Art Anderson

From Lafayette here, where we are Hoosiers by birth, by the Grace of the Lord, Boilermakers! Lafayette Miniature Car Club--meets 2nd Saturday night at Community Reformed Church, South 18th Street at Iroquois Drive, 7:30pm (September through April). May, June, July and August--we meet, and put on a large model car display at the Star City Corvette Club's monthly cruise-in's at McDonald's on Sagamore Parkway North, first or second Saturday evening of each of those months, 5pm-whenever. All comers welcomed, even Indiana fans! Art

After a 5th of Beet Hoven to steady up the hands? Art

It sounds like you used a metallic color, or perhaps a candy color? If so, it's best, in my experience, to paint the hood at the same time, with the same batch of paint. Not to pick an argument here, but this is where old paint bottles, or old dead rattle cans come in so very handy. I mount separate panels, such as a hood, or valance panels, onto the lids of either old paint bottles, or old spray cans (keep the plastic cap for them, snap them back on first), by using a sticky tape loop (a bit of masking tape, rolled into a loop with the sticky side out). Put the sticky tape loop onto the top of whatever you want to use to hold the part, and spread it out as flat as you can, then press the part to be painted onto that. Simply hold that old paint bottle or rattle can in one hand, and spray the parts with the same paint at the same time. With metallics or candies, bear in mind that airbrushing works best here, as you can control the paint much as if you were in 1/25 scale yourself, using a miniature shop spray gun. This in important with metallics, in order to get the metallic chip to lay in the paint on the hood the same is it is on the body. With candy colors, as they are translucent (they filter light that reaches the gold or silver base, then that reflects back through the transparent color), and the thicker the coat of paint, the darker the candy color will be. So, care is really needed there. Art

Geez Bill!!! You and Jairus are getting to be regular old f****! (Oh, Happy Birthday Jair'! Art Anderson

For starters, Testors Liquid Cement is perhaps the slowest-evaporating liquid plastic cement on the hobby market--I think it's little more than their tube glue, thinned out to a liquid consistency--so it is going to take time to dry completely. It may feel dry at the edges quickly, but once you carve into it, you expose still-soft joints, and the problem continues. This is based on experience--I did this same basic step, using early Squadron thick sheet styrene about 40 years ago, to laminate up shapes for carving into George Souders' 1927 Indy winning Duesenberg, and Tommy Milton's 1923 HCS Spl (Miller 122). It took weeks for the seams to quit shrinking after the body work was shaped. A better alternative is to laminate these thick pieces of styrene sheet stock with CA glue, which does not shrink, does not depend on evaporation to set up or cure. Do this one seam at a time, press together tightly (clamping is NOT necessary, then go on to the next seam, repeat until you have the material thickness you need. Also, Tenax evaporates MUCH faster than the old-school Testors Liquid, and for a much less expensive alternative, see your local industrial plastics supply house/fabrication shop (where they sell and work with Acrylic -- Plexiglas) and get a large can of Weld-On #3, which is the same stuff as Tenax 7R, for a fraction of the price. But even this liquid will take time to dry out completely, but not nearly as long as the Testors stuff. Art

Well, if you noticed, the side exhaust dumps go through a "notch" cut into the frame rails, which would mean either a filler piece for building it factory stock, or fudging it somehow. As for the seat bolster, that was something that probably was individually made to the tastes of each driver--so whose to use? Now, does the rear axle have any bolt detail in the diff cover? If not, pretty hard to count them, and very few kits have them unless a separate part. Also, those cars did NOT run truck tires!!! Firestone was already producing their Darlington Stock Car tires for use in Nascar and USAC (who also had a huge stock car division in '57)--in fact, Firestone was already producing racing tires for all forms of US motorsport--someplace I have their 1957 racing tire catalog. Now, to make a tire mold for one specific car is expensive, very expensive, unless there are other model kits for which those tires can be used--which would help amortize the tooling cost--do you want to kick up the price of the kit even more, for something that the vast majority who will buy it won't ever notice--and that majority ain't us who read the magazines. In short, I find it simply amazing that Revell did this kit in the first place, with additional parts and such for the Black Widow. When one thinks about it, pre-Winston Cup Nascar Stockers are truly "Dark Siders", very VERY obscure today for the average racing fan--even Nascar doesn't do much to promote the full history of their sport. Had this kit come out as specifically the Black Widow, I suspect that in the overall marketplace it would have been met with a huge collective "yawn", much as did the '64 Thunderbolt--just another old 2-door sedan, with some racing parts they don't understand a thing about. Art Anderson

Actually, Karl Kiekhafer had a '57 Chrysler 300C built for going Nascar racing, but disbanded his team before the season started. Art

Lee Baker Miles Lee Baker, 82, of East Ridge, went home to be with the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ Wednesday, March 4, 2009. More arrangements will be announced. Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. today at the funeral home. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Brainerd Baptist Church with the Rev. George Clark and the Rev. Robby Gallaty officiating. There will be a luncheon for the family and friends at the church after a private family burial at Hamilton Memorial Gardens following the service. Please share your thoughts and condolences at www.mem.com. Arrangements are by the East Chapel of Chattanooga Funeral Home, Crematory & Florist, 404 S. Moore Road.

