Scale-Master

Thanks guys! I installed the pop-up vent and a screen below it. It has the screw jack rod too.

Thanks Ira. I added the 2X4 across the front (styrene) and the bar across the back (brass). I also added the black rubber accents that were in some of the aluminum trim.

Thanks guys. I started painting and weathering the camper shell. It was easier to just brush paint the silver and black parts than mask and spray them.

I added all the corner trim and the iron upper tie-down rails. I freehand drilled the rails with a pin-vise out of sheet stock. The mounting base for the top vent is done.

Thanks Gator, I'm enjoying the project. Here is the camper slider to the cab. Same construction/materials as the side windows. Been working on the roof vent too.

Thanks guys! I made the side windows from sheet styrene, some clear plastic from packaging material and fine screen. They are just loosely plugged in for now. The rear “window” was a piece of unfinished dirty plywood. ( The clear plastic window turned white, cracked and ultimately fell out within a couple months of owning it.) There was a silhouette of the Stealth Bomber left from when I painted a model of one on the wood (when the B2 was still somewhat classified). The Kammback script was a leftover badge from my Vega.

I built the original (shown in the box art photos) and don't recall any issues with the plastic being brittle back then.

Just a little flame trim Does this count?

The only time I had problems with TS-13 cracking was when I applied it over paint I found later to be incompatible. I had really good luck with it early on and starting using it over a lot of different paints and some decals (including Tamiya kit decals). It was a very hot clear and caused issues with some decals that looked like cracking, but was actually more of a wrinkling. Now I stick to applying it only over lacquers and avoid using it over decals.

I'm with Snake on the whole plastic dye color leaching, bleeding through issue. "Old wives tale" is the same term I use as well. Paint pulling away at the edges/doorlines (like on Tom's van) is not the same as bleed through. I think a lot of people perpetuate the tale when they have issues that seem to fit the narration, but in reality, the problem lies somewhere else.

Thanks Guys! I had a set of five lug spokers set aside for this project, but I got around to measuring them and noticed they scaled out to 18 inches in diameter. I found one 15 inch wheel in my stash that will work with the tires I plan to use. But my wheels were five lug and had the factory center cap. So I milled off the six lugs and center cap and machined a copy of what was on the truck for the center cap and lugs. I’ll cast copies.

How about what would you get (money's still no object) but that you'd have to be able to afford to maintain and insure?

I made one out of vinyl, but it was the style that had rectangular holes with radiused corners and was the size of a tailgate. It had enough stretch and sag to look believable.

I noticed that the bed I was using didn’t have the same trim around the tail lights as my truck, so I made a little reasonable facsimile out of styrene strips. I found an extra set of tail lights in my Blazer kit, (pure luck I guess), but not a set of back up lights so I’m still working on that and fine tuning the back of the truck.

I think this is about all the rust work I can do on it for now. The actual truck was more rusted on the passenger side than the driver’s.

I applied the paint with a fine sponge, that helped create the rough texture. The colors I used are just earth and rust. All the decals have been applied to the side trim. I used the “I” size for the thinner stripes on the lower pieces. I carefully gouged out around the windshield and drip rails to simulate the rust holes the truck had.

I added more layers of rust to the roof and started bring the “rust line” downward. I made the upper side trim for the bed from sheet styrene and foiled the trim on the bed. (I did the BMF on the cab about 30 years ago.) I used black Scale-Master decal stripes (Sheet Stock # S-S2) size “I” for the black in the center of the upper side trim and some very fine hairline decal stripes I had custom printed long ago for the top and bottom. (There are three decal stripes in each run of that trim.) I used stripe size “G” from the same stripe sheet for the center black stripes in the lower trim pieces.

Thanks again guys! The kit had no provision for wipers, (the cowl was missing a chunk too). Fortunately the wipers for the '68 Camaro I was building along side this were easily modified to fit the Vega, and the real Camaro had caps on the wiper posts so were not needed for that model.

Thanks.

Thanks guys! This one is wrapped up too. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103554

This is a model of my first car as it looked when I finished it, about 1982-83. I used an old AMT funny car body as the base. It needed a good amount of modification. I fabricated the tires and modified the Mini-lite five lug 15 inch wheels into 13 inch 4 lug Super-Lites. I made all the decals and the details that were unique to my car. The chassis is scratch-built too. WIP Thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=98931&hl=

Thanks Joe. You got it Carl. I started building up the crusty rust. The hood was about 60 grit sand paper rough. The other areas were finer, maybe only 240 grit…

I had a pair of driving lights for a Mercedes 450 on this car; I cast copies of the lights from the Monogram model.

I'm pretty sure I used a guitar string.