Chuck Most

Made a little progress today. I added edge moldings (whatever you'd call them) to the corners of the building to cover up where the shingles meet. I did a little finish work to the foundation and then sprayed the entire mess in Rustoleum Almond gloss. Window frames have yet to be finished, they will be done in the accent color... probably more NATO brown. I also did more work on the lobby. Please excuse the misaligned carpet- it's not yet glued down and is just kind of laying there for the photo. The desk was finished and painted to match the decor, and a couple of pictures were hung on the wall- one of a Rover Mini and a Subaru 360. I'm trying to drop clues of the building's past into the project. Prior to being home to Foreign Objects, the building's previous owner ran a dealership out of the premises, selling Austins from 1960 to 1997, then switching to Subaru after the Mini stopped being imported to the US. Yes... the Mini in the picture is too new for that period, but it gets the point across. The "paintings" came from two sources. The Mini came from the end panel of a Heller 1:43 scale Mini kit, while the Subaru came from the flyer included in an Arii 1:32 scale Owner's Club kit. They were mounted to .020" plastic sheet with the spray adhesive, then superglued to the wall. I cut the bottom and right side off of the Subaru image to hide a stock number printed on it, then cut down the Mini image to the same size. A TV will be mounted to the corner of the wall for customers in the lobby to watch, but I may squeeze in a couple more "paintings" or photos to decorate the wall. The restroom door and the two-way door that leads out into the shop were made from plastic sheet and strip, and the male/female restroom icon was hand drawn. I'll cut some windows from thin styrene sheet at some point, and add some general signage.

There was a scratchbuilding school article in the magazine some time ago (it was written by either Scott Colmer or Alyn Loya) that showed how it was done. It looked very tedious but the article went into detail on making the tool to do it and demonstrating how to use it on foil. I'll have to see if I can see which particular issue it was in, unless somebody beats me to it.

Wasn't on the road, but in a Meijer parking lot. Which is only about 1/8 mile from the road, so...

This started out with the Teague stock car kit, I built it as a filler piece for a diorama I'm building. Other than leaving out some parts it's mostly box stock. I added the headlight bucket structure to the driver's side fender, repositioned the side trim on the driver's side door to represent a donor door from a '51 model, and used wheel hubs from Scenes Unlimited.

Nice! That reminds me that I have a Routemaster and a Vespa I need to get around to one of these days. I was worried about the spray adhesive reacting to the foam, but since the foam I'm using is paper lined there were no problems. I also stacked the deck in my favor by spraying the adhesive only to the back of the wood, rather than directly to the foam board.

When I saw this thread I thought it was going to be about the Aisle Of Mann TT. It's nice not to be let down for once. I'm not a motorcycle guy at all, but the TT has always fascinated me.

The last few nights have been devoted to fleshing out the lobby. I stumbled across some flocked paper in the craft section of M-57 Surplus in Chesaning, MI. They ended up with quite a bit of stock left over from when my local hobby shop closed up, so even though I usually go there for tools, I still haunt the craft aisles for interesting stuff. The brown pattern looked like carpeting to me... in fact, it might be intended for use as doll house carpeting. Whatever the case may be, I plunked down the fifty cents for it and cut a piece to fit once I got home. After setting it into place and taking it in, I decided to go with it. This also set the tone for the "decor" of the lobby. Since I had plenty of the milled basswood left over from the outside, I chose to use some on the inside walls. The foam board walls were covered with some almond-colored card stock, and the basswood was cut to fit. After being sprayed with some Tamiya NATO Brown, more Elmer's spray adhesive was used to attach the wood to the walls. A restroom door facade, an aluminum-framed glass door, and windows will be added later, as well as a base board. The desk is built into the wall, it was built from various bits of Evergreen plastic stock. An office chair from the old Fujimi parts pack will sit behind it, and the desk itself will be cluttered with various doodads such as a laptop, a phone, and some paperwork. I'll also need to make up some customer seating... chairs, benches built into the window sills, a sofa... maybe a combination. Some wall ornamentation and a TV may also come into play at some point.

