Dave Mikrut

I've made a little progress on the alteration of these wheelwells back to stock. Soon it will be ready for paint.

I built this model before the new release of the AMT Double Dragster kit, but I noticed that the AMT parts pack T-Bucket instructions suggested uing the Fiat dragster chassis. I have numerous boxes of old parts from those old D/D kits so here is what I came up with, with the help of a lot of donor parts from my parts boxes.

That shifter is the radiator cap from Rommel's Rod.

The rear wheels actually come with the Li'l Stogie kit. The tires are AMT an I believe they came from one of the Mopar Pro Street kits.

Very observant of you Jairus! I neglected to mention the body for this build is from the old MPC "Switchers" 27 T Coach Cab. A very cool kit, there's another body like this one but instead of a turtle deck it has a small pickup bed.

When the Li'l Stogie came out I knew I couldn't do it justice but I saw potential in it to use the chassis to build kinda a show rod/street rod out of it and thusly Mint T was born...

I can just hear ya saying, "Hey Sooop, how do ya make all them fancy cuts and modifications and they all come out so smooth lookin?" Well it's a simple little trick I'm gonna share wit youse cuz ya just never know how long we gots hehe! I had to cut this hood down the middle, and on an angle tho, so the front is the same but the back matches up with the body. Ooops forgot to take a foto of that. So the first picture you see is I got the two halves together and backed them up with some styrene. No matter how precision you make your cuts, it's always a good idea to take a file and make a triangular groove like you see I done in the second foto. Next you glue in a tiny piece of triangular styrene available at yer LHC. I used Plastruct plastic weld on this. Soften it up real nice and you can even squeeze it some so it's sure to go down in them crannies. Now let this dry real good. Sand and prime...seams all gone and its STRONG and no putty used. Too many times a repair like this patched with putty will crack somewhere in time.

The day I bought my Rommel kit I knew I would never build it right out of the box. You'll haft bear with me, because I am not going to give away the whole design here right off the get go. What I am showing today is what I have so far. I have grafted an old Monogram Sizzler bantam body to the front fenders of the Rommel body. I filled in the spare tire well and the big rear slick openings of the bantam body using various levels of sheet styrene for strength. I'm also filling the holes in the other fender the same way as you can see. I always try to make precision cuts, use minimal amounts of putty and Duplicolor makes an awesome primer that is a High Build Formula, scratch filling sandable primer. This stuff works great!

Very sad to say Bob passed away 10/16/09 http://cs.scaleautomag.com/scacs/forums/t/74496.aspx

The rolled and pleated material used in the interior was fabricated from left over 59 El Camino tonneau covers. The big fatties on the rear came from one of AMT or Revell pro street kits, can't remember. I just wanted something more streetable than the slicks that came with the kit.

I added some speaker detail. I used some textured silver paper, like cigarette box, or papers you can get at the craft store, to simulate speaker grilles. I used a 3-hole punch to make them. I put them on the sides and the kick panels. The amp is in the trunk LOL!!!

When I followed the old Don Emmons article on how to channel an AMT 49 Ford, I got a little carried away with hogging out the wheelwells. I've just had this idea in my mind for so long I decided to give it a go whilst wathing the Bears lose again today. I think the fotos are pretty self explanetory and now I'll let this all dry for a week or so before I start sanding on it. I'm also planning on seeing how the fender skirts will look on this as well.

A long time ago, I altered the wheel base of a 64 Plymouth Belvedere. I did the rear and front wheelwells. I actually had hoped at one time to have it resin casted, but later a few other companies started doing an AWB of the sedan roofed version of this car and I just recently figured why not just go ahead and build it. So here's the fresh paint job, still needs wet sanding and I'll do some custom decals for this one. It'll have an injected Hemi engine and it's gonna be called Banana Split...oh...you knew that already....uh... ok...hehe

