Modelmartin

Looks like a good Minnesota car!

I have been using PPG clear lacquer over Tamiya lacquer just fine. Of course it is NOT spray can paint. I bought a quart and thinned it myself and airbrushed it. The stuff out of a spray can has more solvents to keep it sprayable which is really what goes after vulnerable paints underneath.

I say real. The windows look like plastic because they were plastic! I think harry made the background look less real to mess with us!

I am a little late to this thread but will agree with Harry and every one else who agrees with him. If you have hardware or home improvement store or even a good department store look for plumber's putty. It is a 2-part epoxy. You break off a chunk and knead it thoroughly and press it into the area you need filled. It cures super tough so do any carving or shaping before it completely hardens. It is similar to Milliput except it cures harder. It's cheaper too - for all of you tightwad model builders!!!

You must be thinking of the Revell 26-27 T touring on the Buttera chassis.

If it weren't for the Tamiya phillips head screws visible in a few spots I would have thought this was another installment of Real or Model? That is just beautiful! It's inspiration and encouragement for me to build my Yamaha with the Top Studio set, Spiderman Decals, and SMS etch for good measure. Keep up great work - looking forward to to the Kwak!

Harry, I just pulled out Don Montgomery's Dragster and Funny Car Memories for research and here is what I found. Only NHRA banned nitro but lots of strips were still running fuel car shows. The kit you have is dated mostly by the roll bar style which was rarely seen after 60-61 or so. That style of frame was not seen before maybe 58-59. Depending on sanctioning organisation, year, and fuel your kit can correctly be any of the following - AA/FD, AA/GD, A/D, A/FD, or A/GD. How about them apples! Pick the one that sounds good or you already have the decals for. I will be looking forward to seeing that kit built. I have never seen it built and I know you will do it justice.

Harry, Since that engine can be almost any cubic inch size you want you might as make it bigger, right? The style of that car puts it in the early 60s so I would say you are perfectly safe in calling it AA/FD. That would be if it is a nitro car.

You would need a large book to lay it all out and it changed over time. The first group of letters before the slash was always related to engine size or factory rated horsepower. The second group was the larger class designation or Eliminater. AHRA, IHRA and NHRA all had different designations for some classes and a few that were the same. Some Eliminater groups also had multiple classes within them. The doubling of the prefix letters started in the early 60s and ran until the mid 70s and it merely meant you supercharged the car and that only happened for the top 1,2 or 3 groups in some classes. There were gas dragsters and fuel dragsters hence /FD or /D. There were fuel altereds /FA and gas altereds /A. But in the fifties it was just dragster /D class and they had roadster /R and coupe /C classes in addition to stock class. Sometimes those were designated as fuel or gas. The gas coupe class turned into gassers /GS which ran from AA/GS to CC/GS(supercharged) and A/GS -I/GS (Injected or carbed) /S (stock) was very limited to modifications and again it had to be factory available parts and engine. /SS (super stock)was a production car with more mods allowed but the engine had to be available in that car. Stock and super stock had factors that determined the factory horsepower and weight and what class it fell into. It was very complicated. /MP was weight to cubic inch and you could swap engines. It was a level up from Super Stock. There were short lived classes such as Modified Compact in the 70s. Ohio George ran a turbo Pinto in AA/MC!! There were sport car, street roadster, and super modified - /SM (Kinky -No?) For one year they had X/SS wich was a trial run for Pro/Stock. The early funny cars had unusual class designations until they came up with /FC. It would be a lot easier if you posted a pic and those of us with knowledge could help you figure out the correct class. A good alternative is to go through old magazines or websites with vintage pics and just match up the cars to your models. I hope my laying out how confusing it all is helped!!!!

Which car are you doing? There were of course the red ones, but there was a blue one that raced in the US and there was a yellow one - Belgian of course. Very cool car. Good luck on the build.

They do that because they can cycle the spin casting machine so much faster than casting in resin. See! Even the expensive guys make bad decisions to save a buck!!! The metal shrinks when it cools adding to the problem. The resin shrinkage is hard to even measure. OOOOPS! I have made molds of parts and cast them in resin a number of times just to change the material. Protar motorcycle seats come to mind - they came in a soft vinyl material that eats plastic like old Revell tires. I have recast white metal to resin a number of times. Are there enough Cobra Daytona kits now? HRM, MFH, SMS, Gunze( I know - it's defunct) Did I miss anyone? The small guys can do something to death just like the big guys did.

The older Tokyo-Marui Tilt kit and the 80s Revell BB512 kits are pretty decent too. The Revell had full engine detail too. They can be found on Ebay.

Happy new year! Ismael and Jairus, you have it so good! It's 6 degrees here!

Captain Obvious! Nobody's models suck! Your models look fine. Some of us are just more nuts about the amount of time we put in them. Lyle - I love that 32 of yours! Very classy and the V-12 is a great touch. That is a very well thought out and well detailed model.

Gregg! You poor thing! How DO you survive in those appalling conditions? And who is the good-looking lady?

Here are a few of my Ts. 1st one is an AMT T with the back half of a Revell funny car and a flathead V-12 from the Monogram Lincoln with a bunch of machined parts, plated brass and RB Motion rod-ends. One of my faves! These two are from my Modelmartin kits. Chassis are Revell Buttera T. Wheels on the green one are AMT 32 Ford.

Billy, Email me at modelmartin@comcast.net and I can help you out.

Me? Meyers Manx, Tow'd, Streetle Beatle, Superbug Gasser Trophy series 23-25 T with all options from Fruit Wagon to Firebug! Trophy series Double Dragster MPC 32 Chev Cabriolet and the Panel

Do you have yours ordered yet, Dave?

Cool art! I enjoyed them very much!

YIKES! You superglue trim pieces to a painted body? Dude! Use white glue or clear acrylic for small items. I tend to go Bill Geary's direction with chrome trim. They can't plate everything so you usualy end up with a mix of plated and foiled trim anyway. I think it looks better if all the trim is foiled and the bigger parts are plated because foil or Alclad looks good on small pieces but falls down a bit on larger surfaces. Anyway I will have to get one of these kits since I love 58-61 Chevs. It's funny because I am actually building an AMT right now! I guess I will have to do a Comparo!

YIKES! You superglue trim pieces to a painted body? Dude! Use white glue or clear acrylic for small items. I tend to go Bill Geary's direction with chrome trim. They can't plate everything so you usualy end up with a mix of plated and foiled trim anyway. I think it looks better if all the trim is foiled and the bigger parts are plated because foil or Alclad looks good on small pieces but falls down a bit on larger surfaces. Anyway I will have to get one of these kits since I love 58-61 Chevs. It's funny because I am actually building an AMT right now! I guess I will have to do a Comparo!

Computers! Ha! They are just a fad.

I didn't realize that they went all the way to R in the stock classes. That must be one slow racecar! Nice model though.

Not only that, but the cylinder head and cylinder block were one piece, which was standard Bugatti practice. That's right, no head gasket because there was no separate head! To do a valve job you have to drop the crank, rods, pistons out of there! The crazy thing about the Royales was that despite only 6 being built there were several hundred engines made to power the Bugatti built railcars in France. That's why there are several Royale replicas around. The engines are not real hard to find for those with the $$$.