Russell C

Yes, but that result comes from placing the string in the web site url window. Don't place it there, place it in the window I show in the green oval, to the right of where you see web site addresses, and hit the Enter key on your keyboard.

I've got a 2007 iMac with Safari version 5.1.10, not updated since last year. Plopping the "site:modelcarsmag.com custom decals" string in my Google search window works in an instant, I just tried it. However, I pretty much always use Firefox and whatever version they keep sending me as updates. I've been using a bookmark for some time now, made for the times when I need to find a particular model here, except I have it set up to find images in Google.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Kirk: "Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most...... human." Meanwhile, the two quotes from my post #s 359 & 399, plus one new one, all from the same really weird movie: "Pudge is a fish?" "Wow. San Fransisco." ("Rowr!!" crash, smash, crunch ["EEEeeeee! Save me! Rowr! EEEeee!"] crash, munch crunch) "No more caffeine for you." "You sure it's a dog?" "Uh huh. He used to be a collie before he got run over."

Wrecker operator set it down rightside up without disturbing hardly any grass.

Dug up that other one, after remembering what title it could be found under in my internet link history. Blurry pic here, but the rest of the last expired ebay listing (scroll past the other advertisement stuff here) for it shows some details better. Not knowing my old kits, I couldn't say if it stayed within the bounds of what came in the kit or had other different parts.

This seems to be a variant of the "What do model builders overlook… " thread applied to 'famous name' builders: I'll put my head on the chopping block first before tossing in my 2¢. I may have been somewhat well known in the early '90s since a few of my weird models made it into magazines from national model contests, e.g. my 911 woody wagon. That model may be criticized for its design, paper magazine 'wood grain' and the cop-out of becoming a interior-less slammer, but it was originally intended to be a full knock-out Turbo coupe. One could say I rose to the challenge of not shortcutting it on the '88 Porsche details such as the proper separated-from-bumper front valance, proper number of pleats on the rubber bumper bellows, multi-reflector rear lights, lathe-turned door locks, more-to-scale metalflake paint, side mirrors with separate black surround pieces with the mirror surfaces aimed toward the driver's seat headrest, valve stems/wheel weights, etc. While attending contests at that time, there was a particular builder (who I can't place now) at either GSL or the Southwest Challenge contests who had absolutely killer paint jobs worthy of best paint awards, and his detailing was really very good. I vaguely remember one of his being something like a mid-'60s Chevy with an elaborate breathtaking red, white & blue paint job and really good engine and interior work…. but the jaw-dropper for me was the kit's chrome plated front turn signals of which he covered with two blobs of Tamiya clear orange, some of it bleeding onto the bumper. The glitch was like an irresistible eye magnet to me. I could never approach his painting skills, but I most certainly could have cut out the chrome lenses, built rectangle boxes for each, filled each with strips of bendable chrome mylar for the reflectors with a gray circle in the center to simulate a bulb (a shortcut, yes, but visually effective), filed some clear lenses flatter on the back / polished smooth to avoid the mile-thick appearance, painted clear orange with teensy dots of silver for the lens bolts, with the end result being killer turn signals. Such an effort might have only taken an additional hour of work. Even just the visual trick of additional semi-clear over the chrome with 'bulb' simulation like I described for my Lambo 300 could have been done in less time while still yielding an effective appearance. I was left wondering why a person of his skill level had overlooked that detail. Who knows, maybe he spaced it out completely and contest deadline pressure didn't leave enough time to fix it beyond those quick orange dabs. Or maybe he hadn't fully grasped the 'every model element can be a stand-alone model itself' philosophy of killer model building. Daunting goal to achieve sometimes, and a reason why some of my projects stopped dead because I couldn't resolve a problem of how to achieve realism that satisfied my own standards.

Me, neither. The blasphemy is so wild, it would be worth building just that way. I'd make a more subtle substitution, though, ditching the 6 taillights on the roof for some kind of vertical recessed taillights at the back of the fenders.

I didn't know it until recently that the old AMT (?) customizing kit had so many extra wheel spats, fins and other add-ons until I saw a glue bomb on ebay a month or three back. Would that be what's happening with this current glue bomb listed there? For non-purist Vette fans like myself this one creates quite a different look, when you overlook all the excess paint.......

Another hint: "Wow. San Fransisco." ("Rowr!!" crash, smash, crunch ["EEEeeeee! Save me! Rowr! EEEeee!"] crash, munch crunch) "No more caffeine for you."

Thanks, gents. Admittedly, not all factory car designs appeal to everyone, and when a person starts to mix 'n match them, that's a risky thing to do. Mix 'n match two different eras, and things get more dicey. I like it myself, although I'd criticize the transition area of the fenders, and the difference between having mostly black front bumpers and solid chrome rear bumpers can be too weird of a mix, but there's really no solution to it without losing major character at either end. For me, the thing is like 90% of the way toward being a successful mix, but then the doubt creeps back in. And there was the fun of watching guys' reactions to it when I first had it at the Southwest Challenge and later at GSL, where I could see how they were trying to figure out whether it worked or not. I suppose this, on the heels of my Mercedes NASCAR, is what caused me to be addicted to messing with people's minds.

