Ace-Garageguy

Mr. Snake has the right idea. The top of the tail panel is most definitely, positively, and absolutely set forward of the edges of the rear quarter panel corners, while the lower edge of the tail panel is very close to the edges of the corners. This has the effect of making the tail panel very close to vertical, and avoids what would be a goofy look resulting from the taillights pointing down if the panel followed the lines of the quarters.

Here's one for $95. That cheap enough for you? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-1969-Chevy-Camaro-Z-28-Foose-Design-1-12-Scale-Model-Kit-Sealed-NIB/192667023780?epid=20017250683&hash=item2cdbd979a4:g:hswAAOSwnRJbgyfd

Little 1/87 (HO) scale Porsche 550 Spyder, to match my full scale Beck.

Nice work. Congrats.

Yes, very nice conversion.

I tend to see part of my collection as a vast junkyard to pull parts from, and I routinely buy built-ups, gluebombs, and partial kits for the parts. Lets take Revell Anglia kits for an example. I'll segregate all the Anglia-specific parts (body shells, hoods, frames, etc.) into an Anglia box with the picture on the end, additionally labeled as parts, and sort everything else into specific categories like engines (sub-categorized as to make and type in snack baggies: Olds gen1 OHV V8, Buick nailhead, etc.), wheels, tires, ladder bars, springs, axles, etc. I'll usually try to keep one relatively unmolested kit as a reference for the "spares" boxes (though I'm also pretty bad about pirating bits any old time if I need something that's not in the "spares" boxes) so I can figure out what parts came from what kit. This is helpful to me, as I rarely if ever build anything "out of the box", and most of my projects are conglomerations of lotsa stuff. I'll also use random leftover kit boxes to house ongoing projects that have stalled for one reason or another. I have over 60 of those at any given time too. No way in jello I'd take the time to put any of this stuff on the computer though...and I seem to have a remarkable memory for what bit came from what kit anyway.

Great looking model.

I get a 404 when I try to send a message on this. EDIT: 5 hours later, after trying various and sundry things, finally, after editing out much of the info from the message, the site accepted it.

Here's a shot of Brave Speedlove, standing next to the full-scale plywood mockup of his Spirit of America LSR car. https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2018/09/30/a-chainsaw-a-marriage-and-lots-of-fiberglass-how-craig-breedlove-cleared-a-path-for-the-spirit-of-america/

Which is part of the laugh I usually get from the legions of lock-step consumer drones who think the "internet of things" is a really good idea. PS. I get bogus bullexhaust emails supposedly originating from many people I know, a result of THEIR address lists having been compromised somewhere along the line.

Anyone know the difference between apples and oranges?

Rod Stewart (yes, THAT Rod Stewart) is also a model RR guy...which kinda goes to help dispel the myth that modelers are social misfit dorks who can't get dates.

Now that, sir, would be a fun car. A true "hot rod" in spirit.

A full-scale carbon Lancair Legacy. Other than that, I'm good.

Love old tractors too, and everything about this.

A remarkably clean SMP '60 Imperial for not-insane money... ...and the last of the vintage Merit race-car kits I wanted to complete that part of the collection (all to be built...or rebuilt...by the way).

Ah yes. EXCELLENT advice.

More vintage NOS Athearn Blue-Box rail-cars. I'm not needing the extreme accuracy available in freight car models today, but rather a lot of interesting cars to populate a sizable freight yard, to justify a lot of train break-up and make-up switching....and a thriving rail-car repair/rebuild business adjacent to the yard. All the rolling stock will be upgraded to Kadee #5 or compatible couplers, and RP-25 compliant wheelsets for good operation. Though most of the Athearn and similar cars have decent wheels, many of the older kits and "train-set" cars do not, and fouling of the spike heads and derailment on switch frogs (code 83 and code 70 rail) can be a real PITA. Fortunately, now that I have the Unimat, it's easy to chuck an axle up and turn the flanges, at least, to RP-25 depth. This saves the expense of replacing all the older wheelsets. In the shot below, there is an Auto-Loader car. One release of this kit came with significantly over-scale Mopars, but this version has correctly-scaled Fords. That makes it possible to load 6 cars, as the prototype did, even though the rail-car's length is slightly fudged for operation on tight-radius trackage.

What bothered me about Facebarf was the fact that personal info I HAD NEVER PUBLISHED miraculously showed up in my profile. Beyond acceptable limits of "intrusive", if you ask me.

Several years ago, after being very disappointed in the under-scale of the kit body in question, I did some measuring to see if it could be used for ANYTHING with reasonable accuracy. Turns out it's a pretty decent starting point for a '34 Fiat Balilla, a car that was much smaller than the Ford, but had similar styling. The Fiat Topolino was a popular body in the "altered" class, and I don't see any good reason a Balilla couldn't be the basis of a "what if" model that represents something that actually could have been built. Stretching the rules a little, even a gasser-class car of similar size to the popular old Anglia is also feasible.

I really enjoy seeing this kind of project. These were great looking cars, IMHO. I just bought a '60 Imperial to do much the same thing with.

Due to a thread posted elsewhere on the forum concerning the Ford "cammer" engine, I sprung for an unmolested Tom Daniel-designed T'rantula, mostly to get those lovely rocker covers. I have several cammer-powered builds in the lineup, but they've all stalled due to large (to me) scale and appearance inaccuracies with the engines. We'll be seeing what it will take, or if it's even possible, to build a correct-looking cammer from these covers and other bits I have in stock.

If you need to go 3mm (3 scale inches), turning the spindles upside down is definitely your best option. The spindles in this kit do NOT have steering arms, so the typically-necessary swapping side-to-side when you invert spindles is NOT required here. HOWEVER...the spindles do appear to have a very slight amount of camber designed in, and the mounting pin (where the balljoint would be) on the lower end is slightly larger than the upper...so a slight amount of massaging the holes in the control arms will be in order.

Even painting REAL cars can be a serious problem in hot, humid climates. One summer here not too long ago, all the body shops were painting in the middle of the night and using the maximum amount of retarder in the paint to combat solvent-popping...which can NOT be polished out, and requires a strip to repair correctly. Are you airbrushing, or rattlecan? If airbrush, moving your water trap AWAY from the compressor will allow the compressed air to cool more prior to going through the trap, and will have much less water vapor in it as a result. Also, what clear are you using? There are some that are relatively insensitive to humidity-blushing, and some that will stay milky-dull almost forever. If you're airbrushing lacquer, retarder (from the body-shop supply store) can be used to minimize the blush reaction too. A dehumidifier in a fairly well-sealed room will also be of great help, but you're going to need a hygrometer to gauge its effectiveness, and try to do your spraying only when the humidity is under about 60%, and air temps under 80F.

This basic question gets asked repeatedly, and the answer is that you do it just like it's a real car. Maybe I need to post a tutorial that addresses all the variations, once and for all. I have the retooled version of the kit in question, and checked the parts. As Mr. Muppet alludes, all you have to do is cut the STUB AXLE off the SPINDLE, and move it UP on the spindle the exact amount you want the car to come DOWN. This is identical in effect to replacing stock spindles with "dropped" spindles on a real car. To hit it right the first time, you really should mock the car up sitting on the stock suspension and measure the ride height. Then remove the suspension and mock the car up where you WANT IT TO BE, and measure that ride height. The DIFFERENCE in these two numbers is the exact amount you will need to raise the stub-axle relative to the spindle. NOTE: Cut carefully, measure carefully, and use plenty of liquid cement to reattach the stub axles. ALLOW TO DRY THOROUGHLY, and the joints will be plenty strong to support the car. I do this all the time.