roadkill

Yeah, thanks Ray, I figured I'd go for a bobber look and then decided, screw it and went bonkers with the colours and used some paints that I couldn't remember what I bought them for. Michael.

Honda 750-4, 1-6 scale. Wow, where to start with this one. I’ve had this kit a very very long time. Well I’m pretty sure this is the fifth or maybe sixth iteration of this little bugger, when I first got this kit I was so excited, the kit was enormous and so beautiful and, well come on I was young (er) and impressionable. So I started to build it OOB, then about two thirds of the way through I decided to slightly modify it, this meant dismantling most of what I had already done, then the slight mod became a lot more and during this stage I didn’t like the way it was going so I packed it all away. So many moons later I dragged it out looked at what was there, realised I had forgotten most of what my plan for it was so basically just started again, this time more dismantling and more modification plans, and again after a while it got packed up and put away again. This scenario repeated a couple more times until more recently where I dismantled again and just built it as a bobber with what was left of the kit that was usable, so now this makes number two of my very old start/stop models that is finally as finished as it’s gunna get. Kind regards Michael Pederick.

G'day guys from the land down under, does anyone know of a kit for a 1968 Chevy Impala four door pillarless, I had one that I stripped to the last nut and bolt and cleaned up, painted and put it all back together again, by myself in a big shed that I also built, by myself, don't have the car anymore (dammit) so a model would be a good way to remember it, painted the same colour and all. so anyhoo, thanks in advance if someone knows of a kit or just any other answers. Kind regards Michael Pederick, aka roadkill.

No, I don't think you guys got my point,(dilemma) with the site, I've been a member on there for I don't know how long and now for the past several months I get a miniature version, even going from link. Iv'e included a screen grab of what I get, at least I hope I have, all of that aside thanks very much guys for answering.

G'day guys, just a quick question, does anybody know what gives with "scalemotorcars", if I try to log on all I get is a tiny tiny pic of their front page, too small to even read, anyhoo I have tried many times to contact to find out what gives but have not received any answer, so I was wondering if any one here has a clue, so thanks in advance. Kind regards Michael Pederick, aka roadkill.

Big thank you for the praise Sam, I really appreciate it. Kind regards Michael.

G'day gents, one thing I forgot to explain, all the chrome that isn't there, originally when I first got the busted up partial kit I had planned to hot rod it in some way so I stripped all the chrome and , well when I changed my addled mind it was too late so just soldier on with wot ya got. Kind regards Michael.

Thanks guys, does the old heart good to get praise for your work. Hey Gary what do you mean by, The one thing that has caught my eye is your use of fixtures which in this scale must be a real asset. Kind regards Michael.

Well, whoda thunked that would happen, I’ll be seventy in a few weeks and I have finally been bested by a freakin model, after building models on and off for nearly sixty years, models of all kinds from sailing ships (these buggers are hard so my hats off to anyone who builds them) The Thermopylae, battle ships, The Yamato, then turned to building cars and trucks only, mostly cars. As time has marched on (way too fast) I’ve drifted towards the bigger scales until now where I only build 1/12 and 1/8 scale, and I don’t build for the sake of building, I only build cars that a, I really like b, cars and trucks that I have owned, also I should point out that being Australian when I say truck I mean trucks or as you call them, big rigs or tractors, tractors are for farming, and what you call trucks or more correctly pick-up trucks we call them ute’s. Potato potarto, no one really cares as it’s just a fun hobby after all. Ok, now to the model that bested me, as you may have read in my previous two posts on this model being the 65 display Corvette has been a mongrel rollercoaster of a build for me, so many parts to make and then remake and just so many redoes’ of all kinds including the right hand (drivers) door, this dear sweet piece of shi…..plastic just would not paint nicely for some unknown reason that I was not privy to, so on the fourth repaint I finally got it right, so I let it cure for a couple of days. As this was the last major part and the last painted part I was glad to be finally fitting it, so it was carefully wet sanded (I wet sand everything) then polished, beautiful, so now I added the door handle (external) the interior side and window, with inside portion only having very limited gluing spots I applied the glue pressed the panel on and realized it was not going to stick well so decided to clamp it (gently), I even put a piece of cloth on outside to protect the new paint job and set it aside last night and this morning took the clamps off to inspect my new master piece, turned it and then I saw it. I just wanted to cry, smash it all to bits and burn the whole bastard mess, but I did none of that, instead I wet sanded as far as I dared then polished the living snot out of it, all to avail, the only way to fix it properly would be to crack it all apart (again) then strip it repaint etc and reassemble etc, but nup, I decided it can just go on the car as is, model 1, builder 0. Kind regards Michael.

