, Douglas DC-8 and Convair 880--by comparison they were whisper quiet from down here looking up, and better yet, they didn't bother TV reception! By 1957, and just out of 7th grade, we kids played daredevil games after dark in the summer on our bikes (living on a straight, side street had its advantages!) and learned to spot a police cruiser 3 blocks away, by the spacing of its headlights--those '57 Plymouths sure had WIDELY spaced headlights!!!! My first 1/25 scale model car kits came as a 3in1 package of AMT Corporation knocked down promo's, in July 1954, on my 10th birthday. Mom and Dad were out of town with my older brother, so I spent that week as the houseguest of my homebound teacher (3rd grade, 1952-53, due to a serious bout with Rheumatic Fever) and her husband, me becoming for a week the son they never had. That kit was a total surprise, and I was told for years that I had the broadest smile when I tore the wrappings off it, as if the corners of my mouth were stapled to the back of my neck--Coral pink 1954 Ford Crestline Convertible, dark blue 1954 Pontiac Star Chief Catalina HT, and a '54 Buick Roadsmasher! I was in heaven!! Later that month, at a family summer get together, three aunts each gave me the exact same model car kit--PMC's 1953-54 Corvette. Dad found me some acetone to glue the taillight bezels to the Vette bodies, and I must have polished and waxed those ivory white beauties danged near daily all summer long! Bicycles were obligatory for a kid back then, but the big debate (not brand, Schwinn was where it was at around here), heavyweight, middleweight, or lightweight "English" bike with hand brakes and a gearshift--I held out for the latter, and I wasn't disappointed. I think that bright blue Schwinn World Traveler set Dad back about $60 or so down at Mulhaupt's. Model car kits were everywhere by 1958-59, not only my favorite store, Bell Auto Supply (which morphed into Weber's Hobby Shop in 1963, and for whom I worked through most of my college years), but Cridercraft Hobbies, Lafayette Hobby Shop, Lafayette Toy Center, Turkin Toys, Kleinheim Toys, and the likes of Deckers Office Supplies, Kresge's, McLellan's 5 & 10, Woolworth's, Walgreen Drug Store, Strobel's Variety Store, Dillon's Hardware Store, even a Texaco Gas Station here. But lest modern model car builders think that $50-$2.00 was cheap--it took a hellava lotta work to come up with those dollar bills back then--a kid with a $10 bill in his wallet thought of himself as FILTHY RICH! But the biggest thing then, as compared to now was: We kids could get to stores that sold model kits independent of parents, no pleading with Mom or Dad to drive us there, we just hopped on our bikes, and were there in minutes, and in complete safety. Once in the store, and having gained the trust of the clerks there that we were gonna buy, not steal, we made momentous buying decisions all on our own, no disapproving looks from parents. How many 10-12yr old kids can truly say that today? Group model car builds were the thing then, the rule rather than the exception. Need a part? No problem, because with 3 or 4 buddies huddled over an old table in somebody's basement rumpus room, there was sure to be a part that could be made to work. The smell of paint or glue? No problem either--mothers seemed to tolerate it, put up with it. The laughing, the jokes that went around those tables, those were the thing of bonding between playmates, as we became fast friends, most of the friendships becoming life long. We kids didn't need Mom to make play dates for us, we were quite capable of taking care of that on our own, thank you very much! Some of those relationships graduated into working on buddy's cars in the driveway, their's or ours, it never much mattered, and on to double dates, cruising the drive in restaurants in HS, a couple in front, a couple in back, complete with two-headed drivers. In three more years, my HS graduating class will reassemble for a 50th Anniversary Class Reunion (1962-2012) and among all the stuff that will happen, will be some reminiscing by a few of us, of those halycon days of the late 1950's, when we former model car buddies sit down over a case of brew and remember, by armchair modeling, what it was that we had such great fun doing as kids. Art

Except, that if you are gonna decant and airbrush rattle can finish colors, why compromise your work by just rattlecanning the primer? The biggest advantage of decanting rattle can paints and then airbrushing them is, you won't be going after painting the model as if you had a firehose in your hand. Art

