Russell C

What is that, though? A 24th or 25th scale, or one of those larger scale diecasts? I've got a set of two clear lenses (where of course the small backup lens area is left unpainted) from one of the GM truck kits or the Blazer / Jimmy, but those are firmly earmarked for my own GMC Jimmy project. Not that I discourage scratchbuilding, but somebody else may have the lenses rattling around in a parts box ......

Spotted one of these very pricey kits on ebay within the last month or so, never knew anyone put them out. Very nice, Simòn! Plus I have my own weakness for these, my dad sold me his Plymouth Champ after my abortive attempt to own a Fiat X1/9 (soon discovered I couldn't afford to fix all its faults). I owned the Champ from '87 to '94, but then I stupidly totaled it. Fun car with the "power/economy" shifter, basically making 8 forward gears and it did actually make for two gears in reverse. Pic below from 1991 of my drive over Ophir Pass in Colorado a day or three after a bulldozer had scraped the road completely open, nice and flat with no troublesome rocks.

Alas, a family obligation prevented me from attending, making me feel all the worse for it, since the show is right along the way I drive every weekend. Thanks for the pic report!

Close up pic:

That's what I thought when I was building my 3-wheeled, directionally challenged "T'error" version (borrowing Gary Kulchuck's photo of it here), and I was just going to drill a hole where I thought the spark plug should be. But while rummaging around in photos of the full size engine, I ultimately spotted where the 4th hard-to-see dimple was, in the extreme top corner of the valve cover. I forget what classic Ford engine this is, but others will probably chime in about it.

Thought I'd seen that somewhere before, but couldn't pin a name to it. This guy has a whole page dedicated to it: http://jimsoldtoys.blogspot.com/2011/10/lindberg-gt-200-model-kit.html

Having my own very old habit of mixing 'n matching cars, I like the concept!

Hemmings had a variant a few years back: https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/02/02/one-off-lemans-gives-glimpse-into-alternate-universe-in-which-pontiac-built-the-el-camino/ I'd like the effort a bit better if it didn't retain the Chevy taillights but had something that instead are identifiable as Pontiac.

What some don't find valuable, others do. Without getting into details, at another vehicle forum I belong to, one fellow posted a topic that was essentially a false premise suggestion, and it ultimately generated 60+ pages (with maybe 50 replies per page) of back 'n forth, along with other related tangents containing quite good links for additional info. But since the O.P. couldn't handle the direction the thread was going toward the end, he started deleting his posts one by one, until he got to his original one, and from that deletion, POOF went the entire thread. Wish I'd known how to archive links back then, it was a good one overall.

One reason I build is because I must be nuts. But the other two reasons are 1) pursuing the ever-allusive goal of seeing if I can make something in scale (subcomponent or complete model) that might pass for being the real thing, or at least approaching that, if it was 24 / 25 times bigger. 2) I build unique things to mess with other modelers' minds. Usually always makes 'em laugh and/or smile at whatever offbeat thing I've created. I call that fun, makes it all worthwhile.

It's still available for flights: "No plans to ground Mesa's historic B-17" https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2019/10/02/b-17-bomber-crash-vintage-plane-mesa-wont-grounded-after-accident/3840558002/

Apart from the faint black line in the top right, the first pic is a killer! You could fake people out by saying it is a full size car and nobody would question it.

Ditto, on a Plymouth 2-seater I build in the early 1990s (plopped years later for the heck of it at a GSL contest).

Just a whole lotta computer code text in the first photo attempts, if that helps solve whatever the first upload effort involved. Second efforts visible, though.

That's true. Eek, my own MCM Quicksilver rebuild / mod WIP is running 4 years behind schedule. One of these days soon, I'll have to do an inventory of the leftover parts & body pieces from the gluebombs & half-builds I gathered over the last several years just to make one good keeper pile. Includes a complete hood/front fenders that I won't be needing, but I also need to compile a list of parts I need for trade. What I need and what probably every Quicksilver builder needs in the original decals in perfect shape, especially the silver foil panels. But, graphic artist that I am, an option is to redraw the panel decals with clear lettering, and apply the new decal over Bare Metal Foil. But guys with ALPS or similar style printers can print silver foil decals.

