GrandpaMcGurk

George was right about the power plant....it's a turbine that was commonly used in the UH-1 series helicopters, around 700 h.p. You guys are pretty sharp...the body is one of those old plastic wheeled curb side models, a '57 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. I'll stretch it a little to make more clearance for the monster truck tires. Yes Jim, I'd forgotten how much stuff is available in small scale. Still trying to get used to working with the teeny parts though. I'm also doing a couple of 1/25th alien rats in super sculpy. You know what they say....once you hit a certain age you start regressing. Now that the technology allows and material costs have come down some, TDR is going to be coming out with some small scale R.P. goodies, so I'm trying to improve my small scale skills. Guess I'll have to set my wrenches and hammer aside for this stuff .

Darn it Virgil, it's not as if I don't have enough projects that aren't completed yet...Noooooooo.......you have to go and do the Area 51 build. Don't know whether to thank you for the inspiration or just go off to the corner mumbling obscenities for making me start another. I've been wanting to try some of the techniques you've been kind enough to share with us so............... anyway it's come to my attention that there have been some five and a half foot tall alien rat looking creatures spotted scurrying around area 51. I would imagine they are trying to recover one of their downed crafts....oops, did I just blow a cover up? Seemed to me your bow tie pickup was a little light pants when it comes to be able to prevent them from over running the base. Let's have a little fun and see if any of you fellow modelers can guess the make, year and model of the body I'm using and what the engine is, based on these early mock up photos.........go ahead, take a guess. Belt fed quad M-60 machine guns, and 2 rocket pods...that should take care of those pesky alien rats.....oh, my.

Jim, I almost forgot.......it's (fake) synthetic suede, no way am I going to try to skive the real thing to thin it down. If you wander through any fabric / craft store you'll find tons of material in just about every color or print imaginable. I usually visit the remnant table, stuff is cheap as it's cut offs from customers orders. In fact, I got the black Velveteen I'm using for carpet at the Hobby Lobby where we hold our meetings.

Mike.........your query about the woodgrain.........do want the quick easy way or some that are a bit more believable & difficult?

Well, Jim at our last "FAST" club meeting you guys where just having way too much fun tinkering with these small scale cars and I figured I'd give it a try. In all honestly they are quite a challenge (for me)......being so small. They tend to frustrate me.........'cause I can't use a hammer & wrenches on them I guess. Slinging Bondo on big stuff and beating it into submission is one thing, but tweezers, magnifying glasses and tip toeing thru the tulips is a major adjustment for my digits. You small scale guys do some incredible builds and my hat's off to all of you......I'm just playing catch-up. In answer to your question about the adhesive.............

It's been a very long time since I've built anything under 1/12th scale. I'd forgotten how small 1/25th is so I'm just kinda stumbling along with this '65 Chevy. Anyhow is going to be my attempt at a customized ride from the mid to late '70's. I'll be using a '71 'Cuda grille with rolled pans front and rear, lake pipes and probably fender skirts......maybe even a continental kit just for giggles.

Great looking interiors Mike. I need to tighten up the wood grain a little more and do some clean up, but here's some photos of the door panel...... YIKES.......guess I'd better clean up the hobby room........where's the bug spray?

I pulled one of the painted seats out of the interior tub I showed at the beginning of this thread to do a mock up on.......I didn't want to take a chance on screwing up on the ones I'll be using for the finished interior. Mostly, I just wanted to see if color combos I selected worked well together and didn't clash too much with the exterior body color.etc. I hope you'll overlook the ragged edges and glue as it's just a test piece, I'll take my time on the finished ones. Also, the photos are much larger than actual size, which makes the suede look like a fuzzy beach towel......not so to the naked eye. Here's the back and side of the seat...the black that shows will be covered on the finished ones. Here's a couple beside the body. I drilled a small hole in the seat frame and pushed a straight pin through the hole to simulate a pivot point for the seat back. The aluminum will be thinner on the finished but I think this will give you an idea where I'm headed with it. I'll also use the light tan for the often overlooked headliner.

All good points Raoul and I agree....but that's no reason to just toss some paint at it and call it a day. It would probably draw a little more attention if it was a rag top.

True...but it's a speaker now, LOL.

These are the materials I'll be using to "upholster" the interior. The light tan suede will be used for inserts in the seats, door panels and the often overlooked headliner. The darker suede will be on the door panels and seat bolsters. The black velveteen is for the carpeting and door kick panels. The 36 gauge tooling foil is for the band that frames the seat (easily cut with scissors). I'll also use a little wood veneer on the console, dash and possibly door inserts.

