LDO

I laminated 7 layers of Evergreen .125" using Testors liquid cement. It was in a vise for 24 hours. It's out of the vise now, but how long before I can do some serious carving/shaping?

Some B&N stores have a better selection than others. The nearest to me does not carry it. If you have to drive any distance at all, call first.

If you're in the Austin area, Barnes & Noble in the Arboretum has it. http://storelocator.barnesandnoble.com/sto...l.do?store=2536 (183 & Great Hills Trail)

Who builds a model of a subject they don't like? That's just weird.

As far as model companies go, you ***typically*** get what you pay for. I say typically because sometimes old kits get reissued in new boxes. An example of this is the 1948 Lincoln and Auburn Boattail Speedster from Lindberg. The molds are 1950s technology. The kits are real dogs. I don't know what type of subjects you're into but of course you won't have to worry about 1950s tech on a model of a Ferrari 599GTB. Sometimes 2 or more companies offer a model of the same subject. Tamiya and Revell both offer Enzo Ferraris. The Revell kit is much simpler than the Tamiya, and the price reflects that. In a case like that, it just comes down to how much detail you want to pay for. I'm not knocking Revell by any means. They make some beautiful kits. Check out the box art. It often includes a shot of the undercarriage and engine. If the detail looks kind of soft, it may be an old kit reissued. WRT Airbrush VS Spray cans, you can absolutely get a beautiful paint job out of a can. You don't need a spray booth, either. I painted several cars with Tamiya cans while deployed to Afghanistan. I did have to rub out a dust particle or two, but I still got great results. You will need a polishing kit. Check out Micro-Mark for that. While you're there, get some Novus polishing compound to use after you finish with the polishing kit. A previous posted mentioned getting a Dremel. I agree 100%, but get the battery-powered one. The 110AC version spins too fast. It will melt plastic.

Kalmbach just can't get it right. SA and FSM are dinosaurs. Pick up a British hobby magazine. Tons of industry news, new releases, reviews, how-tos, etc. Kalmbach seems to be stuck in the pre-internet days, when a little bit of information was all people needed. I haven't bought either of them in ages. I thumb through them at the LHS, but they just don't have much to offer. If only Model Cars could lure away Mark Gustavson...

Thanks, Lee

20 years ago in Houston, there was a guy in a run-down neighborhood who had 2 Plymouth Superbirds in his back yard. Man I love that car.

Mine is Cole Cutler's '34 Ford 5-window. I remember reading about in high school. It had a 429 that had been stroked to 535. It was a street car that ran deep 9s, and it had a license plate that said You'd Lose (but I don't remember the exact letter combo he had. I found a small photo from a 1993 issue of Hot Rod: http://www.colecutler.com/photoalbum/main....++++7++6-07.jpg The original article was around 1985.

Hey I built the coupe version of that while I was deployed. When I was working on it, a buddy picked up the body and said "Hey- you should make a street rod out of this". I got to thinkin'...that was a pretty cool idea. The top of the coupe already looks chopped. Make it look like something a couple of GIs would have built while serving in Germany in 1946. That's not as outrageous as it sounds. In a German museum, I saw a pre-war Maybach that had the back half of its body removed to make room for a huge radial saw blade. It was driven off the axle. The car was owned by a wealthy German whose money became worthless when the war ended. He still had his material possessions, so he turned his luxury car into a mobile firewood cutter in order to put food on his table. So it's plausible that a couple of GIs could have bought a pre-war Mercedes for pretty cheap. Anyway- my idea was for a rod that's pretty much like rods built in the USA after the war. Strip it down and make it go as fast as possible. Maybe put a track nose on it from Revell's '29 Ford pickup. Get rid of the fenders. Think Pierson Brothers Coupe (well, if you were starting with the Coupe)

Make a 1/20 version of the "ZR-32" from a Car Modeler magazine how-to article back around 1991.

There's also an article in a 1994 issue of Motor Racing Replica News. I'll dig it out and see if it has any more info you could use.

Hey Art- Your rear end looks nice.