In Indiana: Pedestrians have the right of way only in marked crosswalks--this is a current hot-button issue here right now, around the University. It is quite possible here to have an intersection with no marked crosswalk, mostly on either highways, or thoroughfares on the outskirts of a city or town--several of those here in Lafayette. Art

It sounds as though you are wanting to use your air compressor to fill a tank, correct? I doubt that it will, given that Passche's catalog lists the DA300R as having an automatic shutoff, which would shut down the aircompressor once the air flow is stopped (this happens with any non-bleeder airbrush or spray gun, releasing the air control button/trigger stops the airflow though the airbrush, making for a head of pressure behind that). This sort of shutoff is used a lot with small air compressors that lack enough power to continue compressing air that has no place to go, even for a brief moment of time. Unless the pressure switch is adjustable (and I am betting that it is not?) then likely it won't do much good to adapt an air tank to it. Just my two-cents worth here. Art

FWIW, I've known Chris Etzel personally for most of his life, and watched virtually every Etzel's Speed Classics kit being developed, have had several of them over the years, including the Kuzma Dirt Champ Car the 270 Offy was created for. Chris never did cast this engine in white metal, he reserved that for suspension parts needing the strength, and for exhaust headers/tailpipes so they could be polished out. That Offy was always done in resin by Chris, and yes, the minute, fine detail on it can make one wonder "Just when did Tamiya ever do an Offenhauser????", it is that good. Chris's race car operation was his second in the resin casting game, he having started producing Medallion Models 1/48 scale aircraft conversion parts well before Eduard and others in Eastern Europe got into that game. His WW-II military aircraft conversion transkits really resonated in that area of scale modeling as well, and established Chris as both a craftsman par excellence' and a master of reference and research in the field of scale modeling in general. Art

Poppa, You are bringing back some memories here! How well I remember the "revolt" against AOL, and their inability to monitor their Scale Modeling Chat Room in the spring of 1967, the chat room hosts being more than willing to let toy train enthusiasts butt in on what was supposed to be OUR time in that room (one hour a week, on Saturday nights, from 8-9pm. So, Penmod (Marty Obermann) and I conspired to set up our own private model car chat room, which overnight grew so large, we opened up Model Car Chat II (remember that?) to accommodate another 33 chatters, and we still had people lined up at the door! MIke M is still around, I talked to him in person just a couple of weeks back. Marty isn't doing any model cars anymore, but we still IM once in a while. NMexArch (David Pye from suburban Albuquerque) and Steve 1/2 (his then newborn son) were at GSL in 2005, it was cool to watch Steve 1/2 sweep the Junior Class Awards at the age of 7. Jairus Watson was a regular there, and he's still coming into model car chat rooms today. But, those were the days, weren't they? If there is interest, I will post up a link to a model car chat room that in so many ways, is very much the same as we enjoyed, 10-12yrs ago, on AOL. Art

Chris, It actually would be easier and quicker to modify an Ecto-1 from Polar Lights (that kit has the correct stock wheels and tires in it!) as the mods I did weren't hard to do--the flashing red light tubes were done from Evergreen styrene tubing, carved down to a taper, glued in place, and a bit of puttywork. The middle rear quarter window was blanked off with sheet styene, and the cross's were appliqued on with bits of .250"x.020" Evergreen styrene strip stock (they should be foiled after painting, as Miller Meteor plated those cross emblems). The interior tub is an ambulance, albeit only slightly detailed, but then, there wasn't much to add, only an Oxygen tank, a case of splints and first aid bandages, a stretcher, and a gurney--not much there back in those days! The AAM resin kit was pretty rare, not many were sold, perhaps no more than 50-75 of them. Art