Thank you so much gentlemen I really appreciate your comments. Michael.

OK, so here goes with the second instalment on this insane build that I probably should never have started but I did and this is where we are. Things in my model world are happening less often and with bigger no model work gaps, the pain levels have become much worse and I’m having trouble maintaining any kind of consistency with the model building, plus my hands and fingers are also getting harder to manipulate and control which is kinda handy for model building, especially when ya build so far from box stock that you sometimes forget what ya started out with. Well to my great (read, fricken awesome) surprise, a sigh and a bit of a puffed out chest, I realized that I have actually basically finished this giant monstrosity which leaves me with slightly mixed feelings. I’ve been building this beasty on and off over the last five and a half years, there were many many times when the bin looked like a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH fine place to store this bastard thing but each time I relented and just put it back on the shelf, the other thing (very big, huge) that I have found is that as time marches on my abilities are diminishing and I can only spend less and less time at the bench and the biggest (also read, huge) thing I can’t come to terms with is my ability to make parts accurately and to make nicer finishers and of course any detailing. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely and positively not I repeat not looking for sympathy in any way shape or form, as I realize there are a lot more people out there with conditions/constraints and a whole heap more far worse off than me, all I’m (hopefully) trying to do is simply state my case and share some of my problems in my modelling endeavours, I also do not want to offend anyone. Oh I missed a bit, along with everything else I was getting the turntable with the entire chassis, complete drive line and few other sundry bits and pieces (you can see where this is going can’t you) so I dropped the whole #@%&%%@# shootin match and I said, well darn that’s inconvenient, well I coulda, you weren’t there. The thing is I can see where and how this model has slowly but surely gone downhill in the fit and finish to the point where I’m really not at all happy with car but I’ve decided to keep it and enter it in any up and coming comps.

G'day Mr Barton, fancy meeting you here, anyhoo I like that you modify to copy a real car and not just out of box, /i like to do that too as you may remember from some of my builds that you have seen. My latest creation is a reasonable representation of the '65 Corvette display car for the '65 worlds fair and New York Motor Show, it's a few pages back now but i would really appreciate your opinion. Michael Pederick Perth Western Australia.

Howy cwap on a cwacker, this is going to be an awesome build, the parts and detail you've shown so far are off the charts, absolutely can't wait to see more. I really like the direction your taking this, a bit different to the norm, which is way cool, I took my part kit glue bomb in a totally different direction also, after a couple of false starts. My humble effort is back a few pages if you haven't seen it, I'd be honoured if you could take a quick look and tell me wot ya think. Michael Pederick, ( roadkill ) from Perth, Western Australia.

