Ace-Garageguy

^^^ What he said.

Looking good. Cool to see one done stock box-art. This is one of my favorite kits, 'cause it can be built about a bazillion different ways. And yes, it did start out as the original Ala Kart / Model A double kit, though some of the AK parts have been modified or deleted through the years. The latest incarnation with some AK parts restored:

I've built some proof-of-concept pieces using 1/16" brass tube and straight-pin or brass wire hinge pins. It's pretty straightforward, just build in scale kinda what you see on a real car, but only use 2 tubular sections for each hinge to avoid handling and fabricating excessively small parts. Brass shim stock soldered to the tubes reasonably recreates the plate sections on many hinges. The problem with 1/16" tube is that it equals about 1.5" in 1/25 scale, where real hinge tubes are around 3/4" to 1". Find some smaller tube, you should be good to go. Build 'em like this, but very small. You want to end up with something like this, but only two tubular sections, and delete the sheetmetal cover. You can fab the same thing in styrene with sheet and rod stock. You'll need sharp eyes and a pin-vise. .010"-.015" brass wire is sufficient for hinge pins if the model is to be adult-handled.

Man...I always wanted one of those. I wonder if it's the only model kit with a mushroom-cloud on the box.

Yes sir. The guy in the mirror may be old, but the guy in my head isn't, and as far as I'm concerned, that's all that really matters.

Absolutely...and you can tell I'm livin' in the past.

I'm definitely not the expert here, but part of the answer is going to come from the "look" you're going for. Race-cars, for instance (NASCAR in particular) just look wrong to me if the sponsor decals are buried under clear. Stripes on race cars, however, are usually part of the paint scheme, and should be cleared to give the paint finish a smooth surface. Same line of reasoning goes for flames, stripes (except pinstripes), scallops and other graphics on rods or customs or drag cars. They're usually cleared over on real cars, but decals and stickers would be on top of the clear.

^^^ Excellent that you were able to reproduce the same error-message and "can't edit" behavior exactly as I experienced it. Some wizard programmer ought to get some insight from that, eh? Kinda puts paid to the idea that "too long" posts were the trigger, or that inclusions of photos or other graphic material were the cause...though of course, they may also be.

Your patience for attention-to-detail in scale is mind boggling. I build models to get away from this level of intensity, but you have built a real car here...just smaller. Absolutely staggering in the craftsmanship you've put in. Wow. Damm. Nice.

I've never seen a bench seat in a 356 as in the interior shot of the blue roadster. I need to research that. It probably gets its "outlaw" moniker due to the mild visual departures from stock. A-style hood with B or C-style fenders (I don't remember if that's an actual "thing" from the factory or not), lowered stance, low-profile tires, wide wheels, wider front and rear track, louvered engine lid, center bonnet fuel-fill, etc. Sure is a beauty. THIS IS A 404 TEST

I was doing something much like that when I got knocked off the forum for about an hour. After 3 consecutive 404 events, the page times out, and will not let me back in for about 60 minutes. It's happened before, and I just now got back on. I'm down to three lines. We shall see. OK, THIS WILL POST: I've never seen a bench seat in a 356 as in the interior shot of the blue roadster. I need to research that. It probably gets its "outlaw" moniker due to the mild visual departures from stock. A-style hood with B or C-style fenders (I don't remember if that's an actual "thing" from the factory or not), lowered stance, low-profile tires, wide wheels, wider front and rear track, louvered engine lid, center bonnet fuel-fill, etc. Sure is a beauty. BUT IF I PREFACE IT WITH : Beautiful selection of cars there. IT WON'T POST AND TRIGGERS 404.

The V-windscreen coupe with the green nose is a rare piece. I almost had one of those eons ago that was also a race-car, but it had been t-boned and was way beyond what I thought was repairable at the time. If I'd known what they'd eventually be worth, I would have saved it. Sadly, it went to the crusher.

The two most common bases for liquid "plastic cement" are MEK (methyl ethyl ketone), and methylene chloride (also known as dichloromethane). Plastruct "Plastic Weld" is MEK. Plastruct "Bondene" is methylene chloride (as is Flex-I-File's "Plasti-I-Weld and Scalecoat "Probond". In my experience, the MEK products generally seem to penetrate deeper, dry slower, but make a stronger bond. The methylene chloride products wick between parts better, dry faster, but may not be as strong ultimately. There's no secret trick to building any kind of chassis. In general, start with the main rails pinned to a suitable substrate to keep them parallel and level. Build the cowl or firewall support structure and main rollover hoops first. Progress from there, keeping things symmetrical by fitting one chassis tube very precisely (it helps the bond-strength to "fishmouth" tube ends where necessary with a small round file), and then making an exact copy of it for the opposite side before you bond the first one in. It's tedious and fiddly in the beginning, but you'll pick up a lot of speed as you get used to doing it. Permanent bends can sometimes be formed by using nothing but your fingers, but work slowly when forming so you don't cause cracks. Some plastic rod stock tends to spring back and won't hold a shape indefinitely. If you can get it glued in position before it springs back, great. If that's too hard, forming your bends around something like an X-Acto handle, wooden dowel, or anything with the correct radius, and then dipping it in boiling water for a few seconds will "temper" it, and it will hold its shape forever after. Nothing looks worse than wonky chassis tubes that aren't parallel, or gaps at joints, or joints that don't line up. "Welded" joints that don't look perfect can have "weld fillets" made with a small bead of CA gel. It also reinforces the joint. I use Loctite Ultra-Gel. The tip doesn't clog, and the applicator is just right. It DOES take a while to dry however, so build your chassis up first, and at the end, go back and finish your "welds" and set it all aside to dry overnight. When it's dry, you can file and sand it to perfect shape.

^^^ I just saw a set of those wheels here on a '65 Mustang the other day, so I'm gonna say "real". Like the man said, there's no accounting for taste.

Very beautymous. But I respectfully suggest you either make molds of it or get somebody to do it for you. If it's acetate, it's just a matter of time before it shrinks more, warps, and eventually crumbles.

Yup. Just tried to post 5 simple lines of text in another thread, got 404. EDIT: I also tried to post the same 5 identical lines here. 404. It's definitely something in the text that's triggering the response.

Beautiful selection of cars. Some interesting stuff there. I tried to post a reasonably intelligent reply, 5 lines of text, but only got the dreaded 404.

^^^ Makes one wonder if Virgil Exner and Brooks Stevens didn't co-design the thing...

Couple things to remember: 1) There are two different looks you can go for when chopping any top. These different methods affect the proportions and lines of a car significantly. The first keeps the pillars more-or-less aligned, and requires lengthening the roof as shown in the pdf. The second keeps the length of the roof as-is, and leans the pillars in to line up. In this case, it's usually the front pillars that are leaned back, and the windshield gets a more streamlined rake as a result. 2) Be sure to keep your mating parts and cut edges very square and true. Nothing looks worse than a chop that leans to one side, or is too low in back, etc. If, in the process of squaring things up, you inadvertently go too far, it's easy to get a little height back by adding strip stock at each cut. You're going to have to do careful bodywork at every joint anyway, so this isn't really an issue. The pillars on a '32 3W are close enough to vertical so you can get away with going straight down on the rear pillars, and only leaning the front pillars to meet each other. This avoids a ton of work, chances for misalignment, and gives a slightly lighter look to the top, as you don't make it any longer.

True, but I like to feel it through the floor. If I turn my headphones up that loud, my head melts.

And if you liked that, laddies, try this one...

Me too.

You'll need well above average speakers and probably a powered sub to get the most out of this, but damm man...

Enjoying this thread immensely...