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Post by ecbill on Nov 28, 2019 15:17:12 GMT -7
Happy Thanksgiving to all. We have much to be thankful for! Dont gobble up too much turkey.  |
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Post by AJR on Nov 30, 2019 18:17:47 GMT -7
Here are a couple of new projects that I'm into at the moment. Just a little decal and detail work then they will be ready for clearcoat. I had no real plan for either of these cars when I started them. I picked the colors and then rolled with it. Blue car is a beautiful 660slots twin turbo '69 Nova (4g) and the red one is an Angry Jeff '94 Thunderbird Pro Stock (SG+).
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Post by GTS on Nov 30, 2019 19:38:48 GMT -7
Very Nice! I think the T Bird's my favorite  |
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Post by AJR on Dec 20, 2019 18:21:45 GMT -7
This is the very early stages of a new project at Angry Jeff Racing. It will be a '94 Beretta Pro Street/Mod. This casting started out as a Muscle Machines die cast Funny car. The die cast car was in pieces and had to be cast individually. It also had a wheelbase that was too long for the 4 gear chassis. So I have had to shorten and marry the pieces together for the proper stance and wheelbase. This is the result so far. I am also going to lower the roof, split the car from the roof back and widen it, add any necessary material to the rocker panel and front bumper......body work after that. I had my doubts early on, but I'm starting to like the look. Lots left to do....
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Post by AJR on Dec 22, 2019 16:27:52 GMT -7
Check out these cool fins I'm putting on the Beretta..........just kidding  . These are the spacers for the widening the back end. Very subtle....I still want it to look close to stock and I don't want to distort it too much. The roof has been lowered in these pictures as well. Once again very subtle but it makes a huge difference. I'm not too worried about the door creases and things like that because most of that will be covered up. The body lines need to be on though. I will carefully grind down the spacers and finish with JB Weld for strength on the inside and body work on the outside.
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Post by dave632 on Dec 22, 2019 20:01:36 GMT -7
Boy it seems like a lot of work goes into making a mold. Just as a note my 1/1 Beretta chassis and body was actually stretched 10" in length to make a more stable and better looking race car. Note the space between the front door and front wheel well, that is where they added the extra 10". The ground effects, which you have in your car, also made for a better looking car and probably helped stability. Looking forward to the finished product.  Beretta and me |
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Post by AJR on Dec 23, 2019 4:03:31 GMT -7
Boy it seems like a lot of work goes into making a mold. Just as a note my 1/1 Beretta chassis and body was actually stretched 10" in length to make a more stable and better looking race car. Note the space between the front door and front wheel well, that is where they added the extra 10". The ground effects, which you have in your car, also made for a better looking car and probably helped stability. Looking forward to the finished product. Beretta and meThanks for the picture Dave. I was going to ask you to post one here as a reference. This car is one that will take more work just because of how the die cast was. It was in pieces, the parts didn't really match up very well, it was a little too narrow, and it was way too long. It is a frankenstein that will look worse before it looks better. It is also fighting me. But.......it is a sharp looking car that nobody has that I'm aware of so I want to try and get it done. I like the stretched look but between the fender and the door is where I had to shorten it. Hmmmm........you've got me thinking now. I could stretch it out more with the 4 gear axle in the far front position. I build most of my bodies for the middle axle position. Thanks for posting. |
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Post by AJR on Dec 23, 2019 6:45:32 GMT -7
Rick Williamson aka Hairy Canary sent me the already cast body pieces and that saved me a ton of time. Otherwise I would have had to make a mold of each of the body pieces and then cast them before I could even start piecing the puzzle together into something I wanted. Very, very few if any die cast cars are ready to be cast as is. Some need more work than others. Rick sent me enough for 3 cars so I have enough parts in case I mess something up. Thanks Rick!!
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Post by dave632 on Dec 23, 2019 9:51:36 GMT -7
Here is a picture of a die cast 1/64 Beretta, along with a comparison to a 4 gear chassis. The 4 gear front wheel is in the middle position so it has one more position that it can move forward which would put it just short of where the die cast wheels are. You will note that the distance between the front fender well and door is extended just like mine was.  1/64 cast metal Beretta
 wheelbase comp |
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Post by AJR on Dec 23, 2019 12:36:20 GMT -7
Yes I made that comparison. The picture of your car made me want to look at it again, but the problem is the 1/64 doesn't look near as good stretched as the 1/1 version. I'm still going to revisit it and see. The long front on the die cast looks kind of weird......to me though.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2019 12:46:08 GMT -7
it looks weird because the body lines don't "flow" well.
the front of the hood is too high .
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Post by dave632 on Dec 23, 2019 17:40:16 GMT -7
Al has a point. If you look at the full size version the front of the car is a lot lower than the model.
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Post by AJR on Dec 24, 2019 7:19:48 GMT -7
Rarely are the 1/64 replicas exactly like the 1/1 version. This particular die cast car is a mess to put it mildly. I ordered one of my own, so I have already made these comparisons and observations before I ever started on the project. It can be cleaned up into a nice looking car though or I would not be pursuing it. I have started working on another version that has the longer wheelbase for the 4g axle in the full forward position. I will be honest.....I don't like the way it looks. I want accuracy in my castings, but in the end the cars have to look good. I will post some pics, but I think the biggest problem is for it to be that long, it has to be really low. I can't get it that low and still have room for different size tires.
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Post by ecbill on Dec 24, 2019 9:39:38 GMT -7
A while back I read an interview with a Hot Wheels designer who said that they intentionally distort some of the features of thier cars bodies to make them appear more pleasing in small scale. According to him some of the details would look out of proportion if faithfully reproduced.
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Post by AJR on Dec 24, 2019 9:46:15 GMT -7
A while back I read an interview with a Hot Wheels designer who said that they intentionally distort some of the features of thier cars bodies to make them appear more pleasing in small scale. According to him some of the details would look out of proportion if faithfully reproduced. I tend to agree with that. |
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