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I have found the shoeboxes at Home Depot, Lowes, Wally World, Fred Meyer, K-Mart. Look for them with the storage containers and closet organizer stuff. Usually after the first of the year you can find them on sale for 5 or 6 for $5 or less. I really find them really useful for projects that you are either kitbashing or gathering parts from multiple sources like ebay or a resin caster, you can keep track of what you need to get the model going. I prefer to have all the parts together before I start building a kitbashed model.

Thanks, that will come in handy, beats the calculator for standard sizes.

That's always a cool effect when it works right. First time that I saw this was in the old Car Model magazine way back in the late 60's when Hank Borger demonstrated it on I think a Mustang Funny Car. He had the technique perfected, the body was placed on the bottom of a pan then filled with water, paint sprayed on and swirled then the body was lifted up through the paint film. I can't remember what he used to lift the body thorugh the paint, fishing line or thread at the wheel wells would work. Almost like the guys are telling us that they made it work too. The second thing that it looks like is that you may not have enough surface area in the bucket to cover your wagon, that's a pretty big body. Picture the body in terms of flat like a box laid out including the flaps for the inside of the ends, that's what you are calculating quick and dirty method but it works. Pretty near to the way that you would figure out how to put a vinyl wrap on the same vehicle including the excess and waste. Say the body is 9" long 5 inches high and 4 inches wide now figure out the surface area it will take to "wrap" the body thinking of the height as another part of the length the two 5" high ends make 10" + 9" for the body gives you 19" long. Now figure out the width once again the ends are going to be 5" each for 10" + 4" body width = 14" so you will need about a 14" X 19" Container add an inch to the height to make sure that you have enough water cover. So you are going to need about a 6" deep X 14" wide X 19" Long container. Easy way to do that would be a cardboard box with a plastic bag liner. Paint, dip, drain, dry bag, toss bag and hopefully keep body!

This isn't really a new concept, I searched through the Tip, Tricks and Tutorials section on Storage of opened kits while in work and found nothing but a few hints at this. As demonstrated with the AMT '40 Ford Coupe seen in primer. After I open a kit that I am going to start work on I place the contents of the original box into a Stearlite plastic shoebox, most kits the box and all fits into it. Usually though I just seperate the kit and box and place it into the clear shoe box. Once you have the body work done and topcoated it then gets a shoebox of its own, which I normally line the bottom with a lint free cloth to keep it from sliding around on the plastic. I try to keep the sub-assemblies and extra parts in zip lock bags inside the shoebox, adds an extra layer of protection. Advantages that I've found with this method of storage, visability you know right away what's in that box and what stage it is in. They stack together and don't slide around like model boxes do. Stack on a shelf and stay put. There are no corners that allow small parts to "hide" out of sight. The lids stay on. You can store the kit, paint and "extra" detailing parts in the box. They look organized. ...

He still sells on ebay.

Pretty much the way I feel about them as we'll. BJ RM... And a few other big name auctions that attract geeks with more money than brains when it comes to cars. These "Entertainment" auctions have pretty much driven the hobby far north of the average enthusiasts budget. They play to the gotta have it mentality, I know a couple of cars purchased at BJ auctions that nearly drove the "winning" bidders to bankruptcy, they will finance your purchase you know. I won't be watching the BJ Circus any time soon!

I was thinking as Casey was making some really great points about the AMT '36 Ford Cabrio-Coupe. That most of us really don't mind messing with a resin conversion body or even a kit, some of us even like the challenge. Listen to the collective whine from the crowd when one of the model makers releases a kit whose tooling is getting just a little long in the tooth. We expect pristine plastic or else we're not even going to mess with it, period! If the tooling for some of the rare kits exist and was able to produce a halfway decent casting. If the models maker advised the buyer that this kit is not up to their usual standards of fit and finish, requiring extra effort and fit up to make the model. I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Look at some of the restorations some of you guys do on the glue bombs, how much different is that?

