raildogg

Here's something for the very wise. How many times ,on a generic 18" auto tire, is the tread pattern repeted. How many times is the circumfrence divided?. How many times for a ground contact tractor tire?. These are the things that bug me to no end. Does anyone know where to find a measured blueprint of a generic auto tire and a ground contact tractor tire??

I too, wonder. I have looked and looked for the same type things and found them "out of stock". 'Krauts site is all but OOS. I have also saught to find scale coruggated dust material to replace the plastic on the cleaner can to the turbo chargers, no one make it or I can't find it. I've even writen to Plastruct to suggest it as a new product proposal. I am sick of using straws and wire to simulate it. I want in stock tires and wheels and dual rear tire castings, and of course trailer suspension packages for lowboys and Schanuable type trailers. Casters take notice!!

I think I break'em all. Never wash or prime, scrape off crome sometimes, have too many starts and stops at one time.

This is why I love this site. KUDOS boys.

As an avid AFV modeler I can't wait for this one. If my math is correct, at 9.75" x 4.93" it is one big monster of a kit. Wish it came in 1/25th too

Oh this is difficult because I've owned some of my choices, here goes! Top of my list, 1967 Shelby Mustang GT 350, 1935 Ford Five window Coupe Hot Rod, chopped and channeled and flamed in Lemon Yellow 1938 Bugatti Type 57 S-C Atlanic 1940 Willy's Coupe 1940 Willy's Pick Up in Candy Apple Red Metalflake slammed to the ground. I have had the pleasure of the Shely 'Stang and the Five windowed Cope in my life. They were sweet rides.

I've got a set of cad drawings I've made myself for a generic lowboy and have built one using parts from the AMT kit. The big issue for me is suspension and wheel, tire combinations. That's why I used the AMT kit with the electric transformers on the box top artwork. But I'm always interested in lowboys of all kinds.

I don't want to start a row here, but. I have had my eye on certain parts at several aftermarket sites for some many months now, nearly one year,every time I check back to order some they're still out of stock. I do understand that they may have busy schedules, but, how come they don't replenish the out of stock items also. It is not Ma's, I know he's building masters and stuff for new products, but I don't see many items out of stock though. I would ask for a consensus of the most wanted parts, but I think it would be to much of a fight to get one of the casters to produce these, seeing as they already have a dedicated line of stuff. I myself would like to see several sets of off road tires and wheels for street pickups, and mudders, some duct work in several scale diameters, and some more bits for big rigs. There is already more than enough stuff for hot rods, custom cars, drags and NASCAR. Have you ever looked at HiroBoy's site more than half the detailing is always out of stock always. O.K. I know what a whiner, sorry.

Some of you know I have issues with my current build, the Fred's wrecker. I'm wanting to know if there are any suppliers of 1/25th scale ducts for big rigs?. Or does anybody have an easy way to make them that doesn't include shrink tubing. I tried that and failed miserably. HELP!

Did you ever get a kit that was poorly engineered? I've been building a ROG W900 Wrecker, the Fred's Automotive issue, and it's a dog. First, it was chrome that was too thick, and had wrinkles in key araes, then it was mold shift flash everywhere now it's the air cleaner cans have the mounting tabs reversed. And to top that off the duct work that connect the turbo to the cans interferes with things on the fire wall and causes massive miss alignment issues. Yes, I double checked my build orientations for, if I glued things backwards, and I did not. So, now I'm stuck re desighning the turbo duct works and trying to make the cleaner cans presentable.and finding a way to make corrugated ducts from scratch. Man did you ever have one of those day's. I just can't get a break on this one. Just thought I'd share my angst. Thanks guys

