Russell C

Thanks! I'll see about doing a few more reworks. The first kit I ever made was the California Hauler with the sleeper box, but I never cared much for the brown on the box art. My dad spray painted it a forest green and put on the kit graphics. I may try to replicate that as one rework on the list. Yep, on the Kenworth's rear suspension, I'd forgotten about that.

Thanks, guys. I'm a slave to temptation when it comes to having fun with such topics.

Poor kid that I was, I saved up all my pennies to get various truck kits whenever the budget allowed. But of course I drooled over the box art photos beforehand, etching 'em forever in my memory. Minor gripes about the artwork always stayed with me, and for sheer laugh's sake, I used some of my graphic arts skills to change the things that bothered me. Here's two so far: It's a subjective thing, but I would have preferred that Watkins had all red stripes. Plus, the way the black stripe was reflected oddly in the muffler heat shield always bugged me, and it seemed the rear wheels were taking on an appearance of being a tag axle hoisted up just a few inches off the ground. Never cared much for the large number near the front of the hood, either. Original box art here. Would have preferred a less harsh color combo than brown & yellow, and I always thought chrome caps on the front hubs added real punch to trucks. After tweaking the color this way, it caused me to speculate how this one would be if NBC had chosen a factory offering from Freightliner as their "Movin On'" truck……. Original Freightliner here.

Thanks, gents. That would probably be right, since I had used the AMT Chevy Titan cab as the basis for my CL-9000 project, which had robbed the turn signals off this IH.

Not that it had any hopes of earning an award, I entered this in the 2013 GSL Street Machines category just to mess with people's minds. Truth is, I built it over the span of a couple of weeks back in the 1990s. The thing that prompted it was a flip remark by some guy on a cable TV car show about how you'll never see a Ferrari with side pipes. Oh, yeah? That was a straight line I couldn't resist, nor was it a project I could ignore when I saw a cheapo Monogram Miami Vice kit at a model car show swap meet and remembered I not only had a set of side pipes in my parts collection but also an old screen from my Remington electric shaver that I thought would be a useful model truck item. The then-current trend for beaters was random rattle can-painted fluorescent pink highlights. Who knows where that look originated? You know how the story for such beaters goes. You are a teenager, not too bright, with a lust for a killer car powered by lawnmowing-level wages, but you live in a neighborhood having a decent supply of cars and car parts. So, you talk that old widow out of the convertible over in the tall weeds, drag it home, get it running, use 90% of your budget on gray primer, jack it up, and borrow various parts off another even more wasted hot rod, like the side pipes, slotted mags, the unpainted fiberglass scoop with the '70s flower sticker on it. And since there should be no doubt about what your ride is, be sure to spell out the car's name across the top of the windshield. Slap on some cool stickers for additional horsepower, and keep the top together with duct tape. Too bad about the rock that busted the pop-up headlight and jammed the mechanism. The Mustang pony emblem for the front got sprayed over with gray primer, but a quick removal of it and a dunk in gasoline cleaned it off. It is around here somewhere, it's not like the regular chrome ponys……. Also too bad about losing control late one night and creaming the curb, but at least you missed the tree. Well, ok, you hit the tree with the open door as you floored it backwards, opening it up to a 90°+ angle. Nothing a bit of bondo and a spare wheel can't cure. Kinda handles weird with that bent spindle. Broken mirror? Still works since it is mostly there. Where'd the gas cap go? Oh, well, stuff a rag into the opening. Backed into a tall tree stump and busted a tail light lens? Yellow tape over that will do, but the bondo can dried out, so the dent will get fixed later. Same thing with the passenger side window, a project to fix later. No need to put the passenger side mirror back on 'til that's done. Don't you hate it when some vandal bends your antenna in half? You can never get it straight again. No need for a license plate since you aren't old enough to drive anyway. As long as nobody spots you driving around, you should be fine. Nothing to see there, this is a slammer model.

Thanks for the compliments, all. If I may criticize the model myself, I'd say it is a touch 'heavy' in the front. If I was to do it over again, or if I had the chance to play with it in a 3D computer illustration file, I'd see if it was possible to downplay that heaviness by sectioning the upper portion of the fenders and bring the overall front height down a bit... and perhaps bring the whole area ahead of the wheel arch back just a touch, while extending the Lambo's arch bulge forward just a little. I can do this sort of thing using my CorelDraw program, thusly, where you can see in the gray wireframe version where the lighter color original image was, and the cut portions of the image are that I laid on top of it (an example of 'Photoshopping' the photo to improve the model. Also removed that garish reflection on the door, since the opportunity allows for it here). Yep, I'd already forgotten that I only mentioned that one briefly in my intro post, I'll have to include it in the photo shoots for a few others I have.

