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Old 04-11-22, 02:58 PM   #1
ET2SN
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Icon10 A new 1/18th scale die-cast journey begins..

AKA: A Second Chance.

Back in 2011-12 I knew Shelby Collectibles (run out of the same shop in Las Vegas as the real cars) had a 1/18th scale die cast produced for their 2011 GT 350.



I really liked the concept of the GT 350, its kind of like an entry-level Shelby Mustang for the masses. For the extra money (about 2 1/2 times the price of a regular Mustang, as I recall) you got 650 HP under the hood, some mild performance tweaks to the suspension, and some tasty body panels and Shelby paint. I liked it for what it wasn't. This wasn't a car built for track days and life in a garage, it was meant to driven on the street, daily.

The one thing I didn't like as much was the 2011 Mustang. Someone got the idea to make the car look like an old man wearing high waisted pants. So, I passed on the die cast. And, honestly, I regretted it. Every now and then I would check around but by 2015 Shelby had moved on to newer cars and concepts and dropped the 2011 GT 350 die cast from their store. Auto Art released a GT 350 which looked OK and was priced to make your nose bleed, but they got some things wrong. Most notably, they missed the unique gauge cluster on the driver's side of the windshield sill.

Then, two weeks ago, I get an email from the store I buy my die cast from.

They list the original 2011 Shelby die cast in white with metallic dark blue stripes and scripts. No other info, they just have some in stock.

I place my order that day.

One week later, it shows up. Now, we're talking about Shelby Collectibles. They aren't close to Auto Art, Minichamps, or Kyosho. They are closer to the really old-school Ertl die casts or some of the cheaper Maisto examples. Shelby sells real cars. Real expensive cars. Their die casts are for the tourists or to sweeten a deal while your car is being built in the shop. Still, they are really good in that Shelby knows what goes into their real cars and their nit-picking details are great. Their die casts sit with the right stance and all of the labels in the engine bay are correct.

As it turns out, the example I got looks like it has never seen better days. There's enough dust and crud in the interior to make it look like it sat on a shelf for a very long time. There are some flaws and "boogers" in the white enamel paint and one "ouch" spot where the metallic blue pad printed paint smeared. There was a nasty "glue booger" on one of the rear window "delete" panels and there was NO radiator behind the lower opening on the chin.

Great, I bought a USED car in 1/18th scale.........
Either this thing sat on a shelf in a store or else it was sold and returned.
Either way, its perfect.

Recall why I said I liked the concept behind the GT 350. These car get driven. They can get a little beat up and its fine. The paint is VERY fixable. The white is supposed to be very generic and industrial and is responding well to buffing compound. The missing radiator? I just tracked one down on EBay (1/18th scale, printed plastic that will look fine once I glue and pin it into place). The glue booger on the rear window delete is almost fixed but I have to be very careful. Its close to a very small and fine "Carrol Shelby" signature script that I don't want to ruin.

Due to the dusty condition of the interior I was already planning to (carefully) strip this thing down to its parts to clean everything and maybe do some detail painting on the center console. I'm also thinking of adding flocking for the carpet and maybe some Shelby floor mats.
Best of all, I have about $60 sunk into this project.
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Old 04-11-22, 03:01 PM   #2
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I'm trying to save money for this beauty

https://www.agoramodels.com/porsche917/

I will of course follow your progress
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Old 04-11-22, 07:29 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mapuc View Post
I'm trying to save money for this beauty

https://www.agoramodels.com/porsche917/

I will of course follow your progress
Markus
I saw a video on YT where some guy was building the engine and transmission. Very, very nice but I would invest in a good set of precision screwdrivers before you order it. There must be something close to two thousand screws on the complete kit.
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Old 04-13-22, 10:05 PM   #4
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Just for mapuc :




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Old 04-20-22, 03:35 AM   #5
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So, after a stressful weekend of Whack-A-Squirrel my 3D printed radiator showed up in the mail and it was time to tear down the Shelby.

This tear down wasn't mandatory but I really wanted to clean all the goop and crud off the plastic interior parts including the windows. I was concerned at first that there may been some CA glue fogging on the clear parts but a quick swipe with a Q Tip showed it to be some kind of grease.

I also wanted to do a more detailed survey of this die-cast to figure out how much I wanted to put into the rebuild. The first thing I noticed was that the factory in China must have hired Man Mountain Dean. ALL of the screws were torqued down super tight. This put the condition of the interior into a better perspective- someone new had assembled this die-cast.

