Ace-Garageguy

Yup...

IIRC, the original issue of that kit came with too-tall, soft, solid one-piece vinyl tires appropriate to an earlier Indy "roadster" style of car. A later issue came with two-part hard styrene copies of that too-tall tire. Yet another issue came with awful square-shouldered hollow tires that were completely wrong too. These from Indycals that stavanzer linked to would be the hot setup, if they ever come back. I'll be watching too, as I need some, and I'll give you a heads-up if I see 'em.

Looks great, but the cracking on the flare is the reason I always use an ultra-fine fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin reinforcement on any flares, top-chops, etc. Handling accidents happen, and weak joints can easily crack during the color-sanding / polishing process too. For me, the insurance against damaging fine custom bodywork is easily worth the extra hassle.

Standards of quality tend to suffer in an "everybody gets a trophy for just showing up", wholly non-competitive environment where you can't undermine a precious snowflake's self-esteem by telling him to up his game, because his output is 3rd rate trash.

Pretty sure they're Monogram '53 or '57 Corvette.

Actually, from some modelers and vendors, it is. I remarked above that the best of the best aftermarket parts I have (defined by the finest imaginable detail, with zero surface finishing needed) are 3D prints. But indeed, a lot of the stuff out there at the moment is still grainy, warped, or shows print lines.

Thanks Tim.

Price-first-shoppers aren't usually concerned much with quality.

Speaking of "name your own price if the quality is there", look at Singer. You can bet any analyst looking at their "business case" in the beginning would have told 'em "if there was a market for rebuilt old Porsches selling for a half-million bucks, somebody would have done it already''. Now they have a several-year backlog, a gorgeous new facility, and every craftsman in the place probably gets paid very well indeed...and no idiot managers like I've worked under occasionally, cracking the whip to get third-rate work out the door as quickly as possible.

Best Western motels used to be some of the best reasonably priced places to stay on road trips (and may still be AFAIK).

Well...the thing about delegating responsibility is that part of the boss's job is making sure those delegated responsibilities are taken care of. Reliable communication is pretty important where health and medicine are concerned.

Pretty cool...

Gee willikers. You're a doctor and your "message machine isn't working"? I think I'd be looking for a doctor who took his responsibility a little more to heart. Not too hard to send somebody to WalMart to pick up a cheapo for even a temporary fix. I mean, it's not like doctors can't afford 50 bucks...especially when it's a write-off anyway.

That would indeed be nice, but what I'd REALLY like to see is printed wires with integral back-face rims, that were designed to reside in actual machined alloy outer rims. As fragile as printed spokes are, it can be daunting getting a perfect finish on a painted or "polished" rim without damaging spokes. Separate machined (or even printed) outer rims would solve the problem, though the relationship of the outer spokes to the rims might need some tweaking to look almost right...depending on the lacing of the real wheel being represented, of course. Those shown below could work well with machined outer rims. These, not so much. NOTE: Some real Borranis have polished alloy rims, and chromed or stainless or painted spokes. It's a subtle but noticeable difference in color and reflectivity, all but impossible to achieve with one-piece printed wires. The best model wires I've seen to date used printed rims with integral nipples (that had .010" holes printed in), and were then hand-laced using nylon monofilament...but that's way too much hassle for anything other than top-tier models for competition. And then there's the question of how to get the best "chrome" finish...

That is exactly where I was when I used to make aftermarket fiberglass parts for real cars. To be cost-competitive and get the work, I had to price the stuff so the resellers I contracted with could mark it up enough to make their profit. There are companies many of you would recognize that I made tooling and/or parts for. But I was pretty much always behind the 8-ball financially, almost always running behind, and couldn't keep up with demand...partly because, though all my stuff was professional and righteous, my pricing was on par with mouth-breathing hackers who turned out trash. When I got sick of the constant grind and raised my prices to the point demand fell WAY off, I ended up making more money for a lot less work, and had happy clients because they got their stuff on time. If the quality is there, you can pretty much name your own price these days (within reason) because there just aren't many who can (or will) do top-line work. If I was a young man knowing what I know now, there'd be no stopping me from staying in high-end model and real parts, and custom machine and fabrication work.

With 8 billion+ people on the planet, and 336 million+ in the USA alone, one would think there would be at least a few who met that criterion.

This one. Actually started it in about 1995. It's gone through several iterations, still not done.

If the resin was properly mixed and is fully cured (very likely so with Modelhaus), any of the fillers should work just fine. Be sure your part is clean of any lingering mold-release agents (lotsa recommandations elsewhere for that), and roughen large areas that need fill with 220 or coarser grit paper. It's also imperative to let the catalyzed fillers set hard before shaping, as you can get featheredge and adhesion problems if you hit it too soon. This is why learning to apply filler smoothly is a good idea too, so as to avoid the temptation to start shaping it when it's "green" and soft. NOTE: Applying bondo fillers to real cars is often made much more efficient and faster by "cheese grating" the material to rough shape once it's started to harden. But this is generally NOT a good idea with catalyzed fillers on models unless you have experience and a very fine touch.

Is that as happy as a clam? Asking for a friend.

Pretty much always the case when anyone works as a hired-gun consultant, engineer, fabricator, machinist, etc. etc.

The ROI depends primarily on charging enough to not have to work 24/7 to keep the lights on. High quality resin parts can command high prices, and as the competition "ages out", opportunities open up. I've done enough old-school mastering, mold-making, and casting of non-scale-model parts (real-world product development and patent models primarily) to know that though it is a somewhat "fiddly" business requiring focus and care at every step, in a clean well-organized dedicated workspace, it's not that hard. This is one of the better tutorials I've seen to date. There's one one I like more, but I've apparently misfiled the address. ONE CAVEAT: A printed master will have to be tough enough to withstand the mechanical stresses of demolding. Careful analysis of the physical characteristics of the fully-cured printing resin will need to be done, and section thicknesses adjusted as necessary.

"Ages rapidly" is what occurs when an elder elects to sit on his tail, accomplishing little, reading and learning and exercising even less.

3D printing is wonderful technology. Wonderful. I'm not disputing that. The absolute no-holds-barred BEST parts I have are 3D prints, and the single highest quality model I've ever seen in 1/24 scale, Bill Cunningham's Birdcage Maserati, is also primarily built of 3D prints. These benefitted hugely from the high resolution possible from reasonably "affordable" liquid printers, and because of undercuts and extremely fine detail, could not have been made any other way. But offerings like repops of '50s and '60s promos, truck cabs, some wheels and tires and engine parts, etc. simply do not require that resolution, and the old methods are entirely appropriate for those. Yes, setting up to do GOOD resin casting has costs, but pressure pots and the like are one-time purchases. Molding and casting materials are hardly cost-prohibitive, and I'm pretty familiar with all of them. Yes, silicone molds do have a finite life span, and will need to be replaced periodically, but so do printers. And yes, masters for casting can be made by traditional methods that require extreme physical skills, but are ideal candidates for 3D printing themselves. Print the master, make a mold set, turn out copies in much less time than printing takes. ALL the technologies have their place, and arguing against the continued viability of ANY of them is, in a word, stupid.

Midwits.

Road blocks in any endeavor are inevitable, whether coming from outside sources or one's own internal demons; the trick is to identify and overcome them quickly.