Ace-Garageguy

The BMW is indeed special, and practical too. One just never knows when it might be necessary to deal with corn-on-the-cob while on the road. I remember when I was a mere lad that STP stickers were also widely thought to add horsepower. As much as things change, they seem to stay the same.

Charlie, thanks for posting this. I let my Design News paper subscription expire a couple of years back. Thanks to you, I'm back in this particular loop again. Glad to see modelers looking at the future of the materials we rely on and take for granted.

I would suggest you stick a drill bit or a piece of something similar in the hole and mark it , so you know how deep your hole actually is. Then transfer this mark to the outside of the center post, and you'll know exactly how far you can go without losing the hole. This always works for me. As Wayne says, then you can open the hole up as far as you need to. Of course, be careful you don't cut through to the face of the wheel. I've ruined a few by not measuring carefully enough and getting in a hurry.

Beautiful job on this little Bug. My first car was a '62 about the same color, in about the same condition when I got it. Your fine model really brought back some good memories.

That is really a beauty. I've wanted to hack a 1/25 version of this car from a stock kit for a long time. Yours looks so good I'm inspired to move that one up on the list. Gorgeous model.

My personal favorites at the moment are Duplicolor's "High Build Formula" sandable Gray primer for checking and finishing bodywork, sanding the last coat with 600 grit wet, and then a final primer coat of Duplicolor's White Sandable primer, sanded with 1000 grit before the color coats. The lighter Testors "one coat" lacquers take up to five coats of some colors to get even hiding. They are transparent (one reason they look so good is that they have depth, where you're actually seeing down through the paint) and the finished color is influenced by the primer color too. That's why I use the white primer under them. It makes the final color brighter. As far as the Duplicolor Gray high-build primer goes, I just shot some bodies and parts this morning and was again amazed at how well the stuff slicks out, and how well it fills minor imperfections. It sands exceptionally easily too. Duplicolor's White sandable primer is NOT high build, and will slick out fine enough to color-coat without sanding if you spray it right. It almost always takes me just a little touchup with 1000 grit wet paper to get the last dust nib or small orange peel out, where my spraying technique wasn't perfect. I also strongly recommend scrubbing your bare plastic model with Comet and an old soft toothbrush to get any mold-lubricant residue off, and to get into all the crevices. It scuffs the surface down in areas there's just no other way to get to. It seems like overkill, maybe, but it's worked very well for me. This car was painted with the two Duplicolor primers I mentioned above, and Testors one coat Flaming Orange lacquer. It took 4 coats of the orange to get complete hiding, and one for good measure, followed by 3 coats of Testors lacquer clear, sanded and polished. I had a problem on the decklid and had to strip it, was in a hurry to make a contest deadline, and skipped the final white primer coat. Everything else was rthe same, and you can definitely see that the decklid isn't as bright as the rest of the car if you really look at it in the right light. Kenny is right that most primers SHOULD work fine under Testors lacquer, and he's also right that you should definitely test what you want to do on scrap pieces or plastic spoons BEFORE you paint your model.

I apologize if anyone took what I said to be anything other than helpful. I was simply pointing out that in WHATEVER scale, using WHATEVER UNITS, you just have to divide the full-size measurement by the denominator in the scale ( as long as the scale is written 1/X ). It is universal. There seems to be a lot of confusion around as to what "scale" is and what it means and how it's derived. I constantly see posts here and on other forums asking "how do I get this measurement or what does that work out to in -blank-scale?". Just trying to clarify and actually simplify the concept. Things always seemed easier to me when I understood WHY you do something, rather than just HOW. Again, my apologies if anyone took offence at the way I phrased anything. 91blaze, you obviously told him correctly. I was giving more information, to further explain the CONCEPT.

So sorry. I didn't realize I was getting "all crazy with the math" or that "decimals...can get annoying". They've never annoyed me, for some screwy reason, and I kinda like math. Just trying to help someone actually UNDERSTAND something. My sincere apologies. Just as a further FYI..... I keep a cheap calculator (less than $1) and a cheap digital-readout caliper (less than $15) that reads 0-6 inches, and switches from inches to millimeters at the touch of a button, always on my bench. Simply measure with the caliper, divide by whatever scale you're working in with the calculator, and presto-chango, no crazy math or annoying decimals to ruin your composure. You don't even have to make change.....the machines do it all. Just like at MacDonalds.