I had almost talked myself into flocking the carpets and surfed over to Detail Master to order the flock and some parts. Its a good thing I wasn't 100% committed, the black flock has been on back-order forever and all they had was Charcoal Gray, which would have goofed up the look of the interior. So, I'll just lay down a thick-ish coat of flat black enamel paint then stipple it slightly before it cures. This also makes it much easier to add a pair of "Cobra" floor mats. DM's floor mats are made out of a kind of thick construction paper that looks convincing. They are also slightly over sized for 1/24th and 1/25th scale cars which makes them perfect for 1/18th and 1/20th scale. All you need to do is lightly buff the floor mats with an eraser to raise the grain in the paper then add any folds. Finish up by gluing in place with either white glue or, better yet, Elmer's rubber cement. Elmer's doesn't glue the parts in place as much as it "tacks" them down. Just apply the glue to the mats and where you want to stick them on the floor, then allow the glue to dry until its tacky. Stick the mats in place and nudge them slightly into their final position, and you're done.

Engine and spark plug wires- On modern cars, this is a toss up. I've done this in the past where 10 hours of adding wires results in something you'll never see. I want to do a little more research on the real car, but I'm 90% sure I won't bother with wires.

The missing radiator- Basically, all I needed was something to cover the hole behind the lower chin inlet. It didn't have to look 100% accurate, it just had to be there. A quick trip to EBay showed two possibilities, one was a 1/18 scale radiator/intercooler in resin from somewhere in Europe that looked really nice but was priced at "only an arm and a leg" while the other was a 1/18th scale 3D printed radiator with two electric fans for die-cast dragsters. Close enough. I'll even add one or both of the electric fans, they look too good to go into the parts stash. Just some quick painting followed up with some panel liner, then drilled, pinned, and glued into place on the chassis. Job done.

Wheels and suspension- Pretty good but there was room for improvement. The model comes with turning cross drilled brake rotors and detailed stationary calipers. The rotors only need a little detail painting on the center hub and some panel liner to make the outer rotors "pop". Since this is 1/18th die-cast, it also features a solid metal rear axle that is a couple of cm's too long which results in a sloppy fit. I'll either cut down the metal axle or replace it with aluminum tubing.

Final details- These are well within reach and its easy to add some "easter eggs" that really make your model pop. The main reason I wanted this GT 350 was because I wanted that unique Shelby gauge cluster on the driver's side of the A pillar. As it turns out, those three gauges are only painted silver.
Not to worry, this is why we stash decals. Some 1/24th small gauge decals will fit nicely and I'm going to cut and polish some bezels out of some aluminum tubing, glue them to the sides of the gauges, then fill in the new "pocket" with some clear parts glue. Shazam! Accurate 3D gauges with glass faces. They are also more rugged than you may think, the clear glue for the gauge faces also bonds all the parts together into a solid unit.

After that will be some final details. The instrument panel and center console need some minor detail painting (I need to look up some pictures first) and I might add some aftermarket cloth seat belts and p/e buckles. Then, everything gets screwed back together ( 1/18th scale die cast is one of those hobbies where you want a couple of types of Loctite in your tool drawer).
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Old 04-20-22, 07:41 AM   #6
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Post some pictures, please, I want to see what is going on here. This is a metal model, not a plastic one, correct? I'm not sure how to disassemble a built plastic model, so I am assuming it is metal connected with... screws?
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Old 04-20-22, 09:56 AM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Onkel Neal View Post
Post some pictures, please, I want to see what is going on here. This is a metal model, not a plastic one, correct? I'm not sure how to disassemble a built plastic model, so I am assuming it is metal connected with... screws?
Plastic = Glue
Not necessary if you watched these two videos I posted in my thread you could see that many of the plastic parts in the engine was put together with screws. Some part was glued.


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Old 04-20-22, 12:35 PM   #8
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I'm pretty sure I would need some kind of camera to post pictures.
Maybe someday?

Rebuilding and detailing 1/18th scale die-cast is kind of a hybrid hobby.
Its the same skill set of normal model building, especially when you get to the point of scratch building parts, but its a much easier scale to work in and much more rugged in terms of durability and operating features. Most of the rules for building plastic kits still applies but you need to adapt them to working with the actual stuff they build real cars from.

The funny part about die-cast is they are supposed to be complete when you buy them. The reality is that most of them (even the expensive ones) aren't.
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Old 04-21-22, 11:58 AM   #9
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It's about 1/8 scale cars in this thread so I post it here.

Was told about this model in a yt video..

It's classic in Sweden.
The Volvo Amazon

https://www.ixocollections.com/en/fu...-full-kit.html

They have also this classic car as full kit

https://www.ixocollections.com/en/fu...t-205-gti.html

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Old 05-06-22, 02:47 PM   #10
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Well, this project is almost wrapped.