Another blast from the past, this one representing my one and only 15 minutes of cover photo fame. It was seen with other GSL XV models on the cover of the August 1994 Model Car Journal. I started with a Fujimi 1988 Lamborghini Countach and combined it with a Jo-Han '62 Chrysler 300, back over the span of October 1992 to September '93. I had a bit of a mix 'n match thing going on back then, with my BMW Cadillac and my 911/CRX. The front wheels in the Fujimi kit were fine, but the rears had truly bad sink areas between the holes, so I commissioned my dad, a master machinist, to lathe-turn a new pair of wheels out of aluminum. Sliced up the lettering decals to read "lambo 300 on the back, and placed "Mopar" license plate borders on California plate decals. I forget which Fujimi kit had those plate decals, probably one of the Porsches. My pal who worked at an auto body place gave me a small quantity of Mercedes red along with some PPG Deltron clear for the finish. Don't breath that stuff. I left the nub on the backside of the upper set of headlight lenses since they looked like projector-style bulbs, and it gave more of a menacing appearance. The turn signals have just a thin layer of orange over the bulb area, and then quite a thick layer of Elmer's glue (covered with clear) to make the Jo-Han chrome lenses look more realistic. Gold tint Bare Metal foil for the Chrysler logos. Yep, it's a slammer. Carved the words "Acme Window Tinting - Guaranteed not to Rust" into the underside of the windshield. The rear axle makes it look like the car backed into a tar pit.

This is the original Ertl International Transtar cabover, a kit I first built rather poorly in the late '70s (even driving it around in the carpet if I remember right), which I rebuilt as you see here in June 1982, with substitutions of the steerable front axle, engine and front turn signals which went toward my Ford CL-9000. The engine, front axle & wheels likely came from an AMT Peterbilt COE I scrapped, but I can't ID those improper turn signals. The rooftop A/C is a cut-down one from the AMT Peterbilt 359. Originally I had the thing painted black with red stripes that were just the bare plastic, using the simple instruction sheet stripe templates. But in 1982 I liked the basic look of the 'team color' stripe option for Toyota 4x4 trucks, so I adapted that concept here, adding a third color in the stripes. I still like that look, that's how hopelessly stuck I am in the '80s. The New Mexico plate is a hand-lettered bit of yellow paper. I thought the rear axle caps in the Ertl kit looked quite flat, so I substituted some two-level ones from the AMT Diamond Reo kit. In the interim time between 1982 and now, the blue trailer connection hose went springing off to places unknown, so I remade the hose just a couple of days ago from copper wire wrapped around a file handle, painted with a thin acrylic blue color. Got it pictured in Scale Auto's October 1986 issue, in the Model Truck Lines column when Don Shenk was writing it. There are two of my other models in that same column, but I'll show each of those in different posts later. These days I could do better by making the fuel tanks out of aluminum tube and lathe-turned end caps, to avoid having those unsightly lines, and I'd polish the paint flat before finishing the model, along with adding basic wiring and a few other details to really crisp-up the model even more. However, it is still not half bad after all these years just the way it is.

No doubt it works as well. Not knowing what "gymkhana" means, I did an internet search, landing right off the bat at a Youtube video titled "Ken Block's Gymkhana Five". Aargh, all that did was reinforce further how I wish the e-brake in my 1:1 car worked, period.

Thanks more for the kind words, gents. Fun to be remembered that way! Don't recall if it ended up in any magazines, I didn't have access to all at that time. If I succeed in providing more instances of inspiration and humor, and less times where folks feel a need to reach for defensive weapons or for the phone to call the police on me, then I will have made some kind of headway in this life.

Thanks for the kind words, all. A few more of the 'ancient history' models in the series coming up soon, the Petty wagon, the Lambo Flambé & Lambo 300, maybe the SuperComp Infini-T, plus at least one more semi truck or two, all circa the early 1990s.

By coincidence, another thread here has come back up on a Southeastern Finecast metal kit for the Rover V8 which perhaps be used to cure the 'curbside' problem of the Aoshima kit: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=78922

New term on me. But there ain't no matching 'coal rolling' (actually oil rolling on this one) with a steam engine. Thick stuff at 55 seconds here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHI5VHBwIfI#t=56s

Being somewhat demented, I prefer the latest funny opposite exercise trend: http://thethrottle.thechive.com/2010/12/08/photoshop-subject-mini-cars-and-one-guy-in-a-real-small-car-20-photos/

I build for fun, incorporating a level of detail in certain elements of the model of which it could be said the miniature is quite realistic. What I build has me occasionally searching for psychiatric help.....

