64Comet404

Saw my first motorcycle on the road for this year today. I wish I could get mine on the road, but I need the snow and ice to melt from a one-mile stretch of dirt road before I can consider it ?

I'd be happy with a new-tool F-102 in 1/48. The Monogram kit was nice for its era, but life is far too short to spent on rescribing panel lines and fixing poorly-placed ejector pin marks.

I have a copy of Felsen's Hot Rod, where you can tell the cover artist used a Monogram Black Widow for the inspiration; the details match right down to the bulges in the bed for the electric motor and gears (it's in storage now, so I can't post it). Read all of them over the years. Other books I have or remember reading in years past are as follows: Drag Strip (William Campbell Gault)-picked it up from the discard pile back when I was in High School, no cover art Road Racer (W.E. Butterworth)-good book, will have to post pics of the cover later The Fastest Funny Car-I found this one on the library shelves when I attended teachers college. A lot of the action in the book takes place along the route I take to get to NNL East, so I tend to flip through it every time I go back to campus. And does anyone remember a series of books which followed the adventures of a young man who went from getting his first car to racing at the international level? I can't remember the name of the main character, but he started out with a '56 Chevy he found in the back of the business where he worked, then moved up to a demolition derby car (Buick wagon) and so forth. I haven't seen these books in 35 years, so the details are very fuzzy.

I sanded and glued together the main engine components for a Baja Bronco. At my current build rate, this ranks as progress,

I bought one a couple of days ago at my LHS, and it looks really nice. The question I have is about the recommendation to paint the frame in Aluminum. I realize that many old Land Rovers have had their frames replaces with ones made from galvanized steel, but it doesn't look like aluminum. What do you think the reason is behind this colour choice?

The TV show I am surprised that no one has mentioned yet is NCIS, nearly every major character has had a ride which could be modelled.

There's nothing that I need for kits in this video, but the Sandy Elliot Mustang looks tempting.

I've had an AirTrax 1800, and while it isn't bad, a nice new styrene kit would be appreciated. I still think the best appearance of a Super Snipe on film was at the end of A Hard Day's Night, where the car thief keeps having to hide every time the police run by while chasing the Beatles.

I would like to see models of many of the aforementioned cars, but I can only think of two vehicles that haven't been mentioned (and they're not even from North American TV shows!) 1. Simon Templar's Volvo P1800S from The Saint. A great looking car, and one I am surprised has not been molded by a reputable manufacturer (Palmer does not count!) 2. The Mini Moke taxis from The Prisoner. While we're at it, I also want the Lotus Elan wheels so an accurate replica of Number 6's Lotus can be built.

Do the kits come with both the 1965 and '66 grilles and fender badges? I'd like to build a '66 longbox, but don't want to buy two kits if not necessary.

These cars were an absolute blast to drive. One of our neighbours was a Volvo salesman many years ago, and he brought one of these wagons home as a demo. One afternoon, I was 'appointed' to take this wagon to town on a beer run. While the car had some torque-steer issues, it was like a guided missile once it hooked up! It was definitely up there in the realm of really neat drives I had in my mis-spent youth.

There were a couple of cases where one model company would copy the tooling from another company. Revell was caught having copied the Monogram 1/48 B-17, but without copying all the internal fuselage detail. In earlier times (mid 1950s), Airfix copied the Aurora 1/48 Spitfire, but downsized it for their first 1/72 aircraft kit. It is surprising how many times it has happened across the hobby industry.

We do get some, hmmm, less desirable kits sometimes, but it isn’t like everyone is getting a Palmer kit. For our club, the rules are that the kit must be complete and unbuilt, and that participants who do not finish their kit have to bring back an unbuilt kit. That kit then becomes a donation for the door prizes/silent auction items for our annual contest. Sometimes the greatest fun is seeing what people build from these turds, and there have been some highly polished turds that have appeared on the table. As I mentioned earlier, I exchanged a ‘65 Pontiac 2+2 for the Aerovette, and the 2+2 has to be one of the worst retools out there. I’m looking forward to seeing what someone does with THAT kit!!!

