kalbert

Races would be a heck of alot shorter that's for sure!

Both good examples of technology that was researched and developed, not just the units themselves, but the production and maintenance of. As they were damaged and destroyed, new, faster, better ways to build new ones and repair old ones were developed to keep pace with the demand for more functional units.

Wrong. While manufacturing must run at an extreme pace, R&D is as important of role in military might as production pace. The need to produce more, better, faster, and cheaper was a requirement for anyone with a stake in the outcome of war. As an example,the Cold War stalemate? Each "side" racing to out do the other's potential for destruction, the race for space, advancements in cryptography, globalization of communications... At the beginning of the US Civil War, one shot long guns with limited range and accuracy built with technology that dated to the Revolution were the only arms available. By the end, repeating rifles, revolvers, and cartriges were a requirement for competitive battle. As was the advancement of communication and transportation of goods and troops via an increasingly sophisticated rail system. Advancements in metallurgy, construction, education, textiles, all driven by the need to stay one step ahead of the other "side" and both sides made significant advancements. At the beginning of WWI, aviation was hardly a player in military force, at the end it was a requirement. In the early beginnings of WWII much of the worlds aviation was still piloting those same planes or ones of similar design with minimal payload capacity, communication ability, range, or armor. By the end of the war both "sides" had developed the largest most advanced aircraft man had ever seen capable of things just a short time earlier were thought to be impossible. None of this advancement would not have occurred without war. Each side was in a race to one up the other, and both needed to be constantly finding bigger, faster, better technology to hold position. Also a factor, very different technology was required on both fronts, planes that worked well over Europe did not over the Pacific, and vice versa. The technologies used by the Japanese required a different response than what was working in Europe. Without the do or die fierce competition of wartime, those advancements would have occurred at a snails pace, if at all. Wartime is a double edged sword. Humanity both suffers and advances during wartime.

Probe was a fun car, but whew... sure am glad they steered away from replacing Mustang with it. Not that there's nothing good about Fox or SN95 Mustangs, whatever else they are, they carried the torch long enough for the redesign in 05. Remember the frenzy when those came out?

It's not uncommon for retired NASCAR chassis to turn up in other racing series, nor is it impossible for someone to order every single part on a NASCAR chassis from a catalog to do whatever the hell they want with. Aero wheels, for one, are used in racing series all over the world, not just Cup cars. SB2 heads found there way into every form of racing that would allow them, and into show cars, daily drivers, etc. Slicks included in the model kits can just as easily stand in for rear tires on a 1/4 mile car. That's not made up fantasy, its reality. Believe it or not Harry, your models are just as plastic as everyone else's.

Ewwww, yea I went and had a look for myself. Most of their stuff is top notch, but that GS dog is, well, mediocre. Schleich also makes some it looks like, they maybe are a little nicer looking. I don't know how they scale out, but I want to say G scale train guys use Schleich animals maybe? http://www.schleich-s.com/en/US/toys/dogs_german_shepherd/

Preiser makes a series of 1:25 animals, and among them I'm certain I've seen several types of dogs. I am not certain there was a GS but there sure could be.

Interesting question there... Would they have all rotted away and have been scrapped out, or would the ease of repair for the steel vs glass have birthed an entire Goodmark facility just for stamping out Vette parts!

Ha ha ha ha! Seriously? You do know that the muscle car boom of the late 1960's was halted to protect the financial interests of insurance providers more so than the environment right? A better question might be "What kind of muscle cars would we have today if people had personal accountability and common sense enough to not behave in ways that would require government intervention to protect those that are capable of making responsible choices". Even if protecting the environment was the primary cause for the demise of the "muscle car", what kind health and longevity would the inhabitants of this planet have to look forward to if the government/EPA would get out of the way? Not to mention that the push toward more efficient energy utilization has birthed the multiple horsepower per cubic inch "muscle cars" we have today that get 20mpg doing it?

Seems like I heard the tools for ESCI were damaged/destroyed/lost/stolen/held hostage? Seems like there was some urban legend around what happened to them, it was kind of a JoHan like tale, but I'm not able to recall right now.