What can I say, but that I am saddened, deeply so! Lee Baker was perhaps the finest friend I have had in this hobby for more than 30 years. It's said that when an elderly person dies, it's like a library burning down--and with Lee's passing, no analogy could be closer to the truth. For those of us privileged to know Lee, he was absolutely passionate about model cars, primarily kits of antique and Classic Era Cars (Duesenberg Model J's were his specialty), with an additional emphasis on flathead era V8 Fords. Lee's knowledge, coupled with his incredible skills, and his eye for shape and proportion, could take a Monogram Duesenberg kit, and create a Figoni et Falaschi "French Speedster", a Weymann Fishtail SJ Speedster, a Murphy convertible coupe, even the fabulous "Maharaja of Indore" Gurney Nutting Speedster. But he could also take 4 AMT 32 Ford Tudor Sedan bodies, and with prodigious cutting and splicing, come up with a very believable '32 Duesenberg Model J Limousine that you could look at, swear you had seen one just like it, at a show or in a magazine--even though the body shell was fictitious. Lee's memories of those grand cars went all the way back to his boyhood in the early-mid 30's, when while accompanying his Dad (a Dentist) to his practice on the south side of the Loop in Chicago, cured his boredom by going to the Duesenberg Chicago Branch on South Michigan Avenue, and drooling over the fabulous Duesenbergs there for service or for sale (new or used). And those formative years were the genesis of his vast storehouse of both personal knowledge an an enviable library of reference materials. As a Life Member of Lake Michigan Model Car Club out of surburban Chicago, Lee was perhaps one of the very first model car builders to have his work featured in what has become one of the World's premiere car museums, the A-C-D Museum in Auburn IN. My travels with Lee to Classic Car shows in the midwest were fabulous! Trips to the Gilmore Museum near Kalamazoo, Meadow Brook Hall Concours in Auburn Hills MI, to the Behring Museum at Blackhawk Centre in Danville CA, the Towe Ford Museum in Sacramento, those are treasured memories, as Lee would explain to me the differences between this car and that, anecdotes about the coachbuilders, and at the Early Ford V8 Club National Convention in 1998, just seeing his eyes light up at seeing some V8 Ford he may only have read about, but never seen in person--then sharing with me stuff about that car that I never knew before. Lee was one of my mentors for sure. In addition, his life was also one of devotion to his lovely wife, and to his two children, and all his grandchildren, both his and his stepchildren's kids--to him, it didn't matter, they were his grandkids too. I always knew that Lee would leave this world before me, he was 18 years older than me--I just never figured it would come this soon. I last talked with him about a month ago, and I sensed that things were not at all well, so in a way, without saying so in words, I just knew that his time was near. So, Lee--you have triumphed, and surely the Lord has a really great workshop ready for you, with all the tools, all the toys, and oh, over on the wall there's an eternity of Duesenberg, Packard, Mercedes, Bugatti, Cadillac V16's and a gaggle of V8 Ford kits, all ready for your masterful hand, and thanks for all the model car fun we had! Godspeed, Lee--until we meet again! Arthur Anderson

Not everyone thinks in scale however. That, it seems, doesn't really come until a builder gets into serious conversions of kits into other body styles, where it becomes vitally important for accuracy. Check me if I'm wrong, but most who build customs and rods are pretty much into "eyeball" engineering, where it's the "look" that is important, rather than exact scale accuracy. Even in model railroading, perhaps itself the most passionate about having things down to the scale inch, I submit that most who work with HO trains don't even posess a scale ruler--from my years of time behind the counter in hobby shops, scale rulers weren't something we ever sold very many of. They go with what works--are the wheels in gauge, the track in gauge, do the couplers couple, does the locomotive run as advertized, seems to be the general rule there. For someone such as myself, having done as many replica stock conversions as I have, yes, thinking in terms of scale inches, even fractions of a scale inch, is the norm--I had to get to that point. But for most car modelers, probably not. Art

