MrObsessive

Perfect Paint on 'er James! Black can be so finicky to get right....in fact it can be downright annoying! But yours looks great! Yes, Future can be used for all sorts of things---------as water for a diorama, or as a barrier for that nasty red and yellow plastic. It's also good for hiding scratches on clear parts that won't polish out. Greg, Future or a reasonable facsimile should be available down there, it's called something else most likely "Pledge One Go" or something. Here's a link to what all that can be done with Future and its equivalents. HTH!

Wow! I'm not a major fan of the '68-'72 Nova (I'm partial to the '66-'67)........but this is NICE!! The chassis detail is perfect Greg------the chassis overspray for instance, not too much not too little. I'm glad you didn't give up on it.........that's a super sharp piece!

Ya, that would work Greg.......just reverse the hinge around so it pivots on the door instead of inside the fender. The shape of the hinge makes it possible either way. The next hurdle is getting the door glass to lower down without hitting/scraping the retainer. Looks like I'll have to modify the interior door panel a bit...........

Nice!! The gold paint is flawless as that can be a hard color to get right. Your build reminds me of the 1985-86 SAE article where someone did a pic by pic build of a '67 GTO in the exact same color and wheels! In fact, I think that was the first model mag I had ever bought since I started in the hobby back in '78. Your vinyl top looks great! I keep hearing good things about it.........I'll have to give it a go sometime!

Thanks Clay! Fotki has been doing "maintenance" lately...........so from time to time their server may have indigestion and not want to let the pics load. I thought the maintenance was done----------but who knows with Fotki.

Hey I've got this one!! In fact, it was a toss up between building it or the Cougar II...........I went with the Cougar as the Triumph needs more work than I'm willing to do right now. Looks like it was a good meeting Dave................lots of neat stuff on the tables!

After I bent the hinges to my satisfaction, it was now time to start soldering. I used plain 'ol lead no clean silver bearing solder (Radio Shack), with a fair amount of core flux embedded. I wanted to first put a small pool of solder on the hinge.......... Then, taking a piece of .050 brass rod, soldered it to the hinge. A good rule of thumb to soldering, is you always want your iron to have a dollop of solder on the tip. This will serve as a "heat bridge" to get the solder to flow where it's needed. It's also a good idea to leave a slight fillet on each side of the part being soldered so that it serves as extra strength for the joint. I then filed down some of the excess, so the hinge could swing freely where it's installed. Here's the hinge being test fitted in the kick panels............ AAAHHH..........the hinge fits nice and snug in the groove! Now the kit supplied kick panel retainers will be modified slightly and test fitted, as will as the hinge retainer for the door. I'll have to scratchbuild those as they will need to be made so the door glass can clear them when the windows are down. Stay tuned!

This past week I tried to squeeze in some time and make some much needed changes to the kit. I remember trying to build this some 30 years ago in 1979, and recall the hinges were not as sturdy as I'd like. Now granted, I was fairly new to the hobby scene back then, and opening/working doors was a new thing for me! I figured I didn't build the car right or something as the hinges broke off maybe 6 months after I built it...............or I was simply too rough! Anyway, I decided to ditch the plastic hinges and make new ones from brass. Before all of that, I wanted to finish making the hinges for the gas door................I can't show a pic of it working only because it won't be installed until after everything is painted and the hinge retainers epoxied in. Here are a couple pics of what I did though............... I drilled a piece of .040 plastic rod with a #76 drill bit and ran a piece of bead wire through it. This was then capped on the ends with a couple more .040 pieces which will sit under the bodywork so the door can swivel. Now on to the brass hinges..............I took the plastic hinge from the kit, and took note of its radius............. Now I wanted to duplicate that same radius in brass---------I took a file I had laying around and compared it to the plastic hinge. The radius was very close, so I then bent some 1/64 x 1/16 flat brass stock around it.............. Before I went much further, I wanted to check out the kick panels and the hinge retainers in the kit to see if they would need much modifying. The kick panels are pretty realistic, so I decided to use those instead of scratchbuilding new ones. I went ahead and glued them in ahead of time, as it serves a great locating point for the dash later in the assembly. Note the groove in the second pic above.............this was another reason I went with the kit kick panels as those grooves makes my hinging job a little easier too for what I'm going to use. Once things were fully dry, now I can move on to solder the pins on the hinges, and test fit them. I also want to tighten up the gaps on the upper parts of the body door jambs with some strip plastic. Stay tuned for more!

