Harry P.

I have no idea. I don't keep track... don't see any reason to do so. It seems kind of like counting how many baseball games I watched in a year, or how many times I went to the gas station. Knowing the number means... what? But that's just me.

One of the problems with old kits like this is that over time, the molds get worn out, and the mold halves no longer align precisely during the molding process. What you get are parts–especially parts that are round or cylindrical, like pipes–where the two halves don't align. In other words, the right half and left half of the part is mismatched, sometimes so much so that the offset is almost 1/16 inch. On larger parts you can fix this by sanding away the mismatch until the part is smooth and the offset seam is gone, but on small parts or parts with a small diameter, sometimes sanding the mismatch all the way off leaves you with an undersized part. A lot of the parts on this kit have this problem, and it's incredibly tedious to clean up all the various pipes, valves and fittings... a lot of sanding and filing, Here are a couple of typical parts that had this problem and had to be cleaned up a lot to get them to look this good. I probably spent close to a half hour just on these two parts alone... and there are a lot of similar parts in this kit: But after cleanup and some paint detailing, they look pretty good. It's just a pain to get them to this point:

That's one fine looking model of a gorgeous car!

If that's the "shovel ready" jobs they were promising us, I'm not interested!!!

Yup. Just got in from doing the driveway. Another "shovel-able" event!

It's not as ugly as a Nissan Juke or Pontiac Aztec...

I've never done it, but have thought about improving some of my older models built many years ago.

Nope.

Well, "Everybody's Talkin' " about him...

What happened to that fender?

Dang. I hadn't heard that...

I really like the look of the chassis... realistically weathered but not over the top. Very nicely done. Engine looks terrific, too.

Suddenly I feel a lot better about the price of the new tires I just put on the Mustang.

Don't forget East Dakota.

I got a few more details finished on the boiler. The oil cans were chrome plated parts. I doubt that something as mundane as an oil can would have been chrome plated, so I "backdated" the look to late 1800s by spraying them Rustoleum Metallic Brass, then brush painting the bodies of the cans gloss black, then an overall wash of Future/acrylic black to add depth and detail:

Why are you guys trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist? If you want to make a trade, all you have to do is PM the guy and ask him where he lives, then decide whether or not you want to deal with him. What, too simple and logical???

"Too much sunshine"... Must be rough...

I've only been to Las Vegas during the summer, when it's around 110 or so... hard to imagine snow ever falling there. It must be quite a shock to some of the locals. Does the city even own a plow?

I watched the cold game in my warm house! BTW, the Bears demolished the Cowboys.

Here is the boiler so far. Not all of the various valves and do-dads attached yet, but enough to give you an idea of how it's looking. The boiler is painted semi-gloss black. As you can see, the boiler cap (top piece still not attached) looks a lot different than the chrome pieces as came in the kit. The gauges do not include decals for the faces so I had to hand paint the gauge dials. The bezels are done with gold BMF and the "glass" is 5-minute clear epoxy: The way I got that "old timey" brass/copper look on the boiler cap is simple. First, the parts were sprayed either Rustoleum Metallic Copper or Metallic Brass... then I brush painted the pieces with a wash consisting of Future with just a bit of acrylic black. That gave the "metal" parts a nice "patina" and emphasized the character lines and creases. I also drilled out the molded-in screw heads and replaced them with brass "rivets" that are actually brass hull planking nails from a wooden ship kit. In the photo below, the grab rail and all of the valves you see were all originally chrome plated, but all got my "old time" treatment: The "brass" plaque on the side of the boiler was also chrome plated, but I think it looks much better after my treatment:

And when a quoted item ends a sentence, the period goes inside the last quote mark. So there!

Isn't 36 unusually cold for Las Vegas? I didn't realize it got that cold there.

Watch the Rob Ford stuff. We're not supposed to talk politics here, remember?

So is the model!

Remember... don't post hints or answers here! This week's car is from forum member Nxr (Eugene Zaets). PM me with specific year, make, and model (all three for credit). The answer: 2006 SsangYong Actyon A230