MrObsessive

I can't think of any kit that has 'em........but The Modelhaus casts them in clear red resin. Just do a search for '56 Packard parts and you'll find 'em.

Darin, if it turns out anything like your last one.......it'll be a pure knockout! This is so good, it would make a great 1:1 project! It definitely has that '60's custom feel to it! (even though the car is a '71 ) Re HHMB: I can't blame you Darin.............between the spam and the IMO chaos that's happening there, if he doesn't do something to get it under control.................the board won't last long.

Looks like a pretty decent turnout considering it snowed earlier! You guys may not have had as much down there as we did here though. Gordon did a super job on those Cobras! Harold's castings are top notch as always! 8)

Your welcome Ferren! Re IRS: Really?? That's a new one! What do they have to do with stuff that is sold within the state? Wouldn't that be the states' problem?

I wish I could have built models like that at her age! :shock: Excellent work Samantha! Hope to see more!

It never seems to fail that when I want to get into a somewhat long term project.............work gets busy again with overtime/changing shifts. We were to work this weekend but they changed their minds with the snowstorm coming...........we ended up with 9 inches of snow so that gave me some time to get some building done! Well finally! Here's the completed engine! I'm not going to add every single line and hose........I think this will make a good representation of the engine in the engine bay. I may build a second engine from the warped kit I have to display alongside the car at shows, which would have more detail. I tried to represent throttle linkage and what looks to be fuel/air lines according to pics I had. Besides some small detail painting and touch up I want to do...............this is finally done! Also please forgive the beat up and yellowed engine stand...........I've had it for years and it's held many an engine! :mrgreen: I wanted to try something I've been wanting to do for some time now......................make a headliner from molded sheet. I've had this Thermoform from Squadron for several years now. Up to this point I've just played around with it to see how it melts over a candle. I did just as the instructions said and pulled the heated sheet over the roof of the model. I did it this way because the roof has a slight curve........and this beats trying to fight flat styrene to conform to the shape I want. I tried to pull the sheet over the entire roof section, including the C pillars.............but that requires vacuforming as I found out. :shock: This technique would be great for '50's cars with their steeply rounded roofs, and beats cutting up flat sheet plastic and bending it 'til it fits right! This fits in pretty well............I can add the C pillar panels with flat sheet. This will also help in making a "frame" for the back window later. I need to make "ribbing" in the headliner and then smooth out the transition in the C pillars with putty. It'll probably be easier to paint the headliner before I paint the rest of the car, then mask it off from overspray. Now I want to move back to the chassis buildup, and my of my weren't these exhausts ducts warped!! :shock: I got out the Ambroid Pro-Weld and clamped the exhausts ducts together with clothespins as you see here. I'll let this sit overnight........hopefully when I sand out the parting lines, it won't break apart. Some of the gaps that are still present I can fill in with strip plastic and reglue. I'm moving back to first shift for at least the next couple weeks...............hopefully in the evenings I can get some more done! I'm also being sidelined by a resin buildup that I'll only call "Brand X". I have to say that this is by far the worst resin casting I have ever seen and I'm real close to forgetting the whole thing and sending it back! :x Someone wants me to build it for them and for payment they gave me a duplicate of this kit....................I don't know who cast it (it's not Modelhaus or R&R) but it's absolutely terrible! Anyway, thanks for lookin'!

Little known factoid about Corvairs: Did you folks know that the '61 Pontiac Tempest, Buick Skylark, and the Olds F-85 shared the basic floorpan with the Corvair? :shock: When the Corvair debuted for '60, the other divisions were a little jealous that they had no "compact" to call their own. They lobbied the brass at GM to have a small car in their lineups, so it was decided to use the basic floorpan off the Corvair and each division would have it's own. That's part of the reason the '61-'63 Tempests had their rear transaxles..............it was said to be a variation of the Corvair transaxle, which had the swing arm rear axles at the time. Chevrolet fought hard to have the novelty of a rear engine car.............which is why the rest were conventional front engine cars. The Tempests didn't have quite as tricky handling as the Corvairs had (the main reason the rear suspension changed for '65), but tended to be more of a handful at sharp cornering than your conventional cars of the day. I've always wondered if the Vega that debuted for '71 was meant to be a rear engined succesor to the Corvair originally? :? They had kind of a Corvairish rear end treatment, and the little vents in the rear deck were curious just the same. 'Tis a shame that GM let Ralph Nader have a hand in killing what was a fun little car...............especially the later ones.

