Mike999

A hood recently gave me a whoopin.' The one on the old ESCI Renault R5 French police car. That hood has really nice underside bracing detail. It also has an air vent grille on top of the hood, that I wanted to open up. So I sanded the hood down until the vent was open and looked perfect. This also made the hood very thin, but I thought that would be even more realistic. Shot a coat of gray primer. Checked the hood in natural sunlight, it looked perfectly smooth. Sprayed on the finish coat of gloss black...and big, ugly sink marks popped out at me, following the lines of those underside hood braces! Argh! Sanded, filled with Bondo putty and tried again. Same result. It looked great under primer but the sink marks popped up under the gloss black paint. I was lucky enough to find an eBay seller dumping an ESCI R5 parts lot cheap that included a hood. This time, I think that air grille is going to stay closed...

Cheat! One of the slickest tricks to painting camouflage is masking with a low-tack clay like DAP Blue-Stik or something similar. I like a product sold at Hobby Lobby and Michael's called "Simply Tacky." Here's a tutorial on it from the web site of master military modeler Mig Jimenez. This builder uses good old Silly Putty, which is cheap and sold at every Dollar Store around here. And thanks to Agent G for posting that Border Pz. IV. I'd never even heard of that kit. https://www.migjimenez.com/en/module/csblog/detailpost/10-6-how-to-paint-a-nato-truck.html

Thanks for clearing that up. Lots of countries have similar laws, nothing to do with being PC, as you said. When I worked in Saudi Arabia, I went in a toy store where the owner had taken a black marker and edited out the Balkenkreuz on the box of every Airfix German WWII aircraft. Public display of the Christian cross was illegal there. Other toy and hobby stores didn't do that, so maybe that owner just wanted to make sure he didn't get on the wrong side of the Religious Police. We should be glad we're not building models in Hungary. That country bans the swastika, the hammer-and-sickle, the red Soviet star, and any symbols that call to mind the Fascist Arrow-Cross government during WWII. Probably along with some other banned stuff that I forgot.

A convertible up-top. The kit comes with a hardtop and a convertible top boot, so it can be built as a hardtop or a convertible with the top down. Here's a picture of it:

Received some parts from Missing Link today bought thru eBay. Thought I would put up a quick review. I got the following: --up-top for the AMT '59 Imperial --base hood for 67-69 AMT/MPC Firebird (no scoops) --corrected dashboard for the '68-69 Road Runner or GTX. It includes different instrument panel decals, with or without the optional tach and clock. All the parts look great, with no visible flash or other junk. The Imperial up-top is VERY thin, no sanding at all should be needed. Looks like a drop-fit on the kit. Only the 2 holes for the hardtop/top boot will need to be filled to use it. The hood also looked like a perfect fit on the AMT/MPC '69 Firebird, with a quick test. I've seen questions about Missing Link on the board from time to time. Here's a link to his eBay page, showing all his current stuff for sale. https://www.ebay.com/usr/member3664890?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

Interesting about the '60 Chevy pickup, thanks. In 2 different Hobby Lobbys, I've noticed they still have a space, with inventory sticker, for the Revell "California Wheels" '68 VW Beetle. I thought that kit was out of production. Wouldn't mind having one, for the stock engine and other useful dune-buggy parts. One HL had a single VW kit still on the shelves a few months ago. That HL is a longer drive for me, and I thought if one store had it, then the HL near me would too. Nope. Just the bare shelf and sticker in that store. And when I went back to the other HL, of course, their single VW kit was gone. That'll teach me...

Must be. Also the same camera as the "Drag Strip Accessories" in the Prestige Series '63 Corvette convertible. That set included the TV camera, drag strip lights, loudspeakers, flags and the big fire extinguisher. I think those were in a separate Parts Pack sold back in the early '60s. Then they disappeared for over 20 years, and popped up in that Prestige 'Vette in 1987. Thanks for mentioning the AMT T339 Accelerator Corvette. I didn't know about that one.

Just won this on eBay a few minutes ago. Saw it with 3 minutes left in the auction. Nobody else had bid, got it for $10 + shipping. Average price seems to be about $25, so I'm happy. According to the box, these are modular, so several can be joined together to make a bigger display base. In another thread, somebody was asking about making asphalt surfaces for displaying models. So this might be one way to cheat a little on doing that.

