DaveM

Boyle's law also works against us, as spraying the paint decreases the temperature. Warming the can slowly (I use a sink filled with moderately hot tap water, and change it a couple of times) helps with both the pressure and the consistency of the paint. I am very careful with the Testor's Lacquers in the automotive colors, as I have had a couple of those cans leak their contents through pinholes before. (I decant them and thin them for an airbrush, as they are a bit thick and have lousy nozzles) One modeler here gets around Boyle's law by shooting pretty thin coats, and reheating the can between coats. He gets the can hotter for each coat, as the volume and pressure decrease as the can empties. By his last coat, he can't hold the can with a bare hand, and he gets incredible paint jobs with a spray can. I am afraid to get things anywhere near that hot, so I live with falling pressures towards the end of the can. I am starting to rely less on the cans and much more on my airbrush. I feel more comfortable with the airbrush anyways, as I have much better control.

I vaguely remember the car you are thinking of. It wasn't the speedwagon, though. There was a woody that was all steel and brilliantly painted to look like wood. The speedwagon was wood. I wish I could remember the name of the fake woody. I like the '32s, but the speedwagon is less useful than the highboy roadster would be. I would buy a few of those if they were reissued. I might pick up one of these to build an actual speedwagon, since the ones I had were used to build a phantom touring woody and to start a chopped up drag themed car. Someday I have to drag that one out of the pile and finish it.

Yeah! At my size, I should have kicked off before 1977 then. I'm not sure those downsized hearses will work for me. (They might have to use two of them!)

I have been involved with RC planes. Same issues there. I scratchbuild, so I understand the concerns. I have seen whole garages full of RC planes end up in a dumpster, and I have been told by a widow that she is selling a small plane for $1500 because she saw a plane of the same color listed on ebay for that much. If you care about what happens after you die, make those plans now. I have a list ,that Cathie will get upon my death, which outlines the big money kits and projects, and tells her how to list them. Hopefully this will keep her from selling the kit boxes with resin, photo etch and decals for $3 at a garage sale. I have decided to reduce the stash quite a bit before then. I could get more built if I had fewer distractions. Unfortunately, I think I am just making space to fill up with new models. Reminds me of a T-shirt I saw once that said, "When I'm gone, I hope my wife doesn't sell my guns for what I told her they cost!" Same things applies to models, planes and slot cars! (Even a couple of my fountain pens fall into that category.

Well over 1000 sealed kits, plus a few hundred opened, started, raided or other kits. I will be ebaying a bunch of them this year, because if I don't, Cathie will. I'd rather have the money in my pay pal account than hers. I'm going to use some of the proceeds to buy some supplies and finish more of the kits I have. She wants more shoes...

Honda 750s were interesting as flattrackers up here. I didn't follow the dirt season as much, but the flattrackers all went ice racing in the winter. The Hondas were a good match for the Triumphs, Kawasaki twins and the Harleys on the big tracks, but they were a handful on the smaller or snottier tracks. They place they dominated was in the 750 Studded Sidecar class. (Back in the day when studdeds ran a left side hack and the monkeys hung out over it.) The twins couldn't keep up with the extra power, and the wide, low motor didn't hurt the handling in a hack rig. They were hard to beat, even through the eighties. The Kawasakis dominated the 1000 sidecars, and Suzuki owned the open class with the 1100. Yamaha, not to be left out, dominated the "thumper hack" class with the TT500. I will probably never get around to it, but an old ice hack would be a fun project. It would take several sets of hex heads to do all the studs, and a lot of scratchbuilding to make the hack, but it would probably never have to face another one on the contest tables. So, who will be the first to buy three of these kits and build Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe?

Everything looks great. Nice save, Bruce! I wasn't able to build this weekend, but that doesn't mean I can't cheer you all on. I really wish I had been able to participate in this. It looks like everybody is having a lot of fun. We just got her back from the hospital, and she is doing well. I made her a quick lunch and she looked right at me and said, "The hospital has better food." I guess medicine doesn't have a cure for that! We will be busy during the week, but I will probably treat next weekend like a three day build. If nothing else, it will get a kit built. I will call it the "All by myself Weekend non group build!"

Looks great, everybody! Some neat models coming together. I am hoping that my Mother can get home by tonight, but we are waiting on another test. She is doing fine, but wants to get back home. Not only is she in the hospital for the Fourth if July, but this is her Birthday, too! (She was the first American born in her family, so she had to do it with style!) She is in good spirits, but she pointed out that she is in the Hospital, and her cake, ice cream and presents are all at the house. According to her, one of those two things needs to change! One the other side of the coin, she is in a city with an incredible fireworks display every year. (Part of their Riverfest, I think) The nurses pointed out that her hospital window faces the right direction, so if she does stay one more night, she will have free entertainment. Either way, I get to drive back and forth through major holiday traffic jams. It will take a day or so to get things settled down, but I won't be going anywhere except her appointments for the next few weeks. I should have time to complete the first annual "All By Myself" Three Day Buildoff sometime next week. I might tackle the Del Rio, or I might go with something slightly simpler.