I got the clear plastic polished out and cleaned, detailed the dash by filling-in the speedo and tach with clear parts glue and letting it dry (this gives a clear plastic cover look and protects the graphics underneath), fixed the rear axle, added the missing radiator/oil cooler and even added some dark grey wash to the brake rotors to get them to "pop" a little. The "A pillar" gage cluster worked out better than I planned. I used an aftermarket 1/25th scale white background gauge set and used a 1/8th inch hole punch for paper to cut out the gauge faces then cut and filed the metal trim rings and glued everything in place with clear parts glue. The glue will also give the gauges a more 3D look while forming the "glass" covers. I'm just waiting for the glue to fully cure before I use some really thick "glues all" plastic cement to re-attach the gauge cluster to the A pillar (this stuff is like tube glue but thicker and you can find it at most discount and hardware stores).

One thing that's neat about 1/18th scale die cast, you can just screw everything back together to check your progress or when you're waiting for parts to arrive.

Stuff I'll probably do later when I get bored-

Flocked carpet. I have the jet black flock on my parts shelf. All I need to do is find a large shoe box and throw down a tacky layer of either black paint or clear glue then sift the flock onto the "glue" and let it dry. There are two problems, flocking is a VERY messy process and I'd need to break the glue joints that hold the seats to the floor pan.

Seat belts. Once again, 1/25th scale aftermarket parts come to the rescue. I have a black seat belt "kit" with p/e buckles and it didn't take long to figure out how to thread the belts into the buckles. The only thing I need to figure out is how to get the belts to hold a tight "fold" so they look natural.

So far, the one "curve ball" in the project has been one door hinge. On older-styled die-cast, the door hinges are rather large and thick and they get screwed into a post in the body. What would usually happen is that the driver's side door hinge would get loose due to the screw getting turned slightly when you open the door. The die-cast companies "fixed" this by adding a washer but the screw will still get loose over time. After I picked out some detail on the inner door panels, my plan was to use some "lok-tite" on the screws when I re-assembled the doors. The driver's side door came back together with no issues but, and this is why you need to take some breaks during a project, I couldn't get the passenger side door to "bind down" to the post. The screw is super tight and the "lok-tite" is doing its job but the hinge is loose as a tooth. If I had to guess, I lost a small washer or plastic shim when I took the door apart. Making a new shim isn't that big of a deal, getting the screw back out will be a weekend project.

I should have just stopped and thought things out before I broke out the "lok-tite" but the end of the build was in sight and I got impatient. Dammit..

I can fix it but its just adding another "pain in the ###" layer to this project.
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Old 05-07-22, 07:02 AM   #11
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Got any pictures? Sounds like a nice model.

Have you ever used Future/Pledge as a clear coat? I'm finding that it is very popular for clear parts. At first I thought using floor polish was a goof but I've read about it everywhere.
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Old 05-07-22, 06:26 PM   #12
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There are many people who swear by Future for their clear parts or to clear coat a glossy finish.

I keep a bottle on the shelf to do my floors.

Future was never meant to be permanent. It was meant to be floor wax and while it is an acrylic, it is a VERY weak acrylic that levels well and dries quickly.
If you were hoping for something permanent, it will yellow out over time or turn cloudy. Keep in mind, when you watch a build video on YouTube you never see the kit after a year or even six months. Those builds only need to stay together until the video uploads.

In my experience, its better to learn how to polish clear plastic or apply a true clear coat over paint or finish with a coat of wax. If you have a clear part that looks distorted, Future isn't going to fix much. If you use Future to "tack" a part in place before you use something more permanent to glue it, fine and dandy. Just don't expect it to hold up.

I have a 1/350th scale Flight III Los Angeles class sitting on the shelf that I built back around 2010. It has two guys standing on the deck that are STILL there and haven't gone AWOL in a carpet, somewhere. I glued them in place by dipping their feet in rubber cement then sticking them to the hull before the glue dried *. The only thing I changed was adding a 3D printed Annular ("wagon wheel") screw. Nothing has fallen off the kit.

Acrylic paint is not the same as a dip in Future. Paint is slightly thicker and is designed to hold up over a long period.


*- The whole idea of using rubber cement was that it wasn't as permanent as regular glue. I have two trees of 1/350th scale figures and if I lost one of them, I wouldn't have to chip a pair of shoes off the hull.
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Old 05-17-22, 09:17 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ET2SN View Post
Well, this project is almost wrapped.
I need to have that engraved on my tomb stone.