Wow, just wow, you clearly have a wicked, (warped) mind, (imagination) to create all these freakin awesome builds, and the build quality is second to none, awesome builds you should be very proud. Michael Pederick. (roadkill)

1965 Chevrolet Corvette World’s Fair display car. By Michael Pederick, aka Mr Casual. Where to start, I guess the beginning would be a good place, so here goes. So, this one started because I was really enjoying one eighth scale models, like with all my Jaguar models, which are of course one eighth scale, so when I saw this part kit for sale I figured eh why not, I should be able to cobble something together with this, so I bit the bullet and bought it. Obviously, the kit was incomplete, no biggy, knew that, but there was a lot less of the kit than I thought and it was a lot more damaged than I first thought, bummer. So what to do, well I decided at this point to smooth the front and rear pans, bumper delete, and generally make it into a racer of some sort, after a while I needed a bit of inspiration and pics to maybe follow, so went to my best little buddy, Mr & Mrs Interweb’s young fella, Google, ah google, the old farts saviour. So anyhoo, came across pics and info on this display Corvette, ‘65 of course so that was it, I was now going to build a representation of the 1965 Corvette display car, so now I’m all fired up to do this and then, POO. Being an old kit like the 1/8 Jag kits, they are very basic, bugger all detail and a few inaccuracies for good measure, so of course this is when I realized that I would have to completely build the entire chassis, part of the floor pan, most of the suspension and a whole boatload of “other” stuff, to build a half decent model. Then it was yeah, no too hard, yeah but it would look pretty cool, no still too hard, hands are getting worse etc., followed by oh to hell with it, it’s either build the thing or be a pussy, I ain’t no pussy, it was a go. There was a butt load of things to be worked out, measurements taken, drawings made and photo’s tooked, oh and then I realized that there would have to be a very careful and strict order to the different processes, especially with regards to paint and final assembly. Was it too late to back out, YES, so this thing will be built, hopefully in my lifetime, which is rapidly running out. So, I started by building the entire chassis, and with the help of an actual boat load of pics, (well a hell of a lot anyway), and general info through the helping hand, and the Prince of Darkness, the seer of all, Google. With the help of the afore mentioned pics I was able to work out where to put all the holes in the right places, body mounts, engine mounts, oh and cut the steering box off and make another one for the correct hand drive side, also had to make most of the cross members, particularly the rear suspension mounts and such, so yeah there was a BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH load of scratch building, but hey that’s what this hobby is all about, well I think so, anyway. Then the firewall was not going to look anywhere near good enough, so I cut it out and built up a new one to suit correct hand drive, and while I was in that neck of the woods I scratch built the inner guards, radiator mount, rebuilt a big part of the interior tub, and then I had to alter the steering linkages, make ball joints, scratch up a sway bar and mounts, and make a battery with a battery tray, on the opposite side, along with a hold down clamp for the batt. So now I have to scratch build the entire exhaust system including mufflers, brackets and mounts, and this took me to the rear suspension where I scratch built the whole shootin’ match, the leaf spring, shocks, all the swing arms, mounts and the rear sway bar with brackets and mounts, at this stage I realized that I would have to make half of the spare tyre cubby hole plus add a bit of detail. Of course I had to scratch build the fuel tank, straps and brackets to suit etc. including filler neck and the spill tray thingy, also, while I was in this area anyway I thought I’d check the exhaust and mufflers for fit clearance and make mounting bracketry, which meant I had to trial fit the spare wheel thingy ‘cause the muff’s run very close, so with lackey bands, string and a bit of balsa with some sticky tape I got that nightmare taken care of. Another few parts I wasn’t looking forward to making was the drive shaft and the two half shafts, just too many uni joints to think about, thank all that is great and right for Shapeways who make a real nice bit of kit, that went well. OK, now to have a look at the actual drive line, hoboy what a can of worms got opened up here, starting at the top we have the weird looking early GM fuel injection box kinda thingy, which is ok in itself, it’s just that there is no detail, at all, none, so a big swan dive into the parts, spares, junk collected for just in case, and general bits and bobs that ya tend to collect over the (far too many) years, found some wire of different sizes and started bending cutting, throwing in the bin getting another piece and bending and cutting, etc etc, I managed to get reasonably close, close of course is a relative term, so with some paint and a bit of bluff and bluster it should look half ok. Another thing I did with this model, I “opened” a closed part, and it was my first attempt so I’m a bit scared, but I’ve opened the correct hand side door, wow did this open a giant can of worms, it meant I had to fabricate the inner panels of the door, and the door opening, hinges, (that turned out to be a lot, a huge lot harder than I could have imagined, had swing open and shut without catching, binding or dropping, holy BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH on a cracker, finally got done but man it was a struggle, I contemplated gluing the door back shut quite a few times. While I was contemplating the demise of the car I noticed that the fuel filler was bleh, so I drilled out the opening, modified the emblem/fuel cap to suit and put a hinge on it so it works too. Sometime later, (this can mean anything from a few minutes to a couple of months), I thought, well the whole point of this thing was to display everything to Joe public, so I realized that just having the chassis laying there not doing or showing anything I’d better add a couple of pretties or something, so I made all the fuel lines, brake lines and the hand brake cables with lever and return spring, then I had to work out where to put receiver tube blocks for the columns that are going to hold the body up off the chassis so it is then the display car I’m trying to copy. It’s around about here that I realized all the body mounts are just too small, so it was a case of hack them all off and make a whole new set, hopefully the right size this time, as I’m only eyeballing all this from photos I’ve gleaned from the interweb.

