Scale-Master Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 If I remember correctly there was a visible mold seam on a chrome part. This was in the days before Alclad. And that was his claim, no way to remove the seam without destroying the chrome. So then why ding the build for something that at the time was considered the right thing to do?
JunkPile Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 I haven't waded through all five pages, but one thing that I wonder about is why people use certain aftermarket distributors i.e. those which are merely an aluminium tube with a bunch of wires coming out of the middle. Adding plug wires can do a lot for an engine, but those things just look ridiculous. I have got to agree with Stu on this one.
johnbuzzed Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 I haven't waded through all five pages, but one thing that I wonder about is why people use certain aftermarket distributors i.e. those which are merely an aluminium tube with a bunch of wires coming out of the middle. Adding plug wires can do a lot for an engine, but those things just look ridiculous. Amen!
sjordan2 Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 (edited) To have the 100 point car, one would send the chrome out to get done in those days! He should've! When were those days? Before the Internet and search grew, there was no Alclad and there were no model car chroming services. And believe me, I tried to find such a service. It was well into the 90s before the public was really getting into home computers, the Internet, search and online marketing and sales. Everything mushroomed so fast that it's easy to forget how young our Internet capabilities are. Edited January 4, 2013 by sjordan2
johnbuzzed Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 I know that there are some builders who use PE parts anywhere and everywhere, even if if the use is not appropriate for the type of car or the actual part itself. It just doesn't look right, but some of them do very well in judged contests. Go figure.
Harry P. Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 But there was chrome foil. Maybe not the best solution (rechroming is obviously better)... but if he had taken the time to remove the mold seam and then foil the part, maybe the judges would have seen it as going the "extra mile" (even if the result was less than perfect) rather than seeing leaving the seam in place as being "lazy" on the builder's part. I'm just speculating, of course... I can't get into the judge's heads.... but if I was judging that model I would have seen things that way.
sjordan2 Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 But there was chrome foil. Maybe not the best solution (rechroming is obviously better)... but if he had taken the time to remove the mold seam and then foil the part, maybe the judges would have seen it as going the "extra mile" (even if the result was less than perfect) rather than seeing leaving the seam in place as being "lazy" on the builder's part. I'm just speculating, of course... I can't get into the judge's heads.... but if I was judging that model I would have seen things that way. Foil on the multiple curves of a bumper would be very challenging, don'tcha think? I remember way back in the day when I tried to use thin kitchen foil on something as simple as a windshield frame, and it was quite a bear. BMF came along in the 70s, but it was mostly known to aircraft modelers.
Harry P. Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 Foil on the multiple curves of a bumper would be very challenging, don'tcha think? I remember way back in the day when I tried to use thin kitchen foil on something as simple as a windshield frame, and it was quite a bear. BMF came along in the 70s, but it was mostly known to aircraft modelers. I would remove the seam and only foil that area, not dechrome the whole part. Of course it depends on the part itself... where the seam is, the types of curves and angles, etc. Might have been unfeasible, but I think 95% of the time it can be done. I've done it before... just sand the seam smooth and patch the area with a piece of foil. If you put the edges of the foil in areas where there are creases or "folds" on the part (like where a bumper guard and bumper meet, for example), it's almost impossible to see the patch unless you know what you're looking for.
2002p51 Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 When were those days? This was sometime in the mid-eighties.
2002p51 Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 So then why ding the build for something that at the time was considered the right thing to do? Like I said at the beginning, the IPMS point system in use for this contest was very specific about deducting points for visible mold seams. I had to nick him for it. But my real point in telling this story was the guy's attitude about not being merely happy that he won by a wide margin and produced the best model in the place. He still wasn't satisfied.
Ace-Garageguy Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 I haven't waded through all five pages, but one thing that I wonder about is why people use certain aftermarket distributors i.e. those which are merely an aluminium tube with a bunch of wires coming out of the middle. Adding plug wires can do a lot for an engine, but those things just look ridiculous. Artfully arranged, the wires can look pretty good on the distributor end, and much better on the plug end than nothing at all. A couple of reasons for using them might be that some folks don't have the fine muscle control or the vision required to drill distributors out properly, and some of the aftermarket ones with individual holes in the cap are too large diameter to work on some engines. If I were building a serious contest model I'd drill the correct cap, but for a shelf model that will never compete, the simpler ones are usually fine with me. What drives ME nuts is when someone sticks a wired distributor in at some wonky angle that has nothing to do with the 1:1 look. That REALLY looks ridiculous, but... It's becoming apparent to me, the longer I'm in this hobby, that a LOT of people in it don't know (or care apparently) correct 1:1 practice, including judges. And, some judges I've encountered have had too little building experience themselves to even recognize the extent and quality of heavy mods.
