Auto Modeler Magazine

You put your own car on the cover? I am excited to feature the final installment of the Stream Team project (AKA The City of Morton Grove) in this issue’s Unstalled column. Yep, it’s on the cover. When we started AMM a friend asked me if I was going to put my own model on the cover. I replied, “I don’t see me putting one of my own models on the cover.” But it seems there is always a loophole. As the team was pulling together the Spirit of Morton Grove, and pictures were being shared, a couple team members asked if I was going to put it on the cover. “Sorry, Not one of my models.” “But we did a LOT of work on it too. And it is…

Do you have a new product that needs to be seen? Drop us pictures with your story at contributors@automodeler.net Crossover chassis jig solution. Your editor was lamenting that he did not have an adjustable chassis jig for his current project. An online search turned up this heat tolerant chassis jig from Slot Car Corner. I ordered two sets of pins so I can use some for setting height and some for positioning frames, rails and suspension. The total cost was $46.82 including shipping from the east coast to the west coast. They also have great customer service. Check them out at slotcarcorner.com. (They also have some cool 1/24 metal rims.) VCG's 4 Banger packs in the detail When a member of our FaceBook group posted PICs of VCG Resins by…

From Supports to Show-Ready Three very different engines — a no-frills Toyota turbodiesel from Wynn’s 3D, a pearl-and-chrome-drenched MCV Products Ardun Flathead, and a modern supercharged Godzilla by Iceman Collections, — all built using the same core techniques. 3D printed engines have opened doors that simply didn’t exist a few years ago. You’re no longer limited to what’s in the kit box or a small handful of resin upgrades. Today’s aftermarket can put nearly any engine you want on your bench. But the detail that makes these engines exciting also demands careful handling. For this article, I built three very different engines and documented the entire process — support removal, surface prep, paint, and assembly — while highlighting the tools that make the work predictable and repeatable. The Tools That…

Building a Vintage Beach Racer with Tim Boyd Comin’ at ya! Picture the sand below, the Atlantic Ocean at the left, and a helmeted driver crouching up to the steering wheel, and you’ve just captured the spirit of Vintage Beach Racing in scale. Follow on for the build recipe of this 1934 Ford Coupe and some building ideas for your own scale Vintage Beach Racer. 1. This project is primarily based on the stock kit version of the AMT-Ertl 1934 Ford Five Window Coupe first introduced around 1994. You’ll also need parts #122-124 from the Street Rod version of the AMT-Ertl 1934 Ford Five Window kit If you can find the rare “2 in 1” kit that includes stock and street rod parts (#38405), all the better. 2. The kit…

No. The car modeling hobby is not dying. It is certainly smaller, but the number of shows and clubs is very high. Yes, we may not see a tiered contest system that ends up with a total of 10,000 entrants and winners receiving cars and motorcycles, but even at our reduced size, the building options are now truly endless. And we are seeing younger builders entering the hobby as well as returning builders and older first time builders. For this issue, let’s take a look at 8 talented builders under 25. Emilio Aguayo (21) California My name is Emilio Aguayo, and I’m 21 years old, living in California’s Central Valley. I started building models at the age of 12, going through the usual learning curve glue bombs, fingerprints in the…

This is a 1/43rd scale 1970 AMC Sunoco Javelin Trans Am white metal kit from SMTS’s Boss Models line. It builds the Penske engineered Trans Am car driven by Mark Donohue. While these kits offer some really cool subjects and they are fun to build, sometimes they’re a bit challenging too. They also sometimes turn out all too often to not be as accurate as one might hope, so it is worth looking at the larger picture before diving in to correct every little detail. In many cases there are just too many issues to fix without affecting the enjoyment of building them and in the end the basic shapes are still not 100% accurate. But if they are built cleanly with a curbside mentality they usually do a really…