Art Anderson

Never done in 1/25, nor by any US model manufacturer. However, Gunze-Sangyo did it in 1/24 scale (just 4-percent larger than 1/25 scale) in a very nicely done curbside kit--in several variants as well. Art

...or for that matter, any of the Bandai/Minicraft '14 T's (Harry, you listening?). It's an exact replica of the 1910 Ford 999-II that was built for entry at Indianapolis, for the inaugural 500 Mile Race in 1911. However, Speedway officials and the AAA Contest Board deemed it too small, too light (!), so it wasn't allowed to compete. However, it was a pretty fast car, registered a top speed of nearly 110mph. I spotted the car at the Gilmore Classic Car Museum at Hickory Corners MI about 10 years ago, couldn't resist taking pics of it. Art

It seems to me that a good place to start would be to scope out some real engine stands. If you study the real thing, you'll notice that they aren't particularly complicated--and can be built from commonly available plastic (Evergreen or Plastruct styrene) or brass (K&S). Art

Looking good! Gonna be starting the installation of brake rigging tomorrow. I dug out some Grandt Line HO Scale freight car "queen posts" (the posts used under wooden-framed RR cars a century and more ago, to support the underbody truss rods). Those have ends on them that comes as close as anything to looking at least somewhat like brake actuating arms (even though they are clevised on the post, not on the brake rod ends--but as small as they are, the "effect" will still be there/ Art

In my 12 years of resin casting, I found that the best surface prep chemical for resin parts was also the cheapest--worked every time I used it (and I cast, cleaned and prepped several hundred thousand parts for "chrome" plating: Naptha, which is also known as "mineral spirits", which is one of the oldest thinners known to man for thinning enamels. Worked every time I tried it, and I still use it. Art

And, the active ingredient in Easy-Off is a very common chemical: "Sodium Hydroxide", which I have to believe is available in just about every developed country on the planet. It's the Sodium Hydroxide that strips "chrome" off of plastic, along with the clear coats used before and after vacuum plating, as that plating is nothing more than a micro-thin layer of aluminum, which sodium hydroxide dissolves in an instant. Art

Eric, NEAT! Ya know what would really be good to have? Chassis pics--which are hard to find online, and the ones that do exist there tend to be of later years, may be incomplete "snap shots" rather than being really useful for referencing a model. Art

Yes, but a couple of things: If it's as precisely molded as the Opel, assembly of these multi-piece assemblies will be a breeze, and second, the top is, in my opinion, far better done in multiple parts than as a one-piece unit--same the the multipiece upholstery. I don't consider any of this to be any impediment. Art

Eric, I too don't much care for the FORD script on the radiator core--I don't believe that was a stock item in 1913, more likely (I think) indicative of the brass script a lot of restorers affix there. As for tire color--early automobile tires (even bicycle tires) were made from natural latex rubber, without any carbon black added to the rubber--that additive was just coming in by late 1913 or so. As such, the tires (if replicating new tires on a new car from this particular year) would have been a light buff color (if you remember the buff-colored sidewalls that used to be part of 26-27" lightweight bicycle tires in the 70's--that was natural, unpigmented natural latex rubber). The "center" frame support you mention is not at all a part of the frame--it is the cross-shaft for the hand brake lever, which actuated the parking brakes in drums on each rear wheel, and was completely movable. If you cannot find any pics of how that operated, Google for Model A Fords, the Model A footbrake system used the very same type of cross-shaft, which was mounted to a Model A Frame in the very same manner as the cross-shaft on Model T's. At the outer ends of this Model T cross-shaft, there is an arm, pointing upward, about 4" long, to which a brake pull-rod attached by means of a clevis end. At each brake drum, Just inside the "collar" at the end of each radius rod, there was another actuating arm which captured the rear end of each brake pull rod. On the underside of the floorboard (and this is a detail that ICM also missed) there was a semi-circular ratched assembly which looks just like have a spur gear, with a pawl that was connected to the catch-release handle at the top of the brake lever. The brake lever itself extends downward, and is connected to the cross-shaft in much the same manner as the brake pull rods. (I'll be adding this bit of detail to mine as well. On the right side of the underneath of the floorboard, directly below the front seat, there should be a fuel sediment bulb/water trap, with a little petcock at the bottom of it, and at the top, pointing to the front, a coupling for the fuel line which goes to the carburetor. Also missing is the "timer", which is a rudimentary type of distributor. This is mounted in the raised circular area of the front cover of the engine, I've added it to my engine already, will post up a pic of it on Saturday, when I have more time. Art