G'day, nice work on this one, but I was wondering if you could tell me what brand was this , as I had a '68 4 dr pillarless Impala and would so love to get my shrivelled old claws on one to build in the colour of my old car. Thanking you in advance. Kind regards, Michael Pederick, Perth, Western Australia. (aka Roadkill)

Hey guys just wondering what happened to the "Large scale" section, 'cos I only build large scale, 1/12 and 1/8, and now I've got nowhere to share etc. Kind regards Michael Pederick, aka, Roadkill.

Hey guys just a quick question, what happened to the large scale section, i miss it as I only build in 1/12 and 1/8. kind regards Michael aka Roadkill.

By all that's holy in any way to anyone, mate I've only got two words for you my man, 'kn wow. Amazing attention to detail, fantastic job. Roadkill bows to you, aka, Michael.

x3, Hey Ken all I'm getting is "sorry image deleted" and the link to your photobucket says error, which is a pity as your build sounds fantastic and I would love to see it. Kind regards Michael.

Hi Guy's, I’d like to show you how I made the rear section of my Jag. The car I’m building is actually the “lightweight”, so it has a (fixed) hardtop but the rear body is the same. Ok pic 1 is fairly obvious but you’ll notice that I kept the side and front window frames intact for later (invaluable) use, I started the rear section of the interior as it is part then of the rear deck. Now in pic 3 you can see the piece of the roof that will now be the rear deck, and all I did was turn it 180 and found that the contours, (left to right, and front to back) are BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH near perfect, you just have to be careful when positioning it and be mindful of the height, front and back. The holes in the deck lid are for, (lightweight) fuel filler and air vent shroud which are not on the OTS cars. When I did this model I pretty much just went um cut here and see what happens which is why I cut the boot lid out much later, but it didn’t matter in the end as I think it all worked out rather well. (Only my opinion). Kind regards Michael.

G'day Jeremy, I had the same thought as you as to the body on this kit not being the best, but the rest was reasonable. Also at the back of my cupboard (sorry closet) I had the (body only) busted remains of a 1/12 '57 Chev Belair, so I did the only logical thing and made a "F457 Belari". I think it's turning out ok so far. Kind regards Michael.

Thanks for your input guys, I have tried polishing with soft cloth with mixed success, and the car I'm doing is an all aluminium body, and yes they spray very well indeed. Thanks again. Kind regards Michael.

G'day guys, I'm wondering if anyone has used Humbrol Metalcote 27001 and 27002 and what kind of results they got. I've just airbrushed my entire 1/8 scale E-type Jag and now I'm not sure about the end result or whether to ,leave it, coat with Glosscote, or recoat and see what happens. Kind regards Michael from the left coast of the big island down under.

Hi, just a couple more pics, would'nt fit in 1 post, regards Michael.