MrObsessive

Sad but true............

WOW! Some FANTASTIC work Michael! How did I miss this?? Your conversion work is really good, and you've made the cuts in the right places on the body.

I'm a bit more selective these days when it comes to buying kits and price certainly has a lot to do with it. It's VERY easy to rack up more than $60 for one model by the time I add in paint, a case, and perhaps some other detailing extras I might want to go with it. I don't know any young folks that can spend that kind of money in one shot. Nick has a good point in that jobs aren't as plentiful for young people as there used to be. Jobs are out there, but with the high cost due to inflation, taxes, etc-----a dollar bill goes nowhere near as far as it used to.

For perfectly flat areas, yes you can use that. However, acetate likes to stay one way and that is flat. I'd much rather use 5 min. epoxy to fight against it trying to go back to its natural state especially for slightly curved areas such as your small rear windows. To me, good glass in a car is just as important as a paint job. It's highly visible, and ill fitting glass is a major turn-off for me. BTW, that's an interesting project you've got going on! I've not seen anyone attempt that before!

IIRC, it comes in .010" where I get it at the craft shop.

No, I'd still use the acetate. That's a simple curve meaning it's not compound.........you shouldn't have any problem bending that. It's best to make some kind of template using perhaps a 3x5 card and then transfer that onto the acetate. And yes, the acetate is a bit tougher as I've found it not to scratch so easily as styrene. IMO, the acetate reflects the light better giving the appearance of actual glass as opposed to styrene. If you need any tips on holding the acetate in place, you can go here. Scroll down a bit, and you'll see what I did to the Turbine Car to get the glass to stay in place.

The .010 styrene sheet will give you more difficulties as it's more flexible than the thicker stuff. I highly recommend acetate, or what I look for when going to the craft store is "clear stencil sheet". Be aware though that acetate only likes to be bent one way. It's great for flatter windshields with only slight curves, but if you're trying to replicate glass on cars with compound curves out of the late '50's/early '60's, you're gonna have great trouble in trying to get it to cooperate. Better to vacuform something like that if that's the case. EDIT: Here are a few pics of cars that had their glass replicated using clear stencil sheet......... There are exceptions to the rules.........in the case of the glass on my '58 Chevy, I was able to use the acetate for its wraparound windshield. It only needed to bend one way, so that was not as fussy. Something like this............... Definitely MUST be vacuformed! HTH!

MPC did a 1/16 scale '57 'Vette as I have one. The original kit came with working lights but I have the later issue that excluded those. Looks to be a bigger version of the 1/25 scale '57-------incorrect side cove and all. Scott of the AMT ones you mentioned, I have among the following............. '55 T-Bird---One built and one never touched in the box '57 T-Bird---Never touched in the box '57 Chevy Convertible---Never touched in the box, but has a warped windshield frame (common with those). '64½ Mustang (OK really a '65)---Never touched this one, but I did swap out the incorrect WWW's and tires and put those in my MPC '57 'Vette kit which oddly enough, doesn't have those. When the '55 Nomad is reissued, I definitely want one of those as I built one many years ago (Mid '80's), and really liked how it went together. I really wish they'd find both the '55 T-Bird, and the '57 Nomad. Why no kit maker has touched the '55 'Bird as a regular scale glue kit is a mystery to me. I finally got impatient years ago and made one myself backdating Monogram's 1/24 '56, but it sure would be nice if someone would tool up a modern kit of one. BTW, my only gripe with those 1/16 scale kits from AMT is that when they're built up, they seem a bit "empty". See through inner fenders and wheelwells, gaps on the chassis sides, etc. They really do lend themselves though to some very thorough detailing, and look fantastic when done right. EDIT: I want to add that I find it funny that all of sudden, I see '55 Nomads coming out of the woodwork on eBay. Guess the sellers got wind that the kit's going to be reissued very soon, and they want to cash in before values drop like a stone..............as well they should!

OOOH! Scott, you are a brave man! I take it this is a resin body and you've cut the doors out! Kudos for tightening up the shut lines--------not always and easy thing to do with resin and from what I see, the fit is excellent!

I have a number of 1/8th's--------Monogram's Jag, '65 & '85 'Vettes, '32 Ford, Big Tub, and Big T. A couple were started, but the others remain in their boxes untouched. It's not so much that I don't have room-----I don't have the time! 1/8th scale to me means LOTS of detail......more so than what I put into my 1/24-1/25 scale. Not to mention all of Revell's first issue 1/12 scales........... I'd NEVER get all of 'em done at the rate I build! Frankly, I just like to look at em every now and then the way they are in their boxes they're so nicely done!

