Tom Setzer

I used to buy all of my kits and supplies at local Hobby Shops. I always wanted to support the shops, because the owners were friends and they would work to makesure I got good service. Now those shops are gone due to the owners getting older, and tyred of trying to compete with the Dept, and Discount stores, plus competition from on line stores. So now I buy kits at HobbyLobby, Micheals(With Coupons, and from online sources. I get Plasticote, Duplicolor, and Glazing compounds from Auto Parts Stores. I order MCW paints, from MCW. I buy a lot of Model Masters Enamels, Acrylics and Lacquers from Hobby Lobby, I also get Createx paints from them. I order Alot from Replicas and Miniature Co. of Maryland Norm has the Best Resin castings available. I also Buy Photoetched parts from DM, MCG, RB, and several others. I have to order Tennax 7, and some other glues, but I get CA, And epoxy locally. I order most of my tools and AirBrush Supplies on line. Decals from Kieth Marks, Slixx and a few others. Oh and I have to mention Scale Auto's Texture Paints, and decals, and AK's Fine Weathering Products, and BV Paints.

I have always built model, from the time I was six years old. My special love is car models, both static scale and Slot Cars. My static Scale passion is building as accurately as I can, and I am always driven to find ways to improve my skills. I love doing detailing and researching to make my model as accurate as possible. I find that researching my builds, is a lot of the enjoyment I get from them. I also check out new methods for building, modifying and painting my models, that is another aspect of this hobby I truely enjoy, and I am always learning new tricks and techniques from the other builders on this forum and other media, and gatherings of modelers. I also enjoy sharring the things I have learned over the years. To Me this Hobby is a social hobby and I can't emagine doing it alone. I have made many truely good friends in the hobby!

We ran a 1/32 IROC six race series at a local Track a couple of years ago. We ran Scaley porsche 906s that were all owned and setup by the track owner's son. This was at a Commercial Track, on a 8 lane 160' Carrera Road course. It was a lot of fun, and the series winner got a new Slotit Controler, second place got $50 store credit, and third got a $25 store credit! There was plans to do the series again, but the Lady that owned the Buisness decieded to retire. Soon afterward the Track closed!

I Used to build mainly Customs, but lately I have been working on Traditional Hot Rods, but I also have a 69 Nova build started. In between Model car builds I paint and modify Historical, and SiFi anf Fantasy Wargaming Figures.

Great Junker,very nicely detailed!

Great Build!

Great Build, The colour looks great on the 48!

Great Build, I love The 265 Detailing!

Very Nice Cobra! Virgil The paint looks Great, I really like the colour!

Beautiful Log Skidder! I built one for My On3 Logging Rail Road that was destroyed in a house fire back in 1994. You have done some great work on yours!

Shine Built one of the Great Hot Rods of all time, His iconic 34 Ford Chopped an Chaneled Pickup, with a Blown 24 stud Flathead!

Love the Scott Blower ARDUN!

I really like what you are doing with my favorit Pickup kit. I have one of Norm's 50 Chevy Pickup Cabs and the casting on it is better than the AMT original. You are going to have one Cool Truck!