Very nice. Very very nice.

I just kinda like everything that's really well done. I've seen billet cars and rat rods that made me gag, and I have no love for hoppers or some of the other fad styles, but when a bliiet car or a rat, or any of the others is really right, displaying talented design, skilled craftsmanship and good, effective engineering, I just have to stop and say "wow" no matter what genre it is. Tastes change, but talent, skill and good engineering are forever.

1) In general, a polished surface is not the same as a waxed surface. POLISH, in the CORRECT usage of the term, is a very mild abrasive that brings up the shine and should leave no residue. WAX, on the other hand, is an additive coating that makes a "fake" shine on the surface, and interferes with anything sticking to it. Some POLISHES contain additives, like silicones or wax, that will interfere with clear coats or decals adhering. TEST FIRST on a scrap body, plastic spoon, etc, BEFORE you try anything new on a model, no matter how much "expert" advice you get. 2) If you have to sand trash or orange peel out of a basecoat, if it's METALLIC paint (it has little sparklies in it) you HAVE to respray any area you sand before clearing it. Sanding metallic paints WILL make a visible dieturbance in the way the flakes reflect light, and the clear won't fix it, it will just seal it in. 3) If you're using a SOLID color (no little sparklies) then yes, clearing will, in MOST cases, make the dull surface from sanding shiny again. NOTE: You REALLY NEED TO TEST YOUR PAINT, CLEAR and DECALS on a spare body or at least the backs of plastic spoons. There can be MANY MANY different combinations of paints, and some decals will wrinkle up when paint hits them, some won't. TEST before you do anytning on your nice model!!!

Geez Louise.....to determine ANY scale you divide the actual measurement, in inches, millimeters, or miles, by the DENOMINATOR in the fraction. Was everybody sleeping in math class? 25 inches in 1/25 scale is 1 inch. (you divide the 25 inches by the denominator in 1/25....25. 25 divided by 25=1, right?) 25 inches in 1/8 scale is 3.125 inches. (you divide the 25 inches by 8, the denominator in the fraction. That equals 3.125 inches, right?) 100 millimeters in 1/24 scale is 4.1666 millimeters. 15 millimeters in 1/18 scale is .8333 millimeters. Note: if you MULTIPLY by .25, you get 1/4 (one quarter, same as one fourth) of the actual measurement, BECAUSE: .25 means "twenty five, one-hundredths". That means you would be multiplying your measurement by 25/100, which if you divide it out is 1/4.

I've been working on a chop and channel job rebuilt from a gluebomb off and on for a few months........

I use an electric Dremel grinder almost constantly, if that's what you mean. Many different grinder and cutting tips, good for rough, quick shaping. I use an air-powered 1/8" chuck pencil-grinder (just like a dentist's drill) with various shaped diamond tips for delicate carving of things like window surrounds during top-chops. It's VERY light and maneuverable and has infinite speed control. It doesn't get hot in your hand, either. I also use a rechargeable drill motor to paint whitewalls sometimes, and to use as a quick-and-dirty lathe. For resin and fiberglass molds, I often use air-powered angle grinders for quick trimming.

One of the best things you can do is to go outside and look at what a real car door jamb looks like. Most of them work pretty much the same way....they're just shaped a little differently. Then get some .020" sheet styrene, make a template for the rear door jamb (the filler piece that goes between the quarter panel and the interior), and make what you see here.......a good picture of a real '57 Chevy rear door jamb. http://www.google.co...,r:11,s:0,i:110 Do some google image searching to see what the front end of the door opening looks like, and make it the same way. It's trickier because the hinges have to fit through it. You'll also have to make inner ends and a bottom for the door itself, that space the interior panel off of the door-skin the correct amount and fit in the jambs. That's why you make the jambs first, and then fit the door to them. This is an over-simplification of the process, but it's complicated, though not difficult, and involves many steps that would take a long time and many pictures to write up. I'm sure someone here has posted a tutorial on making door jambs, so do a thourough search for it here, and on other forums. Just think through how to use sheet plastic of various thicknesses to make what's in the pictures. Making door jambs and inner doors that fit is a great way to get into scratch-building.

