sjordan2

Of course all of this stuff is available online. You can find anything you want if you look long enough and hard enough, knowing what you're looking for. You can spend weeks and months gathering information, and I've done that myself. But what's wrong with a kit manufacturer gathering information and giving their customers a head start, with information builders may not have thought of? This doesn't keep builders of any skill level from looking further online. And not every builder is as resourceful as many of our members. Manufacturer information doesn't have to give the builder everything they could possibly want or need, but they could help with guidance and a certain amount of other help, and earn a lot of friends in the process. Military and aircraft modelers have relatively easy access to all kind of materials, much of it in book form, that offer "walkaround" reference for individual examples, with exhaustive reference for cockpits, engines, landing gear, etc., that you won't find in any single place for most model cars unless you search really, really hard. If you find something as exhaustive on a Chrysler C-300, it's taken you a while, and I've posted on this forum what I've found. And while other members occasionally do so, most other builders don't. Why shouldn't a kit manufacturer give you some extra help? Or is there such a thing as too much information?

I wonder if model manufacturers like Moebius, etc., could improve their offerings if they included a CD-ROM in the kit, or made more things available online, with extra material for builders They could offer backup instructions, a copy of the car's original dealer brochure, a build journal, other reference material, etc. I would figure that the car manufacturers could include the rights and information in the licensing fees - the sort of stuff you find in "premium" versions of kits, DVD bonus material, etc., that might be boxed in metal or other special edition products. OF COURSE it's more expensive. But why would this be a bad idea?

A couple of modelers have tried this. One used a '76 AMT Stingray.. http://www.modelcars...?showtopic=3733 Another used a '73 (the model year used for the movie car. I can't tell if the kit is really a '73, but that's how he labeled his contest build)... http://www.hobbytalk...ad.php?t=205063

Liquitex is water-based and can be thinned to any viscosity. Also available in spray can. Artists can work with it in a range from thin watercolors to thick oils, though I've found that the colors don't pop as much as either of them. Extremely versatile for playing around with washes. http://www.liquitex....urces/FAQs.aspx

I know this thread is mostly about car bodies, but I thought I'd repeat some observations I posted down in the "How Do I?" section. Some areas that could really benefit from scribing are where separate components are molded as one, without separation of parts. Mostly I see this in interiors - scribing around the edges can really help door-mounted armrests, door handles and window cranks, plus seams on most pleated seats. Molded-on hoses and wires on the firewall would look better if they were scribed along the edges to "lift" them away a bit from the firewall.

Here's a bookmark that I frequently refer to regarding what's happening in 1/12 on eBay. It changes all the time, and today it's a bit heavy on aftermarket parts. Be careful when you see prices in italics - those are from overseas. http://www.ebay.com/...188,220&_sop=10 Don't be tempted by two of the most ridiculously bad 1/12 kits I've ever seen: The Mercedes 300SL Gullwing boxed by Renwal, Revell and Monogram, and the Ferrari 275 GTB by Renwal and Revell. They're so inaccurate and sloppily produced, they give Palmer kits a good name. Even if you could get them free, you'd never build them.

I've used them for car interiors, using a brush and sponge - very realistic finish. Being water-friendly, different shades blend well, good for subtle weathering. Also, if you use a gel medium, you can build the surface up a bit for subtle upholstery wrinkles, etc. I first used them for seats on my 1/12 Bentley 30 years ago, and that paint work still looks good.

I think sharpness is more necessary at our small scale detail. According to the graphic designers and IT people at my ad agency, high resolution inkjet printing mostly just lays down more ink, not necessarily more detail. One of the biggest questions is, how will you originate your decals? If you're using screen grabs from online images, you'll get fuzzy, raster pixel images. Here's the difference, and it doesn't matter if you set your printer on highest resolution.

I might add that, as I've learned on this forum, it helps if you can make vector-based files that reduce to small sizes with minimal degradation in sharpness. I haven't gotten the hang of that yet.

If you're going to keep the molded-on wires, etc., I would at least score around the edges to "lift" them a bit away from the firewall before painting. And why not mask around the wires, too? Sort of like laying down BMF on thin body chrome strips, except you peel away the masking from the part to be painted. As a matter of fact, light scoring helps wherever there are parts that need to show a little extra separation from each other - some engine parts, pleats in seats, door-mounted armrests, interior handles for windows and doors, etc. For example, my Mercedes 300SL, which should have separate exhaust headers and heat shield with slightly different finishes, are molded in one piece. Just a little scoring appears to separate them, so the heat shield looks like it's underneath the headers.

What an interesting question. In my case, I would say kit distributors.

I invite Art Anderson to chime in here, but yellow plug wires go back to the earliest days of automobiles when insulation was made of cloth fabric.

Getting there, good work. And I've got post Delete back!

For anyone who's interested, here's an exhaustive thread on the restoration and modification of a C-300 - 35 pages, heavily illustrated. Exterior and interior are stock; after that, lots of changes. As you go through it, later pages show details of body and interior work. This gives you lots of visual information on the stock model as it's torn apart. http://www.hotrodscu...ysler_c300.html

Casey, you're certainly stepping up to the plate to be a conscientious and helpful moderator.

You're dating yourself. And so am I by knowing what you're talking about. I wanted to be a Rocker.

Well, there was a center door Model T like that, but this one is more like a passenger railroad car. (Though I doubt it has an aisle)

An eBay listing says it's 1958

One of my favorite episodes of "The Avengers" was about broadcast power, where the main evildoer wanted to harness it for nefarious purposes.

Why not base it on something like this version of the Tesla Roadster by Hot Wheels?

For the record, Dario Franchitti is a Scotsman with an Italian name, and he's married to Ashley Judd.

Whatever it is, it would make an interesting roadside diner.

Of all types of races, I much prefer F1 road racing with blind curves, hairpins and uneven racing surfaces, and few restarts because of rain. Le Mans style is right up there, but I have a bit of a hard time with multiple racing classes on the track at the same time.

Yes, it's hold down Command (Apple), then hit v, on a Mac. Is the OP just sliding the mouse cursor over the Photobucket image and clicking inside the IMG Code field so it shows "Copied"? Then Command + v to paste it in the forum post. That's how I do it on Mac. (No left or right click on my Mac mouse)

Actually, I did start a thread last week advising of the availability at ESPN360 of on-board camera selection for 12 different cars, but that thread quickly sank to the bottom. Anyway, I thought it was the best Indy in race years (the most lead changes in Indy history), and there was a unique emotional element, with salutes to the late Dan Wheldon, last year's winner, and the fact that his three best friends ended up sharing the podium.