VW Dave

Drew - Thanks for the kind words. The Beetle is indeed plastic, which some folks have had a hard time believing until I hand them the model; it started out as a Gunze-Sangyo kit:

I've seen 2 of those 'wrought iron Bugs' in person, and I'll be keeping up with this build for sure. Nice work on an offbeat project!

For actual 'rotting' metal in scale, a ball-shaped milling bit in my Dremel is the real workhorse; I thin the body from the inside until it almost bubbles through (just like real NY rust ). I use a small dental-style pick for opening small pinholes up once the material is thin enough. For paint and surface weathering, I do it 'on the cheap.' My set of chalk pastels was $7 with a 50% off coupon from Michaels, and the makeup brush set came from a local dollar store. My 'Joe Dirt' Charger was done using just Testors DullCote and pastels, no rotting out was in order: For rust, I always say nothing looks more like rust than the real thing. Sophisticated Finishes' two-part system works very well for me:

That's very good news about the Arii/Otaki BFGs, and the slotted mags too, as the originals are getting harder to find.

Monty - My LHS is usually very well-stocked with Polly S/Floquil paints, and I'm pretty sure Floquil is local to me as well(coincidence?). Good shop to deal with, and I'm sure they can help you. You sir, have a PM.

Here on earth we call them 'clothespins.' I second the comments above regarding Tamiya spray paints.....they made it fun to paint again. Another huge advancement IMO is Tamiya's masking tape.

The technique laid out above makes for very impressive broken glass IMO....I'm just curious where I can fnd those 'Icy Sparkles' or a similar product locally. On my junkyard Monte, I covered the rear shelf with small glass beads I got at my local Michaels store:

I understand the PC term is "little cars."

I wouldn't say they're all a waste of time and/or money, but many are...just do your homework. I've used K&N 'drop in' filters in my last 4 watercooler VWs, and I've been happy with them; I made a Rube Goldberg CAI for one of them at first, with a duct under the front bumper and flexible hose running to the swiss-cheesed airbox. After a couple days of driving, I realized the added noise outweighed any gains I might have grabbed - I put the unmolested original airbox with a K&N back in.

Before I step up onto my little soapbox, let me preface my POV by saying I've got about 16 years in the auto parts business; over half of that time was with a mail-order supplier of OE & performance parts for European vehicles. Unless it's sealed off completely from the engine compartment, a 'cold air intake' is just a noisemaker that offers negligible performance gains. At speed and under load/acceleration, an open-element intake will draw in lots of hot air from the engine compartment as well as any cool air it can get. The systems that come with a simple heat shield are a joke, as the shield will only really protect the intake from ambient heat. The shield does offer a prime spot for a squirrel to put an APC decal, however.

Very clean build, Art; I'm glad to have helped you get that little gem one step closer to done.

It's funny that I spotted this thread now...I just listed my ScaleKraft VW Hebmüller transkit on Ebay not ten minutes ago - item # 110531443934, in case anyone is curious.

It was, in a way....I'll admit I didn't fully read your second method until after posting my reply, however. My method is more primitive, as it utilized just the brown Sharpie(over white plastic in that case).

I have an even more primitive method, yet it works well in most cases: a brown 'Sharpie' marker. After a little urging, my friend Matt used this 'quick & dirty' method on his '37 Ford pickup bed I had him go and reapply the marker in a few areas to make the 'grain' appear more random, and he used BMF for the strips afterward.

I agree, but especially when somebody post a tutorial.....merely saying "here's how to do it, and I got great results" has no meaning without pictures IMO.

It's almost dead-on for the 455 in my brother's '70 4-4-2 ragtop, that's for sure.

Another great event, and major kudos to the TSMCC for their hard work.

I'm flattered that one of mine made it into this group. Thanks for sharing those pics, Terry!

I only had a chance to shoot about 150 pics, due to all the good folks I got sidetracked chatting with, but here they are: VW DAVE's NNL EAST PICS This Citroen really caught my eye:

*I use small plastic medicine cups for mixing epoxy, and they are quite reusable; when the epoxy has set up, I flex the cup to free it up for another use. *I'm another clothespin fan, and I've modified several for special clamping jobs as well. *Dollar store emery boards make great sanding sticks...they're cheap & disposable too. *A dollar store makeup brush set is my favorite application tool for pastels. *A couple of Crosman 'copperhead' BBs added to each jar of my brush paint ensures good mixing when shaking.

84 to 87 sounds good to me too.

I'd guesstimate the interior space of a splittie to be just under 6 feet....my '66 Deluxe Micro had a full-width middle seat, and I could lay right out on it with the cargo doors shut(I'm 5'8" on my tallest day). I've never seen a camper based on a Samba Bus, but I suppose it is feasible; if you plan on adding a pop-up like Westfalia did, filling the skylight windows could be a pain; you'd almost be better off starting with the '67 panel bus kit in that case. However, many independent camper installers(like Sundial) would 'camperize' almost any Bus thay got their hands on. I like to fall back on www.TheSamba.com for reference pics if I'm ever stumped, and here's a link to their gallery for '55-67 campers....there's over 1,000 pages of images for the campers alone : TheSamba.Com gallery And here's a nice lowered RHD Westy from the gallery:

Nice looking model, and your pictures have gotten a little better.

Sometimes those are the best kind of accident. Please keep us posted as you make progress on this one.

Very nice work, David; I've been a fan of Samba Buses since I had my '66 21-window Deluxe. Bus nerd. Another giveaway is the rear glass; '64 was the first year of the wider glass, so it's for sure a pre-'64. The 'fried egg' front turn signals indicate(pun intended) it's a '62 or newer. I still can't figure out why Hasegawa put those '67 Beetle-ish 'open' wheels on it, though.