Rob, Nascar was very much into the horsepower race of the 50's, and did allow things like fuel injection engines, AND supercharged ones as well (the '57 Ford supercharged V8 was aimed squarely at the Black Widow, in fact, did very well against Chevies all season long. However, Fuel Injection and supercharging were banned in I believe, April of 1957. As for fuel injected passenger car engines, those were available in any passenger car body style back then. Art

Apparently, at least one SEDCO-built Black Widow does exist today, was a huge hit at shows and concours events in the early 90's, was featured in several magazines, including Muscle Car Review and Cars & Parts, with lots of detail pics. Ostensibly, the restorer(s) were able to trace many of the modifications back to SEDCO practice, based as well on recollections by people where there, around Nascar in those days. Art

One thing that does appear to be missing though, is the large upholstered "roll" (actually a trapezoidal cross section) section that was used on the right side of the driver's seat area, to support the driver's hips in the constant left turns of both dirt, and the early superspeedways. Easily made though. Also, to be correct, although not easily seen, there was a short rollover bar installed underneath the dashboard, with two simple upright tubes, bent at right angle going across the underside of the top surface of the dash. One can, however, see this rollover bar in pics of the real car. Also, to be prototypically correct, the undersides of the A-arms, top and bottom, were boxed in with sheet steel, to give extra rigidity to those parts. I'm also waiting to see if the kit has a correct 20-gallon gas tank, which would have extended into the space allotted to the spare tire well on the underside. And of course, there were steel gussets welded at all corners, where cross members joined the side frame rails. From SEDCO, the transmissions were the optional pickup truck 4spds as well. Art

I think the primary users to this point have been restorers in the old car hobby. Lotsa plastic trim items on cars of the 70's and later. Art

I saw, and had a bit of a hand in, the AMT Super Boss/Bandag Bandit kit as it got started. I was at AMT Corporation the Monday before Labor Day in 1977, to deliver a bunch of builtups for box art and other purposes, when Tyrone Malone pulled up, and unloaded SB from Papa Truck, and proceeded to demonstrate the rig in AMT's employee parking lot, and out on Maple Road. I came home with a deal to scratch up a Super Boss, for the 1978 HIAA Trade Show display--talk about a task back in the days before Evergreen was available everywhere! Building that rear bodywork was indeed a challenge, as was cutting and stretching two 8V71's to get the V12, then making up the turbocharging setup, and that exhaust system. It sure was fun laying out all the red and blue graphics on the white finish, as AMT hadn't started on decal artwork yet. Even more fun was listening to Malone's describing his first "claim to fame", a "frozen" sperm whale, "Willie, the Freeze-Dried Whale", that he toured around to shopping center openings all over the country for several years, housed in a 40' semi trailer. BTW, Super Boss was simply thunderously LOUD at full throttle, and the black exhaust? Awesome. Art

While of course, there can be contact allergies with resin, even some people are affected by the fumes given off by the liquid polyurethane components, as a general rule, polyurethane resin isn't at all harmful once cured. The basic resins are used in the auto industry, almost universally, for soft bumper covers, and the stuff is available in every paint store in the land, as urethane varnish. As for "resin dust", I really have a problem with all the hoo-hah over this issue! For starters, sanding a resin body dry will do one thing for sure, clog up your sandpaper very quickly indeed, so why sand it dry, when wet sanding is what we almost always do with putties or styrene? Resin sanding residue mixed with water doesn't float in the air, it gets rinsed down the drain at my place. When I have used my Dremels with resin castings, I found, with great interest, that the residue removed dropped pretty straightaway to the floor, rather than floating in mid-air--but then I use carbide cutters in my Dremels almost exclusively, their sanding drums just have no place at my workbench. Over my years of resin casting, I used literally several thousand gallons of polyurethane resin, wore PPE (in my case, first latex exam gloves, then changed to nitrile gloves) and that was to keep resin from curing on my fingers, which had the effect of armor-plating the skin, to the point that it would split and crack painfully--lesson that was learned VERY quickly. I always used more than ample ventilation--the shop venue I had had nearly 10,000 cubic feet of air in it, and I simply kept the HVAC blower on at all times, winter and summer, which system brought in approximately 10% fresh air constantly. Perhaps the biggest, and least recognized hazard with polyurethane resin is its flammability. The stuff is extemely flammable, in both liquid, and cured states, particularly with the thin scrap, or flash, and with the residue from cutting or sawing. I tested some of this once, and was amazed at how fast the stuff does burn, and how hard it is to put out, so I was very careful to keep all the scrap swept up, and out to the dumpster. As for hazards if the cured resin is ingested, the stuff is virtually inert to all but petroleum solvents, not water soluble at all--in fact the MSDS for the stuff I used made no mention of any ingestion hazard for cured product, only the liquid resin and hardener. I hope this lays to rest a few of the urban legends out there about urethane resin, and points out ways to minimize any mess or hazards that do result. Art

