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Maindrian Pace

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Posts posted by Maindrian Pace

  1. Roger, Ironically I just did a level 3 on a '61 Comet, a glue/paint bomb that turned out pretty well as a bare plastic shelf model. As well as a '60 Comet, and most recently a '63 convertible which is missing only the seat unit. The Meteor kits have engines, as this one does. The '62 and '63 Meteor promos did not have an engine, but they had a separate hood and the engine bay as in the kit, but with the promo style chassis. The '62 Fairlane promo did have an engine, as Ford wanted to show off their all-new 145 HP 221 Fairlane V8. I have the same green Fairlane promo, but it's pretty rough and missing the hood.

  2. Last Saturday I picked this up from an estate sale. A bit disheveled looking, It had Lincoln wheel covers and the tires were melted half off the wheel backs, so I gave it a Level 2 tidy (shameless Cold War Motors reference) with a correct set of wheel covers in my stash (3 anyway, the fourth is slightly different but close enough for this) and a general fussing. I originally thought that someone painted it that bluish gray, but later observed that the whole kit is molded in that color, with only the chassis and interior wearing paint. I didn't know that AMT did colored plastic that early, My other '63 Meteor is the usual ivory white styrene.

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  3. That's really weird, I sent it to you in PM here 3 days ago, and it still appears in the thread (for me at least). In any case, I'm ready to send your Dodge wheel covers back, and I asked you to send me your mailing address to make the package come your way. PM me.

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  4. 17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

    Here is a pic I got of his Cutlass recently as I was test fitting the front and rear glass templates............

    Bill, it looks like the tan resin is very similar to the white in that I can see the same chevron looking grain at the edges of the horizontal panels on both the Cutlass and the Fairmont. The only gripe I have on the Fairmont is that the emblems are too faint. I will try to foil cast them before I finish the body for paint. I noticed on the Buick Sport wagon that yellowsportwagon posted (what a nice car) that the emblems are loud and proud, so I imagine that it was in the file that way, or maybe that's what Robert meant when he said that some bodies don't print well in white resin. Either way, it's not a serious problem.

    17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

    I should mention that Robert has reached out to me to ask if I'd like to do test prints of his upcoming bodies, as he knows that I have a 3D printer. I told him I would and give a bit of a critique if there are changes that might be needed for said model. Interesting enough, I was on a site (Hum3D) the other day where Robert is getting some of his files. The 3D renderings there don't offer interiors either unless you pay a HUGE premium ($900), so I can see why he does ask for help when it comes to someone that can make and cast interiors and whatnot. I did get a file a while back that did come with complete interior, but I gotta tell ya, it was done in an .obj file, and it's a job to convert what's needed to an .stl file, edit the parts to withstand printing, and then smooth them out to make them presentable to be built. Not for the faint of heart in the least. 🤯

    A bit beyond my pay grade, I have to say.

    17 hours ago, MrObsessive said:

    Mike, I want to add that is a VERY good looking Futura! One of the nicest I've seen of that car and one that's much wanted among us out here in the "lunatic fringe". I thought about getting that one myself, but my heart was won over by a '77 Chrysler Newport four door hardtop, and a 1960 Plymouth XNR concept car that Robert has on his latest list.

    The Plymouth I actually thought about scratchbuilding recently, so this saves me a LOT of work! 😁

    I'm really happy to finally have one. The next car I will buy is a '67 Marlin, I really like those and they are stupid rare in 1:1.

    I used to own a '78 NYB with the 440.

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    I got it from an impound yard, the owner was going to turn it into a demo derby car. I talked him into using an '80 Impala instead, and took this one home. After repairing the power windows, door locks, seats, A/C, trunk lock, tune up, new tires, etc, I sold it on ebay to a guy in Cincinnati who could not believe his good fortune in finding a rust free AZ 440 NYB.  He left me the most glowing feedback I've ever received. That was my good deed for the day.

    12 hours ago, Len Woodruff said:

    Interesting. I think the Future Attraction body looks more accurate to me. This one looks a little thick in the B-Pillar.

    I am not taking anything away from the excellent quality of his products. I had one of his original Future Liners that was stunning.