Scale-Master Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 Like I said at the beginning, the IPMS point system in use for this contest was very specific about deducting points for visible mold seams. I had to nick him for it. But my real point in telling this story was the guy's attitude about not being merely happy that he won by a wide margin and produced the best model in the place. He still wasn't satisfied. The fact of the matter in regards to Drew’s story, (and that is just what it is, a story, not based on reality but on a tale in his mind), is after the awards presentation Drew came over to the builder of that model and chastised him for not weathering that car. The model was an OOB built pre-race presentation version of a Tamiya Formula One car and was presented as such on the accompanying notes. For the record, my wife, a couple friends and I witnessed this unfold firsthand. Drew’s adamant perspective at that time was that since he photographed for a dirt track magazine he thought all race cars needed to be dirty, and became very argumentative when the point was repeatedly made that it was ostensibly a model representative of a virgin show car. Then he started with the pot shots for not sending out the chrome roll bar for an Out-Of-The-Box build. What the heck difference did that make after the fact? The show was over and a judge is making an issue with an entry and entrant? Talk about petty. It was not a case of a modeler not satisfied with an award as Drew falsely claims, it was a case of Drew criticizing the model and the builder for not making it how he apparently thought it should have been done after the contest was over. Why? Whatever happened to building for yourself? Or was this before that was permitted? (For the record, just how would the builder know what “the score” was anyway if a judge didn’t tell them? Aren’t the awards just first, second and third?) Even my wife remembers how unhinged and mad Drew was then when I showed her this thread today. In fact Drew’s nasty and rude attitude towards that builder that afternoon is why we stopped going to the San Diego shows. No need to participate at a venue where the winners (or anyone for that matter) are attacked verbally by the judges (or in this case, one of them) for not building in their preferred style.
martinfan5 Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 The fact of the matter in regards to Drew’s story, (and that is just what it is, a story, not based on reality but on a tale in his mind), is after the awards presentation Drew came over to the builder of that model and chastised him for not weathering that car. The model was an OOB built pre-race presentation version of a Tamiya Formula One car and was presented as such on the accompanying notes. For the record, my wife, a couple friends and I witnessed this unfold firsthand. Drew’s adamant perspective at that time was that since he photographed for a dirt track magazine he thought all race cars needed to be dirty, and became very argumentative when the point was repeatedly made that it was ostensibly a model representative of a virgin show car. Then he started with the pot shots for not sending out the chrome roll bar for an Out-Of-The-Box build. What the heck difference did that make after the fact? The show was over and a judge is making an issue with an entry and entrant? Talk about petty. It was not a case of a modeler not satisfied with an award as Drew falsely claims, it was a case of Drew criticizing the model and the builder for not making it how he apparently thought it should have been done after the contest was over. Why? Whatever happened to building for yourself? Or was this before that was permitted? (For the record, just how would the builder know what “the score” was anyway if a judge didn’t tell them? Aren’t the awards just first, second and third?) Even my wife remembers how unhinged and mad Drew was then when I showed her this thread today. In fact Drew’s nasty and rude attitude towards that builder that afternoon is why we stopped going to the San Diego shows. No need to participate at a venue where the winners (or anyone for that matter) are attacked verbally by the judges (or in this case, one of them) for not building in their preferred style. This is the truth
Harry P. Posted January 4, 2013 Posted January 4, 2013 ok, this is a tough call, but I think I need to lock this and here's my logic: I have no idea what happened at the contest that Drew and Mark refer to. I have no idea, and make no judgement, on who is telling the "truth," I'm not taking sides. Both Drew and Mark are magazine contributors whose material I value. But I have a feeling that leaving this open will lead to results that won't be very beneficial to the forum, so for that reason only (what I think is best for the forum), I think I need to lock this. I could have deleted Drew's and Mark's comments, but I think I'll leave them up.
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