SSNJim

So I picked up some Revell steel spray and acrylic paints today. I've tried the Revell RBR Blue spray, and I was pretty pleased with it, so I decided to try the steel spray. I picked up a steel acrylic "box" too to try the brush paints. I pretty much figured out the spray can without too many problems (hint: it's like all the Testors cans), but the little box thing kind of confused me. It's got a little flat cap on it with arrows on it, but no obvious way to turn it. There are little diagonal dashed lines printed on the side, and a catch looking thing on the front. I cut along the diagonal lines, and ended up opening it like a ring or watch box. Paint went all over the place. Apparently there is a little tube (meaning thumb size versus fire hose size) inside that contains the paint, and I managed to spill it. So what did I do wrong? Anything? What is the right way to open them?

Try Intermediate Blue (FS35164). I was happy with it on my 97. I don't think it's too far off. Tamiya AS19 or Testor's Model Master Enamel 1920 (both spray) are two of the matches for it. I've never tried the Tamiya; the Testor's is what I used, but it may be getting hard to find. There are a lot of FS to hobby paint conversion charts on the internet.

Bring on the snappers! Shoot, I'm in my 60's and I really like the series. I just finished the Street Fury and Street Heat, customized to suit my tastes. The Fury had the blower hole filled, and the top part of the side moldings removed. The Concorde had the spoiler and aero bits removed. Very simple, fun models, and I'm anxiously awaiting other releases in this series. In fact, the last two of the four models I have finished recently are a Snap Prowler (fenders and bumpers removed), and a Smyth Performance-ish VW Snap New Beetle. You'll never hear me complaining about snap and simple models. I build more detailed models too, but few get finished, especially with any real underhood or chassis detail.

Yes, the white car is completely mocked up, and nothing is permanently attached except for the interior to the chassis. I sidestepped the whole trying to figure out how to lower the kit suspension thing by simply not using it. That is one of the horrible things I did to the suspension and chassis, along with some Dremel clearancing to get it to sit like the car in the my earlier post. Like I said, it's a curbside. The rear wheels use a metal axle which sits on the frame rails. I'm considering notching the frame rails in the rear to get the car a bit lower and more level. In the front, the metal axle sits between the notched on top frame rail and fender wells. Nice work on yours.

Here are the pictures I promised. The white one is the 93 LX, stiil a WIP. It needs a repaint for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is I seem to have lost my ability to brush paint trim. The gray one is the notchback. It seems to have lost the mirrors, and needs some coat hanger wire to hold the exhaust up. I'll fix them after I move.

I did make it to Simpson's in August. It's just down the road from where I was working at Foulk and Grubb. I always had a hard time finding them open. I was pleased when I did. Very nice shop - they had a pretty good selection of model cars. Here's what I found in DE after a Google search. I'm going to check out the ones near I-95 on my trips to Philly, some of the others on my scooter. The only two I've been to is the first and the last, both of which I enjoyed quite a bit. It's been a few years since I was at Hobby Stop, but they had a good selection too. Simpson's Hobbies Inc 709 Foulk Rd, Wilmington, DE 19803 Trains, Toys & Hobbies 2505B Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, DE 19703 HobbyTown Dover 96 Salt Creek Dr Unit 1, Dover, DE 19901 First State Hobbies 600 Peoples Plaza, Newark, DE 19702 F&N Hobbies 1398 Blackbird Forest Rd #1214, Clayton, DE 19938 SeaSide Hobbies 15 Daisey Ave, Ocean View, DE 19970 Aeromarine Laminates Inc / Hobby Stop 22762 Sussex Hwy, Seaford, DE 19973 There used to be a HobbyTown in Milford, I believe. I would pass it on my way to the beach areas in DE but I haven't been that way in several years. It's not on the HobbyTown site.

I was back in Philly yesterday, and managed to stop by Capelli's. The doors were locked when I visited at 2:30 Friday afternoon. No signs on the door or anything; it could be they're on spring break. Maybe next time.

No, no pictures yet. The notchback has a Cougar body. I had to modify the Cougar trunk to make the top edge of the TBird taillights match, and used the Cougar interior tub. Everything else is TBird. That's one thing I love about these SC/Cougars - everything swaps nice and clean. That's the only one I have completed other than a stock SC with the aero wheels. The 93 LX is one I modified the rocker panels to remove the aero skirts, and used half round to make the body side molding. For the rocker panels, I glued sheet styrene to the lower inside of the body, and started filing. As I progressed, I rescribed the door lines and lowest character line to maintain the depth, then when I had the outside shaped as I wanted them, I contoured the inside of the rocker panel to give it a stock appearance. I also had to slightly narrow the chassis. This will definitely be a curbside - I did a lot of horrible things to the wheel wells and chassis to get the ride height I wanted. It's almost ready for final assembly, but I'm having trouble painting the roof and window trim. This is what I am shooting for, and yes, I have these wheels. The others are in the very early stages. The convertible is just a Cougar body with the roof removed, and will be similar to the notchback. The fastback Cougar is a TBird with the C-pillars removed, and they will be replaced with a more straight C-pillar. I will use the Cougar front and rear fascias. This is the look I'm going for without the pillar at the rear edge of the rear door.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Sable#/media/File:Ford_Taurus_1990_Mex.JPG I should have some pictures of the notchback and the 93 LX this weekend.