Your roadsters take me back to a much earlier time in my life! From 1966 to 1983, a small group of friends here, and I, built Indianapolis cars almost to the exclusion of anything else. Of course, just as nowadays, 1/24-1/25 scale model kits of Indy cars were scarce, hard to find, which made for an awful lot of kitbashing, learned scratchbuilding skills, and mastering the art of hand-painted graphics. While the photo shop at the Speedway is only an hour or so away from here, in many ways, it might as well have been on the moon, as our little group of 4 (two of us were young adults, the other two were high schoolers when this all began) had jobs or school during the week, and the photo shop wasn't open on weekends, except during the month of May. Nor were photo's of Indy cars readily available in books, either. The few books that existed tended to be more text than pics, and when there were pics, they tended to be just the official qualifying photographs, in B&W (Speedway photographers didn't start taking much in the way of color until the early 1960's. So, we grabbed what pics we could, searched and dug around in antique stores for old color postcards, took lots of pics ourselves on practice days (garage and pit passes were pretty easy to come by back then, all you had to be was 21, and look clean-cut, sign the release, and walk into Gasoline Alley!). In addition, between all of us, we had every issue of the Floyd Clymer 500 Mile Race Yearbooks, every Spring issue of Racing Pictorial we could get, and the 1966 book by Jack Fox, which had small thumbnail pics of each car in each starting field, and fairly decent color information gleaned from several oldtimers around the track. The old Best Plastics/Aurora "Famous Race Car Series" (1920 Monroe, 1922 Murphy Spl. --Jimmy Murphy bought his LeMans-winning Duesenberg at the end of the 1921 season, fitted it with a 183cid Miller straight 8, won Indy in '22--, 1931 Bowes Seal Fast Miller, 1935 Petillo Gilmore Speedway Spl, 1939-41 Maserati 8CLT, and the 1952-54 Fuel Injection Spl) meant lots of grist for accurizing, kitbashing and such. So did the AMT Watson Roadster, IMC's and AMT's Lotus Fords, the Monogram Kurtis-Kraft KK500C, and their 1/20 and 1/24th scale Kurtis Midgets. When MPC put out the 1914 Stutz Bearcat, it opened up an entirely new vista, to become the range of cars from 1911-1915 or so. Our collection included Miller 91's (including the 1928 Packard Cable Spl front drive from the Wills Finecast metal kits), a Renault or two, a couple of Fiats, at least two Premiers, to roadsters, dirt cars that ran the 500, every era of the NOVI, from the 1941 Miller-Ford based car, to the postwar Kurtis front drives, then on to the Kurtis rear drive cars from 1956 and 1963, to the 4wd versions that last ran. Lotus Ford kits morphed into Lola's, BRP's, Coyotes, PJ Colts, even the early Eagles. AMT's 1970's Eagle and McLaren kits became not only many versions of those cars, but also the Penske PC-4, the McLaren M-26 Cosworth cars. A cheap Japanese kit of the Lotus 4wd F1 car, with a lot of epoxy/microballoon putty, and a ton of carving, became the Pennzoil "Yellow Submarine". All of these went on display every Month of May, from 1966 through 1983 in the display window of our then-downtown hobby shop, the display base being a long wooden affair, covered with HO scale brick paper from Walthers, a pit wall, lettered and numbered, backed up by a 1/25 scale model of the old Speedway "Pagoda" timing and scoring stand. At its peak, this display collection numbered some 250 cars, each one displayed with a small block of wood on which was glued a bit of white card stock, on which was typed the year and name of the car, the driver, qualifying speed and position on the grid, and where it finished that year. In addition, the display almost always included some real race car artifacts: authentic race car wheels and tires, on one occasion a complete 270cid Offenhauser (minus most of its internals, but still almost 250lbs of iron and aluminum!), and the centerpiece backdrop of 1950's Indianapolis Starter Bill Vandewater's official starter's flags. For several years, we were honored to be able to display the very first prize ever awarded at Indianapolis, a gold medal awarded to Louis Schwitzer in 1909 (he was the founder of what is today, Schwitzer-Cummins, the turbocharger manufacturer) The hobby shop owner kept a series of guestbooks, for visitors to sign, if they came into the store. Those guestbooks are a veritable "Who's Who" in American open wheel racing from those years, as word circulated around the Speedway that out display was something to be seen. There are signatures in those books from over 100 countries, and every US state and territory as well. Our local newspaper did a story complete with a couple of pics, that made the AP wires, and the story of the display was featured in a Carl Hungness 500 Mile Race Yearbook in the late 70's. Most of those models now reside in a private collection in Northern California, two of the members of this unofficial little "Club" are now deceased, the other living member having moved away from here years ago. But, I still get questions from people I meet on the street here, who still remember those displays. Art

