Red, white and YOU! any kit NOT produced in China or Japan

  Freddie looks like he's doing O.K. (and possibly enjoying someR&R) and I'm assuming he's sort of lost, as shown by the sort of puzzled look on the Fronz's face (Sort of the old Route 66 story: lost driver is finally nagged enough by wife to ask for directions to California, he stopps in at  a garage/gas station, finds station attendant around back working on a car, Man asks attendant how to get from Point A to Point B, and attendant, who was never good with Geography, reading a map, etc. is severly puzzled. He still gives the man directions, which places them 1 mile past the middle of Nowhere)

 I'm glad a model of a railroad car is acceptable, I have some kits I would like to order, and chances are good I may be able to get them soon (how soon is unknown)

      I look foward to seeing the 49 Mercury Club Coupe. I got one waiting in the wings myself, only, it's the Revell Special Edition custom kit. (Yeah, it'll be customized alright, it will be customized into a wreck with rust "chopping" the roof off, and assorted garage tools, toolboxes, etc. scattered all over (Speeking of garage tools, It's about time to scratchbuild a workbench or something, to make it look like the restoration started, but never finnished) While car is not appropriate for the build, I'll post photos elsewhere.

Ha ha excellent insight into my lill' vignette Railfan 233! Actually the figures are planned to be added along side a P-51 Mustang with the motor exposed. Hence the elevated work platform. Everything is white glued down to ease removal to their new home later on this year.

I was at a car show & shine and bought Revell's 57' Chevy Nomad off a vendor. The mold dates to 1988 and I must say what a stinker of a kit! Horror is the only word when I dry fit parts, gobs of flash, terrible molded parts and really it will be a endeavor to get it up to any type of standard. I returned and bought a few bags of assorted wheels off him to replace the kits sad offerings. He seen my pain and I gave me the Merc' for 10$. What a difference! I was all smiles dry fitting and planning that build. Maybe the 57' Nomad is best built in the 'Yippy im a kid again GB' and used as a pellet gun target after...

Thanks for your interest in this GB, let me know the rail car's manufacture & scale (HO or 1/87 I assume)

Jason

BTW~ Searched for HO scale tanks and found some tasty resin offering$... pricey though.

You got to admit, I bring intrest to anything (except parties, if the gathering is not with my family, I'll leave the country untill the party is over) I have always been a deep thinker, and if you or anyone else shows me a model or a vignette, I'll put a story so good down (eather on paper or in words) that the person(s) will want to attach to their model/vignette. 

     Now, I have an unfinnished Revell B-17, which I got from the Mighty 8th airforce museum in South Georgia, which I hope to continue when the disaster area I call a workbench is clean(er) yet I already have a beleavable story for the bomber to use in a diorama. I (admittedly, with no plan) started grinding the plastic thin almost everywhere on the bomber (even taking the whole rear door next to the waist gunners off) and modeled so many bullet and shrapnel holes, that a real B-17 wouldn't have been able to fly. The story I put with it is along the lines of the flight was ambushed over the English Channel on the return home, and the bomber (name still pending) dispite being shot to pieces, remained flying and the crew kept fighting, untill alied Spitfires chased the agressors off.

 With the critical state of the bomber (1 engine on fire, and the other 3 froze-up from bullets laged in them) the only hope was to glide back to England. They made it, but the bomber came down in a farmer's field, plowing into a haystack.

I got sort of an idea for the ill-fitting parts of the Chevy Nomad, How about modeling it as a "crashed" car?

It should be simple, peeling paint, rust, and disrepair was covered back in the November, 2007 issue of FSM (Karl Logan was the outhor) and, if you want them, dents and crumpled fenders can come curtesy of a heat-gun (be careful not to burn the plastic) or a hair-dryer.( Admittedly, I plan to do the same thing with my '49 Mercury, as mentioned before. It's just a sugestion)

[ Normally, if I get a kit with problems like you are mentioning, I just beat it up, like I'm doing with my current project, a re-release of Revell's SBD Dauntless. Copyright date, 1960 Flash and ill-fitting parts are for everything]

For the railcars I planned to do, I was going to do a Rail Yard Models craftsman kit ( more than likely the KELX X-79) but there was a change in plans. I was looking through my stash of kits, and found an old AMT/Eartl  Korean War F-7 fighter (I can't remember the name) I will get started on it as soon as the Dauntless is done ( Just some extreme wethering, and I'll place it on the bottom of a model sea)

If you want to look, at the railcar kits offered, here's the link:

www.railyardmodels.com

If anything else, I still got some old Athern Made in the USA lits to build (admittedly, they will take less than 5 min. to assemble, but I will probably build them and include them, since the subject is Made in the USA)

Railfan 233,

Yes the 80's was the best decade. Sex was safe and bull riding was dangerous!

