MrObsessive

James, I'll try to take a stab at this.........:wink: Glue: I have various types of glues.....everything from liquid glues (Ambroid Pro-Weld) to 5 min. epoxies. For general body work, I like to use the Ambroid as it welds the plastic without the constant eating into the plastic such as what tube glue can do. Also it dries fairly quickly so you won't have that mushy plastic feeling even after a day of sitting. At times I'll use super glue but that's only for areas where some strength is needed and only for body prep work and I never use it on the body after it's all painted and polished. Epoxies I use for attaching body parts such as front and rear fascias and for windshield and rear backlites. Primer: As far as body panels-------yes, they should be primered. Not so much to cut down on coats, but to give the paint a better surface to adhere to. Also, with todays newer plastics and some of the hotter automotive paints, primering can prevent the crazing of the plastic that's caused by the solvents in the paints. Another purpose of primer is to get rid of the plasticky look of transluscent plastic. Being a judge in the past at contests, I can tell you one of the biggest turnoffs is to see a really well built, and apparently well painted model, only to see light shining through the body work due to the body not being primered in the beginning. Paint: Ahhhh..........this can be tough due to where you live geographically, as far as humidity, temp, etc. Generally, lacquers dry right away, whereas acrylic enamels can take a number of hours to dry thoroughly. Basic enamels seem to never dry completely for me, so I stay away from them if possible. If you have an adjustable temp dehydrator, generally any paint allowed to dry for 8 hours at 105­­° should dry thoroughly then. 3 weeks doesn't sound unreasonable for paint to air dry on it's own however. As far as gold or any metallic paint in general............since I do everything with an airbrush, I try to swill the airbrush jar every couple of minutes as this will keep the metallic flakes suspended and settling to the bottom of the jar. This will ensure you get an even coat of color and metallic flakes when spraying.................I'm sure this technique should work for aerosols likewise. Polishing: You had the right idea when it came to polishing........but the grit of sandpaper was a weeeeee bit too harsh! I use the polishing cloths which run from 3200-12,000 grit. These will take some practice and patience to get used to but the results are fantastic! It would be a good idea to practice on a junk body to get a feel for the polishing cloths. A good wax (I use Meguiars Car Cleaner Wax) will get you that glass like shine. There's the operative term......Practice, Practice, Practice!! As far as the 455 engines........some of the kit gurus here maybe can fill you in on which kits had those..............I can't think of any kit at the moment which would have had those engines. Hope this all helps!

What a neat quirky little van!! I seem to remember seeing a few of those in the states here but I can't remember what the U.S. name was. :? Neat build just the same! :mrgreen:

Your restos are always great Mike! I gotta try my hand at a resto job sometime...........I've gotta bunch that have been crying out for years!

Yep, I'm ahead of the game with the troubles with Vista as I've been keeping up with the quirks since it debuted..........also Andy Rathbone has a DVD out now called "Vista for Dummies". My Dell will have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 installed from them.............I'll figure a way around the stumbling block with the "granting permission" annoyance. I'll definitely order the DVD since what I'm using now is like going from a Pinto to a Ferrari!

I figured it's time to get the door "latches" set in place------I set the doors in place along with the hinge pins and then put the watch pins in place. A lot of test fitting was done here so that the pins were not too far forward, nor too far back to get the right catch. Once I was satisfied with the position of the pins I put on a ton of epoxy as you see here to keep the pin from moving back. It makes a nice little "clack" sound when the door is shut.............I wish you could hear it! Here's the body with all the BMF on and front fenders permanently on. To say this was an easy BMF job would be lying as there were NO good defining edges to put on the BMF. A lot of the BMF was laid on as straight as possible and then trimmed by a steady hand. And yes, there were more than a few tries in some spots to try to get it right! Well, now it's on to the little things..........getting the interior and vent windows in permanently, putting the engine/front suspension in and then the rear subframe/rear end and exhaust. Depending on how tired I am from work and the attendant OT, I hope to have this done in a couple weeks and then start on the next project. On a more technical note........I'll be getting a new computer with the new Vista OS in a couple weeks, supercharged with a 2 GB memory and a 250 GB hardrive!!----- I just ordered it the other day! I can hardly wait as I'm still in the dark ages running Windows 98 so now I'll be fully entrenched in the 21st century! I'll have to put on my computer geek hat as there'll be programs and files I'll have to transfers and install, then figure out what to do with the old one! :? :shock: Thanks for lookin'!

Now comes the messy part! Epoxying in the acetate front and rear "glass"------- As you can see trying to get this in leaves quite a mess! Nothing that alcohol and wax can't clean up though. Ahhhhhh...............this looks much better! I did let the windshield sit overnight to let the epoxy really harden up before I did any polishing up though. Take note of the "free standing" mirror............just like the 1:1. The back window was not as troublesome, as it was more flat. I need to add some "weatherstripping" as I did the front glass. Still more to come!

Hey!! It's been awhile since I gave you folks an update! Things have been busy at work lately...........(never seems to fail when the weather gets nice!) and then there was the issue with my Mom a while ago. The Turbine car is all but done..........just some final assembly issues as the following posts will show. It was time to paint the rear end and exhausts.................this was done with Alclad metallizers-------the exhaust ducts being done in Magnesium and the gas tank in standard Aluminum. The rear end I sprayed with Scale Motorsport Faux Fabric to give it some texture, and that crinkled look. I then painted it semi gloss black. When the assembly is put in the chassis I'll then add the driveshaft which'll painted gunmetal. I'm not gonna bother with heat burned areas at all since whenever I try that, it never looks right to me so I'll just leave that alone :wink: Here are the inner door panels painted and glued in the doors....................this was a pain as the doors had to be reshaped after being molded as one piece with the door jambs This looks more realistic as 1:1 cars door jambs are painted the same color as the exterior of the car. More to come...........:mrgreen:

Wow! I dig that Barchetta!! Too bad Fiats got a nasty reputation for unreliablity, otherwise I'd bet that car would do quite well here.

