Ace-Garageguy

OK. I'll let it go at that. I've worked professionally with fiberglass and most other composite materials for decades, in design, engineering, and hands-on fabrication. I've repeatedly tried to offer you helpful, constructive advice, based on many years of experience, but you say you "know what you're doing". I won't offer anything else.

I hope you mean .5 oz. 5 oz. cloth is heavy enough for OTR truck bumpers in full scale.

A very large part of the decline of the American steel industry also had to do with companies refusing to modernize and implement improving technologies. Complacent management figured that they could always sell everything they produced, because they always had. Wrong. Much of Europe and Japan were literally bombed flat during WW II, and when they rebuilt their industries (using a lot of American money to do it), they built their new mills using far more efficient processes, which further helped them undercut the cost of American-made steel. The emergence of the "mini'mill" technology that relied on melting down scrap steel (melting steel that was ALREADY steel) rather than needing gigantic blast furnaces that reduced raw iron ore to molten pig-iron that had to be further converted to steel for their feedstocks, drove another nail in the coffin...all while the execs of the old-line companies paid themselves fabulous salaries and played golf.

DLP light-cured LIQUID-RESIN systems are available now. Watch the video for some pretty fine quality for a "desktop" machine.

That's really cool. Big smile.

It's getting better, fast. Last weekend, I saw pre-production parts that are as clean and "line" free as injection molded counterparts, and that have the additional advantage of lacking mold-lines from the tool-halves (where flash forms). I also saw parts that would be virtually impossible to make by injection molding...so finely detailed in 1/24 scale that they really defy belief. It's coming, guys.

There's a lot of fiddling still to be done, but the people I've talked to who seem most likely to get something happening are of the opinion (and rightly so from my own perspective) that, to have a shot at making sales numbers that can turn a decent ROI, the kits will need to be injection molded styrene, and similar to what the majority of modelers are familiar and comfortable working with. A casual modeler isn't likely to buy a resin or multi-media kit that takes significant skill to build, even if the subject is something he really wants...BUT...the same modeler is much more likely to buy a kit that goes together the same way as Revell's and R2 kits do. The market, for instance, for the 1/24 resin Cheetah at well over $100 is severely limited due to both difficulty of assembling AND cost. The same kit in styrene for around $50 would probably generate the sales numbers to justify a short run IF all the costs were strictly controlled by using "soft tool" technology..and if it sells out, keep doing short runs until nobody buys any.

It is entirely possible to make multi-part molds with sliding sections that work just as high-production steel tools do now. This "soft" tooling can be made very quickly, and so should lend itself nicely to short runs of subjects that won't generate the sales numbers required to amortize traditional steel tooling that involves multiple layers of management and markup, overseas shipping, costly mistakes made due to language difficulties, poor interpretation of data by offshore tool makers, etc.

There are also hard-surfacing materials applied via plasma-coating. Very high compressive-strength composite materials that are also thermally-stable to fairly high temperatures (which have been in use for industrial press tools for decades) could allow tools for injection-molding to be pulled directly from masters, and coated with hard-surfacing materials that provide the necessary abrasion resistance. I've already seen very short-run injection-molding tools made from composites in proof-of-concept demos.

Oill dryve that tankah (trying for an Oz accent there). Wait...I'm too big. Durn.

Odd. I have a 30+ year-old Dremel (corded) that I used in the real-stuff shop for over two decades, and retired it to the model shop when I replaced with air tools. It's still going strong, though I did have to fix the switch once. Is the chuck metal on yours?

I'm definitely up for a couple of the bubble-top packs. PM me if you want to make a deal.

Pretty sure he means the "Retro Deluxe" issue. See box contents below. The Caddy 3X2 and blower setups are clearly there.

This is what's available now. It's not cheap. https://www.shapeways.com/shops/modelfactorypico

Cool Pacer. Somebody needs to build that for real.

Here's a link to the assembly destructions for the AMT Viper... https://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/mkiba-build-under-c/amt-instructions/automotive-cars--pi/dodge/amt-1995-dodge-vipe/1995dodgeviperrt10page9.html#media

I just had a look at the AMT Viper chassis...and it would be an easy mod to fit the entire chassis under your pacer. Retain the Pacer firewall to accommodate the L6. Then you'd get real sports-car suspension under both ends, relatively easy camber and ride-height adjustments, and it is actually something that could be done in real-life.

Other cheap source-kits for nice beefy IRS would be Vipers. They have conventional engine-mounted gearboxes, not transaxles. I've used a couple in mockups, but don't recall right off hand if they were the Revell or the AMT versions.

I've bought several of these...cheap...just to get the rear suspension, engine, etc. The way the frame is made, it's relatively easy to transplant what's necessary for suspension pickup points, etc. It DOES have a transaxle, but that's really superior if you're going for slot-car handling.

What I forgot to mention above...a local fella here has been working on building CAD files of some VERY interesting cars for quite a few years now. He's had several 3D printed bodies and an almost complete kit done to date, and the results are, in a word, stunning. The printed models verify the accuracy of the CAD files, "test shots" if you will, and the self-same files can be used to go directly to CNC code for cutting injection-molding tools that will exactly duplicate the 3D printed parts in fit and appearance, only in styrene rather than rapid-prototyping materials. The possible emergence of "cottage industry" injection molding, using state-of-the-art digital imaging and design tech, combined with used molding equipment acquired at near scrap-metal prices, and using softer metal alloys for short-run dies (rather than the very hard tool-steels commonly associated with injection molding), has parallels with a guy named Gates who started building computers in his garage, when every "expert" knew only a huge company making mainframes could possibly succeed in the market.

For those who prefer their hot chix to be big-brained, articulate, outspoken, and logical thinkers: Rebecca Hargraves... Lauren Chen... Lauren Southern... and Daisy Cousens...

Fascinating. I scored a complete, virgin Beaver not too long back; something really weird like these to handle it might be interesting...

A big thanks from me to the OP; prior to this, I did not know that some AMC platforms were still using torque-tube drivelines well into the '60s. I have relatively little hands-on experience with anything AMC, and this new piece of info is fascinating. Now, down the internet rabbit-hole to get the rest of the story. Like I've said a bazillion times before, one of the things I like best about model cars is the opportunity to learn more about real ones.

Recently, I spoke with a purveyor of aftermarket parts who's getting into the 3D-printed manufacturing business...but who is also seriously considering buying an injection-molding machine, and setting up as an independent US manufacturer of stuff that just isn't available elsewhere. I saw a pre-production sample of one of their 3D products, and it's a knockout...a far better rendition of the subject than anyone else has done to date, and frankly, probably as good as this particular part will ever need to be to satisfy even the most discriminating builder for the foreseeable future. The target price is very reasonable too, especially considering the fantastic quality. If this is a true indication of what the company is capable of, the sky's the limit.