And if things do go wonky on your OS after having such a thing happen, you can always do a System Restore. That's if you're running Windows. I'm not sure what Mac folks do.......... I have an AdBlocker extension on my browser (Chrome) so I don't see such ads either. Some of them can really slow things down they take so long to load.

YIKES! I'd probably end up doing the same thing though!

You got it! That bugs me more than anything when someone will post an ungodly long URL rather than hyperlinking just the word like you did above. Yeah I know everyone's not 'puter savvy, but one has to learn to use the tech that's out there and not be afraid to use what's available.

That's one of the things I would have liked to have done while I couldn't drive. Get the car to the dealer and have them replace the passenger side airbag. They tell me however that parts won't be in for another three months or so.

Very nice! Great that you're using the Johan body with the AMT guts. Johan's body is a MUCH better rendition of that B-Body Mopar than what AMT did. They're just getting harder and harder to come by.

Just wanted to let you guys know that my vision is better than it was this time last week. I have my full line of sight vision again, and I was able to drive my car without much difficulty the other day. The bubble is still there as it does block my lower vision when it comes to reading, but at least I can see the computer screen without using one eye. My PC that's in the living room is easier to use than my laptop as the PC sits up higher, whereas the laptop sits lower on the table in my work room and no amount of adjusting seems to help-----even moving the seat up and down. My eyes are still quite light sensitive, and earlier when I had to go to the store, I needed sunglasses even inside the place as everything is still five times brighter to me it seems. At least I'm able to drive again. I figured as long as I can see the top of the dashboard and the hood of the car, things should be OK. I also have to deal with double vision at times, but this is a matter of getting the eyes "retrained" into focusing on distances as opposed to the bubble which I can still see. I liken the bubble to having a very dark contact lens covering about half of your sight. I can see very well straight ahead, but when I look down it's all murky and dark. I also hate how the bubble jiggles and dances around in your eye at times. Those who've had this done will know what I'm talking about. Model building is still on a hiatus till I get my lower sight again. I guess I could work with my arms in the air, but that would get tiring, and of course lead to a major mess up! Hopefully, by the end of next week, the bubble will be totally gone. If that's the case, I'm going to call the Doctor to see if I can at least go back to work and be put on "light duty" if they have anything. We shall see!

I try to remove as much of the quote as I can-----especially if I want to zero in on a key point. It's also another reason I like the HTML code word tagging to use as links. Copying and pasting URL's (eBay's are the worst) suck up space and can shift the board around for me on my end if they're woefully long, especially if I'm looking at a post on my phone. It's one of the nice things on this board that you can use the link function to "key" a word to use for a link, than copying and pasting a URL that is five miles long.

I look no further than what happened to my '59 Chevy right after I painted and polished everything up. Trying to get the doors on particularly the passenger side door, darn if the hinge broke because I was trying to "straighten" out something as for whatever reason the door was binding. Of course, there were no fixing the hinge, as it was very difficult to get the same radius as before, and have everything work. Well, I was too far along the WIP to abandon it, so I simply epoxied the door shut and went on to finish it. If I've learned something out of that------make the hinges from now on to be more sturdy as opposed to prototypical to the appearance, and not try to force something on that won't cooperate in fitting right.

Len (and for anyone else tuning in), if you go here, I show how I opened the doors on my '59 Chevy. I've not built the type of model you're showing here, but the principles are the same. HTH!

Glad I could help!

Now THAT is some nice detail on those carbs!!

MMMM...........Fuddruckers! As I've mentioned before, I've pretty much shunned fast food in recent years, but THEY'VE GOT SOME GOOD FOOD!! There use to be one not far from me here in Central PA, but unfortunately they closed. Then I went to one after church services out of town (VA) one time and really liked it. We tried to go back again another time, and that one was closed! Haven't seen one around since..............

One could try here.

Last I knew, that engine was in the MPC '69 Firebird kit. I have the kit buried somewhere in the house, but I'm quite sure it had that six in it. I don't remember the last reissue of that one (should have been fairly recent), and I don't know of anyone casting it, although others might know. HTH!

Keith Marks makes a nice set which has the bird on it. I have a set for a future build and they're very nice with good color registry. You can contact Keith at mofobow@hotmail.com Here are a couple pics of what he has.............these are in 1/24th scale.