Sounds like you are quite the model builder! Glad to have you aboard this lill' GB I started. The 57' Nomad is a challenge to say the least, I chose to box it up until after the Merc' is finished. Basically I have not built a car model sense I was around 10 years old. I figured get a easy one in before tackling such a mess of plastic.

I purchase models because I can envision then in a diorama, some do not get to that point yet I do try and make a attractive display for each one. My last contest I believe it helped score one build higher than the rest. I will post some WIP's soon from the Merc' project.

Have a good one eh! (Canadian for 'have a nice day)

Jason

Actually, Jason, I'm stuck in the 80's due to the extreme action they had in the action shows back then (like the A-Team, garunteed gunfights, and huge explosions are the norm, with cars being shot up) not to mention, the cars (Big & boxy, that's where I'm at. Cars back then were made of steel, which turned them into tanks)

I'm glad to be on the build, and thank you for letting me get aboard (dispite the fact I had to swim to catch the ship) Although I build plenty of models (close to or over 100/year) they are mainly paper models (my favorite media because it's free) or real cheep plastic kits (like what Revell sells in the Michaels Arts & Craft stores)  with, (as noted before) an occasional locomotive or railcar (I plan to do several Santa Fe rebuild GP-7u 's, and then scratchbuild some transfer cabooses)

     I did score the F7F Tigercat from an antique dealer during a sale (Speeking of which, I have made good progress, dispite missing parts, and  the gear-door being lodged inside the nose. Now on to my pet peeve, masking the canopy and painting) and I have also been able to build odd pieces (like various wooden crates and palets) with stripwood from Wal-Mart.

I can give some encuragement for the '57 Nomad, Keep chiping away at it (mabe turn it into a "while the glue and paint dries" build) andeventually, you'll get it done. It's like scratch-building, keep working on it and eventually, it will get done.

I agree (and back you up on) the purchace of kits you can see in a diorama. I have had that happen plenty of times (One that is still on the back burner untill I acually buy the kit is a model of a Huey, which I would like to modify to look like the Huey on the fromt cover of the book Bent and Battered Rotors Vol.2)

I hope you have a nice day, too  (not sure what the exact Southern variant is. I'll look into it)

I pity the fool who don't think Mercury's are super duper awesome cool!

Here is a WIP from the Ford engine separated from the transmission. The idea at this stage is to model the stock motor hanging on a overhead hoist just yet still just away from the transmission. The fan bell pulley and the rest were turned on my poor man's lathe as shown. The bell housing large gear and spline are from a old clock that donated its innards to my build.

 I agree with you, but I would change my saying to "I pitty the fool who doesn't think all classic cars are uber cool!"* (*the word "uber" was used by my algebra teacher in the 8th grade)

         That's a lot more than I can do with a car engine (I can eather build it strait from the box, or build it "salvaged" with useful "Quick to Pick" parts missing)  You are definately comming along good with your build

      An update from my build: I have started painting today, with a metalic silver from a spray-can. I have seen some photos of F-7F's wearing a natural-metal with some paint on certan areas of the fuselage. I don't see any squadren markings, so I'll take artistic lisence and paint my bird in a simaler scheme, and use the kit's decals. I'm currently waiting for the sun to "bleach" out the yellowing in the decals. I'll post photos after the painting is done, in case the decals are not ready for the deadline. Or, I could use the flame decals from the Revell Mercury to produce an unusual (and un-realistic) paint scheme for a show aircraft, like the stunt planes seen at airshows (But then again, I have seen every type of thing painted on an aircraft, from tigers to candy. Mabe it's not so unrealistic for a flame job on one after all)

One question: How do you use your lathe? (I have tried it myself, but the lathe was the most terrifying thing I have ever held in my hands  ) 

Would plastic sprue be O.K. for use in one?

Jason, I found a big SNAFU with the kit (the F-7F) I looked at the wrong label on the box, and it turns out that the F-7F I'm building is the old Monogram kit

 ( I have both the AMT/Eartl kit and the old Monogram kit. I got the boxes mixed-up, and I didn't realize it untill now. Sorry for any inconviniance) -Railfan233

Railfan 233

 Maybe it's not so unrealistic for a flame job on one after all)

Back in the late '70's, I saw a T-6 that was gloss black with flames painted on it. So no it wouldn't be unrealistic for a show plane at all.

