Peter Lombardo

Curt, I love your idea of building this racer. Just a great looking classic spartan race car. You will do your usually purfect rendition of it I'm sure. My only surprise here is that it is not done yet.

Wow...does this bring back memories....as a kid I built a few of these guys. I had one bent over working under the hood of an AMT 289 Cobra and one in the drivers seat....then I had one working on a 1963 Sting Ray Convertible. And yes, I remember doing a lot of putty work on the limbs of these guys. It is always great seeing these old childhood model cars and accessories coming back. It is wonderful to recapture a little bit of the "good old days" of modeling....(I refraned from calling them the "Golden Age" as many think this is the Golden Age).

Wow...I am very impressed. What a great job of model construction using a variety of techniques. This is a great looking build. P.S. back in the day when I was out west, Oly was the only beer I drank. Seeing the logo's sure brings back great memories.

Gee...it sure looks like the logical conclusion to the WIP pictures. I am glad that I followed this along the way. I can really appreciate the finished vehicle that much more having seen all of the work that went in to it. Great looking car...you are now going to have a difficult time surpassing this build. Those are the rules you know...each build has to get better and more ambitious than the last. You will sure have a tough time from here on out. Seriously, this is a world class build. Very impressive. Congratulations!

First, I want to point out, even though the counter will change with my next post, that this is a milestone posting for me, it is official...the big bad 1,000 posts...and what better place to have it then on a thread questioning the very reasons why we post here at all! It even came easier than A-Rods 600th Homerun...I mean, it came as I stepped into the batters box with 999 in the record books. Bang, it was over the wall. Anyway, this really begs the questions..why do I choose to breath? Why do I eat? Why do I work? Why do I sleep? Why do I post? I do all of the above because I can. If this forum ceased to exist (I hope not) in the coming days, I would still build. I built cars before I found this forum so I will build whether it is here or not. The only difference would be that only my family and friends would ever see them.

For what it is worth, I use supermarket store brought 91% Isopropyl Alcohol with no ill effects. I works great for me and costs about 20% of what Tamiya charges.

Oh, if they only did....another one of the "grail" cars for me.

Harry, in keeping with the spirit of this thread, it should be "I could NOT care less"

Sweetness....so many ideas come to mind just viewing these photos....these two cars sure look like winners.

Impossible to find fault with these pictures. Should be fun.

How do you like that, I had so much to say, it printed it twice! Strange days!

Like I have something new to add to this!!!!!! Obviously we are all in awe of this build...there is such a tremendous level of detail on every sub assembly. This is one for the record books! Most Impressive. Like I have something new to add to this!!!!!! Obviously we are all in awe of this build...there is such a tremendous level of detail on every sub assembly. This is one for the record books! Most Impressive.

I can understand the speedo...I guess, but I don't get the passenger side window crank and the windshield wiper.....does he take this car to the Friday night burger joint?

Very nice job on some real classic racers. I haven't built one of these kits but I imagine that the molds are pretty old so you did a great job on completing the cars.

Hey Cesar, nice looking builds. I really like the Nissan Cima, sold here as the Infiniti Q45. That was a very impressive automobile...I loved the wild headlight configuration on that car. All nice and clean stuff there. Is it just me, or has there been a sudden increase in "non-America..non-U.S.A." contributors on this forum? I really enjoy seeing the builds from other countries modelers. It adds a great flavor to the forum with a wider selection on nationalities and the style builds they do. Maybe it is just me, I don't know. Either way, nice builds Cesar.

Sorry to hear of Larry's passing. As was said before, the passing of another legend...so very said. I have many books on Hot Rods and Customs and many have entire chapters devoted to his work. That is one of the great things about being an artist, whether it is paint on canvas, or marble stone work, or sheet metal or, in Larry's case, paint on sheet metal, even after you are gone, a piece of you lives on indefinably. Long live the art and the artists that create it.

Wow, this is going along so well....29 pages of response and worth every page of it. Beautiful...just beautiful and inspiring.

Darin, beautiful work as usual....very clean.....I am not sure how this ended up on the Food Network, but it is a great looking Corvette.

If nothing else, this exercise has proven one thing....there is no shortage of bad taste out there....be it individuals with custom (and I use that term carefully) "one offs" or factory design studios.....there is plenty of "extreme ugly" to go around.

Harry, you are beginning to worry me.