I'm not going to be able to make this build. Things just got more complicated. She's still okay, but I will be tied up the whole weekend.

My Mother went to the hospital today. She is okay, but she might stay overnight. Either way, it will eat into my time this weekend. I may switch to a much simpler kit. I have a few Monograms around. I will try something without two tone paint. If I can, I will still do this build. I will let you all know what I am building when I get home tonight.

Wow! Tough kit, Tom. I thought of that one, but I decided to go with Revell's Del Rio. I would have started another Ford Truck (The '69) but it looks like I was just beaten to it. This way, I'll still be doing a little bit of test piloting on the Del Rio, as I haven't seen one built other than the test shot. Rangers, Blazers, Manxes... This is going to be fun. I'm doing a mild street machine, as I can paint it any colors I want to. I just need to find a good set of photographs of the back end of a two tone model, so I can get the color separation lines in the right place. Of course, I can paint it any way I want to. I have seen customs with the tailgate in both the upper color, and the lower color. I have a few sets of tires and wheels standing by, and some rod and tubing to fabricate mounts as necessary. I will get the car mocked up and primed, then make the final decision on wheels. This kit has a lot of parts, so I am going to have to move, but it should fall together pretty easily. I figure with the modern fit, the larger number of parts shouldn't kill me. It might not be a good choice for a 24 hour build, but the two extra days should let me get it done. I know the '57 Customs go together pretty well. I don't see any real hangups in this kit, so I am just going to go for it. The cool factor will be worth the added hassle.

I am going to go with this kit for the Fourth of July Weekend build. I will do a street machine, so I can use some custom colors and different wheels. This way, I don't have to deal with the decal emblems. It will make a fun build. I will post lots of pics and report on how it all goes together. It won't be as involved as my original plan for it, but it should go together well enough to be a good three day build.

DOH! Sorry 'bout that. I missed that one when I was looking back for links. I was probably too busy drooling over the model.

Here is a website I have just been reading. Lots of information on the trucks, and some year to year changes. I don't think this one has been posted yet, but if it has, I apologize. First up is a two pages of identification, and determining years. It shows the instrument panels, grilles, lights, valences, steering wheels and everything else that changed. Rear reflectors, door panels, emblems, pedals, shoulder belt mounts, and even ashtray differences between the model years are shown in case you want to scratchbuild an ashtray and have it be the correct depth for the model year. Be sure to check out page two of this document. It even shows the reflectors under the rear taillight changing between years. Nice stuff to know if you are swapping beds, or converting to a '68. http://www.fordification.com/tech/67-72ID_01.htm The other part is pictures of trim levels. Nice to know the different trim levels, the different tailgate treatments, lower body trim, emblems, end even glove box door badges. This will be really useful for those of us who want to tweak the trim levels, or swap parts between the '69 and '71. Hope these help. If I had found this site earlier, I wouldn't have made an idiot of myself on the last page of this thread! http://www.fordification.com/tech/trim.htm

Am I the only one who sees humor in the fact that these Revell threads are getting so predictable that people can just copy and paste the same posts in threads on two completely different kits? Now here's my post that sort of echos the same sentiments from my other post. If they fix this thing up, I will get quite a few. If it looks like it does now, I will pass, or get a single one to raid for parts. No matter how much they use the "It's a hot rod" excuse, that roof insert is flat wrong and will take quite a bit of fixing to build an acceptable model. The cowl looks bad from several different angles. The blower wouldn't be usable in the parts box, so that wouldn't leave a lot of reasons to buy this kit. I will get a few of the '29s, because they look pretty good, and Tim Boyd has vouched that they are fairly accurate. The '31 needs a bit of help. Hopefully the fixes are simple enough that they can do them. That's what test shots are for. I do like the SBC, and the carb setup. I also really like the '32 Grille. It won't take much reworking for Revell to really take this kit to the next level. If they do, I will buy a bunch. My Mother's best friend has a T-Shirt that says, "Life's too short to knit with ugly yarn." I am starting to feel the same way about models. I don't NEED any new kits, so they really have to make me WANT them if I am going to add to my overgrown stash.

