Jairus

Excellent tips Jeff!!! Thank you for your input.

All fixed, thanks Billy!

CLICK HERE PLEASE

:shock: Wow! I am speechless! Beautiful... what I can see.... maybe more light and use a tripod to hold the camera. But the model looks like a winner to me!

Go with the more realistic diameter rollers... in my opinion.

Great photography too dude! That black pickup... if the bottom of the picture were cropped off... would look REAL! Shuuuuutttt.....

Randy, I really like what you have there so far. As Larry the Cable guy say.... "Get 'er done!" And, welcome aboard to MCM Forums!

Tim, Beautiful stuff! Be careful not to get the camera level below normal eye level. Especially the eye level at which the background pictures were taken! Very nice tip, well demonstrated! A+

Cool rod Charlie! Welcome aboard and keep posting, we love it.

VERY NICE build up Tor! This rat rodding thing is more than just a trend I think! Welcome aboard MCM forums. Ratrodder, please post your name in the signature box. We would love to know who you are... :-) Thanks!

dang, and I thought this thread was about magazines.....

Hmmm, do they come with an icemaker I wonder...?

The most recent re-release of the 1973 Mustang kit from AMT came with one "Ring'n Cap" wheel half. That looks like what was used here... If that is the case, he had to buy more than a couple of those kits for this project! (So did I by the way.)

Yeah, but did they come with an 8-track?

Oh, you've seen Ismael's building huh? Many times he has a set of keys hanging out of the ignition.

Lou, I am sorry for not responding sooner but Mark really nailed this one for us however, I would like to welcome you to MCM forums! WELCOME! Gregg and I were traveling when you posted your question. We only responded if need be and since Mark was so helpful.... My input would be to say that if the car your modeling is period, then street tires might be fine as that is what I used on my Allison LSR car. I used Basic AMT 60's model car tires (no markings) and lightly caked a little flat white paint and some baking soda to the treads to cover up the pedestrian nature of them. However, Marks suggestion of using the wheels from the MT Challenger is a good one! By the way, this question is going into the magazine... hope you don't mind?

Here are some simple tricks for taking realistic pictures of your model cars, trucks and motorcycles, plus some common mistakes to avoid. Our subject is a cleanly built Corvette constructed by Ismael Gonzalez, which I pulled out of my travel pictures. The picture has good and bad elements so I will point them all out. Having a cleanly built subject is the first step of course. The car was photographed in direct sunlight, placed on a piece of light gray cardboard at or about 4.5 to 5 foot above the pavement. Unless you’re being artistic, all pictures should be taken at normal eye-level with regard to the model. The first picture is the raw image right out of the camera. Note the stark shadows because this was taken on a cloudless day in bright sunshine about noon in Puerto Rico. Normally I would have liked the sun to be behind a cloud to soften the shadow however it matches the shadows of the background so in this case it’s not too bad but not suggested with a lighter color car. Try to keep your fingers and other “non-scale†elements out of the frame of the camera. Note the edge of the cardboard and the finger within the frame of the picture. Oops! We are going to have to take care of those using Photoshop but if one is aware, that would not be necessary. Always try to match the color and tone of your base to the street behind to avoid lines. (see arrows) The last trick or goof, in this case, is to be aware of your reflections! Taking a picture of the car out in the environment gives us reflections of the trees in the hood and windshield. That is good, but we also get a view of the camera, and my assistants hand holding and bracing the base. That is not good! In the last picture I have resized the picture, crop'd out superfluous elements and lightly airbrushed the cardboard the same tone as the street thus blending the two. Voile', the car is now sitting on the street! The reflections in the side of the car have also been cleaned up. Not too bad huh?

Much better Bobby! Looks a lot more realistic with an actual background. Good shooting!

Most trucks that I know of used piano, or continuous length hinges. Best and simplest replication of this is with plastic packing tape. I did this with a 1929 Ford woody that I built a llllooonnnggg time ago. The body was made all out of wood and all 4 doors were hinged with brown packing tape. I figured that the tape would get old and brittle but it has been more than 20 year now and the doors still open and close. The tape is folded over and attached to both the door jamb and the door edge and replicates the leather weather cover over the piano hinge Henry normally would have used for a hinge on these type of early Ford Wagons. A little more difficult application... is a product from Model Car Garage (www.modelcargarage.com), that sells an actual photoetched piano hinge set. Some assembly and folding is required but a very realistic hinge is the result. Hope this helps.... J

Welcome Marcelo! Your going to fit in beautifully here! Now, can we see the engine?

Hmmmmm, make a wish and pull? Depends how much glue was used. Superglue applies a bond as opposed to plastic glue, which softens the plastic for “weld like†strength. The reason superglue holds resin so well is because it is more porous for a better hold and more brittle than plastic and cannot be pried apart as easily.

(The following is dedicated to those who built the wall) In all my years of judging I have never heard before of Some one more deserving The full penalty of law The way you made them suffer Your exquisite wife and mother Fills me with an urge to defecate But my friend you have revealed your deepest fear I sentence you to be exposed before your peers Tear down the wall - Pink Floyd The Wall (1979)

Those other strippers will eat up your hands if you don't use gloves. Try 90% Rubbing alcohol works great too according to Gregg. Plus, it won’t hurt plastic or your hands.

The Lil Coffin has those wheels and tires!

Scale Equipment has a range of wood decals! http://www.seltd.net/grafixlist.html