Zoom Zoom

This morning at about 1:40am I painted (another) IROC Porsche in Panther Pink enamel (decanted). Airbrushed a number of coats, got color up, one last wet coat straight from the can. Done by the start of the F1 race @ 2 am. Into the dehydrator. Took it out of the dehydrator at 10am, wetsanded w/3600, polished w/ a bit of Tamiya mixed w/Novus #2, followed by just Novus, painted black window trim, done by noon, ready to hand off to the other builders. What's all this nonsense about waiting days/weeks/months for paint to dry

Got the Wix filters Cobra 427 on Saturday. It's embarrassingly better than any other 1/24 Cobra out there that I've ever seen. It was $25, detail level/quality is what's normally expected on Danbury/Franklin Mint. To get a Monogram/Revell Cobra 427 to look as good, with as much detail...whew. You keep looking at it, and find more detail. It's sickening Doors/hood/trunk all fit very tight. No wonder plastic is dying off. If they keep making models this good for 25 bucks...sheesh.

Looks like a winning combo. Whenever I hear or see "348" I cynically think "blah", but from seeing a few 1:1's with nice wheel upgrades, it transforms them. Stock 348 wheels are a little too "Pontiac"...not that there's anything wrong with that but it is a Ferrari, not a Fiero There's a yellow 348 Spyder running around the ATL with 360 Modena wheels. The car looks amazing with that combo.

I keep things as simple as possible, the majority of my models have the wheels glued into place. It's rare that a model's stance is correct out of the box, so I correct that by attaching brakes to wheels as a sub-assembly, then fitting them to the suspension with the body held in place at the correct ride height. I'm not paranoid if the wheel center isn't the centerline of where the kit mfg. intended. I rarely look at or scrutinize my suspensions; they're merely a vehicle to hold my models off the table. The majority of my models are curbside. Personally if I take too long on a model I often lose interest. As they say, everyone builds to their own level of satisfaction. I think it's great you make the wheels roll in a fairly prototypical way, if that's what makes you happy. Especially if the model doesn't roll on it's own off a desk or display. Working handbrakes might help that

Mark, thanks for the reply (and the phone call ). That pretty much sums up what the problems are. I certainly hope this gets properly dealt with inside of IPMS. As an IPMS member, they owe the membership a complete accounting of why this nonsense is going on. And I thought the Atlanta Nat's were all kind of screwed up...

I found out this past weekend just how ticked off the winner of best automotive really is. I can only imagine what kind of dictatorship was in charge of the judging regime at the nat's.

Bill, if you like the wheels bright, but not that bright, I might suggest a coat of Acryl semigloss clear. They then look like polished/clearcoated aluminum wheels, not chrome plated. The scale appearance is great, and better than Alclad II. Brush some on a chrome sprue to see the effect; I'm perfectly happy brushing it on as it is self-leveling. Airbrushing should also work.

If you can borrow a thermometer that goes to the right temperature you should see what it gets up to with the vents fully open top and bottom. You may need to have more ventilation if the temp goes higher than 110 degrees. My dehydrator is a Ronco knockoff that doesn't go over 110 and I've only had problems w/a couple of resin bodies that were not mounted properly and the tension caused warp. If you can't get a thermometer, you better practice w/some scrap bodies first to make sure they don't warp. Drill more holes if necessary to open it up a bit. Try looking for a thermometer at the hardware store, you may find one that reads higher than room temperature but lower than most ovens. I use spray can caps to hold bodies, narrow Testors or Tamiya caps, and taped together 2-tall, sometimes a pair if the body is longer, so the body doesn't touch the rack. Smaller parts on toothpicks I'll put in a piece of styrofoam or in an upturned cap.

That's a whole 'nother subject, the diecast ripoffs of kits. I saw a '70 Torino diecast the other day, from one of the "bargain" mints; has the same body error as the Revell/Pro Modeler. There is no shame when it comes to Chinese knock offs of other people's work. The old AAR roof was kind of chopped and/or long on that old AAR. But the rest didn't seem so grievous as this one. Now it's not just the roof, but the body, and the decals, a domino-effect of human error gone awry. I would love to have been a fly on the wall during design stage through test shots. Did they really design it that poorly, or perhaps the tooling shop took too many liberties? And by then was the budget busted? Did someone say "oh, they'll never notice it"? Was it wrong all along, and nobody at Revell noticed it? I would imagine we will never be privy to that data. I have 1/25 resin 'Cudas, so I'd definitely pass on a resin correction for this particular model. To truly correct it the body would need work, along with the interior bucket and/or side panels, and then decals. And then it would still be a 1/24 scale model. Honestly if I'm going w/resin I'd go with what's already out there for the '70's. MPC's kit certainly looked right. I think the biggest goof was Revell revisiting the '70 AAR in the first place. Had they backdated their '71 Hemi Cuda into a '70, it likely wouldn't have been as misshapen, as it already had the basic proportions correct, even if it's '71 grille/headlights were a bit strange. The AAR's grille/headlights aren't as good as MPC's efforts from nearly 40 years ago. Someone wants an AAR convertible? Get the '71 convertible Hemi and do a front clip swap. You'll never get the AAR body looking right aft of the center of the door without a lot of unnecessary work.

