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What needle do you recommend for overall 1/25 scale body painting with an Iwata Eclipse? I have one with the standard needle that is great for small parts but needs a wider spray for larger areas.

I'm in the "dark side" of the model car business: I'm in the design department of a die-cast manufacturer. One of my "babies" is a 1:26 1955 Buick Century CHP car. It had to be 1:26 to fit in the box. I'm thinking of combining the body and interior with a 1/25 nailhead and chassis from a '60s Riviera plastic kit. The difference in scale will make the engine and wheels look just a little bigger in relation to the body -- not a bad thing when building a modified car.

Harry P., I can identify with "I guess shopping for fabric (for interior and convertible top material) in the sewing section..." Imagine being a teenager in 1970 buying lace at a fabric shop. I used it as a stencil for a lace paint job. It worked OK but I had a lot of trouble getting it to lie tight to the body. If I was doing it now I'd give it a light spray of adhesive and let it almost dry before taping it in place.

Here's the AMT 1953 Studebaker Starliner kit that I modified. It received the most votes in the jalopyjournal.com H.A.M.B. online salt flats racer model contest ending on January 14, 2011. The mechanics of the car loosely follows the SanChez '53 Stude racer from the early '60s. The color is a coral orange color that I mixed from Accu-Flex model railroad water-based paint then used their clear gloss and a lot of polishing. The kit's headlight covers, custom front pan and chopped top were used. Most of the trim was removed/filled and a B pillar was added along with door panel scribing on the roof. The engine is the kit's optional 392 Hemi with a front-driven blower and related parts from the ex-Aurora Carl Casper Undertaker dragster kit. Inside, the basics of the Stude kit's roll cage was augmented with additional styrene rod. An Early Years Resin seat and the '53 Stude's steering wheel adorn the kit's tub that got a new styrene floor and had most of the molded-in detail removed. The chassis is from the '53 kit with the floor boards between the frame rails replaced with sheet styrene and new pieces added for engine mounts. I Z'd the front frame rails while the rear has lowering blocks between the springs and the axle tubes. The Halibrand rear end and race tires are Early Years Resin pieces, the headers are from the Revell '69 Landy Dodge Charger (OK, they're from a 426 Hemi, so shoot me) and the exhaust pipes are aluminum tubing. The moon discs are real aluminum pieces from Scale Repro's Plus with three spots of dark grey paint on each one to simulate mounting screws.

The stock 1960 Starliner by 70mach1 here on the Under Glass forum is gorgeous! Here's a different take on the same kit. I built this for the H.A.M.B. jalopyjournal.com (website for pre-'64 traditional hot rods and customs) custom model contest in 2011. It came in a distant second place in the radical custom class online voting by the mostly 1:1 forum members. The AMT '60 Ford kit body was pie-cut to create a wedge shape, as seen from above, but in such a way that that the front and rear of the car did not become V shaped. The bubble top and interior are from the Revell "Big Daddy" Roth Beatnik Bandit. My idea was to build something that might have been a Ford concept car in about 1957 to see how the public would respond to some of the 1960 styling cues. Paint is a custom mix of House of Color silver-white pearl and Trueblue pearl with several clear coats of Pledge (Future) floor finish. Here are some views of the body during construction. It's a curbside model but this shows the basics. I later removed the engine and only attached the air cleaner to the body. To see the other entries in the H.A.M.B. contest, go to http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=596428 -- mine is the Radical Custom #8 entry.

I saw it broadcast on a local PBS station last year. It is definitely worth watching. In some ways it's kind of creepy and in other ways it's very positive.

I agree. Make that airplane fuselage into a Bonneville-style land speed record car! You can exercise your creativity and make it your own instead of following the kit instructions.

Yes. My handle there is abc123. I don't have a HAMB-friendly car.....yet.

Chrome tree sprue placement: it can be done in hidden locations, just look at the chrome parts on die-cast models that are sold assembled. You won't see sprue marks on them. The problem is that the plastic kit manufacturers don't have to show an assembled model so they can take shortcuts on where they attachment sprues.