CabDriver

Yep - they're a good example of a company telling people what they want rather that GIVING them what they want. I'm just saying there's a lot they could do to make a digital version of the magazine (alongside a print version) an attractive proposition...but just getting rid of titles and saying "this is what you want instead" probably isn't going to fly.

Don’t mind you interjecting at all! I spotted that too, yeah - the motor mount is way too wide…the directions show that you should mount it to the motor, and then the motor to the frame, but I’m not sure if that’s really necessary. I’m going along with it for now though. Please do start a thread for yours - I’d love to see it! Good tip, thanks buddy! If I was close to somewhere with something painted Mooneyes yellow I’d go take a Pantone chart and match it from that…I have a bunch of different yellows here ‘in stock’ to choose from - I’ll likely end up with just a bright pure yellow unless I figure out something better in the meantime…

Good spot! Harder to see from the outside, but the second car runs a 9” rear axle it looks like, compared to the QC in the original

I suspect, but don’t know for certain, that this era of slingshot didn’t always run them…the 1:1 car didn’t have one originally:

Yeah, but that’s better than them being on the shelf with poor paint jobs… They both look great!

Well darn, thank you! Wait, for clarity - are we all taking about warp when you look from the side, or warp when you look from the top down? This one definitely has some warp from the top-down view, but there’s a couple of supports that I haven’t glued yet that fix that issue (or, they did when I mocked it up anyway…). The firewall goes between the rails and spreads them a little, as does the little motor mount bracket. Hoping it all stays aligned when it comes time to glue it after paint…

Thanks for the nice comments everyone! I think the latter, in this case - my iPhone tends to make straight things less straight for the exact reasons you mentioned…I got it pretty level I think when I had it in the ‘jig’ (softwood sheet and push pins 🤪): Today’s fun started with making a front axle - the kit gives the option of a straight tube axle or an i-beam early-Ford style axle, neither of which is right for this car: The Quickchange that Revell tooled up for this kit way-back-when is really nice…too nice to modify into one to match the 1:1: Never saw a chrome center section like that before - is it maybe just some covers over the regular QC center to pretty it up, a little? Or maybe something more substantial to offer some protection in case that thing blows? Either way, I cast another Quickchange center from my spares box and modified that to get closer to the reference pics I have here: Looks pretty basic…will add some more detail further down the road but it’s closer to the 1:1 now. Same deal with the seat and head padding - the kit part was nice but inaccurate, so I scratchbuilt a replacement and started adding a tuck ‘n’ roll design to it with some styrene strip. Once this has dried I’ll need to round off the corners of the strip to make it look more fabric-y and less square-edged: And with those few little jobs done (which took most of the day) I can see this little guy on his wheels for the first time - cute! Still plenty to do - got some missing bars on the frame to fabricate and install (whilst making sure they still fit inside the body panels), and then I really need to mock-up the entire engine so I can get it mounted just right before I get into painting anything. Anyone know if Moon uses a particular yellow for their cars, or just whatever old yellow they have laying around? I’d guess it’s a manufacturer color by SOMEONE, but I have no idea… Thanks for looking - more soon!

How long was the white tape stuck down before it started lifting?

I shoulda known that…. Sincerely, An Embarrassed New Yorker

Picked this up recently, and have been really excited to get going on it: Atlantis did a great job on this reissue - retooled some really nice tires (the rears, especially), and there’s a bunch of cool stuff in the box. Here’s (one of) the 1:1s that I’ll be replicating: Going to do my best to replicate the original car - the second replica car has quite a few differences, but the kit obviously best matches the original given the replica didn’t exist when the kit was issued 🤪 Today’s job was getting a start on the frame - cleaned up all those hard-to-get-to spots that needed attention and got it glued together. I find with these multi-piece frames that it’s helpful to use some little dots of CA to ‘tack weld’ them together, then use a jig to get them straight as you can and hold them in place before using styrene cement to finish them up: That filler panel on the top of the roll hoop doesn’t exist on the real car, so I made a replacement hoop with brass, soldered the rear bar in place, removed the existing piece then drilled and pinned it all back together: The real car has a metal panel a little lower down on the hoop with wire mesh, so I replicated that with, well, metal and wire mesh: I can’t figure out if the car ever ran a parachute - I found pictures of it without one, and pictures of it with one…but I’d like it to have one, so I’ll need to mount a little plate to the back of the frame like this for the chute to attach to: Finally for today, spun up some aluminum rims and make some wire wheels - the Atlantis front kit tires don’t have any tread pattern on them like the real ones, so I swapped out the tires for spares from a couple of MPC trike kits…I’ll Alclad the wheels further down the line but I think they’re a nice improvement on the kit pieces: And that’s about where I got to today…more soon!

This caught my eye today - Plymouth?

No rosy picturing here - your experience of their digital content is exactly the same as mine. It just doesn’t work; I never managed to get logged in either, can’t access the forums, can’t even read an article I wrote for them, their tech support ignored numerous emails, I tried dozens of times to view their online content and participate and just couldn’t - it’s less than half baked and a poor product. The ability to post things instantly online for a very low overhead works for hundreds of online media outlets, and can work for them too…now is the time to be making the most of that opportunity and giving people a reason to pay them to see this stuff because it’s useful and interesting - not dumbing down their selection. They didn’t even hold onto the Scale Auto domain name, it doesn’t look like…seems like someone else snagged it. Disappointing, after being a long term reader and supporter of their mag and products.

I think that's WHY they do those issues - so people buy a copy or two when their photos are featured! 😁

The Kalmbach CEO has a background in digital publishing, and I've read a couple of times about how important a move to more online content is to their company's vision for the future - that and the streamlining of their titles. I suspect that means that their four different model railroad magazines will be compiled into one at some point; and then maybe that will be rolled into FSM too. There's no-doubt some amazing things that can be done to make a made-for-digital magazine - incorporating videos, clickable links to further reading (imagine a magazine where you can click a link and it shows you a related article from a back issue), a 'live' comments section on the article so people can add their point of view or useful info...or what about a Netflix-like service for model magazines where you can have access to every Kalmbach title ever and dig through them and find what you need for one low monthly subscription? I'd pay for that every month! So much opportunity to do something LIKE a magazine but even better (with a print component running alongside it, for those of us who like an actual paper magazine)! It's not just the model side that is seeing this effect though - Kalmbach also ran one of the country's largest craft shows and associated magazines, and killed both of them off too: https://craftindustryalliance.org/beadbutton-show-and-magazine-close-permanently/

Excellent, thanks fellas!