Here's what I don't get- ever since Bugatti was revived in the mid '90's it's been a performance car. Weren't they originally luxury cars (with some performance undertones)? Imagine what kind of luxury you'd get for 8 million.

Just got the latest offering from Jeff over at Motor City Resin Casters- a complete Slant Six engine with automatic transmission. The kit builds into a stock Slant, or into the Mopar performance Hyper Pak version, using parts duplicated from the ancient Revell '62 Valiant... or was it a Lancer? Anyway, I had the parts and loaned them out to Jeff so he could offer it with his engine. Get with Jeff on pricing. The way he was saying it the Hyper Pak parts will be included with the engine kit, but that may NOT be the case. And I don't know if he's planning on it, but I'm certain if you ask Jeff nicely enough he'd be willing to sell just the Hyper Pak components. Casting quality is great overall, I can find nary a pinhole and there's minimal flash, oddly the worst flash is on the smallest parts. Here's a general parts overlay- complete down to front engine mounts. There's a distributor tower but no cap- one of Morgan Automotive Detail's pre-wired units would do nicely there And the Hyper Pak parts- intake and exhaust manifolds and the cast aluminum valve cover.

Been a while, but... After weighing the options of starting over with the building or using the foam board mockup as the base, I opted to go the latter direction. But how to dress it up? The building I'm thinking of (and the one that loosely serves as a pattern for this scale building) is a 1920's-ish wood frame building. That particular building has had vinyl siding and a new steel roof added fairly recently, but I wanted a more "rustic" look. So, chose to go with wood siding. Then the problem became how to do it. I'd planned to use individual strips of basswood, layering them much as you would with a 1:1 siding project like this. I have to admit I've never paid much attention to the MIdwest wood display at the hobby shop. As I was scanning over the various sizes and thicknesses of wood strips, I stumbled across lengths of basswood that were milled to resemble siding. Thinking that would save some time, I scanned through those and picked one that looked good to me. I bought six sheets, which ended up being almost the perfect amount, leaving me with several still-usable sections and one complete strip. I left a bit bare at the bottom to represent the concrete foundation of the building. The edges of the wood are a bit rough in spots, but no matter- eventually I'll add some 90 degree moldings to the corners of the building, as well as door and window frames. There's a small bare spot on the opposite side of the building just beneath the peak of the roof- a "metal" panel will reside there for routing the chimney. You'll see another bare spot across the face of the building- this is where the Foreign Objects sign will sit. This was the first time I'd used Elmer's spray adhesive. I expected it to be kind of so-so, but it has quite a strong bond. I had to work quickly to reposition the front wood paneling, and I had just enough time to get it straight and level before the adhesive snugged up!

It's a Bro-Dozer, the only time it goes off road is when he parks it on grass.

Getting back to what I was saying earlier- you can now purchase a complete Slant Six from Motor City Resin Casters, and the engine includes the optional Hyper Pak parts. I don't think he has it on the site yet, but I'll get some pictures of the contents later.

Wonderful model.

Very nice! I built one of these about 12 years ago from the AMT/Ertl Rides Magazine version (same kit, different boxing). I also painted mine red. Some of the decals split on me, I wasn't using decal solvents back then. One of these days I want to buy another one and build a better version.

Mopar is a nickname for Chrysler products, it comes from the name of their parts organization. I always found it odd that the company's parts department became the nickname for the company's cars (kind of like if you referred to a GM car as a "Goodwrench"), but hey, I guess it works.

Done as a model, that decal scheme doesn't look like it would be too much of a pain to apply either. Always a plus.

I love the idea of cutting the bed bulkhead away from the back of the cab and gluing it to the bed assembly... the way MPC should have done it to begin with. I might have to give that a try- numerous test fits with my kit (and even more with the body from the Mini Monster version) haven't led to satisfactory results but your solution looks like it'll work just fine.

