Art Anderson

On another note, I managed to ruin the wood dashboard--drilled a locating hole in the wrong place--can't be hidden with anything, so new one is in the works.

Test fitted into the car. It still needs to be trimmed at the axle, but that's no big problem!

Next, a rough start:

A problem I encountered with the T is the fragility of the front tie rods--both sides broke with almost no prompting from me--most likely due to temperature control in the molding process--weak spot where the molten styrene had to flow together in the middle of each side. So, what to do? I decided to make my own set from 1/32" K&S Brass rod stock, so the first thing was to build a jig, using my unbuilt second kit as a resource:

Ditto on that! I built mine that way as well, over 30 years ago. Art

Isn't "Spyder" more correctly a term for what we in the US called a roadster? The most common term decades ago, in Europe, for a convertible (as in folding top with roll up side glass) was Cabriolet. Art

Of course, one can also consider that in 1967, such amenities as heaters were OPTIONS, not standard equipment! Art

With automobiles, you are pretty much correct! Alfa Romeo was creating Spyders over 80 yrs ago. Art

I would submit that "technology" does make it far quicker for say, Ford or GM, to bring a newly designed car to production--but then, they are dealing in 1:1 scale. When creating a model, the problems of miniaturization simply have to come into play. What looks so great in real life can be far more difficult to make look great when reduced to 1/25 scale, for reasons I and others have enumerated many times over these past several years now. It ain't simply a matter of a shrink ray operation. Art

The answer is, obviously back in the heyday of promotional model cars the likes of JoHan, AMT, PMC, and MPC all got advance information, as much as a year in advance--given the expectation that promotional models would be available at car dealerships within a few weeks of new car introduction. Those model cars (as were virtually all model kits until the last 10-15 years) were created from hand-carved tooling mockups (tooling patterns). And, that old-fashioned way of creating solely by the human hand such things as accurate body shells (and BTW, there are inaccuracies in a great many of those, certainly in dimensions, if you really get into it--the "science" was there, but the "art" was something that had to develop!). And, lose an experienced pattern maker/sculptor, and the learning process often had to begin all over again! In addition, as surely you know, those annual model car kits of 50-55 years ago were incredibly simple affairs--not all that many more parts in them than a 1/64 scale diecast miniature such as I developed at Johnny Lightning. The custom and "racing" optional parts made up the rest of the parts count. Where today, the expectation is that a model car kit has a fully detailed chassis, made up from perhaps a couple of dozen intricate parts--in the 60's, most kids were far happier with a one-piece "pan chassis" with engraved, raised detail, an engine were perhaps 8-10 parts, and virtually nothing resembling a real engine bay. In addition, where we've come to demand "platform style" interiors having upwards of sometimes 10-12 very accurately done pieces, that JoHan kit you mention had just three or four (a tub, perhaps a separate front seat, an instrument panel, a steering wheel with possibly a separate piece denoting gear selector and turnsignal lever). Window glass used to be one single piece, which sorta assembled inside the roof--today, the expectation is separate glass parts--my '50 Olds kit came with a windshield, back window, separate vent wings and separate quarter window glass). Even the '50 Olds engine has far more parts than any AMT 3in1 engine of the early-mid 1960's. On and on this can go, of course--but the the bottom line remains--it takes a heck of a lot more work to develop an acceptable model car kit (acceptable to the market which is today those kids of yesteryear all grown up!) than it did in say, 1965. Add to the equation please, that product development staffs today at model companies (at least here in the US) are FAR smaller than the staffs used back then to create new model kits. Fewer people means longer lead times--if only the dollar volume were there today to allow for multi-person departments, huh? Art

Well, considering that "Spyder" is very much a generic word as opposed to a marque of automobile, it's a word used to describe all manner of vehicles by their respective manufacturers. It's even used as a corporate name as well. Art

A couple of observations here: First, "trade shows" in the hobby industry have been fading for several decades now--40-50 years ago, THE event was the Hobby Industry Association show in Chicago every day--that show wasn't mega-sized by modern standards (but then neither were exhibition halls either). In the years before the internet, hobby dealers traveled, often a couple of thousand miles to see what was new for the coming year (HIAA shows traditionally opened the 3rd Sunday every January). Those HIA trade shows, at the old Sherman House Hotel in Chicago's Loop were a mob scene, several thousand spectators, most all of them hobby dealers and their staffs. By the 1980's, that had all changed, regardless of "for better or worse". Even the follow-on Radio Control Hobby Association (RCHTA) shows were fairly minor compared to their earlier counterparts--where HIAA shows brought in hobby dealers from all over the US, RCHTA attendance was, at best, regional. iHobby tended to be even smaller. In short, why set up a booth at a show, to see only perhaps a few hundred spectators, with only a percentage of those being hobby retailers? As surely has to be obvious by now, it's become very difficult to set a release date for a new model kit out say, 6 - 12 months--there are just too many variables that can, and it seems, generally do, get in the way of that. The logistics alone can be a real obstacle with that. With a kit of a new car or pickup (or for that matter, a subject that was done in real life by the use of CAD, the design process of a model kit can be a lot easier, done more quickly. But, as has always been the case, a new model kit of a vehicle that was created the old-fashioned way, by draftsmen at drawing boards, takes a lot more time to bring to fruition--the research and reference work can take months, if not years, to gather, and far longer to translate to usable CAD files required for modern-day kit tooling. Add to this the far more sophisticated and knowledgeable model builder of today--grown men with far more critical eyes than any of us were as 10- say 16yr olds back in the day. All factors that make truly accurate release schedules seemingly impossible to set. Art

That probably can be chalked up to a Revell miscue from almost 60 years ago--IIRC, that kit came out in 1956-57. I believe the door lines on the upper half of the body are the correct omes. Art

More like whistle for crossroads? (Or, just for the h*ll of it!)