Same here, as I posted elsewhere. And I'm 3000 miles away from you, in a very small town. For several weeks now, my local HL has been fully stocked with Greased Lightning kits. Stopped in yesterday and I don't think any have even sold yet, the shelf space for them looked full. No'68 Chevelles or '69 Mustangs, though. And no '60 Chevy pick-ups with Go-Karts, the one I'm really looking for.

Airfix did a 1905 Rolls-Royce phaeton that could probably be cut down into a racer. And a longer shot, a 1911 Rolls town car. Also a 1911 Vauxhall "Prince Henry," which was pretty much a race car from the factory, I think. If you want to stretch to between the wars, Airfix also made a 1923 Morris Cowley "bull-nose" phaeton; 1926 Morris Cowley roadster (also released by MPC as "Piping Hot," with goofy hot-rod parts); 1930 Bentley 4.5 Litre; 1933 Alfa-Romeo, and probably some others I forgot.

Here's the user guide for your Nut Maker (stolen from Hobby Link Japan). You're right, it's pretty much a "draw plate" - you heat up plastic rod and push it thru the right hole to get the right size of nut. Some 1/35 scale armor kits include a metal template for doing this. I'm lazy, so I just bought a bunch of nut/bolt sets from MENG.

Here's an old (2007) thread from The Other Magazine site with some great ideas for asphalt/tar surfaces. One idea is to use fine sandpaper for the basic surface. Example in the pic below. Bill Lanfear above mentioned "pink insulation foam boards." I just recently bought some of that stuff. The trade name is "Foamular." That's what you want to look for in Lowe's or Home Depot. If you don't have a pickup truck, you might want to take a utility knife and steel ruler to the store. Foamular comes in 4x8 foot sheets and the store employees are not allowed to cut it down for you. I did that myself, in the parking lot. It also comes in different thicknesses. 1/2 inch is the thinnest, but that works out great for scale model work. http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/modeling_subjects/f/39/t/55704.aspx

Here's another version from 1983, clearly labeled "1/25" but also clearly aimed at the European market. It builds a replica of a real German ambulance. This is one of my favorite VW bus/vans. The kit includes storage cabinets for the interior, a gurney/stretcher and a wheelchair!

"Items in 1:6 scale (also known as "Playscale" or "Fashion Doll" scale) are sized to fit with common fashion dolls such as Barbie or collectible action figures, principally military action figures. In this scale, 1 inch is equivalent to 6 inches in full size." https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/dolls-house-and-miniatures-scale-2365457

Thanks for another great review from the Dark Ages of car modeling. Unlike our White House at Thanksgiving, I'm glad you never spare any turkeys. This kit is an example, I guess, of MPC's "neither fish nor fowl" policy at this time. Yes, some police agencies did sponsor full-on racing cars, like the famous LAPD Pro Stock Camaro. This thing is not one of those. And there was a real Nova police package offered from 1974-79, the 9C1. It's not one of those either; for one thing, the 9C1 had a bench seat. It's a shame MPC didn't include the parts for a real 9C1. They were running all over Los Angeles in the mid-70s; the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. helped Chevy develop the Nova police package in 1974. But even the LACSD gave up on Novas after a few years, and switched to the bigger and more comfortable Chevy Malibu 9C1 package. Here's a video of Jay Leno and a retired deputy sheriff who owns a real '78 Nova 9C1. http://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/10944/ride-along-with-jay-leno-in-an-la-county-sheriffs-office-1978-chevy-nova-9c1

Haunting Hobby Lobby, impatiently waiting for the '60 Chevy pickup (like everybody else). No luck again today. But I noticed the Round 2 '69 Olds 4-4-2 was priced at $26.99, instead of $29.99 like almost every other HL kit. With the 40% off coupon, $16.19. So I picked up one of those. I have a much older release of it, but I know that chassis is great to update some older AMT kits. This HL did have several Revell "Greased Lightning" '48 Fords. So if there's a shortage of that kit, it must be local in certain areas. FWIW, my closest HL is in a small town of about 8,000 people.