Might be better to do a front clip replacement, as the '71 Hemi body is a lot better though not perfect (always had a thick/heavy look to it, as if the splash pan areas front/rear were too thick). I can't find any way to get motivated by this turkey after seeing the pictures. It's a complete disaster in my eyes. The beltline crease from the center of the door aft is all wrong, almost comically so. The roof is slightly short, the C pillar is too narrow. Wheel openings misshapen. The more I look, the more I realize the earlier version was better than this one. The decals hurt my eyes, they draw my eyes to the incredibly misshapen rear fender. Welcome to the new Revell AARggggghhh Cuda

It's a real model I think.

To add insult to injury, the AAR decals help magnify the problem by about 10,000%. Good gawd Revell...seriously. Glad I have the Perry's resin '70 Hemi, and a couple of the reissue snap kit '74's. Just sad really, the '70 Cuda shape is so clean, so right (copying the late '60's Camaro worked wonders for Mopar ), this just hurts to look at

While not as good as getting some of the originals, I fondly remember the days that Johan reissues and sho cases were in plentiful supply at Wal Mart for the grand sum of $2.88 each. And visiting Johan on a side trip from Toledo, and picking up a bunch of their promos from Marjorie, the lady at the front desk who answered the phones.

If you get the picture up you should be able to right click on it and then copy the URL under "properties".

Not only that, but there's really no easy how-to for people who want to use the MCM gallery to host their photos and link to them. I thought that was also a pinned subject, but I couldn't find it either.

Nice work! Neat looking copter. I recently finished a Tamiya 1/48 Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, but can't show it publicly for awhile And now I'm starting a Porsche. Tank.

Nice lookin' land yacht!

Click on a picture in your Fotki. If it's a premium (paid) account, you click the button below the photo that says "share photo". Then you highlight & copy the URL under the "Image URL for use on other sites:" line. Paste that with the link here, and it should show up. If you have a free account, you can't link photos. You can link to the page with photos, but the photos won't show up here.

Honestly, if you've got a disposable 35mm camera model pictures aren't going to be terribly good. Cheap digital cameras, such as camera phones and webcams are also pretty bad. Lousy pictures (fuzzy, out of focus, poor lighting) of models don't get much of any interest on forums. You'll have to take the film to be processed, get them to put the photos on a CD, or scan the photos, then upload them to a photo host where you then use the photo URL (the address) to link to photos. I think you can use the host provided here, but I don't know how, as I use another one (Fotki). Gregg can tell you how to upload your photos here. A decent digital camera with a decent lens w/Macro is the best way to share photos. If you go to the trouble I mentioned above and your pictures aren't clear, you won't be doing yourself or viewers much good. Model pictures need to be sharp and in focus, single use 35mm cameras are for taking people or scenery shots, not closeups of models. You may try to borrow a digital camera to try out beforehand, it will be a lot less hassle than using a 35mm camera, but even then there's a learning curve.

I'll let you do that , I like the SRT-8 front end, nice change of pace after years of wedgies, and the Revell fascia is a bit "rounded off" on the top edge vs. stock so it's already a mild custom. I hated the 300C's in pictures, but when I saw them in person my mind was changed. I like cars that are controversially styled, ones that people either love or loathe with not much in between. I cut diagonally from just inside the windshield down to the wheel opening, keeping the cowl with the donor front end. The Magnum body needed to widen itself to the 300 clip, so w/o the cowl it was easy. I had to taper the 300 windshield edges a bit to fit the narrower Magnum roof. The Magnum windshield was too narrow.

The wagon idea is cool; I started this one:

My Aardvark Firebird III arrived yesterday Too bad I can't build it for awhile

I guess there's real truth to the popular notion that IPMS stands for "I Prefer Military Stuff" (substitute your choice of "s" word that you feel is most appropriate)

You nailed the design, it doesn't need any change IMHO. If you were to change the taillight panel, will you end up with something better, or just something different? I like the Ferrari taillights doing the job of later 'Cuda taillights. You can always photoshop ideas before memorializing in plastic. Fix what you can fix and do the best job you can on perfecting any of the flaws that bug you the most. Because this model may represent your heart and soul more than most, only you can decide how far you want to take it. Or leave it! A few years ago I took one of my customs that was pretty well known (it won the very first "If I Had Designed It" award at the GSL in '97) and changed the color scheme and wheels, and did a much better job of it in fit/finish and stance. In the end I'm much more satisfied w/my updated model vs. the original. And I may change the wheels again someday to keep it fresh.

They still sell the same foil adhesive at hobby shops that carry the Microscale line. Good stuff!