Yea Nickey sounds right, or at least rings a bell with what I had heard somewhere. Or am I thinking of the Harrell prepped Gibb cars? COPO kind of makes it all a real grab bag BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH shoot. Seems that any combination of anything in the warehouse could be ordered if you went through the right channels. Can you imagine the same level of competition going on today?!?!? Over on 67-72Chevytrucks.com there's a guy who worked at GM in the truck group with a good story about how he arranged to have a hundred 87 C10s built with an MY6 4spd just because he wanted one and they had a pallet of them in the warehouse. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showpost.php?p=3300095

Ahh yea! An excellent example of COPO! "Give me some with the SS396 trim, but I want them equipped with the 375hp motor and a TH400 instead of a 4spd" From 62-68 Nova was a trim level on a Chevy II. In 69 the Chevy II name was dropped and they were just called Nova. Both my parents had 72 Novas that granddad still referred to as a Chevy II!

Correct. The 427 cars were dealer built, COPO ordered with even less options than the minimum on the normal order form, and 427 engines fitted by the dealer, which I think was only Yenko, but it seems to me I've heard there was another guy somewhere who did a very few of them. A 396 was offered in the SS trim Nova, however it was not available in lesser trim. An SS396 was built with RPO options on the dealer order form, not COPO. To get a bare bones heat and keys Nova with a 396 it would have been a COPO specifying that specific configuration which was not available on the normal dealer order form. I don't know if any were built this way, but it would be plausible to use the 396 engine decals, bench seat, and plain grille and tail panel included in the Revell COPO Nova kit to depict a car that could have/should have/may have been built. The Wikipedia article sums it up nicely http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Chevy_II_/_Nova#Third_generation_.281968.E2.80.931974.29

Spring of 2000 I joined and made my first bids, a few weeks later my first win. Complete TPI air filter box for a Camaro. Fun car, shoulda held on to that one.

How does the upside down instrument cluster work? Looks like a fun project, I really like the cage and fuel system detail!

But those too are fleet cars, ordered in a group with a specific set of options not found on the dealer order sheet. There are COPO Camaro's that are not 427s. Nobody remembers them or cares because they are not tire smokers, but they were all ordered under COPO. Heck there are COPO Citations: http://www.hovermotorco.com/2011/02/rare-limited-production-copo-chevrolet.html

Don't be too sure about that... It's a slippery slope, you'll be finding more and more stuff you 'need' every day!

Heck, I'd think the Future could go on before and after! Some guys even use Future as a decal setting solution. The biggest benefit though is that it's fairly scratch resistant, and somehow makes clear plastic look just about invisible.

I'd think you could clean them up with sandpaper and dip the whole thing in Future to give it a durable shine.

Harry I don't know why your'e trying to make this about how much better you are than the "casual" modeler. We get it. You don't think the "casual" modeler is doing anything more than slobbing glue and paint on kit parts and sticking them arbitrarily together without thought, premise, or goal, and is certainly not interested in aspiring to build this model better than their last, nor capable of identifying misprinted information in the instructions. The comment about building models being educational need not be berated, you made your point.

Or a T-type Skyhawk!

I believe there was some discussion here a while back about using body parts of the 80's J2000 pro street show car kit and an MPC Cavalier together. Seems like it would be an easy swap, though I'm not sure what you might use for interior parts.

One thing that does nothing to grow "the hobby" is to speculate and bicker openly on the Internet. You have no control over the audience that might stumble on your topic. Rants, negative remarks, personal attacks, and bias do nothing to help anyone. There is no way to measure the number of people who came looking for info on model cars and instead found childish rants, personal attacks, and scathing reviews. Everything changes with time. The way people shop changes, the way things are manufactured changes, the way people communicate changes, the way people enjoy their life changes. There are less magazines in print now than there used to be, but that's not because the sky is falling, it's because modelers are getting their information other ways. There are less brick and mortar stores now than there used to be, but people are able to shop and browse inventories of hobby shops half a world away without leaving the couch. Are there less model car builders than there used to be? Hard to say, but there more, better products available now than there have ever been, and more resources for interaction with other modelers. Lead, follow, or get out of the way. Things are changing faster and faster every day. If you don't like the direction things are going start leading a different way!

I often use Google instead of the forum search. "96 Nova inurl:modelcarsmag.com/forums/" The forum search isn't bad, but sometimes the Google search picks up better results, especially if you're looking for something specific.

ugh. I hate "pro touring". Not the cars that people are talking about, they're fine if that's your thing. It's the phrase that kills me. I erp a little in my mouth every time I read it, and I go out of my way to not say it. When people say it to me, l pretend I don't know what they're talking about and say "The what? You mean that sweet looking nova with the 18" Torq Thrusts? Your're right, that is pretty nice."