Zoom Zoom

As mentioned before, that website is very old news and not much of anything is happening with Johan. The owner shows up at shows selling off the same kits/parts that he has for years (and I've thankfully been able to snag some pieces and decals that I needed), yet most of the promises have been unmet. He's had many challenges to say the least, and I hate to say it but unless he gets a huge financial backer or wins the lottery, what you see from Johan today is likely all you'll ever get. Most of the tooling is either gone or useless. I wish Okey well, but honestly I'm not going to hold my breath that we'll ever see Johan "really" back at all.

I thought it was "sneaux" in Canada, eh? My first comment on the picture was "an ice box". The white ones sure look like it

Sounds good to me, if it can be properly proportioned. The Hasegawa base may not measure properly for The Thing. I don't care if the ball joints are mounted ahead or behind the muffler bearings :wink: but I do care if the model looks right or not. BTW, I'm surprised Jadadiecastfan hasn't peppered the board with pictures of The Thing that they're doing. Perhaps you should see that before venturing into a major conversion...

They'll be out soon; Model Roundup had theirs on Friday, I'll get a couple from them next week.

Thanks for the review and pics of the parts! I need to get one of these soon, one of my favorite new concepts in a long time.

I've used Testors dullcote over Tamiya acrylic flats on interiors w/o problems, I don't drown the surface though, it works in very light coats. As for mixing, Tamiya works best with their own thinner (other thinners will work), and I tend to use much less Tamiya thinner to thin acrylics vs. lacquers or enamels. Probably no more than 30% thinner. Best to mix it up and test it to see what works best for your setup.

Actually I've seen and held the kit; a friend of Guido's locally got one to send to a magazine for review. Nice kit. There were a few SK models I wanted but didn't get, but glad I did get the Phantom Corsair, the Alfa 2900 LeMans, and the BMW 3.0 CS transkit. He never did finish his Mangusta which I would have had to have. You win some, you lose some :roll: :wink:

Who ever knows? There's at least one person I know of who has bought some of the best masters from people/companies no longer casting, but not a single one of them has even been hinted at being available again. Basically if there's something in resin out there that you want, it behooves you to buy it when available and don't wait. The company can go bust, and there's no guarantee you'll ever see it again.

They're OOB. I did hear someone bought the masters/molds, but have not heard anything beyond that.

Welcome 8) Great VW! I like how you've done all the small details, including safari windows.

Yikes, this one's coming up fast, I wanted to build for it, haven't really started, and only a week left. Dunno if I can pull it off, but I have one victim in the form of a '57 Buick Roadmaster that might work :wink:

This may be my favorite Lyle Willits model of all time. Love it 8)

That's what I use if possible for prepainted plastic models, but for diecast w/o any plastic the heavy-duty stuff is incredible. And I like to wear gloves even w/the strong alcohol. The alcohol is also flammable. I have a stripping tub of 99% alcohol that I bought in a gallon jug from the grocery store. I found my pics of the Auto Strip process in my Fotki: This is what a diecast body looked like after a few minutes with Auto Strip: This is what it looked like 20 mins. after I started: Has anyone tried dunking a diecast in the alcohol bath? Does it really take that paint off as nicely as a prepainted plastic kit sheds it's paint?? I always assumed the diecast models were painted in a much stronger paint. Maybe this will be a good experiment from my graveyard of $6 Maisto models who sacrificed wheels/tires and LHD dashboards for their plastic brethren :wink:

This is looking most excellent! One of my favorite cars of all-time, a killer Tamiya kit, and someone building it to a really high standard Can't wait to see the progress and finish!

I just emailed her a link to this thread

Thanks! Great to meet you too, we had a great time all weekend. Can't wait for next year!

Seems I missed this thread earlier. I've done both a scratchbuilt pillar and I've sectioned in a replacement from another model. Key is to attach it with the most material possible by giving yourself the largest gluing surface possible, so it's a strong repair that won't break again while assembling or polishing. The pics should give you enough to go by This one was "easy", as the reissue '70 Impala kit that gave up it's pillars was from the same tooling as this '69 Impala promo: This one was bad, very brittle from sun damage. Needed a scratchbuilt pillar and the drip rails replaced. The definition of satisfaction:

Too bad I wasn't wearing a MCM T-shirt for that pose :wink:

I got one! It's a great looking shirt. Black w/white Model Cars logo on the front, in back a white printed Model Cars Magazine name and a beautiful front 3/4 view of a '32 3 window coupe. You might spy Gregg or Jairus wearing one in one of the many NNL pics on show day.

Thanks for the pics Steve! It was great meeting you, and thanks for bringing and presenting the "NNL Best of the West" award as well. We really enjoy putting on the show and having a great time meeting up with all of our modeling friends from all over. The models are the icing on the cake 8) Hope to make it to the NNL west before long!

I used a can of "Auto Strip" aircraft paint remover that I bought at Wallyworld, and it was amazing how fast it worked. It's really caustic/dangerous stuff-use utmost care and caution to do the job (stripping gloves, eye protection, old clothes, old toothbrush to scrub, work outdoors), but it works in seconds-the paint immediately starts to lift/bubble up before your eyes. I had a diecast model stripped clean and ready to repaint in the period of 20 minutes, which included cleaning up the rubbermaid container I stripped the body in. Make sure there is nothing but the diecast body present; plastic parts won't survive!

Thanks Matt for all the great pics! We had a blast at the NNL itself and also both Friday and Saturday nights in the hospitality room (Gregg's going to post some seriously funny, sometimes disturbing pics soon :shock: ) and from our lunchtime field trip on Friday. We had 611 models entered and 657 on display, and Randy Derr won Best in Show and Best Pony Car w/his USAC Foyt Camaro that is in the most recent issue of Model Cars Magazine.

Hope you do make it next year! Randy Derr cleaned up yesterday w/his Foyt Camaro; best pony car and best in show 8)

Nice rack! We missed you today at the show :cry:

Home Depot/Lowes carry some really nice metal cases w/foam inners, you cut out the foam blocks and insert your models. Great for carry-on luggage, that's how three of us took our models to the NNL East via Air Tran. No damage at all, no problems w/security. Didn't even have to open any of the cases. We looked sort of like the model geek version of the Blues Brothers. All wearing identical ACME shirts and carrying identical cases 8) We'll have a "Model RX" table at the show for folks who need a place to sit down and repair a model. We'll have simple tools and glues so if you can't bring or forgot your own emergency supply, you should be able to get it presentable.