Gregg here is the link to TrakMate: http://www.trackmateracing.com/shop/

I will be using a PARMA Guide with copper Wire end clips. I will use a loop of .015 music wire soldered to the chassis, to keep the leedwires away from the front axle. You should make colars to reinforce the wheel hubs from plastic tubing, and glue them in place, before you mount the wheels to the axles. You should also clean the flah from the wheels, and true them before you mount the Tyres. I recomend Yellow dog tyres from Slot Car corner, He will match up the size of the original kit tyres, and his tyres give great grip( you will want hard zero grip tyres for the frounts). You should file all the edges of the chassis smooth, and slieghtly bevel them so they want dig into the track, both to improve handling, and to prevent damage to the track surface. When you setup the gears put a piece of cigarret rolling paper between them, and push the two gears together, and tighten the set screws/ adjust the axle spacers. after you have the spacing correct, oil the motor and axle bushings, put a small dab of rubbing compound on the gear teeth, and run the motor at 3-4 volts for three 5 minute periods. Then clean all of the rubbing compound off of the gears, clean out the motor with a good electricle motor cleaner and lub the gears with a very small amount of white lithium grease, and add a drop of bushing oil to the motor and axle bushings. Mount the Body so that it has .063 clearance between it and the track. make sure that your guide moves freely arount it post, but make sure that there is no wobbly in the guide, and that it self centers using the leed wires to center it. You Can get 1/24 lexan and card stock racing interiors from either the local Commercial Slot Car Track, or online Dealers, such as Professor Motor. Make sure you put some super glue in the wheel hob before pressing the wheels onto the axles, and be very careful to makesure the wheels are straight. always true your tyres by running them against a flat surface containg a sheet of medium grit sand paper. Use a light touch here, you don't want to bind it up and burn out your motor. I hope this will be of help to those who are going to purchase and build these kits

Gregg That will be a challenge to Drive> You have made the most of a limited space! What power supply. and what Race Management system do you plan to use? I am using an adjustable 0-20 volts, 30amp Pyramid, that I can set at 10V for ventage GP , and sports racing cars with no-mags. 12 volts for modern race cars with no-mags, or 14V for our low down force(350g max) cars. We never run more than 350g on AIR! I use TrakMate Race Management, because it has all of the features you will ever want. It can run a race, and keep track of lap times, including the fastest laps in each heat. You can set a minimum lap time to prevent, cars from artificially gaining laps during track calls. You can also set a minimum Brake-out time for Bracket racing! All information during a race is displayed on a Monitor/ TV screen so drivers and spectators can see how eachDriver-Car combo is doing!

Now if we can get Dave Reinecke to cast 1/25 versions of his Great 1/32 Sixties Trans Am body kits for the AMT Chassis, they will be great!

Donn just keeps on doing truelly Great Paint Jobs. What suprises people is that his method is so easy to use! I use the same basic method as Donn and I get Good paint Jobs, but he is just in another league when it comes to great enamel paint jobs!

You are doing a very good job of building a good looking car, from a very bad kit!

The answers to your questions depend on several factors! 1: What kind of slot car racing do you wish to do? There are HO(actually 1/64th scale}, 1/43 Scale( a good compromise between HO and 1/32), 1/32nd ( the most popular scale for home racing}, 1/24 Hard body(Scale model style bodies on Slot Car frames), 1/24th Scale Drag Racing( Special Drag racing frames for plastic, and resin bodies on Special Drag Racin Frames}, and Commercial Track Slot Cars with lexan bodies on metal frames. In Commercial Racing at Commercial tracks, you have several classes, the most popular are the classes that use the JK Falcon 7,and Hawk motors, and/or the 16D motors from ProSlot, and Parma. These are mounted on stamped steel angelwinder frames, from JK, ProSlot, and Kelly Slot Car Products, The most popular frame is the JK Cheetah 11. these cars run natural rubber foam tyres and many use angle cut pinion gears. Most rear tyres are mounted on tough plastic rims, and the front tyres are very narrow O-rings on 1/2" metal wheels, the cars use guides with clip on lead wires for the motor. Each type of racing is fun, so you can't really go wrong!

I see from the latest Model Car Magazine That Gregg is buillding a Track! Gregg Post some images of your Track so we can see it. If you have any Slot Car questions, just post them and I will give you whatever help I can!

The AMT Slot Cars are fairly well designed for none mag racing, but the tyres are junk and must be replaced!

I've been away from the forum while in the hospital, I also missed JAXCON, so I have some catching up to do. My projects are all way behind where I wanted them to be, I also have a lot of posts to read! I'm very glad to be back! CHEERS! Tom

I like to read the Computer Magazines, and The Computer Sites, to keep informed. My Son is a Web Designer, and Developer, and we talk about what the Latest Tech is!

No Rex wasn't a pet he was my Best Friend. Once again you guys have shown why this is the best Group of people on the WEB. It still Hurts a lot and will continue to hurt, but all of you have helped me getting through it, Thank You!