Ace-Garageguy

Thank you sir.

Georgia. Though I have the property in Az., I haven't moved yet. I won't cut a tree down unless it's really dangerous. I did have to take down two huge dead pines on the Ga. property I'm on now, but as they were dead, no problem.

OCT. 01, 2019 UPDATE Got the inside of the deck the way I want it. The center hole is bumped up on the real panel to support the center of the outer skin, and isn't actually a hole. Though nobody will ever probably notice, I wanted it kinda right. Filling it gave an acceptable look, but sanding a round depression turned out to be more of a trick than I'd anticipated. The solution was to glue a dot of sandpaper to a short length of round styrene and twirl. Installed back on the hinges, this is what will be visible from the rear when it's open. The body of the car was shot with Ace Hardware black lacquer several years back. All it needed was to be polished up a little after shrinking in more over time, but I couldn't find the can to shoot the deck. I had some Duplicolor Universal Black, and used that. Anybody who shoots real cars will know all blacks don't match. The Duplicolor is blacker, so the whole car will get scuffed and shot with additional coats so all the panels will match each other. The Duplicolor sands and polishes nicely, so it should look decent in the end. Right now the deck is pretty grainy. The right side of the firewall was really tight up against the engine. It's an old resin part I found somewhere, and if I had it to do over, I wouldn't use it as it's kinda rough. Not wanting to backtrack too much at this point, I'm just hogging it out for added clearance, and I'll rework the ribs slightly for a cleaner look. You can see from the shadow that there's now sufficient clearance between the firewall and cylinder head to be OK if the thing was real.

Super bodywork, panel highlighting, & paint. Very nice indeed.

Yeah, as I'm going to be a permanent resident there myself shortly, I'm kinda concerned with that. The whole point of going to Az. was that Az. was Az.

My last place had huge old trees that shaded it from the sun very well in summer. They did such a great job, all I usually had to do to keep the place in the 70s during the hottest part of the year was run the exhaust-fan at night, fill the house with cool air, and close the windows in the morning. My homeowner's insurance people did a surprise inspection and said I'd have to remove all the overhanging trees or they'd cancel me. I said do it, found different coverage 'til I left. Anyway, the new owners cut down every dammed one of them. The place used to be shady and cool and inviting. Now it looks like a desert. And I bet their summer cooling bill is at least $300 per month.

Not unless there's a smartphone app for that. Last floor-sweeper kid we hired couldn't figure out how to turn on the broom and quit.

No snark taken. Yeah, when I used to post a lot, it was kind of a running joke that I had so many projects going and nothing ever got done. And they'd usually start off like this one, intended to be fairly simple, but developing into complicated, heavily re-engineered monsters. At last count, I had something over 65 in various stages. Some of them stalled because I ran up against not-well-enough-developed-skills for what I envisioned. On some, I had to develop new techniques to achieve the vision. Some fell into historical research internet rabbit holes. Some stopped because I couldn't find exactly the right parts to move forward. On some, my vision changed as the build progressed, and got shelved rather than dealing with a lot of backtracking. As my skills developed, I found I needed to get miniature machine-tools to make some of the stuff I wanted, another diversion. And some fell victim to the Homer effect..."Look! A squirrel !!"... I just started on something else that caught my imagination. Honestly, I was having more fun doing that. Finishing things to my own standards gets to be a lot like work. I have to be an adult in the real world and finish what I start. This hobby used to give me a responsibility-free creative outlet, but nothing was ever completed. So I thought, as I have very limited build time right now, I'd take a different tack and see if I could actually stick to one or two and bring 'em on home. As almost everything I build gets highly modified, the most fun for me is in doing the early design work, mockups, and fitting up to determine if what I want to do is even realistically possible. As I've mastered most of the techniques involved in finishing stuff (other than BMF), once I have the basics stuck together and I can look at a viable mockup, with the stance and proportions and "look" I'm after, I tend to lose interest in what can be the drudgery of the rest of it...particularly when things like the paint problems on this chassis crop up, or the fiddly bodywork around the headlights on this one seems to drag on forever. So...finishing a few is an exercise in adult self-discipline in an area where nobody expects anything from me...but me.

Thanks. I believe I've found one.

