New foam projects: VW Thing and Renault Galion

[hot ford coupe]

That's a great tip. I'm going to try with some other hub cap brands.

[Old Busted Hotness]

Note that it only works on symmetrical logos, or logos that are raised. The VW logo is in relief on the hubcap, like so:



You can see how I made them, by copying the logo from the shiny side of the foil, to get a relieved image. This will produce a backwards logo, which isn't a problem with the VW roundel, but most other makes could have some funky issues.

Cut 'em out and bore a hole in your Ford hubcap: I used a Dremel with a grinding stone.



After a little Bare-Metal over the putty covering the Ford script, they're ready to mount up. I like 'em (although the foil could be a little closer match to the chrome)

[hot ford coupe]

Looks like a winner to me. Now to figure out how to get around the symmetrical thing. Wait, I think I have a solution. Take a piece of styrene and form it in the shape of a hubcap with no writing. With magnification, a Dremel with a small bur and some good sharp instruments, cut the hubcap design into the styrene . Then, you can make a mold and make some resin caps and cover them with BMF . It's worth an experiment. For the deuce, I'm building, I'll be making some Fiesta hubcaps so I'll be experimenting with a few others.

[Old Busted Hotness]

For a master, save yourself a bunch of time and use a plastic Easter egg. They have a great dome shape and only need the logo etched in.

[whodaky]

OBH the rims on your VW thing in the above image look interesting. Any information on them?
Geoff aka whodaky

[Old Busted Hotness]

The rims are from the Tamiya Frog RC kit. I'll see if I can find some pics, or take some for ya. OD is 1.5 inches.

[Don Garrett]

This cracks me up...I had frog legs last nite (fried) breaded in corn meal. Didn't know Tamiya made an R/C "Frog"....how do you prepare them? Okay...I'll go stand in the corner.

[Old Busted Hotness]

They originally released the Frog in 1983, and called it that because the rear suspension resembles frogs legs, if you use your imaginaltion. Then they molded the chassis in green, and to continue the theme, suggested a white and pink paint scheme. Really, how you gonna figure them out? The Frog's body is a typical single-seat racing buggy, so it's ripe for replacement. Tamiya re-released the Frog last year along with a few other vintage (and animal-themed) RC kits, the Hornet and Grasshopper. And now, because you've all gone to sleep, here's the skinny on the wheels:

Frog wheels come in two varieties: front and rear. Fronts are skinny and rears are way fat. Both come in three pieces, a center section to retain the bearing (front) or drive axle (rear) and provide a beadlock when the other two sections are screwed on. Since I modified all my rears, I don't have any pics of unmolested rears (you just shut it, Grandpa) but here's a front for ya.

EDIT: found a rear, but my admonition to Grandpa stands

At 1.5 inches OD, they'd be marginally useful to us. What we really want are the long-discontinued Rough Rider wheels, 1.7 inches OD. But they haven't made those since ~1980.

[Old Busted Hotness]

And I did make a little progress on the Thing, as well. The body is at the point of diminshing marginal returns as far as sanding goes, so as soon as my turn signals arrive (from another board, they're coming from a Lexan Bug body) it'll be ready for paint.

[hot ford coupe]

That's really starting to look great, OBH.

I can't believe Don went into the corner. And all over a portion of frogs legs. I can just see all those unfortunate little frogs in little tiny wheelchairs wheeling around all over the floor.

[Old Busted Hotness]

It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to build little ramps for them all over the place.

[hot ford coupe]

OBH, you funny guy you.

[Don Garrett]

Guido sent me this link, you guys might want to put it in your favorites.....
http://www.smallparts.com.au/search_index.html

[Don Garrett]

At the risk of being sent to the corner again....does anyone remember the Meyers Manx "Toad"?

[Old Busted Hotness]

That's an easy one: Tamiya Sand Rover. Well, not so easy to find, it's another vintage kit, pretty highly prized by collectors:

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6546

In typical Tamiya fashion it's listed as 1/10, but it's closer to 1/9 scale.