Post by Bernard Kron on May 20, 2021 11:54:36 GMT -8
My shelves of completed models filled to overflowing quite some ago and it’s long been past time to cull the herd. I returned to car modeling around 2008 after many years away. To say my skills hat atrophied would have been an understatement, especially with the huge advances in materials, techniques, and accessory parts that had occurred in the interim. Obviously my earliest efforts would suffer from a lack of technique at the very least and it was these models that I recently decided to attempt to sell on eBay.
The first batch of 10 went up at auction at the beginning of the month, and much to my astonishment, all sold! Now it’s time for the second batch and I thought I would share my impressions and experiences using this dragster I built in 2013 as an example of the issues I’ve encountered.
The first and most obvious issue is that many of these models are more than 10 years old and the adhesive joints have become dry and brittle and parts tend to fall off when the model is handled. So virtually all the models have required extensive regluing and repair before offering them for sale. When I first started building again I used super glue but, within a couple of years I discovered that I was extremely allergic to Cyanoacrylate. It caused chronic sinusitis that would last many weeks or even months and gradually became increasingly intense and debilitating. I began experimenting with alternatives and by now I mainly use plain old Testors red tube solvent glue or liquid solvent glues like Tamiya thin or methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) for styrene to styrene joints, or, most often, 5-minute epoxy for bonding dissimilar materials or where positioning and strength are critical. I miss CA for its speed and the tiny amounts that you can use and my build times are fairly slow, but my models are much stronger. I was shocked at how fragile these early models have proven to be.
The good news about these weak joints is the models come apart fairly easily. This has turned out to be important because I’m discovering parts and subassemblies that I’d rather not part with. In these cases I find myself rebuilding the models with substitute parts from my stash. It takes some time, but, since most of these models require some sort of rebuilding, repair and cleanup, it’s just part of the process of preparing them for sale.
The little digger below was built 8 years ago and so is one of the newer models I’m selling. It’s a pretty clean build and, in particular, I still admire the injected hemi it originally featured. Of course the big “elephant motor” injected front-engine is a rather odd duck for the period and it’s lack of strict period correctness has always bugged me a bit. But I really dig that motor. I have no idea what I’ll use it for, but out it came! The base kit I used for this project was an MPC Ramchargers front engine dragster and the chassis, in particular, remains one of my favorites. This model is largely a straight out-of-the-box affair with only the injected mill, the deletion of the nose fairing, and the custom paint job and decals as changes to the original.
To replace the motor I simply built up the kit Ramchargers motor, of which I have quite a few since, as I mentioned, the Ramchargers chassis has become a mainstay for my dragster models. I was surprised by my inclination to take the time to strip much of the kit chrome and detail the motor, even to the point of using an aftermarket pre-wired distributor from Morgan Automotive Detail and a set of 3D-printed zoomie headers from 3D Model Specialties. Needless to say I have zero expectations to sell this, or for that matter any of my models, for a profit. That ship sailed away a very long time ago!
In any case here are some before and after shots of the original model and the For Sale version I just completed. Not much difference except that’s it’s a far more ordinary and prosaic piece than it was. Hopefully someone will find it of interest.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
The first batch of 10 went up at auction at the beginning of the month, and much to my astonishment, all sold! Now it’s time for the second batch and I thought I would share my impressions and experiences using this dragster I built in 2013 as an example of the issues I’ve encountered.
The first and most obvious issue is that many of these models are more than 10 years old and the adhesive joints have become dry and brittle and parts tend to fall off when the model is handled. So virtually all the models have required extensive regluing and repair before offering them for sale. When I first started building again I used super glue but, within a couple of years I discovered that I was extremely allergic to Cyanoacrylate. It caused chronic sinusitis that would last many weeks or even months and gradually became increasingly intense and debilitating. I began experimenting with alternatives and by now I mainly use plain old Testors red tube solvent glue or liquid solvent glues like Tamiya thin or methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) for styrene to styrene joints, or, most often, 5-minute epoxy for bonding dissimilar materials or where positioning and strength are critical. I miss CA for its speed and the tiny amounts that you can use and my build times are fairly slow, but my models are much stronger. I was shocked at how fragile these early models have proven to be.
The good news about these weak joints is the models come apart fairly easily. This has turned out to be important because I’m discovering parts and subassemblies that I’d rather not part with. In these cases I find myself rebuilding the models with substitute parts from my stash. It takes some time, but, since most of these models require some sort of rebuilding, repair and cleanup, it’s just part of the process of preparing them for sale.
The little digger below was built 8 years ago and so is one of the newer models I’m selling. It’s a pretty clean build and, in particular, I still admire the injected hemi it originally featured. Of course the big “elephant motor” injected front-engine is a rather odd duck for the period and it’s lack of strict period correctness has always bugged me a bit. But I really dig that motor. I have no idea what I’ll use it for, but out it came! The base kit I used for this project was an MPC Ramchargers front engine dragster and the chassis, in particular, remains one of my favorites. This model is largely a straight out-of-the-box affair with only the injected mill, the deletion of the nose fairing, and the custom paint job and decals as changes to the original.
To replace the motor I simply built up the kit Ramchargers motor, of which I have quite a few since, as I mentioned, the Ramchargers chassis has become a mainstay for my dragster models. I was surprised by my inclination to take the time to strip much of the kit chrome and detail the motor, even to the point of using an aftermarket pre-wired distributor from Morgan Automotive Detail and a set of 3D-printed zoomie headers from 3D Model Specialties. Needless to say I have zero expectations to sell this, or for that matter any of my models, for a profit. That ship sailed away a very long time ago!
In any case here are some before and after shots of the original model and the For Sale version I just completed. Not much difference except that’s it’s a far more ordinary and prosaic piece than it was. Hopefully someone will find it of interest.
Thanx for lookin’,
B.