It's an old Momogram kit Sean, nice looking Chevy Philo.

I cut an oval shaped hole in the kick panel where the molded in speaker was. A piece of fine mesh brass or copper screen will be used to form the speaker grille. Push the screen into the opening from the back of the door panel to form the curved surface of the speaker grille. Here's a photo of it in place.

Please feel free to jump in here anywhere and post pics of you own or offer suggestions as I'm hoping some of what's posted in this thread will be useful to our fellow members. I'll start by tossing out the rear bench seat in favor of two more factory buckets. Here's the bottom of the interior tub loosely mocked up on the floor pan.

Just wondering why model car interiors especially small scale, seem to take a back seat to the rest of the build. Yes, I know some folks super detail their interiors with paint, flocking and so on. Some even have fabric, leather etc,. but not so much in the way of modifications. Anyhow.........thought I'd see if I could spark a little interest them, I'm sure you guys can come up with a lot more than I'm presenting here and more than likely do a much better job than I can. This is typical of what I usually see......... this tub is one I picked up already built, it's very well painted and assembled although the gloss black paint doesn't really look like auto upholstery unless it had been soaked in Amour-all (did I spell that right?) and buffed for days. I'll take the same interior and let's see what we can come up with....here's the kit pieces laid out.

I thought the meeting went very well guys. I really the enjoyed the laid back "atmosphere".......everyone seemed comfortable, relaxed and more than willing to share the skills and techniques they've picked up over time. Good stuff all around. The models that the members displayed were all top notch and I really enjoyed the parking lot (guess I'll call it at least for now) swap meet. I picked up a few things myself and before the meeting started I sold a few resin Gibson engines that I had no use for. Perhaps we should make something like that an occasional part of our agenda? I'm not saying a full blown retail price make a quick buck vendor stuff......just "hey I have this stuff, and I'd like to pass it on for a few bucks or trade for ........" get my drift? I think I'm about the only large scale guy in the club so far and feeling a bit like the proverbial redheaded step child. However everyone made me feel welcome so it's going to take a little more than that to run me off. Jim, you and the rest of the officers are doing a fantastic job putting this club together........my hat's off to you gentleman.......well done indeed!

I grew up with Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler (my Dad had a Dodge dealership when Studebaker took a dive). Looks like my old truck is going to remain my daily driver for a while..........even if Chrysler or rather Fiat (don't they own more than 50% now?) built the 2 door Charger with a Hemi it.... still isn't a Hemi. The new versions of the Hemi are probably way more efficient, reliable and faster but Hemi is s'posed to mean hemispherical heads.....right? The new version (as far as I know) is called a Hemi simply because Chrysler owns the name. Besides...there is no way I'm gonna pay more for a car than it cost me to have my first house built.

Still pluggin' away Steve......when I started casting the glass multi piece mold I had some problems with the resin setting up properly. It turned out that there must have been some sort of compatibility issue in the materials I was using but M.F. set me straight. I also found a few ghost lines (not visible) in the master that showed up when I did a test section, I'm dealing with them on the master as I don't want to have to try to repair them in the mold. The last fly in the ointment is that I need to scribe the door lines etc. a little deeper on the master as the were too weak in the test section.

Didn't feel like messin' with photoshop this a.m. so I printed a pic and took a marker to it. After looking at it....think I'm going to stay with the red & yellow.........the black & red scheme looks fine but just doesn't fancy my tickle.

Think I'll toss it in photoshop and change the color........... may re-paint it that way Harry.......the tank and fender aren't permanently attached yet.

Thanks JIm, originally I was going to paint the tank & fender black with the frame red.

Woo, woooo....it's got some paint, now I can get started on the engine and sprockets.

You're making me grin, Jim. In another life I flat tracked a Harley (dirt track). I have the nose to prove it........broke it 4 times along with fingers, ankles and several other bones. Young and stupid (at the time) I guess....now I'm older and the young part has long since left the building, however......the stupid part remains.

Thanks Chris..... I must have bent up a foot and half of tubing before I got the bars to look the way I wanted and match from side to side. Seems like (at times) what I think should be a snap to fabricate drives me nutz.

Harry...does that mean you are the........ U.S.A. MCM East Coast Under Assistant Promotion Man?