Russell C

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.

One box art I wouldn't see a need for altering is the Peterbilt cabover. Another one I think is just fine is the Diamond Reo. When I spotted the Apollo 116 brochure years ago, I thought for certain that either it was an alteration of the AMT box art, or (more logically) the AMT art was an alteration of it. But now that I compare both side-by-side, what may have happened is that both were drawn by the same person using the same basic dimensions and perspective lines (which appear to be identical), or else the AMT artist was inspired by the brochure, but drew the artwork entirely on his own, since none of the minor elements in the artwork are actually straight across matches - as in the reflections in all of the chrome, the sidewall coloring on the front tire or its alignment within the wheel arch, etc.

Planes sans wings = at least two motorhomes, and likely more...

Here is the way I had the very first model truck I built, but with three items I wanted but didn't have: taller stacks, chrome sleeper vents, and the bigger bumper from the Peterbilt cabover. Original box art at this photo link.

Yep, I can visualize the original Autocar Dump having the orangy red/white of the California Hauler day cab box art scheme..... I might be able to bash that out later since it would use the graphic elements of the California Hauler sleeper box version which I could plop onto the Autocar without much difficulty. Since I already had the illustration, I gave it a shot to see what such a red pinstripe would look like........... and though it may be my subjective opinion, it just didn't work for me the same way the white stripe works on the Movin' On Kenworth or other such paint schemes where it is a dark main color with a white stripe.

Holy Photos! There's maybe 14 pages of 100 photos per page on old Bonneville stuff......

I'd missed the original post, glad to see the update today since I'd only managed to record 4 episodes last year from Retro TV. Link here for the first episode to save others from searchin': http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtrfRDdn00&list=UUv1xRsmc1tS2j4imjYD36vA

Never forget Willy Koenig's widebody XJS. Addict to such an appearance, I like 'em.

Ditto x2. The knuckleheads at my apartment complex can't be bothered to water the trees during the height of the summer, and they were really looking thirsty. This ought to do it 'til the next big rain comes. Might soften up the caliche for a while, but it will turn back to concrete like it usually does.