Your "Unknown" '59 Miller Meteor is the Miller Meteor Limousine Ambulance, made by All American Models in 1990-92, for use with the AMT Ghostbusters Ecto 1A. Art

One thing that I found out, when researching Ford trucks out of the 30's is, Ford used pretty much the same design driveline from 1929 to 1952 on 1.5 ton trucks. Rear axles, drive shaft parts varied only by parts numbers in so many applications. One thing that I learned, years ago, when restoring a couple of Model A's: Engineers, when designing a new engine, a driveline, tended to look closely at exchange manuals, component mfr listings, to find things like bearings, springs, all the myriad of small parts that go into any mechanical device. Apparently, the wisdom (and it was WISDOM!) was, see if someone, someplace, has made the part that would meet the criteria, if so, why do a new one (why reinvent the wheel?), when there is already something out there that will do the job. As an example: When pulling a complete tear-down, rebuild of one of my Model A engines, I was looking to replace the valve springs (two were actually broken!). A locally owned parts house counterman looked up "Model A Ford Valve Springs" and quoted me a price of something like $75 for a full set of 8 springs. He then did some cross-checking, discovered that in 1957, the Hemi engine used in the 1957 DeSoto used that very same spring, to a "T" as the camshaft thrust spring (which kept the camshaft from moving forward, due to the angled cut of the gear teeth) was EXACTLY the same as a Model A Ford valve spring. The price? 75-cents apiece!!! That's like, $6 for a full set of valve springs as opposed to the approximately $75 for a set of springs specifically dedicated to that purpose. I bit on the far cheaper set, and guess what? I put nearly 25,000 miles on that engine before I sold the car (to complete my college education), with nary a hiccup, nothing at all ever went wrong with it at all. That sort of thing can save you $$ in a rebuild. The same likely goes for things like brake drums, certainly wheels (Ford used the very same Kelsey Hayes wheels on trucks from 1932-52). As for sheet metal, always, if you must, buy the best you can, it's cheaper in the long run. Art

Hey, welcome to a neat forum, and to the neatest hobby on the planet! Now, if you want tips and hints, the best way to get those is to ask questions, and ask them, early and often. So, ask away, somebody will answer, I bet. Art

Solvent based putties don't work very well in thick applications, because they are made with heavy solids, with a lacquer thinner as the solvent. Lacquers dry from the outside inward, which means that in a thick coating or buildup, it may seem solid as all get out on the surface, while the material inside the filled area will still be soft. The stuff is best used just as it's intended, as a skim coat over the surface, for filling shallow imperfections, such as tool marks. On the other hand, catalyzed putties can be used to create thick body sections, with confidence that they will be both stable and strong. I've done it too many times to believe otherwise. While this stuff does heat up some when mixed in larger quantities, I've never had it get hot enough to warp or melt the underlying plastic. In addition, the stuff does not shrink once set up (it will shrink, about 1/10 of 1% when kicking from liquid to solid, but that's pretty standard for polyester resins, which is what catalyzed putties are, polyester resin with a hardening catalyst. There are less expensive brands out there, in addition to Evercoat. I have used US Chemical & Plastics (USC) Icing for a long time, works just like Evercoat, but at half the price--about $15 for a 5lb tube, with hardener. Art

Gee, Now how cool would that DJ Dispatcher be, carrying a nice hot pizza??????? Art

