Art Anderson

Yes, it is a Rupp Roadster. Art

Back in the day, a lot of mold cavities for model car kit tooling were cut from smaller blocks of tool steel, with a slight press fit into the mold base. Often times, those got removed, replaced by a different block for different parts, or were eliminated entirely, particularly in the 1970's, when there was a real concern about petroleum shortages that would possibly have not only run up the cost of polystyrene, but perhaps even meant some shortages there. That concern was real enough, that on one of my many trips to AMT Corporation back in the mid 70's, I was shown a semi-truck load of unused polystyrene window shutter trim from a mobile home factory, that AMT would grind up into pellets for their injection molders, I was even asked for my opinion on a possible styrene recycling program AMT was considering, which would have meant corrugated cardboard bins in hobby shops, for customers to bring in, deposit their empty model kit sprues (but that idea of course, went nowhere fast!). Even so, with any model car kit tooling as old as the Monogram '40 Ford (even many AMT kits as well), when and if those smaller tooling block inserts got removed and replaced with something else, while they perhaps weren't all scrapped, they probably are in some heavy crate someplace, Lord only knows where, and in what crate. Art

And, for anyone wishing to weather this engine a bit: The 7X cylinder head was cast aluminum, and the red engine enamel didn't stick all that well to it--in fact, it flaked and peeled off rather quickly back in the day. Art

I did that stock transkit in resin, back about 1995 or so. Frankly, it didn't sell all that well--perhaps I was just a bit early on it--who knows? Art

Already got 'em, along with the 1911 T Touring from ICM (THAT one had better not tie me up for six months though! Art

With some fading of the Red Cherry stain.

Fresh Pyroxyline impregnated canvas is somewhat of a semi-gloss finish, Harry. Art Fat fingers! Art

That was the era of the so-called "Red Board" Model T--the dashboard was wooden, veneered with cherry, then stained for a red cherry color. I did the dash on this model from Midwest Products 1/32" birch aircraft plywood, milled on the edges to capture Evergreen half-round styrene, and grooves milled to locate the hood "former" which is that frame at the rear of the hood. I stained the birch with Minwax Maple Stain, then reddened that with a crimson artist's marker (permanent ink), and after foiling the moldings around the edges, finished it off with a coat of Tamiya X-26 Clear Yellow, which turned the BMF into polished brass, and gave the rich look of old-fashioned spar (marine) varnish. Art

ICM 1/24 Scale '13 Model T

Without further ado, pics:

Super Glue (AKA CA Glue) joints break fairly easily, you can remove this assembly, straight out the generator. It should fit then, as Ford built several million flathead V8's with the generator mounted up there, in between the upper radiator hoses. Art

That nearly happened to me about 35 yrs ago! Only thing was, the burglars, while they got into my breezeway, failed to notice 65lbs of very protective German Shepherd who objected vociferously to their intrusion. They bolted out that storm door, but Suzie wasn't finished--she dove right through the glass pane (fortunately with not even a scratch) and relieved one of the creeps of the back side of his pants! All that happened within mere feet of my model car workshop of the time. Needless to say, when we got home, Suzie got a pretty nice reward, not to mention a lot of petting and hugging! Art

To carry this a bit further: An RTV rubber mold only captures the shapes and details of an existing part, "exisiting part" being the operative term here. It can reproduce that part exactly, but it cannot make the part if no original part exists. Think of it along the lines of a camera: A camera takes a picture of something it sees--if there is nothing out there in front of it, it cannot create something "from whole cloth". As for whether a mold for casting in resin should be a one-piece or two-piece affair, virtually always a resin reproduction of a model kit part done in a simple one piece mold will not match the original exactly, as all injection molded model car parts have two sides to them, both from a two-piece steel mold. A lack of a properly reproduced side of a resin part will make that part harder to make work with when assembling on or into the rest of the model kit. Making a two part mold for resin casting does take a bit more time, but the results are well worth it. In fact, any resin-caster out there in the "aftermarket" worth his salt does parts in 2-piece molds, for this very reason. Art

