Jason Rothgeb

Not a dumb question at all Jeryd. It actually was the motivation for me to figure and post an avatar many months after signing up here myself. Now if I could only figure out how to do it on the Randy Ayers board. :roll: Fotki does not let you cut and paste the address for the thumbnail pictures even though I can do it with my full size fotki images.

There is more than one way to skin this cat. My way? My printer has a reduce/enlarge function. I print the page and reduce accordingly slightly darkening as I reduce to counteract the lightening of the image that takes place. I use a Revell license decal for size reference on the final plate. The plate on this Shelby was the first time I had used Acme in a few years. One problem seems to be that your cache fills up pretty quick and you have to dump your cookies to reset. An annoying quirk to be sure. As you can tell by the picture I missed slightly on the size, though as most of us know by now, the Macro function on our digital cameras can be somewhat more unforgiving than the human eye. I choose North Dakota for the all important "looks cool" factor. Although the image lost a lot in reduction. That is a Bison in the lower left corner, though you can't tell at that size. Further, the "North Dakota" at the bottom of the plate is pretty much illegible at that size.

Olle, One other really nice detail that I don't know if you have discovered yet, or maybe saw but forgot to mention, was that the 6 Cyl. engine is PRE-DRILLED to accept spark plug wires. I saw this and was blown away by the coolness of that detail. To make things even cooler, Model cars published the pictures in an issue shortly after this kit came out, IIRC they were used in the kits development. And let's not forget the guy who did the beautiful boxart. :wink: Yep, they touched all the bases on the HT Nova. The others kits, unfortunately have been DEEP foul balls; potential Homers just INCHES from going fair. The all have that ONE detail that gets under a modelers skin. The Roof on the Hardtop Pontiac, the interior on the Pontiac Convertible, the windshield height on the Nova convert. (I think there is a difference of opinion on the same kits boot. Someone on another board displayed a picture of a 1:1 '63 with the boot on and it looked pretty bulky as well.), and the ride height and engine on the 78 Monte (OK, the Monte has two but that still averages out to 1.25 overall) I was doing a blue/blue Nova Convert a couple of years back the ran off the rails due to me completely missing the shade of blue on the interior. Amazing the things that can stall a project isn't it? I have definitly have to get back to getting a Trumpeter Nova on the shelf. Sooner than later.

Hooked, Sorry for the late response. That kit is a Revell kit and recently reissued as a "2 n' 1" with the 19" TT wheels in the Pro-Touring style. I had the original kit for a few years, but had to pick-up a parts kit due to a failed experiment with using the photoetch MCG grill. I was able to get the parts kit at my local Wal-Mart. My local hobby shop also had one in stock that I picked up to do that eventual 1970 Shelby project.

It's looking good James. It's good to see a post from you, I can't remember seeing one from you in a while. One question: is what your using a CF set speciffically for Tamiya's Carerra GT kit? I'm glad I saw your build-up before I got around to building mine. I had no idea that car had that much CF even after looking at Photo refeence in the Enthusiast magazines.

Thanks Ken, sometime this weekend when I actually visit here on my home computer, I will get my avatar posted thanks to you.

Even though I had just looked at the thread in question, I still got my information garbled. :oops: One thing I did not get mixed up though was your assertion that rdean58's post was JUST a question and not an accusation. A question with a reasonable answer and not likely to hurt anyone's sales of the kit. Things cost what they cost in my opinion.

Welcome rdean58! It's great to "see" you here. I'm sure you've perused the board and recognize a lot of the names. Not to track mud from outside into the Model Car's house, but I thought you did get a raw deal in that HHMB thread on the price of the 1971 T-Bird. All you asked was why is this kit more than some of the other Model King releases, to which you got a bristly response. khart, who's a member here as well, was nice enough to look through the box and figure out that Dave had to have a new glass insert made which resulted in the somewhat higher price tag, which was your question in the first place. Now I'll have to go post my views on this over there as well so as to not be talking behind the HHMB's back Anyway...glad to have you aboard, and I plan to spend more time here myself, Jason

Does anyone know how to get a Fotki thumbnail as their avatar, or in the alternative, resize the full size image so it can be used? I messed around a little bit with these and was not having much luck. Thanks in advance, Jason

Pat, for what it's worth, they both look good. I do like that blue better, but the silver is still sharp. As for the tires on the silver car, why did you change them. I like the tires on the blue version better. They gave the car a burlier stance.

