Mike Kucaba

Built ups don't last long with me. If they are nice unpainted examples I wash them,polish them and may go into the display case, or get wrapped up and put in a box. The painted ones go right into the stripping bucket for a good soak. I got a styline AMT '60-'61 Valiant that was gooped up with layers of paint and the custom front & rear on. When it came out it appeared the builder had used the AMT body putty as the glue to attach the pieces. They had just fallen off and the damage was minimal.

I have two OI AMT '64 GTO and a PL '64 GTO and the Mono '64 and agree with Bob Ellis. FWIW the OI AMT kit misses some critical details. The one that jumped out at me immediately was the line that goes across the cowl is missing on the AMT. Again, I think trusting measurements except for easy ones, like wheelbase are always hard to get consistency. There was a tread here recently about the Trumpeter 1960 Pontiac, and until Harry did a line out photo showing key points lining up, the roof wasn't that bad, except how it had been placed on the body. This kit has been panned since it came out as the roof is too short.

And It was also narrowed quite a bit, hence nick named Skinny Dart. I may have an article about it somewhere. did narrow a resin body years ago, but the rest of it was rather unique for me. It was similar to the LWR in that the drive line came out on sub-frame. This is all from a 65 Y.O. brain who celebrated the freedom of the '70's so be kind.

I'll have to do some research on this,but I believe I've seen a photo-etch door handle that with a dab of amber or red tinted epoxy might work. I think thay were Detail Master.

Yep! If it wasn't for corruption,and just general greed, capitalism would be perfect. I wonder how much of these shenanigans in business practices are the result of government regulation.

I dealt with them recently and got a upgrade kit for the Alfa GTA. And since I was shopping... added some stuff for brakes and wheels and tires.Not one problem, and the products are great.

LOL! Good One Nick!!

Yeah it's bad, but as a former Midwesterner,just think if this were SNOW

Beuatiful work and only one suggestion on any of your future builds.... See if you can get them CAST!!

That would be how a I think a wip could be. Build it first to completion or almost there, then post the complete wip. An alternative would be to block comments during the build. If anyone had comments,suggestions etc that could be handled by PM's

Very nice! Is the model in the pic sitting on filter material?

Normally, I don't get pointing out someone else's car and what they did to it with(hopefully) their own money & time...BUT these are just BAD!! It's almost as if there is a car bizzarro world!

I should have mentioned that the kit I specifically was thinking about was tooled in the late 88-90's (AMT's 1966 Chevy II.) This always frustrates me as I had laid down a near perfect paint in the color of my 1:1 Chevy II with lacquer and after a couple days of drying,there was the image of the that score line. Frustrating to say the least. At this point in model car manufacturing, I would have thought that the model companies knew there customer base at that time. FWIW my other statement still stands. I don't know of any modeler that doesn't know how to put a hole anywhere in a plastic model. In a batch of parts/built-ups I had a 1964 Ford Falcon that someone thought it would b cool to have an engine in the rear and cut a gaping hole in the trunk! With a dull knife

I've always relied on the sniff test. if you sniff and can still smell solvents gassing out, I would't chance it.

Yeah and it seems like it's the same 6 minus 4 that always complain. I suppose they won't be happy until all kits are "re-tooled" to placate their opiinons.

Ya'know, that might make a neat class at a model show. Box Stock/Box Art. Hmmmm Desert Scale Classic is coming up....

YUP! Very nice indeed!

I decide to research this wheeltax and got an eyeful!! Seems like Madison County, Indiana is a hot bed of political hijinx and crony-capitalism. http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=201&ArticleID=69920 In some other articles it appeared that the tax WAS repealed for one year . This effort was attributed to a Tea party republican group.

I'd try the CA technique,as you probably have that on hand, and go easy on the primer application. The Tamiya paint I reference would be the acrylic in the bottles. In my experience, the typical water based acrylics stands up to most lacquers. The BIN works well, but is rather thick. It is an alcohol based shellac,that has been pigmented. I never tried just a clear shellac as a sealer. Of course in the final analysis, the primary reason for the ghosting is using lacquer. Ghosting doesn't normally appear using enamel, or acrylics. BTW do you have an airbrush?

A long time ago someone suggested the "googly eyes"that you find at craft stores. They come in various sizes and have a clear plastic "dome"that might work. You will have to add the grid lines,but that can be done by dragging a proper size saw blade across the dome.

Hey Ho!! How you doing Larry! Long time seeing your name on any forum.

FWIW Back in the day on my '66 Chevy II I fitted Goodyear F-60-15's on Corvette 8 inch rally wheels and had to trim out the inside of the wheel well lip. the car also had re-arched multi-leaf rear springs,so it sat a little high in the back.

Very nice and a sure controversy on any display table Also a 3-D piece of Drag racing history. Good work.

Excellent work and very creative!!

I got so frustrated with the frame/floorpan cast as a unit that I eventually separated the two. It wasn't easy. One frame/fp for the separate frame,and one frame/fp for the pan itself. I sanded all the detail off the pan and it's nice and smooth now. The ghosting can be remedied by a few different ways. Acrylic primer like from Tamiya in the bottle or some like that BIN. some smear CA glue over all the ghosting. I've been using Du Pont Vari-Prime for a number of years. Like I said there is a number of ways to cure it.