Even a CO2 tank, if knocked over and the regulator broken off of it makes for a pretty deadly rocket/torpedo! At a McDonald's where I was a manager 35 yrs ago, there was a large patch in the reinforced concrete basement wall, where a CO2 bottle (50lb size) fell over, lost it's regulator, and proceeded to punch itself right through the wall. Solution? If using CO2 or any other highly compressed gas, CHAIN the bottle securely in an upright position, so that it cannot fall over. Art

Cadillac actually offered a "commercial chassis" for years aimed at ambulance and hearse builders, before the rise of commercially built "stretched limousines". Ecto-1 (and -1a) started out as Miller Meteor Limousine Ambulances, M-M using 1959 Cadillac commercial chassis, standard Cadillac firewalls and front end sheet metal, and Cadillac provided 4dr sedan front doors. The firewall/windshield frame assemblies were, I believe, made by Fisher Body Division for the low-production, but prestigious Cadillac Series 75 Sedan Limousine, as more than likely were the front doors. M-M, as with other professional car builders, had to create their own rear side doors, roofs, extended floor pans back door, and perform such modifications to the otherwise standard Cadillac rear quarter panels. In the case of the '59 Cadillac "Hourglass" frame, the stretch done by GM for commercial use would have been done in the center "box", the front and rear ends being left standard. This can be done, I am pretty sure, by using two Revell-Monogram '59 Cadillac chassis. I seem to recall a lot of discussion in that other magazine when both the Ecto and Eldorado kits were first on the shelves, and guys discovered that some of the front end trim from the Monogram kit would fit pretty easily into the Ecto body, if one wants to get rid of the strobe lights in the Ecto grille. The AMT Ecto-1a kit comes with a step bumper in the rear, but if you want a more stock looking rear bumper, the Polar Lights Ecto-1 has that, and it's a clean fit into the AMT body. Art

There are two common types of compressors for airbrushes, "piston" and "diaphragm". A diaphragm compressor uses a crankshaft and pushrod to move a rubber diaphragm up and down (or in and out--take your pick), and given the flexibility of rubber, can be started up even if there is compressed air in the hose (with airbrush hooked up, trigger "off"). The D500 is a piston-type air compressor, but lacks the valving allowing it to fill say, a pressure tank--so it will not start up with the outlet blocked (as it would be with airbrush and hose coupled to it, and the air brush trigger is "off". Trying to do so can burn out the motor. Hence the bleeder valve you have with it. It's necessary to open the bleeder valve before starting this air compressor, after which the valve can be closed and the compressor will continue to run, as long as there is airflow through it. However, it has a built in shutoff switch to prevent overloading (stalling the motor). Opening the bleeder valve a bit here will allow it to continue running with the air brush trigger "closed", but I'd not let it run very long that way. The bleeder valve can also provide some control over the air volume though your airbrush, but it's not a very accurate pressure regulator. This bleeder valve is a threaded unit--or at least if was that when I was selling airbrushes and compressors in my old hobby shop years ago. Art

Plus enlarge it all over by a good 20%! The Hudson was a good bit bigger car all around than Studebaker's Dictator. Art

Art, Your midget project reminds me of one I started a good 30 years ago, also in brass: 1:25 scale Higman Midget chassis. Need to dig that one out again! Art

Other than promotional models made back in 1953, Lindberg's two '53 Ford Crestline kits are the only ones done in 1/25 scale. Thse are NOT the Lindberg kits of old--they are right up there with the rest of the bunch, frankly. There have been lots of beautiful builds of this kit series since they were introduced. Art

If you are seeing pits and bubbles in the plating on your resin, that sounds very much like tiny pinholes in your castings. From long experience, these can be caused by a couple of things: Air mixed into the resin when stirring it, or moisture contamination in the resin itself. Again, from my experience, the silicone in the rubber most likely is not the problem, as it's part of the chemistry of the rubber, not a coating on it. You mention that your resin is perhaps 6 months old--that could well be the problem. Once opened, humidity in your surrounding air can get into the bottles, as the air in your room goes in to replace the volume of resin poured. That sounds to me to be the most likely cause, as air bubbles generally are much larger, and if next to the detail surface of the casting, where the tinier bubbles (CO2 gas) more than likely will be distributed throughout the castings (trick to find out: Take one of the wheels, whittle it apart with your Xacto knife to see. Heating the molds really doesn't help, frankly, not with ordinary polyurethane resins such as Alumilite--that accelerates the kicking/curing of the resin enough to prevent any air bubbles from escaping from the detail surface (bottom of the mold cavity) which could well exacerbate your problem. Nor does putting the freshly poured molds into vacuum chamber--that simply expands any tiny air bubbles in the resin and the resin likely will start to set up before any of them have a chance to reach the upper surface of your pour. Professional resin casters use compressed air, in pressure tanks to counteract those little bubbles. 70-75psi tends to crush tiny bubbles into insignificance, often making them disappear to the naked eye. Art

