Monty

Frank, ever consider doing the MRC Muscle Car tires? Ya can't buy the things anywhere anymore, so the market's wide open. I'd love to have a couple more sets of Firestone Wide Ovals for my pre-radial cars. Admittedly, they could use a little reshaping etc, but nothing you couldn't handle. I bet we'd all like to have the Mickey Thompsons too, but the way MRC did the sidewall lettering is so bad it detracts from the model. I have no idea what it would take to fix that, but if you did, you'd have buyers. Just a thought...

What an adorable pup! Glad to hear you were able to help him make it through the tough times. Now that he's safe and secure in a good home, he'll pay you back double with loyalty and affection. That said, you should still keep your modeling room locked when you're not around.

Yes.

Some of the subject matter seems intriguing, but I'm totally unfamiliar with the brand. Should I expect the design and execution to be closer to Tamiya in quality, or something closer to, say, mid-1970s AMT? All comments are welcome, but I'd really like to see some pics of builds as well.

Krishna, as a certified C3 ('68-'82) fanatic, it always makes my day to see one built and painted as nicely as that one. The paint you used is very close to Chevy's Bright Blue for 1975. Like Tommy, I'm kinda picky about aftermarket wheels, but the ones you used look great. I'll be interested to see how the other 'Vettes in that set turn out. Tommy, if you didn't already know, MPC offered models of all the C3s. They feature nicely detailed chassis, poseable front wheels and an IRS with separate half-shafts. A few (early '70s) even included real metal coil springs for the front suspension. I'm hoping someday I'll find the time to replicate my 1:1

Now that is how black paint is done! I'm guessing you either sprayed this with Tamiya black or you carved it out of obsidian. That engine looks wicked too. You can almost hear a big ol' Isky mechanical cam in there. Set the valve lash & let's roll! Can you explain why you changed the grille, and what you replaced it with? I hope this one inspires you to keep on building. Can't wait to see it finished!

Dear Mod-Squad, thanks for yanking my inquiry out of the General section, which people actually read, and dumping it off in the North Korea of forum sections where posts apparently go to die prematurely. I can only surmise that this section is labeled "Where's Waldo" because "Obscurity's Anus" was already taken. Having never been in this section before, I'd like to know if there are any special duties I must fulfill. For example, am I required to stop in once a day and dust off my post till somebody reads it? Please give some consideration to adding a psychic-contact section to the forum. It'd be just as effective while using far less bandwidth. All the best! MW

I'm interested in doing a trade with him, and sent a PM saying so, but he hasn't been on here in almost a month.

When you build in this scale, do you ever find yourself using a magnifier of some kind? My eye doctor told me people's eyes often change drastically in their 40s, which is one of the reasons I bought a magnifying lamp.

If you want to make it easy on yourself, buy the pre-wired distributor from M.A.D. http://www.madmodeli...w/8cyldist.html. I've seen some aftermarket distributors that were little more than metal tubes with wiring coming out the top, while Kris's units are nicely cast resin items with multiple options for cap and wire colors, and they are very affordable. He also includes a slightly larger piece of vinyl tubing to make the plug and distributor boots. You can also use the kit distributor by filing down the contact points and drilling your own holes using a #72 bit and a pin vice. You'll want to have the distributor housing in some kind of small vice to keep it from moving, and you may want to see what the other members recommend to keep the bit from "skating". You can use #30 wrapping wire from Radio Shack, although it's limited to red, white and blue, if memory serves. There are several other aftermarket businesses that offer various colors of correctly-gauged plug wires as well. Raid an old landline phone for the right gauge wire to use for plug and distributor boots or use Detail Master P/N DM1420. A quick Google search will give you the layout for Olds cylinder numbering and firing order. The kit you're working on has the spark plugs molded to the cylinder heads, so you won't need to drill any holes in the heads to attach the plug wires. On other kits where that's not the case, use Google images of the heads to see where the plug holes should be drilled.

Got one back in '82 and was surprised how well it compared to its counterpart in the Testors Those Famous Fords kits. IIRC, the decals were the only letdown. Also, even though it was released in 1/20 scale, the McLaren Mk 8d was a nicely done Can-Am car for the time.

Never hurts to learn something new. I'll take you up on your offer. Thanks!

I couldn't help but notice that you removed the plating from the valve covers, air cleaner and wheels. Are you going to send them out to be replated or are you going to Allclad them?

I'm pretty sure that was never an MPC kit. The only Datsuns they ever did were the mini-pickups from the mid-70s.

Bill, if you look at the picture of the H.E.I. distributor I posted, you'll notice the relatively small size of the distributor boots. In the interests of maintaining scale fidelity, I'll be using the R.B. Motion parts and trimming them accordingly. Paul's idea could work well if you're capable of making all your cuts and splices consistent in size. Even with my new Harry P - recommended magnifying lamp, I'm not sure I could.

I've got some kits with fairly decent renditons of factory brake & fuel lines molded to the chassis. I'm not talented enough to replace them with actual metal lines, so I'd like to enhance them as much as possible with model paints. Any special techniques (masking etc) you guys use to paint a brake or fuel line completely without getting any on the chassis? Any particular paint(s) you like best for this kind of detailing? I've done them for years with silver enamel and a 10/0 brush and toothpicks, but results varied with the crispness of the mold. Bonus question: Has anyone tried using aluminum BMF (less shiny) on molded-in 1/25 scale fuel or brake lines? Results?

That's what I was looking for! I saw these on here several years ago, but failed to bookmark the site. Thanks Tommy!

Just curious if anyone makes 90-degree boots such as you'd find on an HEI distributor. http://t0.gstatic.co...Zar2x5uAW0dM-Ww

The question is pretty simple - I'm not asking about 289/302s, 1/24 302s or anything else quasi-related. While I realize the difference in deck height would be negligible in scale, I'd still like to know the answer.

Great color choices, Felix!

It's one thing for you to astound us with your abilities in 1/24 or 1/25 scale, but to pull off something like this in 1/43 is outstanding. I couldn't even imagine trying to build that rear wing. Well done!

So, you're saying I should be looking at the stuff that takes 12 hours to dry? That's fine. I just wondered if there was one in particular that would be optimal for this situation. I've just never had good luck with CA stuff, so I don't use it anymore unless there's nothing better to use. In this case, the epoxy may help form part of the unit, and I may also be drilling into it.

I've got a resin item that I want to bond to styrene in order to make one complete assembly. Once the two items are together, they will require a final filing and sanding to achieve the shape I'm looking for. To make sure the bond is as strong as possible I'd like to use an epoxy, but having never used the stuff before, I'm not sure what to buy so I'd like to hear your suggestions. I'm not a big fan of CA-type glues, so please confine your recommendations to epoxies. Two stipulations: 1) Should be relatively inexpensive 2) Should be widely available (WalMart, Lowe's etc) Today's ignorant question: Would this stuff work? http://t0.gstatic.co...3nScyeFdai-g8Sg If not, maybe something else in the Loctite line?

TS-29 (semi-gloss black) is still impossible to find in my local hobby shops & none of my usual online sources have had it in stock in months. I hope Tamiya gets these backorders filled soon before the Cal 'tards find another reason to jam things up again.

Years ago, when I first discovered their site, they seemed to have quite a few talented members and the majority of the builds were worth checking out. Over the last couple years, however, the number of remarkable builds on there has gone down. I'm not saying it's Gluebomb Central, just that I haven't been awestruck by anything on there for quite a while. Can you elaborate on your experience with them?