That would work, if the model kit body in question were say, brass, or tin-plated steel. However, Wills (Southeast) Finecast models are done in white metal, which unfortunately melts at very nearly the same temperature as ordinary lead-tin solder. Another thought here: In automotive use, there are rivets, and there are rivets. So much depends (or depended) on the metal in question, and whether the rivets were used to join chassis parts together, or to "stitch" sections of sheet metal. In the years before arc welding came to be used in chassis (frame) assembly, those units were generally assembled using steel rivets, installed and swedged over while red hot (think of riveting guns as used on steel structures here). In my experience, those rivets have fairly large heads and shanks (a Model A Ford or even a '32 Ford frame) was assembled with hot steel rivets having a 1/2" shank, and a 3/4" head, and were formed, in assembly with an approximately 3/4" head on the back side by use of a pneumatic riveting gun. A 3/4" rivet head translates to .030" in 1/25th scale. Rivets used in bodywork tended to be much smaller, and were cold rivets, installed and "expanded" on the inside of the body either mechanically, or by the use of "explosive" rivets, as in aircraft use. The rivets used in say, a steel body shell to join parts to a windshield frame generally weren't more than a 1/4" round head on the outside, and that's just .010" in our most common model building scale. .010" is but a large "pin ######" in the dies for molding styrene plastic, and are almost unachievable, that small, in tooling meant for molding diecast or white metal body shells. Even the thinnest layer of paint is often enough to hide them by simply burying them in the the finish. So what to do? I've done perhaps as much rivet surface detail as anyone, and after experimenting for a long time, came to using bits of round Evergreen styrene stock, set in holes (with tiny drops of CA glue), then trimmed to a level just above the surrounding surface and polished with an 8000-grit polishing cloth to give the effect of a rounded rivet head on the surface. That is tedious as all get out, for sure, particularly if there are a lot of them, or if there is an extended row of such rivets, meaning that they need to be spaced evenly, and in either straight lines or worse, in an arc or other curved manner. Additionally, geting the heads to look uniform has often taken me several fits and starts, even to the point of sanding offending rivets off, and replacing them, until I got the look I wanted. In order to make this work, I've had to resort to using styrene rod stock larger than scale, but unless its way out, the visual effect outweighs the somewhat overly large rivet heads that result. Molded styrene rivets do exist, Grandt Line (a model RR, dollhouse, and military modelers' detail parts supplier of long standing) makes them, as do several aftermarket suppliers in the world of armor modeling. The smallest of these do have a parting line across the head of the rivet, but a bit of careful polishing after installation de-emphasizes that little nit. However, working with metal does have its problems--most generally with diecast. Diecast (which the metal used is called Zamak) is perhaps the hardest material a model car body is made, and that makes power drilling almost a necessity, if one doesn't want to spend a lot of time on each hole, for installing rivet heads on such a surface. Zamak does solder, but it takes a lot of heat, as this metal "sinks" heat away from the point of contact with a soldering pencil rapidly--and if one gets the Zamak just a few degrees hotter than the melting point of solder, it will itself melt. Additionally, Zamak takes a liquid soldering flux in order for solder to flow on it, rosin or paste fluxes generally don't do the job, in my experience. With white metal, while that stuff is soft enough to drill fairly easily with numbered twist drills and a pin vise, the melting point of this alloy is so close to that of even low temp (64/40 lead/tin solder) that if you get the surface hot enough for the solder to stick, it will itself be melted by the heat of the soldering pencil. Then there is the problem of cleaning up the surface. If one does not get ALL the soldering flux residues off the metal surface, that will cause any paint applied over it to blister and peel in time (that used to be a major problem in the days before catalyzed putties, when about the only surface filler that would work on steel 1:1 auto body sheet steel). Art

Scale Hardware has all manner of miniature rivets, in brass, 100pcs per package. Their smallest rivet has a .40mm round head, with a machined shaft .30mm (.012") in diameter. These are machined brass, and have to be seen to be believed. In addition, Scale Hardware stocks a wide variety of machined brass dummy hex-head bolts, in addition to dummy hex nut/bolt detail in a variety of sizes. If your taste runs to threaded nuts and bolts, they have those as well, down to .50mm (.020") diameter threads, with a hex head .30mm in width AND both nuts and socket nut drivers to match. I've ordered from these people, online, they respond within the hour of receiving the order (if on a business day), and have shipped every order I've placed the same day, with delivery by USPS within 3-4 days. http://www.scalehardware.com/miniature-riv...f7fe65ddb36275e Highly recommended! Art

Gee, And I can look across this room at a gorgeous Dumas 1930 Chris-Craft dual cockpit inboard runabout that has yet to see th water, almost 20 yrs after it was built for me by a customer of my then-hobby shop! My nephew cut scale planking from Honduran Mahogany to replace the cheap Phillipine luan sheeting Dumas packed in the kit, dual water cooled Mabuchi 540's, an electronic speed control. Hmmmm! Do I hear the park lagoon calling me? Wonder how this thing would be chasing ducks? Art