No, I have to admit I didn't do a search before posting. However, for a kit that was released over twenty years ago, and has been reissued at least once, I think there should be a lot more completed builds than I have seen. I did like your build, great colour choice.

The model club has a kit swap, where members take an unbuilt kit, wrap it like a present, and a draw goes on to pick a kit from the pile (to be built in six months). This year, I was able to exchange the kit I “won” (AMT ‘65 Pontiac 2+2) for a Revell Aerovette. I’ve always liked the look of the car, but realized I have never seen one completed. As the silver on silver colour scheme is a bit bland, I began to think of paint jobs which would complement the car. The US racing colours have always appealed to me, so why not a Grand Sport? Some paint, engine and wheels would help in the transformation. The test fitting displayed the first problem. As moulded, it is impossible to mount the chassis after the bumpers have been installed, and installing the bumpers after the chassis install would leave exposed seams. I decided to split the frame into three sections, which would allow me to work around this issue. I glued the front piece in before I cut it from the main chassis, so I could keep all the proper measurements intact. The next step is installing and moulding the bumpers, and figuring out further body mods (I’m considering exposed headlights, as well as some other ideas). Stay tuned.

If you look at the sides of the plastic base, there are a number of holes on both sides, which should help you in finding the best distance and tension to hold the body in place. The paint colour looks good.

Digital read-outs are very handy for milling machines, especially when you are dealing with the small increments we need for model building. I used to work with both horizontal and vertical milling machines, and whenever I needed down to the last thousandth, the DRO mill was the go-to unit.

I may get one, since it is the closest kit I can find for my Kia Rondo. Many differences, but I believe they share the same platform.

Jeff Beck was also a model car builder, there are pics from the mid-'60s showing Jeff with all his 1/24 Monogram builds sitting on the shelves. I don't know if he kept building models once he started building 1:1 cars. It is a shame to hear about Neil's passing. Some people list Moon and Bonham at the top of the greatest drummers, but Peart had much better technique, and continued to be at the top of his game for over 40 years. Great lyricist and a really good writer, and the man whose writings convinced me to buy a BMW motorcycle. Rest in peace, Neil.

Looking forward to seeing how this build goes. I've had three of these kits over the years, and I am happy to have an unbuilt one to apply all the tricks and techniques now available to the modeller. When I last built this kit in the early 1990's, I tried to fill in the ejector pin marks and sink marks with spot putty, and didn't have the painting or sanding skills needed to fettle and cover the repairs properly.

I checked my Seafox, and it didn't even have a stand in the box. It was a second-hand kit, so I'm not worried. If you are going to start building biplanes, the Matchbox kits are a great entry point. When I started to build aircraft kits as an adult, I would buy these kits, and use them to fine-tune my building techniques. The locating pins and tabs are outstanding, and miles ahead of the old Airfix/Frog/Aurora attachment points. The only older biplane kits I would place at the same ease of assembly are the late '60s Monogram interwar fighters. If you can spare a kit, take one of the more common Matchbox biplanes and build it right out of the box, without painting it. I think you will be impressed.

When cleaning brushes, always try and avoid bending the bristles, it does lead to them losing their shape. I also use a brush cleaner/preserver (available at art supply stores) regularly, to get any dried paint out of the brush. Keep the tips in their plastic tubes (to help hold their shape), or make some from tubing.

I call it 'blush', but it's not a humidity blush. It's the first time I have had some weird reactions when using Tamiya sprays. The paint was completely dry before the clear was applied, but the clear actually reacted with the colour coat, and the finished colour was much darker than the original.

I have been polishing the paint out on a Doyusha Aston Martin DB5. I'm not very happy with the finish (some paint blush), but I'm looking at it as an amnesty build, so I just want it finished and off the bench!!!

From memory, the running gear represents a pre-unit construction (engine and trans separate) Triumph 650 twin, so it could have started out as a pre-'63 T100, Bonneville, or similar bike.