Cool Kit, good for you! Hope you build something equally as cool out of it. I see nothing wrong with bidding in the last few seconds of an auction, I don't use a sniping program either. Just like a live auction where someone bids at the last call. Happens all the time. Bid late, bid with your max amount you are willing to pay. I've been shill bid on twice on ebay that I could prove, first time seller tried to give me second offer even told me that he was "demonstrating" how the system works and bid over my max. Told me he would give the item to me at my highest bid, nope at the point where you shill bid or we go to ebay, got the item at that price. The other was more dishonest, turned it over to ebay he disappeared within a week of the complaint. Bidding early only tempts t dishonest sellers to shill bid and breeds the "Gotta Have It Fever" where the bidder blindly drives the item to crazy prices.

Do a search on eBay for frontier_resin_design I couldn't find a website for them, that's where I found the pickup I was asking about.

Thanks Terry, that was exactly the kind of constructive criticism I wanted to hear. I think I'll pass on Frontier's Ford Pickup either try to find an unbuilt kit or an acceptable built-up model.

I remember seeing your truck in that "other" model magazine and being blown away, it was so much better than what my friends or myself were building at the time. The stink bomb was a good twist on your story. Years ago we used to get a sulfer pumace stone at work that when crushed and scrubbed around under foot let off a horrible sulfer odor it soon became known as "fart rock", more than one devious person disrupted a crew meeting with it. The results were always the same, sideways glances to see who let loose the horrible silent but deadly smell! To this day I can't remember the ligitimate use for the stuff was, I think there was one.

Try the liquid mask that watercolor artists use, it is pretty much the same stuff that you can get at the hobby shops and paint supply outfits. The real trick to getting the stuff off after it has done its job is to purchase the eraser that they sell along with the liquid mask. It peels the stuff right off and won't harm the painted surface or the surface being masked. I've nearly worn the skin off of my fingertips a time or two before finding about the liquid mask eraser. Cheap Joe's Art Supply, Daniel Smith Art Supply and almost all the major art suppliers carry it, look for it in the watercolor section.

Nice flat file, we have a ton of its metal cousins at the office I work out of, crammed full of blueprints. (BTW they haven't been blue in years, smell a whole lot better now too.) If that doesn't work out for modeling find someone that is into watercolor or painting sell it and get something else like a wood machinist box. That is if you can get away with it.

In other words holding out for a glue bomb may be preferable to one of their bodies?

Looking at one of Frontier Resin Design resin off of evilbay, the body is their '57 Ford Truck Kit looks like with shipping it runs $76.50. Not real thrilled with the initial buy in but when you look at that body style Ford pickup you would be looking at that much if not a lot more. I've tried finding them off of eBay but it looks like that is their preferred sales venue. Does anyone have any experience dealing with them and what is their overall product quality? What about fit and finish, who are they on par with in the resin realm? Are their bodies like a lot of the stuff on eBay better in pictures than in real life? I have no idea whether they are a good resin caster or just plain run away?!?

I use my iPad & iPhone on this site, no issue with either.

Simple body swap on a 1/32 Scalextric '63 VW Beetle to an Arii '50 VW Split Window Beetle. Fairly easy swap, I made the head and tail lights work on the the new body. The most difficult (if you could call it difficult) part of the lights was locating the tail lights on the rear fender, the Arii body didn't have locations for the lights, (measure up from the bottom edge of the fender and then from the center of the hood handle on the '63 and transfer to the '50). Head lights needed to be drilled out to tight fit of the O.D. of the '63 buckets add a drop of super glue or epoxy on the inside to the bucket and fender. The interior bucket needs to be slightly modified to fit inside of the Arii body by cutting down the side panels slightly. Drop onto the '63 chassis and cruise in style! Repainted the interior in a dark tan which is close to the interior color of my first Oval Window the exterior was painted "Celery" green (close to the green on the Split Window Bugs). The second is an Airfix Mk 1 Bug Eyed (Frog Eyed to those in the UK) Sprite being swapped onto a Reprotek Fiat 600 chassis. The chassis with the Fiat body didn't handle at all slid around every corner, deslotting constantly even tried sheet lead with little or no results. Early tests with the Bug Eyed Sprite body are completely different, looks like a little tuning and it should handle almost like a magnet car if not better.

