unclescott58

What can I say? I’m a little obsessed with Bigfoot/Sasquatch. I really don’t know if I believe they exist or not. For me there is just not enough proof out there. Where are all the good trailcam photos of Bigfoot? Here in Minnesota and over in Wisconsin, there trail-cameras setup everywhere. And yet no really good photos of Bigfoot. Whether they’re real or not. I want them to be. The idea of a big cryptid hominid hanging out in the woods of North America. It fascinates me. Because of this I’ll buy just about anything related to them. A couple of years ago, I found this paper/cardboard Bigfoot Museum model for sale on line. I thought cool. It looked good in the photos. It was relatively inexpensive. Plus, made by a local person here in the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids. And I like giving my business to local entrepreneurs. So I ordered one. It comes from Innovative Hobby Supply. 11610 Jay Street NW, Minneapolis, MN 55448. www.innovativehobbysupply.com. They many other buildings to choose from, other than the Bigfoot Museum. A lot kits in 1/64 scale. And in other scales too. It took me a couple of years to get around to building this kit. For a long time I was a little bit intimidated looking at it. It’s my first paper/cardboard mode kit. But once I got going, it wasn’t that hard to build overall. A little tedious cutting everything out. But general it builds and assembles pretty reasonably. It comes with everything you see in the photos. Excluding the two 1/64 scale cars I placed in the photos for prospective. It basically took all day yesterday, Saturday, September 4, 2021 to build. That includes time for parts to dry between sub assemblies, and doing other normal Saturday things. I have one mystery concerning this kit. One thing that came with the kit was a small bag of scale vegetation to enhance the model. I know I had the bag when I first started building the kit yesterday. But, later that evening I could not find it anywhere. And I looked everywhere. It’s just not to be found. Another mystery, dealing with elusive Bigfoot?

Now that I’ve got a proper ladder for my two-story outhouse, guess where N scale Bigfoot is now hanging out. Look out below!

I like it. Some of those early post-war/multimedia kits were a pain to build and get good looking results. So I’m very impressed with how yours turn out.

Looks pretty good.

Go check it out. I love the Studebaker Museum. A few surprises awaited me there, since the last time I visited. This was my first visit since they moved to their new location. I found the basement to be the best. Besides the Brook Stevens three Sceptre type (actually, if I remember correctly only the 2-door hardtop carried the Sceptre name) mid-60’s proposed prototypes down there, there were also the two Avanti styling based sedan and coupe prototypes too. They looked rough. And are in need of restoration. For many years they just sat gathering dust in a corn of the old Studebaker plant. At least now they are more properly stored at museum. The museum is well worth the price of admission. I believe cost us less than $10.00 a piece to enter. Between the actual museum and the accompanying gift shop, I got my monies worth. Though getting out of the gift shop cost me a few bucks. But even then. I felt it was well worth it.

Thank you. That explains a lot. Is there much skiing at Taos, New Mexico? I have heard of that.

I never heard of the VW Taos. Nor have I ever heard of a ski resort by the same name. That’s the only obscure one to me.

Cleaning an airbrush every time one uses it, for what I perceived as no better of a paint job than I could get from a rattle can, is the reason I never fell in love with them. The only advantage I could see with an airbrush, was mixing my own colors. The rattle cans for the most part offer me as much color variety in that department as I want. And the results I get, especially with Tamiya spray paint have always pleased me.

Who is R&D exactly? (Not all of us know these abbreviations.)

A 10 hour drive for us. Your lucky to be that close. 4 1/2, 10, or even more, seeing the Gilmore in general, and the Nomad and Corvair specifically, are well worth the trip.

Your right about a third show car with a hardtop. Only, the hardtop did not become available until the 1956 model year, on Corvette. The “roadster” was just that, an ordinary roadster, photographed with the other three.

One last thing. I like the dear head skull over door of the cabin. I know, I should have painted it. But, on my cabin its represents a carved wooden sculpture, rather than a real dear head. I don’t object to hunting. It’s just not something I have the patience for or interest in. My dad was into dear hunting. So I tried it as teen. Standing in cool tree stand, being quite? Not my idea of fun. Eating venison? I do like that. But, I’d rather eat steak. No political statement, one way or the other. Just the facts. So, since I don’t hunt. My dear skull above the door is a wood sculpture.

Two more N scale kits I just finished. Vollmer’s “Grillplatz mit Hutte. And Vollmer’s Sauna. Being from Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes, how could I pass on building this north woods style cabin? Plus, check out that cool grille. Those tables and stump chairs. And of course an outhouse. Reminds of “going up north to the lake.” Now if your of Finnish decent, you’ve got to have a sauna “up at the lake.” Interesting kit of a sauna. I’ve never seen one with the fold up panel and huge window like this kit has. This large window, and a smaller window on the side came with no clear glazing. So I had to go to my left over parts to fix that. The instructions indicated that large window maybe is intended to be open with no glazing/glass? They suggest hanging paper beach towels, included with the kit, over the edge. I don’t understand how that opening would make an effective setup for a sauna? By the way, the cabin kit also came with no glazing for the windows. With window type used on that building, I just used Zap’s Formula ‘500’ Canopy Glue. Making glass for those very small frames. Back to sauna kit. I like the little plunge/cool down tub that comes with it. Though your sauna should be close enough to the lake where you wouldn’t need it. None the less, I like. The blue water is a small paper cut out that they give you, with a thin lay of canopy glue over that. This kit also came with an outhouse. Though close, it is not exactly the same the one that came with the cabin. And the sauna also comes with staggered bench set up for inside. Though it is tough to see in the inside of the completed kit. Ah, a Saturday night barbecue, then a sauna. Other trying to figure out how one moves their “stump” chair, closer or farther from the their tables, as it needs be. It looks pretty good time to me. Wait! Who’s that hiding in one corner of the cabin? Oh oh! It’s a good thing our Estate Wagon is power by Buick’s trusty 455.

