Ramcharger

OOOHH!! Das nice! I like all of it, I think you nailed it.

I'm thinking this may be the reason you don't see old Fords all jacked up like old Chevys, the body mounts are way forward on a Ford compared to a Chevy. I also had to use humongous 4" collectors because of my inexperience building headers, I'll do better next time. I need to find something better to make headers out of, that copper wire is a, uh, problem to bend. If I had softer material to work with I'd bend them back a little farther, but that ain't gonna happen! Having said all of that, at this point, she is what she is. I've seen way too many cars win Best of Show with no regard for mechanical probability. There is also several other things I'd change, I'll do better on the next one! By the way, I really appreciate the honest input.

I had to weather up the headers a bit, they never stay clean for long! I got them mounted up and I'm waiting on the paint on the front clip to harden so I can buff it out, probably tomorrow. By the way, I want to give a big thank you to Clay Kemp, I discussed how to make collectors for these headers with him and he gave me some really great advice. Here's the photos:

Here they are with paint, they go on today!

More Blogage! The Big Show

Thanks, Kevin! We are glad to do it, it seems everyone had a good time and we had some great models show up. Just so you all know, the Ohio Challenge build for next year is the 1940 Ford. You can build any 1940 Ford you want, the coupe, the Sedan, the sedan delivery, or the pick up. You can build them any way you want as long as it is still somewhat recognizable as a 1940 Ford. This is open to anyone, but if you win our trophy, you have to come back the next year to defend it. Have fun building!

Unknown Hinson!! I thought about going, but life got in the way. Go ahead and cut one up, it's just plastic! They make more everyday. Here's a couple of in progress shots of the headers. I used 12 ga copper wire and silver soldered it for strength so I could bend and file it after they were together. BTW, it my first time soldering with a torch and my first time silver soldering, I think I was a little excessive. I then made collectors out of aluminum tubes that I flared out at the ends, the extras in the photos are casualties of experimentation. I'm smoothing the whole deal out right now while I'm drinking my coffee. I also wet sanded the body yesterday and went through the front fenders pretty bad so I reshot them yesterday. Since I missed the Buckeye Classic with this one, I'm shooting for the Detroit Show.

Here's the list of winners, Clay Kemp won Best of Show with his Dirt Late Model, Ryan King won Best Engine with his '69 Camaro, and Chris Thobe won best Paint with his '51 Chevy.

Here's some photos from the show today. We had a great turnout with lots of excellent models. I gotta say, I'm glad I don't compete in this show, these guys are bringing their best to this show. The proof is in the photos. Thanks to all who attended and congrats to the winners, you deserve it! Buckeye Classic

Sean, that's $10 for 6 OR MORE, heavy on the or more! You could enter 100 models for $10 if you wanted to. We found that most guys either enter a few builds, like 5 or less, or they enter like 8 or 9, sometimes 12! Considering most shows start at $10 to enter anything, I'd say that's a pretty good deal! Our show is pretty cheap to enter, cheap to just come and see ($2, the wife and/or kids get in free), and cheap to vend at ($30 per table now, $20 before March 1st), If we make too much money, we lower the prices! Anything we make over our costs we just waste on dumb stuff, so we don't want to have to decide how to spend it so we prefer not to have any money in the treasury. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Thanks guys! I noticed some way cool avatar photos in this thread. I worked on the headers the last two nights, they are a, uh, problem that starts with a b to make! I couldn't find any appropriate sized solder, the only sizes I could find is .061 and .113 and I need .080 to work out to 2" tubes. 2" tubes seem to be the proper size to a full race "Cammer", 1 3/4" would probably pass, but that is about .070 in scale, can't find that either. I looked at wire and found I had some 12 ga copper electrical wire that specs out at .082, close enough, but really hard to bend and cut. So I just cowboyed up bent it to as close of a shape as I could. I still need to build collectors and flanges for the heads, then prime and paint. This guy is probably not going to make the Buckeye Classic, so I'll only have 1 57 Ford at the show. Oh well, close but no cigar. I'll finish her up next week, I should have more modeling time. I'll post photos of the headers before I paint them.

I finally got some paint on it, it need rubbed out. The red is Ford flame red and the top is Testor's white. It may actually make the contest!

Hey, thanks for the multiple shots of my 57 Landspeed car in you photo album from the link. It was cool getting to talk to you for a few minutes at the show. I wish we would have met up earlier and got to hang out and talk models. It was a good show, a little lean on cars, but pretty good nonetheless.

