Ace-Garageguy

Model railroaders sometimes use a grass-cloth that has...artificial grass on it. It's usually paper with milled sawdust dyed green. Try this google image search and see if anything looks like what you have in mind. https://www.google.com/search?q=model+railroad+grass+cloth&es_sm=122&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=2ePWU-eNAqnz8AGamYHoAQ&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1600&bih=799#imgdii=_ RR modelers also use the "grass" loose, available in bags, and glue it to the layout. Frankly, it usually looks a lot more like Astroturf than grass.

Here's an excerpt from a fascinating look at the Chrysler Corp. Lynch Road assembly plant in 1970. http://www.deadnutson.com/building_a_mopar.html According to this, every car was shot in dark gray primer, regardless of paint color. I do NOT recall the primer color of any of my old Mopars, and it may have varied to red-oxide, as Tim suggests, from plant to plant. Now it is time to prime the body. All cars, regardless of body color, use a dark grey primer. Workers in the prime booth spray the door openings, and under/inside the hood/deck areas. Dummy, recycled 1/4" wire latches keep the doors, hood, and deck lid shut. Robot guns on curved tracks spray the sides, roof, hood, and deck lid outer body, their spraying actions programmed according to the car's body style. The insides of the car, and the underside receive only overspray. Booth overspray is collected by water that flows downward all along the sides of the spray booth and over to its center, where it catches the paint particles in the downdraft through the open steel gridwork floor. The "Upper Door Frame" (UDF) color is sprayed on any inside metal of the body shell that will not be covered by upholstery or metal finish panels. This colored paint is sprayed on before the primer overspray has dried. Cars remain in the primer baking oven for approximately twenty-five minutes at 350-375 degrees. This high heat is intended also to cure the weld primers and vinyl plastisol sealers, which were applied with a gun to panel joints prior to being welded together. The primer is wet-sanded at Lynch Road, using power disc hand-sanders, which have built-in water sprayers. Only the outside of the body is sanded. Following a wipe-off of primer residue, the body is cleaned with naphtha, then wiped with an alcohol-and-water solution. The UDF color is masked off by hand, with tape and masking paper. Since our sample SuperBird is basically a 1970 Road Runner, its tail lamp bezels have been attached to the tail light panel with their purposely-long studs, while being spaced from the panel with one-inch sleeves. This allows the bezels to be painted with the car body, and allows painting of the tail-light panel contact areas, preventing rust. After the paint is baked, the sleeves are removed, and the bezels are permanently attached. It is essential to note that a primary goal of assembly line painting of all cars is to have every part of the car that will be color-coated be permanently attached to the body before it enters the paint booth. This prevents the inevitable paint scratching of subsequent painted-parts assembly. Also, parts that are not to be color-coated are not installed on the car prior to entering the paint booth, thus avoiding masking off. The front valance panels present a problem unique to SuperBirds. (They are the body panels that attach to the fenders forward of the wheels, and are later bolted to the nose cone supports [bumper brackets]). The valance panels can not be attached to the fender during painting because they would hang down at their underbelly end and get caught all along the assembly line. Yet, the valances are in an area of high rust potential, and must be color-coated.

I guess that counts as a "modern driver" issue. (from post 106): " And a modern driver wouldn't have any issues!" PS. My sincere apologies for the off-topic digression.

Fire hydrants can be SO annoying when they ignore you !!!

Man, that is one fine model. I've gotta check the big trucks out more often. Gorgeous work, sir.

Man, that is GORGEOUS. I'm just like a little boy when it comes to big ol' working trucks...love to look at them still (though I don't build them). Beautiful job.

Gotta watch those "clearance" numbers on underpasses pretty close.

And, you can eat, put on makeup, send and receive mail, play games, watch TV, talk on the phone, pay bills and read a moving map (that even TALKS to you !!!)...ALL while you DRIVE!! The wonders of the modern world !!!

The search function within the section works pretty well, but it's helpful if posters include a specific reference to exactly WHAT a thread is about, particular car, part, whatever, in order to make search results actually relevant. If you start a thread about Buick nailhead engines, call it "Buick nailheads", rather than "some engine pictures".

He asked a question about "grafting" parts previously http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91830#entry1226377 and I gave him an answer somewhat similar to your advice. But, IF the clip is cut and fitted CLEANLY at the door-opening lines and cowl panel, it should be possible to avoid the filler issue entirely.

