62rebel

i posted elsewhere that i have a few old sheets but i don't have a site. what kit are you looking for?

I've never seen the Pyro/lifelike/whoever made it last Lincoln kit in person; i built the auburn but was very disappointed with the wheels and tires(much too narrow tires and wheels just not right in proportion) so it was redone as a street rod. i'd LOVE to build it stock; there's no set of wheels or tires that i know of correct for this kit. the lincoln kit should kitbash with the monogram continental if they're relatively close in scale. i'm more than willing to accept small scale discrepancies in some cases; this being one where the exceptional (monogram) kit would shore up the questionable (pyro) kit. so the real question now is; who among us has, unbuilt, both of these kits to compare parts between them, and who has the pyro kit for sale or trade?

I'm glad you decided to build that kit; most of them seem to be in the hands of "collectors" and will never see glue and paint. my great aunt Dorothy had me working on one of these for her just before i joined the Navy in 1982 and it went missing after she died; unfinished as far as i know. she was a major modeling matron of mine; she supplied me with many models over the years as birthday and christmas presents. does your kit have waterslide decals for the crates or are they the polyfilm self-stickers? i recall hers having the sticker type and i was not happy trying to get them to work.

I don't wanna swell any heads but on this forum there's plenty of "famous" names. and i'll stop right there; you guys know who's who!

not sure if it would be correct for the application, but the AMT pacer wagon came with a very nicely done amc 258 6cyl with a torqueflite tranny. as i said, i'm not sure the jeep used the same 6 as the regular amc line; it might have been the tornado six, but there's an option for replica stock.

MEMORY LANE... lifelike animal kits and renwal ww1 airplane kits came with liquid cement/paint thinner in them, IIRC; the last one i recall buying was a german shepherd and it had the paint kit with it with instructions on using the liquid cement to liquify the solid paint blocks like old grade school watercolors. the renwal system used liquid cement to melt the decals onto the surface of the wings and fuselage! boy am i glad we moved on from THAT sort of stuff; could you imagine brushing your choice of solvent over a 20 dollar set of decals on a 30 dollar kit you've spent 3 months finessing? oooooh i feel faint just thinking about it, and it's got nothing to do with fumes! and i remember two types of non-toxic cement from the 70's; the testors in the blue tube, of which i might still have one, and something called Ross safety cement. it did have the strong lemon scent we remember,and i recall not liking it because it seemed (in my memory) to take a lot longer to set than the testors' red tube. i also remember not having a choice since at that age Mom bought the kits and supplies, and she was super-safety-conscious about us kids. she'd have certainly went for the acrylic paint instead of my beloved enamels.

ca glue almost requires a tutorial. it is almost a must-have on my bench, but i hate using it. i've used many different brands and types; all have specific advantages and two big disadvantages. one; they cannot be counted on to grip immediately. as often as not, it has taken 15 minutes or more for ca glue to kick for me. (unless it touches my skin!) and two; regardless of the amount used, there has been some reaction that has caused a formation of salt-like crust on some parts. what i do use it for is to lock putty in place. after i've gotten a puttied surface to near finish, i spread a thin layer of ca across it and let it sink in. after it has cured, i finish sand that area and prime it. as for fogged windows and chrome, i've got my share of ruined models from my learning curve. they can be restored, i'm sure, but they were disappointing to see when i was expecting something else...

get acquainted with your local autozone staff; a/z uses large styrene placards on the endcaps of their gondolas and they change them out every 60-90 days. it's good thick stock and is screen printed, meaning you either have to sand off or scrape off print, but only one side. they chuck them out; don't save or recycle the stuff. you can't beat free styrene sheet.

TIP:to get odd sized (re:big balloon) tires, chuck an AMT skinny slick onto your dremel and sand it until it 's good and round. carve tread lines onto it, and copy it in resin.

i closely examined the box art of the tiger shark and do see the obvious changes. man that bites. i don't know if the three pictures i have of it would be enough to retro the tiger to the dream car. i saw also that corners were cut (given the original issue date of the dream car) as far as creating the headlights and grille. will still buy one if only to try a retro. worst that could come of it would be a source of parts. i've bought at least three silhouettes for the wheels and engine alone; it's a great source kit since i've never been able to finish a silhouette correctly. (and shouldn't a representation of the first version have a buick engine....)