All soft tires in American made or branded model car kits are PVC, having a softening agent in it, to give the softness we all like. However, it's the PVC and the plasticizer that react with say, Testors enamels, preventing this paint from fully drying on the tire. Solution? Any of the water-borne acrylic paints work just fine, dry and adhere very well. Lacquers (even model airplane dope) will dry quickly, but will peel and flake off at the slightest provocation. Art

The setups that Caswell sells aren't new at all. The same basic system was sold by JC Whitney/Warshawsky's in Chicago at least 50 years ago, listed prominently in their catalogs. As for chrome (or other plating) on plastics, well the automakers have been doing that for decades now--most window crank knobs, dash knobs that were chrome from the late 60's forward are plastic (probably ABS), coated with an conductive paint, then electroplated. High end diecast model cars from China have their bumpers and other significant trim electroplated with chromium over copper, on ABS parts as well. So, in principle, the process is very workable indeed. However, one simply must look at the instructions, read the warnings, for the electolyte solutions used are extremely toxic, and must be used in a well-ventilated area, as they can give off cyanide gas--which can be fatal if inhaled. Also, disposal of used electrolyte should be done at your local recycling center, or wherever they accept Hazardous Materials--never just flush it down the toilet. That all said, there is a model pictured prominently in the last issue of MCM, of a custom tractor trailer with home-plated chromium trim that is simply awesome. Caswell does sell chromium, as well as that cobalt solution, also silver, gold and copper. Lots of possibilities there, I think. Also, the stuff is in the Eastwood catalogs. Art

Electro plating is the term for using electricity to transfer the plating metal to the surface being plated, in an acid bath. Doesn't matter if the parts are immersed in the plating solution, or if it's done by means of a brush, and the electric current being passed from the brush to the part, the process is the same. Art

I believe that armrests were optional on commercial cars, such as the sedan delivery and utility sedan. Bear in mind that these were "bare bones" cars, aimed at fleet purchase, for light delivery/service or sales calling. Art

In the 6th grade (1955-56 school year), I read, in my "reading book" (as if those were the only books we had to read in school?), which I still have someplace here (ahh, the days before textbook rentals) a fascinating short story "The Affair Of The Wayward Jeep" by the legendary cartoonist, Bill Mauldin (Saturday Evening Post, June 27, 1953). Mauldin set the story in Korea, about a mechanic in a US Army Motor Pool, a General who wished his Jeep would just run, and a wrecked staff car (presumably a flathead V8 Ford). Unbeknownst to the General or his driver, the mechanic jerked the 4 out of the General's Jeep, swapped in the V8, got it all buttoned up just in time for the CO to take an inspection tour of the front. The General's driver noticed nothing out of the ordinary throughout the day, but when they came under enemy mortar fire, he stabbed the gas, and that Jeep "got the h*ll out of Dodge, right now! At 11, I thought the story was cool, it was all I could do to keep from busting out laughing when I had to stand up, give a review of the story in class (Not sure how Mrs. Holder would have taken that!). A couple of years later, I got a letter from my older brother (8yrs older than me) who was serving in France toward the end of French membership in NATO. He was assigned to the US Army Transportation Corps depot and motor pool in Thionville, France, just across a river from the fortress city of Verdun. In that letter, he described driving an old Jeep from there to Paris (dunno how far that was), and that with it's tired engine, and a governor, the most he could coax out of it was about 45mph. And, one of these days, I am gonna get inspired to build up either the Italeri 1/24 scale MB, or Hasegawa's 24rh scale one, just so I can do a car from my birth year (the decal sheet in the Hasegawa sheet gives a serial number for an MB built and accepted by the Army in July 1944). Art

2010 Camaro! Art

James, I did as much research as the existing books, and internet pictures can allow, and it wasn't uncommon for early CJ's like mine, to have wheels that were a different color than the body, from the factory. Art

James, I did as much research as the existing books, and internet pictures can allow, and it wasn't uncommon for early CJ's like mine, to have wheels that were a different color than the body, from the factory. Art

James, I did as much research as the existing books, and internet pictures can allow, and it wasn't uncommon for early CJ's like mine, to have wheels that were a different color than the body, from the factory. Art