Nor will I, and I count my blessings each day on how my day hasn't been turned upside down like so many of them were on that day. I've displayed a composite photo of the flag and a pic of the towers my parents took from the Hudson ever since October 2001, reprinted as needed to keep the colors nice.

Dialed up Andy via a social media network that shall remain nameless - his reply was: "I still have some model T stuff but none of the funny car stuff or Firebird III. Have him email me. modelmartin@comcast.net "

Wow. Looks like he went to the extra trouble of barring Internet Archive web crawls of his photos, too. https://web.archive.org/web/*/hankstruckpictures.com You can get thumbnail pics when you drop the string site:hankstruckpictures.com into a Google Image search window, but that's the extent of it.

At a bare minimum, Andy said 'hi' here back in May: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/142411-aardvark-models/?tab=comments#comment-2089914

That buff below the driver's side mirror will rust out. =)

Thanks much for the many kind words, gents! Just one more note, the basic idea was not my own, so I just created another thread on the basic idea of reverse greenhouse section cars here: "1/2 backwards cars."

A.k.a reversed greenhouse sections. I had fun building my 1/2 backwards VW Beetle since it ends up looking so comically bizarre. However, the treatment is not my original idea, I've seen it done over the years to some success (or not) in my various rummages though custom car images in the internet. This backwards Vette is one I found & copied years ago. The person did quite a bit of photo altering of a common photo image, but I completely forget the website or blog where the alteration appears. I've also bookmarked a few image links, such as one for a reversed Testarossa, which is sorta there, but still needs more lots alteration to make the image less goofy. This Sub5Zero site had a thread on reversed cars, including a New Beetle which I don't actually remember seeing, but it doesn't actually look all that good. All of the images there don't go to the effort of recoloring the signal lights, and many are lackluster overall, but I thought the reversed Maserati had especially good potential. Here's a different thread with some other images and some repeats from the above thread And I did one BMW M6 reverse image myself years back where I went to the extra effort to color the marker lights properly. Who knows what the "new" headlights would look like … So, feel free to add in other pics here, or your own ideas if you want to try 'em out. Can be made to work on convertibles with tastefully repositioned windshields, such as Claude Thibodeau's reversed Avanti.

Been keeping an eye out for a cheap gluebomb build of one of these on ebay, since I have an oddball idea of how to customize it. They're not especially rare, and there was a somewhat recent repop of 'em, but I managed to snag this one a few days ago with a single bid for a total amount (car + shipping) that's below most any starting price on originals, built or unbuilt. The reason is because the seller only had it labeled as "Racecar, built." Put "Scarab" on it and all the Scarab hunters come out of the woodwork. Another one minus the interior but with a slot car chassis and kit box is currently up at $56, nearly twice what I paid in total. Handy and appreciated score for a poor guy like me.

Now, here's a few construction photos for the interior. Should have used a medium gray for the gauge panel lines, the black is too intense. Detailed as the Tamiya kit is, it's really devoid of the underseat framework. So, I created some framework out of heat-stretched white sprue and bits of flat sheet stock. The big central pedestals aren't correct of course, but they also can't be easily seen, and are good otherwise for glueing the seats down solid. Couldn't resist cutting out and hollowing out the map pocket, so that I could stuff a commuter-reduced paper printout of a 1966 Model Car Science magazine in it. Prior to building the model, I did two photo alterations to see if it was possible to pull off the mental image I had in my mind. The top alteration was of some guy's box stock Tamiya build-up, and apart from changing the interior from tan to white, and from getting the new front deck lid to look right, the finished model looks just like the altered photo. I had forgotten to put in parts of the front fender inner liners when I took it to the GSL contest, but I fixed that afterward. Fun thing for me is how it messes with the mind. Car guys in general and Bug guys in particular will readily ID it as a VW Beetle, it's what the senses tell you at a gut level identification, but there's something not right at all about it. When I emailed a photo to my VW mechanic, his reply captured this best: "So cool, and so disturbing at the same time."

The main operator of the GSL contest, Mark Gustavson, is a ripe target for this sort of weirdness, and remember - we can always blame our model's apparent weak points as being accurate depictions of what is seen on the 1:1 car we are replicating.