This is the first I've heard about the Challenger I re-release. I've got several of them from over the years, and one version has an un-chromed chrome tree with very soft details, kinda like a temporary tool was made from a chromed tree with bad chrome. It's a great donor kit in my opinion, for things like period Crager chain-drives for the GMC blowers, LaSalle transmissions, and of course the 4 Pontiac engines. It's also a really important car as far as the history of American hot-rodding goes. Interesting thing about the timing here is that Micky Thompson's son Danny (himself in his 60s) is supposed to be back at Bonneville this year for testing with his dad's Challenger 2 (which last ran the salt over 40 years ago), now upgraded to "2.5", running two Chrysler-based hemis instead of the original two Ford cammer motors.

Electro-magnetic, point-type voltage regulators (on both generator and alternater equipped cars, '40s through '70s) were occasionally prone to sticking in the full-charge position, sometimes when the points burned. This could result in lights being fried and batteries boiled, but this is the only direct experience I've had with the over-charge problem. It was also a fairly well known practice to run with lights on when doing extended highway driving, the theory being that the extra current draw from the lights would keep a faulty regulator from boiling the electrolyte out of the battery. Burned out lights were cheper to replace than batteries.

Depends if it's lacquer or enamel. I don't remember which one that particular color is. If it's enamel, just strip it all.

Foxbat426: "Also How many models should one small can of testors spray paint or clearcoat cover?" As far as the Testors one-coat lacquers go, some colors don't cover all that well and take almost a full can to get the depth and even color I'm looking for. Flaming Orange metallic is one. It took me 5 coats of color, almost the whole can, over WHITE primer, to get what I wanted on my '70 Chevelle SS454 Gearz contest entry. I did colorsand between color coats, which uses up a little more paint, because you HAVE to reshoot metallics after sanding and before clearing to get an even finish. And if you're getting low in the can, don't try to squeeze it, because it will sometimes spit and cover unevenly towards the end. Also, don't expect two cans of paint to be exactly the same color. That means don't paint the hood and deck with one can and expect them to exactly match the body painted with another can. And, try to mount your loose panels on the car and spray everything together, if you want show quality results every time. Pro painters of 1:1 cars often use coverage-cards, simply glossy paper cards with a black and white printed checkerboard pattern, to let them know EXACTLY how many coats of color will be required th get full coverage.....when you can't see the checkers anymore through the paint. There's no hard-and-fast rule for how many coats this will take, on real cars or models. I've also found that 3 coats of Testors lacquer clear will do it, if you shoot it slick, and still leave you enough to wetsand and polish withoug risking breaking through into the color. That's probably around half the can.

The answer will depend on just exactly what the problem is, and what material you're using. Are there runs, sags and / or puddles from spraying too wet or too close? Is it badly orange-peeled from spraying too dry or too far away? Is it a solid color or a metallic or clear? Is it lacquer or enamel or acrylic? Each of these variables will determine what corrective measures you can take. If it's enamel or acrylic, I'd just strip the whole thing and start over. Lacquer is hard to strip, even when it's fresh, so if it's orange peeled or if you've got runs and sags, the best thing to do is to let it dry thouroughly, sand the peoblems out, and respray the whole thing. This can be problematic though, as sanding and more paint buildup will tend to obliterate fine details, like emblems and sharp lines. If you shot a good color coat, and now you have problems in your clear coat.....well, if it's lacquer clear I'd say shoot a few more coats, let it dry and THEN sand and polish. You'd be surprised that sometimes even horrible looking clear jobs can be saved and made show-quality with a really careful sanding and polishing.

That is an absolutely OUTSTANDING trick. Thabks for posting it.

The problem I have with clearing over metalizers is that if you BUFF the metalizer, to get the full advantage of the effect of the product, and then clear, the clear, in my experience, totally spoils the buffed effect. Tell me what I'm doing wrong. Perhaps a water-base clear wouldn't.

Yes, my bad. Lacquer thinner will work fine on a resin body, which is what I STUPIDLY assumed you had, but not on styrene. Like the man said, it will melt the plastic.

That's a really nice atmosphere piece. Wish I had a time machine, or at least knew where to rent one.

I agree with the guys above, but I have two other tricks that might be useful. 1) If you have a Dremel and you're good with it, you can thin the backside of the resin body a good bit to make the actual cutting go a lot quicker. It makes smelly dust, so wear a respirator. 2) I've found that the tip of a razor saw or a photoetched saw works very well. If you're careful and have good hand / eye coordination, you can also saw straight lines (with either tool) that are as clean and thin as what you get with the old backside-of-the-blade routine.