VW Dave

Same here

The one I heard years ago was "Something An A-hole Buys."

Stu - Basically, yes....but each vehicle you build in scale can vary as far as cable & fuel line routing. My recommendation is searching Ebay and Google for images for the specific vehicle you're doing; you will find a lot of good reference material, and in no time have your scale plumbing all sorted.

Mechanical pumps are powered by the engine itself, usually via pushrod, and pull the fuel from the tank to the engine. For the most part, carbureted engines used mechanical fuel pumps; electric pumps were mainly used for fuel injected cars.

Thanks for the well-wishes, all; even though I had to work today, it was a pretty nice day to get another year older. I'm now officially "forty-something."

Thanks, Jim. Haven't found the best spot for it yet....might be getting a new toolbox after Christmas, however.

Like a real kit car, Neil, it can be whatever you want it to be...just use a little imagination. The infamous/historical 'Purple Potato Chip' Manx:

I'm right here, patiently waiting for that one to finally get released..... I have a virgin 1968 kit that I bought off Ebay a good number of years ago, and that one will be the small-scale version of my 'Maximus'(as soon as I finish those Jackman wheels). I'm looking forward to doing a few more in other metalflake colors, without paying a king's ransom for an original kit......AGAIN.

Cool score on thos fine-tip pens, Mike! I've been saying for a long time now that we need silver Sharpies in their 'ultra fine' tip, and those oughta do the trick.

Nice work, Jim; I come from a long line of hobbyist woodworkers and model builders, so it's cool when the two can cross over. No offense, but my head kinda hurts after attempting to read that. You should shoot new photos of your how-to and start your own thread on it

Most people are doing the conversion themselves for now, using the roof from an AMT '70 Monte Carlo and the Revell '72 Cutlass

Terry - I have the timing cover and Cragars from the AMT '37 coupe, still on the trees.....and you, sir, have a PM.

I generally use Model Master 'stop light red' and 'turn signal amber,' but the OP's main point was the ease of using the Sharpies rather than paint

The Sharpie is a great way to do little sidemarkers, especially if you do them in BMF first.

Soft aluminum 'armature wire,' which is intended for sculpting forms, works very well too. It's lighter weight than solder, bends as easy as copper wire, and polishes up quite nicely to boot. As it's not tubing, kinks are not an issue either. Most well-stocked craft stores like Michaels or A.C. Moore carry it in various sizes.

I'd love to see this technique laid out in a tutorial for sure; by your description it sounds easy and effective. An even easier way to color the plastic is a brown Sharpie marker. Random reapplication adds character/depth to the piece as well. A buddy got great results on his '37 Ford truck, using just the Sharpie over the white plastic:

I'm not sure about pearls, but I've had great luck with gloss black as a basecoat under metallics. The spoon at the far left has gloss black as the base, and the color is very rich compared to the other two spoons(the metallic blue is the same on all three).

I agree, there's a tad too much camber in that Herbie. I grabbed a pic of a lowered swingaxle-equipped Beetle from www.thesamba.com to illustrate about how much negative camber you need to show: And here's how much negative camber I added to my fenderless 'VolksRod:' I took it easy on my lowered '56, because the real car I based it on had the rear end lowered only slightly. Like on many 1:1 custom Beetles I did narrow the front axle beam a smidge to allow the front end to go lower:

While shopping at one of our local Michaels stores yesterday, I spotted a Revell Ferrari 360 Modena Spyder in the clearance aisle....as usual I really didn't need it, but you all know how that goes....it was tagged at $5.99, so picking it up was easily justified. When we headed to the register with all of our purchases, the model rang up at $3.99.

Are you doing a v-belt or a cogged belt drive? A little more info from you can go a long way when asking for advice.

Before you invest too much in parts, I'd ask to see pictures of the real engine; the first step in building an accurate replica is always research. IMO the Revellogram '37 Ford kits came with a good starting point for a SBC build.

If you're shooting enamel over it, yes. Lacquer? Mmm..... not so much.

If the tires have no molded-in lettering, decals are the way to go. I got an assorted sheet of them off Ebay recently....email me with the brand of tires you'd like on that model, and I'll see if my sheet has them. plasticman1432@gmail.com

Small drops of thinner on the paint can simulate water spots/stains, once the liquid evaporates.....hope this helps.

George: The belt-driven ones are centrifugal superchargers, not turbochargers. They're still awesome pieces regardless.