Scale-Master

Now it is time to work on the interior…

Thanks Glenn, Had to wait a bit while nature took a turn on it. I made a jig from styrene to coax the rear section to be straighter and let it sit in the garden window for a few days. I didn’t want too much heat and deal with potentially warping the rear resin section. Looks like it helped, I’ll deal with it later if need be. I started installing the final detail parts for the engine bay. I’ll take care of the minor paint touch up later.

Not as much fun as my '73 Camaro... But yes, a blast at the time. Actually, I was building the engine that is in the Camaro for the Vega, but it got totaled before I finished it. Victim of an idiot trying to steal it. Flooded the Webers, they backfired and it burned to the ground. At least the settlement bought me the Camaro.

I had two Kammbacks. '73 and a '72. Lowered sport springs, Dual Webers, minilites, Blackjack header/Ansa exhaust, among many "upgrades". Didn't have the horsepower to run with my friends V8 cars, but I could out handle and out brake them well enough I was never left in the dust, and lost them on El Toro Road and Ortega Highway every time.

To Serve Man.

Thanks guys. I do recall hearing that now JC, thanks for the info, that is a neat piece of trivia. The fit of the rear hub carriers and brakes appears to be quite well, but I am getting a little gun shy after some of the other fit issues even after repeated test fitting sessions… All in all for how many parts there are to deal with and on such a small scale, I’m still impressed with the overall fit.

I disagree, percentages do matter. For example: If the odds that you were going to get in an accident that killed someone were .0000008% on any given day, would you opt to not drive that day to save that potential victims life? It sounds like a good enough reason to you that GM should heed it to save a life. Maybe using your logic and that equation you shouldn't drive anymore? Actual odds are 0.000133% chance in any year.

Without resorting to childish name calling or dismissive directives I have to admit you are completely missing my point.

I really don't think so. The rods are anchored to the frame at points far rearward of the bulkhead. And adjustments like that would not be much help to the driver. From what I understand these cars were pretty flexible as well. The kit does provide the shifter linkage from the shifter in the cockpit all the way to the transmission though.

So... if a convicted rapist or murderer that hurt or killed your loved one is the victim of a failed airbag, is it OK?

Thanks Dan! Now I am running into some tight fitting issues. All the materials take paint well so that paint build up is nearly a zero issue and many of the pieces are being hand painted after installation. It would have been much easier to install the half shafts before the shocks and sway bar & links, and I had to unbuild a little, but I followed the instructions in this case where in other sections I took my own path fearing this outcome. The rear frame is also picking up some unnatural bends, but there is no way for it to fit otherwise, and everything else still lines up. I’m hoping I can persuade them into a straighter look. Surprisingly it still all fits under the body.

That is pretty much the point I was making.

The odds of operator error, or just plain being in the wrong place at the wrong time are far higher than .0000008% It's a red herring and 100% irrelevant to the percentages to try to throw the loss of a loved in to the equation.

Seven crashes out of 8.4 million cars put the percentage at .0000008%. That's a long way from the ballpark of even one percent.

I think it is more akin to the candy color coats, transparent red, blue, yellow, etc. than clear gloss. But much darker, like I said, transparent black. It does however gloss up very nice.

And a few more… I needed to put the top stripes on to be able to properly locate the roundels on the sides... …Which I needed to do so I could clear coat the lower sections of the body before installing the interior and engine bay parts into them. I also added the other decals to the lower side areas at the same time. And cleared then assembled them…

Got the first two decals on the body. It took the better part of 90 minutes to apply them, they needed to stretch quite a bit over those fenders, but they fit pretty well.

Another point to consider with any tinting of clear parts is scratches. If they are not just very minor and superficial there is a good chance the tint will collect in them and amplify them. As mentioned, don't use wax, only polish. I like Meguiar's mag polish for this. RE: Blah,blah,blah, I'd still suggest investing in an airbrush. It'll pay off very quickly in paint cost saving and abilities to build better. For the cost of a handful of Tamiya TS cans a decent airbrush can be purchased, and I get a lot more control and paint mileage by spraying my TS paints through an airbrush. Plus I can paint any brand and color.

Good luck using the TS-71 for window tinting. Unless you want "limo tint" or darker that is. I've used it several times and in order for it to smooth out and not look splotchy you have to put a certain amount on. That amount varies on how thin the coats you use to build it up. I think it looks more like "transparent black". If you don't want the tint to be too dark I suggest using the acrylic Smoke. It is lighter, and while it too needs to be built up to a certain degree as well, I find it works better for most of my tinting needs. Of course you'll need to airbrush it...

Base color is on the body. Mica Silver over Gloss Aluminum.

Thanks! Shocks…

Thanks! The tail section of the rear frame with the ducting and a couple other details has been added to the engine/frame assembly. I missed a couple reinforcement “beams” on the main frame that I had to cut out after the engine was installed. I didn’t see it in the section of the instructions that shows what areas to remove, but it is shown in the step pertaining to this assembly. Fortunately the material is fairly forgiving and relatively easy to work with. I think the gaps between the top rear frame rails needs to be there at this point to fit this assembly into the chassis.

Engine installed, and the rear upper roll bar too.

And you mentioned Scale Auto in full! How could that have possibly gotten past the moderators? I can't imagine what might happen next...

So, let me see if I understand this. Someone posts a photo of a model that is on another magazines site, one that many of the members here don't visit, and it is a serious faux pas. (What if it were any other site, would it still be such a sore subject?) We all seem to agree it is a model worth seeing, and it also sounds like it has inspired others to build that kit. (This is good for the model manufacturer and therefore the hobby because it promotes the sale of more kits. We all want to promote the hobby don't we?) Since that model would never have been seen in the pages of MCM or likely be posted by its' builder on the MCM forum, and it was not sneaked prematurely like a spy photo, why is it so taboo to share it here for all those who may not have seen it either on the SA site or that magazine? Seriously, what harm or damage did posting that photo here and identifying it as found on SA do to MCM? Wouldn't that be taken as a positive thing from a publishers point of view that the core audience of MCM doesn't subscribe to either of its "competitor's" (SA) venues? That said, who wouldn't want to see/share cool things no matter where they find them. Don't you guys surf the internet? (Ever heard of Facebook?) Do you think every site gets jealous of every other site we visit? What happened to the whole "modeling family mentality" and the concept of sharing as so often is espoused here? Yeah, I do not understand this at all. . .