Ace-Garageguy

People often ask for how-tos on casting parts and bodies, and in the past I've posted links to some of the most relevant sites. Unfortunately, you kinda have to know something about the process to know what's good info, and what applies to you. I've prototyped and cast lotsa product-presentation parts in the past, and I have a lot of experience making things from a variety of composite materials, but never anything exactly like a thin-section model car body. As I'll be getting into it shortly, I took the time to watch many YT videos to see what's new, best procedures, etc. Also unfortunately, YouTube has loads of idiots showing how to do everything wrong. The TWO BEST VIDEOS I've seen so far, pretty much everything you need to know to make HIGH QUALITY bodies, are linked below. One uses materials from Polytek, which I've used extensively for other applications and can attest to as being first-rate. The other uses Smooth-On products, familiar to most resin casters. EDIT: And once you've achieved that perfect 3D-printed body, you can make as many copies as you like using a possibly more cost-effective (and definitely faster) process.

Haven't ever seen that color before. I've been looking for something unusual for my real '74 S hot-rod build, but something I could live with every day. Hmmmmm...

Nice clean work.

Very well done tutorial.

New question at the drive-through: "you want flies with that?"

Do you have access to a lathe? That'd be the quickest, cleanest way. You'd have to grind your own cutting tool, but that's SOP in the real world.

Beautiful model from the real golden age of motorsport.

Hey man, don't worry. If a certain element get their way, the wealthy who MADE their own money will be taxed out of existence. There's a type of personality who, when asked if they'd prefer to live in a society where SOME people were rich but nobody ever starved, or in a society where EVERYONE was so poor they had to eat bugs, they choose the latter in the name of "equity". These people are called "useful idiots". Their overlords, on the other hand, will still have the Rollers and champagne and caviar and private jets. They just won't have actually EARNED any of it.

Two words: WHO CARES? If somebody wants to spend lotsa money they earned or inherited on anything, let 'em.

The color balance in the photograph of the restored #3 car above is very good. Shoot for that blue and you'll be as close as anyone who doesn't have access to a real one will ever get. Just FYI, the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum restored car #002, a roadster, supposedly found a perfectly preserved, un-faded area of the original metallic blue under a door sill plate, and had a precise match made up. If you want to go crazy with the color accuracy, you might try contacting somebody there for more info.

Yes, the tooling designers took some liberties, and corrections will be required. Just be glad they didn't work from this sorry mess:

Yup.

Day-yam. I don't think anyone on the planet has ever done such a beautiful job with that kit...or probably ever will.

Seems like besides the perpetually whining man-babies, this is just about all that's left to choose from in the labor pool.

I've had great results doing "brass" radiator tanks with one of the Rub 'n Buff colors. Gold leaf is probably the closest to a brass look.

I don't know how much they are now...

Depending on how it's been stored, there's also the possibility of water in the gas from condensation. Little tiny jets sometimes won't flow water. It used to be a real problem with Fiats too. Imagine that.

Looks like the waserboxer (water boxer), which is a water-cooled flat 4 developed specifically for the post-'82 European bus. It's not the same as the 411/412 air-cooled engine, but you could probably get it to look close enough to fool most folks.

How much is Mr. Raitz getting these days?

You do.

The engine in the Revell 914 is a blobular six, nee 911. Most 914s came with the VW 411/412-based 4-cylinder engine (which was also in the Porsche 912E). It has a low profile cooling system like the earlier VW squareback and fastback 1600 engines...which is one big reason it was used in the TV Cotote. The engine in the T3 van is probably a wasserboxer, fitted to European VW vans after '82...but I've never had that kit so I don't know fer sure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasserboxer

Yup.

Entirely different design...and the TV car was built on a Bug pan.

Sits like a road-racer instead of the typical mud-bogger stance. Big improvement.