AirDave's Kool Wheelz Collection

[papermate]

Yeah about time you took a year off or two to do some money making models. How about Saracen armoured car for a start?

[airdave]

I honestly thought the Saracen could be designed from a reverse Saladin Chassis.
But even though the Saracen uses the same six wheel drivetrain,
and the Hull shape is very similar to a backwards Saladin Hull,
it isn't the same.
And a model would require a ground up design.

Yes, I could use some outside suspension parts and the six wheels.
But thats a pretty minor part of the whole thing.

My biggest problem would be what scale do I do it in?

If I do a smaller scale, it could be less complicated...maybe no interior?
It would take less time to complete.
But those shared parts from the Saladin wouldn't work, they would need to be redesigned for smaller scale.

Lets face it...since the Saladin is already 1/18 scale...it makes sense to do the Saracen at that scale.
And then that means another 12 to 18 months on this project.
Which is what I don't want to do right now.

I don't mind a long term project, but i think there are other ideas that interest me more right now.
First thing i need to do is get the Sand coloured Saladin published.
I started working on it last year, and have yet to finish it.
...

And...I'm not ending Koolwheelz.
If the urge takes me to do another Koolwheelz model, I will.
I just won't be playing 20 Questions, or posting teasers, or bothering with any sort of slow reveal here.
This solves my problem of waiting for someone to frustrate me again by trying to ruin the surprise for everyone and reveal the models early.
If you wish to keep tabs on Koolwheelz releases, you can, at my forum.
I'll make my formal release announcements there as always and restrict my editorials to there (so as not to annoy anyone! lol)

[Neilio]

Because I'm in the Kool Kidz Klub, or maybe because it was my suggestion from the contest this summer (I'm really hoping for the former), airdave kindly made the 1970 Hot Wheels Ambulance available to me over the weekend. I printed and built it yesterday afternoon while I had the footballz on (Go Panthers!).

I really like this one. From across the room, it looks like a Hot Wheels sitting on the desk, not a model of a Hot Wheels sitting on the desk. It's also emblematic of my favorite Hot Wheels when I was a kid. It's a style I can best describe as "1970's vision of the future". There were a bunch of trucks & vans with this same basic shape and I wanted them all.

I am going to re-build this one-- I need to print it on a better printer, and I'll use pencil instead of marker for edge coloring.

As I was making a new entry in my "completed models log book" (yeah, I'm that guy), I counted up and did the math: 56.25% of the models I've completed this year are Koolwheelz. I've got half a dozen or more "long term" card model projects in process, some of which, frankly, I'll likely never finish. What I like about Koolwheelz is that they are well-designed, (mostly) one page models of fun subjects. The kind of project you can complete on a Sunday afternoon when the footballz are on. It's always nice to finish something.

So thanks for all the current & future Koolwheelz airdave!

[Vermin_King]

The Chariot would probably be more than an afternoon task. Very nice looking Ambulance there

[airdave]

Only thing that slows you down on the Chariot build is the laminating of certain parts to thicker card.
Some parts need to be about 1mm thick and edge coloured, to work properly.

[Vermin_King]

And some intricate cutting on laminated parts...

Here's where I got on it last night, but I was taking my time

[Amccombs3]

And among other recent KoolWheelz releases, here is my build of the Ghostbusters Ecto 1. I'm pretty happy with it. The fiddly bits went well and I had fun with it. I ain't afraid of no ghosts!

[Vermin_King]

I still need to come back to that one. Nicely done on an iconic car

[airdave]

I like Ecto because its colourful!
Nice job Anne.

Hey! Nice Cube too!

[Vermin_King]

I really like the J2 Chariot