Bluzboy66

Thanks!

NICE! Love the color combo. I've got a nice stash of those '70 Imp kits.....one of my all-time favorites. Now you've got me wanting to build one! Oh, and if I could play devil's advocate....I wouldn't go overboard with the blackwash on the grill(s). Some guys overdo it, and it just kills the glimmer of the chrome. Mike

I made a New Year's Resolution. I promised myself that I complete at least one kit per month this year. Not sure how I'm gonna find time, but heck, I'm gonna give it a shot! Here's my latest; a mild Kustom '62 Bel Air. Paint is HOK Candy Apple Red over CAR basecoat, w/urethane clear topcoat. Wheels and tires are from Modelhaus..... Thanks for looking!, Mike

Art, Viewing the pic of your son spraying primer reminds me, paint respirators are always a good idea. I insist that Alex wears his when either of us are spraying catalyzed urethane clear. The benchtop paint booth does an awesome job of pulling mist and fumes to the outside, especially when using the airbrush, but the cat urethanes are just too risky to take chances, so we wear the masks. Mike

Here, Alex is Dremeling out the hood to his Warbucks Mustang gasser, AFTER PAINT! He was bummed to find out that the opening in the hood wouldn't clear the velocity stacks post-build. That's when I introduced him to the Dremel. A little red touch-up afterwards, and everything was good to go..... Mike

Here's Alex airbrushing his Two Much dragster body last year.....his very first fade job..... And, the Two Much completed.... Mike

I'll ask Alex if he'd like to register on the MCMF. Mike (Dad)

Cruz, Thanks so much for posting this. Alex will get a huge kick out of seeing it! As you know by now, he's a good-hearted kid who always wants to 'do' for people. He's been that way since day one. When you gave him that built-up sportscar a few years ago, it meant so much to him. He showed it to EVERYONE, and mentioned his friend, 'Cruz', each time. Alex is THE reason I got back into model building. I had a pretty good collection of unbuilt kits stashed in storage for years. When we moved into our current home in 2003 and started to unbox and inventory everything, I came across the totes of kits. There's a storage/laundry room in our basement with lots of shelving, and I thought it might be cool to display the unbuilt kits in this room. Well, Alex (then, 7 years-old) had never seen my collection, until now, but he was familiar with model kits in general since I always had a few laying about. Anyway, Alex walked into the room, saw the kits on the shelves, and with wide-eyed excitement, said "Dad, we should build those!!". I invited Alex to choose a few kits to work on, and that night we built models together for the first time. Again, that was 2003. The rest is history. Alex is now 13, and is quite an accomplished builder. Alex's first couple of builds were spray-bombed on a cardboard box in the back yard, BY HIM. I only acted as a safety net when necessary. I wanted him to get the full effect of doing it all by himself. Like most of us, he has a few early kits that he hates to show people. Personally, they're my favorites. It reminds me of when I built as a kid. Sad part is, at 13, Alex is 10-times the builder I was....even into my adult years! He's a natural. Eventually, I introduced Alex to the airbrush. He struggled a bit, but eventually became mostly self-sufficient. He's still needs help with proper mixing from time to time, but he'll eventually master that as well. We're using everything from Testors enamels, nail polishes, to automotive lacquers and urethanes. Alex is very aware that most model builders are older adults, and he's doing what he can to get some of his peers into the hobby. He's always quick to offer up a kit to a friend or cousin when they come over. If they show interest, Alex is quick on the draw, and leads them to his own, ever-growing stash of kits. I'm really hoping he can convince a few to join our club, the CPMCC. One last story.... Recently, Alex had finished building one of the Model King 'Funny Farmer' Pontiac Tempest drag cars....the one Cruz has pictured in the original post (his second fade paint job, BTW), and showed it to me one evening before I went to bed. The next morning I came downstairs, saw him crashed out, sleeping on the family room floor in front of the TV, and his Tempest was sitting on the table, FULLY BARE-METAL FOILED! He'd stayed up all night working on it. I'd never really spent any time showing him foiling techniques. He watched me, and picked it up on his own. I'll have to have Alex post some pics of his built-ups. He always enjoys looking at the 'On the Bench' and 'Under Glass' posts here on the forum. Thanks again Cruz. It means more than you know. Proud Dad, Mike

That's a beautiful gasser, Lyle. Looks even better in person. Mike Forrester

Thanks for the compliments on my 'Blue Ball Bobber', Cruz, but I'm not 'Rick'.....I'm Mike!! lol.....Mike Forrester. No relation to Rick. I had a blast building that chopper kit. I back-dated the frame to resemble an early Harley rigid frame. Mods include: shortened rear section, w/under-seat 'sag' removed, de-raked front steering stalk, added reinforcement tube under the backbone/tank (again, per vintage Harley frame). I also molded all of the seams and junctions on the frame smooth. The whole goal was to build a 60's-style bobber. I also used Norm Veber's/Replicas & Miniatures of Md resin mustang-style fuel tank, modded to resemble an early Paughco 'mustang' peanut tank; resin solo seat w/real springs (cut-down electric guitar pickup adjustment springs), and resin open primary. I added all of the wiring, cables, hoses, and foot shift linkage. I cut the handlebar risers down to get the bars down nice and low. Forks were cut down, and lower tubes are polished aluminum tubing. The entire frontend sits lower as a result. Exhaust tips are also aluminum tubing. Big thanks to my son, Alex, for tossing me a set of straight exhaust pipes from one of his own Revell chopper kits for this build!! BTW, my boy Alex won the Junior class with his own custom Revell chopper! Paint is 'Pure Ice' Pearl Blue lacquer nail polish over Tamiya Bare Metal base, with 2-part catalyzed urethane clear topcoat. Thanks again, Mike Forrester