At the risk of offending some of the more important nabobs of this hobby, let me add a few pennies worth: For starters, the research and reference work for the Trumpeter Pontiacs, Chevy II's and I believe, the Monte Carlo were done by none other than perhaps the guru of such work, John Mueller. John is not only highly knowledgeable, but is a stickler himself for accuracy in a model kit--but he's not the tooling mockup department, nor has he ever been the toolmaker, never his role in the industry, from what I know. I know it's often very "politically incorrect" to be a critic of those model kits which are considered iconic in our hobby, but every one of them has their screwups, their inaccuracies. It's pretty unpopular when I state that those legendary AMT, JoHan or MPC annuals from the 60's lacked a great deal in the way of accuracy, but deal with it please, they all had them. Dimensions, proportions, and contours were off more than they were correct, when diligently compared to the real thing--but then, those designers and toolmakers were dealing, not with REAL cars, but with such drawings, renderings, and photographs provided by the automakers, most often out of their styling departments, well before the final product (the Ford, Chevy, Plymouth or whatever) hit the showrooms. Thus, the designers and pattern makers in suburban Detroit were working nearly as blindly as their modern-day counterparts in Guandon Province or Hong Kong. Working, as I did, in the industry (albeit for a rather short time), I can only say that product development of a model kit requires not only good references upfront, but serious follow-up all the way through the process. That means intensive reviews of tooling mockups, corrections noted and demanded, and then doing the same with those first test shots out of the molds. That's where Stevens International fell down with the Trumpeter kits--obvious to me that there was very little in the way of followup as tooling mockups were to be reviewed, test shots critiqued. And, the arguments vis-a-vis chinese pattern makers and toolmakers and those who did that work here in North America are exactly the same ones leveled at "Tamigawajimi" out of Shuzoka City, Japan in years past. Trouble is, in every manufacturing company, there is a timeline expected by top management, generally driven by sales. I can't begin to imagine the hair that is being pulled out, prematurely gray, for example, at Boeing, over the continually delayed first flight of their upcoming, cutting edge 787 Dreamliner, for example. Every day that project delays is dollars "down the drain" to the company, with the real fear that Airbus will overtake this project, send it swirling down the drain. It's the same with model car kits, folks! Designers, pattern makers and toolmakers in product development want to put out the best, most accurate model possible, management wants it all to happen at minimal cost, and sales wants it 6 months ago. Guess who is outnumbered there???? Sometimes, the often maligned and cursed licensor steps in, demands that accuracy be the rule, but that doesn't always happen. While I grew to hate most aspects of the job of product development at Playing Mantis, I still would not trade that set of experiences for anything. I had my victories there, I had my bruises and figurative black eyes as well. But, there are many products, including a couple of plastic model car kits, that I can point to with real pride, and say that "I did (or helped do) that one!" Most criticism of model car kits comes from people with little or no experience or understanding of what has to happen to create the kit one sees upon opening the box for the first time, and fewer still understand the often rigid limitations of polystyrene, or the steel tooling needed to produce a model kit. And on that, I rest my case, and will now return to my dark corner, and shut up. Art

I've always used the same parameters when posting a pic of any of my builds that I use when deciding to take same to a contest or NNL. I could give a rat's patout what anyone else thinks of the model, its's what I think of it that counts. In short, if I think it's good enough to show off, I do; if not, then not (you all will likely never see it!) Art (Oh, and at age 65, I have finally developed a pretty thick hide!)

Like Bob says, file and sand CA glue as soon as the accelerator sets it up, easier to do that way. Now, about those nasty gaps between an added on oil pan, water pump housings, cylinder heads on inline engines: Nearly all model companies use a bit of what's called "draft angle" on deep parts, like engine block halves, to allow the parts to come out of the molds easily, without grabbing the sides of the cavity, breaking them off parts trees. This results in stuff like engine blocks having a bit of a "pent roof" shape where you want to add say, a cylinder head. I use 400-grit Wet or Dry paper, laid grit side up, on a piece of plate glass, to get a perfectly flat sanding surface, put some water on it, and carefully rub the assembled engine block on that, to get rid of the draft angles. This can take a bit of practice, and a lot of care, to get a surface that is not only flat, but also as close to a right angle to the centerline of the block as possible. When done, I have a flat surface that will let a cylinder head lay down tightly on it. As a general rule, I do the same thing with the bottom, or mating edge of cylinder heads, oil pans and the like to aid in this. When attaching separate bell housings, I do the same thing, but use needle files there a lot. Additionally, I've done the same thing with the edges of separate hoods and trunk lids, but in doing so, several times, I've had to "stretch" the edges with thin strips of styrene, glued on with CA, to bring the edge out more true with the openings. Art

