unclescott58

Interesting that Casey brought this model up. At our February Model Car Club of Minnesota meeting, we decided to do a club build/contest. Guess what model was decided on? AMT's '41 Plymouth. What an odd coincidence. Part of the reason for picking this car is that you see so few built. And the one kit dealer at our meeting has several left over from the last reissue, and is willing to sell them to us cheap. Any issue can be used for the build. I'll be using one I think I picked up back in the 1990's. For the build, one can do what ever they what with kit. With the talent in our group, it will be interesting see what they come up with.

A question of scale. As you know, I've built 3 "visiable" large scale engines in the last couple of weeks. Finishing the Porsche engine this afternoon. When I sat the Porsche engine by its sister Ford engine made by the same company. It brought up the question about what scale are these models really? Franzis claims their 289 Mustang motor is of 1/3 scale. Their Porsche 911 motor 1/4. Yet side by side, the 2.0 litre Porsche motor looks bigger than the 4.7 litre Mustang motor. Putting the 1/4 scale Porsche boxer 6 by the Renwal/Revell Visiable V-8, also claimed to be 1/4 scale, it looks enormous. Time to get out the old tape measure. Not counting the water pump. Just the engine block. The Franzis Ford 289 measures out to about 8 inches long. Talking to a friend who knows these engines fairly well, he says that should be right for 1/3 scale Ford 289. The real 289, block, not counting water pump, is about 24 inch long. Good so far. The Franzis 1/4 scale Porsche 911 motor measures about 12 inches in width, at it's widest, not counting the exhaust manifolds. From top of one valve cover to the top of the other valve cover. 12 inches. At 1/4 scale, this means the real engine is 4 feet wide! I think Franzis has got their scale wrong on this one. At the same time I don't have the specifications on the Porsche engine ready on hand to check how big the real engine is. 4 feet just seems too big to me. The 1/4 scale Visiable V-8? Tough to check. Is it really a Studebaker V-8 or not? But, just looking at it compared side by side to the 1/3 scale Mustang V-8, it looks right for the difference in the two scales. I have not measured the Visiable V-8. And I don't have the specs for the Studebaker V-8 right at my fingertips. So we'll leave that alone for now. I'm sure in my vast library, I do have the exact specs for all 3 real engines. And I may have to do more research in the future. But, I thought in the meantime I'd bring it up to you guys, and see what you think? It will be interesting to get the AMT Transparent 283 V-8 I have coming from a seller on eBay. AMT/Ertl claimed it to be in 1/6 scale. It will be interesting to see how compares to the other three?

Not a V-8. But, another Franzis engine model complete. The Franzis Porsche 911 engine. 1/4 scale. Like their Mustang engine I built above, another great kit. Took just about four hours to complete. Everything looks great. Fits great. And works great. Other than price, I love these Franzis kits.

4 hours and it's done! My second Franzis engine. I built their Mustang 289 K code engine almost two weeks ago. I was so happy with that I had to buy Porsche 911 motor too. I great kit. Everything snaps and screws together. No waiting for glue to dry. And like the old Renwal/Revell Visible V-8, everything is sturdily designed, and works the first time. I love it.

Amazon just dropped this. Since I can't go into work, this isn't a bad way to fill in the time.

Looks great. I like it.

A four-door Wranger might be cool too. Around here, I see more four-doors now, than two-doors, of the lastest generation Wrangers.

Peter, your wright, Atlas does put out a couple of very nice structures. As you can see by my switching tower below. A lot of Bachmann structures really turn me off. But, the Buchmann Plus "Freight & Passenger Station" I found a few years ago. I've not seen a station for my layout I like better.

Dave, it's the HO guys who've got it made when it comes to the variety and amount of structures, rolling stock, etc. From my understanding N is the second most popular scale in miniature railroading, after HO. So I'm sure we've got it pretty good compared to other scales. But, we are still a poor second in popularity to HO. HO overwhelms all. I drool when I go through the HO sections in Walthers catalogs of recent years. Wishing I could have those things the HO guys can buy, in N. By the way, Walthers doesn't even publish a seperate N scale catalog anymore. We use to get a catalog with N and Z together. Now N and Z are small parts shared with HO in the same catalog. It makes it hard to not be even more jealous of those HO guys. Because of what's available in HO, I sometimes regret going with N scale in the first place. Yet I like the size of N. One can fit a lot of stuff into a very small place. And trust me, I live in a very small place. Without a lot room for any layout. N or HO. I mainly love passenger trains. Yet passenger trains are really too big for the layout I have. I can't imagine putting an HO, especially HO passenger train in the same space. By the way, I like the building above. What scale is it? It would look cool in my imaginary small town I'm building for my layout. Yet I've not seen that one available in N.