There's a big difference in building a tube frame in 1/8 scale as opposed to a rail frame, which is what most all 1/8 scale car kits have. This is further complicated when said tube frame is being scratchbuilt from styrene stock, Harry. Raw styrene, such as say, Evergreen, while chemically the same as the styrene used in injection-molded plastic kits, is "softer" feeling, far more flexible than the same material injected into a steel mold under 10's of tons of pressure. In a model project of a car having a tubular frame, often the body shell will impart little, if any, stiffness to the chassis, unlike those large scale models you build. The lack of such rigidity in a scratchbuilt plastic tube frame can mean sagging, even warping over time due to the weight of say, the engine (hmm, that sounds almost like real life), even wheels and tires, which you surely would agree are the heaviest single components of most 1/8 scale models. All that said, brass tubing is easily worked with, indeed any shape brass stock. True, it takes different tools to cut, and requires different tools and techniques for bending, but it's still a great scratchbuilding medium. Even bonding brass together with solder is a simple process, and soldering pieces together with the easily available low temperature silver solder is very easily done (easy to learn too!), and results in joints far stronger than any plastic glued together. Last, it truly takes no more time scratch build in brass than it does in styrene, in fact considerably less, as once a solder joint cools to solidify it's ready to handle, a process that takes only a minute or so, as opposed to waiting at least overnight for any glue joint to dry on styrene. Art

Interior is finished, the windshield installed. The windshield is perhaps the scariest part of this project, given the very thin framing, which I had to strip the brass plating off of, then SCRAPE carefully, all the basecoating from (Dunno what ICM uses for base coating under plating, but it was impervious even to 91% Isopropyl alcohol!). As I painted the windshield frame black, which is correct for 1913, that meant using CA glue to attach the glass, which was something I took a lot of time "psyching" myself up to doing--one miscue there, the glass would be ruined. What was unavoidable though, was the sprue attachment points on the glass itself--those intruded into the "stepped" edges of both panes, which resulted in the whitish spots you see in the pic. I choose to describe those as a hit from a stone kicked up from a car in front, which hit the framing, resulting in a mark on both panes (that's my story and I'm sticking with it, so there!) The interior shot shows the wooden coil box I built, using the same 1/32" birch aircraft plywood I used to make the dashboard, and it worked. I simply whittled out the magneto control box on that from some thick styrene, added the two knobs with bits of brass rod stock. To the right of the coil box is the choke rod, which also could be turned to adjust the fuel mixture--made from the simplest bit of material I had--one of those ball-headed straight pins from a new shirt! If you squint down, you can see the foot pedals, which are actually fixed to the transmission housing, and extend up through slots in the floorboard, just as on the real thing. Art

Removing that bracing should present no problems to the exterior at all--on this kit, the windshield and back light glass assemble from the OUTSIDE of the body, which will give a much more nearly "flush" appearance, more realistic than the old-fashioned method of fitting such glass in from the interior. Art

They are out now! Art

Got an email from Spotlight Hobbies that they've just shipped my MK '69 4X4 F100's--now how do I get any sleep? Art

John Mueller's extensive photographic references had a well marked carpenter's rule laid up against whatever part of the car was being photographed. Those measurements were used in instructing the pattern makers as to all dimensions. By contrast, AMT Corporation's draftsmen more than likely were having to interpret from photo's of styling clay mockups, perhaps pictures of preproduction cars, as was pretty much the case with those "Annual Series" new car models and the promotional models that preceded the 3in1 model kit production, as promo's were expected to be in dealer showrooms either at, or close soon after "new car introduction time". Art

FWIW, American Bantam merely ressurected the American Austin, in all body styles--then simply facelifted those with new fenders, hoods, grilles, and in the case of the roadster, a newly styled windshield. Revell's Bantam roadster body, other than appearing to be a bit too wide (at least in my quick perusals) is the same body shell that would have been found on an American Austin roadster. Art

