ChrisBcritter

Two-time loser:

(image via Wikipedia) There we go. Definitely some proportion issues here... Enlarging the window openings and replacing the side trim with some more-to-scale Evergreen stock would be a good start, then reshaping the wheel wells, then building an interior, then... shoot, I'd rather try to get Hachette to make one of their nice 1/24 diecasts.

Downloaded them, then cropped and rotated them in ArcSoft (old, old, old photo software but it works fine).

If not, I can do it. Good finds!

Yep - Buick sold Opel Rekords and Kadettes, and Pontiac (briefly) sold Vauxhall Victors, both nice looking cars. PMC made a curbside '59 or '60 Rekord, but it's on the crude side, no glass or interior and possibly oversized.

The Monogram '40 Continental has steelies with wide whites you could use; maybe put them in the rear and use the '40 Ford ones in front for a rake. There's also the original Monogram '40 Ford Pickup stock wheels and tires, but good luck finding a set. Maybe look for damaged Franklin/Danbury Mint cars from the period and take the wheels/tires from one you like?

That's a real nice full-detail kit; multi-piece body like old Revell kits. The roof appears a little less rounded than it should be, maybe. It is of course the home-market version with the smaller headlights. I have a box of Record and Hubley components plus parts of a Heller Gordini: I have a second Hubley Dauphine in the works. The problem they have is the glass - it seems to be some form of acetate and all I've seen have shrunk. The interior is pretty basic with seats molded in. I've got two of the '60 Ford wagons - one decent, one rough; a '61 wagon I picked up 40 years ago and started; a '61 sedan that I may flip if the paint comes off OK, and a '62 wagon promo (more common than the kit but still fairly rare).

Still drives good!

I like the Captain Peacock equivalent: By the way, actor Charles Grodin passed away last week...

stepped on poptop

Made me think of this Peanuts comic from 1955, if you could use a laugh:

And what about the Solaronite? It could blow up the universe!

Bravissimo, Snake! Still got a long ways to go on my resin Skylark but I did fix the hump in the driver's door, per your advice.

I sold off some more of Tom Piagari's unfinished projects last weekend at the LMMCC meeting for his widow (thanks to all those who bought them! ). One that hasn't sold yet was this resin '53 Ford wagon: Under the hood are the words "Copyright Property of TJH Model". Does anyone have some history on this kit, like when it was made, who mastered it, etc.? It's a solid kit (no windows or interior; plate chassis) but the quality is really really nice; almost as if Modelhaus made a Banthrico! It doesn't look like the Lindberg '53 Ford kit was used for the master (the grille is different). Other chrome is in the packet - dog dish hubcaps, taillights and hood ornament. The wheels seem to be injection molded (one is missing - the kit's only flaw) and I think the tires could be kit-sourced (Goodyear Super Cushions with sprayed-on whitewalls)? Note the wood areas are separate parts and there are neatly printed peel and stick appliques for the dark panels. So if anyone can fill me in on more history (did Clarence/TJH make any other kits?) and especially if one of you could turn up another wheel, I'd greatly appreciate it. I was asking $70 obo for it at the meet; does that sound like a fair price?

Driving out of River Trails Nature Center in Northbrook today, I passed a blue Renault Alpine A310 that was driving in - didn't have time to get a photo but I did give the driver a big thumbs-up! First time I've seen one since this one at the Lane Motor Museum 15 years ago:

And coincidentally, several YB-40s show up in that same scene in The Best Years of Our Lives:

Less is mower

^^^ I'll second Mike's motion, and not just because I was an editor and proofreader for the third and fifth (current) editions of the book .

The engines, props and cowls from the Airfix Lockheed Hudson are what you'll need for the Canadian Stranraer. I had one too, plus the Hudson, but never built it - wish I had.

That's another thread - titled "Ghost Kits - Shown But Never Released".

Parkay or Chiffon?

Quite well indeed! I saw the "Belinda bakes a cake" toon the other day for the first time in 40 or 50 years and I had the song down nearly word for word. Many years ago I had the chance to meet Larry Harmon, the voice and creator of the modern Bozo, when a friend of mine went to make an offer on his Continental MkV: We spent an afternoon with him discussing the car and hearing him tell some great stories, like the time his car got stuck in snow while traveling through the Alps and the driver who came to his rescue turned out to have been General Erwin Rommel's chauffeur! A month or so after the visit we got a phone message from Larry saying that he was ready to sell the car - but he passed away two days later. As to Bozo in Chicago - the late, great Bob Bell was the Bozo I grew up with; and when he retired, Joey d'Auria was a worthy successor. Because of Bob, I never had a fear of clowns; he was just too funny a performer for that. "Give me that pie!"

I've built three of these so far - one was the Revell B-17F clone, backdated to a B-17E - and it goes together very well. The fourth will be a bit different - as it belonged to my dad's Boy Scout troop. He used to tell me about how in June 1946, the BSA had a group called the Air Scouts, and the troop leader had a surplus B-17 flown to a little airport in Paducah, KY - then this photo turned up with my aunt: I was determined to find the serial number and history of this plane. At first online searches revealed no info, but a trip to the Paducah library yielded this: That gave me the first three of the tail number. With the help of some online forums, I found this plane didn't go overseas - the "H" on the tail showed it was a trainer last based at Hobbs, NM. Then the son-in-law of the troop leader contacted me and said he didn't have pictures, but he had the plane's paperwork - which revealed the serial and field ID numbers. So this is my dad's plane: As far as what happened to the plane - after the novelty wore off and the plane was stripped out by local souvenir hunters, it was scrapped around 1948-1950. I met the gentleman with the paperwork a couple years later, and he had the last remains of it - a few instruments, the radio, and three headsets. Jerry, if you want to try something different, here's a trainer for you, based from Rapid City, SD - it ended up being used for the scenes in The Best Years Of Our Lives at the aircraft scrapyard where Dana Andrews crawls inside it to get the war out of his system: The Round ? Trip name and bombing mission symbols were added by the studio - the plane spent its career as a trainer.

Or, in one case...

He did the voices of Tank and Dexter on Hot Wheels - along with Albert Brooks, surprisingly, as Kip.