If it's the Revell Lincoln Futura you're talking about, I suspect that the door lines have to be fairly far foward, due to the "thickness" of the body sides. You might spend some time looking up pics of the 1966 TV Batmobile--that was built using the real Lincoln Futura body. Art

I second this one! I've been doing this very thing since the first gap-filling CA glues came out in the mid-1980's, almost simultaneously with accelerators. Quick and easy to do, and no, CA glue does not shrink! Art

Yeah, after I saw pics of a real brass one, and listened to the Youtube Video of one on a Model A Phaeton at speed, I just HAD to build it! Art

Uh, in WW-II, the Germans were making gasoline out of coal. Art

About the only Vee engines that didn't have their cylinders and heads staggered at least a little bit were those very early V8's which used a rather strange "fork and blade" connecting rod setup. With that style of connecting rod, the rod on one side of each crank throw journal was shaped very much like a right-angled "fork" with bearings in each leg of that fork. The opposite rod big end looked very much like any modern V8 connecting rod, it's big end going in between the two legs of the forked rod. That worked for those relatively low-hp per cubic inch engines of 90-100 yrs ago, but was replaced pretty much by at least 1930 by the more modern (and better) side-by-side placement of connecting rods two to the crank throw, just like is seen today. Art

I've done my share of showroom stock model car body conversions, and learned to use Evergreen strip styrene well before there was any rod stock, half round or quarter round. For simple, straight moldings (even drain moldings), I learned that using styrene strip that was the width of the molding is pretty easy, most small dimensions of Evergreen can be bent to round corners as need be, IF I used a size that was at least 2X wider than the thickness I wanted--bent it on the widest side, and glued in place with a good fast-drying liquid cement. Once the glue was dry (overnight), I could gently sand the new molding stock down to its proper height with 400-grit, then carefully round off the edges as needed by using a piece of 400-grit that was well-worn so it would curve/roll easily against itself (grit to the inside), and get that little roll underneath my fingernail (but not protruding much at all beyond. With that setup, I could round off the "rectangular" shape to round, even oval as the case might be. My biggest problem with half round is that it tends to appear a bit shallow for many moldings, such as around windshield & back glass, certainly for drain moldings which do stand out more visibly on a car body. Art

Starting final assembly. Wheels and tires are on, engine and exhaust system are in (still trying to finesse getting a fuel line installed!): Won't take much longer now. Art

Kits VERY soon now! Art

Now, that material is starting to look very interesting indeed!

A couple more subassemblies ready for final assembly of the T: The wooden dashboard is now ready to install, and I decided I simply had to make an Aeromore Exhaust Whistle for it, even though I'm not at all sure that Aeromore was around in 1913 but what the hey?

That basecoat today is a fairly fast-drying non-penetrating lacquer, which is used to give a very high gloss to the parts, before the plating (actually vaporized aluminum which is done in a vacuum tank drawn down to 29" of mercury--the most complete vacuum that is mechanically possible). Immediately after removal from the vacuum tank, the parts trees are then sprayed with another thin coating of clear non-penetrating lacquer, to protect that micro-thin layer of aluminum from exposure to the surrounding air (which would oxidize it very quickly). I've always used lye in (chemical name "sodium hydroxide") to remove chrome from model car parts (going all the way back into the 1960's!), and that has done the job for me almost always, but sometimes (particularly with kits made overseas) the basecoat can be stubborn. Easy Off with the yellow cap contains lye as its active ingredient, but it's not all that strongly concentrated. To get the strongest lye solution, I highly recommend Lewis Red Devil Lye, which is an old standby household chemical, and can be found in the cleaning supplies section of most any supermarket, even the various Big Box stores. Lewis Lye comes in crystal form, to be added to water--NEVER, EVER add water to the lye crystals, as that can cause a serious reaction, giving off strong caustic lye fumes, even bubbling up and splashing! ALWAYS add lye crystals to water, by the teaspoonful--the more lye you add to water, the stronger, and more caustic it will be. When adding lye crystals to water, take the time to stir the solution to ensure that the crystals don't lump together, as this will take quite a while to dissolve, so take your time here. Wam (BUT NEvER HOT!) water will speed the disolution of the lye crystals. It's also VERY important to wear protective gear when working with lye--those Nitrile examination gloves sold in just about every drugstore around will protect your hands, and by all means wear adequate eye protection, as lye will cause irreversible damage (burns) if you splash it in your eyes!. I cannot emphasize this enough! Put your parts in the lye solution, and let them soak--you will probably see the aluminum plating vanish very quickly, but it can take a few hours for it to soften the clear base coating on the plastic parts--but only a couple of times has it ever failed to do that for me. If need be, get some 91% isopropyl alcohol at your local Walgreens or CVS--that will not damage styrene plastic whatsoever, but it will remove even stubborn lacquer in my experience. When you think the base coat has softened sufficiently, place the stripped parts in clean, clear water and use an old toothbrush to gently scrub them--you should see clean styrene parts with that. Lye can be poured down the drain (it's the active ingredient in Drano, for example!). Lewis Lye is the least expensive paint stripper out there--lye also being known as "caustic soda" has been used by furniture and automobile restorers for decades. Art