Ace-Garageguy

Yeah, but that car had considerably more clearance at rest, at least two, maybe three times as much as the car on the opening shot:

Interesting. Looks like it used production stamped steel front control arms (from who knows what) in the rear. Also note the forged steering arm coming from the spindle. Makes me think hubs / uprights may have been sourced from 4WD front pieces.

Looking good. I need to find one of those...

All agreed. Cool car. But another thing that just jumps out at me is the lack of clearance between the rear tire and the wheel arch. Unless the suspension is pretty much solid, that's not going to work when the nose comes up and the tail squats at launch.

Very nice. Some of my favorite things are trucks that have to actually work for a living.

1/24 scale paper model of Howard Hughes' H1 race plane from the mid 1930s. This will be the basis of one scratchbuilt in styrene.

There's a thread on workbench lighting that may give you some ideas too. This is what I use for the bench, as well as the glamour shots. 100 watt equivalent LEDs in cheap salvage-store lamps. Backgrounds are just poster board, as suggested above by randx0. Works pretty good, huh?

You can answer their PM and it goes into their box, that they can open next time they log in. The site also sends an email notification to their registered email address letting them know they have a PM here, and from whom, but doesn't display the full text.

Good stuff. The mockup phase is always the most fun for me. Actually building the things is a lot like work.

If I run chains I run 'em on all 4. I learned to drive in icy conditions over 5 decades ago up North, so I don't have any problems. But usually if it gets icy here I just stay home. The roads are so choked with abandoned vehicles and fools speeding, it's not worth trying to get anywhere. It never lasts more than a few days anyway, and if the power goes, I have backups. Last time we had a significant frozen precip "event" (as the talking heads like to say these days) a few years back, it started snowing big fat wet flakes during morning rush hour. It had been slightly below freezing overnight, so the snow built up pretty quick, even on the roads. But rush-hour traffic turned the snow on the pavement to slush, and the temperature dropped fast after it stopped falling. All the roads turned to sheets of ice, and folks spinning their wheels just polished it. By noon, when the numbnutz all decided they better get home, nobody could go anywhere, and every hill and interstate was an inline parking lot, with the intersections and ditches littered with wrecks. I waited until late in the day to try the homeward commute, thinking folks would have been off the roads by then, but had to park my 2WD pickup in a dealer's lot and walk home 4 miles, as every road out of town was completely blocked. I'd really like to see you get up a long hill that's slick ice with a lube layer of water on it from the sun shining, on just "dedicated winter tires" with no chains or studs...and then stop on the downside.

Not much good on ice.

I get 404 error on both of those links...no photos.

Forecast snow and "wintry mix" here Saturday PM and Sunday, but I've been watching the NWS radar and pulling up live cams after the storm has passed, at least the part of it that looks like it could possibly slide southeast and dump here, and my current prediction is that we'll see a non-event. Naturally though, the stores are already low on bread, milk, and bottled water...and if it indeed does drop an inch or so, Monday the ditches will be full of shiny new 4WD SUVs on their roofs as far as the eye can see. "Chains? CHAINS??? I don't need no stinkin' chains because I have 4-wheel drive and traction control." ...and zero understanding of physics and reality.

Hot diggety dog! How did I miss this? Most excellent.

Agreed. I didn't know he was gone.

In my experience, just getting the surface "flat'', entirely devoid of orange peel, and probably no slicker than 1500 grit, should be sufficient. But that's where the experimentation comes in. I've almost always shot flames with lacquer, which dries hard and brittle, and therefore tends to make a very clean edge when un-taped carefully. Your materials of choice will almost certainly require practice with different techniques to hit the results you want every time...a royal PITA, but that's just the way it is. EDIT: I'm sure there are builders who know a lot more about getting good scale flames than I do with different materials. Hopefully they'll chime in.

Another problem with doing scale flames is that the tape edge will usually appear huge, compared to a real car. This is made more difficult if your flame color is a metallic or pearl, as you can often spoil the effect by sanding the edges to minimize the line. This is one good reason to try to use a solid color for your flames. AND...avoid clearing until after you've painted your flames...or only do enough clear coats to protect the metallic particles in the ground color prior to flaming, but not enough to sand and polish thoroughly. Assuming you get a clean tape line when you unmask, you will avoid excessive film thickness and a fat edge, and the subsequent clear coat over everything will stick the edge down, and provide a smoother transition. Getting good color separation and a clean edge in scale is rather like micro-surgery. It takes thought, experimentation, and a very careful and delicate touch to achieve perfection...or close to it.

A couple of potential causes: 1) Shooting your flames over a polished surface. Paint needs at least a little "tooth" to adhere to. 2) There may also be some contaminant in the polish itself. Cleaning every surface with isopropyl alcohol prior to applying any paint product is highly recommended. 3) The method of removing your tape mask may also be a contributing factor. Allow your flame paint to dry thoroughly to get maximum adhesion, and then remove the tape mask by puling 180 degrees from the surface, slowly, to "shear" the paint at the tape line. Pulling masking material at 90 degrees will virtually guarantee lifting.

ANY new working truck kit seems like a good thing to me. And Gar Wood the man was a pretty cool guy. Besides his mechanical inventions and commercial / industrial / military truck body business, he built high-end and racing boats (featuring Miller / Offy engines, among others), sponsored racing cars occasionally, and got involved with electric vehicles late in life.

Great additional info, much appreciated.

Looks very clean, made me smile. Nice job.

Very clean work, well photographed...love the way the color shows off the sculpted shapes.

Always liked the lines of these. Well done...and that subtle two-tone paint looks really good.

Fine looking build, great paint, clean foiling work.

Nice model. I've always liked all the Pontiacs from this era, and your build reminds me why.