Models like this make me wonder why I even bother. Lovely job on this.

Know what I'd love to have? I'd pay full retail for a first-gen Benz/Freightliner/Dodge Sprinter. That's right. I said it. Resin/3D guys... you hear me???

And I'm probably pickier in that regard than you are- I prefer street vehicles that can be built at least close to USDM. I even snagged a couple of the Build And Play Mustangs and Raptors just to have something 21st-century to build. As much as I love the classics my shelves cry out for late model stuff. Even if it's laughably mundane. I'm still holding out hope that Academy will make a kit of a Veloster.

I don't see how. Revell is on the ropes, but Round 2 and Moebius are pretty active... though Moebius is quite a bit more active in the new material department. I know Round 2 is pretty bad with endless reissues, but every so often they bring back something thought to be long lost, and even the straight reissues at least have nice decals. Revell was relying strongly upon reissues too, while still squeaking in a new kit or two each year. And that's before we get into the resin and 3D printed stuff... both full kits and parts for existing plastic kits. Even if all of the domestic kit manufacturers disappeared tomorrow, there'd still be the aftermarket. Gripe about the prices of that stuff if you like, but come on... you know you'll pony up if you want the subject badly enough, right? The military modeling market went through a period of time with fewer and fewer manufacturers and new realeases, and the aftermarket stepped up. That was about 20 years ago and that segement still thrives... and new plastic kit makers in that area have sprung up since. The loss of the "big guns" might lead in to more diversity in the hobby as far as subject matter goes. There will come a day when a home user can buy scanning equipment, borrow Uncle Bob's old family car to scan, and print out a 1:25 scale '58 Ford two-door post. No, not every modeler will purchase that technology, but the ones who do will make their product available to others. Somebody out there will bring subject matter that lights your fires. As far as having nothing but the Japanese manufacturers... I'd be perfectly happy building nothing but Fujimi and Aoshima kits for the next 80 years or so. But who knows? Even they might step in to fill out the void... prior to Revell's release of the '70 'Cuda, I seem to recall there being interest in a full detail 1:25 kit of that very subject. I guess what I'm trying to say, if there is a market for it, the companies will find a way to bring it to market. The model car hobby/market may not look the same in ten years time, but it'll be around. Ancient Romans built scale model chariots, for Pete's sake... as long as there are transportation devices, people will miniaturize them for fun.

Revell's current caretakers have a bit more to worry about right now than putting out new product. But... yes, I'd be all for some '58 and '59 variants off the '57 Ford tool. I'd even be good for at least a couple more spin-offs from the year '57. (Stock-proportioned Ranchero, anyone?)

Just thought I'd throw my hat in the "I'm not going to build the Foose '56 kit as the Foose '56" ring. To that end, the wheels and tires from the Foose Cadillac were used, the drilled front bumper from an AMT '53 F100 was added, and the truck was powered by a Lincoln 368 made using bits from the AMT '57 Ford hardtop and the Chris Craft boat kit. The Glacier Green paint I used on the Hudson pickup conversion I finished a while ago was still sitting nearby, so it was pressed into service again for this one.

This is the Moebius kit. I started it back when the kit first came out, but I ended up with some nicks and blemishes in the paint, so I left it in the box for a bit. Over time I decided to leave the paint problems on it, as they give the car a kind of "as-is" used car lot appearance. I was going for an old lady's car that was purchased used by a guy who then swapped in the Hemi and added the Keystones. That Hemi came from a Revell '68 Charger, along with the hood scoop, while the wheels are from an MRC parts pack with AMT pad-printed tires. Now that this one is finally finished, I want to do a better version with the pillared coupe body. Or a rattier version with a slant six. I have to say, for a car that doesn't do much for me in 1:1, I like the kit.

Considering what a mess Batman Forever was, it was only fitting that the Batmobile would be a mess as well. Nice job on the model though.