Andy, While you have it very much right on the mark here, others have made some good suggestions as well. For starters, you make mention of the use of an accelerator for CA glue (Super Glue, Krazy Glue, and all the various brands) so allow me to add a bit to your statements: CA glue, or ACC as it is sometimes termed, does not "dry" to do its job, rather it crystalizes, by means of pressure between the two opposing surfaces being glued, or by the addition of some chemical that triggers the crystalization (chemical accelerants seem to work the best, but ordinary baking soda works, and a lot of modelers swear by it--not me, I prefer accelerators). CA glue is CA glue, ever since Eastman Kodak's original patent expired in the early 1980's. Essentially, all packagers of the stuff get it from pretty much the same tank car loads, the only differences being in viscosity, and whether or not a flexible or hard cured glue is desired. Personally, I've used nothing but Goldberg SuperJet since that medium viscosity CA was introduced in 1985, for two reasons. One, SuperJet tends to be the freshest product out there, being as it is the CA glue of choice in the radio control hobby, the turnover of the stuff on the shelves is probably greater than all the other brands put together. Second, Goldberg uses a bottle that takes a readily available (in hobby shops as well as mail order or online) series of polypropylene gluing tips, my favorite one being a flexible needle tip that is about 2" long, and can be trimmed back with an Xacto knife when the tip gets irretrievably clogged--and they are inexpensive as well. For accelerator, I happened on Bob Smith Models CA accelerator about 25yrs ago, and won't even look at any other brand--their accelerator is the only one I have found that absolutely will not attack styrene, nor paint, glue, even decals. In addition, Bob Smith accelerator absolutely prevents the "fogging" that CA's produce when they outgass upon crystalizing, just soak the glue joint and the surrounding area with the stuff from their "spritzing" push pump spray bottle. Bob Smith accelerator comes labeled for whatever hobby shop stocks it, a silver label with the hobby shop name on it. Their bottles are clear brown, both the push pump sprays, and the 8-oz refilling bottles, easy to spot, and for what the stuff is capable of, rather inexpensive as well. I've used this CA glue and this accelerator for years, for nearly all assembly, and I swear by it. For assembly in styrene, where long seams, and certainly where I am adding long strips of trim sections to a body shell, I like the same liquid cement as you allude to. Nearly all plastics shops fabricating clear acrylic use WeldOn #3 liquid cement, which behaves exactly like either Tenax 7R or Ambroid Superweld. This type of liquid cement is pure solvent, no binders whatsoever, unlike Testors liquid cement, which is very much a thinned out version of their tube glue--Testors liquid does have a residue, and being a far slower evaporating liquid than WeldOn, Tenax or Ambroid Superweld, it has far more time to craze any styrene surface it lands on. For applying Weldon, I have been using a synthetic "liner" brush, the same thing that folk artists use to paint long lines and such. I simply trimmed off the tip, so that it is square, which allows this brush to hold a pretty fair quantity WeldOn #3, and I apply the stuff in a brush stroke alongside say, a strip of styrene I might use to create a chrome spear down the side of a body shell. The one caution with this stuff is that it dries too fast to allow application to either or both surfaces, and then try to stick them together, so touching a brush to the joint, allowing the liquid to flow into the joint is key here. As for the surrounding surface, once dried, I find no crazing whatsoever on styrene, just a slightly shinier surface where the brush passed over it. WeldOn #3 is available in much larger quantities than Tenax or Ambroid, which makes the price of it dirt cheap--my last 8-oz can of the stuff cost me just $10, compare that to what, now almost $7 for a 3/4 oz bottle of Tenax! To use the stuff, I simply decant it from the larger can into an old Tenax bottle by means of commonly available glass eyedroppers, which are available dirt cheap in just about any CVS, Walgreens or other similar drugstores. For gluing dissimilar materials, such as wood to plastic, metal to plastic, I often use 5 minute epoxy, but there I am particular, Devcon 5-min always gets the call here. For metal to metal, even metal to styrene where strength is an issue, JB Weld, the black iron bearing variety is all that need be said, in my opinion. I've not owned a tube of Testors glue in so long, I don't know if I would recognize that stuff anymore. Art