From the Snowball Webpage http://canney.net/projectsnowball/ A new concept for the new millennium! Not one group of builders, building their version of a particular model kit. But ONE KIT, traveling between a group of modelers, with each builder applying his (and her) own touch of individuality to it. ~ Seasoned, pro, and novice builders all getting together to make history! As you can see the original prime objective of the Model Car List online Yahoo Groups car club was to have multiple model builders work on the same model, pass it to the next person on the list when done and so on. It was the individual choice of each modeler, no matter what skill level, to decide what they wanted to do to the model. Originally it was intended that no one would suggest or complain about how the work was being done. We also had hoped that each person would only have the model for a short period of time. The original owner, had understandably gotten frustrated with the emotions that later occured as there was alot of frustrations involved with keeping this project alive. So much so that it was going to be abandoned and then I volunteered to hopefully keep the project alive. in addition to the one time I did the custom front end treatment, where in I had the model for approx. 3 weeks, I also had the model returned to me broken and had to deviate from the prime directive and repair it to the best of my abilities. I had the model a couple of weeks the second time as well and passed it on. See these 2 links: http://canney.net/projectsnowball/stage08/index.html http://canney.net/projectsnowball/stage08a/index.html When the project started, an unknown factor was that there are circumstances in peoples lives that are very important and our model building hobby has to take a back seat to life's realities. The project slowed down once again and this cause alot of frustrations for the members of the club and a lot of hurtfull things were said and once again the project nearly died. When I recieved Snowball back many of the club members had voted that I keep it and complete it, so that it finally would get done. For all the time that I was the owner of it I had to be a referee and try to keep the club together on this because it was really causing alot of divisions, positive and negative. It had taken it's toll on me and I regretfully posted the following letter to the club. I've been thinking long and hard about making this decision and I believe the time has come to pass along our beloved Modelcarlist club group build to someone I feel has the desire and resources to continue it's legacy. Since it was given to me by our good friend Paul Canney who has donated to this day his time to continue a website for Snowball, I have had the pleasure of seeing it grow to it's present condition and tried to keep the enthusiasm alive. I've been a builder and a promoter and a referee and felt a lot of ups and downs myself about the fate of this wonderous project. For those of you that have had the joy to work on it, you know the feeling I'm talking about. Our original intention was for many builders to work on it and who knows how it would turn out. Many people have put some of their best work into this model and it will truly be a masterpiece when done, just for the fact that it got done under these circumstances. I had the joy of showing it at the 2008 Toledo NNL and my display did give it credit to being a Modelcarlist group project with all the names of the builders. The magazines photographed it and if it does show up in their coverage, it will have my name on it. They told me "Well it's gotta have SOMEBODY's name, so that's why it will show mine. I don't want anyone to think I was taking sole credit for it. I have possessed this model three times over the last 9 years. I do feel tho that in spirit it is owned by all of us club members and this is why I have decided to pass it on. I'm lacking the feelings and inpiration to finish it. It's as if it is telling me, it's time to move on. My health, mental and physical is keeping me from giving it my best efforts and I wish for it to be in the hands now of someone who I know will carry the torch and get it done. It will be his right to decide to finish the entire model hiself as all you had voted at one time for me to do, or to farm out a few more trips that will hopefully be a few weeks or months turn around. I'm sad, because I will miss it. It sorta reminds me of the Ring in the Lord of the rings. It is precious and beautiful to hold in your hands. I'm hoping to see it again someday and I know the new owner will understand what I'm saying when he get's it. He's is Chuck Darnell. So what can we learn from this? Was our prime directive a failure? Yes and no. The original idea to just give a free reign to each individual builder, either newbie or experience builder got lost along the way. We were able to produce a nice looking model, still unfinshed but there is still hope. I also recieved alot of negative emails from people who were unhappy with it and had very negative comments. Mostly by people who were uninvolved so that's just their opinion and they are entitled to it. The club also tried a group build of the AMT 36 Ford. That project also died for all the same reasons. I'm still in possesion of that model too, I someday hope to finish it. So GOOD LUCK to the new Model Cars Magazine project. The only suggestion that I would like to make is that the people that will be working on the model, and I compare this to the TV show "OverHaulin" is that a plan or concept of the finished project be decided on before the work is started. Good idea? Yay Nay? and yes....I'd love to participate in this new project!!!

I had a really fun day. Another invited guest was J.D. Booth. I had met him on a friday night last year at one of our friday night car club get togethers at the Highland Gyros. His diorama he build aout 25 years ago is with out a doubt incredible and so are his models. He does a lot of machinist work and fabricating and his Boydster was also in Street Rodder magazine. He also makes beautiful plastic displays cases with wood bases and We made a few trades. So here are some fotos of my friend Steve Vuko's models, I brought quite a few along, some that you may recognize and also photos of J.D. 's suburb models. http://s156. photobucket. com/albums/ t9/soooperdave/ GG%20HOBBY/

Harry knows where I got the name from...hehe!