Use Evercoat brand Eurosoft putty. It's very fine-grained. It sands and feathers beautifully. If you want to read about customizing techniques for model cars, get some old copies of Car Modeler magazine with Custom Clinic articles by Mark Gustavson. That guy is a guru. He did a lot of cool articles like how to chop tops, sectioning, shaving trim, etc. You can also visit his website; www.customclinic.com

Bob Dudek has a cnc.

For headers, you might try solder that is the right size. It bends easily. For aluminum tubs, try sheet styrene and paint it with Testors Metalizer paints. If you want rivets, they are available from hobby shops that sell trains. I have a bunch of different sizes made by Tichy. Grandt Line also make scale rivets. I don't know where to get braided lines and anodized fitting. Try ebay.

I was looking for a photo of the real thing and ran across a website for a guy who copies the LAPD part in resin: http://www.jnsresin.com/misc.htm You can check 'em out there. IMHO, the real kit part is better. I built one years ago with a brushed aluminum finish on top and candy red on the sides and in the recessed area. It really did look very nice.

Try the Milodon valve covers out of the Tony Foti LAPD Pro-Mod Camaro. It would be a crime to fill in the recessed part with raised Milodon lettering, IMHO, but to each his own.

There is definitely a clear coat and possibly pearl on top of the pattern (whether he used a decal or real lace). IMHO, a decal would be much better to use for a "whole car" lace job. Just imagine trying to get real lace to go around corners AND keep the pattern consistent AND the same height above the body. It WILL get distorted and lift up when going around curves. For a roof only or for filling in a "panel paint" scheme, real lace is ok. One benefit to lace is that you get to choose both colors. A decal may not offer the exact shade you want. Of course, you can work around that by spraying a candy over it. Something else to consider when doing a 1/24 lace paint job is how the whole paint job would look if enlarged 24 times. You can get dollhouse lace, but it's not really a 1/24 version of anything. A custom decal can be exactly the pattern you want, and exactly the size you want. Find some lace that you like, have that reproduced in a graphics program, then you can print it in any color and size you want.

Photo 1 was very likely a decal. A mask is possible but very difficult. It would be virtually impossible to keep a mask at a consistent height off the body and keep all the shapes the same shape. Photo 2 is most likely a vinyl wrap. I would suggest a custom decal for either of these.

What do I win?

John Force. BAM!

To expand on what Aaron said, resin parts/kits are limited production pieces that would not be economically feasible for production by one of the big model companies. The molds are typically made of 2-part silicone and have a fairly limited life span. You get just parts like Optima car batteries, wheels, tires, valve covers, complete engines,...the sky is the limit. There are also conversion kits, like a chop-top body for a kit that already exists. It saves you the trouble of chopping the top yourself. This is a Jimmy Flintstone '49 Ford with chopped top. About ten bucks and you supply the AMT '49 Ford kit. There are complete curbside kits of all types. This is a Jimmy Flintstone kit of the Summers brothers "Goldenrod" land speed racer. IIRC, it's around 40 bucks. Beyond conversion kits and curbside cars, you have complete kits like a Model Factory Hiro 1958 Ferrari Testa Rossa. It has an interior and engine, but other non-visible details are typically not present in model like this. This particular model is over 200 dollars. It's expensive, but for many kits like this, it's the only one available, or it's a lot better than a mass-produced kit. Hasegawa recently issued their own plastic '58 Testa Rossa, for about 170 bucks less. Hmmm. I said at the beginning that the subjects are typically not feasible for mass-production by a big model company, then I mentioned that the '58TR is now available in styrene. To be fair, it did take 50 years for a kit, and it costs 57 bucks. Oh yeah- I showed a couple of different Jimmy Flintstone offerings. They make a LOT of different bodies for rods and customs. Most of them go for about 10 bucks. If you want to give resin a try, it's a good way to get your feet wet. The quality is not the best , but I'd say they're about an 8.5 or 9 out of 10. If you have your heart set on some cool resin kit but you wonder about the quality, by all means ask in here before buying it. About 15 years ago I bought my first resin kit, a Can-Am car. That thing looked like it was made by a crack-smoking monkey.

What? You know you want it.