Harry P.

Beautiful car, Tom...

The upholstery is a vinyl material I found in the sewing section of Hobby Lobby. It has just the right grain to look like leather in scale. The stuffing is foam, cut from a larger piece that I also found in the HL sewing section. The material is actually brown, so I just use acrylic craft paint to paint it black after I finish making each cushion. I show the whole process in this thread: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80618&hl= I paint all the brass-plated pieces with Rustoleum Metallic Brass spray, then I add either a coat of Testors Transparent Window Tint spray (it's meant to tint windows... it's sort of like a candy black), or a black wash that I make with Fuiture and acrylic black craft paint. Sometimes I use the window tint spray and the black wash... it depends on how I want the "brass" part to look.

This week's car is 1923 Jordan MX Playboy. Who got it right: Badluck 13 sjordan2 dimaxion MikeMc Foxer customsrus Lovefordgalaxie Johnag4004

Most of the reference photos I have show valve stems. Of course, they are all restored cars, and with any restored car the absolute authenticity can be questioned. However... From "The History of Tires": The first rubber tires appeared in the mid-1800s. They were solid or cushion tires in which the rubber itself carried the load, absorbed shocks, and resisted cutting and abrasions. The pneumatic or air-filled tire, which carried the load and absorbed shocks by the compressed air in the tire casing, was patented as early as 1845. Solid rubber tires were preferred over pneumatic tires because of their durability, so pneumatic tires fell into disuse. The popularity of bicycles in the late 1800s revived the idea of the pneumatic tire, and in 1888 a Belfast veterinary surgeon named John Boyd Dunlop obtained a patent for a pneumatic bicycle tire. The first use of pneumatic tires for automobiles was pioneered by the Michelin brothers, André and Édouard. They equipped a car with pneumatic tires and drove it in the 1895 Paris-Bordeaux road race. Though André and Édouard didn’t win the race, they generated popular interest in pneumatic tires, and Michelin & Cie became a leading producer of tires in Europe. At the same time, solid rubber tires disappeared from the highways, mostly because of legislation that discouraged their use because they were hard on the roads. For the next fifty years automobile tires were made up of an inner tube that contained compressed air and an outer casing that protected the inner tube and provided traction.

As I'm sure you know (but maybe not others?)... tops back then were actually meant to keep the sun off the passengers. They were basically automotive parasols.

I'd need a wide-angle lens!

Turned out great! If the "salt" was a little more in scale, you'd be hard pressed to tell that this isn't a real car. Pretty impressive work.

Your metalworking skills are off the charts! Beautiful work.

Do it! Building these old timers is a lot of fun and a great change of pace from today's cars.

Like that old song says... This is a 1904 "Curved dash" Oldsmobile, built from 1900-1907. It's generally considered to be the world's first mass-produced car (as in "built on an assembly line with interchangeable parts"). Sorry to Ford fans, but Ransom E. Olds beat Ford to the idea, even though most people think that Henry Ford invented the assembly line. The kit is the old Aurora kit from the '70s. It's 1/16 scale, but because the real car is so small, the model is pretty small, too. I scratchbuilt the top and all of the associated top framework, hardware, and mounting brackets. I scratchbuilt real upholstered seat cushions. I also added the missing rear brakes and linkages, and modified the front axle so that the tiller really steers the front wheels. The rest is right out of the box. WIP here if you're interested.

Got the top built and installed... and that takes me to "Under Glass!"

Another spectacular tank, G. You really have the weathering and detailing down.

Man, that's impressive! Spectacular detailing... now that's what it's all about!

Spindly. Exactly. One of the things most people would never think of if they don't build models of this era is that the farther along you get, the harder it is to hold the model while you work! On this one, there is literally no way to hold the model and apply any amount of force (like drilling a hole) without something snapping off. There is nothing "solid" to hold on to. Can't hold the model by the fenders... the fender brackets are way too weak. Can't hold it by the sides of the body, because the fenders and the step plates are in the way. Can't hold it by the wheels, because the axles and spindles and such are so thin and fragile they'd snap in an instant. I have to come up with creative ways to hold/brace the model while I do things like glue the seat in place, or glue the headlights on.

I buy a kit for the parts in the box... not for the box. I would never pay a premium for a "collectible" tin box if the kit inside is the same as what comes in the regular cardboard box, because in my world, once a kit is finished the box goes in the garbage can. But I can't fault the model companies for trying to create a "premium price" version in order to maybe create some interest and some additional profit... that's just good marketing. But as the consumer, I ain't fallin' for it!

Here's a shot of my scratchbuilt upholstered seat cushions. The side rails on the seat should be black to be 100% accurate, but I made my own of brass rod because I like the look of the brass.

If you mean the center top bow, that's actually made of styrene strip, not rod, so I could taper the legs to look more like a 1:1 top. I cut small notches in it to receive the front and rear brass bows. In real life, the front and rear bows pivot where they meet the center bow, to allow the top to fold, but at this scale that detail would be invisible, so I just glued the brass bows to the center styrene bow.

It's not a matter of advertising. Licensing fees are all about protecting your intellectual property, like brand name, logo, etc. But it is true that Goodyear (or anyone else) could charge only a very small fee, just to protect their rights and keep everything legal. Charging a huge licensing fee to a model kit manufacturer for the use of your name and logo on a model kit's tires does look like nothing more than a money grab. But does anyone here actually have the hard numbers? Or are we all just speculating about the "huge" licensing fees?

Nice, but you should add the aerial wire.

A quick check to make sure the top fits correctly...

I used part of one of the unused top frames to make a trunk lid handle.

Beautiful!

I stand corrected...

Now that's different!

Cool! I would love to get my hands on one of those.