General Atomics M-7771 "Custodian" Armoured Security Vehicle

[PR19_Kit]

That's a superb idea, but could you 'hover' the model realistically?

Clear styrene 'legs' mounted way inboard perhaps?

[Rick Lowe]

I must say I really like the 'retro-future' look of a 50-60s hover car.
Something like a Lead Sled would really look the part...

Having said that, you can't go past a '57 Chev (or is that just me?).

[Steel Penguin]

to model a hover, if you have a power line or fuel line you make it of stiff wire as a support,  if you have any water  you can use the "splash" of the vehicle going over as a support,  if you have a blower type hover vehicle you can use the downdraft pillar in either clear resin or painter to look like smoke as a support. a couple of pieces of stiff clear acetate, or have a dust cloud under the vehicle of cotton wool and a bar from the base.  Or for the truly ( and I mean truly) dedicated,  rare earth magnets set in the base and vehicle underside so they repel  and balance the model. 

[PR19_Kit]

Or for the truly ( and I mean truly) dedicated,  rare earth magnets set in the base and vehicle underside so they repel  and balance the model. 

Yeah, right. 

One of my aeromodelling friends tried that and the model would only stay 'in the hover' one try out of ten. You only had to touch it slightly and the thing would shoot off as if it was a linear induction motor!

[rickshaw]

Hovertank sounds good.
I've been thinking about '50's hovercars.  I have a number of kits that would look great floating 12 inches off the deck.
This Syd Mead pic has inspired me.

Use some cheap magnets to float it, mate.  It'll look a treat that way.   

[Steel Penguin]

Kit I did say, Truly dedicated, I wasn't under stating that. its something I have experimented with, and realised I wasn't any where near dedicated enough myself.   

[nighthunter]

Okay, I'll say it. If we want a hovercar done "right" for that era, we need look no further than the Howard Stark hovercar, in Captain America, which used the wheel wells to house the anti-grav emitters.

[zenrat]

Like this?

http://ipmsuk.org/ipms-scale-modelworld/scale-modelworld-competition/attachment/class-76-gold-senior-national-champion-spacesci-fifantasy-category-winner-the-albion-alloys-trophy-scifi-ferrari-330-p4-2tb-turbine-engine-vstol-daytona-1967-by-stefano-marchetti/

No, i'll follow Syd's lead and fair everything in.  The styling is more important than the engineering in this case.

When I built the Hovercar for the In the Navy GB I sat it on clear plastic supports.  I'll do the same unless I mount it in a dio (not likely).

[PR19_Kit]

That's the 'car' that won the Championship at last year's SMW event (otherwise known as 'Telford' to us Brits) That was the third year on the trot that a Whiff had won, and I think they were all by the same modeller too, but does anyone actually SAY it was a Whiff? No! 

[zenrat]

Course not.
Here at Model Expo they call it Imagineering.
Mind you, they don't seem to object too much to whiffs in the "normal" classes.
It does help when the person who books in my models is a member here.   

[Old Wombat]

Well, it's looking unlikely that this'll be finished by the end of the GB.

Major f___-up on the anti-grav googly-eyes paint job.

I've bought some more & have removed the offending objects but the time required to build the new, revised versions (to remove the risk of the said f___-up being repeated) is going to be greater than the time remaining, I feel.

I'll still be working on it but I've only got about 3 modelling days until the SAPMA Expo & I'd like to get a few other builds tidied up to show there, which'll be a challenge in its own right.

[zenrat]

So you could revert to the popular unpainted googly eyes version then he asked hopefully.

[Old Wombat]

No, Fred, but I do have some small (3mm, 4mm & 5mm) googly eyes bought on my last purchase & I'm figuring a pair of 4mm googlies fitted to the mirror brackets will do as a nod to the a-g drives.

[rickshaw]

Or for the truly ( and I mean truly) dedicated,  rare earth magnets set in the base and vehicle underside so they repel  and balance the model. 

Yeah, right. 

One of my aeromodelling friends tried that and the model would only stay 'in the hover' one try out of ten. You only had to touch it slightly and the thing would shoot off as if it was a linear induction motor!

What I would recommend would be five rare earth magnets.  Two pointing downwards and there pointing up.  That way you'd have it partially attracted downwards, gripping the base while the three point upwards would repel it.   It would have a slight greater push than pull, which would make it "float", Kit.

[PR19_Kit]

Or for the truly ( and I mean truly) dedicated,  rare earth magnets set in the base and vehicle underside so they repel  and balance the model. 

Yeah, right. 

One of my aeromodelling friends tried that and the model would only stay 'in the hover' one try out of ten. You only had to touch it slightly and the thing would shoot off as if it was a linear induction motor!

What I would recommend would be five rare earth magnets.  Two pointing downwards and there pointing up.  That way you'd have it partially attracted downwards, gripping the base while the three point upwards would repel it.   It would have a slight greater push than pull, which would make it "float", Kit.

That's principle he used I think, with eight magnets, one on each corner of the model, and it did lift up quite a distance. But the slightest force sideways force would send it whizzing off and it would crash onto the table. It needed something to restrict its sideways movement I guess.