That type of style you're doing Luis I like better without the continental kit. But then I'm kinda biased against Connie kits! That's just me though..........You build it the way you see fit! It looks great just mocked up as it is!

Some may disagree Mike, but I really like the Alclad line of paints. The pigments are really tight and the finish realistic IMO. The only drawback is you need an airbrush to apply them. I thought someone mentioned that Alclad comes in spray cans, but I don't remember. If they do............expect the same great quality, but I'll betcha in the spray can it's big $$$! Some others I'm sure will give their say on what they like............

Okay, here's a pic of Norms wheels for a '66............ As you see on the label, they are 1/25 scale, however as we know................there were no GT-500's for '66. His will need some minor cleanup (if he still offers them) but the shape is dead on accurate! Hope this helps!

;) Yup! His certainly is!!

Thanks Clay! .................And to all the rest who read and liked my article, I thank you!

Mike, it looks like the 1/24th Monogram kit. A nice kit in of itself and a lot more accessible (and cheaper) than the old Johan one.

OUTSTANDING!! I love super detailed Hemi's!!

GMP's ten spoke wheels are more for a '67'-'68 car. The spokes and offsets were different for 1966. Not a huge difference, but to the Shelby purists out there, they'd notice. Jameston, Norm Veber of Replica and Miniatures sells the '66 wheels you might like. They're resin (unplated), so you'd have to Alclad them or something. I have a set and they are nice! I'm not sure of the scale, but it's not that noticeable if they are 1/25th.

Ahhh.....the old original Chevy small block! Plain, simple, and reliable! Nice detailing on that one Luis! I wish they were that way today!

Jim made mention of the SNAFU here if you want to check it out.............

Nice primer job goin' there Eric! Y'know, I think I've only ever seen that model BMW only once here in the states. For whatever reason, it wasn't a big seller here unlike all the other BMW's you see on the streets. A dark blue will look fantastic..............especially a metallic midnight blue!

Well, those that have seen my place know I have a lot of models and have asked the same question. I buy models not always with the intent of building them at the moment-------it's mostly because I just happen to like that particular car and most likely will never own the 1:1, let alone have the room to even store it. So it's nice for me a lot of times to buy a kit and just simply "grok" it once in a while........even though it might be 5-10 years before I'll ever build it!

Ooooooh! That's mighty nice! I have an old '63 Bonneville builtup that's in the same exact color..........but it looks nothing like that! I've had it for years from an eBay win------I should try to rescue it after seeing yours!

Well, you know what they say Clay.........."Old habits die hard"! Thank goodness that didn't happen to you! Yes, I remember the Army boot camp days when not only did the Drill Sergeant want you to shovel your food in...........they didn't want your eyes to leave the tray until you were done! Those that didn't follow the rules were "killed" to no end! Believe it or not, I've choked on what seemed to be a drop of water.............I have a nasty habit of washing my food down. I have to watch it though...............if I choke there's no one here to rescue me!

Luis!! Glad to have you back buddy! 2008 was not a very productive year for my either............hopefully this year will be better. Nice job on the '55 so far! I've had this kit for years (both versions) but for some reason never built it. Yours I'm sure will be sharp when done!

eBay may be your best bet as that kit's kinda rare. Be prepared to pay BIG $$$$$$ however as everyone will jump on the auction if it's a pristine kit. Nice buildups for a reasonable price can be found though.

Thanks for the info Art! At my job we use various types of solder, since I train people to do micro surface mount soldering from time to time. I've used various "eutectic" solders for different electronic operations at work, but when it comes to soldering frames such as Jairus did, I've always seemed to have trouble. Here's the type of soldering unit I use............. I have various tips (chisel, round, etc.) to use for different jobs------the tips are 600° for lead solder. (I hate the lead free stuff! ) The heat sink idea I almost forgot about, and I know I have some somewhere in the house. Don't look for the soldered 300SL frame anytime soon............I'll need to practice a bit before I try it on a model!