Shouldn't that be 1/8 scale, for the Monogram Big T? If it is 1/6 scale, any of the Dragon "Battle Barbie" figures might work. (Collectors hate the name "Battle Barbies.") There's even a 1/6 scale figure of Ryan Gosling from the movie "Drive." But he's standing up and not driving. Just search on "Dragon 1/6 scale figure" and you should find a bunch. If the kit is 1/8 scale, you might have to get creative. Link below to an article about re-working action figures as drivers in large-scale RC vehicles. I'd guess fiber-optics would work for your lights, same as they do in sci-fi kits etc. http://rctruckstop.com/2012/09/25/go-figure-get-the-right-driver-for-your-scale-crawler/

Here's a collection of photos from the Santa Monica road races, 1911-1914. Might give you some ideas... https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/21198/zz002d57jz/

These are much better than pipe-cleaners IMO, smaller and no metal. G-U-M Soft-Picks, available at Wal-Mart, CVS etc. etc.

All those neat 1/32 accessories also came in a series of ARII kits called "Memorial Showa Saijiki." I just did an eBay search and quite a few came up. They were 1/32 diorama kits of life in Japan: a milkman, postman delivering mail, carpenter, food stands, etc. (YODEL did the same kind of Japanese-life diorama kits in 1/24 scale). One of the neatest ARII dioramas is kit #55113, "Quick Bath - A Washtub." It shows a woman in her back yard, in a bathtub. She's drafted her younger siblings (or her kids) to bring her hot water. Look closely and you'll see a Peeping Tom behind the fence!

Car stuck in the driveway because of the snow? Here's one way to pass the time while you wait for the thaw! Texas artist Scott Wade does this amazing Grime Art.

I know a local couple who are eBay general sellers. But a while ago, they lucked into a double garage absolutely stuffed with model car kits and accessories. Their haul included some very rare Modelhaus kits, and the sellers did their research to find out what they're worth. I hate it when that happens... A few items they listed seemed high, like some new kits available at Hobby Lobby etc. I emailed them about that. They responded by saying every one of their eBay listings has the "Make Offer" option, and they're always willing to deal. Fair enough, hard to argue with that. I went over to their house and they gave me a package deal on some kits. And a big plastic tub full of accessories, including SATCO tires, aftermarket decal sheets, and other useful stuff.

I lived in Egypt for nearly 4 years (2005-09), and only one American company had an assembly plant there: Jeep. The plant was in Cairo, and rumor said it had formerly been used to assemble Russian SA-2 SAM missiles. Because Jeeps were assembled in Egypt, it was the only American car that could be bought in that country without sky-high import taxes. Since 1960 Egypt has had a state-owned car company, El Nasr Automotive Manufacturing Company. The government is VERY protective of that company. El Nasr mostly built licensed versions of various Fiats thru the years. In the early 2000s it started producing license-built Zastavas...descendants of the infamous Yugo. Egypt also had plenty of vintage American iron still running around its roads, and they're not showboats. Most of them work for a living:

Certainly possible. Japanese companies have included self-adhesive metal transfers in kits for years. This Hasegawa Mazda Cosmo was first released in 1994 (according to the decal sheet). In the pic below, the M-A-Z-D-A letters across the rear end are 5 (tiny!) metal transfers. Hasegawa also provided the even smaller trunk lock, a "Cosmo" badge for the nose and the Mazda emblem for the hood. I'm working on that kit right now and put the metal transfers on yesterday. They are self-adhesive but I don't trust that adhesive. I put a very small drop of Tamiya Clear paint under and over each transfer to lock them down. (Pic is stolen from the internet and not my build.)

That is the key, knowing when to stop. Tomm's Plymouth looks great, especially the bottoms of the fenders. One thing did catch my eye: in the close-up photo of the engine compartment, the driver side of the cowl looks like it still has a few large grains of salt (?) on it. You could either knock those off, or paint them brown and call 'em mud clods. This build is useful for me to steal from right now. I'm just about finished (I hope!) weathering a car that raced at the Nurburgring. Struggling with "when to stop" on that one. Based on old photos, the rocker panels and bottom of the body should have blackish asphalt schmutz all over. But the 'Ring also has grass and dirt areas the cars ran into, leaving mud and grass clumps in the wheel wells. And the paint often got heavily chipped, especially the front ends . Also adding a little dust and dirt to the interior. Having to often restrain myself...