this is a nicely molded kit, lots of parts, crisply detailed. The front suspension is molded as a separate subframe and lower k frame with torsion bars, and is also crisply molded. the spindles are intended to be straight ahead but could be posed. the engine is cleanly molded and build up nicely; the exhaust manifolds look very authentic compared to most chrysler small block representations. two intakes are offered; a single 4bbl and a six-pack; the six-pack requires trimming which is outlined in the instructions. no other performance options are offered. the transmission is molded into the engine halves and represents the four speed manual; no option for automatic is provided. the interior builds up in current AMT fashion onto the chassis plate; positive locating for seats is provided. good carpet impression is present. the seats are vintage '70's mopar plain front buckets and rear bench, and the side panels are well detailed for a rather low-line base car. the dashboard has an odd separate molding for hang-on AC, a neat touch. there are also AC lines and a compressor under the hood. the body is a nicely proportioned representation of the duster, the bumpers and grille are all separate moldings and crisply done. detail paintingthe grille and washing will bring out nice detail. the rear suspension builds up well and has many separate parts which will benefit from careful painting. the exhaust pipes are well made and look accurate and proportional. the tires are the old (but well done)POLYGLAS GT's; correct for the period if not the actual car; i don't have research material to cover tires. the wheels are mopar rallyes and well done, needing detail painting to bring it out. two sets of "340" stripes, in black and white, are included as well as air cleaner decals. i missed the GTX style pair of hood scoops; the locating holes for which are molded closed on the hood, as well as the three piece trunk spoiler, whose locating holes are also molded closed. all in all, this is a welcome kit for replica stock builders and those wishing to build era pro stockers. i could see this kit in mopar missile trim easily.

cool; i am on a hunt for it now.... gooodbyyye green stuff; it's been a long education.

Bob, you'd be the guy who had the inner workings of this stuff! i know the basics of the process but over the years lots of what i used to call "heavy" models had parts deleted from the shot. maybe it was some bean counter weighing plastic; a few less optional parts in a kit; who's to notice? nobody buys a second one, right? that seems to be the "wal-mart" opinion anyway; the buyer is not the consumer? all models are gifts for kids, to them, and they market them that way. the "old pro" nova kit has the front fenders molded separately from the body shell; a rather odd approach unless you intended for there to be another set of front fenders? the whole kit itself is supposed to be a pro-stock; therefore what use would separate fenders be, except to be god-awful to attach correctly lined up (especially if you're ten years old, and i'm 44!) ? of course, when AMT was in its heyday models came and went and many were probably developed halfway and discarded. such is the nature of the business; what sells;stays; what doesn't, gets turned into the Jolly Roger. and you're exactly right about being glad to get what they still have molds for. what i wouldn't give to have my original dream rod kit; or any number of the ones that suffered teenage frustration. again; such is life!

WELCOME ABOARD! first off; there's no "wrong" product to use unless it's just plain dangerous. if drywall putty works for you, use it! but i'd find some alternatives soon. second; the reason we're here is to share the experience, so helping you make better models is what it's all about. third; there's a lot of information here and on members' links; lots of tips tricks and techniques. use what you feel confident to try at first and move up gradually. there's no final exams here; learn as you go.

do you have any special technique or trick to gluing it in place or does it act as it's own bonding agent? i'd heard of it but our LHS doesn't seem to have it.

bob, you slay me! i weld when i'm working on my 1:1 cars and sometimes breathe zinc fumes.... talk about getting the jitters... i know better too, that's the shame of it! getting back to the fumes in the smoke from melting styrene, i'm not sure what it might contain; BUT there is an answer to be found. any shop that has to work with sheet styrene should have an MSDS sheet for that product on file, and on that sheet there will be a listing of by-products of burning or melting. fire department personnel responding to fires in these shops have to know how to deal with the resulting hazardous materials. (now i feel like i'm back in the Navy doing damage control training) I don't have an MSDS here for the stuff; we don't use it, but a sign shop ought to have one. side note: years ago when i worked for Babcock and Wilcox, i was asked to get rid of a huge bin of styrofoam shipping peanuts.... i borrowed a heat gun from one of the assembly techs and took the bin out on the loading dock and proceeded to melt them down. about a half hour later I was asked to please stop the fumes were blowing into the building...

looking at some of the kits i have in various stages of completion, i realized that some had optional parts that didn't seem to go with any version of the kit in the box. one that comes to mind is the AMT '72 Nova SS kit; there has been a funny-car style windshield in that kit since the late '70's, and i've NEVER seen it mentioned as an optional part. it doesn't seem that AMT would have tooled it up and not had a use for it. when i look at the odd way that the front fenders attach to the car and the absolutely crude front suspension molding, it occurs to me that at one time a version of the kit must have had the option to convert the body to a funny car with extended fenders and hood. AMT's latest reissues of some older kits have had much of their tooling reopened and missing parts restored to them. again, one that comes to mind is the AMT 29 ford roadster; it now has most of the early AlaKart kit in it, missing only a few crucial items, and with the wrong wheels. but it's good to have those extra parts back.