Fixed it. Those Tempest cars were actually quite short.

The red and blue colors for my 1/64 scale Divco were drugstore-bought pearl nail polish colors, combined with laquer thinner and airbrushed. The metallic gray on http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/uploads/post-12144-0-95919300-1373872072.jpg was an airbrushed Testors gun metal metalizer color. At the time when I built those models, I had access to PPG Deltron clear, which really shines up nice.

Next one in the 'ancient history' series, I built this one over the span of time from July 1990-May 1991. I had a spare Fujimi 911 Carrera kit laying around, and for some reason I thought its front clip ought to be on a Tamiya Honda CRX. Don't ask me how my mind works on such thoughts. Porsche wheels and the remnants of a Porsche whale tail lip on the back. Naturally, this would be an impossible car if it used the too-tall Honda engine, but out of sheer laziness, I just built the bottom side of it box-stock. More of the chore of this thing was converting the right-hand drive dash to left-hand, moving the pod over, filling in the passenger side, swapping the gauge decals and other bits. Being my own harshest critic, I should have taken a very thin vertical slice out of the front clip to shorten the width of the wheel opening just a tad. Looks too gaping to me, which I cover up here by not showing a pure side view. The taillight lenses could have used some reflectors behind 'em to give 'em less of a lifeless look, and I should have run a bit of a black wash into the panel lines.....

Legitimate question, since I'd cropped the photo above last year in such a way that basically the only things to judge the scale are the bedroom closet door hinges off to the right. This pic below shows the box it came in, the "Titanic Standee" lettering is barely readable in the upper open section of the USPS tape. Not a movie theater standee, but instead one for retail stores right when the VHS cassette was being released.

Franklin Mint 24th scale Checker Cab, usually pricey on ebay, but this one is missing its box, the luggage, 3 door handles and a few other bits, so it was not a half bad purchase for $29.99 & free shipping. I have a future potential project in mind, an ambitious non-stock custom perhaps, but I'll drive off that bridge when I get to it. Tack on a few reasonably realistic replacement parts on it, and I have a nice addition to the four other different scale cheaply bought diecast Checkers I have.

In my day from what I remember, diecasts were few in number and not all that impressive, whereas nowadays a guy can go into a Walgreens and buy a pretty impressive 24th or so scale car that looks really quite nice overall for $20 bucks.............. and this sort of thing is what causes non-model car folks to dismiss the value of a quality built model. Might work (or might not) for you to hold up a dashboard out of one of your models and ask your pal how much time and paint it would take to replicate the appearance of a full size equivalent if he was to do it - and then walk him through the steps involved in such a process: the mere initial process of of cleaning the parting lines and other manufacturing flaws in the plastic piece (filling in shrink spots, etc); assembling the steering wheel or other separate parts; the consideration of substituting something like the old-style radio knobs (blobs of plastic, basically) with something more realistic such as flat head needle pins, or a polished aluminum rod end for the glove box door lock; then there's the paint, which is at least one or two shades of a particular flat color; and what to do with the gauges - pure black? or the raised lettering dusted with white and the needles painted orange? or drill 'em out and replace the gauge faces with killer decals having a clear plastic lens over 'em? Bare metal foil on the stainless steel / chrome trim bits? Photo etched air vent vanes? And the research to make sure the dash is correct for the year of the desired car? Do the math on whatever the length of time for the effort here, quick & nice or museum-quality level, then place a wage level on it. If a person can bash out a nice dash in an hour and charges $15 per hour for that (low, perhaps, yes?), then how much is the same effort for all the other efforts on the rest of the model. For a museum-quality dash, now you're looking at a piece that costs, say $60 all by itself. Stay at that level and you have a complete show winner model potentially at a conservative replacement value of $1500. Fall in love with a tremendously unique highly detailed model that qualifies as a work of art, and you are looking at who knows how much. You better have a Jay Leno-sized budget. Such is the disconnect the non-modelers have with our hobby.....

The Wraith is found at RocketFin's resin searcher thingy: http://www.rocketfin.com/resin_product.cfm?id=5013

Brutal, my bad. (also nuts, but that is a different topic) Sorry for the potential surprise injury, but it was too tempting to dig up really old photographs. Remains to be seen if I can build another normal model, I suppose.

Thanks for the kind words. The '57s were my favorites. I will admit that back when I built it I was also scheming on how to build one for myself where a Formula 1 Benneton Ford engine/tranny could be dropped into the back, but the cabin would have been shoved so far forward, it would have rendered the thing into being way too weird looking. That, plus F1 kits weren't available in 25th scale that I could find.

Luv salt flats. Very crisp.