I may be wrong, but I see this as another backhanded "fun" bash against folks who want to take the extra effort to go farther. IT'S ALL FUN, whether some of us (like me) rarely finish a model because the scale-engineering gets completely out-of-hand, what each of us does, whether "trophy hound" or one-model "career" builder, if it wasn't "fun", I seriously doubt we'd do it. Fun to me, in part, is solving difficult problems. That's why I build real cars that have to WORK as good as they LOOK. MY definition of "fun" doesn't have to be the same as YOURS, and neither one is better.

My cat-friend of 14 years is still alive this morning. She's been in decline for several weeks and stayed out all night, but I found her this AM. She is having a hard time walking, but she's still breathing, and has a pretty good appetite.

Stop where YOU want to stop. Adding ONE additional detail does NOT REQUIRE ADDING OTHERS. BUT, spark plug wires are about the most basic of added details, and IF you're going to do plug wires, try to get them approximately in-scale. Real plug wires don't look like sausages or hoses or rope, and when they look like that on a model, it's disappointing (and so easily avoided).

Great job on a much-maligned kit. Really one of the best builds of this one I've seen.

Hmmm. There are rather a lot of builders who go to considerable effort to make nice models, beyond the casual time-passing level, who miss things that would improve their work considerably. ME included. No one is bashing omissions here, which for some reason seems to be the assumption of several people. Build what and how you want. The point is, IF you WANT to build above-average models, WHAT are some things to take notice of. As usual, defensiveness and off-topic drift always creep in.

Many of the more experienced builders use Bondo "Professional" TWO-PART (you have to mix it with the included hardener) real-car glazing putty as body filler. It works very well for heavier filling on models. DO NOT CONFUSE IT WITH THE ONE- PART FILLER / GLAZE which is essentially the same as all the model putties like Testors, Squadron, etc. The one-part putties (just very thick lacquer primer) work fine for minor scratch-filling, and though some guys say they're OK for heavy work, I tend to disagree. If you fit your front clip well, you really shouldn't need any filler.

Though I don't have any specific pix of what you need, these were unibody cars, as you're already aware. I've owned several Mopars of this approximate vintage over the years, and worked on many others. Because of the welded, unitized nature of the structure, the body-chassis was painted as a unit, with the undersides getting some paint in the process, and coverage could vary from car to car. Naturally, the factory did zero masking of the underside, so you got what you got. And of course, the body-chassis structure was painted before the front lower subframe/crossmember (black) or other components were bolted on. Here's a '68 Road Runner that has too much undercoating on it, but you get the point. http://www.autotraderclassics.com/car-article/Road+Runner+Chassis+Restoration+Part+1-66658.xhtml

How about these beauties... Cadillac SoVile

Excellent.

Me too. But it's so I can eat breakfast and answer e-mails so when I get to work I can concentrate on surfing the internet all day.

Actually, the original question (the title of the thread) seems to be this: "What do model builders overlook that could improve their models?" Started by sjordan2, Yesterday, 03:45 P

Come on guys. The reversed hat-brim keeps his neck from getting sunburned, and his chest is overly sensitive to UV, so he keeps the Oakleys hanging there for extra protection. Geez. Give a man a break.

There are a lot of folks, hard-core rule-follower sheeple, who would gladly trade freedoms for perceived security. They came out in droves after 9-11, in far far greater numbers than I ever thought possible. These folks also think that if you're not doing anything wrong, you shouldn't need to worry about an invasion of your privacy. I have a feeling that just as laws are taking their sweet time catching up to the reality of the internet and all its havoc wreaked on privacy, identity theft, etc., the systems could well be in place and functioning well before the courts get involved to determine the legality of them. It's hardly any stretch to go from roadside, speed-activated cameras that record the licenses and faces of speeders, or stoplight-cameras that catch light-runners, to in-car devices that are required to get a vehicle licensed. There are no SPECIFIC laws forbidding it, so any legal challenge would most likely happen after-the-fact, and we all know what happens once the camel's nose is in the tent. In Georgia, a police officer has to have "probable-cause" to stop a vehicle. Speeding is one acceptable probable-cause, and a case could be made that an in-car device that snitches AFTER the operator violates a law is simply a technical extension of the policeman's existing right to stop a vehicle he observes being operated in an illegal manner. PS. Who's the new Harry?

Not to worry. Soon, the onboard artificial intelligence will communicate directly with law enforcement and snitch on the driver whenever the car is exceeding the speed limit (or is driven with transient G-loads that indicate aggressive or "reckless" behavior) sending out its VIN and license plate number, and a DNA scan of the driver to make sure the right perp gets the ticket, plus a dash-cam shot of the driver's face just to be sure. The technology exists now. Then ALL the scofflaws will get fined. Feel better?

I like it too. Though not my particular taste, your proportions and stance look very good. Nice work.