Ace-Garageguy

For a long time it was this old Aurora double kit. I had a bad yen for it when it was released in the dim recesses of time...the box art is still some of the most compelling to me... but forgot it even existed until about 2005. I finally got a clean unmolested one a few years back, and was kinda disappointed with some of the scaling mistakes that were made by the manufacturer. It's still on the shelf, and I'm still trying to decide what to do with it. Right now, rather than correcting the proportions, I'm leaning towards just doing both models box-stock, as cleanly as possible, with very minimal detailing, probably limited to plug wires.

X2. Definitely. I followed the stock-cars back in those days...when they were still closely related to "stock", and before they'd become nothing but fast, loud rolling billboards for beer and laundry detergent.

I think I already have most, if not all, of mine. I'm working on the 4th and 5th tier of holies now.

I always have to chuckle when I get a 50+ year-old model like this. The proportions are so spot-on, and the detail engraving on the bodies is so crisp and clean, they really put a lot of today's softly-sculpted and often inaccurate kits to shame. True, the engine and underbody was a little crude, but it certainly wasn't for a lack of ability on the part of manufacturers. They got the major part of the models, the part that showed and was most important to the majority of the market, just about perfect. Anyway, I got home to find this exceptionally clean screwbottom original '64 Mercury Park Lane. I was assuming it might be kinda rough, having already been stripped. The plan was to de-chrome it and build a replica of a '64 Marauder prepared by Bill Stroppe and driven by Parnelli Jones. As it played out though, the model is much nicer than I'd expected, and came with a little bag of parts that even includes the hood ornament. The model was built with a Paxton supercharger too. The model is SO nice, I'll probably just polish it and leave it alone otherwise.

Self-etching primer is preferred whenever you're trying to get decent paint adhesion to any metal parts.

This was the GMC alternative to the Reo-designed M34/35, and the successor to the WW II GMC CCKW...all of which I already have. ...and does anybody know if the M135 is built on a chassis close enough to a CCKW to pass?

Yes.

That I can't tell you. I do know it's a little less aggressive in the adhesive department than the 3M green tape I swear by. Because both the yellow and the green are intended for real-car use, they're designed to be solvent-resistant, and don't allow it to soak through to whatever is under it. See the caution about blue tape below. But I always AVOID having any tape of ANY kind in contact with painted surfaces if at all possible, and only allow fine-line tape from 3M or Tamiya to touch paint. I also usually use real automotive paints like Duplicolor, and do very careful surface prep to insure maximum adhesion. I also rarely two-tone anything, but I'm sure somebody here has used the stuff for that too. A word of caution about blue tape: though it's designed to be the least aggressive to finishes, it's also intended primarily for water-based paints. Solvents can actually soak through it and literally glue it to the surface of a model...particularly if you use the el-cheapo Chinese no-name stuff.

For the big-wheel version, the new front crossmember is sourced from the AMT Phantom Vickie kit. It's set up for independent suspension, and goes in just like a real one. I've left the original crossmember in place to keep the chassis square while I determine exactly where the new crossmember has to go to get the wheelbase and ride height I want. The rear end is NASCAR mystery-kit parts-box sourced...a big fat reinforced Ford 9" on trailing arms, with a Panhard bar. Yeah, it's probably 1/24 and this is a 1/25 build, but I don't particularly care. I might slim down the housing a little bit, and I might not. Below, the rear crossmember for the trailing arm pivots has been narrowed and installed in between the chassis X-members. Pockets for coil springs now have to be made up, and the ride height checked carefully to determine if the rear of the frame will need to be zeed or just C-notched for clearance. It looks like the floor will need to be raised a tad to clear the arms, too. As usual, I'm building the thing as if it will have to function, and dimensions could be taken from the model, multiplied by 25, and applied to a full-scale car. Here, the IFS has also been mocked up so I'll know where everything goes, how much room it takes up, and where the front crossmember will need to end up. With her sitting on her feet, mocked up, we see the front ride height will determine where the crossmember goes relative to the frame rails. If you look close, you see the center of the stub-axle is way lower than the center of the wheel. The solution is, of course, to raise the crossmember in the frame. A little measuring and cutting filing is in order. Going to narrow the crossmember a little too, as I think the front track looks too wide as is.