I wanted to post a picture of the Datsun that I think is a clone of the AMC Matador so I had to dig one up….along the way I found this beast, I mean a literal “Beast†of a car. A rolling gargoyle….too much This is the Datsun S10, which I think is basically a rip off of the Matador. If you were going to risk a law suit for stealing someone else’s intellectual property, why the Matador? Maybe its just me, but I don’t get it. Harry, I realize that some find the Matador and maybe the s10 Datsun kinda cool, but the Matador is just so "heavy" looking to me...heavy and over the top. And as for the Pacer, I am sorry but that is not an attractive face...no how, no way. But like they, beauty is in the eye of the beholder....one man's pin up is another man's put down.

Just beautiful......super clean. That car is one of the most built models of all time, but this just may be the nicest one ever...certainly one of the best I have seen.

Well, that first abortion will be pretty tough to surpass….it truly is just this side of seasickness. But as real production vehicles go, I think this is one of the ugliest things on four wheels…..I have to avert my eyes when I pass one on the street….I mean, for such a simple design, a box mounted on a rectangle, you would think it would be difficult to mess up….congratulations Nissan I think you found a way. I realize that many liked the Pacer…it was a practical little car with a larger door on the passenger side for easier access to the rear seat, but really, this is a face that only a mother could love. I also realize that many liked the AMC Matador and the Datsun mini clone of it, I am sorry, as designs go, I always found this difficult to stomach. Too heavy in the back and way too much stuff going on all over the place on this one. How about the Datsun F-10? To this day it makes me want to throw up a little in my mouth……talk about dead fish stinking up the place! But I think GM has to take the honors. Think about this for a minute. GM has one of the greatest design heritages ever. The tri 5 Chevy’s. The Corvette. The Pontiac’s of the 1960’s…any and all of them….the ’65 Bonneville is one of the most beautiful cars ever…..long, flowing and perfect. All of the great concepts from Earle and Mitchell….in light of all of that, GM gave us the Pontiac Aztec. The Aztec and it’s almost as ugly Buick Rendezvous…in the words of John McEnroe…..(to really get this right, you must say this line loud and with an air of disbelief and belligerence in your voice….) â€You have got to be kidding me!!!†Tell me, what were they thinking here? When you think about it, it is no wonder Pontiac disappeared. Come on, think about the heritage……GTO’s…all of them….Bonneville’s….all of those too…the 1960’s Gran Prix’s…….Firebirds and Trans Ams….and these guys, after all of those classic road worthy gems gave us the AZTEK???? How they lost their way.

Johnny, I am sorry that I missed this post the other day....thank God your wife is doing better...good to hear the signs of recovery. My wife and I are married 35 years this summer and if anything happened to her, I don't know what would happen to me, so I am sure those thoughts are the same ones you had. Again, thank God she is improving.

Now that I have sent out the Dual Cowl Art Deco cars, I can begin in earnest to work on mine. My original plan was to form the two windshields out of clear styrene so that once mounted I would only need to Bare Metal Foil the frames, but since that was not to be I had to resort to plan “Bâ€â€¦â€¦and unfortunately so did the guys that received a copy of this car…oh well. Obviously, use of these parts is optional, but I am using them and if anyone else is using them, you will get an idea of how I envisioned them to be used. The first thing I did was remove the excess plastic from the front windshield…. basically, I ended up with a “picnic basket handle†shaped piece which I glued on to the front cowling with a rather radical rake to the rear. I designed the two tops to have a real low look…kind of an exaggerated Carson Top feel to them. In order to maintain that look, the windshield must be very low in the front. Here is the top on and a view from the front. Here is the convertible top on the car and you can see how the top rides real low on the body. It has a built-in chop right out of the factory. Here is the hard top on it and you can see that it also sits down nice and low. On the underside of the tops I added a rounded shape to each that lines up to the curve on the front windshield. This will hold the top in the proper place when it is shown on the car. Next I cut out the second windshield frame….you need to cut quite a bit of it away as the tops sit so low on it. Here it is installed on the cars second cowl. The windshield will be installed with a nice sweeping curve from the sides of the frame arching up in the center and dropping down to the other side Here the top is on with both windshields installed and you can see the second windshield fits nicely under the top. This view shows the top on looking up into the interior. I do not want to influence any other builds of this car, but I thought it would be advantageous for some of the guys to see how I used the parts in case they are unsure of how I intended them to be used. You can see the shape of the grill opening I opted for but that does not mean that that is the only shape that will fit or be suitable for the car. Next up, I will hinge the doors, which will be a challenge because of the body contours and then it is up to the challenge of picking out a chassis and engine combo for this baby.