If you want to bid on one.........there are two separate auctions on eBay right now. You can click here......... Or try here. Good luck! Edit:..................And here's another!

Nice finish Dave! That's a sharp exterior/interior combo! Unlike most Corvairs I can remember as a kid............The back exhaust grille of yours is nice and clean! AMT made this kit as a Craftsman Series in '64. I have a builtup that looked all forlorn at the Toledo show in '02 for only 20 bucks. It's calling me to restore it...........:mrgreen:

Nice Build Dave! I have an Uncle that is a Corvair nut! He's owned just about every Corvair model over the years including the early station wagons and the Van. Right now he owns a pristine '66 Monza 2 dr hardtop that no one drives but him....................I get a kick out of hearing it start up as they had a very unique starter sound! Does anyone know if the '65 and later Corvairs had the same floor pan as the '60-'64's? I also have a '64 I want to restore sometime and want to use the chassis out of the '69. I know the rear suspension would be different as Chevy got away from the swing axles after '64.

That is a Juha Airio Masterpiece! IMO one of the best builders in the world! Edit: R&R makes that kit................it will need some work though to make it that gorgeous.

Jason, when starting a new line such as when you're making new door lines, I think it'll be better to use the front edge of the blade instead of the back. The back edge is helpful when cutting out doors because the "trough" or door line has already been established on the body. It's more blunt which may be why your putty is chipping along the edges. Scribe gently using the front edge of the blade, then at a certain point (only you can determine this) you want to take 400 grit sandpaper and using the rough side of the paper............you can "V" sand the line that you need on both sides of the line. To do radii, you're going to have to curl the paper somewhat to go around the radii................this is where skill comes in! :wink: In other words, the rough side of the paper is used to widen (ever so slightly) the door line being made. I wouldn't rely on using just the knife alone. I would suggest folding the sandpaper in half, but that may widen the door line too much and you'd have to putty and start all over again. :shock: To better show an example, on the Turbine Car I'm working on now, I had to reapply trim that was very weakly molded on the body. I used strip plastic to make the dual pieces of trim that outline the tops of the fenders. Because the liquid glue spreads a bit the intial result was a little sloppy. To get the dual look that the 1:1 has, I used 400 grit sandpaper to better define the division of the chrome trim. Hope this explains this a bit better.........:wink:

Jaffa, for most brakeline assemblies...............I use bead wire, which you can get at most arts and crafts stores. The exception was the copper wires you see in the one pic to represent "air" lines. It comes in various diameters (guages) to represent different types of lines. For your cylinders, I would use a small drop of 5 min. epoxy and maybe scuff up the ends slightly for the epoxy to "grab" better. Also, when you drill your holes for your lines, you want to make sure that the lines go in fairly snug............A wire guage helps for this and you can match up the size wire to the drill bit. This will help in keeping them from pulling out, and I would leave just a slight bit of slack so there's not much tension on the area. Pretty much like the 1:1's! :wink:

Scott, I can't speak for using spray cans as I never use them to paint bodies. Nevertheless, you really can't get away from wet (or dry) sanding to get your top coats as smooth as can be. Basic rule #1 is never put on paint in heavy coats.................light coats are what's needed to make good coverage without "burying" the body. If you have to make 7 or 8 passes to get coverage, so be it. Primer coats can be sanded with 600 grit sandpaper to get some of the roughies out, that's after letting it dry for a sufficient time. This'll depend on the brand/type of paint, humidity, coats, etc. Depending on the type of paint I use will determine whether or not I wet sand. Metallics I try not to "disturb" as little as possible due to the metallic flakes getting "changed" if I try to rub them out. So it'll get clearcoated after a very light sanding to get rid of any dusties. Clears can be wetsanded, but I personally don't like to wet sand clears as the water can "hide" the progress being made and I end up burning through the clear. Solid colors I can wet sand because the hardener in the paint allows you to wet sand and polish without clearcoat (at least in my case). I use Meguair's Car Cleaner Wax with a chamois cloth for the final polishing. Wax shouldn't be put on until the paint has thoroughly dried and been rubbed out. All in all, it takes practice, practice, practice to get the results you want. There's no exact science to painting as all kinds of variables can affect the final outcome. One thing to make sure is to when you find something that works...............stick to it.

