Harry P.

What type of glue do you use as you build the mockup?

Here are the front door post, the main panel, and the rear post, ready to be glued together... Looking at the back (the inside) of the left front door, you can see that I laminated the main panel. Leaving just the single 1/32" thick panel would result in that panel warping when I apply a liquid (the Future I will use as the "varnish"), so I added a second layer of the birch veneer, at 90º to the outer panel. It's important to have the grain running at 90º to each other on the two panels to minimize any warpage. As you can see, the inner panel was left a bit short front and back, leaving a "tongue" on the outer panel that fits into that groove I described earlier. In this photo the window channel is in place on the front post... More to come...

The groove was cut with my X-acto blade. First I cut the two parallel sides of the groove, making sure to cut the groove wide enough to fit not only the window channel, but the 1/32" thick main wooden door panel. Then once I had the two vertical sides cut, I went along the groove with the X-acto, holding the blade at a 45º angle, first along one side of the groove, then the other. The result is sort of a "W" shaped groove... And here you can see how the "H" shaped window channel fits into that "W," with enough space alongside the channel to also fit that 1/32" main panel...

On the opposite side of this piece, I had to cut a groove that would accept the window channel and the main wooden panel of the front door. I used some H-shaped Plastruct beams for the window channel... Here is the groove...

It's been a while since my last update... "real work" has been keeping me busy, which is a good thing, because it's the "real work" that pays the bills. But back to fun work... I'm on the opposite side now (left side), making the left side doors. I sort of glossed over the actual step-by-step of the doors when I showed you the right side, so let's backtrack a bit and show you how the doors are made, one step at a time... The first step was to solidly define the actual door openings by adding the wooden pieces over the A-pilllars, and building the rear side panels of the body (the side panels behind the rear doors). The center door post, to which the doors will be hinged, was then cut to size and the mortises for the six hinges (three for the front door, three for the rear door) were formed. Here is the "hinge side" of the rear post of the left front door... the post that will be hinged to that center door post. The exact positions of the mortises on the center post were transferred to this piece, and the corresponding mortises were cut out. Also, I notched the inside bottom of this piece, to clear the floor when the door is closed... Oops... I just realized that this is rear post of the right side front door. But you get the idea... left side is just a mirror image.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation...

Looks good to me! What scale is it?

Nice group of models! I have never seen one of those ERV things... pretty cool!

I like those "updated" rally wheels. Should be a great model when you're done.

I can't believe that you hand painted all that! Man, I am impressed! Fantastic job! You should do Janis Joplin's Porsche now...

You hand painted all those graphics? That's amazing!

It would probably help to take the parts out of the plastic bags and shoot them that way.

With the price of Legos (as a father of three I have bought a lot of Legos over the years... they are expen$$$ive!)... I wonder how much this cost?

So... when those guns fire, they're supposed to tear holes through the hood? Or are they just for show? If this is a model of a comic book hero car, sorry... I'm not familiar with it. Is that the case? Comic book car? A beautifully built model in any case.

Outstanding. Terrific attention to detail and an extremely clean model. If you add a black wash to those wheels you can make an excellent model that much better.

Very nice. The paint is especially nice. But you made two mistakes that most people who build a model of this particular car make: 1. You left that molded "lip" around the windshield clear. That's supposed to represent the rubber molding, and should be flat black, not clear. 2. There is no apostrophe in "Willys." It's the name of the car... Willys... it doesn't belong to Willy.

Only if one uses it...

Why does everyone spell Michaels "Micheals?" I see it all the time. Why????

The secret is the "two part" part, whether Bondo or Tamiya. "Two part" putty means you have to mix the resin with the hardener (hence the "two part" name)... and that means the putty sets like epoxy does... via a chemical reaction between the two parts and not by air drying, as "one part" putties that you squeeze out of a tube like toothpaste do. That's why "model putty" (the one part kind) shrinks as it dries. The part that's liquid evaporates, literally goes away, leaving the solid part. Obviously, if a part of the putty appllied evaporates away, the volume of the applied putty will shrink–and crack, if applied too thick–as it dries. Two-part putties don't shrink because they don't air dry... the "set" chemically. A much better way to go. I love that Bondo stuff pictured. Just the right size tube for model building, and the little tube of hardener is even available as a stand-alone product if you run out of it before you run out of the resin part (the stuff in the big tube).

Nobody's forcing them to offer it...

Yes, in the paint/sandpaper aisle. They usually have a different coarseness on each side, and are intended to be used by painters to sand things like baseboards and wooden moldings around door and window openings... the sponge "core" allows them to follow the curves and makes sanding stuff like that easier than sandpaper held by your fingers. But they also work great for model car building! http://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-4-5-in-x-2-5-in-x-1-in-Medium-Grit-Sanding-Sponge-3-Sponge-Pack-CP002-3PK-LG/203212461

BTW... while you're at the local home center looking for those little plastic spring clamps... Check out the sandpaper aisle. You'll see "combination" packs that have several different grits in one package and is probably cheaper than buying one pack of coarse, one pack of medium, etc.

You're going to have a hard time finding a "hippie" forum that looks like this one does. It's kind of the antithesis of the "flower power" "psychedelic" thing... But keep on truckin', dude...

Sanding sponges come in handy for certain things. For example, if you're sanding a large area, like the roof or fender of a model car body, the sponge will form around and follow the curves nicely, where if you used a piece of sandpaper held with your fingers, you might wind up sanding the surface unevenly... even as far as sanding shallow troughs or depressions into the surface if you're not careful... too shallow to see, but visible once a shiny surface (paint) is applied and the reflected light makes the problem obvious. Too late to fix it by then. I like using the sanding sponges wherever appropriate, I always have a couple laying around. They are not a substitute for sheet-type sandpaper, but a nice (and handy) addition to it. Of course, if you really prefer the sanding sponges to "regular" sandpaper, go ahead and use them exclusively. But I think you'll soon find that regular sandpaper comes in very handy more times than not, and you're going to wind up getting some. I won't list specific grits, because that's all pretty subjective. But you'll want some coarse stuff for rough work, then some medium grits for general use, some fine grit for, well... finer work... and then some really super-fine stuff for things like sanding your primed body smooth before you lay down the color coats or giving any bodywork you may have done the final smoothing out before primer and paint (after, or course, you use the coarser grits progressively down to the finer grits to get things shaped the way you want them to be). I like wet-dry sandpaper, because I find that using it wet works better. It doesn't tend to clog up with plastic dust as fast as using it dry... and as a bonus, it keeps the dust down. I "clean" my wet-dry sandpaper by holding it under running water and brushing it with an old toothbrush, then let it dry until needed next time. Same deal with a sanding sponge. Under running water, a few swipes with a toothbrush, squeeze out the water, and there you are. Cleaned up and good to go.