Another one in the 'ancient history' series, I built this one in the summer of 1989 and then took it to the Dallas Southwest Challenge in November, my first-ever attendance at a national model car contest. I was pleased as punch when quite a nice photo of it appeared in the June 1990 issue of, well, the other magazine. It's a basic combo of Jo-Han's 1964 Caddy from the windshield back (except for the interior) and a Testors (Fujimi) BMW M6. In those days I had a beef about the necessity of passenger side mirrors, thus it never had one, but now I advocate having them. Unlike my later models which were covered with PPG Deltron clear, this one was rattlecan Krylon refrigerator white covered with Krylon crystal clear, which has yellowed quite a bit over time. Although the paint looks acceptable in these bright sunlit photos, trust me on this, it's worse in person. The rear plate is actually a small part of some magazine ad where the "Ultimate Driving Machine" words happened to be the prefect size to fit into that recess. I had fun getting the interior to look crisp, but my skills at that time were inadequate to yield either a realistic undercarriage or an openable hood, so what I ended up with was an entertaining curbside model. My preference is to disassemble it sometime soon, have the long side trim pieces as separate installable items, clean up a couple of other shortcomings, and re-shoot the paint as a nice pearl white. Would be neat to have a functioning hood and the BMW V12 engine. What I have in there now is just a moderately detailed Caddy V8 and the hood has been long stuck closed.

If not for the depth of focus givaway, I would have said it was the full size thing!

Here? Not so much. Claims to be above 85° outside at the moment.

Ferrari Charger Again on the idea of overlapping images in my demented mind, whenever I see Ferrari 512 BB LMs, I can't help but also seeing Dodge Charger in it, especially I carry the imagery around the back to the Ferrari's quad taillights. There is a 1:24 resin/metal kit of the Ferrari LM (quite expensive, though), and I figure a person like me could concoct a wild story around building this combo as an illegal initial #6 Buddy Baker non-shark nose prototype since there are decals to do that. But, alas, no time and not enough money for me to aim down that road....

Some bits gleanable off the Franklin Mint 1936 Hudson, if a parts car could be found cheaply?

Enlargeable 1992 Autoweek mag article about that one here.

Camaro Alfa/Datsun-ish quadlight 'Cuda widebody Since my mind is filled with car images, they tend to overlap. In this case, when I saw this guy's illustration version of Bob Owen's '69 Camaro, of course I recognized it for what it was, but overlaps of the fronts of the '67 Camaro, the Alfa Romeo 1750 GT and Datsun 510 made me think I could move the headlights and turnsignals out in such a way that the front would take on the character of those others. Then, since another corner of my mind is occupied by Corvairs and Bo Zolland's sorta 'more Corvair-ish than Corvette-ish' (in my opinion) rear treatment of the Camaro, I thought I'd try to place Corvair taillights on it. But they didn't look right, and if maybe the goal was to mimic the front's collection of circles, then a 'Cuda treatment with the upturned bumper would work better. Dunno, the jury might be out on that, still. So, here we go, with some back-dating to pre-'69 sides, ditch Owen's giant rear wing, and shorten the rear deck just a tad…. This one might just be a model I still could do, but somehow it isn't fitting into the build schedule too well right at the present time.

Dances with Wolves. Buffalo - tatonka - buffalo - buff? Meanwhile, one of my favorites because it was in such a weird sequence: "Pudge is a fish?"

Yes, indeed, spotted the other print version at your site's ebay store link, took me a moment to catch what it is.

Very good, I tend to favor material leaning toward slightly demented... (edit: found it, another guy's Photoshop alteration of a Caddy fastback, but I do believe I prefer yours better)

From the two inner pages of a '74 Ford "L-Series for Owner Operators" brochure:

Now, that's a glue bomb....

Nordberg Ford COE 50 year tribute, 2014 version This is more of a 'wondering what it would look like' illustration, with the idea that it could be done in model form using the Meng Ford F-350 Super Duty kit. To set this up, I must first explain via the photo composite below that Bob Nordberg was the senior co-champion in the 1964 Revell-Pactra 2nd-National Open contest for his partly scratchbuilt phantom Ford cabover. First, there's a cover of the December '64 Car Model magazine I gleaned from an ebay listing, a different photo scan of pg 28 in the Dec '64 Rod and Custom Models magazine courtesy of the Model Car Museum's Hot 150 clone list, my own photo of the Car Model magazine spread taken of a copy at the Model Car Museum, and finally the color photo at the lower right of an unknown modeler's copy of Nordberg's truck, an ebay sale item that Steve Gilmore posted in his "Weird Cabover" thread here. Basically, Nordberg moved the cab of an AMT '62 Ford up and forward and filled in the gaps. He went for a quad headlight appearance - possibly the custom option in the original kit - while the other modeler retained the Ford pickup grille. Nordberg's truck was inspiring to me in the early '70s when I first saw only the single tilted cab color photo, because I wanted to build some kind of big rig and it was the only 25th scale one I'd ever seen anywhere. So, 50 years after its first appearance, I've done basically the same thing, opting for a recognizable stock look. Slightly different illustration basis than the Meng model, but the basic idea comes across, and it helps a bit if you ignore my somewhat questionable transition from the sides to the front. Yep, it would be an odd looking thing once again.

Excellent, been meaning to place my T'error at the gallery (borrowed photo here). I'd run across the CoffinCorner forum before, but distractions must have prevented me from going through it more, thanks for reminding me of it, fabulous model & 1:1 material there. Lathe-knurled tires! That will probably help me identify some bits of my late father's machine tools, which were mysteries to me before now.

Now that's a great interpretation of that old model. Looks like you have enough photo views to meet the requirement for submitting it to Dave''s Show Rod Guest Gallery, assuming it is still a current web site.