I am sure many of you have seen the various “Woodies” built by Robert Sienko at our meetings, various contests, in Scale Auto, or on Face Book. To say Robert has mastered using wood to create unique models is an understatement.
Robert Brough several samples of models he has used wood on to either create a more realistic pickup bed, add true wood panels to a Woodie, create scale surf boards and even create complete bodies for his builds.
He information not only the types of wood he uses but also where to find them, how to work with them from original shaping to finishing, staining, etc. .
Check back tomorrow for some pictures from his workshop,
Well, it’s a Tamiya kit so it’s likely to go together trouble free. Here is the spread of all the parts trees in the box:
Here’s the engine installed into the frame. The main frame goes together quite easily as there’s two sides and a small middle piece. It also has a nice kickstand that attaches with a metal bracket that gets screwed into place. The engine color calls for polished aluminum, so I used the AlClad Polished Aluminum. The engine also assembles very nicely and pretty easily too. It was easy to insert into the frame too, it’s held in place with three screws.
Here’s the shock assembly, it was pretty easy to build and paint. I used the Al Clad Titanium Silver as opposed to the Tamiya color, although I have both. I think this assembly will be completely hidden when the model is completed.
The wheel is a little trickier, first I had to drill out all those little holes in the brake rotor. It goes together easy enough but there are little mating pins on the inside ends of the spokes to align with the hubs, I used CA on it. There is an inner brass tube for the axle, once it’s together you have to insert it into the tire. You have to be more careful than on the racing type bikes with the one piece wheels. You don’t want to push against the spoke while inserting the wheel into the tire. That’s a good way to break the spokes and then you’re in some real trouble. So as you can see I got the wheel into the tire correctly.
I have the belt and pulleys all painted up, I painted the pulleys with Al Clad Polished Aluminum. One detail that’s a little lacking is that they didn’t mold the teeth into the rear pulley on the inside where the pulley is exposed. The front doesn’t matter as it will be hidden anyway. It turns out that when it’s all installed into the rear swing arm there is a lower guard in front of the rear pulley so you wouldn’t see the teeth anyway. I masked over the pulleys so I could brush paint the flat black onto the belt without messing up the pulley sides because the belt’s height is a little above the pulley’s and I wanted the paint to cover it.
The rear swing arm went together fairly easily. But it was a bit tricky getting together the left side with the belt/pulleys and lower belt guard together. Once that assembly was dry then the rest was pretty smooth.
So far this kit has been going together very well. Next is installing the rear swing arm into the frame. That went pretty easy too.
Now here are the fenders and gas tank. The rear fender is three pieces and the gas tank is in two halves. The two side skirts on the rear fender I painted separately. I painted everything else in Tamiya’s champagne gold. Those Tamiya lacquers have nasty fumes, I had perfect weather to spray them outside. It also does not have a high gloss shine. So next I masked the gas tank. They give you a pre-printed masking tape and the instructions show you how to place them. I easily masked the front fender to paint the sides. After all that was dry the next day I painted Testors clear gloss coat over it. See the photos below.
Now the model is starting to look like a bike. The fork went together pretty easily. I did have to do some detail painting on the brake calipers and paint some black onto one of the chrome cross pieces. I installed more detail parts onto the frame and installed the fork onto the frame. When I glued the two halves of the mufflers together I didn’t like the seem line so I sanded it smooth and used Al Clad chrome on it. It came out pretty good. There is a bracket molded into it that gets painted black, easily done with a brush. The gas tank has a nice emblem on the side. It’s chromed and then detail painted, easy to do. I used black India ink for the recessed letters and the Star. and I used a champagne gold enamel I had to paint into the “wing”. The directions called for metallic gray but the box art had the champagne gold so I went with that. There are a number of rubber hoses to hook up for the brakes and clutch. I have some hooked up. Those are a little tricky to push onto those tiny plastic pins, I usually stick a sewing pin into the hose to stretch it a little bit.
The footrest assemblies went together pretty easily, some painting is required over the chrome parts. They align with square pins or round pins with a flat. The assemblies then attach to the frame, I glued them on but they each get a screw to really secure them in place.
Now the bike is finished. I have installed the final details, the windscreen, the mirrors, the headlight assembly, etc. The seats and saddlebags were easy to assemble and I sprayed them semi gloss black and used Molotow Chrome on all the rivet heads. I used it on the handle bar and foot peg ends too. All the lenses were clear and I used the Tamiya clear orange and red to paint them. I found I had left off a few small decals in places by the time I was nearly finished but they were all accessible to apply them. A really good kit to build, now onto the rider figure.
The model even has a working kickstand.