I have one of the Customs, and a Del Rio. The '57 Ford was a subject that I would have bought 6 or 8 of. The execution of the kit was worth a couple, maybe a third someday. The Moebius Pickups were a subject I could have bought three or four of, total, but the kit is so much fun, I have three of each, an I am waiting to see what variations they do next.! I vote with my wallet. When Revell fixed the Torino, I ended up with a few of them. It is a really great kit, and the fixed version is even better. When they made the '69 Nova, I bought one, and ended up using it for parts. I owned several full sized Mustang LX notchbacks, and would have bought a LOT of the Revell Mustangs, but I don't own one, nor will I ever recommend it to anybody. I have a 'Cuda, but probably won't bring myself to waste the effort on fixing it. It just seems to float to the back of the "Build next" pile. I have other kits that will build better looking models with less body work. (Like a huge stash of Revell '55 through '57 Chevy kits.) I am not the rivet counter from heck, I build models with flaws. Some I correct, while some I decide to live with. When the basic proportions of a model are way off, or major character lines, trims or big details are incorrect, then the model starts to look "off". Even when you aren't comparing it side by side, to an original, you can tell it isn't right to the eye. When the look starts to completely miss the mark, my interest in the kit drops off too. I have a stupidly large stash of models. I do not need new issues unless they are well done kits of cars I am interested in. It is frustrating when a model company misses basic things, especially when they are pointed out in test shots or not corrected in later versions of a kit. I have said before, it is much simpler to fix the mold once, than to expect thousands of customers to each fix their final product, one at a time. (Or to live with it being wrong) If I need to rebuild a major component, do major surgery on the body, or buy resin parts to build a reasonable model, that factors into my decision to build one or a few of them. If the model manufacturers want to build sloppy kits, that is their business. Whether I buy them is my business. Even with Moebius, I will probably only get one of their Satellites, and a quite a few Pontiacs, even though I am a major fan of mid sixties Mopars. The Pontiacs look pretty spot on out of the box, where the Satellite will take some body work, and scratchbuilding vent windows and moldings to make it look like a real Satellite. I hope they fix it in the next version, but I will wait and see. One thing I will not do is buy a bunch of bad kits, just to encourage a model company to keep going. I am not sure where this logic comes from. (The whole "If we ignore this kit, we will never get a 1916 Hupmobile" argument.) Buying a bad kit will just encourage them to put out more bad kits. (If those saps bought the last kit we made by the thousands, we don't need to make this one any better) If they produce a good kit, I will reward them with sales and praise. If they produce a dog, I will take my money elsewhere, and wait to see if their next kit is a bit better. When Cathie bought a Pontiac, and had more repairs and problems than any other car, she didn't say, "Oh, if I don't buy another Pontiac, they might give up on building cars". She turned around, bought a Toyota, and never looked back. The fact that Pontiac did give up and stop building cars shortly afterwards didn't seem to bother her too much. All in all, it's just a hobby, and if I stop enjoying it, then I need to quit. If a model is not fun to build, and enjoyable to look at after I build it, I will build something else. I build cars because I like cars, but I have also built other things. When I get too frustrated with cars, I build a peanut scale model, or tinker with a fountain pen, but I always come back to them. As it is, I plan to build model cars for a long time. I plan to keep the friendships I have made in the hobby for a long time too, even if threads and debates get a little tense at times. There's too much fun to still be had, and too many glossy paint jobs to be polished.

That's too bad. I liked the extra variety you guys provided. I was hoping for some '70s revivals, a couple of trucks, and some of the tool restoration you guys funded and generated.

Thanks, Tom. I thought there was a slight difference in the grilles. Now I have to go over '68 photos with a fine tooth comb. I think the rest of the truck is mostly identical to the '69. (According to WIKI) I hope a stepside bed ends up being made too. Worked on the kit a bit last night. I will get a camera going this weekend, but I am having fun with this one when I can get bench time.

No need to sand, even. Even very thin paint coats will end up smooth. It is almost the perfect level that I would scuff my plastic to to accept primer. I wash my models with Dawn dishwashing soap and a fine brushing with a scotchbrite. That works really well, and even Tamiya fine primer applied very lightly, fills the texture. It is actually much finer than it looks. I just shot paint on the Hudson, and the texture is a total non issue. KoPro used to make airplane kits with the same texture, so it isn't a problem. I am partway done with the Ranger, and I have fully mocked it up. The kit really goes together well, and looks fantastic. I think if you go ahead and build it, you will end up liking it. (You will have a really nice model to show for your efforts. ) Look at what Chuck Most did with his! Hopefully mine will turn out this nicely.