Just so's everybody is on the same page about the new-tool Halibrands...they're these, which were a dealer option on The Avanti, and available aftermarket for a while as well.

I'd say there's a 99.9% chance the solvent in your somewhat "hotter" clear was just hot enough to go through all the earlier layers of material and bring up a slight defect in the plastic resulting from how it flowed into the mold. There's a very good chance, because it app[ears to be relatively minor, that it will disappear after color-sanding and polishing, which it's going to need anyway. If it were mine, I'd go ahead and shoot another coat of clear (or as many as you usually do), let it cure hard, and sand / polish. If it disappears you're golden. If it doesn't, there's another option that may cure it short of stripping.

Franklin Mint Continental MkII. I'm not much of a diecast collector, but when there's just no other option for something I really want...or the price is very low on a subject that can make an interesting custom (broken, scratched, etc.), I'll bite. Zero luck after years of looking for a decent MkII promo in 1/25, and they're kinda crude anyway; pretty OK with having got this one for around $55, shipped. Very minor hangar rash that will easily polish out, all packaging and docs included. Many thanks to SfanGoch for the heads-up.

I'll usually tag a kit box with notes on blue tape as to the general plan, then once it goes into "progress", I'll keep notes and sketches in the box. There's just too much stuff to remember otherwise.

The filler material in the roof in this case is just 3/32" X 1/16" strip styrene. It bends easily enough in your fingers to make the edge pieces.

NICE work on that engine. It's tough to have one look that good blown up that big. The fuel line. generator wiring, vacuum line and fan belt all really make it pop. All in the right relative scale sizes too.

I'm still waitin' for mine.

3M has a high quality 1.5" yellow masking tape made for real car body and paint work. Any body-shop supply store can fix you up with a roll. It's probably not as thin as the Kamoi, but it's worth looking at, especially because you're most likely not going to be trying to get very fine edges from a 1.5" wide tape. It's available from Amazon and other online retailers too. Here's 3.6 cm. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0036C0PVI/ref=psdc_228921_t2_B00BZ0KFPY

This one should be a little easier to scratch-build.

Bizarre. Round-headed riveted construction, a water-tight door, and articulated in the middle. Very Russian indeed.

Fine looking model, interesting video. There was an ACH-47A variant (four of them, actually) that was pretty impressive in its gunship evaluation and testing role. Anybody interested in CAS weapons systems should look it up.

I changed over to Chrome from Firefox a few years back, with as many "don't track me" and "ad-block" options as I could hang on it. So far, it seems to be decent, with no more problems on this particular site than other guys have been having.

The time line indicates otherwise. GM was either losing interest in or losing talent at EMD by the late 1980s when GE overtook them in market share. A company that pretty much invented the diesel-electric locomotive configuration and historically dominated the market should have been able to stay "competitive" had there been the desire and ability to do so. But EMD was still a major player in 1999 (considering Southern Pacific's order of 1000 SD-70 locomotives...the largest order for locomotives in the history of the known universe). In 2004, CSX Railroads bought the first order of the advanced SD70ACe locomotives from EMD. These locomotives met the new Tier2 emissions requirements, and went on to meet Tier3 emissions requirements that would last through 2014 as well. They were hardly the products of a company that wasn't "competitive". However, it was also in 2004 that GM put EMD up for sale. In 2010, Caterpillar completed the purchase. The same year, EMD still had 30% of the market...again, quite "competitive", though a long way down from where they'd been. And for the same year, 2010, GM's global automotive market share was less than 12%. It wasn't until later that it became apparent the SD70ACe couldn't be easily modified to meet the stringent Tier4 emissions requirements that went into effect in 2015. However, the POINT of the comparison here with the hobby paint manufacturer was simply to show that a large company sometimes decides to walk away from a perfectly viable, profit-making small division.

Caterpillar / Progress Rail seemed to think otherwise, bought the division, and last time I looked, they were still operating in the black. http://www.caterpillar.com/en/company/brands/progress-rail.html http://www.progressrail.com/en/rollingstock/locomotives/freight/sdacet4.html https://www.cat.com/en_US/by-industry/marine/electromotive-diesel-engines.html Here's the actual story of the competition between Cat / EMD and GE http://www.star-telegram.com/news/business/article3876002.html

THANK YOU SIR !!

That's wild. Certainly not what I expected. Beautifully made, very original.