Chief Joseph

The N50 is getting a little closer to reality! 3D-printed masters: 1/25 on the left and 1/24 on the right.

FWIW, I can provide sets of my modified Monogram grilles, along with clear headlamps and a photoetched emblem. These sets are not a regular production item and the quantity available is very limited. But until I make a brand-new assembly from scratch, this is probably the best and most accurate version you'll find. I scaled all the add-on's from the real pieces. Sadly, these won't work for a LeMans because the grilles are very different.

Got anything else to sell, Marcos? Like some water skis or a first gen Iphone? Go ahead and put the Ebay links here. I'm sure the moderators won't mind.

I made an exposed headlamp from the Monogram grille insert: I'm not entirely happy with it because of the way the Monogram grille is poorly-shaped at the "L" shape towards the center of the bumper. I'll probably end up completely re-doing it as a 3D part. I've been working on-and-off for years trying to make accurate pieces for this kit.

You're looking at the wrong tire. It's #9 on the second page of that section. This might directly link to it: http://bwicke9.wix.com/class-a-resin#!product/prd1/2253782521/%239-greatec-super-single-tires-20%22-(pair)

Ben Wicker has these as a Bridgestone, not a Michelin: http://bwicke9.wix.com/class-a-resin#!rubber-tires-and-parts/czxa

Jeremy, whenever you buy an LED with attached wire leads, you are going to pay a hefty premium. Soldering leads onto a bare LED isn't very difficult and it'll save you a ton of money. Here's a place that caters to rail modelers and sells the LED with leads : http://www.ulrichmodels.biz/servlet/the-DCC-Components-cln-LEDs-and-LED-Lighting-Kits-cln-LEDs/Categories I have used www.unique-leds.com many times. Their prices are good and they carry some hard-to-find 1.8mm items, but they only sell bare components. The Chinese sources on eBay are going to sell you the same items that everyone else carries, but you eliminate the middle-man. Sometimes the stuff I order from China arrives faster than if it were coming from a domestic supplier!

Now for the boring part of aftermarket decision-making: should this gigantic steamroller tire be made available in 1/24 scale or 1/25 scale? How about splitting the difference and making it in 1/24.5 scale? How about both 1/24 AND 1/25?

He's a little pricey, but the quality is top-notch: http://industriamechanika.com/shop/figures/57-124-barrio-guy.html

Cool, thanks for the info. I thought it was an SLA model and I was hoping it might have been from a Form1 or a B9, but you had it printed on one of the big boys

Beautiful work!!! What kind of printer spit out this piece?

If you are scratchbuilding your own part, you can do whatever you want regardless of the availability of the same part in a kit somewhere. If you make it it's yours. The only way to make an easy profit with resin casting is to recast already-existing pieces-- there is no research, development, or time invested if you just open a kit and splash some rubber over the pieces. All the junk you see on eBay is pure recast kit parts, often complete with pin marks and mold seams. All people who legitimately sell resin parts will be willing to show you the master that they made (or had made) to prove that they are on the up & up. I'm sure if this bunghole who is recasting the Fairmont were challenged to show his master, he would come up with some lame excuse (it broke and I threw it away) and then go underground for a while. That's how recasters operate... they rely on a fairly ignorant portion of the consumer base to choose their inferior recast pieces purely based on price, and then when they are exposed they'll hide out for a while, but then start up again under a different name with maybe some different items. A guy named Mike Tait in Texas is a recaster of epic proportions and he has come and gone so many times over the past several years it's not even funny... he mainly deals in sci-fi stuff, but he'd probably do car stuff if there were a profit to be made.

Hey guess what? The owner of that Facebook group has an account here: OLESHEP63. But he hasn't been here since September 24, 2012.

It is ethical to take a kit part and make it more accurate or change it to represent a variant of some kind, as long as you don't undermine the original manufacturer's ability to sell the kit. For example, if you take a hood and add an intake snorkel to it, that's legitimate because the hood is of no use without the kit. But if you copy the wheels & tires out of a kit, then you've undercut the manufacturer-- instead of someone buying the kit to get those wheels and tires, they might buy recast copies instead. That is not fair to the manufacturer and is detrimental to the industry. It's doubly rotten when a recaster does it to a garage kit producer.

Try it sometime and you'll see how impractical that would be. If you have to rely on a circle cutter to get your stripe you might as well just use the cutter on some blue decal paper or other thin adhesive material and not bother scanning and printing. I guess I'm fortunate since I have the tools to make a stripe like this as either a waterslide decal or a vinyl decal. Directly painting the blue stripes onto the tires is a good option if you can use a circle cutter to make the correct masks.

Except the blue printed decals would disappear on the black tire because the blue is translucent. Ron, TJ has the right idea. You'd be better off finding some thin white wall decals and using a blue sharpie to color over the white. That'll tint the stripes blue and any extra blue won't show up once you apply the decals onto the black tire.

Sometimes you can contact the designer of the item and they can make it available in a different size. Look on the right side of the product page for a "contact designer" message link.

How about building a framework from PVC pipes and draping plastic from it, sort of like a portable shower enclosure? You would have to overcome the static electricity that would probably be present around your actual painting booth, but the larger enclosure should help with dust intrusion into the space. Barring that kind of setup, the large enclosure that Tom built would be your best bet and you could probably configure the arm holes so that you have sort of a gasket that you stick your arms through and you can just wear normal nitrile gloves. I live near the ocean so I would love to have your low desert humidity!

From what I gathered, the folks who were really interested in a mid-80's Cutlass kit were the 26"-wheel clown-car folks. Whatever floats your boat is fine, as long as it can also be built stock

I thought the '84 was a Hurst/Olds and the 442 didn't reappear until '85. Anyway, there were a gazillion of those Olds 307's made back in the 1980's. Maybe "Cash for Clunkers" erased many of them from the face of the earth, but surely there are plenty of them left. I just checked Google... lots of pictures available. You can't even see the engine from the topside with all the power accessories. I'd love to see a scale '85-87 442. I always like the colors on those cars.

Don't apply the Decal Softener or solvent until the decal is exactly where you want it on the model. The model's surface should be wet where you apply the decal-- wet enough so the decal sort of floats a bit. A tiny drop of dish soap in your water will help the water "wet out" the surface instead of beading up on the surface. Position the decal and wick away excess water from underneath with a dry paintbrush or the corner of a paper towel. Cutting a large decal into sections is a great idea, especially over compound curves, but watch out for edges that may not mate up correctly.

When a resin part oozes or leaches, it's usually due to the two resin components not being mixed thoroughly or very out-of-date components. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. Sometimes... just sometimes... you can bake the piece in an oven at around 125-150 degrees F for a few hours and it will help the un-cured resin to solidify. If you ever get a part that is leaching an oily residue, don't bother trying to "fix" it. Immediately contact the maker and ask for a replacement part. If they are reputable, they'll replace the part or at least give you a refund. There really should be a "resin-caster seal of approval" or something because casting resin pieces isn't terribly difficult, but it does require attention to detail and a certain level of competency. Anybody who trades resin parts for money should at least know what they are doing and be willing to quickly resolve problems.

Okay, I just put an 8-lug version on Shapeways: http://shpws.me/vhkg It's a pair of 4x4 manual-hub fronts and a pair of center-cap rears connected together on a frame.

Caaaaan Dooooo! Really, with 3D modeling a change like this takes literally a minute. The printing, prepping, molding, and casting is not so quick, though... I can't find any reference for Pacer ever making a 15", 8-lug wheel like this, though. I can do them and maybe just make a set available for purchase on Shapeways. If I do that, I'll post a link here.