Oogah! ~ Saturday, February 24, 2007

Any time I've taken a break from modeling, I find that a N scale automobile kit is a good way to get back into it.

This afternoon I put together a Lineside Models 31 Ford Roadster Open Top. Here it is:





The body is a one piece resin casting, the wheels are white metal, and a few other details are photo-etched (or maybe just stamped?) metal sheet.

Here's a few notes:

• The resin and white metal castings needed some cleaning up; in a few places there were distortions beyond what could be fixed with a file, but over all, quality is pretty good.
  
• The cast on running board had gaps and eventually broke; I notice some missing bits on resin castings in other Lineside Models kits I have. I got these from mail order, but maybe it's a good idea to find a hobby shop that carries them so can pick out the best ones.
  
• Using different materials for different parts is a good idea. More kit manufacturers should do that!
  
• There were no assembly instructions. I think I got it together right, but not everything was 100% obvious.
  
• Originally, the body had a solid windshield. I tried to drill out the "glass" part from the frame, but the whole thing just broke. So I cut out a piece of tranparent plastic (from the packaging from something or other) and cut a slot in the body to hold it. This worked pretty well. I glued the windshield into the slot with Micro Kristal Klear. I've learned the hard way not to glue windows with CA, because it will gas out as it dries and fog them.
  
• I primered the body with a can of spraypaint. Spraypainting anything this small is kind of hard. One of these days I really need to get a compressor so I can actually use that nice Paasche airbrush on my shelf.