Scale-Master

Custom can be many things, but don’t Frenched antennas usually just have an opening, not bumps or fairings that disrupt the flow of the body design? The tutorial looks good, but I think if they were flush, only having the “exit†holes in the body, it would look more accurate to most real jobs, at least the ones I have seen. Thanks for sharing.

You are most welcome. It sounds much better than the "Scratchbuilt From Kit Parts Cannonball". Besides it would probably not fit on the (Die-cast) tender...

DING! Fries are done! DING! Fries are done! DING! Fries are done!

What’s with all the cool trains? How about aTurtle Burger? Anyone had a Turtle Burger? We did, YUM!

Yes, that is precisely what I requested in post #25 thank you for reiterating it. “If you don’t want to make it public, send a PM, please respond either way for the sake of the modeling society.â€

You should call it the Kitbash Cannonball. Let me know if you want help making the graphics. And thanks for sharing.

That is good to know. I wasn’t sure how fast it could go. 150 is good. Thanks for sharing.

Follow along Mr. Taylor… (Please read earlier posts for explanation.) Not a Nascar/truck, anymore. Nascar doesn’t allow nitrous either, did you miss that too? And thanks for trying to participate.

I machined a few aluminum parts, a fuel filler and vent tube, and a pair of valve knobs for the nitrous bottles. I guess one could call them “scratch-built†if they had to… The HID lights are installed and the bumper is attached. I made reflectors with bulbs that are tinted blue. In some angles the blue comes through. Also added a screen grille. Even though the only kit source items (other than the truck body) are the light lenses, this still does not really rise to the level of calling these additions scratch-built.

I still think if you know who did it, you should provide that info as a community service. If you don’t want to make it public, send a PM, please respond either way for the sake of the modeling society. It makes security a lot easier when you know who to watch for…

That's pretty much the bulk of what I did too. Practice with different paints, distances, pressures, thinning... Just keep it dry. Thanks for the input!

The paint pen. It has to be a new unused, unprimed pen or else the foam is saturated with paint.

I thought it was part of an IQ test.

Years ago (about the time frame this truck is from) NOX was used to describe Nitrous Oxide injection systems that were made by another large performance company (other than NOS brand) that also made nitrous systems. I was implored by my contact there not to refer to their system as NOS, but NOX when I was building one of my Super 7s with replicas of their parts. While incorrect chemically, it is fitting for this build. Today that company uses the chemically correct N20 term or simply refers to them as Nitrous Systems. The Super 7 is fine thanks, why do you ask?

The foam is from a Tamiya paint pen. Has to be a virgin to sacrifice the foam, one per pen as I recall. As far as the booties for master cylinders (and oil breathers), you can try punching out donuts from the Styrofoam trays that come with many prepackaged foods. I like the dark gray that sometimes comes with beef and also mushrooms for air cleaners. Yellow comes with chicken, white with some beef, and blue also with some mushrooms. I make the punches from brass tubing. Using different telescoping sizes you can make a donut in one punch.

The distributors and plugs are wired... Note the extended boots to protect the wires from the rearward header tubes... Yes, two distributors, but only 8 plugs. Here are the air cleaners I made for the engine. The bases are machined from aluminum. The elements are real foam. Machined from scratch? OK. But the foam elements were sourced. Who would call them 100% scratch-built? And here they are installed... I would be glad to do a set of How-To's about texturing and washes. I'll see if I can dig up one of the older posts about washes. If not I'll have to write something fresh for both subjects.

Why not offer up the identities of these individuals? I for one would like to know who to watch out for at my show in So. Cal. this September.

My wife doesn't have a Cricut. She has an embroidering machine and I still have not found a use for it in my modeling. But Dave, you figured it out for the most part. I used a plotter to cut masks for the lettering and the birds. I did have to create the art first. Am I the first to do this? Do I get to claim I invented it? No Way! I played around and this happened. Just me without adult supervision... I'd offer a tutorial, but without the plotter/cutter I'm not sure it is all that pertinent. We all already know how to mask. Don't we...?

Thanks Marc, I have done live seminars and included that subject at IPMS shows, TamiyaCons and GSL, and I know at least once I went over it in an online forum (with pictures)as I used it on a BRE 350Z. That might still be hosted on this forum. But that technique was not used on the body. It was done with just several enjoyable hours of free hand airbrushing coupled with an occasional stencil used to "force" some edges.

The body is coming along. Most of the paint work is done. This is all paint, no decals (or dry transfers), but I did do some creative masking... Tamiya lacquers for the paint. It will stay matte sheen.

I'm not following, could you elaborate? Thanks.

The kit single 4BBL manifold was used as a base for an injection system. The big round plenum is just brass that was textured with that old non-invented texturing technique. It has a dual ignition set up. The distributors are machined from scrap sprue. It is also plumbed for NOX. The manifold is not scratch-built, just modified. The engine is still growing. The ignition wires are ready to be routed to the plugs. Then the air cleaners will be installed… And maybe then the intake will make more sense…

Thanks guys. I have been working on the wheels/suspension. It will get new wheels, and brakes. The kit exhaust will be modified or cannibalized, but I don't know for sure what will be the final outcome.

For wings on 1/43 scale F1 cars I use the CA to tack the parts together, then I reinforce the joints on the bottom with 5 minute epoxy.

The engine is coming together. A little texturing on the cast parts, a simple painting technique I figured out many years ago, as I’m sure many others did on their own, but certainly did not invent. I am keeping the oil sump system from the kit and doing some simple plumbing. The starter is also being wired. I machined the adaptor for the oil filter inlet from aluminum, but it’s not worth referring to as scratch-built…