Out of all the models I'll probably build, this one will be among my favorites if not the favorite...........I tried to "stretch the envelope" with this build as it has some working stuff I've never tried previously. Working windows, working "air" suspension, among a few..........even after 6 years I look at it from time to time and think........."Hey, this still looks pretty good!" A lot of you have seen this before.......but for those of you newbies............here's my '58 Chevy Impala. In the above pic it suffered a mishap when taking pics.............the exhaust tips broke on the ends! They have since been reattached with pins this time! :mrgreen: This build was fun also because there was a lot of info out there on the car..............not to mention I had help with a couple Chevy clubs in getting some of the details.

This may be a pain in the A** to do............but the best way to represent brake lines is to run them through hangers like the 1:1's. I've made mine out of thin sheet aluminum (or blackened brass) with the holes drilled through with about a #75 drill bit or thereabouts. I then took some HO scale brass bolts and then epoxied the hangers to the chassis. Copper doesn't do well with superglueing.........not many metals do. Besides it could get kinda messy trying to superglue something that thin. :shock: Here's a few pics of how I did my brake/fuel/air lines............... '57 Corvette.... '58 Chevy Impala........ Scratchbuilt brass bracket.....(excuse the unsymmetrical corners ) Hope this gives you some ideas........

Yeah, some folks sniff at Future, but I've been swearing by it for quite some time now. I forgot that it can barrier against super glue fogging! When I get around to painting the Turbine Car.......(hopefully within the next month or so) I'll be using it again to safeguard against any difficulties with the hot paint. True the plastic is older and probably a bit "tougher" than the stuff today, but I'm taking no chances! :shock:

Mark you should send this into Motorweek or something to fool them into thinking they'll be test driving a real car! :shock: Absolutely fantastic work..........I love all the fiddly little details!

Nice suspension conversion! 8) Matter of fact, the whole concept is clever with the floorpan mods and all for the transaxle. :shock: That's one of my favorite Mopar bodystyles of the '60's next to the B-Body '68-'70's!

My one cat that works on.........but the other one has gotten to the point that he'll turn his back and sit there and take it! It's only if I shoot him square in the face that he'll run! :? Getting back to foil.........has anyone tried putting the foil in the fridge or freezer to extend the shelf life? I thought I heard about this somewhere................it would be a benefit to me since my completed builds are usually several months apart. The non sticking of foil is a sore spot with me...............I just get frustrated and go out and buy a new sheet! That's such a waste though as the stuff isn't exactly cheap for a sheet of it. And yes, the Detail Master BMF was a problem to keep from curling when off the backing. I haven't used their foil for years and I'm not sure if they still make it.

Stuart........... so the polish barriered the acetate from fogging by the super glue? I've never tried that! That would be great for modern cars that have the glass mounted flush on the bodywork!

Izzy, just a suggestion..........you may want to totally encircle the car with toilet paper several times to really cushion it in the plastic case. Just in case the ties work loose somehow. Perhaps several wraps around the sides..........and then several wraps from front to back. I got this suggestion from Paul Hettick who sells fantastic looking models on eBay (robbbbbb57). Although by the time you read this, you may have sent it on its way......... I would have a real difficult time waving goodbye to something that pretty! :cry:

Bill, try a medical supply store for those Q-tips with the wooden sticks. Personally, I use chamois cloth to burnish my BMF. I also can't stand the cotton strands coming apart when I burnish! As far as the cat...........I've trained my two to NOT bother my model stuff! It's amazing what rolled up newspaper can do!

You did it! A lot of fiddliness..........but that came out beautiful as usual Dale! 8)

About 8 or 9 years ago, SA(E) ran a somewhat lengthy article on my '61 Ferrari 250 GT SWB.........the one below that has the engine pictured. In one of the pics that they ran, the caption said "Bill's obsessive attention to detail...........". As a matter of fact I think it was captioned under the chassis pic of the car. I started running into people at shows (including relatives who had seen the article) and they were referring to me as "Mr. Obsessive". As I began to get on the internet, I started using that as a handle. :mrgreen: Glad you liked the tutorial on the windshield and backlite! It comes in handy if the glass is missing or badly damaged, or you have that terrible "runner type" glass where the front and rear glass is connected with a "runner". I've always hated that type of glass, not to mention the distortion that certain kits have (The '57 Chrysler 300 rear glass is the worst! :x ) Stay tuned as I have a trick in mind to make a decent headliner...........I don't want to give too much away in case it doesn't work out. I also have the turbine engine just about done. If I get time, by the end of the week I'll try to post pics.