Here’s the kit. He can be built two ways, The first as you see him in the box art. The second is with him wearing a woolen beanie cap, holding his helmet and he also has sunglasses he can wear. I think I’ll build the second pose. You can see the two pictures on the instruction sheet.
I have not built a figure before so I don’t know how good I’ll be able to paint him but he’s going together real easily. The texture is well molded and he’s looking pretty good so far. First here’s just the legs:
The jacket assembles over the legs in three pieces. But first I painted the legs blue. It doesn’t matter what shade as jeans come in so many. Then I dry brushed some light blue and then white over it. Next I painted the leather jacket. The instructions call for semi gloss black as shown in the box art but I went for a brownish color that looks just like a jacket I have. The color is Testors Rubber which is really just a dark flat brown. So I painted the three pieces first. Then I did the arms the same color. There’s also the gloves and the hood. The hood and what you can see of the shirt are flat gray. The shirt is part of the leg assembly.
The next challenge is the head, especially the face. Here’s what I’ve done so far:
I painted the skin with Testors Skin Tone Warm Tint, the lips were painted with highly thinned red. At first it looked like lipstick, but then I lightly painted the Skin Tone over it and that made it look realistic.Here he is all finished. He seems to have a blank stare but it is what it is.
I may be a
little biased – this is my favorite muscle car of
all time. A family friend bought a Lemon Twist for his wife in
late 1969 or early 1970 and at the age of 13 I fell in love with the car and as
they say, “The rest is history”.
This is an
updated re-release of the 2013 issue of Revell’s 1970 Plymouth Hemi “Cuda kit
number 85-4268 with the correct parts to build an AAR. There are even some
extra parts included in the box. There is an amazing number of decals in the
kit including those for the battery caps and marking for the heater hoses. With
additional research, time, and patience it can be built into the best AAR ‘Cuda
possible.
This one is
built “box stock” using no aftermarket parts using only various paints and Bare
Metal Foil to enhance the details. I wanted a “Vitamin C” colored body with the
period correct white and black interior.
Pro’s: Extremely accurate details with accurate
AAR parts. The model went together very well, so well I look forward to
building another.
Cons: The decals are slightly thick, needing
patience to get them to lay down flat. With the addition of white strobe
stripes the builder would have the option for additional body and interior
color combinations.
Overall, I highly recommend this kit and if you love Mopar Muscle it is a must have.
Mike Crespi builds and reviews Revell’s Porsche Junior Tractor
It’s a pretty uncomplicated kit to build, and a snap kit too with pretty good detail. It’s not a curbside. Unlike any other model vehicle I’ve built this one builds around the engine. The engine and transmission is one assembly.
You then attach the rear end and front axle and everything else. I decided to build it weathered. Looking for pictures of the 1:1 tractor on line I found over 20 of them of a tractor that’s for sale for $48,000. It’s in mint condition but I was hoping to find an unrestored one. I found other rusty tractor photos to help me with the weathering.
When you open the box it’s only about ½ full, no large body, chassis or interior tub parts. Most of the plastic is red, you can almost build it without painting it, just a few details. I started with flat red since it will be weathered. It looks like it can mostly assembled before weathering.
Here’s photos of what’s inside the box:
It comes with nice rubber tires too!
Well, here’s the engine/chassis going together. The engine/transmission/rear end essentially form the main structure of the tractor. I still have to weather it up and add the rust and dirt. Here’s the rear wheels:
Here’s the main assembly so far:
This model is certainly going together easily, very little flash and the parts fit together well. You can almost get away without painting. Here’s more photos of it nearly completed.
This kit has a nice decal sheet but the directions doesn’t quite show where they all go.
I’ve been using the Rust All weathering kit along with a Rust antiquing kit by Sophisticated Finishes which has a gray iron paste and a chemical to turn it into real rust. I also used some rust colored pastels.
Well, it was a nice easy build, I enjoyed building it too. A good quality kit. Here are some finished photos:
Steve Linngren builds and reviews Revell’s Ford GT-LM
The
Revell Ford GT Le Mans 2017 kit is probably the most complex model I have ever
built but the comprehensive 44-step instructions played an important role in a
successful project.
The
16-page instruction document contains a paint guide that lists the 15 colors
required for this build. I studied that
paint guide so that I could acquire the colors I did not already have before I
began working on the kit. There is also
a section that identifies all the parts that make up this kit. The kit contains 101 parts and is cast in
white plastic, clear plastic, red plastic and soft rubber. The section titled
“Read this before you begin” is also valuable in supporting a successful
project. The kit is very well designed and I did not have significant problems
with parts fitting together. Nearly all
of the parts fit well, but I still used trial fits for all of them to learn how
they worked together.