This is the second completion of the year. Details include Tamiya clear over Testors Laquer Grabber Orange over Tamiya grey primer (all rattle can) the car is box stck with the addition of some of the Model Car Garage photetch pieces including the front fender badges, rear license plate frame, and the radiator cap. The Cobra badges on the C pillar are from the Fred Cady decal sheet. I also used Slixx decals for the gauges as well but you really can't see them at this point. Looking back, I should have used the MCG pieces for the C pillar Cobra emblems as well. This is a great kit with a detailed decal sheet including three stripe sets in white, black and maize. I'm not sure the maize ones are correct. In addition you get two decals for the aircleaner, a nice battery decal and a "caution fan" for the radiator shroud. Assemblywise, it went together well and the only hangup was the tail light panel which sticks out slightly due to the rear edge of the chassis. Further there was no support provided on the body for this panel so it kept wanting to fall into the body. It was such an enjoyable build that I am going to do a 1970 with the slight changes that that entails since the 1970s were '69 leftovers with a couple of tweaks, namely adding a Boss Mustang sourced front spoiler and dual black stripes on the hood. A great reference for this build was the book Shelby Mustang: Racer for the Streets by Randy Lefingwell. The book covers Shelby Mustangs from 1965-1970, Shelby Cobras and Daytona Cobras, and the newest Shelby Mustang. Aside from the great and detailed colored pictures, the book does a great job of telling the tale of Shelby and his relationship with Ford and how that affected each year's Shelby Mustang. Without further ado here are the pictures:

Yes over the past four years I had fixed the glitches on an overall pretty clean car bodywise for the Camaro, but it still had no power and self-changing oil. The GTA is a different story. Long story short...it's a body shops dream and my nightmare.

You hit me hard with this one Lobbs. My issue? Trying to color match a hood for a 69 Shelby painted in Grabber Orange. I had two different tries at it with two different parts. One things for sure afgter this ordeal: I know which stripper strips what paint. Anyway, I finished my third try earlier this week and it still was not right. The hood has a slightly darker/grayer tinge to it, even though the exact same materials (Tamiya light gray primer, Testors Grabber orange paint, and Tamiya clear) were used on both the body and the hood! Well three is a charm and this time I decided to "live with it" Too bad because overall I did a pretty good job overall and that and (another issue on the tailpanel) slightly dim a pretty bright star. I should have pictures over the weekend.

I had both cars for about a month until the Camaro sold last fall. Anyone who has talked to me for more than five minutes has heard more than they'd probably like about both cars. The Camaro has a V-6 and auto while the GTA has a 5.0 and 5 speed making it a GT NOT A. About 800 or so were built in 1988 with the manual transmission. That also got you the 3.45 rearend. The car has been kind of a gooch since I got it in 2006 since I have had no time or money to progress in the much needed retoration. My progress so far is the replacement of 1 spark plug on a late winter day when it was snowing. Well, this summer the work is going start. The journey of $15K starts with the first $300 (still needs its PA inspection)

Ben, That is one sweet Cobra and an inspiration for me to get the lead out and build one myself. There are certain cars every modeler should build at least once, a 57 Chevy, a Deuce, a 49 Merc, a first Gen Mustang AND Camaro, and at least one Cobra. For refence though. All BALDWIN-Motion cars are Chevies. This is because they were cars modified by Joel Rosen's Motion performance company and then sold through Baldwin Chevrolet such as the B-M Camaros and Corvettes. Cars such as this Cobra were done strictly by Motion Performance as the signage on the rear fender indicates. Great build keep cranking them out.

This post almost feels like a waste of bandwidth since I seem to be the last modeler on the planet to realize the value of high percentage 90% rubbing alcohol as a paint stripper, but I thought I would update my own experience with the availability, cost and use of this product. First the effectiveness. I placed the parts in a small sealed Gladlock tub that you get with your lunch meat these days. Although the paint did not fall off like enamel parts in brake fluid, it did eventually take off all the paint after about a week or so. I shook the tub, the beauty of having it sealed a couple of times to shake off the paint as it was flaking off. While there was still some discoloration from the paint, the Alcohol removed almost all of it with one cranny on the side of the ducts that needed some slight sanding to take it down to bare primer. Another important fact worth noting was that the Alc. did not affect either the Squadron Green or Tamiya putty I used on the hood and the side scoops. This morning after rinsing the part with water and letting it air-dry, I reapplied some Tamiya primer and Testor's Grabber Orange with no problems. Let's hope I can get the color to match the body this time around. As for cost and availability, the high percentage alcohol could not be better. First, make sure that you are getting the higher percentage solution. The cheaper stuff is 70% versus the 91% or 99% I am using. From others' experience, I've heard that the lower percentage stuff is almost completely ineffective as a paint stripper. The cost difference means you are paying a dollar twenty versus ninety cents or so for the 70% stuff in a 16oz bottle. I found the 99% rubbing alcohol readily available at the grocery store around the corner. Even though the name Genuardi's is not familar to most folks outside of suburban Philadelphia, they are owned by the Safeway chain, so the chances of finding the high percentage alcohol at a retailer near you are pretty good.