    It was pretty nice too, but try as I did - for years - I could never buy one of those. Eventually poor quality knock-offs started to appear on ebay, and thus began the downward spiral.

  5. 2 hours ago, 1972coronet said:

    Thanks for the images and review! I was perusing his site, and was ready to take out a loan from the Irish Mafia to fund the many kits I'd buy! But, since the most interesting subjects need everything else to be bashed or scratched, I relented. 
    Surely, I'd pull the trigger if he offered a 1970,1971,1972 Dart Swinger that'd work with the Revell 1968 Dart GTS (340 from the AMT 1971 Duster 340 would more than suffice).

    Do you feel that the 'glass' bucks would polish-out to a clear? 
    At a minimum, those bucks would work as templates for Evergreen et al. styrene clear.

    Water your plans for the Futura? Monogram 1987 Thunderbird for the frame/chassis/suspension? 

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    No way on polishing the glass to a reasonable level of clarity. Clear resin isn't very clear in large parts, but it reads well on smaller parts like lenses. I made the bucks and I make all the vacuform glass from PET-G for the Master Caster offerings, so vacuforming this is no problem for me. As the bucks are resin, they should last for many pulls. We'll see.

    As for the plans, mild street machine with an EFI 5.0, T-5, and nice wheels kind of like I am planning to build my 1:1 Futura. This car is 1:25 scale, and the MPC Fox chassis fits very well, so I'll lengthen it to Fairmont wheelbase and overhang and call it good. Because the dash and most of the interior is the same or similar to '79-'84 Mustang, it won't be much problem, with only the interior 1/4 panels having to be scratch built. I may offer resin copies of the interior tub to Robert, since he is looking for builders to do the interiors on his cars.

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    2 hours ago, peteski said:

    I have been watching these models in various threads here.  They appear to be designed really well as far as body proportions go.  One thing that really bugs me about them is how thick the bodies are.  That is very apparent on the A-pillars.  If the windshield installs from the inside, they will not look very realistic. If it goes in from the outside, it will be difficult to glue it in without the glue showing.

    I'm not sure why they are so thick.  Even home 3D printing ls advanced enough (especially that brown resin) to make the bodies much thinner, and the resin should be robust enough for a sturdy body.


    As for the windows bucks, they should be usable for making vacu-formed (or smash-molded) windows from thin clear PET sheet.

    The body is somewhat thick, but not as thick as others I've seen. Cutting the hood out will be a fun time. The pillars can be thinned with a motor tool and a drum sander, I may do that. The glass does install from the inside, fits very nicely, and the vacuform units I'll make will also install from the inside and should look fine.

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  6. AKA Too Many Projects, he sells on Facebook a few times a year. Many of us have seen the exhausting array of mostly obscure American cars he offers in 3D printed resin, either in white resin for about $65, or tan resin for around twice that. I've been waiting for a Fairmont Futura for a long time, so I thought I'd pull the trigger on a white resin example to see just how good Mr. Burns' products are. In a word, very good. This was a bit of a leap of faith because I have never seen this particular body before, but judging by the others that can be seen on the interwebs, I knew it would be something that can be worked with. These cars don't come with interiors, chassis, or wheels, but you do get the body, bumpers, grille, mirrors where applicable, and all separate lights in clear resin. You also get clear-ish printed window bucks that can be smoothed and used to vacuform glass. Obviously these are for experienced builders, as scratch building will be necessary to complete the model. But you get a good head start on an offbeat car that you want, that no company will ever kit.

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    To me, the most important thing by far is scale accuracy in terms of proportion and dimension. Since these are scans of real cars with lots of editing to make removable parts, the overall proportions are quite good. The grille is a very tight fit into the body, so a bit of filing will be necessary to allow for paint clearance. Everything should be fit first before painting just to be sure. All scripts and emblems are there, but are faint and will probably disappear after sanding and priming, so photoetch parts or decals would be nice to have. The lines in the white resin are very fine, so sanding and priming won't be an issue. The more expensive tan resin is supposed to be higher resolution, so I may give that a try on the next body I order. If you have been wondering if you should order something from Too Many Projects, the answer is yes. Be advised that he is a busy man, and this car took nine weeks to deliver after payment. But for most of us, working on something else while waiting is not a problem.

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