oldcarfan

Many years ago there was a rumor that the MPC Chevette and Vega tooling were still around somewhere. Has anyone heard whether they actually are? I've been watching eBay for a while, but the originals always go for more than I can justify. I never thought I would see the stock Datsun truck or the Toyota Supra kit again and when they came out again, I bought several of them. Surely there are some other old tools that could be reissued.

For a short time in the late 90s I worked for a company producing resin bodies. We used various brands of resin depending on availability. Some were white and some were tan or yellowish when cured. Over time they all tend to discolor a bit. I still have a few parts left over from that time and even the formerly white ones are now a yellow color due to age.

The local Walmart has been clearing out their diecast cars of various scales at a good price. I got a ton of them to break down for the wheels and tires. Now for the question, a lot of these toys have some cool body parts and details that would be nice for model kits. The plastic on the chassis and interior is a slightly bendable black plastic. Could it be a type of ABS? I've tested use a Tamiya liquid cement, and super glue, but neither really touches it. I do have a generic Bondic but haven't tried it yet. Has anyone ever glued this stuff together and if so what works? I couldn't find any markings on the pieces saying what kind of plastic it is.

I love the details

That's cool!

I ordered these off Amazon as cargo for various builds. I ordered two sets, one in orange and the other in black and they shipped from China in about two weeks. They are actually sized for a larger scale I think, but they should work well enough. They are designed to be used for radio controlled jeeps and such and are actually hinged so you could fill them with tiny stuff. The medium, boxes are sized about like a Yeti cooler in 1/24th.

That sounds like good news!

Now if Tamiya would only rerelease their Volvo wagon kits!

I figured a Mustang was a good fit with the Expedition. Today while looking for something else I unearthed enough leftover parts from various Monogram F-350s to possibly make a duallie as the team parts runner. I'd tucked away an original kit years ago and when I opened it, there are a lot of extra parts. I have enough for two truck, except for missing one engine.

I like it!

That looks nice! I just rebuilt the same kit yesterday after finding the missing parts.

I have a soft spot for Volvos. My first was a 260GL which was a fun car. My last one was a V50 wagon which I really loved. I had a mechanic friend who bought and sold Volvos so he gave me a good price on repairs. I happily drove that car in Austin traffic for quite some time until the plastic Y at the bottom of the radiator split. The engine fried before I could get to an exit. The mechanic retired and I now drive a Lexus SUV.

Several years ago I bought an Italeri Volvo 760 to recreate a car I once had. The real one was high mileage but cheap. I put a lot of money into that car. Lots of engine parts, interior work, but it always demanded more. I finally sold it for something dependable after joining the Navy. Anyway, I found this kit at a junk shop and worked to get it looking like the real one. I even painted it the color I wanted to repaint the original one. I built it the way I'd planned on doing the original car, lowered and with nice wheels, the only thing it was missing were the driving lights I put on that real one. I finished the build late one evening and went to set it on the shelf. Instead, I tripped and it tumbled to the floor. Many parts were lost and I sadly put it back in the box. Skip ahead a few years and I was packing everything for our move. I found the missing pieces under a bench and stuck them in a baggie. The other day I found them again and then found the kit. The body was cracked in several places so I repaired it and did a lot of smoothing. So here it is, finished again. This time I made sure it got securely on the shelf.

As part of my Cannonball entry for this year, I've created a backstory. In this case, it concerns two young people who win the lottery for a large sum. Being fans of European and vintage racing, they start their own racing organization, Garage 62. They collect and build cars that catch their interest. In this case they decided to enter the Cannonball and bought an old Expedition as a base. To make sure they were as well prepared as possible for the race, they built a pre-runner to scope out the challenge ahead. Now for the real world. I dug out a Snap Tite Mustang originally bought for the tires and wheels. I prepped the body and shot it with the same Rustoleum dark gray that I'm using on the Expedition. As with that vehicle, the Rustoleum is still not completely dry and who knows when that will happen. I'll give it a while to harden and either polish the paint, or dirty it up to make it look like it just got back from a run. Some wheels off a diecast Jeep and tires from an unknown source seem to fit well. I lowered the car about an 1/8th of an inch and other than that, just detail painted it. A good night driver needs plenty of light so I added a full array of lights. Can you tell I like aftermarket lights? The original kit isn't that well detailed when it comes to headlights, so I drilled a hole in each and added a small lens. Not much, but I like it. The taillights as supplied are simply red paint, so I covered them in BMF and used a red Sharpie to make them look a little better. The interior is done in a dull bronze and black combination to simulate leather. And that's about it. The car isn't perfect, but I enjoy making a simplified kit something a little more. Now I'm thinking the boys at Garage 62 also need a shop truck or two!