has anyone here bought the AMT repop tiger shark? i'm thinking its a converted car craft dream rod from circa 1963? the original didn't have "pontoons" over the front wheels IIRC. i'll probably snag one tonight to build, and compare it to photos in one of my car books. i think it was a very detailed kit for the time with a full frame and opening doors and trunk. if possible i'm going to build it in dream rod version and not as a later and probably fictitious version. AMT and MPC had(?) a bad habit of converting "outdated" tooling to make new kits. many great kits long gone because of that.

it's nice to think of ourselves as visionaries.... i like it. i've long felt that anyone could buy prepainted preassembled diecast and collect models but it took craftsmen to build them from bits and pieces. to see work like that of bob paeth or bud anderson or juha ario (sp?) is to see art, imho.

I wish i'd developed the habit of documenting my work on the really involved models i've done. i'm not into photography that much but do get into serious scratchbuilding and kitbashing and to revisit work i've done it all has to come out of memory. Makes it tough to do the same thing twice.

does the RAF ford woodie wagon qualify as a truck? i dug up my '41 woodie RAF conversion and started working on it again last night. well; i finished putting the tires on. for lack of anything better, i used formula desert dogs from AMT with the lettering shaved off anf the sidewalls sanded smooth, on the wide plain rims from the AMT 49 ford kit. the wheel wells are enlarged front and rear for clearance, and the rest of the undercarriage as offered in the kit.

i still use balsa in my models when i need it... i think the production of styrene doesn't actually involve what we'd use as solvent? styrene is sort of an accidental by product of natural gas from what i've read. another one of those goopy things like nylon that went unused for years until someone said "hey, look at what this stuff is good for..." i started planning a custom merc last night and i am going to use Sculpey as much as i can in the construction to see what the limitations are. as far as i can tell from other users, sculpey is probably the safest stuff out there. and it should add weight which seems appropriate for a custom merc!

DOMESTICATE??? well; she's got US trained pretty well....lol! yessir; we got her when she was very small, that's the only way you can hope to bond with them and bonding is the ONLY way to "domesticate" (there's that word again!) a raccoon. she's a very affectionate and spoiled little girl; she expects and follows a routine timetable and lets my wife and i know if we deviate from it! i DO NOT recommend them as pets, though; they can be very destructive and temperamental, and are capable of carrying diseases fatal to humans. they also require a high degree of interaction and a willingness to stay close to home. she used to travel with us in the car when she was small but at thirty pounds she's too heavy for the carrier. she hates noise anyway; very apprehensive of strangers, so she stays home. he he he domesticate the man said he he he ho ho ho ha ha ha (sound of knee slapping) lol! thanks for letting me share my joy.

I think i can safely say i got the most worrisome pet of all; she's eight years old going on nine, about thirty pounds, and smart as a tack. she's got a nose like a bloodhound, hands like a humans, and the curiosity of five cats. i call her a carolina swamp terrier, but most folks call her a raccoon. i HAVE to keep my modeling stuff locked away! she used to confine herself to twiddling pieces of strue but i have found chewed-on parts here and there. small price to pay for such a companion, and i wouldn't trade her for anything. non-toxic alternatives are definitely of interest to me!

I worry that if the putty product i use doesn't have some solvent agent in it to create a chemical bond to the parent structure, it may lift and cause the paint to crack. i do a lot of fillet work on customs and depend on the putty not to separate. the epoxies i've used have at times separated from the styrene structure, but i'm sure it's in the technique and not the product. i've even had testors' clear parts cement react with painted parts when it came into contact with them, and i was under the impression that the stuff was latex based, and fairly inert. if we're not paying attention, we might get legislated into the very track we're discussing here. it's true that a lot of the stuff we work with is very dangerous, but by and large we all know the risks involved and act accordingly. it's going to be the unsupervised kids getting into the volatile thinners and solvents that sic the litigators on us and then the industry will be forced to clamp down on who they sell to. down here in redneck country we can still do pretty much as we please but i've read elsewhere that draconian restrictions on paint and model cement are enforced in certain areas. so; maybe we should get a little pro-active here; there's a large contingent of very sharp minds hanging out here and there's bound to be some better ideas swirling around waiting for a voice and a set of hands. safe AND workable materials are possible; acrylics were a recent development in answer to VOC content. my problem? not enough education! i'm no chemistry major or anything, but somebody here might be...