Ace-Garageguy

The "wad o' wires" look as opposed to the "hair-part" look. Plenty of that on 1:1 cars.

The hole punch works fine on sheet stock, not so good on molded parts where access is an issue.

Another good suggestion. For those who don't know, "brad point" drill bits have a small projection that keeps the bit centered in the pilot hole, and differently designed flutes that 'machine' material away without so much risk of gouging and splitting. They're used to make a nice round hole where a common twist-drill has a chance of making a slightly elongated hole, and 'skating' away from the pilot hole. Again, you don't want to force it. Twisting carefully by hand will give the best results in thin plastic.

Easy one for me.

THANKS ! That's a great one to have filed away. That roof stamping must be on millions of that era GM cars.

AdBlock is free for Chrome too, naturally, and really makes the browsing experience much more pleasant.

You're not running Microsoft, are you? "System Restore" is similar on most of the recent MS operating systems, but I know nothing about Macs.

I've found, by experimenting, that I can get out of the endlessly repeating quotes by using the backspace function. Sometimes you just have to keep hammering the backspace key, but eventually it will clear all the prior quotes and you can post clean in a virgin text field. Works for me, anyway. There are subtle differences in how specific browsers interact with different sites.

I switched to Chrome and like it. So far, no issues. So far.

There are a few 1/24 radial-engined warbird kits around. Not this particular engine, but the Jap Zero and P-47 are both available, for instance. Kinda expensive donor for just an engine at $60-$150 a shot though.

So...now you know what a lot of life is going to be like "in the cloud". First time I changed my hard drive, I was able to get my Firefox profile back up. The Firefox server had everything. Second time too. Last time, no dice. Even with everything that should have been necessary, no go. Profile gone or mysteriously inaccessible along with a lot of tagged and archived research and reference sites and pages. No "procedure" worked to get it back. Just gone. And I'm not exactly a computer noob. These days, everything that could conceivably be important I save to my own hard drive, and back it up once a week. i wish you luck. If you recover it, please let us know how you did it. Good thing it's not an autonomous vehicle, huh?

Nice hack-'n-whack. Very clean work for such a heavy conversion.

Oh baby baby. Good looking little rod. Very clean work on your chop filling and finishing, much better than is the norm too. Great work.

I made a glooey fingerprinted poorly-fitting gap-ridden mess of just about everything I built when I was a kid lacking sufficient eye-hand coordination, fine-motor control, and a well-developed self-critical feedback loop...and patience. I remember being horribly frustrated because my results looked like dog droppings, and try as I might, improvement in my skills was glacially slow. By the time I was 14 or so, I'd learned to take my time, let things dry, test-fit before gluing, etc...and that if my models looked like carp, it was due more to my own incompetence, not "bad" kits...though there were certainly some that took a LOT more effort to fit and correct to become acceptable models than others. The IMC kits noted above, and others, the Revell Thompson Challenger I and opening-panel tri-5 Chebbys and '56 Ford pickup...there were quite a few I wasn't satisfied with on 'completion', but they looked pretty OK. I really have to thank this hobby for kindling an interest in how cars and aircraft worked and what all the parts actually were supposed to do on the real versions. I'm also grateful that poorly translated models like Palmer produced made me realize early in life that the manufacturers weren't always right, and just because adults got paid to do something didn't guarantee they'd do it WELL. I'm also grateful that I learned patience, and to rely on my own judgement when things didn't fit, and the confidence to cut into something that wasn't designed intelligently and change it. I wish I had the first Revell '57 Ford wagon that I think was my first 1/25 scale car kit. Man, it makes me cringe to remember how awful that was when I got done with it. I've come a long way since then.

Another clean, well thought-out hot-rod.

Next time someone asks me if I play golf (I don't), I hope I remember to be suitably offended .

Lot's of trick stuff going on here. Nice.

Excellent points. Though there's a fair bit of resin casting going on, the majority of it isn't really very good quality...if we're going to be honest. Most of the stuff I've seen is either too thick, not symmetrical, poorly scaled, misshapen, full of pinholes and bubbles, etc. Top-quality resin is somewhat rare, and Modelhaus has the reputation for producing some of the best. Also, I tend to think the majority of car modelers don't really have any idea of the level of care and skill goes into making top-quality resin parts, or anything else. Much of the popular perception seems to be that you just mix up some goo and pour it in a mold. Done. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I'm always annoyed when I hear people complaining about the price of quality resin parts. The reality is that if you're getting GOOD resin, whoever is making it is not making much money at all, considering the time and talent it takes to do it.

It's not hard at all to get a primer-show-through effect with sandpaper. This is the only one of mine I could find any online pix of, and I'm too lazy this AM to go looking on my own hard drive, but you get the idea. This was a completed shiny AMT '32 body shell of someone's I got with a bunch of parts. Several areas have been sanded through to various depths to give it a worn-paint effect, with the decklid area being the best example of the look I think you're after. The shell was also scrubbed with Comet first to break the gloss.

If you have a shiny model you want to make look dull, all you need to do is to scrub it with a toothbrush and something like old-fashioned Comet or another abrasive cleanser. Besides being excellent for prepping bare plastic for good primer adhesion, it also works beautifully for removing gloss to get a weathered effect. To me, shooting a coat of flat or dull clear over everything looks fake, as it evens the surface out too much. Again, this is an area where YOU need to experiment with various techniques to get an effect that looks real to you.

Perhaps it's begun... http://www.ebay.com/itm/MODELHAUS-1992-BUICK-ROADMASTER-RESIN-RESIN-1-25-Model-Car-Mountain-/142049174371?hash=item2112ca6363:g:1mIAAOSwRQlXf~9w

Saturday night I listen to WABE streaming their "Jazz Classics" show. 8PM-2AM. S'bout the best mood music I've found for building period hot-rods and customs. Think I'll go work on something now. http://player.wabe.org/wabe_simulcast.html

Or skulls.

Probably not, but it's going to depend on the exact look you want. There's a trend in 1:1 patina'd cars now to shoot clear over rust and faded /weathered paint and primer, but I think it looks goofy. I've only done a couple, but sanded-through paint looks exactly like paint that's worn off to primer...'cause it is. There are several guys on here who do a lot of it and do it really well. They can tell you more, like if you want rust showing through your primer in spots as well...which is beyond my current pay grade.