Exotics_Builder

This build combines a resin body with the Revell 1949 Mercury kit. It is being built as a traditional custom, which our club Guru defines as up to 1964. Thus, modern chassis, wheels, engine, etc. are Verboten. Although not really my area of interest, I decided to go for it since I had the pieces in the stash. The resin body (I believe from Morgan Automotive Detail) is very nicely molded. One would think, looking at it, that it is styrene, not resin. Given the look of the body, I decided to add accent trim to accentuate the shape. Using Evergreen half round, I shaped "spear point" ends and glued to the body. Since the roof is chopped, the interior is difficult to view. So I used a technique of spraying paint with granules used to simulate artifical stone. It gives a reasonable appearance of standard carpeting. I used Testors Extreme Lacquer Fiery Orange shot from the can, as my airbrush compressor is still in the moving box and yet to be set up. Followed by Wet Look, again from the can. In between, I added a couple of pinstripe decals from Gofer Decals. Allowing it to cure before polishing. I used Tamiya Wood Tan and Racing White for the interior followed by their semi-gloss clear. I dug into my diminishing stash of AMerican Satco wide whitewalls and coupled them with a wheel set I got from Fujimi 20+ years ago. I plan on using the cadillac engine in the kit, detailing it out. I do not plan on getting carried away on chassis/suspension detail.

Please allow me to share detail photos of the kit contents of the A&N Model Trucks 2018 Ram Power Wagon. I also included photos of the 2 optional "kits" I got, the engine option and the suspension option. There are 3 other options, bull bar, snorkel and LED spotlights that I elected not to get. This model is aimed mainly for street and mild off road. I will likely be using Fireball Modelworks LED light bars and 3D Scale Parts wheels and tires. Time to ruminate as I clear off the Work in Progress. Link to Flickr Album...

Might add that to this one

Don't have the old Craftsman but do have this one unbulit

They are sending out the decal sheet on friday, next mail day for them

They do very high quality work. I also have this one from them:

Thanks. Pulling out the spare body shell, as the col vents suck. Back to the old scribe and wash on this one.

Came in late yesterday afternoon from Latvia (of all places). A&N Model Trucks 1/24 scale 2018 Dodge Power Wagon Pickup. Well detailed kit, but is a curbside unless you order the optional engine/engine bay option. There also is an optional suspension package. Shipped from vendor on September 8 and arrived the 29th. Not included in the kit, but in my parts bin is this supercharger. It has got me to thinking. SHould I or should I not? The only unfortunate thing is my kit did not come with the decal sheet. I contacted the vendor and have yet to hear back.

Have not updated in a while. Working on the interior and body. Decided to see if I could open the vents and am not sure it was a good idea. They are so fine and fragile as one sands down (from behind) that they are not looking uniform. I may need to rethink this idea. I do have an extra body in a parts box if need be. I also worked on the front RS grill. I stripped and opened it. I then built out the headlight area and used the Model Car Garage Camaro PE set to finish off. I think I have the depth about right. Now need to finish this off. Finally, on the interior, I have it painted, and assembly started. Used Chevrolet Hugger Orange paint from Testors. I did not flock the carpet as I fabricated some floor mats to go with. The seat decals from Revell broke apart on applying even though the decal sheet looked fine. Chalking it up to age. Fortunately, I made a copy of the decal sheet and used the backup.

Wel, the USPS says the kit has reached the Portland Oregon distribution center this evening. So, Tuesday maybe. Will post photos as soon as it arrives

They certainly do some interesting (and modern) offerings. Just wish they had more suspension and engine bay detail. But, the price would likely up to MFH levels

I passed on the Aston Martin, partly due to RHD. But, I am looking forward to their RS6 Avant DTM that I hope will soon be available. Seems to be a take on this car

Have that and this one as well

Trying to clear the bench of 3 in progress now, but these three are of real interest ? ?

Well, I have 700 plus unbuilt to keep me busy. So, I guess I wil have some stuff to keep occupied in the meantime. At least it is in the USA

I just got a post from USPS saying mine has made it to their distribution center in Elk Grove Village Illinois and on its way to the Pacific Northwest. My guess on ELk Grove Village is that it is near O'Hare airport and it may have arrived there. This is the first notice since September 9 iby Latvia Post.

That particular model came out in 2018 and is currently being sold. The Tamiya is a DBS V12 that went ended production in 2012 or thereabouts. Only "downside" is that the model is a Right Hand Drive only. And, yes, the Alpha Kits are, to me, sort of diecast like resin, but do have some finer detail. Would love it if they would do detailed chassis and engine bays, but it is what it is.

Last notice of mine was at Riga PO on September 8. No further update yet

With Mark on that one I have never seen anything like that. Not having researched it yet, I guess if you have a cutting machine you may be able to use that to scribe the lines. But expensive and considerable research to see if doable. The only other alternative I can immediately think about is if you can find strip plastic in the right size and shape, you could glue those onto a .005 plastic sheet to get a laminated panel. Plastruct and Evergreen are the two biggest.

Yes.

Agreed. Not thinking of updating for some time. Also trying to decide if the Ghost catridge is a good option, or send any artwork that needs special handling off to be printed. $300 can generate quite a few decal sheets if one supplies the artwork

CorelDraw 2020 has a significantly improved trace feature. Improvements really started about a couple of releases back. Still needs tweaking, but less work. Normally, I would import a bitmap image and set it in it's own layer and visible. Then I would manually trace over it. Very tedious, but, if that is what you are going after, it may be the only choice.

You are quite right. I use CorelDraw to do my vector artwork. I will use the trace feature to get a rough vector and work from there. I have "cheated" a couple of times with a good bitmap or doing a hi-res scan. But the quality of the artwork is key

George has hit it pretty well. I have an HP Laserjet MFP 281 that I got at Costco for slightly over $300. I recently did the decals below for a friend (on white decal paper since I do not yet have the Ghost cartridge). The color around the decal is the body color of the model (it was slightly lighter since I didn't have the color on hand and had to approximate the RGB, but it worked. He had a time constraint, so couldn't refine the decal more.