mr moto

This build has been running in "On the Workbench" for a while now and I finally finished it last night. I've hardly had time to look at it myself. Most everything used came from either the Model King '59 Imperial or AMT '69 Riviera where the roof, interior, wheels and engine came from. The tires are from Modelhaus - their excellent tires always add a classy touch to a build. The tail lights are '56 Packard units from Replicas & Miniatures. Paint is Duplicolor Black Cherry (Chrysler) and Ivory Glacier Pearl (Nissan) with a Testors clear coat. Mix it all together and modify almost everything and this is what you get.

Okay, now it's in Technicolor! I've been slow getting back to work on this but now it has paint. That pic's after the first clear coat. I'll give it a good going over tomorrow and another coat of clear. I decided that I just didn't like the HOK pearl so I went back to what I know. It's been replaced by Duplicolor Ivory Glacier Pearl. It's so close to being done but I know better than to rush anything. That's always a mistake for me. Still needs to be foiled but then it's just straightforward assembly (I hope!). Next stop: Under Glass.

That also reminds me of the push button concept. I've never driven a push button car but my Dad had two of them before I could drive, a 1956 Dodge and a 1964 Valiant, and he swore that once you used push buttons you wouldn't want to go back to a shifter. Chrysler dropped the idea because potential buyers were reluctant to try it. When you think about how the average driver of the 90+ percent of modern cars that have automatic transmissions uses their vehicle it seems that a shifter is unnecessary. It's only used to occasionally change into reverse or park. The rest of the time it's stuck in Drive. A knob or button is a great way to do that. Really, that could be done with a paddle shifter and then it would be "cool". So instead of the knob there would be easily accessible controls on the steering wheel kind of like cruise control. I enjoy cars with good crisp shifting manual transmissions but many drivers could find it more convenient to do without the shift lever.

Very cool looking wagon conversion! That's the way to get the groceries home before the milk gets warm!

That's a great build! I wish all of the old Ertl farm equipment kits would be re-released. I have a Massey-Ferguson 1155 needing to get built and I had to watch Ebay FOREVER before I found one at a reasonable price. I wish they would make a four wheel drive Massey kit. Since your JD only came with single rear wheels maybe you could scratch build some axle weights to hang on those long axle shafts.

Flipped a coin again. It came up heads = real. It worked last time!

I've used Alumilite, Micro Mark and Smooth-On resins. The Micro Mark is indeed made by Smooth On and I think it's excellent but you pay a little bit extra when you get it from MM so I'd recommend Smooth On. Alumilite resin sets insanely fast and should only be used by real pros in a production setting where time is at a premium IMHO. The Smooth On resin that I use is Smooth Cast 305 that has a 30 minute de-mold time. The 300 series comes in four types with de-mold times from 4 minutes to 4 hours. I might switch to the one with a 10 minute de-mold. MM's silicone is made by Smooth-On but with a twist. Smooth-On sells two versions of their Oomoo resin called Oomoo 25 and Oomoo 30. The 25 sets faster but is on the soft side so it's not as durable and parts might sometimes get distorted before they set if you're not careful. I use the 30. It takes a several hours to set but produces a good firm mold. Now for the twist - MM only sells one type of silicone and it's kind of like an Oomoo 27.5 if you get my drift. It's between the 25 and 30 in both hardness and cure time. I think it kind of hits a sweetspot that's just right but once again it costs a little more than Smooth-On and I can live with a longer cure time so I get Oomoo 30. Your choice.

That's because it's not true. There was no conection between The Ides of March and BST and they made that clear on stage because a lot of people who heard "Vehicle" on the radio would say that they were using the BST horn section and they wanted to stop that rumor. I heard them live more than once back in the day. Pretty good band until they would do "Vehicle" - then they were killer!! They just couldn't follow up that hit. Their singer was Jim Peterik who was later in Survivor. http://theidesofmarch.com/bio/

Is this "Real or Model"? That has the look!! Excellent work!

Here's a link to a pretty informative article about the car. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/automobiles/collectibles/30DEUCE.html?_r=1

The car on the album cover is the Alexander Brothers coupe. Whether or not it has anything to do with the car in the song, I just don't know. That's definitely not a flathead it's got in it.

Geoff, I haven't found any polishing mops like the one in your photo that are intended to be used in Dremel tools. Were the mops that you use designed for hobby use or some other purpose, i.e., where am I likely to find something like that?

Look at some of the earlier pics that I posted and you can probably see what I did. You just cut a hole in the seat and sand the edges smooth. Then fill the hole with sheet styrene and you're done.

I'm back at work on "The Big Bug" (as Mothra is affectionately called). She's just waiting for the body transplant. Got the roof painted last night - HOK Snow White Pearl. Not sure if really like it or not but here we go anyway. I've never used HOK paint before and the pearl makes the surface looks rough even though it's perfectly smooth to the touch and I went over it lightly with 2000 grit. I guess the clear coat will tell all. The rest of the body is going to be Duplicolor Black Cherry. It's a discontinued color that I found in my paint cabinet. Here's the spoon test. It mostly just looks black in the photo but you can pick up on a little of the cherry highlight. Might not get back to it this weekend and I want to give the pearl plenty of time to harden up anyway before I re-mask for the next color.

This is really interesting. I like your wierd ideas since I get some of my own sometimes! I'll bet that you're the first person, in scale or in 1:1, who ever put a Pontiac flathead six in a '49 Ford.

That looks fantastic!!!! So clean and totally stylish. The Caddy engine looks especially sharp and it's hard to believe that's your first chop..

Love it!!! You got me as soon as I saw the fuel filler on the roof.

The front brake does have a hydraulic line - it just isn't a hand brake but I don't know enough about motorcycles to know if that's for real or not. Anyway, given my total ignorance this week (and many other weeks) I have flipped a coin and heads said it's real. I'm gonna start doing that every time and see how I do.

As jbwelda said, Krylon changed their formula maybe a couple of years ago and it went from being one of my favorites paints to something that I don't exactly trust. The old formula is still available in their industrial line but not in as many colors and I don't know where to get it except on-line.

I think it looks perfect now. It looks mean just sitting there like it can't wait to GO.

The tunnel hulls are pretty amazing to watch if you're used to seeing unlimited hydros. The unlimiteds look to be out of control about 90% of the time but the tunnels run straight and cut like jackrabbits!

Dated concept or not, it's looking pretty cool right at the moment. Maybe needs a little less but I think the rake is gonna work.

Fabulous piece of work!! You captured the period perfectly. That's just what's needed to really arrive at the disco!

Don't give me ideas!!

My avatar is a build that I did just for fun but you know that some alien somewhere has customized his UFO. As far as the screen name, it comes from two things. One is the instrumental tune "Mr. Moto" recorded by The Bel Airs in 1962. It's generally considered the first ever surf music hit and it still sound awesome. The other thing is the very cool Mr. Moto series of detective/spy movies that Peter Lorrie did.