Ace-Garageguy

I only take time to read non-work-related things in bed at night. Relaxes me and puts me to sleep. Usually have several things to choose from, as I don't always feel like fiction or history or whatever. Also tends to make getting through some books take a while.

Ollie's has these for about 8 bucks. Great parts-stash source, even if you don't want to build the specific car.

Just finished F. Scott Fitzgerald's Collected Stories. Same guy who wrote The Great Gatsby. I'd only read that and one other of his novels previously. All of his short stories seem to be drawn from episodes of his own life. He relates the feelings of youth, love, loss and disappointment very eloquently, without ever being whiny or preachy. Quite a feat. About 3/4 through Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress (Douglas Brinkley). Written in conjunction with Ford's 100th anniversary in 2003, it's a sweeping overview of just what it says it's about. Unfortunately from my own perspective, the author is neither engineer nor "car guy", and the technical mistakes and omissions are disappointing. For instance, the '32 Ford, a real landmark in the company's product line with its one-year-only body and chassis tooling, plus its first V8 engine in any "affordable" car, is glossed over, and the '32 is quite mistakenly lumped in with the '33-'34 as being virtually the same car all 3 years...which it isn't. At all. The emphasis is overwhelmingly on personalities and interpersonal conflicts, and isn't what I was looking for...at all.

One of the simplest circuits imaginable. The resistors are the brown blobs. The VALUES of the resistors are worked out using the specs of the LEDs, or experimentally on a breadboard. READ THIS: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2012/resistors-for-leds/ (be patient...the site is slow to load)

Agreed. Once you have the surface stabilized with the right primer combination, the paints are great. (BUT: I have NO experience with their engine paint on models. It's great engine paint on real engines, though.) This is Duplicolor, shot straight from the can. I believe Steve Guthmiller uses Duplicolor paints as well, and his always beautiful paintwork speaks for itself. PS: A general note about "engine paints" is that, in my own experience, they tend to have even hotter solvents than the self-etching primer products made for real cars. I believe this is because engines more often than not have some residual greasy film on them, even after cleaning, and the hotter solvents help with adhesion to a less-than-sterile surface. In 2012 I shot a Revell part that had resisted crazing under Duplicolor primers with a dark gray aircraft engine "enamel". The crazing was instant and horrible, and almost caused me to miss a contest, as a carefully built custom chassis was pretty well ruined. And THAT experience is why I always harp on "TEST FIRST" before committing to use ANY unfamiliar product on any model you care about.

Yup.

VERY attractive model. Well detailed larger scale models can look very realistic when photographed in daylight.

Looks great. Nice work. Aluminum foil can be used to keep the light from shining out of places you don't want it, like around the hood and the hood vents. Because LEDS produce very little waste heat, you can usually wrap an LED with foil to control light leakage.

Wow. One of the most believable models of that car I've ever seen, in any scale. Hard to imagine it started life as a lowly snapper. Very nice indeed.

The only other two kits that I can think of right off hand are the AMT '37 Chevy and the AMT and Monogram '36 Ford kits...all of which usually bring more money than the Extremeliner and the '39 Chevy. Any other suggestions?

You have some really clean craftsmanship going on here. Very nice.

Photographic proof. This is the crazing you can expect with even a LIGHT coat of the Duplicolor self-etching product on most recent kit plastics, shot from the can.

The old Ertl diecast Posies Extremeliner kit and the Revellogram '39 Chevy kits have something in the ballpark...

I had really no idea other than some styling cues that looked familiar. Disqualified meself and back-searched. Man...I had NO idea. Very nicely proportioned little car. I'd like to have one.

Beautiful, beautiful. Interesting how some of the huge land-yachts look great with minor de-chroming. The subtle sculpting of the body really shines on this one.

Ummm...WHAT ?? The Duplicolor primers, shot from the can, will craze most recent kit plastics INSTANTLY. Especially the hotter SELF-ETCHING. THREAD HERE... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/116530-duplicolor-primers-too-hot-for-current-production-kits/

Sure they're "flushable". You CAN flush 'em. You just have to dig them out later.

Excellent. This is a great opportunity for you to get a little self-education in basic electronics. You might find you like it. I did at about your age, and it's helped me in my career my entire life.

You need to understand how the things work and do the math, not just randomly start putting bigger batteries in the circuit. I noted in my first response you're probably going to need resistors to balance the loads of the LEDs that stay ON with the ones that go OFF. There's math required to get the RIGHT resistors. There's thinking involved. It's not hard, but you need to do it.

Well, no matter if they are all "3v" LEDs, they obviously don't all draw the same current. Right? If they DID all draw the same current, they'd ALL be evenly illuminated when you wire ALL of them in parallel...right? Do you know anything at all about electricity? Do you know what "current draw" means? Do you understand resistance in a circuit, and how you use it to balance various loads? Do you understand what a parallel circuit is? A series circuit? Series / parallel? Did you watch the video, or is that too elementary for you? Maybe try reading this. http://www.theledlight.com/LED101.html EVERYTHING you need to know is there, there's a simple and logical reason why your LEDs act as they do, and YOU need to figure it out. I don't mean to seem harsh, but there's no magic to this, there are WAY too many possible combinations of LED specs and wiring for anyone to be able to tell you exactly what to do, and I'm not there, I have no test equipment hooked up to your circuit, and I don't have the data on your LEDs. Designing an LED circuit for a model is about the easiest thing you can do in electronics, and I've pointed you to all the information you need to get going in the direction so YOU can understand what you have and how to make it work. Good luck.

Looks like your flip-nose fits well closed. Good work.

I'd really have to see your circuit to understand what YOU mean by "a series and parallel circuit". If you hook all the lights together in simple parallel, IF they all draw the same amount of current, they will all shine equally brightly. If some go out and some shine, the ones shining will most likely need to have resistors added to make the others come on. And again, without seeing your existing wiring and knowing the exact specs on your LEDs. that's about all anyone can tell you. Google "circuits for LEDs in models" for all the info you could possibly need. Here's a place to start.

Big smile so far. This should be fun.

Thank you. Right about now, it's necessary to assemble the rear wheels so I can get the required dimension for the rear axle. I like my tires to fit close to the body, with just enough room for suspension movement. The only way to get this right is to assemble the parts that will actually be used, in order to get the exact axle width. The rear wheels on this are made up from scavenged bits. Here, I've started to remove the stepped ring from the American-style centers, to allow the polished rims to fit closer. The centers will be stripped and shot with a lightly textured dark metalizer, to simulate as-cast magnesium. This shot shows the previously cut-down outer rims, also having been stripped and sanded with 2000 grit paper, wet. They are seen here just after being shot with "aluminum plate" buffing metalizer. Shot WET, 3 coats, like I usually do. Looks like silver paint, no? The rear brake drums will have to be assembled too. Previously stripped, they were shot with SEM self-etching black primer. This will be the final finish for these parts. The front spindles and backing plates got assembled with the kingpins in place to keep the bushings aligned. After they set up, fit was tested on the front axle, and the ends shaved slightly to allow free steering action. I'm quite happy with the initial effect of the polished rims and lightly textured centers. (The rims were allowed to dry for a couple hours and polished lightly) They give the rear of the car look I was after. At some point, the plan is to turn some new outer rims that capture more of the look of the early Americans. These are early first-generation American mags with no lip on the outer part of the rim, which I personally prefer. The outer rim is tapered and stepped, which my current outer rims fail to portray correctly.