This kit (both HT and Cvt) were created off reference work done by the legendary John Mueller (who was AMT's principal kit designer/researcher for years--and now does that on a freelance basis for the two US model car kit companies, along with a couple of diecast outfits). For starters, don't compare this one with the old Monogram kit--that one is too wide, and far too square and angular. Real '64 GTO's do have a pronounced downward slope of both the hood/front fender tops and in the rear deck! "Beauty Shots" of these cars as found on the Internet may not show that as much--but then those pictures are shot for appearance, not model kit reference! Dave Metzner, now the product development guy for Moebius Models, was the man behind almost all Polar Lights kits. I worked just down the hallway from him at Playing Mantis (Tom Lowe's first company) doing Johnny Lightning product development, and got pulled into some of the development of the PL GTO kits. From where I sit, those are still the best and most accurately done '64 GTO kits out there. Art

Which sort of makes my point, about GSL vs say, NNL East. At NNL-East, you have the single largest one day model car show on the planet--over 2,000 modelers show up, all the magazines are there, as well as more aftermarket vendors than would fit in all the space normally devoted to GSL--and on a time frame basis, for say, new kit announcements--NNL East now is within just a week or two of any GSL date. It's simply called, from the point of view of both the aftermarket, and kit manufacturers--getting a lot more bang (exposure) for the buck! Art

Traveling to a show of course, does take time away from the "office", and there is also the expense involved. Generally, a show such as GSL is not a huge crowd, as far as huge crowds go. Most of the Mfr's have been at say, NNL-East, NNL Nationals, along with some other model car events which are much closer at hand to them, Considering that Moebius' product development, Revell Monogram, and Round2 are all located in the Indiana/Illinois area, that makes a big difference as well. This isn't to denigrate GSL, just the logistics and some concept as to the cost-effectiveness of mfr's exhibits at what is, for nearly every model company, a rather remote location. Art

Don't we sometimes confuse "talent" with "skills"? I wonder about that. It seems to me that often we confuse the two, for it seems to me that talent is something most humans are gifted with, in all manner of areas, while skills are certainly something which can be learned, and generally are. In short, I think it's "skill" that is necessary to translate one's talent into something either visual, or audio in order for whatever creative project to be experienced by others. This is what I meant, above, with my short comment about "What the mind of man can conceive, man can achieve". Most all of us can conceive, at least in our mind's eye, how we would like a certain model car project to look, but it takes work to make that happen--and that's where the work, the skills necessarily come into play. Along with that, I do believe it takes at least some courage though: Think about that for a moment if you will: Not very many of us like the idea of starting on a model project, only to have it fail at some point--of course not. So, it takes at least a mind-set to risk those failures, and developed skills to both avoid such disappointments, and further, to correct a mistake, a "failure" if you will, and overcome the disappointment that can be a part of this or any other creative hobby or pursuit. This is particularly true if such miscues, the "blind alleys" which can happen with any model car project, happen at all publicly--which is why (or so it seems to me) that a huge proportion of scale modeling projects, cars included, seem to happen in private, almost never shown to anyone (consider that in any venue where model car kits are sold--there likely are far more model builders who walk that same aisle in a hobby shop or online, whom none of us seem to ever see, let alone see their finished projects. To carry this further, consider that even in today's smaller market for any new model car kit, it still takes a minimum of a couple hundred thousand units for any new kit to be financially successful--can you imagine even seeing HALF of the sales volume of any model car kit at say, an NNL? There's not a venue around, nor the volunteer staff to even run a show that big. I chalk this one up to the "courage" factor, if you will, the willingness of perhaps a majority of model car kit buyers to "risk" showing off their work, lest they be found "wanting" in the talent or skills part of things. To sum up, I see "talent" as something we all have, in some area of endeavor, a latent ability; "skills" as something which generally are learned either by rote, or by being taught (most all of us have achieved a blend of both BTW)--put in the blender of our minds, and mixed with a generous seasoning of "courage"--the willingness to risk that a model project may well fail, to an extent anywhere from minor flaws to a total disaster. Art

Don, the Binks Wren was my first airbrush, WAY back in early January 1962. However, it's not easy to come by replacement parts for it, unlike the Paasche H, or even the Badger 350--both of which have far wider distribution, and are the same basic external mix airbrushes, from my long experience. Art