Tradeshowjoe

hey guts, I hear this alot, alot! Clearcoating metalizer is as simple as using the metalizer clear! It never dulls my finish, I even use it over Alclad chrome. Never, I repear, NEVER, do I have a problem with it.

Those look great! Did you polish out the paint before clear coating? I noticed the or peel in the first shots, but they look just awesome after the clear. And did you say you put on the BMF before the clear? Looking forward to your response as I am at that point with my 69 Charger. Thanks and again; WOW!

I like em Bro. They came out nice. This is one of the projects banging around in my head as well. Thanks for the measurements.

Hey Lizardlust! what kind of hinges are those in the first photo of your post?

Thanks Guys, Been a while since I worked on this one. Weird thing is, it's been a while since anyone here posted about it. Funny today there has been two of you and today I woke up early to finish this build. Funny sincronicity. I really upset myself last session with this one. I made all kinds of screw ups, more than I care to get into at the momment. I will post an update today if all goes well, hopefully she ends up "under glass" by days end.

Went to the freshly opened Hobby Lobby in my area. Large store, small model section, good prices on tools. Picked up some spray paint, an angled paintbrush and a tubing bender set. Got home to find the arrival of the Ghostbusters II Ecto 1a kit. I've been wanting build a hot rod hearse for a while. Gonna be flat black w/ blue "true flames". I'm Stoked. Maybe a surfboard or two on top. Maybe a coffin full of ice n' beer.

I believe that is Tom Daniels "Tijuana Taxi". I really like how it is done here. Did you buy it made, or did you make it? Either way I like it.

Love it Sam, I like your taste, bud. The green is a hit with me. I love the spare tire pinstripe work.

I should be wrapping this one up pretty soon, gettin' close. Engine is done, less the throttle linkage and maybe some vacuum lines. I had to build a battery as the stock terminals would've interfered with the fuel lines (they were on diagonal corners). Glad it happened though, I like the scratch built Optima. Wheels got their knock offs and mounted to the chassis. Wow, I had to modify the interior tub because I placed the engine further back than in mock-ups, oops. I took off a lip where it meets the bed, that meant I had to extend the dash forward to make up for moving the tub back. I got lucky it came out good. Only bummer is that the interior was "done". Painted and cleared the main body. Sculpted (from Magic Sculpt) a sunroof ragtop, and painted it (no photos yet). I put some tape on the underside to simulate a headliner. It won't be seen, I did it anyway. I have wood side panels for the exterior. They have wet clear coat on them. When it dries I have made some decals for them. There is also wood panels and sun visors for the interior. That's about it for now. I plan on getting some big steps done this afternoon, I'll try to post more tonight. Thanks for stopping by the garage, look out for the "Central Scrutinizer". Joe the stance... engine, pass side... -drivers side... painted and cleared, in the drying rack... complete Detail Master wheel...

Very cool Bro. I love the idea of changing up the base color to get the two tone. Came out super clean, thanks for taking the time share.

Thanks Guys. Crazyjim; I don't remember the size, I'll go throw the micrometer on it-1.6mm or 0.063in. We'll call that roughly as the numbers bounced a bit. I've not had and any trouble with bending it, sort of what it's made for. JB; I guess I forgot to mention the two tone paint scheme, oops! The upper part of the body, including the interior tub is shot (or will be) with House of Kolor "candy tangerine" over HOK "orion silver", That would explain the reddish color on the engine and interior. No photos today but things are happening. I should have an update tonight. Thanks for the interest joe

a little progress worth noting on this project. I am using real wood on most of this project, for the bottom side of the bed, I decided to go with paint. I didn't want to lose any of the detail (the bolts in particular). I used oil paints for the wood, BMF for the strips and a silver marker for the bolts. Made the exhaust pipes with the same sculptors armature wire that I used for the headers. The Borla mufflers are cast in resin from a friends Mustang kit. I still need to add the tips and trim to final position. And here's a few shots of the engine progress. Since these pics I've started to mount the frame to the "lower body section". Lot's of wires on this one I need to get my firewall in place so I can finish routing them and get rid of the "Medusa" look. Thanks for stopping by the Garage to check her out. And thanks for the comments,much appreciated. Joe

try this link, i'd do the stripe first. http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial/106

I didn't need a trip to th ER, but I did have to pull my x-acto out of my big toe a couple months back! I was wearing "flip - flops" ("slippahs" in HI.), the knife rolled off the table and right into my toe, just next to the nail, wow it hurt! I really had to reach down and pull it out.