I am doing a "Sorta' 7 day build" this week to get ready for it. I am working on a partially built kit for my "Shelf of Chevy" and I will go through all of the steps to get it done by Thursday. My main purpose is to test my painting procedures and get my chops down before doing it for real. I needed to get this one finished to have something out of the "In progress" pile before starting a new kit. The engine is glued up, and all of the seams are cleaned and filled, as are the seats, and other preliminary assemblies, and all of the mold lines and sprue attachments are already cleaned up. No primer has been shot yet. I will do the whole paint, start to finish on all of the parts just like I will on the 3 day build. This will show me any flaws in my plan. I am doing the '58 Impala because I have paint ready to go, and it is the same type that I am planning to use in the 24 hour build. (Tamiya) It should get any tool or equipment glitches out of the way. It will also get me into the zone as far as building, detail painting and foiling go. I am debating between a couple of models for the actual weekend build. I'm thinking of the Revell '60 Chevy, in white with a red interior, or I am thinking of a Revell '63 Impala in black with a red interior. I have done a '59 Impala, so the '60 should be similar. I have also taken a good look at the '64, and it looks like it should fall together. If I want to take a break from the "Shelf of Chevy" project, I have a '57 Del Rio wagon. I haven't started it yet, and I could set up a two tone with Maroon and either black or white. (I also have several other good 2 tone colors, including a nice, dark blue) If I did the Del Rio, I would probably do a wheel and tire swap to create a mild street machine, or surf wagon. I could also pull out a '32 Ford, as I have built several versions already, or I could do a '40 Ford Street Rod. (Another smooth build) My last thought is doing a 1/24 Monogram kit. I have several, but the ones that have migrated to the top of the heap are a 1970 Roadrunner, and a 1970 Chevelle. I also have a '66 Chevelle wagon, and I know those go together fairly well. (I have the El Camino too) and I have already started the Moebius 1971 Ranger, but I could whip out the 1969 F100 and do that one instead. (Maroon, or maroon and white?) As another option, I have is an AMT '65 Galaxie I have been wanting to build in Phoenician Yellow. (That would be a different paint, though.) I also have some '25 T kits, and Double Drag kits, but those are kits I think could cause headaches in a timed build. My last thoughts for projects are a couple fo Cougars, a '69 and a '73. Both of those are older kits, and the '73 has some fit issues with the fenderwells, and engine compartment. (My last 24 hour build was sunk by the fit of the fender liners in a '51 Chevy!) I think if I didn't have a massive kit stash, it would actually be easier to get something built. If I only had one kit to choose from, I wouldn't have to spend so much time deciding what to build! I'll narrow it down a bit more (My first list of possibilities was 74 kits long!) I'll also get the Camera going. This should be lots of fun! I can do a decent job without suffering from sleep deprivation!

I would go for a couple Volares, even more so if they were backdated. I would also grab an EXP, and any big Galaxie that hasn't been done in a while. The kit that I would load up on, though is the '71 Road Runner.

That's it! I'm going to have to sell my house to afford all the kits Moebius is going to put out. I'll just have to build the rest of my models living in a van, down by the river!!! (I do have a van, but i don't have a river...) Maybe a 4X4, and OOOOH! I can do the '72 plow truck my Dad use to use at work. I remember riding with him while he plowed the access roads and parking area a few times. Hopefully you end up doing a grille for a '68 someday too... Then I would have to sell the van... Thanks, Dave. Enjoy my next six Month's worth of paychecks.

It would be really sweet to get a Slim Jim in a later release. (Isn't there still a Catalina in the works?) More parts = more possible builds = more kits needed to build all of the variations... I bought 5 of the pickups combined, but I am actually planning to buy one more XLT because the number of ways I want to build them keeps increasing as I get more ideas. (I get a LOT of ideas, and I have the stash to prove it. ) If the Pontiacs are anywhere nearly as much sheer fun as the pickups are, I will get a few. Hopefully the next variations on the Pontiacs will allow us to mix and match some extra parts.

The '69 'Cuda is one of my favorite cars of all time. It might have something to do with the fact that my very first Hot Wheels car was the Custom Barracuda redline. I still love the fastback body, and I think it was one of the best styled cars ever to come out of Detroit. A release of the '69 'Cuda would be great. It would be even better if a caster brought out a conversion to a '68, as that would open up the Hemi versions. I have a couple of the old issue '69s and some '68 decals, a Hemi Dart kit that I would use as a donor car and a razor saw ready to go. I think I just need the grille and taillight panel to make a '68. The rest of it would be converting over to a hemi car, using most of the Dart chassis and driveline. I would have to put van buckets in the interior, and do a lot of fitting and finagling to get all of the pieces together, but it makes a great project to dream about.

That's interesting. That would make the prop turn the opposite way from a motor that was mounted in the normal (Backwards) configuration? So, if I mount a Chevy in it, and do the normal setup with the motor turned around backwards and the blower belt to the stern side of the boat, then I would have to replace the prop with a reverse rotation one. Or am I missing something different in the drive setup? I missed that little detail in the one I built back in the dark ages. (I bet my blown 454 powered version could have outrun any of Tim's builds in a backwards race!) Did these release with the preferred program? I went back to the local craft store, and they still had all of their kits (Except for the Del Rio I bought.) but none of the boats. Would they be separate from the other Revellogram releases? I'll have to hunt around and grab one of these.