Erik Smith

Nice!!

Nice nerd car! I built one a few years back and all the black trim on the “glass” is a job in itself.

Great looking model. Great work.

Wear cotton or rubber gloves when handling. You can get them fairly cheap online. The oils in your hands and anything else you touch can harm chrome and painted surfaces.

Sellers are greedy? That makes no sense in an auction where the buyers are dictating the price. Somebody buying all the Badman kits so nobody else gets one, that’s greedy.

That’s actually one of the nicest 1/32 kits in the Arii line up - it’s not an ex-motorized one and has separate rear end and decent chassis detail. No engine though and sometimes the “glass” on those kits is thick and has lines in it. But a cool little kit for sure.

Chassis and engine bay, sans engine. Still need to weather the surfaces more. The ride height didn’t need much adjustment, I wanted a little tail drag, and the kit was close. The track width needs to be narrowed about 6 inches to fit the new wheels and tires - the rear is close to done and I still need to work on the front. I have to say, this style build is addictive. I’ve always really liked the look of this style car. I’ve got about 4 others I’ve been brainstorming…

No, probably hoping somebody really wants it. Those big scale kits do seem to appreciate pretty quick. The MPC 1/16 street charger was all over for $35 bucks a few years ago, and I thought, oh that will probably sell for 5 times that in a few years, and now it does. The 1:8 Monogram kits also bring in quite a bit despite being released repeatedly over the years.

Been done, once in 1/12, but pretty tough to come by. A 1/24 version would be nice.

Good info here

It’s slightly more difficult to trim - because it’s a little thicker, maybe? Or it’s just the difference of material. Also, it doesn’t “break away” like BMF of you miss a little tag while trimming, if that makes sense. The adhesive seems pretty strong, but I’ll check it in the morning to see if it held the curves of the trim. On flat surfaces it holds very well.

Another follow up. Peteski (Peter) was super kind and sent a piece of Hasegawa Mirror Finish so I could compare with the other products. First up I put the MIG chrome sheets up against the Hasegawa Mirror Finish. The Hasegawa product is much thinner and very mirror-like. It’s a type of Mylar or something and is equally mirror-like on the adhesive side. If you hold it up to light, you can see through it, so it’s not opaque, but, yeah, like Mylar. Second set of photos I put the Hasegawa Mirror next to the BMF samples. Again, the Hasegawa is by far the shiniest. It’s really hard to even photograph as it’s either too bright or looks dark. It conforms a lot better than the MIG chrome product but still is not flexible like BMF. As you can see, though, the adhesive on the Hasegawa product is very smooth - all the other products suffer from one degree or another with the adhesive showing in the final burnish / but the Hasegawa is super smooth. I also tried a little along some window trim to see how it would work. It kind of works. Definitely not forgiving like BMF. It doesn’t stretch much so it’s difficult to get it pushed into tight spots or onto script, although not impossible. It also catches air bubbles like window tint, so it takes some careful application. Overall the Hasegawa Mirror Finish is a very promising product. For mirrors or taillight backing and such I think it would work excellent - probably the best mirror finish I know of. For some specific trim pieces it would also work. Just going to add the Hasegawa sheets are the most expensive - they are $15-18 for a small 90mm by 200mm sheet - or toss them into a model order from Plaza Japan where they are 900 yen.

Deans Hobby Stop, Burbank House of Hobby, Plaza Japan, Hobby Search, Model Round Up, Spotlight Hobby, Mega Hobby… Never had a kit show up in an undamaged box that was damaged inside. Had a few damaged outside, fine inside. I had one shipment from Japan that was totaled - all three kits completely smashed and box burst open. Plaza Japan gave me full credit for items and shipping and I reordered with zero issues.

Nice finish. How long did it take to imitate that patina? Hehe. On the serious side - how often do you get offers to sell that truck? Great photo.

Roll bar roughed in. And more paint on the chassis/engine bay.

Very interesting conversation. Scary and valid points. One tough thing - try finding a reasonably priced 1980’s or older car anymore…

Easiest way is: Base coat tan or light brown. Dry brush a darker brown kind of representing wood grain. Cover with Tamiya clear orange. I’ve only done it with Tamiya acrylic paints, but other similar products would probably work.

I think he’s doing trucks next month? Even Hermel asked about a specific truck and that was the answer IIRC. I could go back and read again but probably won’t any time soon.

A quick follow up: The MIG Chrome sheet did not stay adhered overnight. In the first photo you can see it did not stick to the window trim contour. This is bare unwashed plastic, so results may vary. The next photos I compared a new (purchased today) BMF Chrome sheet, an old BMF New Improved Chrome, and MIG’s Aluminum Sheet. The MIG Aluminum is actually a foil product, unlike the Chrome. It’s quite a bit thicker than BMF and the adhesive is a lot stronger - which depending on what your doing with it could be a good or a bad thing. Notice the Chrome BMF I purchased today has a lot of texture is the adhesive. It was a lot worse before burnishing down with a Q Tip, but it’s still a little rough. The old sheet of New Improved Chrome actually still looks the best, it has some adhesive texture but overall better than the sheet I bought today. Finally, the MIG Aluminum Sheet has some lined texture but not so much adhesive texture. It doesn’t lay down as well as BMF because if it’s thickness, but I do see some possibilities imitating aluminum panels and such and maybe some trim. It would represent actual scale thickness of trim and if used right could be a useful addition. It’s the same price as the Chrome, about $12 for five decent sized sheets. *note - I burnished with a cotton q tip and then tried polishing each one in the middle section to see if it would get more “chromey”. You can decide if it did. I have a piece of the Hasegawa Chrome coming from Peter (Peteski) so I will add that in here soon.

Great looking model. Nice work on the wheels, the spokes look quite realistic

Too bad. I know they’re just material things, and luxury items (well, the high end cars), but think of all the labor and actual sacrifice that is 100% wasted as the cars burn.

I think it can have a place. It actually can probably represent an actual scale thickness trim in certain instances. Problem is its inability to conform to curves as in the bend of the corvette trim above. But, yes, I agree it has potential. I actually have some that is “aluminum” finish also, I will try a bit of it on some panels and post results. It’s relatively inexpensive to play around with.

Yeah, unless you’re covering a large flat area, BMF is still the king. It does work well for flat panels and hides some surface flaws that BMF would pick out.

It feels thin but does not flex nearly as well as BMF. I don’t have any way of measuring actual thickness - but it’s slightly thicker than BMF to my sensations. Seems to stick about the same as BMF. I tried it in some large flat pieces and it works well on things like that - especially versus an old BMF sheet that tends to have those old glue wrinkles.