If anybody would like any specific info or photos from SEMA, let me know. I will be working the SEMA show and in all probability I will be working the Ford booth again. We still have a couple of months.

I forgot to mention that you can also use "modelers Armature" wire. It's made for (well,packaged for) sculptors to use inside of thir figures and such. It looks nice and is easy to use, no dents when bending, and no worry about the "core" down the road. Here's some headers I built with them: after this picture was taken, I primed it , painted it wit $1 black gloss from Lowes, then Alclad chrome. they look sick! Next is heat staining.

I feel like I've been holding out on you guys. I have this dio almost complete, and this is it's first appearance here. I've been following your work here and i love it all, I am glad to be a part of the "dio" subset. I have a garage dio that is only temporarily assembled, good thing as I have already decided to redo it in a larger setting. I'll post pics of soon, need to be resized and uploaded to photobucket first. Now back to this kit. It is the (reissue I believe) hawk classics "Woodie on a Surfari" from the "Silly Surfers" line. Fun kit. Badly molded.And wow! some of the parts were just awful. The entire front end had to be reworked. I cut off the radiator cap,split the rad and then removed some plastic from the rear half to get the "grill look. I also removed the grill face and replaced it with pantyhose. Also moved the light to a more correct position. Talk about lame, the front suspension was two sticks, that's it! I fixed it and lost the front bumper in the process. I scratch built a dash for it where there was none. I replaced the horrible "headers" with custom solder jobs (my first). What else? Oh yea, the bed is all clad in real wood. I have some more progress done, but no photos yet. I'll be 100% with it soon, waiting till then. teaser: there is a driver, I tatted him all up, and 2 custom surfboards. thanks for lookin'. Surf's up! (somewhere, not here ) -final shots soon. Joe

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33871 check out the above link ( it's only 7 topics down from this one !

I've said it before, real nice work. I am really enjoying your tools, thanks for sharing your work. Checked out your Fotki, very nice stuff man. I can't wait to start my next dio. You are inspiring me to get started right away. Thanks again!

hey bud. You can use CA or 5-minute epoxy. Try to find a solder other than "rosin core" if you do end up with the rosin core, make sure you seal the ends COMPLETELY! If you don't, over time the "core" will "ooze" out and otherwise make an ugly mess of your model. I haven't seen this personally but I have read it everywhere. Almost all my models have solder scratch built headers. I use "clear flux, and I make sure to CA the ends real good, just in case.

These are great! Thanks for posting them. Do you have the drawing that shows the "Layton hinge" mentioned in the last drawing? I've been collecting hinge ideas on the road to designing my own one day. PS: I would like to take this opportunity to Thank YOU for all that you have done for the hobby and me personally. As an artist myself I have drawn inspiration from your work for some years now.

Sealing over Alclad research is currently under way at Joe's Garage. DO NOT USE PLEDGE FUTURE!!!!!!! It has dulled it worse than anything I have tried so far. I have tried with a few clears, so far the best has been Model Master #4638 Gloss clear ACRL, or MM Metalizer sealer. The meatalizer retains the shine best but doesn't help if you are applying an oil wash, like on a grill. I have heard that Tamiya X-22 works well, That as well as TS-13 will be my next test. Alclad also has their own gloss clear(they made it to replace future since it is no longer sold in Europe, I believe), Alclad does market it as a future replacement. I need to try this out too, I just picked it up. Here's the Model Master "gloss clear" test. It did dull it, but after the wash it looks nice. I can live with the results but I want better. The search continues... I will try to be on top of my other tests and post the results.

Bro! That didn't come out "pretty nice" It is Really nice! What scale is it? Paint color is perfect. Again, real nice work.

Great idea for a topic. I am sure I am not the only one who seems to have this, um, "need" to get stuff darn near daily. Today I picked up a motor, rheostat ( maybe I needed a potentiometer) cheap remote control car (ok, I got the car yesterday) and some gears. Put it all together and I have the first mock up of an automated lift for a diorama build I plan to start soon.