MrObsessive

^^^ LOL!!

I got one of the newest reissues too------I already have the "Reggie Jackson" reissue from years ago, but this issue is MUCH, MUCH nicer than that one! I built one actually back in the '80's, but it was one of the models I lost when my place got flooded back in '11. It was in a box that I hadn't got out of the basement, and it was tossed out along with some other things that got ruined.

Ha! You ain't kiddin' Mike! Having to lug that thing from the back of my place, and then carry it through the house, then up a flight of stairs-----well, I got my workout in for the day! I was afraid when I got it that it would need a new lighting unit but no, the light is nice and bright. In my last job I was a soldering trainer----teaching folks (mostly newbies) how to micro solder using these. Brand new ones are woefully expensive, so I was more than glad to get this as it would have been tossed out anyway.

Sometimes someone will surprise you with a gift that you had no clue was heading your way! Years ago, I had mentioned to a friend of mine that I worked with at a former company, I'd like to get a "Zoom-Boom" microscope-------the kind that we use on the job. At times I noticed the company would throw out the scopes due to missing or defective parts, and I had mentioned that if they ever come across one to PLEASE let me know as I could certainly use it and replace anything that's missing. Well, my friend would eventually leave the company as I would leave as well (five years ago), and we lost touch with each other over the years. Not long ago, she got back in touch with me (via another friend of mine on Facebook), and I had told her that I'm still in the same house, and we should get together sometime with some other friends that we know for a little get together. A few weeks ago, I had just got home from work and I hear a knock on the door------I open the door and it's my friend that I literally haven't seen for years. She was parked in the back of my place and said that she had an early birthday present for me, but she needed help in getting it out. I went to the back of the house, and here's what she had in her car............................ Yup! A ZOOM-BOOM microscope!! She told me that the company she's with was about to get rid of it (not sure why), and she asked them if she could have it. They gave it to her with no questions and she knew that I'd want it! I've been wanting one of these for YEARS, and now whenever I need to do some soldering, or any other close-up work, this will come in VERY handy! You all know the vision troubles I've had over the last year or so, now I've got something that not only works well, but I'm very familiar with it as I used one of these daily in a former job! So look out........you might well see a whole soldered chassis come from me one day!

I've been meaning to post this since last week, but of course other things take over my mind, and I lose track of what I intend to do. I want to give a big THANK YOU to Frank Filosa aka Dodge Driver! In a thread (I can't remember which one now---might have been my own), I mentioned how I have a derelict lathe which I've never done anything with despite having owned it for years now. Frank was nice enough to PM me with the offer of getting the lathe up and running as he works in a machine shop (correct me if I'm wrong Frank), and getting it to work as intended. Well, I sent him some pics of the shape it's in...........here it as all dusty and dirty, and the story of how I came across it. The story: Back around 2005 or so I was interested in a lathe but seeing how pricey those Sherline units are, the thought of owning one of those faded quickly. Nice, but for simple jobs I wanted to do, paying upwards of $700+ didn't make much sense to me. Later on, I was surfing eBay and decided to do a search for lathes, and came across this one which looked very presentable in the pics------or so I thought. IIRC, I was one of only three bidders on it, and I think I got it for $250 or something like that including shipping. I was tickled to get it as I wanted to see how it works, I plugged the motor in, and within a few seconds the motor started smoking something terrible! I quickly shut it off and unplugged the motor, and put it away. I didn't leave the seller bad feedback (I should have) as it could have easily turned into a skunk spraying match, as he'd deny that the motor was defective as "it worked when he had it". I figured rather than going through all of that, try to find another motor for it and move on. The motor you see sitting on the chair was the new motor bought from a company called "Taig", and sure enough it worked as it should when I plugged it in with no surprises such as smoke or fire! Nevertheless, I lost interest in working with the lathe, and soon after put it away. About a year after buying it, I had moved into the house I'm in now, and it's been literally sitting for 11 years with no activity. When I mentioned here on the board that I had this lathe, Frank was nice enough to rescue it for me, and here are the pics of how it looks now with the work that was done to it. These were taken where he works, and here it is now back in my model room.................. I got a real hard laugh when Frank told me that the original motor came out of a dishwasher! No wonder the thing was likened to go ablaze! I've got some straightening up and rearranging to do in the room as I want the lathe of course to be facing the outside of the table, and then it's just a matter of getting some aluminum round stock and start practicing. So Frank, once again many many thanks, and sometime hopefully down the road, I can turn out a little part or two to bring to the club meeting!

