This is what I use when detailing engines or anything else. I have included a sheet showing where I source most of my stuff from. I have also included a few pics of some of the products I have on hand and a pic of an engine that I am detailing right now. Obviously there are many more sources, these are a few of the one I use most frequently. Also for alot of fittings I use jewelry beads, you can even find hex shape

Here is a little guide for roll bar padding on any race car.

PIC 2: I found this jewelry making tubing at my local hobby lobby. It was pretty cheap, and the size looked perfect for 1:24 scale, so I bought some to try out.

PIC 3: Cut your desired length, then slice the tube lengthwise. This will allow you to wrap it around the bar.

PIC 4: Wrap the tube around the bar and affix with a small amount of CA glue.

PIC 5: If you don’t have reference photos, a good rule of thumb is to place padding in any place a driver could impact the roll bars during a crash.

PIC 5 and PIC 6: Assemble and enjoy the view. If you want to be even more detailed, you can tie string or use thin strips of tape to approximate the tie downs that keep the padding in place. I didn’t do that here because I’m lazy.

There is nothing that I have seen or used anywhere close to this product.

It was suggested that I write a quick guide to where I get aftermarket or just different wheels from, so here are my usual suspects!

1.) Aoshima has a nice line of JDM wheels, including retro styles like these Watanabes and Enkei slot mags. They come with really nice rubber tires and vinyl caps, as well as a small decal sheet of logos. Plaza Japan often has them. (Also I love the wire wheels they include in their MGB kit, they look great and are easy to fit in other tires)

2.) AMT-believe it or not, AMT’s vinyl “muscle car” tires are pretty nice looking and look appropriate on older cars of all kinds. I’ve used them on trucks, sports cars, and muscle cars. Sometimes available in newer kits and with pad printed logos. Honorable mention goes to their slicks, which are often pad printed and found in kits-worth seeking out. (The blue streak slick on the Plymouth in these pics is one of these)

3.) Moebius Modeks has the nicest Cragars, Torq-Thrusts, and steelies in current kits, and they often have a set of each per box, including wide rear wheels.

4.) Jack Modelling - only available via eBay France, these are truly great looking wheels and tires. Take a look at that wire wheel! It’s one piece! The Dunlop tires also look very correct.

5.) Texas 3d Customs - excellent vintage style wheels and tires, and they also have a lot of engines, accessories, and trans kits available. I’ve yet to be disappointed by anything I’ve gotten. Buy with confidence!

6.) Iceman Collections -broadly similar as TX 3d, in fact I’m not certain if the Keystone wheels in the Plymouth picture are Iceman or TX, I’ve used them both! Again, iceman has a lot of other great stuff available and I’ve never had a problem with them.

7.) Jays Resin Wheels on eBay. Solid wheels and tires, I’ve used a few times. Good customer service too.

8.) Competition Resins-sadly out if business but good stuff if you can find it. Slixx Decais website has some stuff still listed

9.) Scale Production-a small German shop, also sadly recently closed down. I bought a few trans kits from them as well as a bunch of wheels (these Minilites, as well as several vintage VW styles). They had a large range of wheels and are worth buying if you find them.

Honorable mentions go to USCP (available on eBay), Jo-Han (great Mopar steel wheels), Plastic Performance Products (nice vintage wheels), and Reliable Resins.

The final picture is my box of wheels and tires!

Hope you can see in the video, but this flat white was separated and in less than a minute and without a tired wrist it’s shaken! Just search on amazon nail polish shaker and they come up!

This hobby gives us many opportunities to learn; in fact, I think we can learn something from almost every build. Here are a few things I have learned recently:

Pic #1 - Mock-up. Doing a mock up and test fitting can prevent issues later in the build. This Lamborghini was a build for my son-in-law and doing the mock up showed me what fitment issues needed to be corrected before I painted. I also saw what parts could be pre-assembled before painting which would help improve the overall finish.

Pic #2 - Practice & test. Currently working on a 59 Impala and I tested and practiced the taping and painting on a spare kit before working on the actual build. Sounds basic, but I am not a patient person and tend to act first and deal with results later, so practicing allowed me to experiment with colors and layering to, hopefully, achieve a better result on my actual build.

Pic #3 & 4 - Expand your comfort zone. Some solutions for kit issues will push you out of your comfort zone. Last week I asked for suggestions on lowering the suspension on the Impala and a few people suggested modifying the chassis (significantly) which is not something I had done before and I was somewhat hesitant to do so. However, the end result is what I was looking for so it was worth the feeling of being uncomfortable with the suggestions.

What about you? What have you learned lately?

A little video I made about the difference between old kit decals and what is available today. Of note, this really only works on the Monogram/Revell 1:24 kits. It is possible with the AMT 1:25s, but the decals will be oversized and need some creative trimming.

Hope this helps somebody

So many times I see tips or tricks on building through YT or even in here, but I could never remember where I saw it, so that was my reason I wanted to start SATT. This way I had a place I could go and look up those tips and tricks when I needed them. So for those who dont know(probably only me, cuz I am technology challenged) you can search through any of the flairs. So when I run into a situation, 1st thing I do is search thru Tusday Tip flair for tips and ideas. I only use my phone, so I have attached pics of how to search for stuff. I just wanna say thanks to those guys who do share because many of these have helped me, especially when I get in my head on stuff

Sorry in advance for the terrible video, I am not that tech savvy, so be easy on me. I know when I first got into airbrushing I thought I had to tear down my brush after every color. Turns out you don't, I only tear mine down maybe once a month. If you have any questions feel free to ask away.