Good to see you here Robert! You'll like it here!

To further expand on the '59 Chevy (and the whole GM lineup for '59).........when GM decided to redo the styling for their '59's (which were originally nothing more than rechromed '58's) because of the absolute shock from Chrysler------Buick was the first to get their redone styling shown in about January of '57. GM brass decided to have the rest of the lineup's styling evolve around Buick's door which is the reason all of the divisions cars had those wild fins. Take a look at the other divisions '59 doors and they all have the same downward sweep. Of course each division would have it's own chrome trim and restrikes..........but the same basic shape is there. Cadillac for '59 could have been even more over the top as one styling proposal had the fins at least roof high!! :shock: GM was simply copying Chrysler's manufacturing which was doing the same thing with their cars in an attempt to save money. Unfortunately, I think this was the very beginning of what would plague GM way down the road with "cookie cutter" cars........something that they're just now starting to get away from in recent years I agree with you Mark about the '61 Chevy's styling! I always thought that the car reminded me of a "wingless jet" because of the hardtops rounded bubbletop and windshield and the way the fenders looked to have the fins stamped on the side instead of protruding outward like the '60 and earlier years. In fact, the whole GM '61 lineup look like wingless jets to me save for Cadillac! '61's are kind of a favorite for me too as that's what was sitting in the dealers lots as new cars when I was being brought home from the hospital. :wink: I too am a big fan of the '56-'57 'Vette's styling! I always thought they were the most beautiful of the first gen cars with the '61-'62's coming a close second. The '58-'60 'Vettes while nice, were just a bit overdone------but then look at the rest of the industry in those years. What 'til you see the production Imperial come 2010 or so! :shock:

I voted once again for the '56 Corvette..............while the '59 Impala is nice, I still prefer the lines of the 'Vette over the Batwing Chevy. :wink: BTW, do you know if the interior of the '59 is original? I notice it has a white dash.............that's gotta be torture to drive on a sunny day! :shock:

I agree 100% Bob! Nothing drives me crazier than inaccurate grille shapes or even worse, inaccurate roof lines...........witness RC2's 1958 Plymouth Belvedere's wrong roof contours, or Trumpeter's '60 Pontiac 2 door hardtop debacle. :x I think that also gives a model the wrong "face". :wink: Like you I can fix the stance of a model------ but I shouldn't have to reshape whole roof contours or side trim, when there's so many references out there for the kit makers to get them right in the beginning!

I LOVE that video!! I'm glad you're brave enough to build this one............. I have the Pocher Mercedes 540K so I get to see what I may have to look forward to if and when I get the nerve to build mine! :wink: I'm gonna save each of the pages here for future reference!

That's a super clean build Luis! You can't go wrong with a '40 Ford! It does feel great to get a build done even if it's box stock once in a while! :wink:

What kind if A%##*!e would steal a model?? :evil: How could you ever display it somewhere and say that's yours??? I'll keep my eyes open for it! BTW, who did the model belong to? It looks familiar to me also.

Just to give you guys the latest..............right now I'm working on the BMF (a LOT of work!) and the headliner for the interior. I'm gonna try to post pics if I can, but the software for my camera doesn't seem to be cooperating with my OS for some reason. :shock: I put in a new spyware program the other day-----that may be the source of the problem. Looks like I'll have to reinstall the software to see if I can get it to work. Thanks for asking about my Mom................she's doing a LOT better than before----but there's some other issues she has to deal with----something I can't go into here. Hopefully if I can get the digicam software straightened out I can post pics later in the week when I have a free moment. I have some pics of the painted door panels, and I'll have pics of the headliner, windshield, and rear window in place. Stay tuned! :mrgreen: Thanks! The jury's still out if I can get to Toledo this year, I have to see how the vacation time plays out (and what the wallet says). I'd really like to get there as I haven't gone in years.

Congrats Alex! Would have loved to have seen that in person................but was at work that morning for scheduled OT. Hope to see more of your builds on the board!

It was good seeing you and your family Simón! I didn't really "compete" this year as I went on short notice, but I'll have a couple brand new entries for the '09 show. Hope to see you and everyone else then!

Okay, I see..........very clever trick! I have to give that a try sometime........

Excellent job so far Ismael! What did you use for the exhaust insulation? The interior looks so good, at first glance I thought it was the 1:1!

Well, yes and no. One could make another account........but if his IP addy was blacklisted, he'd have to go through the trouble of getting another computer. Also, this doesn't change the reason he got booted.........if his attitude hasn't changed, then it's only a matter of time before he gets booted again. :wink:

Yeah, I tried that a while ago on another project..............but it just didn't seem to "look right". I could still see the other colors that were mixed in as it had kind of "Polka Dot" appearance to it. Thanks for the suggestion though...........:wink: When I can get back to a building groove.......(just got back from GSL early this morning), I'll try to post some update pics later this week.

Wow! NICE conversion!.............and you lucky stiff............I've been lookin' for a RWD '90's Caddy 4 door forever, and you land FOUR of 'em! Too bad no one else makes them..............they can easily be kitbashed with the Caprice Taxi or Impala SS kits. :wink:

Michael, you may want to check this out for that pattern.

This sounds like great news to me! We can only hope for the best!