A while back I had gotten a big junkyard full of parts, that once I sorted them out, I realized I had 2 Valiant bodies, one with a good front half the other with a good back half. Just for fun I thought I would see if I could restore this rare old model. I have a really nice promo of one and also one I am doing as an AWB. As you can see from the first photo, it is definately made from two halves. I sanded and sanded and primered and sanded and primered till I got it just about right. Those vent windows were way out of scale so I am going to fix that later. I really have fun doing restorations like this. It's challenging and even tho I don't plan to make a soooper detailed model out of this, it will make a nice shelf model. Possibly to display with the altered wheelbase version of this same promo I have on the back burner. Who knows, maybe someday I will cut the hood open on this model and throw a slant six in there hehe. Or a hemi! This little diversion from my other more serious builds allows me to relax and enjoy, while watching football. I actually sorted out about 25yrs of wheels and tires today, searching for a nice "look" for this little hot rod. I hope you like my selection. Oh by the way, I seem to have misplaced the other tail light! DOH!

When I was just a little goober, my Mom explained to me that I was born before toys were invented and that those toy commercials I was seeing on the tv during the saturday morning cartoons were just make believe like the cartoons. She would then give me a piece of string and a spool, or a straw and tell me to go make something. Well wouldn't you just know it, after a while I found out that by using my head and drawing up some plans, you COULD build something from parts, just laying around, waiting to be turned into something. So I do have to give my Mom some credit first of all. In the early sixties I became immediately hooked on the small sized Hot Rod, Car Crafts, you name it car mags and this provided me with gobs of inspiration when it came to building my first models, which by the way I have NEVER build a model straight out of the box. Born in 1952 I had the pleasure of building and buying, for most of the greatest kits ever made for $1.49. My weekly allowance was $2.25, so there was always money left over for paint, glue and more magazines. My all time model building hero is Don Emmons. His articles in the car magazines and then the model car magazines were the first article I would search for when I got a new magazine. So in this era late 50’s to late 60’s area I was inspired by some of the most beautiful customs of all time. Revell, Monogram and AMT made models of quite a few of them. Roth’s Outlaw and Mysterion, the Predicta and Ala Kart were all difficult kits back then for me at that age but I gave them my best shot. Building models does many things for me. First and foremost I believe it satisfies a creative desire. Secondly, while growing up, poor but not totally without, I learned you could satisfy desires to possess something by either building it or even just drawing it. My building style has become that I really enjoy sharing all the things I am attempting sometimes for the very first time. Some days while at work, I can't wait to get home to try something that's on my mind, that's when I am on an inspirational roll. Other times I feel like if I pick something up, nothing will go right, that's when I get out the old zines and stoke up for another run. Can ya tell I love to build models???

This is actually one of my all-time favorite cars and I profess to be a Chevy man! haha! There is a guy who cruises a gold and white one in my town, I will try to get a foto of it to add to this thread.

Well I felt the same way and was compelled to add a little more detail to the chassis, even tho it was just a little it did add some realism. This was a quiky build, the decalling was a real son of a gun tho! hehe

Yep I built it. What's cool about this kit is that it comes in more than one color. I chose the white one so I could make a version of the Ramchargers drag car. Here are some fotos of the build.

Really thought the NNL was next weekend. I was really looking forward to it. Called and cancelled my motel reservations for next weekend...man this freakin sucks!!! Boy do I ever feel freakin stoopid!

Adding some more detail to this model. The Li'l Stogie has no steering linkage so I fabbed them from a few parts box pieces. I added some disk brakes for some stopping power and as you can see belowI tried to simulate a steering box as well. I also added the front tie rod and shortened a nicely detailed drive shaft for realism. I added a gas and break pedal and steering column and wheel. I'm suprised no one has noticed I changed the plug wires. Also I added that little console that will have a radio in it and I am revising the gearshift handle.

I know what you are sayin bout the smell Gregg. When they're gassin out, it's almost like you can still smell both paints. One time I had applied it so soon, I could rub the top coat off down to the silvercoat, which was also still gassin out and I could smell it crazing the plastic! But now I'm hearing you are using alcohol for a paint stripper? Will it do silver and gold? I always have trouble stripping those.

Yep Gramps it is the old Switchers body. They've reproduced some of the Switchers, not this one yet, I don't think. Theres still another version in the box I can build too! By the way I've never seen the other model that ended up on being posted on my post, but I gues that goes to show that two people can have a similar idea, with the some of the same raw materials to work with. I just happened to think it was a cool body to add to the Li'l Stogie chassis.