Just got another one at 9:11 ET in the 78 Monaco Full Build WIP topic. I don't use ad blockers on any site; I understand sites need to make a buck. I'm cool with that. The only options I had are shown below, and I could not see the topic. I'm sure it will be fine when I go back to the topic.

Just got one when I clicked on the round button next to the topic "Let's see your 70s "Vantasies"". It took over the screen, so I hit the back arrow. Then I selected the topic again, and it let me in.

I'm here too. Love these Revell SC cars. Converted one into a notch back, working on a bagged 93 LX, a convertible, and a fastback Cougar with a Sable style rear window. Picked up one this weekend to probably replicate my old 92 SC. Nice job. I'm following along too.

With a little work, that looks like it could be a good basis for a Speed33 kit car. Slap a 33/34 Ford frame under it, come up with an interior, massage the body a bit, and you're in business. I've been playing with the Slammers series lately. Just finished a Street Fury, and am working on the Street Heat. Having a blast with them.

Thankfully, they included a more accurate non-operating light bar in the kit, too.

The alternator on my 97 P71 went out at about 110K.

Very nice build. That was a long time in the making. Glad you were able to get it done. I'm going to have to find those Jada GT40s. Those wheels look very similar to the 2005-2009 Mustang V-6 base wheels with the optional spinners, only the Jada ones are more deeply dished.

I guess they wouldn't have a problem if you were buying cigarettes. too. I used tp buy cigarettes for my mother, too, at that age or so. Twenty eight cents a pack, tax included. I like the orange tubes for long joins like airplane fuselages and ship hulls, where it can take a few minutes to get everything aligned and clamped.

My package went to the Southern MD Distribution Center then to my local post office yesterday. That's where I saw it this morning, so I thought maybe tomorrow or Wednesday? Nope, it was sitting on my front porsche this afternoon. I was quite pleased - it was as many as 11 days early. We've certainly had more than our share of delivery issues (both incoming and outgoing) recently, I'm not sure how I lucked out with this one.

I'm a big believer in the "they'll leave a message" school of thought. Maybe they'll contact me through other means (text, email, or whatever) with the same effect. My Google Pixel phone has a screening feature that I use quite often. If someone you don't know calls you, there is an option to screen the call. A boilerplate statement is read (The person you are trying to reach is using a screening service, please say why you're calling type thing), then listens for a message. 99 times out of 100, they just hang up. Anything they do say is displayed on the phone screen in real-time. If it's someone you want to talk to, you can pick up the call and talk to them. Otherwise you can hang up. This comes in quite handy for numbers that you don't know. Often I will receive calls from the dentist, insurance agent, motorcycle dealership or others for whom I don't know the number, but am willing to accept the call. The phone will also show certain numbers as suspected spam when they call. I just hang up on them.

I ordered a model through Amazon from Round2. It was shipped via USPS on Jan 26, on the 27th it went from South Bend, IN to Pittsburgh, PA (in an hour!) to Washington, DC on 1/30 and left the Washington, DC distribution center at 10PM 1/30. I'm interested to see where it goes from there - I pass the Washington distribution center daily on my way to work. The projected arrival date for the package is Feb 9-12. I wonder what the odds are it arrives early this week?

I was at my local Hobby Lobby today, and all kits were 40% off again.

I've seen several people post that Hobby Lobby coupons save them only a dollar or two over the LHS. Where are you people buying models that you pay less than $20? Forty percent off a $30 model is a price reduction of $12, with a final price of $18. Are you doing better than that?

The white chassis is not a 90 Tbird. The Tbird has bare frame rails up front, and the upper A arms aren't molded to the chassis. It also has rear wheel tubs molded to the chassis, and the gas tank is forward of the rear wheels. It looks like the white chassis has a leaf spring rear end, and the TBird has an IRS. As far as I know, Monogram (i assume from the MMI - Monogram Models Inc?) never issued a 89-97 Tbird - they were all labelled Revell.

This car has caught my eye, so I've been doing a bit of research on it. Apparently it has been around since the early 90's, and the picture above is the "modernized" version. There's some pictures of an earlier version on Kustomrama and Dynamat (lots of billet): Larry Kramer's 1949 Mercury - Kustomrama 1949 Mercury Merrodder | Dynamat.com Looks much different without the removable top. Now, off to find a 49 Merc....

I mustered all the King's horses, and all the King's men, and put it together again. It doesn't look too bad; everything lined up pretty good. Now to try to get it stripped without any more problems. Then, a bit of putty here and there, and voila! You can see some of the cracks in the fender. I also notice that the front splash pan is missing the bottom bar. So now, I need to come up with a name for it. Humpty Dumpty or Shattered Dreams come to mind. I'm surprised how much this happens. I've been involved with models for about 50 years, and I had no idea this could happen until fairly recently. Thanks to those who shared their own disasters.

I was getting tired of the old ones. It's really not all that bad. It just interrupted another one of my latest projects. This is a (I think) Revell 1979 Toyota Pickup 4x4 Snaptite. I picked up a month or so ago. It was a decent built-up I wanted to convert to a lowered truck. I got it apart without any issues. I was taking it to strip the paint when I dropped it from waist high onto a linoleum floor. It shattered. I've never seen that happen before. I didn't throw it, step on it or anything - just an honest drop, and the body was intact with no repairs or modifications beforehand. I've heard of models getting brittle with age, but I'd never seen it. At least it broke mostly cleanly, and I have all the parts. It should go back together pretty easily - the pieces fit back together solidly with no apparent alignment problems.