I may have replied to this idea before, but. I am a member of, The Southern New Hampshire CNC Club, one of our members has a RepRap Printer with modifications. We had a demo of it's capabilities at a meeting and it is impressive. This is not, and I stress not an industrial grade machine. It uses the ABS filiment that is used primarily to weed your lawn. And Lownslow is correct, the more polygons the finer the surface quality. But, in order to increase those polygons, you need a CAD software that supports nurbs, and polygons, to make those files. It is generally very slow and tempermental at this stage of development, and must be extremely ridig in its design, something they don't tell you. Not as fine in surface quality as one would want for bodies, but good enough for wheel rims and other types of parts. It took nearly twenty minutes to print a guitar pick! Plus I think gluing is problematic, as is part support. Sytems used by Shapeways and others is FDM, fused deposite media, I think. I was never good with acromymns. They act by depositing a fine layer of media, and a specilized printer head sprays a layer of glue, much like an ink jet printer does, one layer at a time, approx. .005mm to .010mm thick. The media stays in place to help support the part while being printed. Thus any imanigable shape can be made, and in some cases, with the proper media, put into service immediatly to evaluate its performance. The advent of fused deposit printing at home is still far off in the future, unless one is very ,very, savy and, very fairly well off, to build one at home. In defence of all those who want one I say, kudos, it is cutting edge emerging technology. But for instant scale models it is still in its infantcy, and I'll hold out for a home built FDM machine. Currently CNC Milling and Routing is a viable solution to 3D printing to get things made, but as with all things, it is pricey. Think injection mold making another quickly eveolving technology, But that's another story for another time.

This issue came to a head once when I was the layout scenery manager at my local model railroading club. It was never resolved!. It's like trying to come to an agreement in Congress, too many strong and unrelenting opinions. Why would a car, or truck, be any less well done if done with style. Many are out of the box and are sweet ,while many have all the bells and whistles. I look at those, super detailed 1/20th scale race cars and think, wow that's complicated, not my style, but then I think, if done well it comes off sweet. So in closing, remember, it's only a hobby, and we, rise to our own levels of satisfaction and willingness to astound ourselves.

I am in the works on this right now. Wish I did a search for correction, I like the winch setup much better thatn the kits version. Too bad it's already glued in or I'd change it, oh well live n' learn. My coppy had way too much mold shift, sanded for weeks on that, and wrinkled chrome in some small but conspicuous spots on the wheel rims, and solid chrome over the holes in the rims on three. Have a pic of this finished soon.

Until the bottle's empty.

Well I've got maessages out to several outlets including Tamiya USA. We'll see what we dig up.

As with all things web, I didn't see a case price anywhere only single bottle prices. If a price was given I did not or could not find it. I am wont when it comes to web site searching.

So then who makes pro street kits? Can I graft the rear end parts to any model I choose for slicks?

This is an area at which I suck in. I have attempted several scratch buils of chassis only to fail famously. So, when tubbing a chassis for slicks, is there a magic formula for the alterations to the stock kit chassis, or am I whistling in the wind. Share your tricks and methods with me, I want to know.

Where do I find sources to purchase Tamiya paints by the box lot. I used to get them from my LHS but, sadly, almost all the good ones locally are gone. I mean the boxes of I think, six bottles. Any help is apprecietated, thanks

Oh man this is pure genius. The art of super detailing has taken a quantum leap here boys. This kind of craftsmanship is why I came to this forum. Sergey, KUDOS man that's one fantsmagoricle model.

Yep, you were correct I just thought it was a publishing date for the insruction booklte. Still. it's a badly molded kit, just saying.

After viewing this thread I visited shapeways and got a quote, again, for a wheel I drew up in SolidWorks a while back. This time I spedified that FUD material. I got a price I can live with, $3.63. The item is a 1/25th scale Mack 5 spoke wheel rim for big rigs. After the holidays I'm making an order for twelve of them. At that price it's cheaper than making my own from resin. The cost of a kit to pour a mold is more than the cost for printed media. I may try a tire next.

Out of the box Taniya I really should call this Some of My Older Builds. Please enjoy

Exactly the reason why I didn't get mine done, the cost of one to make molds from.

I wish GM would consider bringing back the old classic body designs with new technology under the skin. I think the auto industry would see a rebirth and soaring profits. Don't you just love some of those old body styles. Sometimes I wish I............