Railfan 233

 

One question: How do you use your lathe? (I have tried it myself, but the lathe was the most terrifying thing I have ever held in my hands  ) 

Would plastic sprue be O.K. for use in one?

The 'lathe' is a 3/8 variable speed B+D (Black + Decker) reversible drill. The trigger allows 'feathering' of the RPM and it can be set with a dial on the trigger for full pull RPM. It started as a way to turn road wheels to sand them, soon I found that any plastic part that could be mounted can be turned to sand rounder. The edge of a file was used to get the tiny belt pulleys formed, with the drill in the table and healed close to it. The other hand also braced on the table to steady everything.  Aircraft panel scribers also work well, I use finger nail sanding boards exclusively for this technique. If you purchase a drill for modeling get a rechargeable one that the chuck closes to a point. This way you will not be limited to the smallest size it will mount.

I recently found tooth picks can be turned and sanded in a Dremel tool, the higher RPM works well long as you go easy on them. I made 1/48 scale sledge hammer handles this way.

Above is a jig used to cut uniform .50 BMG shells in 1/32 scale with brass rod + Dremel tool.

Wheels mounted to turn also are easier to paint using the posts.

 Thanks for the info on the lathe and how to use it (That's where I screwd-up. I used my Dremmel, and it went to the high setting, spewing out the plastic immidiately.)

 I'll keep my eyes open for a Black&Decker drill (I think we have one in the garage)  One last question about the .50 BMG rounds. Do you know a methood on how to make the individual links for them? (call me crazy, but I really want to have realistic rounds of ammo in the gunbays on every aircraft)  Also, do you think the methood could be used in other scales (like up-scaled to 1/6 scale or downscaled to 1/48 scale)?

 I finnished my model of the F-7F Tigercat today, with the exception of the "in-flight" display stand (I need to re-build it. It's too flimsy)  Here are some photos of my handy-work.

1: overview (Do you think I'm in the running for world's most cluttered and paint-splattered workbench?)

2: close-up of the nose and nose-art (My camera is a cheep one. This is the best photo I could take)

3:Tail section. (my lack of masking skills are evident here)

That's what I came up with for the paint job (if you cleaned up the poor masking, it could be true airshow- paint scheme) This is my first time doing a natural-metal finnish, and I'm pleased eith the results.

Here's a list of decal sheet's used:

Revell's 1/25 scale Peter-built 375 tractor- red, white, and blue stars on the nose

Revell's 1/25 scale 49 Mercury- flames comming from behind the cocpit.

Testors 1/72 scale SBD Dauntless (sub-hunter option)- stars-and-bars insigneas

Revell's  1/48 scale F-4U Corsair (Black Sheep option)- large white "24" on the tail

(I think Squadren) 1/72 scale P-47- FAA regestration number

Sharpie marker and my skills- "Ace of Spades" nose-art

         Well, that's it for now. I enjoyed building this  "Airshow Tiger" and the build overall. I can't wait to do it again.

Heh Railfan buddy,

I could not get your links to work?

To post directly on this site you need to up-load the pictures to a third party image host site like 'Photobucket' Then 'copy' the link listed that starts with 'IMG' Get back to this page and 'paste' the link here. When you post the reply your link magically appears as the picture!

I know its a PITA yet its cool to see the pictures on this page without searching for links and going to other sites. I have had no issues, spam or Emails from 'Photobucket' and their service is very professional

Figured...

 Don't you love technology!?

I'll try a host site, but I'm not too sure.

        I have been trying to get the ommages to come up on every forum I'm on, and nothing... (this exact message you sent me is almost a carbon-copy of what a forum member on another forum told me)

 I'll try to get photobucket up, and I'll try again later.

Now, I have to "dispose" of my anger (The computer may not survive)

I got a photobucket account now, let's see if it works, or if I give the censored smiley's another workout... (please respond and tell me if you can see it on your end)

?action=view¤t=F 7F002.jpg

The nose of the aircraft (again)

?action=view¤t=F 7F001.jpg

The over-view again (I still think I'm in the running for "World's most cluttered and paint-splattered workbench")

EDIT:   It didn't work. All I can say is follow the links (I hate this technology!)

Railfan 233

Figured...

 Don't you love technology!?

