Ace-Garageguy

Yup. I used their black wrinkle on the instrument panel of my hot-rod '62 Bug when I was 19.

Jason, nice going all around. I'd be really proud to have a son like you, and good luck in everything you do. As you've already realized, I'm sure, you make most of your own luck. A satisfying and productive life takes effort. You're already well on the way.

It's basically the same as the Duplicolor and Plasticoat sandable primers (I have some of each in stock). As noted several times before, whether it will craze the plastic depends entirely on the particular plastic. It will ruin some, and not hurt others. TEST ON THE ACTUAL PLASTIC FROM THE KIT YOU WANT TO PAINT...FIRST.

Only one I've ever had get brittle in brake fluid was an old AMT '63 Watson Indy roadster I bought as a gluebomb. It survived some pretty rough handling during disassembly, but after a couple of days in DOT 3 brake fluid, it simply disintegrated into little pieces almost every time I touched it.

There's photo-etched lettering available for some kits. I've also seen some guys who'll put down BMF on the lettering BEFORE painting, then sand the paint off the raised portions and polish afterwards. Sounds like magic, but I've seen some pretty fine results.

Kool. The SBC made a great swap in the big Healeys. I remember several, well.

You should get that checked. It can cause a rash. Interesting concept, but to my eye, the roof on your mockup looks a little tall, and the windshield pillars a little too upright at this point.

Kerosene or J2 always gives marshmallows a certain je ne sais quoi.

FYI: The blurb on the car states it has a 1939 Ford trans, and then later that "these were non-synchro transmissions". Wrong, and typical of the constant regurgitation of mis-information distributed as fact. The '39 Ford gearbox was synchronized on 2nd and 3rd gears, just not on first. So, if it's hard to make the 1-2 shift, and the 2-3 shift...and back down...either it isn't a '39 box, or the synchros are worn out, or the clutch isn't dis-engaging completely. How much of the rest of it is mistaken or just plain BS? EDIT: Geez, I'm sorry. There's another one. The blurb states the "hood appears to have been manufactured in a aircraft manufacturing plant, indicative of its flush-rivet hinges". Huh? (I won't even mention the fractured English) Any competent aircraft sheetmetal guy working anywhere can do flush-riveting. It doesn't take a "manufacturing plant". Small things? Yeah, but I just get so entirely tired of people running on about things they know nothing about, spreading wrong information while posing as experts.

Last time I looked, we still lived in the first-world. The way it's going though, we'll be third-world in my lifetime.

Gee Tom, this is pretty typical these days for just about anything. "Customer service" is usually confused and gives out incorrect information, the store inventory computer shows parts or products in-stock that aren't, and the product is usually second-or-third-rate-junk when you get it anyway. This is the new-improved America that all the idiot MBAs and bean-counting "managers" have built. Experts, one and all, and it just gets worse. I deal with THINGS on a daily basis, tools, parts (aftermarket and OEM), and technical services from a variety of vendors. Adventures like made you unhappy today are so common in my life, every day, that I don't whine about it any more. But since you brought it up, let me tell you. I get expensive hot-rod and aftermarket-for-OE-application parts that have to be re-engineered to actually work and fit the supposed application. I get mis-labled parts. I get bolts and fasteners that were apparently made to some odd Chinese measuring system and don't screw into anything, US OR metric. I get double-charged for shipping that's supposed to be free. I get sub-contracted machine work where nobody bothered to follow the scale drawings I supplied. I get body shops that take over a year to do a job they quoted 3 months for. I get rebuilt radiators back that look like they were done by blind 5-year-olds in Guiana. I get powder-coated parts where the coating is 1/8 inch thick on the parts that were supposed to be masked, and so thin you can see through it in other areas. I get bodies painted by "professionals" that are 3 different colors under bright light. I get pot-metal special-application tools that break the first time they're used. I get chrome plated parts where the surface details have either been entirely ground off, or the plating peels when the tape is removed from the wrapping (that's when they don't just lose the parts, period). I get engines assembled by "experts" that are so tight even a compound gear-drive starter won't turn them over. I get wheels from "name" manufacturers that aren't the backspacing and offset I ordered. I get cars coming in from other shops that "just need to be finished", where every bubble-gum snot-weld looks like it was done by a one-eyed drunk with the shakes using coat-hangers for welding rod. I could go on for pages and pages. Most people do their jobs poorly. Most products are second-rate at best. And most folks neither know the difference between quality and crapp, or care about it. And they all tell you "we're committed to quality". Yeah. Have a nice day.

With the red scallops and what appears to be a rounded fin sticking up behind the seats, I'd venture to guess it's at least partially inspired by the Gee Bee racing plane. Just an FYI...homebuilt cars don't HAVE to be fugly.

Probably some of the reasons modelers don't have a rep for being big hits with women...

32 TPI razor saw in a miter box, lightly file to dress the cut. Perfect, square cut every time.

Great to see one of these being built, and welcome. I have one in stock and have been putting it off until, like you said, I could "do it properly". Nice work so far.

On second thought, I'd rather go with Harry's recommendations in post #13, and forget the whole shiny issue entirely.

Nicely done scale-engineering you have going on here.

Well, if it IS, he certainly has shown a lot more courage and guts in being who (s)he really is than a lot of so-called "manly men" ever do in their lives. According to the article he's had a rough time in a world that rejects and ridicules non-conformity, but modeling and creativity have seemed to be a stabilizing anchor. I've always enjoyed seeing his models, and can only applaud someone who's acknowledged and accepted his/her own personal identity.

Correct in both cases, which is also why you rarely see production-aircraft parts bright plated. The issue of hydrogen-embrittlement is complex though, and depends on the base metal and plating processes used. There are also scenarios where hard-chrome plating is necessary, as on crankshaft journals, or landing gear and hydraulic-cylinder struts (for wear resistance). (Quoting from http://www.aviationperformanceproducts.com/chrome-it.cfm) : "So-called hydrogen embrittlement is well documented in the high-strength steel fastener industry, where fasteners are sometimes plated to improve corrosion resistance. Failures due to embrittlement, while not common, are hardly unknown. The usual fix is a post-plating oven treatment to drive off the hydrogen."

Maybe that's where a chunk of that $3 billion R&D budget went...

Wow...that IS nice. Somebody makes a resin Terraplane nose in 1/25 and 1/8, so you have a starting point.

Chuck is right, of course. I just never paid much attention to either of them, and not paying attention can make you say stupid things. My bad.

I color-sand all my paint up to 12,000 grit wet. After that, I use 3M "Perfect It II Machine Polish". It's a very fine cut, made for final-polishing of real-car paint with a power buffer. I always have it on hand because I occasionally paint 1:1 high-end and custom cars. Works beautifully with minimal effort (if you've already sanded to 12,000).

Very nice, subtle, all the right parts. The shoebox Fords are such good-looking cars, they really come alive with just a few tasteful mods...like yours.