While this die-cast isn't fighting me, its making life an adventure.
The door hinge is fixed and working nicely.
I got a dandy pair of "Vampliers" to remove the loc-tite'd screw then scratch built a plastic shim/washer to add some tension. A quick test fit showed it was working the way I wanted so I finished the re-install with some more Loc-tite and bound the screw back down after doing some detail painting on the door panels and adding some Bare Metal Foil to the inner door handles.

After another tear-down, I got the "it just needs to be there" radiator installed with some "micro" sized self tapping screws. It worked almost like I knew what I was doing. No worries about the radiator ever breaking loose or flopping over.

The only thing that still "has" to get installed is the gauge cluster that attaches to the A pillar next to the windshield. The gauge faces (white background with red pointers), bezels, and "glass" faces are done. What's holding me up is the best way to glue the cluster back in place. The cluster sits next to the windshield so I don't want to wind up with smeared glue or fogging when the project is 99.999% done. Its also a die-cast car which means the plastic parts are funky which makes them more durable and they need to get bonded to metal. In other words, model glues ain't going to cut it. I'm not going to use super glue unless its my last option, so I have a couple of options I want to test before I commit to anything. My main contender is Loctite "Stick'N Seal" glue. This stuff is thicker than Testor's tube glue or PVC cement and takes a while to fully cure.

All that's really left are seat belts and carpet. For the belts and buckles I already have a plan of attack. Each belt will use three of the photo-etched buckles in my stash. One buckle just has to get glued into the belt, its the actual buckle you would use to put on the shoulder belt. The other buckles will get a small hole drilled in them so they can be screwed to the the plastic interior. What I still have to figure out is how to get the belts glued together so they look like they are hanging naturally.

With the carpet, I already know how to do it which is why it will probably happen. This car has a "black out" type of interior so the only person who will know I put in the effort will be me. I'll also need to break the glue joints to remove the seats in order to do it right. Decisions, decisions..

What's fun about these die cast projects is that I had everything taken apart to finish the work on radiator and get it installed. That was earlier today and everything is now screwed back together.
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Old 06-06-22, 08:46 PM   #14
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OK, some quick photos to keep Neil happy.
These photos aren't mine, I borrowed them from my die cast source.


The 2011 GT 350.





Exhaust tips are now chromed. The brake rotors have been detailed with a brighter silver and dark gray wash.



Note the three gauges above and to the left of the steering wheel. They now have black-and-red over white gauge faces and chrome trim ring bezels. I also added some detail painting to the driver's and center consoles.



The engine bay looks better in person. Mine is slightly different than the one pictured. I have the Mustang logo on my grille and no Shelby plate on the radiator shroud. Notice the towers for the front shocks. They look lonely just sitting there.



The engine bay of the newly-arrived red donor mule. The brace between the shock towers has already been transferred to the GT 350, where it looks more appropriate. This is actually a fairly nice die cast and the only reason I got it (cheap) on a close-out was due to some "packaging rash" on the right front fender. Its about the size of a stone chip on a 1:1 car so with a little color matching, polishing, and buffing it will be fixed. I was really tempted to steal the center gauge console and the rear GT logo for the Shelby but I'll leave them alone.




Nice interior details in the red GT which I will NOT be stealing for the Shelby. This model also features cloth seat belts and P/E buckles. I already have a belt kit for the Shelby so the red 'Stang can provide location info.


Bonus die cast- I knew this die cast was "out there" for many years and I finally pulled the trigger and bought one. For most of you, its a Maisto Datsun 240Z in orange but this car has a different meaning if you were an ET on the USS Bremerton.



This is the infamous "ESM Datsun", aka The Hotel Street Express.

Todd bought it when it was well on its way to "beater" status from "some guy in Pearl" who was on his way back to the mainland. Todd later sold it to Dan who later sold it to Mike who later sold it (I think?) to Jim after I had left. After that, I'm pretty sure it got buried on a beach but not before many nubs got their first ride from the airport to check out the boat. The hub caps on the 'cast aren't right. Its a foggy memory, but I'm pretty sure they were gnarly chrome or "somewhere in the barracks". At one point I can recall some cheap plastic "looks just like BBS" wheel covers getting pressed into service but the ESM Datsun would change slightly from owner to owner. One other addition was the badges on the B pillars. We could buy ET2 painted crows and chevrons on a Navy blue plastic base that would pin to the collar of your blue A2 jacket. They were quickly re-purposed and epoxied to the Datsun.



Interior detail- Hey, its a Maisto but now you know why I was checking out how to paint wood grain. The industrial orange color is close but it just doesn't feel "right". Maybe some fading and rust will help? I also need to print some Hawaiian license plates.

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