If I win the lottery, I won't tell anyone, but there will be signs. A long time ago, my friends and I used to play a game. We'd sit and tell what we would do if we won the lottery. Well, a while back, I started creating a backstory for some of my models based on this idea. In the story a couple of young guys win the lottery in a big way and decide to start a racing team. My Cannonball entry this year is being run by these guys. I haven't decided on a team name, but I've already started planning a diorama backdrop for their shop. The guys have a thing for European cars and old school racing and start collecting and building Porsches, BMWs, and Mercedes vehicles. I've designed some decals to go on their cars, but I printed them on Micro-Scale paper and it seems to be brittle and doesn't want to stick to the cars. Now for the questions: Am I the only one who goes into this kind of mental detail? I find it helps me concentrate on my builds. Second question: Does anyone have tips on getting the Micro-Scale paper to work? I printed some three years ago and some more about a year ago, used their laser paper and printed the decals on a commercial laser printer. I put a thin coat of Testor's clear over it to keep the print from coming off. The decals were brittle, but I can sort of make them work but they really don't stick well. Could it be that the paper was old? I tried decal setting solutions, but I can't say it made a lot of difference.

Good luck. The Calloway Corvette Sledgehammer was one of my dream cars back in the day!

Didn't he have some Porsche or other exotic parts at one time?

That Coyote engine is huge! The engine is 1/24th and the engine bay is 1/25th so I spent today undoing a lot of engine bay work trying to clear room for it. In the downtime I worked on the Mustang a little. Being it's a curbside, it is going together a lot quicker than my Expedition. The limiting factor is the Rustoleum paint. Even though I did thin coats, and put it in the sun, it is still a bit soft. From past experience, I know it will probably stay that way a long time. It is dry to the touch, but I accidentally put a fingernail scratch in the side today. Strangely enough I pushed the indentation and it pretty much disappeared. Once I get everything into sub assemblies, I may put it away for a few months to let things dry.

I spent quite a lot of time today test fitting before coming to the conclusion that a 1/24th scale twin turbo Boss Coyote engine does not go easily into a 1/25th scale Ford Expedition. If I had thought ahead, I wouldn't have gone to so much trouble to build an engine bay. So far I've ground a huge amount of the front frame away along with a bunch of that engine bay. Even then it's going to be close. Sadly, it looks like a lot of the detail Texas 3D put into that engine is going to be hidden once everything is in place. I have a set of low profile tires on Porsche wheels I was planning on using, but I'm having second thoughts. I have a set of offroad/all season tires on Jeep wheels that I'm starting to like.

You got something nice there! I wish Round 2 would retool this back to that body style and year. If they gave us this and a SWB 1995 Ram Van, I'd be happy.

The Monogram Exotics are a must build to me. Especially the 911, and the 924, Not a lot of parts, but fun when you're in a slump.

We're having some unexpectedly warm weather this week. Today it was 88! Looks like it'll stay sunny and in the 70s the rest of the week so I'm taking advantage of it. I was able to concentrate for a while on the #17 Night Train Ford Expedition. I've been stuck on picking a color. I feel a scale model needs a bright color to stand out, but a Cannonball entry should be low profile, right? I wanted something that wouldn't attract too much legal attention in the real world. I really like Destroyer Gray as seen on some Chryslers and by accident found a Rustoleum dark gray that in the sun matches the Charger down the street almost exactly. I try to avoid Rustoleum on general principles, but wanted to make some progress. The paint went on thick, despite trying to do thin coats. There is some typical orange peel, but less than expected. The color looks darker under light than in the sun. Speaking of the sun, I hope the good old UV rays, high temps and super low humidity over the next couple of days will speed up dry time on this Rustoleum paint. I had it in direct sunlight for three hours today and it was dry-ish, but you could tell it wasn't anywhere near ready to be touched. In other news, the engine is painted and together. It still needs some detail painting, but looks great. I usually paint engines in black or silver but went with some Ford blue to set it off. It's actually Rustoleum Brilliant Blue, but close enough. I've got to plug Texas 3D. This is his Twin Turbo Coyote and it's a good product. Lots of detail, not a lot of cleanup, and quick service. I've ordered from him and from Iceman and never been disappointed! Now the problem is whether I can cram it into the engine bay. Twin turbos take up a lot of space. Finally, if we learned anything from Smokey and the Bandit, it's that every successful speeder needs a pre-runner or a distraction. In this case, I'm doing a Revell snap-tite Mustang in the same gray. Not a lot of detail, just some paint and wheels. I'll call it the Express Train.

We're having some unexpectedly warm weather this week. Today it was almost 90! Looks like it'll stay in the 70s the rest of the week so I'm taking advantage of it. I've been searching for a good color for #17, the Night Train Ford Expedition. I wanted something low-key and really like Destroyer Gray as seen on some Chryslers. By accident I found a Rustoleum dark gray that in the sun matches the Charger down the street almost exactly. I also got the engine together and painted, and I've got to plug Texas 3D. This is a good product. I've ordered from him and from Iceman and never been disappointed!

That's looking good!

After ordering online from Lionheart Hobby in Kyle, Texas a few months ago, I got a chance to visit in person. Good people! My oldest son will be going to Texas State in the Fall and so we went to tour the campus. Being it was cold and windy, we just hit the basics. That left me time to make the 20 minute drive to Lionheart. This is my new haul from them. I bought different versions of the Subaru online from them, but couldn't pass up the chance for another. The Lincoln is a reissue of one from my youth that I tried to convert to stock with not a lot of success. I'm going to try to recreate that build with parts from a Thunderbird if I can. No plan for the Mark IV, I just had one a long time ago and messed it up.