Harry P.

I like the partly open rear window. Nice touch.

If by any chance you happen to have unbuilt kits of the Olds and Rambler in that series, and are willing to sell them, PM me.

I sprayed all the brass parts Rustoleum Metallic Brass, then blackwashed them with my own "secret recipe" wash of Future and acrylic black craft paint. It's 1/16 scale, but no bigger than a 1/25 scale model because the real car is so tiny!

WIP here An odd little car, this Buick was a one-year only model, meant to compete with the Model T. This tiny little Buick was very stripped down and bare-bones... no windshield, no doors, no top, and only a horizontally-opposed two-cylinder engine. It was the smallest Buick ever made, and the only one ever powered by a two-cylinder engine. It was discontinued after only one year because it really didn't sell that well, and didn't fit the upscale image Buick was pushing. I added a lot of detail under the hood... the kit engine is pretty simplified and plain. It just didn't look right without some added detail... There's no horn or acetylene tank in the kit... I'll have to scratchbuild those. Update! I added the horn and the acetylene tank. I took the horn from another kit, cut it apart, and reconfigured it to fit the Buick. The acetylene tank is scratchbuilt per reference photos using various bits and pieces of styrene rod and tube, and sheet aluminum. The flange around the base is actually the pupil from a "googly eye" (the diameter was just right!). Now it's finished.

All done. A pretty simple kit, not much to it. Not much to the real car either, I guess!

I thought the three-lug wheels would be a huge clue...

"Silent" compressors aren't literally silent, but they're not loud. You can have one running and easily carry on a normal conversation. They're not much louder (if at all) than your typical running dishwasher.

The weird thing is, the blizzard conditions that caused that massive pileup was limited to a very small patch of NW Indiana, where they get a lot of "lake effect" snow (wind blowing from the north or northwest over the relatively warmer water of Lake Michigan causes the air to pick up moisture, which falls as snow when it hits land, but only in a very narrow band inland... just a couple miles inland). It wasn't snowing anywhere else in the whole metro Chicago area except for a few square miles there in NW Indiana,

Unlike many kits of brass-era cars, the fenders and running boards (and even the front fender splash aprons) in this kit are separate parts, so detailing the running boards was easier than with the typical fenders/running board "all in one" setup. I sprayed the running boards semigloss black and added the "brass" trim on the edges with gold BMF. The "rivets" that attach the fender brackets to the fenders are more of those tiny brass ship model hull planking nails (they have 101 uses!). I figured the fenders would be easier to install as a unit, so I assembled the fenders, running boards, and all the individual fender brackets first... so now I'll have just one assembly to install on each side of the chassis.

Why don't we just deport him and be done with it. Let Canada deal with Canada's problems.

I agree with Casey's post above. And I also think that criticism, like Dan said, is a valid part of any online forum. People who can't take criticism, or who think that any and all criticism should not be allowed on a forum, probably shouldn't be a forum member... because commentary, both positive and negative, is part of the give-and-take of any forum. Personal attacks are another thing, and deciding if a particular comment crosses that line is the job of the moderators, not the members. That being said, I think this topic has been covered pretty well, so I'm closing it... not because of anything posted here by anyone, but because at this point my instinct tells me this topic can't go anywhere from here but south...

No. Liquid cement for styrene. Testors makes it, but I like "Bondene" from Plastruct. Liquid cements produces a better bond than "tube glue" and it's a much cleaner way to build. For example, with tube glue you squeeze some glue onto the mating surface of the part, and glue the part in place. You almost always will get glue squeezout at the joint, you have those "strings" of glue, the glue keeps flowing out of the tube, etc. It's a mess. With liquid glue, you place the part, then use the applicator brush to dab a bit on the seam. Capillary action will draw the glue all along the seam. No messy glue squeezeout, and the entire seam is glued solid. For parts that come in halves, like transmissons, for example, I actually clamp the two halves together with a small spring clamp, then "paint" the liquid glue along the joint where the two parts meet. I do use tube glue in certain instances when I need the glue itself to hold a small part in place as the glue dries. For example, a rear-view mirror. In a case like that, a tiny dab on the locator pin, and the thickness of the glue will usually hold a small part in place as the glue dries. But for the vast majority of building, I use liquid cement. The only thing you have to remember is that liquid cement evaporates very fast... so I always close the cap immediately after I use it. I don't want most of the cement evaporating away in an open bottle!

Skip tube glue. Use liquid glue. It's a much cleaner way to build.

This week's car is a 1981 Ford Corcel II. Corcel II was built in several South American countries between 1977-86. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Corcel Who got it right: badluck13 MikeMc george53 farmer1 Agent G customsrus kataranga 62rebel

Wow! Nice! What scale is that?

Beautiful! Excellent! But I agree with Roger... it looks like you have the taillight lenses installed upside down and left/right side reversed.

Hey, at least Sonny and Cher are still together. Oh wait... never mind...

Caught doing 60 mph drag racing in a Lambo. Sixty mph? I'd deport him for just that alone...

Uh, that's Muskrat Love...

Fifty states... fifty different sets of regulations.

I read that the Captain has Parkinson's Disease and can't play piano anymore. That has to hurt. Bad time for the missus to file for divorce. He has to be bummed big-time. BTW... how do you stay married for nearly FORTY years and suddenly decide it's over? I'd love to her her explanation.

In the US, a new set of plates used to be issued for your care very year; the design and/or color changed every year, and the year on the plate corresponded to the calendar year, not the year the car was registered. These days, the plates themselves stay on the car year to year, only the dated sticker in the corner is changed every year. But in either case, any date on the plates corresponds to the current calendar year, not the year the car was registered.

I have an Entex-branded delivery van, two Minicraft-branded pickups, and a Minicraft stock Model A Roadster. So far I have only gotten as far as building the engines and chassis of one of the pickups and the Roadster. So far, there have been no problems at all. I haven't seen the "oozing plastic" issue that Mark described... that may very well depend on which branding of the kit you have, and when that particular run of kits was manufactured. When I said these are nice kits, keep in mind that I build Pocher kits... I'm used to poor fit, complexity, etc, so the problems Mark described probably don't even register on my radar... I'm just used to having to re-engineer a lot of any given kit. To me it's just par for the course, building what I do. But Mark is right to imply that these are not "beginner" kits. They will take some skill and patience to build, but they aren't necessarily difficult. By their nature, cars of this era are sort of flimsy and spindly, so a model of such a car will necessarily also be somewhat flimsy and fiddly. A lot of the chassis parts are very thin and delicate and require care and patience. Same with the delicate headlight mount, the running lamps, etc. But... if you and your daughter take your time and are careful while building, you will be rewarded with a very nice model.

The spark plugs themselves are brass rod painted white. The connectors are made of very small diameter aluminum tubing (1/16" O.D. Not precisely to scale, but that's what I happened to have "in stock!" ). I crimp the end with flat-jawed pliers to flatten it and drill a hole through the flattened end. Then I cut off the connector from the tubing about 3/32" from the flattened area (I don't measure, I just eyeball it). That gives me a connector with one end flat (and a hole drilled through the flat part that will slip down over the brass rod "spark plug"), and the other end (the open round end) that receives the ignition wire.

It doesn't actually say the word "enamel" anywhere... but based on the smell, that's what I think it is. They say cleanup is with mineral spirits.