Hello Gregg, I saw a post by you somewhere else on the board that if the concept did not take off before too long you were going to plug. I am posting to let you know I'm "thinking" emodelcars.com. I was looking for a Nascar Monte Carlo notchback. I perused the listings and the closest I got was some guy in HI selling an aerocoupe kit :wink: I will keep looking on there to see if the site has what I'm looking for on a given day. Thanks, Jason

The one I'm doing is blue w/white stripes, you are welcome to the blue stripes I have if you want them. Shoot me an email with your address and I'll send them to you.

These are rare bird in scale and 1:1 Steve. It took a while for the Trans Am to catch on in terms of sales. T/As only came with these graphics for three model years, 1970, 1971, and 1972. And 1970 was an abbreviated model run due to the car being introduced in March of 1970. That is why it is nice that Revell provides the white stripes for the blue cars as well. Those were the only two colors they came in in their second year of production. If only they provided the very prevalent T/A scripts for the front fenders and rear spoiler. They are very prominent on the full size car. Darn you licensing gods :evil: Eric's post inspired me to do one as well. Eric yours looks great. Don't sweat the way the parking lights look, I think it's a convincing look and I'm going to do mine in the same way. I will post pics when I finish.

Mark, I am not that up on the MPC kits, but I can tell you you are most likely going to need a couple of kits to get that done in scale. The hood was available on 1985-1992 T/As and GTAs. The wheels I'm not a 100% on, but I do know they are not a top of the line wheel 3rd Gen wheel, maybe the SE and optional on the base Firebird? Also this car does not have the 84 and up ground effects, just the base Firebird/SE body. So your best bet is an early MPC kit (82-84) with a pirated hood from an AMT GTA kit. As for the wheels...not up enough to know whether those wheels showed up in a Firebird kit.

Wow these are great LDO. Thanks for posting them. They might be inspiration enough for me to dig out my kit and get it at least started in 2007. Your post in the General area helped me discover the entire topic area. I don't know how I overlooked it for so long. Thanks again, Jason

I have had some experience with this myself. I picked up some Super Clean at Walmart to strip Model King/AMT chrome, which it did like a charm. Next up for the so called "purple pond" was stripping a Shelby Hood and scoops. The paint I was trying to remove was Tamiya clear on top of Testor's Grabber Orange, under Tamiya Fine Grey Primer all from a spray can. The Super Clean like someone else in this thread said did not touch it. Next up was Poly Scale Easy Lift-Off. This left the paint about the consistency of melted peanut butter. That is how it sits now. I have yet to scrub it with a toothbrush or try 91% alcohol.

Larry, It was great getting to talk again after first meeting and chatting at the NNL East 4? 5? years ago. The fact that we became reaquanited becuase you had stopped to photograph one of my models was of the best moments on a great day. Maybe someday we will see the Satellite hood reissued by Revell, this time with the proper Roadrunner decals. We can dream right? You keep writing your stuff, and I'll keep reading it. Take care, Jason

Hello Andy, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say that it was a pleasure meeting you. For reference, I was the guy whose brother is in the same model club in MN. One of the great things about the NNL East is that it brings together from all over the country. I have met modelers from Canada, California, Ohio, etc all of whom share the passion for building cars in scale. I met and caught up with so many modelers that the show was "out of balance" for me in that I spent only about an hour actually looking at the models which meant I saw maybe 25% of them. Not to worry though, that's where the numerous fotki albums pick up the slack. Take care and hope to see you next year, Jason

Congratulations indeed! Greg and Jairius Thanks for providing the car modeling world a great place to swap ideas and share our work. A board is only as strong as its regular participants and what a great group this board has in terms of talent and variety of interests and expertise. With the NNL East fast approaching, is their a scheduled time and place for MCM forum members to say "Howdy"? And has anyone ever printed up nametags so we can spot each throughout the day? I recognize a lot of the board members here on site already, even if those same board members would not admit the same in terms of knowing me :wink: But it's always good to meet new folks at shows, so if you see, by all means say hello.