One
issue I encountered was with the two-piece body. Because
of the long seams, I glued the two main body parts together in phases to
simplify the process. After I assembled
the two body pieces, I noticed some gaps in the joints and decided to fill them
with body putty to improve the appearance.
Another issue appeared after I applied a coat of Duplicolor Automotive Sandable primer to the body. I noticed several very fine mold lines on the front and rear fender tops and the front and rear valances. I sanded them away and proceeded with the finish.
This kit contains many decals to enhance the realism of the model. Since they need to be installed after particular areas have been painted, the order of a few assembly steps had to be changed. Many of the decals are quite small and require real concentration to handle and put in place. I put a small tweezer to good use for that process. In my case, I decided to build the Ford GT Le Mans 2017 kit in how I imagined a street livery would look, and I did not need to apply all the exterior decals.
The body is painted with Duplicolor White Sandable Primer, Duplicolor Ford White, and Rustoleum Crystal Clear. No final polishing was required. Various shades of Tamiya paints were used for interior, chassis, and engine details.
The overall build process proceeded very well, but I did encounter difficulties installing parts number 49 (rear intake top), 53 (left turbo exhaust) and 54 (right turbo exhaust) because of their tight fits. The rest of the project was routine and I am pleased with the outcome. This is a well-designed, well-detailed, high quality kit that produces a very good replica of the 1:1 automobile.
Mike Crespi builds & reviews this Aoshima motorcycle: I’ve been under the impression that Aoshima kits are pretty close to Tamiya kits in quality. Well this will be my first Aoshima to build. I will be building this kit box stock as there are no aftermarket detail kits for it and I can’t find anything on the 1:1 bike for detailing information. I just have the instructions and box art. Here is a picture of everything laid out that comes in the box:
Figure 1
Well, the first step is assembling the wheels. So the wheel centers and spokes have to be painted semi- gloss black. This requires some tricky masking of the rim. See Figure 2.
Figure 2
Looks like the masking worked pretty well. I sprayed the semi-gloss black and removed the masking. I had to then put back the silver radial lines from the cooling fins on the wheel. That was real easy with a Molotow pen. See Fig 3:
Figure 3
Well, I can see now that these kits do not compare to Tamiya kits. They lack detail. The chain only has the links molded on the outside. Tamiya has the links molded on all four sides of the chain. Tamiya kits are way better. But so far this kit has been building easily. Below are the wheels installed on the front fork and rear swing arm. The swing arm has some nice sink marks. See Figure 4.
Figure 4The engine is fairly simple as well.
Now I’m getting somewhere. I have the rear suspension and the engine attached to the frame. This kit does assemble easy enough and the parts fit together well. But there are sink marks in the rear swing arm. See Figures 6 and 7:
Figure 6
Now I have the fork installed with the headlight and front turn signal assembly. I used BMF for the reflector in the turn signals and used Molotow Chrome for the reflector in the headlamp assembly. So far everything has been easy to assemble. See Figures 8 & 9 below:
Figure 8
I glued the exhaust system together. The mufflers were done in two haves. The chrome quality is very nice but having a glue seem down the center was quite unsightly. I tried to get away with Molotow chrome but it looked bad. So I did sanding and used AlClad Chrome which came out pretty good. See Figure 10:
Figure 10
It sure
wasn’t easy gluing the exhaust system to the bike. There were a couple of holes
on the inboard side of the mufflers that went onto pins on the frame. But it
has four individual header pipes that went from the crossover assembly to the
engine block. Only the two inside cylinders had rings for the pipes to fit
into.
Then I assembled the seat and gas tank to the frame. The seat had a few fairing parts around the back and sides. And after all that was done I applied the decals. They came off the sheet fairly quickly. I didn’t do a perfect job either. That last thing I did were the side view mirrors and the license plate frame. The mirrors have some nice sink marks right in the middle. All in all I was not really enthusiastic about this kit as it did not meet up to the standards of the Tamiya motorcycles I’ve built Here is a finished photo:
When did you
start building models? Around the age of
7 or 8
Why? I always liked cars and like the idea of
building miniature cars that I liked.
Also, the box art caught my attention and still does.
What was the
first model car you built? It was a 1963
corvette – that my uncle repainted while I was asleep.
What types
of models do you build? I like factory
stock and restomods.
What
brand(s) of models do you build the most?
Revell and AMT
What do you
like most about model building? I find
it relaxing.
What part(s)
of model building do you find the most challenging? The sanding and polishing to get that
brilliant shine!