Even more confusing, the kit I have represents the 1600, with the hood scoop... I see the 1300 is available for reasonable money, so if it does indeed have an engine, I guess I'll have to snag one. I have a Sptint GTA coupe, mentioned by Bill Eh?, on the way too. As all this era Alfa small 4-cylinder engines are very similar visually (but with differing carburetion), I can copy the best one, and import some side-draft Webers from something else (my own long-gone car had a 1750 twin-DCOE-equipped engine). Yes, definitely. After a cursory look, my first thought is that the grille openings and bumpers are too low relative to the headlights. Like a lot of kits out there, it kinda looks like what it's supposed to be, but to anyone with a developed sense of proportion and line, it's pretty far off. Another problem I see coming is a 4WD-looking stance...if the box photos of the built-up are any indication. Still, it's something to start with.

Exactly.

Man, I'm not getting any of that. What a gyp.

Thanks Ray. Trying to actually finish one is a whole new approach for me.

You can also use telescoping aluminum tube to make wheel "sleeves" similar to what is available commercially. Though without a lathe it's time consuming to cut and polish rings, it is entirely possible with a razor saw, a miter box, small files, and sandpaper of appropriate grit. A few sticks of tubing will make rather a lot of sleeves with very minimal cost, and when polished, they look exactly like polished aluminum...because they are.

UPDATE SEPT. 30 Not a huge amount going on, just plugging away at getting the bodywork as close to perfect as I can live with prior to paint. Somewhere along the line, I radiused the wheel openings on the front clip I'm using, and I didn't, apparently, get them even. I don't recall why or when or what the project was, but I noticed a problem on this car with the shape of the left side relative to the right side. Only way to correct it properly is to add material back in, and reshape it using a template from the other side. Actually, I'd already added material in to get the openings rounder and more in line with the tops of the coves, but not quite enough...and I didn't notice the mismatch. Yeah, who cares, and you can't see both sides at the same time anyway, so nobody will ever know. But I'll know.

Though the Packard Hawk had a kinda catfish thing going on, I always kinda liked them 'cause they looked like a customized '53 Studebaker...which of course they were. While it's hard to improve on the '53 Stude, it's interesting to see what people come up with when they try.

You have a bunch of fine looking work there, sir.

I'm curious about which boards and clubs you hang out at. I'm just not seeing that depth of deviltry anywhere I go, and certainly not here. And yeah, some of us who are really familiar with a particular car may criticize a glaring error that somebody got paid pretty respectable money to get RIGHT. But in the end, most people I see agree to disagree, and even the most harsh critics often buy poorly-rendered kits and do their own corrections...and then post their results so that those who like their models to look like the subject they represent might be inspired to work a little more out of the box, and be a little less accepting when mediocrity is IN the box.

I certainly agree with that. The whole internet thing in general too. I've learned more about modeling on the web in a relatively few years than I probably would have known in a lifetime without it. Add the to-your-door availability of anything imaginable (though I DO miss the old hobby shops), and exposure to a range of kits and products that no real "shop" could ever stock even a fraction of...yeah, it's pretty good times.

Yeah, that's kinda the point I was making when I mentioned that, for the most part, we don't see (on this board) those modelers. There are multi-hundred dollar 1/24 kits of very interesting subjects, beautifully done. People wish for a Cheetah kit. Well, I have a real beauty, but it's not cheap, and the number of people who even know what it is is, apparently, too small to justify ever tooling one for injection-molded styrene.

Very attractive model. The kit seems to miss the mark slightly on proportions, but you've done a fine job with it nonetheless. Nice work.

Here's something similar in action... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/123481-1st-gen-bronco-leadsled-kustom/ Another general thread... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/129285-digital-die-cutting-machines-and-model-building/ And another...

Interesting thread, this. Kinda inspiring too. As a result, I've been kinda thinking about some recent vehicles I'd like to have in the stash. The Toyota FJ came to mind, and low and behold, Fujimi makes one...and it's on the way to my hot little hands. Here's one I really love to see both Toyota and some model company bring to reality; I'd stand in line. Probably a snowball's chance, too.

Man, this is great. Thanks again to everyone who's posted photos and reference material. Not only is there a lot of stuff here in one thread, but it's a helluva jumping off point for anyone who wants to follow up with more in-depth research. I just wish the book Matt linked to wasn't almost $750. That's a little steep at the moment, though it looks like an invaluable resource.