Very interesting article! There is some truth about the "Boomers II" which I'm a part of it seems. I wouldn't relate culturally necessarily with someone born in '47 as opposed to someone in '57. A huge spread of years there with the whole "Baby Boomers", and the break-up of that generation into two separate groups makes a lot of sense. BTW, I came into this hobby very late as opposed to friends of mine my age. Most were building models starting at age 7-8 (late '60's when models hit their stride). I wouldn't get hit with the model bug until I was 17 and a senior in high school. I can remember (circa 1978) when models were selling in the $2.00 range or thereabouts depending on where you got 'em. Of course, wages weren't what they are now..........IIRC I was working for minimum wage back then which was around $2.50 an hour I believe.

I've always been a bit confused with the defining of generations. I don't mean to sway a bit off topic here, but what constitutes a Gen-X'er, Millennial, etc?? I guess I'm considered a baby boomer (albeit near the tail end.......born in 1961). I've always thought that kids are still building, just not model cars in abundance, at least not the cars that we lunatic fringers lust after.

The front end on that looks like it should build Sterling Moss's '61 winner according to the link. I'm a BIG fan of this car having built one about 20 years ago using the Italeri kit. I'd like to get this MFH's version, but YIKES the price! I guess I'll just be content with the one I built, and the other Italeri kit I'll just keep a street runner someday. Frank, if you can get to the next meeting, I'll bring the one I did........you'll be tickled by it!

I love the looks of this beauty! To my eyes, it has the PERFECT proportions for a car..........nice dash to front axle distance, no super long rear end and sleek roofline. I like the hardtop appearance without being an actual hardtop. Neat styling trick as the Safety Nazis have seen to it that true four door hardtops will never see the light of day again. IMO, I believe cars of this type are the coming thing for the '20's. Nicely proportioned without all the strange clashing styling cues I see on way too many cars today. While this one's shape is pretty simple, it stands out due to the aforementioned proportions and stance. As Bill said, the nose could some cleaning up a tad, otherwise save for a slightly smaller wheel diameter, this could roll out as is.

One rule of thumb I use when getting paint ready is this: Swill the jar around....when the paint washes away and you just see "film" on the jar, then it's ready for me. If the paint still looks "solid" (as if the jar is full), then I know that I need to add more thinner as the paint is still too thick. Too thick of a paint can lead to your orange peel effect as the paint is not "flowing" as it's hitting the surface. As with anything else------Practice, Practice, Practice! This might sound crazy, but I've found that certain colors seem to take more thinner than others. Reds for instance as opposed to white. Possibly because of the "tightness" of the pigments? If your color is a metallic, it might be a VERY good idea to put a metal ball or two in your paint jar. This will keep the metallic flakes suspended (swill the jar occasionally), and prevent yet another surprise. You can best believe when it comes time to paint my Green Hornet body (months from now), I'm going to be trying the paint out on a junk body. The paint I'll be using will be a custom mix as there's nothing out there that comes close enough to suit me. That's what I'll be using when it comes time to paint. Takes longer to dry, but I don't want any surprises after all this work. Tamiya's paints are OK as far as it goes, but man they sure do wear away quickly when it comes time to rub out and polish! Another thing I don't like about Tamiya's spray cans is this: I'm not sure what Tamiya's paint process is when it comes to manufacturing their paint, but I've found that they're using WAAAAY too much propellant in their cans! I've tried to decant certain colors of theirs in the past, only to have the jar constantly "burping" with propellant hours after I've had it in the jar. I've had to let it sit at least overnight to let a lot of the propellant gas itself out. Failing to do this, you'll end up with all kinds of little bubbles in the paint which can look like orange peel but isn't. Just a word of caution!

I'll echo what everyone else has said on here about embossing powder. It looks much more in scale than flocking------especially for 1/24-25th scale. No, heat against plastic is never a good idea, unless you like nice and warped parts! I try to use first a paint that's close to what I'm going to be using, then apply the flocking in blocks. I'll then go back and touch up any thin spots as needed. Sometimes I'll paint (airbrush) over the powder if I want a certain shade for instance that the powder doesn't have------in this case the '59 Chevy I did, I wanted a somewhat duller red than what the powder was showing. BTW, I've had no problem with the powder "shedding" and such after I put it on. It's a good idea to apply it with your paint as wet as possible, and then dump away any excess.

Steve, I can't wait to see more! LOVE Desotos of this era, and that '57 300 should work quite well as a good platform. As far as those air cleaners------perhaps you could cut off the "horns" on the '57's air cleaners, and line up the air cleaners together like those '62's. The shape won't be 100% correct, but close enough to be very convincing.

Great new about the '69 Boss 302 Mustang!! It was one of the reasons I never bought one......HATED the way that front end looked! Now if Revell can also fix the wonky front end on the 1/24 '70 Boss 429 Mustang, and the "too low" roof on the '90 LX, all would be right with the world.

I'll echo what everyone else has said......Bill Stillwagon is one of THE BEST custom builders out there! Having been with the MAMA club since the mid '90's, I've been always amazed at what Bill comes up with! And yes, he's always more than willing to share with you what he did, and not at all haughty about it!

