Chief Joseph

Brodie, will you use the Monte Carlo's chassis as well? The core support/radiator shroud area is very similar to the 85 GN's-- the '87 chassis has the duct for the intercooler. Just a little trimming around the filler at the very front edges and it fits the Regal body. All the suspension parts are the same, so it's a simple swap.

That is too cool for school!

+1 to that, sir. So the question remains, "why don't they?" "It costs too much" is no longer a good excuse since the big chain discount stores rarely sell models now. Actually, I'll retract that question. Old kits will not be retooled to fix their tires and wheels-- it just isn't going to happen. Some of the brand-new kits we are getting have decent tires in them, with some reservations. It will always be the model builder's option to scratchbuild or buy something better than what the kit provides.

So you don't think many car modelers would want to tackle the Individual track-links found in so many tank kits? I suppose for now we just have to either accept the tires that manufacturers put in the kits, or opt for aftermarket tires made with other mold technology. When personal 3D printers are cheap and good enough, we'll just print tires in one seamless piece!

Instead of relying on a complicated multi-part tool like those used to make body shells, how about this: mold the two sidewalls as halves and the treads as six to eight individual sections that are placed around the tire casing. This approach uses a little more plastic and would take up another sprue, but it allows great sidewall detail and accurately-engraved tread without having to worry too much about the draft angles on the mold. I think with modern methods and tooling we could get very tight-fitting parts that would not require a lot of extra work to look good. Car models are certainly not the only segment of the hobby that suffers from tire woes... look at how many aftermarket resin tires are available for all kinds of airplane models. I remember when resin parts were first starting to come onto the airplane scene and replacement tires were among the very first parts introduced.

[media=] This guy wins. Everyone can stop now and go on to the next big thing

He's probably waiting on me to get him a copy of my 85-86 grille! It's coming soon, Brodie!

Modern phones and some newer cameras write an orientation tag to the exif data so that the image displays correctly when viewed. Only problem is nobody seems to understand how it's supposed to work, so you end up with pictures rotated when you don't want them to be rotated. Most of the image editors like Irfanview can strip the tag from the data and save the file correctly. It's a pain for anyone who actually wants to move their pictures off their camera or phone and use them somewhere else.

Microscale Liquid Decal Film in the little frosty white bottle is the #1 solution. 2 coats applied by brush should be sufficient to save the decals. If that's not available, try Future floor wax, applied with a brush. If that's not available, try Testors Decal Bonder spray. Krylon Crystal Clear Acrylic spray would be another choice if the Testors Decal Bonder isn't available. Hope this gives you some options!

Looks good, Frank. I like the new trend of "modernizing" the classic wheel designs. Can you adjust the hexagons so that they are regular in construction, with all sides equal like the 1:1 version you posted? To my eye, that's the only thing that throws off the design. Regards, Joseph

If the manufacturers would just take a cue from the real world, where a 15" tire will fit on any 15" wheel of the appropriate width, we wouldn't have so many problems. But the manufacturers have their own ways of doing things, and it's really not their job to make sure the tires they put into kits can be used with some other manufacturer's wheels. My biggest beef is with how they re-use the same old tires across several kits, whether those tires are appropriate for the subjects or not. I'd rather see accurate styrene tires in two halves instead of inaccurate vinyl tires. I took matters into my own hands for my models, but I know not everyone can do that.

Can't talk price right now. Real-life 15", which means about 16 3/8" overall diameter at the face. It fits my aftermarket tires plus Monogram's "Goodyear GT Radial" kit tires.

Always cool to see a black Buick! Great job on this beast!

Yes, I always use pressure, but if you have a big old air bubble trapped at the top of the part because the air couldn't escape the mold, no amount of pressure is going help you. We generally get around these issues by having separate pour & vent openings, but on these tires I want to keep the tread detail intact and that means a single point of entry into the mold. The tire's contact patch is the most logical point to place the hole, since it is out of view when the model is complete. Joe, the lug nuts are going to be a challenge for sure due to their size. When I package the sets, I will include extra centercaps and lug nuts. Those little bits are cheap to make, and it just makes sense to provide extras so that losing one tiny part doesn't torpedo someone's modeling session.

Have you checked with www.moddler.com?

To get resin into the mold and air out of the mold. I want to get a perfect part every time to maximize the life of the mold. A little bit of extra resin is cheap compared to getting castings with air bubbles! I was able to get the centercap made on my lathe this afternoon, so I'm just waiting on some hexagonal styrene rod to arrive so I can make the lug nuts.

Thanks, Joe. The lugnuts and centerpiece will be separate cast pieces, so the wheel will be easier to paint. I'll let people decide for themselves if they want to drill a hole for a valve stem, too.

I received the printed wheel today and the quality is breathtaking (to a model nerd like me, anyway): Click the thumbnail to get a larger picture. This is the wheel on a rubber version of my 1/24 Eagle GT. The next step is to make some lug nuts and a centerpiece for it.

I like that color you chose for it. It's a very good match to the burgundy color available that year. What paint did you use?

Here are some photos of my Horizon Catwoman from Batman Returns: This is a vinyl figure kit and the brick ledge is made from foam and basswood. Most everything is painted with Liquitex acrylics. It's a huge model, too! It measures just under 19" to the top of the claws. Here's a pic of the figure that shows the face better: Thanks for looking!

We'll just have to agree to disagree about using "build" as a noun, Harry. But a little part of me sighs whenever someone makes the past tense of the verb cast into casted. English has always been a mongrel language, so there isn't much use in trying to tame it now. Back on track: In some circles, being a scratchbuilder is not necessarily a term of endearment. There are some guys who are master modelers but just out-and-out a-holes when it comes to people skills. They see the hobby as being made up primarily of them on one side and "kit assemblers" on the other.

Scratchbuilding a model or part is the same as baking a cake from scratch... mixing all the basic ingredients together instead of using a cake mix that already has the most of the ingredients packaged in a convenient box (a kit, per se). And Drew, the word "build" is perfectly okay used as a noun to describe a form or construction. I'm in the SS of the grammar nazis

Great job and I like that vanity plate Weird how the natural light makes the paint look like Cardinal Red from 1970 instead of the orange Carousel Red; maybe your camera's white balance is off a little?

What he said; I have snapped so many of those high-carbon bits it isn't even funny. They are convenient because of the 1/8" shank, though, and I use them in my Taig lathe a lot. The high-speed steel (HSS) bits that you normally find from hobby suppliers are more flexible and can take a little abuse (except for the really thin ones, like the #80).

Neat light show. I hope they used some of that gee-whiz stuff to make head gaskets that won't leak, fuel lines that won't leak, O2 sensors that won't go bad, wheel bearings that will bear the weight of the car, and CD changers that won't jam ~~ -Chief Joe, proud Subaru owner since 2002