Chillyb1

A couple of thing in addition to the above. I use a magnifying glass on a stand so I can see what I'm doing. I use a guitar pick to burnish the BMF: this tool is firm, smooth, and slightly rounded so it is perfect for the job. Try running a black Sharpie marker along the edge of the blade, the better to tell the difference between the foil and the blade. And I found this handy little blade holder that really makes following the proper cut line easy:

That front end "cow catcher" is just about the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Agreed, the zombie looks great. Nice paint work. I'll be watching for progress as both a post-apocalypse and Volkswagen enthusiast.

I build reasonably cleanly and my overall goal is always in-scale appearance. To that end, I almost always replace kit wipers with photoetch ones.

Tamiya's 1966 Volkswagen Beetle.

There's a lot to like there. The things that most impressed me right away are the paint wear on the walls and that door! I'm always looking at things like that to see how stuff in the 1:1 world appears after long-term use and abuse. My only nit to pick would be that there are no dents or scrapes in the door. This is such a nice treat for us members. Now I've got to go look at your other dioramas.

I'm going to enjoy this WIP. I've long wanted to see this kit built. Good luck with it.

Yes, it is worth it.

The Tamiya 1966 Volkswagen Beetle kit is the best available in 1/24: Best mold quality, best parts count, best detail, best body accuracy, best interior. And it is very widely available for not much money.

This is one of my all-time top-ten favorite cars. And that Monogram 1978 reissue of it is the last model I built before giving up the hobby way back when (1985ish). I can't wait to see more of this project. And, of course, the reference pictures too. I know a guy who owns, and has owned, lots and lots of really cool European sports cars. One day I was looking at a picture on a wall in one of his garages when I spotted a Maserati 3500GT. He told me it was his uncle's car and that it was one of the few bodied by Allemano. Very cool.

I don't know about the biting and the chewing but the engine looks great.

What you find suitable will depend on what kinds of subjects you build. I build primarily European stock vehicles of the 1950s and 1960s, and sports and racing cars of both European and Japanese origin across the decades since the 1950s. If you build American subjects, you can't do better than Model Car Garage for specific pe sets. They have beautiful etch quality and are comprehensive; moreover, they are really easy to work with. For the kind of things I build, I find that KA Models and Hobby Design make excellent sets. For example, I bought two of Tamiya's Kenwood Porsche 956 kits and pe sets from Tamiya for one and Hobby Design for the other. The Tamiya set is adequate but more expensive and very limited in what it includes. The Hobby Design set is much cheaper (about $13 compared to Tamiya's $20) and includes an astonishing array of parts for the interior, exterior, and engine bay. It also has thinner metal, which is much easier to work with. It is hard to say who makes the best wipers and some of the answer, like the above, depends on the type of cars you build. The MCG wipers I've already stated are superb: widely available, inexpensive, and easy to work with. The Crazy Modeler sets are good especially the set A, which allows for a very wide variety of wiper arm base, wiper arm, and wiper blade to suit almost any application. The general use set is good for modern cars. The KA Models set is not recommended. I don't like the thickness of the metal and they don't look as realistic after folding and painting. I highly recommend both Hobby Design and GoodSmile Racing sets. There are several from Hobby Design that also allow for a wide variety of applications. And the GoodSmile Racing set is outstanding for vintage cars.

You are remembering correctly. And I'd kill for an H van. I think the original poster here (Junkman) shared a link to a really nice die-cast H van. But I'm really interested in a nice plastic kit.

Super vachement bonne nouvelle! I really love these little trucks. I'm not enough of a scratchbuilder to pull off the conversion myself so I'm very pleased to see this kit coming available.

Aw, c'mon, Skip, my post is illustrated.

I hope that helps. And, by the way, here are the reverse miniature clothespins I mentioned: They make an excellent holding tool for lots of different applications relevant to scale modeling, but I find them particularly useful for holding pe wipers while gluing.

Pas de problem, mec, car il y a plusiers ici qui parlent francais. Mais je pense que ca ira mieux si tu essaieras de perfectionner l'anglais.

Peugeot 205 Ferrari F40 Alpine A110 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA Ferrari 612 Porsche 912 Porsche 956