Anyone special who provided you guidance/inspiration/support? I would build models occasionally, but when I met the guys from the ACME Club I really started to build a lot of models.
If you could
have one older kit reissued what would it be?
The one I am searching for is the MPC 1985 Pontiac Trans Am
What new model would you like to see issued? I would like to see 4 door cars and wagons from the 1950’s & 1960’s.
Bob McAllan built and reviews Revell’s new 1969 Boss 302 below:
The Mustang for 1969 was the first major restyle of this iconic Pony Car class from Ford. The Boss 302 was a special model that emphasized the importance of winning on the racetrack with a regular production car. The phrase “Race It On The Weekend-Drive It On Monday” was a major advertising lead-in for Ford’s print and television marketing at that time. Since the rules for racing in various classes varied so much Ford offered accessories to buyers all the parts that race teams of the day needed to be competitive on many levels. The styling of the Boss 302 was done by Larry Shinoda and gave the car its distinctive appearance. The car offered a special version of Ford’s thin-wall small block V-8. To add to its appeal to young buyers and racing enthusiasts Ford added front and rear spoilers and special paint and decal markings. This kit represents the 69 Boss 302 very well as the most popular vintage Mustang currently on the collector market.
Start with the 21-piece V-8 engine
assembly; it makes into an accurate example of this iconic engine. The 302
engine became the basis for many of Ford’s engine platforms over the past 50
years. It assembles into a stock version
of this engine with a single 4-barrel carburetor, separate distributor and
coil, a detailed front cover with water pump detail, a separate oil filter
unit, upper radiator hose, starter and generator, fan and drive unit. It has
well detailed exhaust manifolds, chrome valve covers w/ breather cap and air
cleaner with accent decal. While the engine appears complete when finished and
painted it lacks a fuel pump, a bracket for the alternator and a lower
radiator-to-engine water hose.
The kit contained Tampo printed
Firestone Wide Oval tires and stock wheels to build a very realistic factory
stock appearing model. I substituted Cragar 5 spoke deep offset chrome mag
wheels from my parts box to add a more aggressive look.
The kit has a generic 6-piece
interior tub carried over from Revell’s previous variations of the 69-70 era
Mustang cars. The tub did not have separate door panels and back seat. The
center console was molded into the floor between two 2-piece generic bucket
seats. The interior had minimal molded in detail on the door panels but did
include excellent wood grain decals to accent the dashboard gauge surrounds and
gauges and shift lever area on the console. The decals are thin and needed a
lot of fiddling to make them lay down around the gauge surround areas. There is
a chrome gearshift lever that needed some rubber paint to reflect a real
appearance and has a ting accent decal for the knob.
Next is the 7-piece chassis with a
molded in front suspension assembly, a 1-piece driveshaft, axle and spring
unit, a 2-piece exhaust pipe-muffler system and four detailed shock absorbers.
I painted the chassis Krylon matte black and the front and rear suspension
units Krylon semigloss black. The exhaust system and the masked off gas tank
were painted dull aluminum to look better than the call out colors recommended
by the instructions. I modified the ride height of the front spindles by
snapping off the mounting pins on the front end and reset them about 4 scale
inches to give the car a more aggressive stance.
The clear window glass was a 1-piece
unit that went in well. The 4 clear headlight lenses were mounted into chrome
buckets that fit into fender the headlight areas and the other two were mounted
into the rear of the grill assembly. The 2 read clear taillights mounted into
the rear body fascia panel. The only problem with the grill was it was supposed
to be a chromed unit. But when Revell redesigned the front fascia unit to
correct prior design errors on earlier model editions they had it cast as a
white plastic part. The chrome accent edges are very thin and it takes a steady
hand to pick out the chrome surround with whatever trimming material you
prefer. I tried both chrome foil and Molotow chrome pens unsuccessfully and
ended up using chrome paint and a very fine detail brush as a last result.
The kit was molded in white
polystyrene. The 6-piece body consisted of front and rear fascia units, the
main body, hood and two door mounted rear-view mirrors with chrome mirror
inserts. The only mold lines were at the ends of the front fender areas. The
most serious issue was that there was a large molded indentation area on both
sides of the roof just behind the door small side glass area. These
indentations were not on any of the earlier Revell versions of this 69 Mustang
car. I had a devil of a time securing body putty into these areas until I
drilled a hole into each of the indentations to act as an anchor. Then sanding
it to form the correct curve of the roof sides. The body and hood had some
fitment issues after the radiator top was installed during assembly and
required some sanding and fitting to allow the hood to fit even with the grill
and front fender lines on each side.
