Russell C

Survived the drive across town to north Phoenix for the Desert Scale Classic contest/swap meet. Much like any other big city (and some small towns!), it's travel-at-your-own-peril these days. Nice to see old friends again, and there was many great quality entries there.

Good question. My Preview photo altering program is a little primitive, but sometimes I can trick it into doing color variations I want ....

Had no clue. Man, that car begs to be sectioned, and for larger diameter wheels.

Could. Not. Resist. . . . . fixing his rearward visibility problem.

Including the abominations in proportions done by the Palmer kits? I've seen them on eBay in various colors - red / black / yellow / different shades of green ....

Years back I saw this Tom Sehloff Packard/Airstream cast iron toy creation (the man made those kinds of things for a while), so I thought I'd see if I could come up with something similar in 1/24th scale. Greenlight Models puts out a reasonably affordable diecast 24th scale 16 foot Airstream Bambi trailer, and the Lindberg '31 Bugatti Royale kits still seem to be around in plentiful form … but at the rate I'm going, I think I'll never find the time to take this idea past my photo composite stage.

Welcome! Are you aware of the International Model Car Builders' Museum in nearby Sandy?

Flyin' Dodges - not always restricted to The Dukes of Hazzard!

Somebody with better memory than me might be able to chime in on this, but I know I read somewhere that while the Red Baron kit is 1:24 scale, the World War I Mercedes-Benz aircraft engine in it is actually significantly undersized in relation to what a 24th scale replica would be.

Got links showing that? If I have it right, that's a basic elemental copyright violation - you capture an image, it's yours, without the necessity of getting an official copyright or putting the little c-circle mark on it. But of course, better legal minds than mine can offer better info on it all, https://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html

Juh ....eeze! https://blitzway.com/hervin_portfolio/afterlife-ecto-01/

Too bad I have such poor math / fingers counting skills ... for a brief few moments there, I thought I was looking at a flat 14.

Huh. The JDM version of the Plymouth Arrow. Didn't know anybody made a kit of that.

Tempted to drop parts of the page below into my Corel drawing program so I can print out the red Ambassador, and then see if it is beyond my skill level these days to assemble it. I can vouch firsthand that paper models aren't always child's play to put together. The Bluesmobile I did many years back really was a fiddley kit - borrowing KCSlammer's Fotki photo of it here. (had to also build my own award trophy for it out of a McDonalds burger box, which was actually easier to do!)

Not something you run across everyday in the eBay Vintage Model Cars section: https://www.ebay.com/itm/266717238942 . Would be entertaining to get nice flat scans of the original to do paper printout reproductions to put together. Since eBay auction links are short-lived, here's a permanently saved Archive link to at least have a minimal look at what the seller had: https://web.archive.org/web/20240313192938/https://www.ebay.com/itm/266717238942

Junkyard boss to employee: "See all that piled up in the corner over there? Do something with it." Days later, employee: "How's dis?" Boss: "I meant, get rid of it all!"

I could only watch 13 of the first 23 minutes. Poor Cougar. I can just imagine an owner of such a thing allowing a son to take it out for a drive, who calls in 10 minutes later to say "Dad, I did a Dukes of Hazard style jump over the railroad tracks - just a little jump! - and, well .... the car broke into maybe 16 or more pieces ........"

On a few occasions for my GSL Contest entries, I printed out the backstory, where it was a great excuse to pass off some of my shortcomings on the build as actually being exact replication of the shortcomings of the 1:1 vehicle I was "replicating." Here's the printout from the Under Glass thread for my backwards VW bug (I really should have budgeted more time to do a better paint job).

'76 Chalet #0589 in the top pic, '77 #1460 in the bottom pic. Mentioned this somewhere else here at MCM, but for new folks, I'll repeat some of it: I used to own #1747 'til I needed the money more than a big no-ideal-available-place-to-fix-it-up rig. I am the current caretaker of the very old blazerchalet website (paying the bills to keep it online) and I have my hobby fun trying to keep track of every one of these ever made, supposedly only 1,780 (figure comes only from this 1979 article's 2nd paragraph - GM lost the figures for the GMC Casa Grande version, but has said they made 1,555 of the Chevy versions). Another 'custom' that just came up for sale yesterday with 80+ reference photos is Chalet #0258 in Texas. Myself, I thought the only class win I perhaps could achieve at the GSL contest would be in Factory Stock for one of these, but I never got past figuring out whether the Monogram Blazer / Jimmy was more of an accurate basis then the MPC Blazer or the Revell one. Snagged all three as cheap eBay buildups about a decade back, and that's all the farther I ever got …

Don't know how I missed that one top kit back in the day. Must-haves for every offroader; an axe, a shovel .... and a cannon.

No clue. But I could say that if the thing was sectioned with a bit of a top chop and lowered somewhat, with more beefy rear wheels, it might look something like this.

Here's a 2-day old link update which can be read without logging into FB, you just have to click the gray X circle to get rid of the login box ..

If I was a better illustrator (I am not), the story I'd concoct is that Steve actually only turned an old cement mixer into just a cab-only rod, and shortened the donor victim's wheelbase.

I fully empathize. Without naming names, a particular someone I knew was essentially ordered by the doctor to take blood pressure-reducing pills and was advised to learn to relax. Said person did not, and late on, while on a rant about an item where the rest of us would say, "Really?? Are you kidding me?", said person then proceeded to have a fatal hemorrhagic stroke … and that was the end of that.

As if I needed yet another project … but I have a soft heart for unloved glue bombs which might end up tossed into the trash by estate salers rather than being relisted on eBay at slightly lower prices. So, I was the one-bid winner for this $20 one, which arrived in today's mail. Similar to my '62 Ranchero speedster rebuild, I can see where the original builder was going on this one, but what it needs is the rear wheels to be moved back to a more aesthetic position, and a hood with holes for the air cleaners (they are a tic taller than where the hood surface would be), and much neater build execution. While waiting for it to arrive in the mail, I altered the seller's eBay photo to see how it might look better with a hood, chrome instead of gold caps, and a bit more subtle teal tone color. Might actually need custom wheels, considering the hood cutout = more of a hotrod or sporty car. I can hide the back wheel arches with the fender skirts that came with my years-back '58 Pontiac glue bomb eBay parts car purchase, and the better-than-average '60 Buick I got in 2022 just for its front clip might contribute some items, too, such as the back bumper.