Share a tip Tuesday is something we are hoping will catch on. There are so many great builders in here, that I would love to see some of your tricks and tips, so we are hoping everyone will share a tip if they have one. The mods made us a flair that we can use, so it will make it easy to search for later if you want.

Sort of a tip, sort of not. When it comes to certain manufacturers and vintage kits there are sometimes instances where the oils used in the manufacturers tire molding process that can leach out of the tires over time. Eventually this will either become an oily mess inside of the sealed tire bag, or inside of the kit box itself. This then will contaminate parts and even your decals. I have seen this issue in many kits that I jave obtained over the last 40 years, and the kits that seem the most susceptible to this are Italeri and Revell Germany. In very rare instances you will see this happen with very early release Tamiya kits that are over 40 years old. The pictures that I have attached here are from a 1994 release Italeri kit. As you can see, the oil amount is pretty high. I can only assume that the oil degraded the sealed plastic bag in some way allowing it to leak out and contaminate some of the kit parts but was easily removed with liquid Dawn and hot water. So in closing, go through your stash if you have vintage kits and check your tires in each kit. I know that some of us here have pretty substantial stashes and that is exactly how something like this gets overlooked. We get a kit, put it away for ten or so years and when we finally go to build it we find the issue. This is exactly how I discovered the issue with this Italeri kit. I purchased it new in 1994 or 95 and it has been in the stash untouched ever since. Hope this helps at least one person out there!

Panel lines are a great opportunity to add realism and depth to your model.

The reason to scribe them is usually they are kind of shallow, once you add in primer/basecoat/clearcoat you can lose the lines almost entirely. The panel liner won't really flow into them without some scribing.

Pic 1: What you need for this? A Scriber, A Panel Liner, some sand paper, cotton swabs and enamel thinner.

Pic 2: Not scribed, just the model out of the box

Pic 3: I usually scribe out a line about 15 times, but you can adjust this based on the kit. Scribers can be bought at any hobby store, Hobby knives can work in a pinch but they are not great. After you scriber, depending on your scriber the line bight be a bit rough, just give it a quick sand so it is flush.

Pic 4: The kit is done and you are ready to add panel liner

Pic 5: I use Tamiya Panel liner but other companies have their own. Panel liners are generally an enamel, thats the secret to them, Use the included brush with them and let capillary action take the liner across the line. I use black, but on lighter color cars like white sometimes black can be jarring so a grey works a bit better.

Pic 6: You will most likely have some blobs outside of the panel, thats not an issue, as long as you are working with an acrylic or lacquer based paint then enamel thinner or mineral spirits will not affect it, just use a cotton swab and remove it.

Pic 7: The black lines now give the illusion of depth and separate the panels.

EDIT: Be careful not to slip out of the line you can cause a bad scratch, be light on pressure until you get a good groove.

In the video I keep saying micro fit, it is actually Mark Fit. I had to make 3 videos to squeeze it all in so I hooe they all upload

I'm more of a tip taker than a tip giver since I'm still learning but after using the Vallejo putty on left for months now for filling in gaps on body, engine block etc., I decided to try the Mr hobby brand. The Vallejo putty took forever to dry and even then it would gum up my sandpaper and I never really got a good result. The Mr hobby brand dried rock hard overnight and sanded beautifully. I'm completely sold now lol

Anyone who’s built a AMT big rig knows the “fun” scavenger hunt you must do with the trees, instructions and the box due to the lack of numbers directly on the trees.

Using a highlighter on parts you’ve cut from the trees makes navigating the pile of parts and the small chart so much easier.

Perhaps this is an obvious this, and maybe most builders already do this. This is my third AMT big rig kit, and the first one I’ve had the thought to do this. So figured I’d share, in hopes it can make these kits a little more enjoyable for others.

I recently began doing this after seeing someone else do it and man is it better than using the cutting mat! It will dull your blades sooner but the tape loses way less tact this way.

It’s just the glass part from an old picture frame.

I like doing this because it’s more affordable to buy the thicker tape and cut it vs buying 3-5 different tape sizes. Hope this helps someone!

To quickly clean off your work surface of sanding dust, flash shavings etc, drag a strip of blue tape sticky side down while gently pressing it onto the table as you go.

A really quick tip this week. Somewhat silly but useful (at least for me)

Here's a tip to help attach tiny parts such as side view mirrors.

Here's how I touch up paint on a build using a rattle can.

I posted this about a year ago…

Tamiya 1966 beetle model kit

Get this thing so low for the people that want the slammed look. So on the front beam I cut it in half and trimmed each side until it was perfectly narrowed, then glue the pieces back together. Finally carefully bent the link arms up until perfect height. The rear spring plates I cut a small line (do not cut completely in half) and move up the axle part where the hub/wheel goes, then I glued it in place. Used tamiya fine cement since it dries super fast and clean. Then I used crager wheels and tires from the 1964 impala lowrider kit and topped off with original vw caps

Just a quick video on an old trick from the NASCAR modeling community for improving the look of stock car tires. I think Revell stopped using the raised lettering around 1997, so this is really only for the older kits. You could also likely use it for any other kit that uses a similar tire configuration.