VW Dave

I think it was in one of their contest issues; that picture was taken by Neil VanZile at one of the MassCar shows

I'll add another vote for Elmer's white glue. I used it to tack the cheesy kit-supplied primary drive on my son's RM chopper so it could make it to the tables at the NNL East last year, and I replaced it with a much nicer resin piece from RepMinCo the week after.

If memory serves correctly, Chuck, the $80 Hasegawa kit was akin to the Gunze 'High Tech' series: full engine detail, white metal parts, opening doors and full interior panels....I've seen them, but never felt inclined to pony up that kind of coin. If anyone is into the Hasegawa kit, I'd also recommend looking for this Revell one: Inside the box, it's the EXACT SAME kit as the Hasegawa...and the price was less than half of the Hasegawa version. Wish I knew that before hacking 2 Hasegawas into donors for my Barndoor projects. About 15 years ago, I got to build a virgin '58 kit for a friend. A Gunze Beetle gave up its wheels & tires, and I fabbed the rear window 'jail bars' out of straight pins, but the rest was built OOB:

I voted for 'paint and carry on,' because I'm finishing soo few models as of late...and something like that could stall a project with too little momentum. Right now I'm wrapping up a 'personal barn find' model, which was about 75% done but stalled and boxed up back in the 1990s due to a lack of wheel & tire choice.

Tacky, man...just tacky

I don't have any pics of it, but in 1987ish I modeled my first car(an '84 Chevette) after I sold the 1:1 to a buddy and I gave the model to him as a gift.

And living in the northeast gives some of us LOTS of reference material within easy reach

To accomodate stock or slightly smaller front wheels & tires while lowering a Beetle, folks have been narrowing axle beams for many years...and I have an easy way to do it in scale. This Beetle has a beam that is 5" narrower than stock, and 15" wheels clear the fenders even after a 3"+ drop via adjusters and lowered spindles: I start by drilling into the torsion tubes with a 1/32" bit, just a tad deeper than the arrow point: The beam is then cut into pieces, and the short bits of tubing inboard of the shock towers removed: Short sections of 1/32" wire are inserted into the holes for alignment/reinforcement, and the whole mess put back together...a scale 5.35" narrower than it was: The whole process takes very little time at all, and all of the steps are laid out in my Fotki 'how to' folder, and here's the link: TAMIYA BEETLE BEAM MOD

I wouldn't shoot the HOK over the Testors enamel....it's probably not fully cured yet. Seriously, strip it and go with all lacquers.

Steve - You might find weathering very enjoyable, as I have; after building nothing but shiny showroom-ish models for decades, I've become a huge fan of making them look awful. Rob - "Fantastically bad." LOL That might be the new compliment to pay someone on their weathered models

Thanks big time for posting this tutorial, Gerald! I'm a big fan of Mopars with rally wheels, but never could make them look even halfway decent.....now I can.

I'm still 'old school' when it comes to photoreduction; I picked this technique up back when SA still had an 'E' on it. My trusty 35mm PHD camera on a tripod and a vertical surface to pin stuff to, along with varying distances of 12 to 15 feet makes for nice 1/24-1/25 model boxes, license plates and stuff.

I'm usually the guy behind the camera, so this is the most current pic I could find: Import Carlisle, spring 2009. I'm the guy on the left, and the more worldly fella on the right is Bruce Meyers. To answer the question on my shirt - yes...yes, we do.

I'd be afraid to use the brakes on that one...might do an endo.

The only downside of using the Fujimi 356 is cost...and in 1:1 there's not a lot interchangeable with a Beetle beyond the driveline. Those kits do come with very nice wheels & brakes, however.

A tutorial for this technique with good pictures would be great

Ouch!! I'm sure it's a nice setup, but 11 bucks(plus postage) is a little steep if all he needs is a pair of carbs. I'm sure I have a pair of decent carbs & manifolds I'd give away for nothing, if it can help out.

Glad to help, and I may have a few to send you if you don't feel like buying a whole pack of them. I almost forgot about one of my favorite Beetle accessories - and you don't need to buy anything to make it either: open 'pop-out' quarter glass Here's the link to my how-to on them: OPEN UP

cherokeered - For the most part, you're on your own as far as accessories go. The Revell street machine Beetle kits had decent/usable Webers with manifolds, and I may have a pair that I can spare. I use 'bead cones' from my local Michaels store for stinger pipes, and the header tubes are easily made from solid core solder or armature wire(used for sculpting, also at Michaels): Some .032" K&S brass rod and HO-scale lumber made a nice vintage roof rack for my Gunze '56, and I made the plaid cooler from wood dowel and photoreduced plaid material. The 'swamp cooler' AC unit was liberated from a 'Homiez' diecast lowrider, although it can be scratchbuilt or bought in resin from The Modelhaus I'd recommend a set of Porsche alloys or BRMs, and the front beam is easily narrowed & lowered. The rear end can be dropped convincingly too. Keep in touch as you get rolling on this project, and I'll be glad to help out.

Three thumbs up, Chuck!! I'm lovin' it. Tyler - Here's a possibly helpful pic I took @ the Rolling Bones Hot Rod Shop 2010 winter garage party; it's the interior view of the steering gear in Richie Whalen's '32: I understand that a similar unit can be found in older sprint car models, or you can modify a 1/43 or 1/32 model's rear diff to resemble one

Glad to help out on such a cool project, Steve; I'm looking forward to updates, and that two-toned 1:1 you posted looks pretty cool. Your daughter's gonna love it I'm sure.

Thanks for the kudos; I'm glad to have a place to share oddball stuff like this. As far as the avatar goes, it was photographed while on vaca @ Disney World last month.....IMO the best name in toilet paper.

Thanks for the kind words, all. I'm not sure if it's totally feasible, but those eyelets might also make decent Buick-esque portholes on a leadsled.

I'm presently wrapping up an unfinished AMT model T that I abandoned and packed away nearly 20 years ago, and the kit's velocity stacks were pretty boogered up....I wasn't sure what to use. While browsing Michaels' scrapbooking aisles with the missus, I spotted these über-cool 3/16" eyelets and knew what they'd be good for. They come in a pack of 100 for about $3(and I used a 40% off coupon on top of that ). I still need to touch up where I epoxied them on, but I think they look the part:

I'm very 'old school' when it comes to photoreduction; I use my trusty point-and-click(or 'PHD') 35mm camera to make my own scale details: I picked up this technique from an issue of the 'other' model car mag many years ago. A distance of 12-15 feet gives a good assortment of 1/24-1/25 stuff, and having the film developed isn't expensive at all. I do it maybe once or twice a year. I did the model box and plaid material for the cooler that went in this model: The Charger model box, Cracker Jack boxes and Hemmings' magazine are my stuff: