Ace-Garageguy

What are you doing?

Thanks. I got the little car as a semi-gluebomb a few years back. The paint was decent, looked like an el-cheapo job on a period hot rod, so I did a quickie rebuild with a chopped windshield, dropped suspension, zeed frame, a quick-change rear end, new interior, etc., but left the paint as-was. The wheels are from another Ala Kart I got in as a GB too. This '29 is still waiting for an engine....and to get some things cleaned up...like the sprue attachment points on the wheels. It's a pretty good illustration of one of the possible looks you can get from this kit.

Great race, especially the GTLM Corvettes lead-swapping on the last lap. Watched about as much of the race as I would have if I'd been there...from a much better vantage point. I love the internet. I would have loved to see the new Ford GT on the podium, or at least finish, but the original GT 40 had its share of teething problems in the beginning too.

It seems like an interesting idea, at least. Real-car body shops have similar, in concept, mixing systems that allow the shop to closely duplicate factory colors by formula, by weight of pigment / mixing base. The problem, as I see it, is similar to what we experience in the real world. Some mixing bases rarely get used, but you had to pay for them. They sit on the shelf forever and sometimes go bad or dry out. Unless you're expecting to do a LOT of model-car painting, I'd think a more cost effective approach would be to buy your matched paint product, as you need it for a particular model, from one of the small suppliers who specialize in providing factory-matched and custom-mixed paints for the hobby.

PEOPLE NEED TO USE RESPIRATORS, even when spraying outside. I wouldn't be giving out advice on a particular chemical's toxicity based on smell, if I were you. The chemical weapon "mustard gas" can be odorless. QNB (Iraqi agent 15) is odorless. Lewisite smells like geraniums. Phosgene in low concentrations smells like new-cut corn. Sarin is odorless. VX is odorless. CS and DM are odorless.

I quit even listening to anyone's predictions years ago after hearing a well-respected petroleum-market-analyst, in a media interview, say "the market price per-barrel is poised to go up, go down, or stay the same". Geez. And they actually get PAID to come up with that stuff.

You're a well-organized modeler, Jim. I'm envious. I particularly like the way you have your styrene stock set up. I've got to do something, and your idea looks like a winner.

I dunno. Look around, and you'll mostly see commodity price rises reflected in consumer products, but these days, a commodity price reduction rarely makes it to the consumer. It simply means more profit, and nobody is giving up profit.

Great looking rust. Very realistic. Makes me want to put a tarp over it so it doesn't get any worse.

Cool project. That promo is remarkably warp-free for its age. Other than the little chunk out of the door, it looks perfect; is it acetate? In the pictures, it looks more like a phenolic. If it IS phenolic, be aware that a lot of it contained asbestos fibers as filler prior to the mid-1980s, so be sure to wear a respirator if you're doing any grinding or sanding on it. Looking forward to watching this one. That old resin body is a blobular mess; it looks like you'll have a much better starting point now.

Neat little car. I've been enjoying watching it come together. Paint looks great, too.

Great news. Thanks. I've got a couple of the Smer / Merit kits, and one of the Heller "Record 1950" kits, but I've been wanting one of the Heller 4L5 kits for a while.

Don't forget the indoor ski resort... In the freakin' desert... And they're gonna build another one, 1.2 kilometers long...

I've been going through styrene sheet pretty rapidly lately while developing some original designs (poor man's CAD 3D modeling is actually...wait for it... 3D modeling) and yesterday I started using manila-folder stock to do some mockups. Though that was NOT the thrust of the OP, it works quite nicely and saves a LOT of styrene, because I can get quite close to my net shapes before I actually cut plastic (using the card-stock parts as templates).

I read...and comprehend English... pretty well, actually, and exactly what you said, and exactly what I responded to, is highlighted in red above. The words "could give" have an entirely different meaning than "are there for making". Eh wot? While there may not be any solids in custom lacquer that "are there for making a factory-planned texture" (the context here is a reference to additives in paint intended specifically to impart a texture), there most certainly ARE solids in custom lacquer that "could give" a factory-planned texture...and dry spray orange-peel is nothing more than solids that have failed to self-level because the liquid solvent carrier evaporated before they had a chance to do so. Wot wot?

This is the original issue of the kit under discussion. Besides everything said above, it lets you build a traditional full-fendered hot-rod, with some work, which is off course impossible with the recent Revell kit. I was kinda hoping Round2 would jump on the renewed interest in '29 Fords due to Revell's new kit, and do something like the impending, semi-restored release.

You can trust Steve Guthmiller's advice. He consistently turns out knockout builds like the one above. The proof, as they say, is in the finished product...

Looks good. The Porsche 911 Speedster fairing behind the seats works well with the overall design. Just a thought...we're encouraged to put completed builds in the "Under Glass" heading, rather than here in "General". If your post disappears, that's where it will have gone.

Well, actually, there are. All paints are made up of finely-ground solids suspended in a liquid binder-carrier. Even clear. Observe... http://us.ppgrefinish.com/getmedia/E0A138DC-DC72-42C5-B523-6B9F1F9277E5/04/ob02_mc161-high_solids_urethane_clear-9-12.pdf

Interesting. I've been planning a replica of Ak Miller's "Caballo de Hierro" for a long time, have most of the bits assembled, and the scratch-built parts should be pretty easy, due to the simplicity of the actual car. In both '53 and '54, the car finished quite well in the Panamericana, and there are plenty of reference photos of it available online. It's a real hot-rod, built from junkyard parts to race against the big guys. Paddy Hopkirk's Monte Carlo Rally-winning Mini of 1964 is another one I've had plans for, and have all the parts. Bobby Unser's 1960 Pikes Peak winner, a Pontiac powered sprint car, is already on the "to build" shelf too. All the reference pix, most of the parts on hand. Hmmm..decisions, decisions... Now, if the deadline is only about 20 years out, I might finish one. Steve McQueen finished second at Sebring in 1970, co-driving a Porsche 908/2. McQueen had one leg in a cast during the event. Pretty impressive. What makes it important to me though, is that I was there. I only have a very few parts for this one, so there's absolutely NO possibility of it getting done...

Just that is pretty exciting. I'll definitely be looking forward to this one, and whatever is in the box, that's fine by me.

The more recent "new" Ala Kart is a great source of bits for kit-bashing, like wheels / tires, the frame and suspension, body, interior, and especially the "dropped-and-filled" front I-beam axle, which really can't be found anywhere else I know right off hand. And between the expensive original and the "new" one, it's possible to build an Ala Kart replica that's better by far than either OOB kit builds. I've paid serious money to get my grubbly hands on original, un-molested Ala Karts (purely a nostalgia thing, in my case) and I'd for sure buy some restored versions with the original grille-shell, bed, etc. I've been hesitant to cut up an original, but I'd really like to bash a good one from both kits...and a re-issued kit with the grille shell, bed, etc, would make it possible without hacking up an irreplaceable original.

Yes yes yes.

I was looking for a 1/24-1/25 WW II or Vietnam era 6X6 and came across this seller offering some very interesting subjects in 1/25 scale (and others too). http://stores.ebay.com/PAPIERMODELLE?_trksid=p2047675.l2563

Ohhh...love it.