Ace-Garageguy

Enamel over lacquer is usually safe (depending on several factors). Lacquer over enamel is asking for lifting, wrinkling, etc. Enamels also often have a "recoat window" that varies from paint to paint, and with temperature, humidity, etc. The general rule of thumb is that you can recoat enamel with enamel before 1 hour's drying, or after 48...but this needs to be verified experimentally for each paint you use. Shoot enamel over uncured enamel too soon, you'll probably get wrinkling too.

You are correct sir...it started life as the old Monogram Indy Kurtis nose...and thanks for the compliments. Excellent advice also. This was shot with the lens just about centered at the beltline... ...while this was shot at approximate eye-level of a scale human... ...and this was shot considerably lower.

Why? I didn't think Michigan was a likely area for earthquakes.

Very nice. Is it watercolor, or marker, or...?

Mo' debinately my kind of car. Proportions and stance are critical to get right on these things...and sometimes take lots of fiddling to hit the sweet spot.

If you're very good at laying things out on paper, and then cutting them accurately and cleanly, you can also make custom masking templates from "frisket" material. It is available to work well with different paint products, and avoids the problem of wrinkling and subsequent lifting with bleed-under you encounter with masking tapes. Another option, again only viable if you have very good fine motor control of your hands, is to use a "liquid mask" that is painted on, with a very fine brush used to sharply define edges.

All the above info is true and correct, but it's most important to remember LOTS OF LIGHT and USE A TRIPOD & THE AUTO-TIMER (to prevent jiggles)...no matter WHAT kind of camera you have. These shots were taken with a very cheap and "obsolete" ($15 used) 4.1mp "point-and-shoot" Nikon that only has "macro" and "zoom" extra functions. This is the el-cheapo lighting setup...three swingarm lamps with 100-watt equivalent compact-flourescent bulbs...

I've bought electronic parts from Chinese Amazon sellers (no US-made equivalents were available) and have never had to pay any additional import fees. I don't know about the situation with Chinese models, but buying them from Japanese sellers on Ebay, I've never faced additional fees there either.

Landed on my butt when I sat in a lawn chair that apparently had one back leg in a rabbit or gopher hole. Pretty well crippled right now, just about need a walker to get around the house. I haven't had back problems for several months, mostly due to losing some weight and doing targeted exercises. I'd forgotten how debilitating a bad back can really be. Bugger. I have work to do...

The 935-78 nose droops considerably more than the Ferrari, which is natural, as it follows the hood contours of the basic 911...and uses a 911-style hood as well.

A little reminder of how much fun gassers are.

Everything you said makes perfect sense. And your reasoning is why I almost always have a plausible backstory for anything I build. I almost never do models of specific cars, but I like to do what-ifs that get the tech right for the period and applicable class the model is supposed to represent. But there are a fair number of people who just don't care (and wouldn't catch AA/GS on a normally-aspirated Pinto four-cylinder ). We've had several 'discussions' of realistic gasser stance, for instance, with a few getting quite belligerent while arguing the opinion that these are just "toys", and that trying for technical and historical accuracy only takes the "fun" out of the hobby. I personally enjoy taking the extra effort to make a model believable and mostly technically correct, and consider it to be part of the "fun". PS. A thought about fiberglass panels...they wouldn't necessarily change the class a car would run in. A 'glass nose on a gasser, for instance, would have two effects. It would reduce the total weight of the car, naturally, but the idea isn't to go into a higher class. Rather, it's to get as close to the minimum weight for a particular class as possible. Getting weight off the front is the other point, so that the car could be ballasted up to minimum class weight (if necessary) with the ballast placed where it would do the most good for weight-transfer during acceleration. PPS. A further thought on other "hidden factors". For one example, the engine in the old Revell Stone-Woods-Cook Willys gasser represents a gen-one Olds OHV V8, introduced in 1949 and built through 1963. The engines came from the factory in displacements of 303, 324, 371 and 394 cubic inches, and all of them are visually almost identical...especially in 1/25 scale. A bored and stroked 394 can easily exceed 400 cubic inches, so obviously, for what appears to be the same engine, you could be in at least two different classes, depending on internal displacement. Again, that's why I usually build to a plausible backstory.

I'll be interested to see how you handle the conversion. I'm sure you can do it; just watch your dimensions, stance and proportions carefully. And avoid the temptation to get something stuck together quickly. Lots of careful mockup time and precision with cuts, fitting and symmetry will make it an outstanding accomplishment.

Very fine indeed. I started one of these years back, going with opening panels and engine / suspension details. Got mired in research and much scratchbuilding, as usual for me.

Yes, I agree with that too...though I wasn't referring to the actual updating process disrupting work. I'll often shut down the machine as a t-storm is approaching, having been zapped by a line spike before. Waiting for a damm update to do its thing in that scenario can be a little annoying too. HOWEVER... The most recent update has fooled with the functionality of several NON-Microsoft programs...somehow...which only became apparent well AFTER the update, like DAYS after, when I tried to use the programs.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

Microsoft updates. Lately, whenever Tinylimp updates itself, it destabilizes several other applications and creates odd behavior that can be maddening...especially when it occurs in the middle of actually trying to DO something on the computer. Occasionally the problem is so severe that only uninstalling and reinstalling the app in question will clear the problem.

I wish you luck. The nearest one to me closed years back due to safety, neighborhood noise (the strip was there first) and property "development" issues. Now I have to drive damm near 100 miles.

Exactly. You can easily ruin an edged tool by "sharpening" it incorrectly, and when two edges have to meet as they cut (like scissors etc), it's doubly imperative you do it right.

Metal Glaze is simply Evercoat's brand of 2-part polyester finishing putty, pretty much identical in chemistry and performance to all the other catalyzed putties. It's a premium product, and works very well for big cars and little ones. As stated above, it isn't supposed to cure "rock hard". If mixed correctly, and there is some latitude as far as mix ratio goes...but try to stay relatively consistent...it will sand and feather easily, with excellent adhesion to the substrate. The small metalized 'bag' container available from Metal Glaze is probably superior to the small 2-part Bondo container for modeler use, as it does a better job of inhibiting drying out of the product over time.

Almost all the old vintage kits I have...and I have a fair number...I bought fully intending to build. There are a very few that I'll probably keep in pristine unbuilt condition, simply because I sometimes enjoy revisiting a moment in the past when I first opened one of them, in my much younger days. It's the closest thing to time travel I've found yet.

Just finished a long-term job in the big-car shop, so I treated myself to additional copies of these... ...and a set of these, also in 1/8 scale.

REALLY COOL. REALLY REALLY COOL.

Interesting project, and very nice choice of color and striping. I agree with you that this kit is hardly the POS many would have us believe. Though it's somewhat proportion-challenged vis-a-vis a real one, it has quite nice lines in its own right, and could easily represent a post-wreck partial rebody done before the cars became stupidly valuable. Such things were known to occur. I have one or two on the shelf, waiting to become "outlaws" in the style of sacrileges () committed on representatives of other 'sacred' marques like Porsche. I'll be following along.