P.S. No real Bigfoots/Sasquatches were harmed in making the above photos. ?

I too am a big Opel fan. And wish that I could add more than the few AMT and Revell Opel GTs to my collection. I do also have the ICM/Revell 1/24 scale Opel Admirals (cabriolet and sedan). But, I’d love to see more 50’s and 60’s kits of Opel sold here and abroad.

By the way, I’m still wait for 1/25 scale kits of both cars above. Didn’t Polar Lights propose doing one or the other about 20 years ago now?

A few weeks ago, a friend and I went on a week long tour of my some of my favorite car museums. We first went to the Gilmore in Hickory Corner, Michigan. Then the Auburn Cord Duesenberg and Nation Car and Truck museums in Auburn, Indiana. Then it was up to South Bend, Indiana for the Studebaker. (Plus we visited Round 2. We were disappointed to see they have no store or any other accommodations for visitors. They let us in the front door, and told us they could go back into the warehouse a get what ever was needed. But that was about it.) We finished our run with a visit to the Volo car museum, north of Chicago. It’s no Gilmore or Auburn Cord Duesenburg. But, a fun place none the less. It was our first stop at the Gilmore that I got a surprise. They had a display of Corvettes in their first gallery. And amongst those Corvettes, they had a Motorama ‘54 Corvette Nomad and Corvair. With all the rumors, especially surrounding the Nomad, I immediately questions whether I was see the real Waldorf Nomad, or a clone? We found a museum docent, and thought both the Nomad and Corvair were the real thing. But, he went to check to make sure. After checking, he came back and assured me they were the genuine cars. And not clones. Wow! Again, after all of rumors surrounding the Nomad especially, I never thought I’d ever see the real thing. I’m very glad to see this car especially, out of hiding and on display. And the Corvair? Not as exciting to see as the Nomad. Even though I like it better than the Nomad. It’s just seemed like the odds were always more favorable in seeing that one. Or at least one of it’s clones. Still it was cool to see both!

Another N scale kit I recently finished. Rslaserkits “Unique Split-Level Outhouse.” A neat little kit. Other than the ladder for getting to the disintegrated removing it from its laser cut wood sheet. I have a plastic N scale ladders on order. Hopefully they make a good replacement. The Bigfoot (Sasquatch) is not a kit. He (she?) came prepainted, as you see it. In the first photo, Bigfoot has wait for the lower loo, since the ladder is missing for the upper one. The third photo shows what happed coming back from doing their business. Bigfoot vs. ‘74 Buick Estate Wagon? I guess the Buick won in this case.

Another N scale building. This time, Walthers State Line Farm Supply, converted to a Cord automobile dealership. With two Shapeways 3D printed, N scale 1937 Cord 812 Beverly sedans on the show floor. (Shapeways claim they are 1935s. Since Cord 812s were only offered in 1937. And the similar Cord 810s in 1936. I’m assuming they mistaken in listing them 1935s.)

Kool!

WOWS is right. Very nice.

Oh! I forgot to include a photo of the box the kit came in. It should give you some ideas of alternative builds one can do with the kit.

Being in love with automobiles all of my life. And growing up in the 1960’s. I always loved the places where one could see a lot of automobiles back then. The automotive service/gas station. One of favorite toys growing up? My Marx Service Stations of course. And being into N scale trains, I naturally have to have an N scale service station or two, for my future N scale layout. Since I got fairly positive response to show my N scale Smokey’s Signal gas station here, I thought I’d share another one that built about two years ago. And that is my Walthers Cornerstone N scale Al’s Victory Service. I didn’t want to build as Al’s Victory Service as shown on the box. Instead I wanted to build something closer in looks to the Pure Oil stations my dad almost always bought his gas at. Using the alternative decals included with the kit, I built “North Shore” Gas. Almost perfect. Pretty close to looking like my my beloved Pure Oil stations. Plus living in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and loving the famous North Shore drive on Lake Superior, north of Duluth, MN. The name is near perfect. This is a very nice kit. Besides the alternative decals (more than just Al’s or North Shore), you get three choices of of pumps styles to choose from. The 40’s-early 50’s globe pumps you see here. Late 50’s-early 60’s, and late 60’s-early 70’s style pumps too. Now if I knew at the time that someone made N scale Pure Oil station decals, my choice for the build may have been a little different. Guess what? Somebody does make N scale Pure Oil station decals. Using a third style N scale gas station kit, guess what I’m now building? The sign in last photo should give you a clue.

Beautiful.

Thank you for the kind words gentlemen. Looking at the photos, I sure see a lot more of imperfections then I saw before I photographed it. But, still I like it. And I had a lot of fun building it. I’ve just got to put my perfectionist side aside.