I'm wondering if Revell or anyone else will consider making a new Jeep Gladiator? I really like that vehicle, and would love to see a model of it.

Non Catholic. Learned it in public school. The beatings came at home. But that's another story we don't need to talk about here. I'm sure part of it came from being a little dyslexic. I'm neat but slow when writing in cursive. If it's not written neatly, I have a hard time reading it. Rearly use it today. I print even better. Dreamed of being a architect when I was in junior high and high school. So I learned to print beautifully. Today, I work in a high school with special education kids. All the hand written things I do for them, and even for "regular" kids is printed out. Because we live a computer age, the kids haven't be taught cursive writing in many, many years. It's becoming a lost art. I have mixed feels about that. By the way, even if the kids today don't know cursive. They sure know how to at least curse! One of the ways world has changed that I'm not please with. P.S. It's not just the kids cursing too much today. Most adults are just as bad. If not worst.

I too bought the above at the time. The Revell model, the "Man in Space" book, the "wall chart" poster that came with it were great. The other science books you got later? Not so much. Both the Man in Space book, the the poster, a couple of the other books, and the "library case", can be seen on display at the high school I work at. I have a display case at Spring Lake Park, MN's high school, where several of my more "educational" models, etc. are on display. The original model is long gone. But, last year I bought the latest reissue, and a copy of the old instructions, and built kit according to those instructions. Asseen in the photo below. That model is not on display at the high school. I have a more accurate model of the moon landing there.

That is my handwriting, making note of the day Mr. Nader signed it. I knew at the time if I didn't note the date, I was sure to forget it.

After a talk at the University of Minnesota in the late '80s I got him to autograph my copy of Unsafe At Any Speed. By coincidence, I was writing my paper on history of Corvair at the time. I naturally disagreed with the conclusions in his book. But, I liked the man, and found him to be sincere. And if one really looks at the true history the Corvair, his book did not have as much to do demise of the car, as the Ford Mustang did. Mustang and Chevy's response, the Camaro, were the cake of Corvair's death. Nader's book, was just icing on that cake.

As most people here know. I have other hobbies besides building model cars. I also have a very small N Scale Train layout in my basement. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, I picked up some more N scale building kits to add to my layout. The three I got are all part of the Walthers Cornerstone series of N scale of building kits. I love their kits. In general, they look like real buildings you'd find here in the United States. They go together quite nicely. The details are perfect for N scale. And in several of their kits, the give you options to build the kits in slightly different ways. The first kit I'm showing is their "Classic Car Restoration" shop. Kit #933-3824. A very nice kit I built without any paint. I love the decals in front windows. The first one reads, "Have Your Favorite Car." Second, "Brought Back to Like-New Condition!" Third, "We Restore them All!" Fourth, "From Model Ts to... Vipers." There are a few options in this kit to build the kit a few different ways. Mainly a different rear wall without the extra garage door. The only problem I had with this one. On the very last billboard light, as I was cutting the neck part for it from the sprue. I dropped it. Losing it somewhere on the floor. I'm going to contact Walthers and see if they'll help me replace that one tiny part. The second model is their "Vintage Dairy Queen." Kit #933-3845. Again, another nice kit. This one I did have to paint a few details. The roof sign is very nice. No decals required. The Dairy Queen sign comes as you see it. Preprinted. I had no problems at all building this one. The only option given in this kit is blank generic shaped sign you can use on the roof. The third kit is their "American Bungalow." Kit #933-3889. Again, it's as nice to build as the other two. To me it's a very cute little 1 1/2 story house. That comes with a nice detached 1 car garage. The basic house and garage walls were molded in a very pale yellow. Not the blue shown on the box art. And since I love blue, I had to do some painting. This kit came with several options. As seen on its box art, it comes with a second, enclosed front porch option. Which I though was ugly. When I bought it, I knew it came with the option of another porch. And the in the Walther catalog they show the their basically same HO scale kit with a nice (to me) opened porch. I took the chance that that was the option in the N scale kit. With few differences, it is. Another option in this kit is to build it without the two side dormers. A third option is leave garage door open. In fact the garage was pretty nice detail on the inside walls of the garage. You can see the inside wall frames. Problems? Nothing major. I discovered after I finished it, if you look closely, I put two the side widows in upside down. Though in N scale this is very hard to see. Most, if any will ever notice it. Also there was the very minor of a pain of having to cut out the glazing representing the window glass in this kit. It's very similar to the glazing used in several of the older Revell kits. I thought it would ridiculous to try cutting window glass for small basement windows in the foundation of the house. So I chose to do those with Testors' Model Master Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker. And that worked just fine. They look fine, when they dried.