I saw this Vette at the April CPMCC meeting last Saturday. WOW! Nice. And the duct tape over the headlights is an awesome detail. Mike

Interesting. Keep us posted. I haven't started mine yet. Mike

NICE JOB!! Christian is going to be a master builder in no time. My son Alex is 12, and he's well on his way to leaving me in the dust. Keep up the good work, Christian, and be sure to post some more pics of your models! Mike

Looks great! I've always liked that old GTO kit from Monogram........that, and the '70 GTX they released years ago. Nice 1/24 scale kits. Mike

Exactly. That's probably why I was drawn to snap a couple of pics of it. I'm also drawn to old firetrucks, but I hardly ever see them around these parts. Mike

Guys, in reviewing my photos, I apologize if some of them are a little blurry. Unfortunately, the lighting was pretty lousy at times, and I was struggling with the camera to try and make the best of it. Mike

How's this, Scott? That Stude Coke truck was an INCREDIBLE resto.......

I attended the 2008 East Coast Indoor Nationals car show in Timonium, Md. on Saturday, December 6th. There were some incredible rods, customs, musclecars, gassers, you name it, on display, and I came home with a head full of modeling ideas. View my pics here...... http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v472/Blu...s%20Car%20Show/ Mike

Mike, You should visit the hobby stores in your town, and see if one of them would be willing to sponsor your Scout Troop. They can become a sponsor by donating the snap-tite model kits. Mike

Jody, Dave, Excellent. Glad to hear you're already doing your part to 'plant the seed'. Mike

Picked mine up at the local hobby store yesterday. NICE kit! Mike

I'm 42, and have been building since the early 70's, but I don't remember the original Digger kit. At first glance I wasn't really interested in this kit. Viewing all of the photos on the internet, it just seemed 'cartoonish' to me. Then I saw the box art in person, and was pleasantly surprised to see that the kit included a set of 'Stardust' decals. So I figured what the heck, and I bought it. I'm glad I did...... I have to say, I'm impressed by the overall quality of the kit and the presentation. Tom Lowe is 'seeing to the details' on these new releases, and that's an awesome thing. The only issue my new kit seems to have is some very slight warpage to the body shells. The kit comes packaged with the chassis housed between the top and bottom shells, and the shells in my kit have a sort of 'duck bill' warp to them. I'm not sure if that's a byproduct of the packaging, or if they were molded that way. Either way, it'll take a little work to get everything to line up and sit just right on the finished model. I'm looking forward to building this Digger. BTW, I also purchased the new '49 Ford Coupe 'Street Rods' release, and the latest '60 Ford Starliner just yesterday. Good stuff guys! Mike

Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza.......GIVE MODEL KITS AS GIFTS THIS YEAR!! Let's do our part to ignite the modeling hobby in a brand new generation of builder. There are some awesome snap and super Snap kits available for the new and inexperienced builders, and ultra-detailed kits for the folks on your list that appreciate a challenge. Know someone who has a new Mustang?? The new Revell Mustang releases are killer, go together wonderfully, and will make great conversation pieces for their friends and fellow Mustang nuts. Do you have a brother or sister that keep talking about that old Chevelle or pickup truck they learned to drive in?? Give them a kit, some paint and glue, and spend an evening or two helping them to recreate that old car of their formative years. Let the nieces and nephews help out. All it takes is a spark, and before you know it they'll be eyeballing your collection for inspiration. I'm just a shmoe with a dusty stash of unbuilt kits, but my son Alex helped to reinvigorate my participation in the hobby a few years ago.......he was only 8 or 9 years old at the time. Now, Alex is an accomplished builder himself, having won TWO Mid-Atlantic NNL Junior class awards, and having one of his winning models featured in Model Cars Mag last year, and again this year, in the latest issue of Scale Auto Contest Cars 2008!....page 104. After years of wondering whether or not manufacturers would continue to offer plastic model kits, I'm excited to see new releases from Revell and Auto World/Round 2. I'm lucky to have a bunch of friends, my 21 year-old nephew, and my son Alex frequent the hobby stores with me. They're new to the hobby, and even THEY are excited at the prospect of new kits. This is a very promising time for us. Sorry for the long-read. Happy Holidays, Mike

Awesome, Slim. This is one of the coolest builds I've seen here in the 'Under Glass' section of the forums. VERY nice. Now you've got me wanting to crack open one of my GTO Stocker kits! Mike

I like the concept of your GTO stocker. I know how frustrating it can be when paint goes wrong. I usually box everything up and set it aside until I work up the energy to redo it. At least you went ahead with the build. I gotta hand it to you and your stick-to-it-ness. All in all, I like the way your GTO turned out. If the fouled paint really bugs you, how about swapping out the wheels and tires for some dirt track versions, and trying some weathering techniques on it the car to add a grimy, dirty race-worn look?? That would be very cool! Mike