I painted the body, hood, front and
rear facias and side mirrors with Tamiya TS-11 Maroon lacquer. I obtained one
of the best rattle can paint jobs ever with no need for a clear coat and
minimal polishing. My difficulties began with the paint call out for the
requiring a masking of the hood and cowl area to apply the satin black
hood paint. I used Krylon Satin Black and it looked great, but after repeated
attempts to align the decal to define the satin painted area failed I said to
heck with it since the edge of masked area did not have the same sheen and the
decal was so thin I opted for no other distinctive body graphics decals for the
side and trunk lid either. I used the front Satin black spoiler and the rear
window louvers but omitted the rear deck spoiler.
All the assembly units fit together
well except for the trouble with attaching the side mirrors and the front
spoiler. If I were to attempt building this or any other model with this type
of attachment points, I would drill a small pilot hole into the body and then
place a thin wire or round mounting pins to these parts to keep them from
constantly falling off. This was the reason I left the 3-piece rear spoiler
off.
The chrome pieces were excellent,
but someone needs to have Revell include the reworked grill into the chrome
tree.
Overall, I enjoyed the model build
and with a little more pre-assembly drilling holes for parts attachment and
fabricating mounting pins it will likely be easier to replicate a more accurate
replica of this highly collectable muscle car.
A great turn out for our post 4th of July meeting, about 35 members attended with 22 models on display. The 35 people attending included 3 new members: 1. Kevin Hetmanski enjoys building various truck models and will be opening a RC hobby shop in the near future. I’ll share more details as they become available. 2. Leigh Guarnier collects diecast and I am looking forward to seeing some of the items from his collection. 3. Tony Sciarrino builds mostly 1/43rd race cars and believe has some actual racing experience as well. Welcome to ACME, we are glad you are part of our club.
Happy Birthday to the following folks celebrating birthday’s in July: Pico Elgin, Jim Sheperd, Mike Hackey, Bob McAllan, Paul Wehner, John Gum, Eric Cole, and Leigh Guarnieri.
Bob Downie delivered the review of our joint build of Aoshima’s Lamborghini Huracan Performante. Bob did an excellent job of correcting the body flaws, laying down an awesome paint job, and fighting with several issues regarding the headlights, rear fascia, etc. My contribution included the chassis and engine, both of which were very easy and hassle free. Look for a full review on the website in sometime in July.
Four additional models were handed out for reviews at the October 2019 meeting.
Mike Crespi took additional pictures of many of the models on display during Show & Tell and will be adding these to an album on our website in the near future.
After the raffle Jim Sheperd did an incredible how to about adding working lights to models. He brought along a Camaro Indy pace car which has to be seen to be believed, I counted eight working LED’s in the light bar alone. Not sure how many total there are but it has to be close to 20. While there are multiple sources for LED products Jim likes Evan Designs based on there selection and in particular their customer service: Evan Designs
First impressions are everything and Tamiya knocked it out of the
part from the moment you open the box. The setup is normal Tamiya quality with each
tree being bagged separately.
At first glance the parts are all molded very crisply and had
little to no mold release despite some previous releases from the company. The
parts are molded in clear, a satin chrome finish, white, black, metallic grey.
The black rubber tires are very crisp with detail however there is no side wall
“brand name” to be found which is a bit of a bummer.
The body went together with ease requiring about 45 minutes of
careful sanding and dry fitting. A trick learned building the body was to apply your thin
cement from the backside of the body, this way you can avoid fuzzing up any
body lines or having a stray fingerprint on body. The only mold lines I
uncovered after a quick dusting of grey primer were very light on the fender
tops and easy to take off. After that the body was scuffed using 1000 grit and
sprayed with Tamiya pink primer followed by base and clear coats.
Engine assembly consisted of a handful of parts followed by a few
decals which are hidden once the body is mounted. Suspension was very simple with
some nice detail – which was again covered up and hidden by the body.
The interior is on full display in this kit and can be ultra-detailed
with aftermarket racing seat belts, flocking, etc. you get the idea.
I had no real complaints with this kit but if I were to knit pick,
I would say the hardest part was making sure the body was glued and built
straight so it mounted and all the glass fit properly. If building another one
I would take extra time during these steps. The other thing would be the
headlight assemblies are a bit finicky and all that hard work is hidden once
painted and installed.
My final thoughts on the kit would be how it builds into a very
detailed curbside model of the new Ford GT and I think even gives the diecast
versions of the car a run for their money. It was a very fun build even though
supercars are not my first model of choice, but it was a fun creative break
from my normal builds, and it turned out very well!
Model on and never be afraid to step outside your comfort zone of
building!