From what I recall, the recent repops do have the correct box art of the originals. If I'm wrong, I like to know about it, and see what the originals really looked like. But, they both look right from everything I've seen.

Today I got two kits I have no intention of ever building. They are AMT's recent reissues of two Buicks. Their '65 Riviera. And '66 Wildcat. Two kits that I love. And have built a couple of each over the years. So why buy two more with the intention of never building them? The box art. They have restored the packaging basically back to their original box art designs. To box art designs I've liked, but never had the opportunity to buy back in the day. I've done this with at least one other kit. Their '71 "Birds of Paradise" Thunderbird they reissued a couple of years ago. It too will probably never be built by me. Like the Buicks, I have another previously built one. And did not need another. But, I liked the box art on that one too. I have bought other recent AMT and MPC kits because of the restoration of old style box art. But in those cases, always with the intention of someday building the kit within. In the three cases mentioned above, I just bought them for the love of the box art. In someways that seems kind of sad. I've always believe the purpose of buying models is to build them. Not just collect them. At the same time, it's kind of nice to now in life to have money and space to buy with collecting in mind.

I'm not sure how I feel about the overall looks of these kits. But, on several levels they are cool. And I may have to attemp building one someday.

Looks good. I like the Discoprise. Next to the original, it's my favorite version of the Enterprise. And the Polar Lights, as seen by your model, builds up into a very nice miniature of the ship.

The painting on the jacket really makes your model stand out. And you painted that yourself? I'm blown away! Your a phenomenal painter. I especially love Van Gogh's Starry Night. One of my all time favorite paintings. I did not expect to be overly impressed by a bust of Van Gogh. I figured it would be something showing Van Gogh with his head wrapped in bandages after he cut off his ear. I was nice see something that is completely and pleasantly different from what I expected. This is great. I'm very impressed. Thank you.

Interesting. A very nice job.

I love it. I built mine about a month ago. Both the Discovery and Enterprise build up very nicely. Though the decaling can seem a little much. But, a shown by your builds, it's worth the effort in the end. Very nice.

Very nice. Did you have to paint it? I got the impression from your first comments, it may have come prepainted. I like prepainted kits. It's takes care of one of my biggest, and least liked hassles in building some kits. The first photos you show, bring up another question. With the use of screws, does this kit have a diecast frame? Not that screws automatically mean diecast. I've been building a few plastic model that use screws in their assembly lately. But, the look of the frame in the photo, and your comment about color, make me wonder if it's painted and/or diecast. Either way, I like the end results. You built a very nice looking bike. Between your building skills, and the typical quality and design of Tamiya kits, it looks top notch. I'm impressed.

Wow! Looks great. I like it. I've have the Apple Krate version in my pile. Waiting for me to build up the courage to attempt to try building someday. I've heard so many stories about how hard these kits are to build. I'm more than a little intimidated by it. It's nice to see how beautiful your's turned out. I hope I do half as well when I build mine. Great job.

A couple of days ago, at a local Barnes and Noble, I found a new reproduction of the 1960 version of the game Life. I had to get it! Mainly because I hate that in the new versions the game, you use game pieces that are politically correct, soccer mom, mini vans. The reproduction version gives us back the convertibles with fins! I couldn't pass up a chance to drive my blue finned convertible around. With my pink plastic wife, and four or more plastic kids in the back. It's the way "Life" should be. The good "Life." In more ways than one.