Scale-Master

Thanks Bill, that means a lot. The upper control arm and shock brackets are cut. I etched the areas the brackets will be soldered to the base as well as the bend lines in the brackets. Here they are bent… And all soldered together. I also made the lower shock mounting pad/A-Arm reinforcement plates for the lower control arms. And added the pivot/mounting points to the frame for them.

To be fair to all the entrants I think the rules as stated for the category requirements need to be followed. But if some judge wants to split hairs on how much of time the "junior" spent building his entry before outgrowing the age limit on a modeling contest category when it's weeks or a couple months? I'd let it slide in favor of participation. Now in the case I cited... I too wondered at first (in the interest in fairness what) what was the best response... I thought my "diplomatic" response worked well enough. Even though it was likely his entry would not have garnered an award unless due to attrition, I asked him how he'd handle explaining to the youngster he "beat" why he got the award. He was a much sharper "crayon".

Thanks Art. While I am waiting for the acid to cut the brass control arm brackets I decided to make the lower control arms. Since I only need two and I didn’t think the time spent making a jig would pay off, I just went for it.

We also had another adult lobby to enter a model in Junior he said he built when he was 15.

We've run into the same thing a few times too. If we can determine the kid did not build it, or had too much help, we do much as you did. Often you can tell by the parent's actions/attitude and as you noticed, disinterest by the "entrant". We even had one adult go so far as to enter one of his models in the Junior category. Being that he was a sloppy builder and he had his son enter it, the girls at registration let it in and we judged it as if it should have been there. Not the sharpest crayon in the box, this guy had put his own name on the entry form and had also placed in one of the adult categories as well. He was totally busted and yet unapologetic when he tried to collect his Junior award. I cannot understand why anyone would try to a pull stunt like that. Shameless, he continued to enter at subsequent shows even having his wife try to enter his models once he reached the maximum 5 per person entry rule. It wasn't that we had to disqualify them, they weren't competitive. But it was still an attempt at cheating. Finally (thankfully) he moved away...

Thanks guys! Made the top of the sender for the fuel gauge… I’ll make and add the mounting hardware later.

Once the main calipers were set up I was able to position the parking brake calipers. I had to add material to the DeDion tube assembly to make the mounting surfaces. The calipers are machined from aluminum, leftover parts from a previous project that I decided to use drum brakes on after I made them. I still need to make the brake pads… A side note: Today marks the one year anniversary of the start of this project.

The caliper castings are done. The brass half master is in the foreground, the completed master with mounting flange on the left, and a cast copy on the right. The bolt detail that will be seen through the wheel will be added as individual machined hardware, I cast them into the part on the backside since they will be mostly hidden.

New wheels & tires (that I made) and custom made Grabber graphic decals… It is 1/60th scale.

Reads like a line about shrimp from Forrest Gump...

Is there a lot of Arson Theft these days?

1987 5th place car. Provence Moulage resin kit, OOB, 1/43rd scale.

I was 100% serious about the nail salon idea. I did some for that purpose many years ago.

Graphic Artist / Model & Pattern Maker under the name Scale-Master Decals.

OK, that makes sense. Not so sure the cost of licensing could be overcome to make them affordable enough to market though. Unless maybe you sold them to nail salons...

As what, bumper stickers? If there is no counterpart on a real car, I don't see how anyone would know what is a good size to "scale" it to for use on a model car.

Good points Carl. Also, how would you know what size to make the images?

Gluing the opening parts shut should not disqualify it from the out-of-the-box category. But an equally built model of the same kit that has those features working might trump it in the same contest. To be sure it is best to check with the particular show you are concerned about entering it in.

New wheels and tires. The wheels are two piece. The outer rim is the same part as I made for the Fuchs on the VW Bus, the centers on the Vega are Torque thrust style. Some custom bold “period” graphics over that Millionth Vega Orange…

Yep. It's just that easy...

I made the Fuchs wheels and the soft tires. I mastered the wheels as two piece rims. So now I have a rim blank and two other centers besides these that I can drop into them. Plus, with a slightly larger rim blank, I can use the centers on 1/43 scale cars too. This one is 1/64th scale. After I polished out the roof, I acid etched the VW emblem into it. It’s about 0.010 deep.

Looks like a track speeder to me...

They do look very nice. Any idea of what a set of ten tires will cost, not including shipping?

I believe Pete meant to write Brookhurst Hobbies, not Brookstone. Yet another fun store though...

Depending on the material you use, vacuum and or pressure may not be required for decent results. Smooth On has some products that fit that description. I use products from BJB in Tustin CA. The materials I use benefit hugely from both vacuum and pressure. Although, the RTV I use is not as sensitive to needing to be vacuumed as the two main resin materials I use, failure to vacuum the resins I use prior to casting will almost always result in defective if not useless parts. The RTV and resins also benefit immensely from curing under pressure. I guess also part of the equation is what you are willing to accept as far as the level of quality...