Do a search on "PCS32 chassis" Pendle Slot Cars UK http://www.pendleslotracing.co.uk/ has the best selection, wheels and tires. Professor Motor carries them also, last time I looked they only carried the bare bones chassis. The PCS32 chassis is adjustable for wheelbase and can be fitted for width of the body as well. I've used them on a couple of cars they fit and handle very well for an aftermarket chassis they can be set up to run a magnet or not. (The following is just my oppinion) I have never been able to get the steel plate chassis when fitted with foam tires, to handle very well on a home slot car track. This would include the Parma Womp chassis with foam tires (treated or not). They go and handle like a magnet car on a routed commercial type track which is what they are designed for in the first place. Other handling guru's may have some tweeks that they do to make these go, if anyone does I'm all ears.

I was thinking Porsche also, reminds me of a 356 Coupe or even a Speedster. I really like the proportions of the body after the horizontal section, you got it right. I also liked the well planned approach to the section could have been disasterous without it, (good job there too). I am not much of a wire wheel fan so they really don't trip my trigger, something else that might work if you were to change would be some sort of reversed wheel in the same diameter. How about some really big Sombrero wheel covers?!?! (Just my thoughts, this isn't build by committee I hope! )

What's. not to like, especially when its the "All American Sports Car"!

It gets old quick when others constantly feel the need to point out others spelling errors. Every one of us has been guilty of mispelling a word at one time or another, whether it be from a fat finger, common language, in a hurry or just plain are not a gifted speller. Some of us who learned to read phonetically are not gifted spellers at all. I learned to read using phonics while my brother learned to "sight read" he never has to look up any word to spell it correctly while I have to carry a dictionary in my back pocket. My wife who is a teacher tells me there have been numerous studies to back up reading methods as fact. Now on to the topic at hand - Dizzy, I first encountered the word dizzy used in place of distributor when I first started playing with Brittish cars. Apparently they have been using the term for some time as it is found in their technical repair manuals. The Brits use all sorts of things which are odd to us (North Americans). They say Boot instead of Trunk. A Wing is a Fender. A Spanner is a Wrench. A Cookie is a Bisquit. Sometimes it is a matter of spelling. They Spell Tire as Tyre. Colour is Color and the list goes on and on. To me it is like I learned in a Technical Writing class. One of the first rules of Technical Writing is to consider your intended audience. Common Terminology, common language, reading level, technical level, you could carry that exercise out as far as you wish to slice and dice it. In short to me what matters is "does the person you are trying to communicate with understand what you are saying, speaking or writing?" I find that I can overlook a lot of things if the person I am comunicating with is trying to communicate with me in the same terms or language that I am.

Welcome Hector, have fun building cars and enjoy your stay. Dr. Cranky, all I can say is, "You are one sick man!"

Casey, thank you for sharing the link to Roger Zimmerman's scratch built Continental. I am absolutely in awe of Roger's work. Funny when you hear sniveling and whining about how hard it is to make a particular part out of a chunk of plastic, then you see Roger build his engine and transmission from nearly all brass sheet. I've bookmarked Roger's Scratch Building of his Continental, can't wait to see him get to the panel beating of the bodywork. Now there is a guy who is limited only by his imagination and amazing building skills.

There wasn't a local hobby shop until long after I had begun building models. I bought the very first kit at the 88 cent store where everything in the store was 88 cents or less! I couldn't believe that they were selling models that cost $1.49 elsewhere for only 88 cents!!! Now why can't the dollar store take the hint.

I just saw that how to in the same issue the other day and am going to try making a set for a a couple of cars which are in the gathering parts and planning stages. You could really use either method. Just be careful if you use a torch that you don't get the hinge over heated, I wouldn't use anything more than a small pencil torch. That said, how well can you solder? First time? If so go with a soldering iron. Those hinges are pretty thin and small they will heat up quickly, can't remember if Jairus' instructions were to leave the hinge pin in or out when you solder it. Pin could get stuck in the hinge if it is soldered with it in the hinge, it would be a simple clean up with a small drill bit.