The simplest answer is to the make them like the ones you see on real cars. However, that is way easier said than done. I have and have used many different photoetch wiper sets, including the ones you picture above, because I think that the single least realistic part of almost every plastic car kit is the wipers. With very few exceptions, kit wipers look out of scale and utterly unconvincing without major modifications. That said, I'll try to add some helpful suggestions and illustrations. (I don't know how many pictures the forum will allow per response so I'll probably have to add several entries.) First off, not to badmouth Detail Master, but I'd get rid of their wiper sets. The second ones simply don't look realistic and the first are so hard to bend you'll end up in a mental hospital trying to get them to work (that goes both for the arms, which are absolutely impossible to bend partly due to the thickness of the metal and partly because of the very slim sides to be bent, and the blades, which are impossible to get to line up correctly after folding). The MCG set is pretty great but suitable only for a select period of motor vehicle; if you only build cars of a certain vintage then you are ready to go. I have sets from Hobby Design, Crazy Modeler, Good Smile Racing, KA Models, some generic no-name sets, and more. Some are better than others, but all of these actually work reasonably well, that is, they bend easily and you can glue the things together without tearing out all your hair in the process. I highly recommend the Good Smile Racing set A for vintage 1950s and 1960s cars. A couple from Crazy Modeler: In addition to the above there are lots of pe detail sets for specific cars that include wipers. These are usually pretty easy to work with because they are designed for a particular kit (duh!) and so don't require a lot of manipulation to get them to look right on the model. So, what's my procedure? I select the wipers I want to use, or that come with a detail set, and then use this tool to cut them from the fret frame: You'll need some kind of bending tool, also, to get the things in the right shape. I use Tamiya's short bending pliers, a generic pair of flat bladed pliers, and various kinds of tweezers (for the blades). Bend them till they look right. The fold lines VERY RARELY GO ON THE INSIDE. Most wipers are etched with detail that appears on the same side as the fold lines so that tells you which side is UP. When you like the shape your wipers are in, then it is time to glue the arm to the blade. This will take you approximately 42,650 attempts before you are comfortable with it. A huge pain, it is. I usually use reverse tweezers to hold the arm is such a way that you can set the whole thing down on your workbench while the glue dries. I also frequently use reversed miniature clothespins to hold them (Do you know what these are? I'm not sure I have a picture to illustrate.) You should align the arm and blade so you know exactly how they will go together before you try it with any glue. A tiny bit of CA is the best choice for this; other adhesives are not strong enough or are too visible. So, use whatever method you find best to finish the job. I usually apply a tiny bit of the CA to either the arm or the blade, whichever seems the better choice, and then hold them together briefly before setting them down to completely dry. Tedious and nerve-racking, but necessary for decent looking realistic wipers. Afterward, you can prime and paint them with your favorite primer and paint. Always with an airbrush if you want them to look in scale and not all goopy with paint. Another possibly super-helpful tip: It is possible to use the base of the kit wipers in conjunction with photoetch arms. Take the kit wipers and use a sharp cutting tool to lop off everything above the base that attaches to the body. After you've bent your wiper arms, modify the base as needed to fit inside the folded parts and glue with whatever adhesive you prefer. Once this is dry you can test fit it to the model and adjust the bend of the wiper arm to fit snugly against the windshield. I think that is all I have to add. Feel free to ask questions and whatnot. I'm adding a gallery of photos that illustrate the beauty of photoetch wipers and I hope the images are reasonably clear. i may add some annotation to the pictures because some of the wipers look better than others and I'd like to point out what I find to be particularly successful uses of pe wipers.

Very resourceful. I didn't recognize any particular livery though I'm sure there are about a zillion that I'm unaware of. I thought maybe you'd gotten some aftermarket set to recreate a specific once-run car.

Good for you, Alan. I'm glad you got that kit finally. It is really fantastic. You are in for a treat when you build it. Did you get it at a hobby shop or score it on eBay? And keep your eyes peeled for more. Believe me, once you've built it you'll want to build it again and again.

That's all well and good, but I want to see more pictures of the kitten!

The most fool-proof solution is the Microscale Liquid Decal Film. Using a clearcoat over decals does sometimes work, but I've had that backfire. The Microscale product goes on thick and looks really unappealing, but dries to an absolutely imperceptible layer. I have been doing painting and decal work for a slot car guy and very often the decals he sends are ancient. A little LDF and they work perfectly. Get some today and don't give the issue a second thought.

That is looking absolutely magnificent. What is the livery? Is that for a particular race? Can't wait to see the finished model.

I'm going to recommend the dual-action Paasche VL. I started building as an adult about eight years ago and I wanted to utilize tools and supplies that either didn't exist or I just didn't have when I was building as a youngster. So I bought a Badger 350 airbrush set and started using it. It was fairly inexpensive and was very easy to use and to clean. And the airbrush experience opened up entirely new vistas in the hobby. After a few years using the 350 and experiencing its limitations, I decided to get the Paasche VL. I couldn't be happier. In my experience the single-action airbrush represents an unnecessarily limited tool: it is either on or it is off, and the quantity of paint is either all or none. Still a useful too if you don't have a choice. The ease of use of the VL is such that you shouldn't even consider it a factor when distinguishing between single action and dual action. Being able to regulate variable air pressure and paint quantity while airbrushing is an astonishing improvement over single action. Plus, the VL is durable easy to maintain. So, my vote if for a dual-action airbrush by the maker of your choice, but my recommendation is for the Paasche VL.