jmpsebring

I removed around a 1/2" from the waist of the upper body. Plus I took the front hood of a Mercedes CLK-GTR, shortened the nose and countersunk the hood's grill opening into the bluebird body. Once it was all filled and ground down, the stock grill fit perfectly. If you know the CLK car, you know it had a blue body painted to match the parts boxes. The box is "peeled back" exposing the engine. So the decals and various parts can all be real Mercedes parts on the car.

I had some perforated brass channel I was going to use as the main frame rails. They just didn't look beefy enough for the job. So I look around and found the main rails of the 1/12th lindberg Fiat model. Turn the frame around backwards and it just fell in place. I replaced the bulky crossmembers by drilling out the frame and guessed on a width. Nothing is glued so I will continue to finalize a design. Lots of time has been spent removing the panel lines and the floor's imperfections. I am using two V8 diesels out of the Italeri Mercedes Actros truck. Stock they are almost 16000 cc, 500hp, and 1700 pounds of torque. They have been glued together to make a 16cly 32 litre engine. Push the engine with giant intercooled twin turbos and that should be enough to move a huge AWD car. I am showing a couple of 1/12th bike wheels right now. They look cool, but to me they look like bike wheels. I'm sure I can find "someone" out there to help me with that.

I want to go more this direction with the design. The Mobil Railton special. Another famous beast from the past.

The real car was a monster! I will try and update the look by removing some thickness and changing the nose.

Been awhile since I posted anything. That means I've started a half dozen more projects. My 1/16th Promod duster is sitting untouched in it's case...not getting dirty but not any progress either. I was also looking for parts for a custom car hauler truck and that took me to the Italeri modern cabovers. That led to a bunch of hi-quality after market truck parts. That took me to some race euro race trucks. That led to a bunch of truck models. Of course that lead to trailers and that's when I decided to make a huge 30' long LSR turbo diesel, factory-backed Mercedes salt flats effort. A couple years ago I was cruising ebay and found someone from down-under selling two vintage 1/24th Bluebird CN7 plastic toy models. Paid about $150 for the two items. Someday I would build my own LSR. So inspired by a big Mercedes cabover, a large aftermarket crane and a lowboy trailer, I needed something worthy of display. I thrive on creating my own cars. Hope nobody cares if its in this thread. But "If it goes in a straight line post it here"...just seemed to fit. Plus so many here inspired me.

Thanks Dave, I have been swamped at work and have had zero time building anything right now. The tubs I got were a little out of their correct shape. Not quite tucked in at the free ends. Or maybe the outside radius was larger than the inside radius because the ends were spread out. Once I forced them into postion by the frame work, they were wonderful and I was really happy I purchased the parts. Having a pair of tubs exactly the same size and thickness, with that wide-radius corner edge was a huge timesaver. If I built another frame I would use them again for sure! One of my fave parts on the frame. If one wants to have a set finished off the car, one might have a problem. So far everything I recieved from Shapways has been really good! Sometimes the bags are wet and smelly from the fluid, but after soaking in Bleachwhite then washing and drying, I have been thrilled with the parts. My biggest problem has been the desire for more!! Guys, sometimes work gets in the way of fun. I'll be back soon, but teaching new systems for the first time requires hours of prepping. Most of my time has been spent studying.

I'm not that talented!! But I'm still surprised the rod aftermarket never embraced the hi-tech scene. I'm enjoying the larger scales, but the cost of 1/8th is over the top for me.

That 999 price is from someone who always asks top dollar... or more... for everything. He counts on the impulse buyer. He does in fact carry the holy grail of rare kits. That's fair of course. He's not hiding the price and you don't have to buy it. He also pays big money for some of the rarest. A few have had incredible WIP projects with this kit and have created a big demand for the model. I think I waited too long. Plus now that MFH is making 1/12th kits, they will raise the bar so much higher, that some of these special kits will become less in demand. (IMHO) More importantly, This model is beautfully finished for sure!

Once you show someone a shot of the model's frame for example, it made sense why I was taking extreme closeup shots. Most got a kick out of it...it's their passion too. So they didn't really mind. One first asked if I was from the IRS! A couple really wanted a model of their car. I'm not that kind of builder. I work on whatever I want when the mood is right. Plus I have far more fun designing and solving a problem, than finishing any model throught my life. Of course it also shows how many variations on a theme there are.

Thanks, it worked like a charm.

Thanks for the reply, I've been posting photos no problems at all. I'm trying to post a direct link to an entire photobucket album, so I don't need to post 100 photos. Is that possible? Often I see links to p/b albums by others in addition to their photos being posted. I didn't see any expample of that by Greg.

http://s1161.photobucket.com/albums/q519/jmpvapb/promodcloseup/

How do I make a simple link to let others see an album here?

Fantastic project! On a different subject, I have always been amazed of the lack of hi tech street rod bodies and parts there have been considering the huge amount of rod builders I've seen at contest throughtout the decades. Do you think there is a market for a proper Boydster-like 32-34 style body? Not a simple 'ungainly' 32 ford...a stretched smoothed Foose design with all the correct minimalist panel lines. When I attended some NSRA or Goodguy events, it was those $$$ styles along with smoothed out '37 fords that turned heads and were the big draws to the shows. They all had Jag rear ends and twin A-arm front suspensions, No fuzzy dice, no giant superchargers, no mexican blankets or rat rods. Just pure simple elegant designed art-cars.

Wow! I slack off for a week and everyone is ten steps ahead.. Fantastic job!

That's a great looking model, any thread we can see it up close?

When people look at this they will want to build one too. Then they will get the kit, look at the parts.....and ...they will be confused...

Awesome detail. Since the drivers floor must be steel, I would think the floor and frame would be the same color and painted as one.... Again stunning detail!!

Thank You Richard ! I figured zoomie's were only feasable when you have a huge pump blowing air through the motor.

I might be wrong......I thought Dave Smith was making drawing/carbs/engines that some day we would prob see on the TDR site. Another delima is headers. I don't think a carb car would run Zoomie headers. I can make a nice set of Zoomie's by copying Chris's ideas. A great looking set of zoomies might be better than a fair set of spaghetti-type headers...all based on my inability to make them. happy Friday everyone.

Thanks for the links & info Richard & Bart. Ya get out of drags for a decade or two and things change! I've seen Promods a few times. But when you try and build one, you know what you need to answer questions. Plus this time I need to concentrate on pit setups, projacks, chutes, tables, throttles,trailers,etc.

Great idea on the plates ! I need to explore pro-extreme class

That's something I 'll look into. Thanks!! I only discovered the ADRL a few weeks ago. Just found out they have a major meet an hour from my home in June. Also found a 16car Promod race in two weeks at my "home" track , Maryland Int raceway(Bud's creek). It's about 10 minutes from my work. I'll try to find the ADRL rules , but is there anything obvious that would throw my car out of pro-extreme class? Or like don't run two batteries...or two Mags, transmission types etc. NOS and PSI blowers allowed???!!

It's hard to focus when your constantly pulled different directions by so many interesting builds. Not just all the high detail builds either. Sometimes it's just a car's stance, or decal sheet or paint idea, etc that makes one want to jump! I'm slowing down alot trying to decide on engines, lighting, paint schemes.........I want NOS bottles but we all know in the future we will have a great looking 5.30 engine/carbs to use. Maybe that means they will go in another car. I should 'settle' for a blown engine. I did start on the rear end and wheelie bars thanks to "others" paving the path.

All of this transends model building. I show the altered, dragster and now this to people at work and most love it. Some just don't have enough craft to understand any design/build process. Their loss!