I think mine was a little more involved than that Luc. IIRC, I "carved" in the chrome trim as I wanted it to match the other existing trim as it had a somewhat rounded appearance. Yeah, that's about the right width for the trim as far as getting the rear window enlarged. As far as the glass, of course-----I used clear stencil sheet because of the optical distortion that you mentioned. It'll be nice to see this kit back on the shelves as it builds up very nicely! The only nit I can remember having with it is building it straight out of the box, the front end sits up a bit too high. That's very easily tweaked to get the right stance, and sans the window trim goof, AMT got the body lines pretty much dead on accurate. That is interesting about why that roof turned out the way it did if true. I tend to believe that's what happened.............I'll be VERY pleasantly surprised if they do fix that (kinda what they did with the new reissued '68 El Camino's roof)-------some cool retro like box art would be all the better!

I'd like that too Luc! But I ain't holdin' my breath for them to ever fix that! I built one many years ago and did the fix on the front and the rear.....I sure wish I could show what I did, but the model got lost in a move------looks to be forever lost. Interestingly, AMT did correct it somewhat on the Cyclone kit------at least it doesn't look so offensive, but my eyes might be playing tricks on me.

I was told that the rear taillight panel isn't quite right. I know of someone that's doing a very detailed model of one, and he's reshaping it with the hopes of getting it cast. It seems the panel is too flat when it should have a slight "Vee'd" shape to it.

Gary, I just PM'd you.......... I've seen that seller's things on eBay, and IIRC, he's been to NNL East as some of those items look familiar. Greg, they've gotten so greedy through the years it's a crying shame. It's one of the reasons eBay's losing money as folks are leaving, and it's also why you're seeing more and more "Buy It Now" things offered. eBay wants to become more of a place to shop like a store, and I can see them eventually getting away from auctions altogether. They created this auction "ghetto" that's tough to break free from---------what they need is some stiff competition so there's a choice. They're out there, but many don't get a lot of traction because eBay's got such a stranglehold on the market.

I have to agree! Except for the chrome wheels, the rest of the car could do without the chrome surrounds and other filigree. I guess that was GM's way of trying to distinguish the car, but it was hard to hide its G8 roots. 'Tis a shame as they've since stopped making them (I liked the stealthier Commodore much better though! ), and GM has nothing in the way to replace it for Chevy. Speaking of the Commodore (sold as the "Caprice" here for our police car market), I guess that had to go away too as Holden is no longer around........at least in the form that we know them. I thought I read that they'll be made in China or something, and to me that stands for boring and soulless FWD appliances.

Alberto, it might be he does it this way as he's pretty much a one man show. I follow his auctions on eBay (got something from him not long ago), but his auction are short-----not lasting more than four days at the most. He disappears for a spell, then he either relists or remakes items that sold before. Yeah, the bidding wars do come up on certain things from time to time. He had a Corvair Lakewood wagon (new item) that went for crazy money not long ago. I figure wait awhile till the frenzy dies down as it IS a repro, and like catching the bus, another one will come along eventually.

Nice to see the Plamoz items added to this! Lookin' good so far! Yup! Resin can DEFINITELY shrink, and even warp after painting--------especially thin stuff such as hoods. One way to correct that is to make sure that both sides are painted, so that the painted side and its "hot" solvents, can't work against that other side that's not painted. Also, if you heat up warped/shrunken parts to fix them, make sure you don't use the same hot water to wash the parts. Resin can also have a memory like plastic, and it'll want to go back to the shape that is was before heating.

Not much into show/street rods but WOW! So you created the .stl files and sent them directly to Shapeways? May I ask who the vendor on Shapeways was? I recently got some very nice U-Joints from them, and while they were a wee bit on the rough side, they were very detailed for something so small.

His last name is Watlington. It wouldn't hurt to ask him Gary...........I asked him through eBay and they didn't threaten me with death or such things.

Gary, I don't have contact info for him other than eBay, but I can tell you that not long ago I tried to get certain parts from one of his kits and he politely declined. Someone else in another thread also tried to get parts and he pretty much had the same answer for them. He had told me he's way too busy with making kits and such to also do parts. It'd be nice if he could branch out in that direction, but I can certainly understand the business side of things. Indeed he's got some nice stuff, and what I've gotten from him in the past has been VERY well done with no pinholes or voids to be seen. Keep an eye on another resin seller on the 'Bay that's been putting out some neat stuff lately, and that's someone that goes by the handle "MustangMom". What I have hot linked is just what they have for the time being............you might want to save them as they're putting things up all the time. BTW, I have bought from that seller, and their quality is also top notch.

OOOH Man! Wishin' and Hopin'! I've mentioned this before, but I mentioned this one to Ed Sexton of Revell at the last NNL East since they've got the basics with the '75 Torino. He nodded his head in agreement, but time will tell if we ever see this T-Bird.