Building for the IPMS Nationals is a whole different animal than any other show, guys take it very seriously and build some way over the top stuff. Having said that, cover the basics 100%, build something you think is cool, and have fun. You will see some cool ideas and some stuff built you didn't think possible, so don't expect to walk in off the street and wow the joint! If you get an award, great, but don't go in thinking you will, you will probably be disappointed. I'm planning on going, so my stuff will be out there (not that it's going to win anything!). Maybe I'll run into you down there!

At least you'll be there, Craig! In exactly one week the judges will have decided, will you be among the winners? You won't know unless you are there!

I noticed Google didn't narrow that down to the ones worth stopping at, or the ones that have a decent model selection.

Great tutorial!

I have yet to see a model that was an award winner on the top and a glue bomb on the bottom. Very rarely have I encountered this as the deciding factor and I've judged lots of contests, IPMS and otherwise. Most guys that did any work on the underside are more than happy to have a mirror under it to make sure you can see their hard work. Guys that can't remove a seam line on the underside can't do it anywhere else either. If your painting sucks, it sucks everywhere, and if your build quality is poor the underside isn't the only place it shows up. So next time I'm at a show and I see a judge fondling my model I'll ask him where his wife or daughter is so I can fondle her, that's the philosophy of the 1:1 car guys.

I think the idea behind this "one and done" idea is to keep shows fresh. If you go to the same show every year and the same car won the same category every year, how many times would you return? Some models are really good and are really hard to beat, if you keep losing to the same one, it is easy to get discouraged. You can lose to the same builder year after year and realize that he has talent above yours and you can hopefully improve to his level in time, but to lose to the same car over and over again gets really discouraging really quick. If the guy is at least having to build something, it keeps both of you sharp. It's kind of like a local cruise-in, you see the same cars over and over again. "Oh, there's Bob's 41 Willys and Joe's Hemi Roadrunner, they'll win a trophy, they do everytime." Spectators don't return to local cruises time and time again because it's the same cars again and again, it almost becomes a show circuit with local cruises. Your 72 Vega, no matter how cool, ain't no Hemi Roadrunner, ever, you're not likely to win over that guy. At the model shows we go not only to compete, but to see the cool new stuff others have built. Imagine going to a contest where all the same cars showed up time and time again. How many years would you show up? Yeah, it's fun to see some of the old timers we built years ago and see what we thought was cutting edge building, but that's a once in a while deal, not every model. I think contests need to keep it fresh not only to promote healthy competition, but to keep the contest from getting stale. Is it the crime of the century if you bring the same winning model to a show several years in a row? Nope, but I think that makes you a "displayer" not a builder.

If you take out the white Ramchargers cars and the red Bill Elliott cars, I'm pretty diverse.

Thanks guys! Here's the fuel tank mounted up, I made the mounts out of a soda can and used electrical tape for the rubber gasket. I think the vent has too big of a coil now that I see it in a photo. I was going to use a wheel spinner for a gas cap but the body is too close so I'll just use a round cap. After I redo that vent tube, the headers are next, UGH!

I find this interesting, I thought there would be more of a preference one way or the other. The reason I asked is because I'm always looking to improve our show for you guys, the modelers. I personally like to compete, but some people do not, but I also like to sit around and discuss models, techniques, ideas, and etc. I been to both kinds of shows and my experience has been then judged shows tend to be less of a social event than NNLs. I also find it interesting that NNLs tend to bring out the best builds. Guys also seem to shop at vendors more at an NNL.

We are rethinking our show (The Buckeye Classic) for next year. While I love a good competition, I really love to look at and discuss models and what others have done. In a competition, the names of the contestants are hidden for obvious reasons. This does not allow the opportunity to talk to the builder of the really cool model you see and find out how he did what he did. At an NNL style show, since there are no awards, the name of the builder is displayed with the model. So my question is, which do you prefer? A NNL style show with no awards, or a straight up competition? Which would you be more likely to go to? What would make you go to one over the other? What makes a good one of each to you? Thoughts? Comments? Thanks for your input.

Mine are all one and done. Having said that, it is almost impossible to remember who brought what from year to year without going through previous year's photos. Remember, this is a question of ethics, people without them don't concern themselves with the rules. Even with a list of previous year's builds and builders, who's to say I didn't build another 66 Nova last year and won? Maybe I just really like to build 66 Novas and I bring one every year and I finish in the money every year. I have noticed that some guys like to bring the same models forever and ever, even to the little monthly club contests. Heck, I knew a guy who built a dragster back in the 90's in California, showed it all over there, moved to Ohio and showed it all over here. He won with it everywhere and his philosophy was that since it kept winning, he should keep showing it. He believed that if the judges were sick of seeing it, they would quit giving it awards. Some guys just really like to win. No matter what.

More By the way, this was my first time using a lathe, guess what I'm saving up for.