Ace-Garageguy

There are many kits available in those scales, but nothing like what's available in 1/24-1/25. Pocher, Tamiya, Monogram, Revell, Lindberg, Entex...there are quite a few out there...many more than I've mentioned.

How's this? They're probably the best ALL-AROUND drivers, able to go seriously fast on any surface, under any conditions, in any car. The different skills and strengths involved in other forms of motorsport have been touched on, and a rally driver may or may not have what it takes to be Formula 1 world champion, but I also seriously doubt most F1 drivers could perform as well under horrible conditions as typical rally drivers have to.

I resurrect a lot of gluebomb bodged and buggered messes. I've been able to gently score the glue-lines on some old models with an X-acto or the tip of a razor saw...score almost all the way through and then "snap". It doesn't always work, and you have to be able to get to the glue joint. I have often been able to pop off cylinder heads and oil pans glued on engines by starting the edge of a chisel-tip X-acto between the parts and tapping smartly with a little hammer. It's also a good way to gouge a deep cut in your hand. Be careful and THINK. Some models are so heavily glued with tube goo that no amount of "freezing", tapping or chiseling will work. In that case, I've had to resort to grinding the back-side of the joints out with a Dremel.

Just spray it. You're NOT going to get a spray-quality finish without a lot of time consuming trial and error, plus even more sanding and polishing on the back end. Then you have re-coat issues with lacquer (lacquer softens itself and can make a gooey mess when brushed over) and enamel (enamel has a recoat-window, where you HAVE to recoat it withing a limited period of time, or let it dry for a LONG time). Just spray it.

That pretty much covers it but it really depends entirely on the actual speed of the vehicle. Though spoilers and wings on cars will make some small amount of downforce a low speeds, the effect should be close to negligible. The other theoretical effect of an "aero kit" (I say "theoretical" because most of them are jokes...just styling gimmicks that have never seen a wind tunnel, CFD, or even tuft-testing), to help limit air from getting under the car, should be pretty much negligible as well. BUT: I have, on occasion, seen Jackie Stewart drive a Lola Can-Am car, and he was entirely capable of getting the car in a controlled 4-wheel drift at big-boy racing speeds. There's no question that THAT car's aero enhancements were helping. Stick your hand out the car window and angle it down like a nose spoiler on a car. Observe the amount of force it creates at "drifting" speeds. Empirical evidence at its most basic. "Drifting" is one of those things that's been taken out of context and made into a caricature of the real thing, like wildly excessive camber. (WARNING: oversimplification follows !!) Drifting naturally occurs as a vehicle's tires are no longer able to maintain a zero (or close to it) slip-angle during high speed cornering, and real race cars don't want that to happen. It's a slower way to get through a turn. The whole point of a wing on a REAL race car is to increase downforce...TO KEEP THE TIRES FROM SLIDING, SLIPPING, OR SPINNING. This is entirely in opposition to the point of "drifting", isn't it?

Oh, by all means. Cool kits, definitely. You can still find all 3 unbuilt, but the Ala Kart/'29 Ford and the '30 Monogram (in original issues) are getting pretty expensive. The AMT '29 was issued several times on its own, and the Monogram A was also issued as a build-it-only-one-way too. Prices for those are still pretty reasonable...but what you have are hot-rod classics, fer shur.

@ Tom: "Can anyone name the kits these came from? Note the chopped coupe is dark green plastic." Yessir. Top one is AMT '25 Ford T. Many variations, basically this one... Second one, chopped top, is Monogram 1/24 1930 Model A. Issued multiple times, first in '62, like this... Third one is AMT '29 Ford, originally issued as part of the AlaKart 2-fer kit.

You are a man after my own heart, sir. I think that was the absolute golden age of railroading in the States for exactly the reason you state...great mix of steam and diesel motive power, all over the country. I remember it well. I also have a soft spot for switchers, having spent many hours on a hill overlooking the yards as a kid. I live close to a short line now, and occasionally see an ancient GP-7 still working hard for its living.

Either the AMT or the Revell '57 chassis will work fine under your old Ford annuals. I bought several Revell '57s just to do the chassis swaps under AMT's opening-door version of the '57 Ford (doing a gasser and a retractable-hardtop). NOTE: AMT's '57 Ford chassis has the exhausts molded in, which drives me batty. The recent Revell chassis is beautifully detailed and has everything separate. You'll have to do some fitting, but nothing major. NOTE: '57 and '58 Fords used both 116" and 118" wheelbase chassis, depending on model. I don't recall right off hand which used which. so you MAY have to fiddle that a tad....but 2" in 1/25 scale is only .08" (a little more than 1/16"). A Mopar annual Johan '61 Dodge Phoenix got a '64 chassis from Lindberg on my bench. It also takes a little fitting, but it works beautifully. Here's the build thread. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=58538

No. (Though for a large part of my very early life I did want to be a train.)

Here's a side-draft Weber-look EFI setup on a Chevy six. Pretty much what you'd get for the inline Jag.

