Ace-Garageguy

That one's a real knockout. Beautiful model.

It's not that hard to build a straight axle and leaf springs from scratch. The process is fairly well illustrated in this thread. And feel free to ask questions if you need any clarification. Below is an in-progress shot.

Yes sir, your experience has been pretty much identical to mine. I found that after an extended build session, it seemed to be beneficial to swish the thing out with clean MEK, using the fill bottle to suck-n-squirt several times, and then blowing air through it to get any residual solvent out prior to storage. No problems since, but I keep a virgin in stock just in case. I did have one that no amount of soaking would clear. I scored the needle with a diamond file about 1/4 inch from the tip and snapped it off. Still working years later, just a little shorter.

I love the Touch-n-Flow for the precision, but it can be finicky and a little prone to clogging. https://www.flex-i-file.com/touch-n-flow-system.php I have a friend who's diabetic and gives me an endless supply of needles, and those work exceptionally well and are free.

Numbers are hard. Most of it's 1/25. A few parts are somewhat underscale, like the slicks...although...the slicks center diameter is OK, the sidewall height and outside diameter is much more appropriate for a production car than a supercharged dragster. Unfortunately, the stupid-small diameter of the slicks is echoed in the cutouts on the body. Easy enough to correct if you want to build something that looks like what it's supposed to be, but again, inexcusable that "professionals" in the model-design business get so much stuff like this...very obvious and easily researched...just flat dead wrong. A 6th grader should be able to handle the "math"...actually just basic arithmetic...involved in scaling a model car correctly.

OK...based on the drawings afx posted above, and a known nominal wheelbase of 75 inches, the current Slingster body measures out to be very close, plenty close enough for a dragster body, to 1/25 scale. The method of determining this: The wheelbase on my screen displays at 4.794". Dividing 75" by 4.794", we get 15.64. That means the drawing displays 1/15.64 scale on my screen. Measuring the firewall height at the beltline, the length of the body at the beltline from the firewall to the rear extremity, and the width of the cowl, multiplying all those respective numbers by 15.64, we get the full scale dimensions. Close enough, anyway. Then, taking those numbers and dividing by 25, we get the real dimensions of the body as rendered in 1/25 scale. Then we measure the kit body and compare. Very close, again, plenty close enough for what the kit body represents. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I haven't unearthed the earlier kit body yet, but I can tell with certainty from looking at the OP's opening shot that it's significantly over 1/24 scale.

Sumpin I ordered back in early March from Japan just got here Friday. It had been in tracking limbo for weeks, then started moving again early last week. Yippie. And it actually works as advertised. Yippie squared.

Yup...

I mentioned I'd bought a supposedly 1/24 or 1/25 diecast to measure so as to get an idea of the actual scales of both the Monogram body shells. The diecast was WAY wrong too. They probably made it ridiculously huge because, had it been correct, it would have been tiny and morons would have complained. I'll take some info from the shots above, do some basic arithmetic, measure my kits here, compare, and post the results.

Thanks. Another one started, pretty much figured out, and benched.

There are also three small turbines in the AMT Amtronic. One is sorta a scaled-down version of the Chrysler turbine-car design, with regenerators on the sides (if I remember correctly). There are two more little guys on a common drive housing (upper right in the photo below) that I reworked some time back for a turbine-electric hybrid dieselpunk thingy.

I started something like that a while back...

Same parts in the box.

Please don't start that misinformation going around again. The "new tool" Ala Kart Red Ram Dodge hemi engine is approximately 1/32 scale in a 1/25 kit. Ridiculous. And no need for it, as a correctly-scaled engine will fit in the engine bay of that kit. The old-tool Ala Kart Red Ram Dodge hemi engine, though not entirely accurate, is close to being correctly scaled for 1/25. I was one of the ones who measured the real engines and posted the dimensions on several model boards years ago. I have measured some of the parts in the Slingster kit, and some are indeed underscale. The slicks, for example. And I pretty much shelved the kit in disgust. I've never come to a definitive conclusion about the body, however. The American Bantam the body represents is a tiny car, so who knows at this point. I have a Bantam die-cast that was sold as 1/25 that I bought specifically to try to clear this up. Unfortunately, whoever scaled it was arithmetic-challenged as well, because it's clearly HUGE for 1/25. So there's no useful data to be derived from that. Numbers very are hard apparently. BUT...if somebody will find me a good profile shot of a Bantam, and find out what size wheels came on the thing from the factory, I'll work out ballpark scales for the two Monogram kits.

Let's just say that, as I still have a healthy T level, I'm easily distracted by female pulchritude. For which I'm most thankful.

And I feel so very sad for your reading comprehension if you get "that's the most thrilling thing you guys can find on the internet" from either comment.

And thanks again. I was wondering about that. All your additional info is most helpful.

Yeah, I know what you mean. Interesting phenomenon.

Thanks for your interest, Tim. On this one, I've been working on getting a color I really like to get me motivated again. Looking for something greenish that doesn't clash with the OEM nailhead engine color. Lotsa sprayouts when I have a few minutes, haven't hit the jackpot yet.

Yeah, that's pretty much where I am. I can get 15 or 20 minutes every now and then, but I can't get much done like that.

Most will. Smooth-On, for instance, will happily sell "trial size" units of about 2 pounds of material (resin and catalyst), for around $30. The industrial prototyping (using plastics) I've done over the years has been primarily of small medical devices, components for toys and sporting goods, and hand tools...so my purchases have usually been small quantities. I've never been required to provide any documentation other than a shipping address. The rules for online sellers collecting sales tax HAVE changed however (if you buy much on eBay you will have seen many sellers now collect it), but as far as I'm concerned, it's a non-issue. Sales tax on $30 isn't much.

Thanks for dredging this old dinosaur up, too. I agree with you about the windshield layback, and about the only thing I've done on this since the last photos was some file-work trying to get more of that going without having to re-cut the roof.

Thanks guys. This is another one I hadn't noticed had new comments, and is on the short list for re-start. Really like that black A-V8 on '32 rails too, Paul. That door latch, throttle linkage, and blued header flange detail really adds a lot.

Thanks guys. Funny...this one never got too far from the bench and has been kinda bugging me for a re-start. I'm not on here as frequently as I once was and failed to see this one had new comments. It was kinda hung-fire for a while deciding whether to correct the slightly sectioned body the AMT kit has out-of-the-box, or just to go with it as-is. As-is won, 'cause it looks a lot like what some builders of real ones did back in the dim recesses of time when I was young. For whatever reason, I enjoy rebuilding junk more than starting with virgin kits (most of the time) too.

I would also caution against trying to reinvent the wheel where chemistry is involved. Several manufacturers make softer casting resins in a variety of Shore hardnesses, specifically for making things like handle grips, movie special-effects masks and prosthetics, and various kinds of modeling. Polytek has been my go-to supplier for this kind of stuff for decades, and they also offer a range of dyes that are compatible with their products. https://www.polytek.com/products/polycolor-dyes As an industrial supplier, they have a line of instructional videos about using their stuff, their product is always fresher than the re-packaged resellers, and they have knowledgeable technical staff to answer questions. EDIT: Smooth-On is also an industrial supplier, and has an extensive product line and instructional video library. https://www.smooth-on.com/