For starters, hasn't the government already had its hands all over the design and development of cars for what, 35 years now? Sure, some of the dictats from the US Congress made and make some real sense: Things like seat belts/shoulder harnesses, air bags (how many could Senator Foghorn or Congressman Windbag inflate in a single speech?), and who among us who were driving and buying cars in the mid-70's can forget the "log beam bumpers" foisted on us by Congress in order to protect us from ourselves, and deny (hopefully) body shops from having to fix fender benders at our expense? The arbitrary move toward catalytic converters abruptly led to American cars having their fuel mileage drop from near 20mpg to sometimes less than 10, all that on the cusp of the first Arab oil boycott. Talk about our elected representatives shooting our auto industry in the foot (Oh and by the way, catalytic converters were pushed, and pushed HARD by the then governor of California, Edmund "Pat" Brown, who among other things, held a major stake in the company holding the patent on the catalytic converter). When I think of cars, and then I think of my several relatives who fly airplanes for pleasure and personal travel, I have to consider that aircraft owners and pilots, along with the companies who manufacture (or used to manufacture) them, have dealt with stringent (certainly in comparison to the auto industry) government regulations as to the design, care, maintenance and operation of those thousands of Cessnas and Pipers, not to mention the Aeronca's, Mooneys, Travelairs and Stinsons that went before them. What if our personal automobiles had to meet even a percentage of the rules and regulations regarding design, worthiness for use on the highways; what if drivers had to meet even a percentage level of the requirements for skill, obedience to traffic laws, and their own physical conditions and capabilities of those required of general aviation pilots? But, in the same breath that government at all levels tries to manage the cars we buy and drive, government also has allowed streets and roads to be built, and continue to exist that are simply dotted with hazards, from blind curves which often are cambered to the outside as opposed to being banked toward the inside, often slipshod paving, even the basic construction of them (all in the name of low bid contracting). Just this morning, I watched a semi tractor, with as long a wheelbase as I ever see in Indiana, try to make a right turn, from a 4-lane thoroughfare onto a two-lane one way uphill stretch of street, both of which were designed and constructed just 10 yrs ago, so tight in clearance that the driver wound up climbing the center island, the tandem wheels of the 53' trailer riding up and over the 8" curb at the corner, and BOTH of these routes are designated truck routes (the tractor trailer was making a delivery to the University where I work). As the design and engineering of this monsterpiece of infrastructure was done at INDOT in Indianapolis, I have to wonder just where the engineers involved got their Civil Engineering degrees--out of some cereal box? In so many ways, regardless of the cars that get designed, produced, bought and driven, no matter how sophisticated they may be, we still have a very "horse and buggy" attitude when it comes to the PRIVILEGE of being able to drive one on the public streets. Likewise, when infrastructure is being designed and built, all too often, it seems to me that what gets built is built as though it was the 1850's, done for cheap, and maintained only when politicians are embarrassed when a bridge collapses in the capital city of a state, or a major highway becomes so full of holes that constituents are ready to advance on the statehouse with lanterns and pitchforks, demanding a solution. If government were seriously concerned about the consumption of gasoline and the resulting carbon dioxide spewed into the atmosphere, would not logic dictate that government would take a serious, and much longer look at the proliferation of shopping centers, strip and covered malls that continue to be built so as to be accessible by cars only, often miles away from a large portion of shoppers who would patronize them? The same with suburban development--what sense is there in having to drive mega-miles every day, just to commute to a job, and then be coerced into buying crampact cars in orde to do that? I vividly recall that just 40 yrs ago this very summer, I was sitting in a marketing class in college (Trimester system) and hearing a lecture on how fully 50% of the jobs in the US being dependent on the automobile--then in the next breath the professor asking if it really was necessary for that to be? Where is government when any of the issues I point out here should be addressed? Hmmmm? Art