The "gas" classes allowed engine swaps, so you could put just about anything in anything. The classifications were based on weight of the vehicle, and engine displacement (cubic inches). The Flintstone Flyer above was smallblock-Chevy powered...at least at one time. You could, of course, run the engine that came in the car. Hudson engines would respond to the same performance modifications as other engines, many of them internal and not visible from outside...things like porting and relieving, raising compression, balancing, a hotter cam, etc. Externally visible mods of interest to a modeler would be the old standards...headers and extra carbs, maybe trick intake manifolding... A GMC 3-71 or 4-71 blower would add some punch, but bump a car up one class... Here's a different blower...not period-correct, but you could do something similar using a S.C.o.T unit... Maybe an aftermarket aluminum head, and fabricated intake manifolds... Triple side-draft Weber carbs, anyone? Or something a little less exotic... ...and no reason something like this couldn't be built for the old Hudson. Hilborn injection is also an option...though this is on a Chevy, as is the setup above, they could both work.

There was a time when America made some of the best stuff in the world. But we got lazy and greedy (including the unions), with companies focusing on corporate logos and "shareholder value" in the very short term rather than on building good products for years to come. Toyota and Honda focus on building good CARS...Honda in particular is PRODUCT focused. Maybe that's why they tend to dominate markets the world over. And now America is slipping into becoming a third-world country where it's more cost effective to build a car from a Korean manufacturer, Kia, HERE than it is to build them in Korea and ship them, and an Italian car maker owns a company that once was synonymous with American engineering at its best...Chrysler. All the fat lazy do-nothing-but-have-ass-covering-meetings American business "experts" have made this mess, and nobody is going to fix it...probably ever.

Found a 1/32 scale Westland Lysander at the thrift store for $1.99. Seems complete, though the box is pretty beat. Lysanders were used for short-field ops dropping and retrieving spies in occupied Europe during WW II. It will eventually find a home with some other 1/32 scale warbirds. Also picked up a 1/20 Seaquest Stinger, again for $1.99. It may become a futuristic LSR vehicle...or not. I really have a hankering to put together a little HO-scale train scene over the holidays. I recently got one of these, to replace one I'd built and given away a long time ago. It makes a spectacular model, and really makes one wonder: if this much detail can be incorporated into a 1/87 scale model (and this thing was tooled way before CAD) what's the problem with getting the larger scales right?

Side-draft Webers would have to be entirely re-engineered internally to function as EFI in the real world...a task that would take serious expertise and buckets of money. HOWEVER, Weber-LOOK EFI systems are readily available from companies like Inglese. You'll notice these throttle-bodies look much like side-draft Webers, and they have the same footprint to bolt to Weber manifolds. I recently set up these down-draft Weber-look injectors, made by Imagine, on a 354 Chrysler Hemi. [/uR This is a triple Weber-look side-draft setup for a Datsun 240Z.

These headlights were done with an Elmer's-type PVA glue 2 years ago. They still look exactly like this...haven't fallen out. It doesn't take any strength to hold headlight lenses in place, and it dries perfectly clear.

Test what you want to do NOT ON YOUR MODEL first. Use the underside of parts that won't be seen. There are so many possible variations in kit plastic, your particular prep and primer, and the chemistry of the various products that YOU SHOULD ALWAYS TEST FIRST. Somebody here may have done exactly what you want to do, but it's still always safer to TEST YOURSELF.

You can do a very nice "chrome" reflector with the shiny side of aluminum foil.

I don't necessarily log the hours, but I do very often maintain a build-log with notes, sketches, ideas, changes, dimensions, photos, web-addresses of research results, etc. I usually have lots of builds going, some quite complicated ones that I'll set aside for possibly months...and I'd never be able to pick up where I left off without detailed notes. And it's all part of the "fun" to me.

If I can get some time, I'll be focusing on trying to complete these...

Lotsa people swear by Rochester carbs (many swear AT them too), and you do see them rerofitted to Fords and other engines, so it's entirely up to you. They wouldn't be appropriate for a build that was representing a completely stock Ford (to the best of my current knowledge), of course.

Pretty sweet piece of work.

I would tend to think there is less likelihood of crazing the plastic on vintage kits than there is on the stuff made recently. This is a '61 Johan annual. The black is SEM self-etching primer for 1:1 work. It's really hot...and it didn't touch the old Johan plastic. It destroyed the surface on a 4 or 5 year old Revell kit.

AHA !! Smart man. I've been looking for a rationalization to try it, but I'm just too cheap to pay full pop. You may have changed my life, sir.

The only one here (Atlanta area) to have it is CarQuest. CarQuest in AZ had it too, last time I was out there. Amazon has it, and shipping is free for orders over $35, so if you're shopping for something else... PS. I usually finish my bodywork with Duplicolor high-build (scratch-filler) sandable primer, then shoot one coat of the white thin stuff over that if I need a light color to pop.