I've only done duplicate projects a couple of times, back in the late 1970's, both projects on commission. The first was a run of 6 AMT Budweiser Beer Wagon kits, all done for AMT to use as presentations to Budweiser, The second was a run of 25 1978 Penske PC-6 Indy cars, for Gould Corporation to present to Rick Mears, Roger Penske, Gould executives and the rest for display around the country. Those were all done from early test shots of the kit provided by AMT, all parts shot in yellow plastic. AMT did have the chrome parts trees specially plated for this project, but no decals--meaning that 25 cars had to not only be painted red, white and blue, but all markings, save for accessory decals, had to be hand painted, and my Mattell Vacuform got a real workout making the windscreens. All cars were secured to walnut bases, and plexiglas cases made, glued together and fixed to the bases. Needless to say, I have never even considered such builds since. Art

When Lindberg (then under George Toteff) discovered the tooling for the once-lost AMT '34 Ford pickup in a tooling shop in Windsor Ontario, he had to come up with tires for it (tire tooling, of course, is not part of most model car kit tools themselves, but you probably know that already). So, Lindberg tooled up for new tires for this kit. Brand of tire? Yup, ARMSTRONG, those tires with the "ounce of prevention" biscuits in the tread groove, to "Grippppp the road"! You do have to look closely, but "Armstrong) lettering is clearly on the sidewalls, just outside of the scuff bead. Art

Personally, I see nothing wrong with it--it's neat to see, in one post, what a member here has done in the year now past. Art

I would submit that model kit box art isn't as necessary for those who are knowledgeable modelers, but rather for the "casual buyer", and those looking at kits for a gift for someone who builds models. Art

With their Opel Admiral, ICM set a standard in my eyes for precision tooling and injection molding--parts fit on that model is impeccable. I would expect the parts fit on the Model T's to be no less so. Art

From all my literature on Model T's, the standard of everything black below the body sills was what you got from the factory. An owner back then wanting any other color for those sheet metal parts would have been on his own. A real reason for this was that prior to 1914 (when Model T went to "You can have any color you want so long as it is black", while bodies were offered in a very narrow range of colors, painting sheet metal was a laborious, labor-intensive process, as there was no spray painting possible yet ( (De Vilbiss developed the first spray guns about 1920 or so). The painting process on body shells involved brushing on an enamel primer, letting that dry, and then hand sanding it smooth, The color coat was also enamel, laid on by hand with brushes, which could take weeks to dry. Once dry, the painted body was coated in varnish, and then set aside to dry (again more weeks at times). Finally, it was hand-rubbed to a satiny sheen. Model T bodies could not be baked at a temperature high enough to harden the enamels of the day, due to their structural wood framing, which itself was coated with a thin mixture of asphaltum--get that too hot, and all kinds of nasty things could happen, not the least of which was fire. The black sheet metal parts on the other hand, could be dipped in black enamel, and then baked to a hard, durable finish. Art I laid in two roadsters--one of them is going to get a Depot Hack body--just ordered the scale basswood for it. Art

Factory stock, ALL Model T Fords, from 1908 through 1927 had black frames, and the fenders, running boards and splash aprons were black, regardless of body color. That was very much a tradition among most automakers in the US back then--a carryover from horse-drawn buggy and carriage days, when those vehicles had black leather or patent-leather mudguards (fenders). \ In fact, factory stock Fords from at least the Model K out through the end of the 1932 model run, that black tradition was standard. If one were to paint the fenders any other color (and it would be on both upper and lower surfaces most likely), a bit of masking would be in order, so to get black frame rails. Bear in mind, there are probably more Brass Era Model T's painted bright colors, over/under/around and through, than correctly restored to factory colors, so you can be on your own as to colors, and what parts are what color. Art

A Model T Ford frame has but two crossmembers! One each in front and back. Those are, as I described, separate parts. Should you want to do a fenderless T, making those frame rails should be as easy as your nearby Evergreen Styrene display rack. Art