Model Cars? now that's Grassroots!

In reply to slowbird :

Indycals are amazing! 

EDIT: @slowbird, I forgot to say, your Mustang is looking good!

Indycals are awesome!

In reply to BenB :

Thanks! That's a sweet-looking Indy car there, too! I have a few open-wheel kits I need to get around to eventually.

I tried the 90% isopropyl alcohol, it is not as good as the Bleche-Wite at all, BUT it has some interesting properties that could be great for making patina.

Embed not working, link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4PlIHqtDvY

In reply to Javelin :

Interesting. I've been using Purple Power, it works fairly well but not 100% perfectly.

In other news, scratch-building a frame is hard. It's harder when you're dumb like me and basically eyeball everything.

(the rear suspension needs work before it will fit up to the back part of the frame there)

Finished the old Tamiya Honda NSX GT with new decals from Shunko. Crappy cell phone pics don't do the florescent red justice.

Next up, in honor of Sebring, I'm building the blue & yellow Turner Motorsports M6 GT3 from the 2019 race.

In reply to BenB :

Looks sharp!

New project: trying to restore this glue-bomb I bought for cheap.

If I knew who built this, I'd go back in time and gently advise them not to use so much glue. (They were probably a kid. We all had to start somewhere.) 

Teardown has been violent and destructive, but we're approaching viability.

Gonna get the motor out, spray the majority of it black, paint some of the detail bits, throw it back together, and try to put some new decals on it. Maybe the JPS livery.

"If a little glue works good, a lot ought to work better!"

on the rare occasion i get to build anymore, i love getting into a Tamiya kit.  they're so well done it feels really gratifying and rewarding to spend the extra time on each part.  i take forever to get a kit together so the cost doesn't bother me as much since its spread out over a year or two.

finished this Morgan 4/4 a couple years back...love these cars and the kit was really fun.  first time i really stuck to the letter of the instructions instead of kitbashing or modifying stuff.  wish the interior turned out darker saddle but maybe i'll redo it someday.  first attempt at flocking and it came out well.  picked up the display case at hobby lobby and i feel so stupid it took me this long to figure out how to keep the dust off of it.

trick i learned with Tamiya kits years ago was for good looking treadwear, put the stub of the wheel (with tire on obviously) in a drill chuck and run 400 grit sandpaper against the tire as it spins.  takes the shine right off the tread.

In reply to ScottyB :

I have one of those Morgan kits un-opened on my shelf. I did not realize it was such a modern one with high back seats and bullet lamps. I will be kit bashing mine for a backdate!

In reply to TurnerX19 :

cool, i'd love to see how that turns out.

In reply to ScottyB :

Patience is required on your part. I have dozens of other projects farther up the priority list than the Morgan.

Been screwing around with this idea for awhile.

ScottyB said:

on the rare occasion i get to build anymore, i love getting into a Tamiya kit.  they're so well done it feels really gratifying and rewarding to spend the extra time on each part.  i take forever to get a kit together so the cost doesn't bother me as much since its spread out over a year or two.

finished this Morgan 4/4 a couple years back...love these cars and the kit was really fun.  first time i really stuck to the letter of the instructions instead of kitbashing or modifying stuff.  wish the interior turned out darker saddle but maybe i'll redo it someday.  first attempt at flocking and it came out well.  picked up the display case at hobby lobby and i feel so stupid it took me this long to figure out how to keep the dust off of it.

trick i learned with Tamiya kits years ago was for good looking treadwear, put the stub of the wheel (with tire on obviously) in a drill chuck and run 400 grit sandpaper against the tire as it spins.  takes the shine right off the tread.

Once you get the tread looking like you want stop doing the whole tire and stay in one spot. It makes a flat spot on the tire and when the car is together put all 4 flat spots down. Hey! It looks like the car has weight!

It gets rid of the "floating" effect that round tires cause like in your third photo. 

Shadeux said:

Once you get the tread looking like you want stop doing the whole tire and stay in one spot. It makes a flat spot on the tire and when the car is together put all 4 flat spots down. Hey! It looks like the car has weight!

It gets rid of the "floating" effect that round tires cause like in your third photo. 

I actually used to wait until the vehicle was assembled and then move the whole thing around on a full sheet of sandpaper.  That guaranteed all the flat spots were in the same plane and helped even out the suspension droop on all 4 corners.

The dazzle camo effect on that 'Stang looks pretty cool!

In reply to Duke :

Thanks

Shadeux said:

Once you get the tread looking like you want stop doing the whole tire and stay in one spot. It makes a flat spot on the tire and when the car is together put all 4 flat spots down. Hey! It looks like the car has weight!

It gets rid of the "floating" effect that round tires cause like in your third photo. 

dude.  that's such a better idea, haha.  what doesn't GRM know?

and yeah the "float" looks superbad in that shot.  i actually have a piece of tacky putty under the rear tire to keep it staying put.  gotta get that outta there now!

Flat spot the tires? But then I can't roll it back and forth while making zoom noises! 

Flat-spotting the tires is an old model airplane trick. When I started building cars, I was surprised it wasn't done more often. It's the only way I can get all four tires on my cars to touch the ground.

@Shadeux, that's a great-looking Morgan!

@Javelin, I like that Mustang! What kit is it? I'm looking forward to Tamiya's Mustang GT4 that's coming this summer.

In reply to BenB :

The Revell snap-tite kit that comes molded in color and half assembled.

Working on a bizarre AWD Lotus 7 with a front-engined supercharged V8 powering the rear wheels and a radial with 5 nuclear balls and a turbine powering the front wheels that also shoots missiles in space.

In reply to Javelin :

haha, love the orks supervising

In reply to stylngle2003 :

Well it IS an Ork buggy... 

Heh, I never got into warhammer but I have an ork truck of some kind. My favorite thing is that their machines are designed such that the technology of them shouldn't work at all, but they work because the orks believe that they should work. That's good lore.