 

Now, I have to "dispose" of my anger (The computer may not survive)

OH NO !!!!!!!!! Not the computer then we wont get to see your pictures, self control man, self control !! Thats the answer.

now wheres that post button 

alright, you convinced me,the computer I'm using right now will survive.

 Time to go to the flea-market and buy some "victims" for the shooting range...

Close yet so far away!

Sorry Railfan you are having technical issues at this time, I really am keen to see your work!

Take a break and try again. Once the image is up-loaded to Photobucket you need to highlight the IMG link. Left click it so it turns blue, then right click to select 'copy' When you paste it on this page it should start with IMG and have a code looking line behind it about a full line depending on the length of its name you gave it in Photobucket. Im not sure if the preview function here will show the images or not, just post and if nessisary it can be edited by you on your post.

*sends computer good karma to Railfan*

 O.K., let's try again.....

This should be the over-view of the whole aircraft (I hope I did these in the right order)

this should be a  close-up of the nose...

and(last one) the tail [my lack of masking skills very apparent here]

I can't see anything in preview, so I'm going to post it and see if it works. (Come on computer, work for once!)

EDIT: YES! IT WORKED! 

Railfan 233

YES! Congratulations on getting the image thingy to work!

The plane looks cool, I like the paint scheme you came up with.

A few tips on masking:

-Only the edge you are using to divide the two colors has to be down tight, the rest can be anything, for example I have used blue poster tack, aluminum foil and plastic bags.

-ALWAYS lay tape on clean glass and cut the edge with a sharp #11 blade first. The tape edge gets contaminated with lint and other items that will effect its adhesion and how straight it will be.

-Some spray a layer of clear over the tape to seal the edge from the color bleeding under. Even the base coat can be used for this step.

-Remove tape ASAP and peel  it back slowly & close to the model. A tooth pick works well to lift a corner to grab. Some score the edge with a new #11 blade to avoid a jagged edge. The trick is to keep layers thin.

-My final step is to wet sand the edges to smooth over the ridge formed between color coats. I use 1200 grit wet sand paper for this. Like auto builders a wet sand between all layers will always pay off in a ultra smooth finish.

Everyone builds for their own reasons, I enjoy contests and strive to make each build better than my last. I hope 1 or more tips listed above brings your next masking job to the next level.

Thanks for the masking tips. I don't know how well they will work for me, but I may be able to use some of them.

I'm notorious for not being able to mask a strait line, on a model or on a wall, so I don't know how well the tips you gave me will work. Still, it's a good experiment (mabe I can do it with that junk model of the Chevy station wagen)

Most often, I'll just build a model for fun, so there's no real contest worries (I do like group-builds, and seeing how my [lack of] skills stack-up to others)

I enjoyed this build, with the exception of technical dificulties (I really wanted to chuck my computer out of a truck going down the interstate)

The good news is, I found a treasure in my workbench clutter, 2 prestine 3.5" floppy discs (I love those things) yeah, I'm old-fashoned, but it helps with stuff I do....

Model building for fun?

I enjoy every hour at the hobby bench, sometimes I get stuck in a quagmire of scratch built details of my own creation & need to 'box and shelf' a kit for a period of time, only to return to one day to finish.

Masking tape in 1" widths has very limited flex over contours, for the first strip try cutting it down to 1/4" or 1/8" thick and then mask to this line. You will find it will conform to complex curves better. Also avoid the normal 'white - yellowish' masking tape. Buy painters blue or green when at local hardware store. Its a bit more $ yet worth the extra cost.

Back to my first statement,

I couldn't enter the GB 'Yippy i'm a kid again' I thought it over and decided I could not build in that way again. I have boxes of 'slapped together' models from when I was a kid back home. I will however take pictures of a few for the GB for fun!

Looking good Rail!!!!

  Thankyou for the tips with the tape. I have always avoided the yellow stuff, I herd that it accually pulled the paint down with the tape. I never use it after hearing about that.

I too, love building stuff from scratch, anything really, if I know how to do it (which reminds me, in the photo you had about the lathe, you had 1/32 scale .50 shells in the photo. Can you give me a quick demo on how to do it?)

      I have a lot of model cars, with odd wire bits and pieces of old computer parts representing parts of the engine. It's quite convincing, especially in a junkyard diorama (the parts are not from the car in question in a junkyard, so anything could be found anywhere)

Well, that's about it for me in this build, I thought about the "Yippy I'm a kid again" build, but that's a paradox with me (I'm 16 years old, so technically, I'm still a kid)

Hopefully the computer won't go out again =-)