Richard Bartrop

Lifelike even did a few that were originally slated to be part of the Vintage Brass series, but never made it.

Your typical fossil fuel power station converts fuel into power with about 50% efficiency, compared to the 15-20% of your typical IC car engine, so depending on what kind of losses you get in transmitting the current and in charging up a battery, in theory, you could still end up ahead of the game. An electric motor isn't drawing power when it isn't moving, so in the kind of stop and go driving you're most likely to encounter in the real world, your hard earned money isn't going out the tailpipe while you sit there going nowhere. If you live in one of those places where geography traps in all the pollution, there's a lot to be said for being able to stick the tailpipe somewhere else, so to speak, and if you ever replace that fossil fuel powered plant with nuclear, hydro, solar or whatever, then you've cleaned up the emissions of all the cars that charge off it, instead of trying to hassle several million individual car owners to clean up their act. So electric cars are probably still worth doing, regardless of how the electricity is being made. Practically all of our tech has required some governmental assistance, so I'm okay with some government financial help, whether it be in the form of rebates, or sponsoring research into better battery tech, just so long as the amounts are kept reasonable, and the rebates stop once the industry is shown to be self supporting. If you have money for a Tesla or a Challenger, then you probably don't need a government rebate. What the government should most certainly not do is try to legislate people into electrics. If the technology is really ready, you won't need to force them. Seeing how the electrical grid will need to be upgraded to handle a mass switch to electric cars, it's probably best not to rush things too much. If anything, the petrol heads should welcome the electric car. The fewer people who need gas means that much more for you, and if it does clean up the air, that takes the pressure off you. The people I know who have gone electric say it costs a lot less in electricity than it did to buy gas, so if they can keep dropping the purchase price of electrics, then the less you spend on your daily commute means more money you can put towards your fun project car.

Here's my Pyro Mercer build. The Vintage Brass kits are actually pretty nice. They put a few 1/25 kits to shame.

Apparently, one big problem with using electric cars in cities, is that most condos and apartments aren't wired for charging them. This is too bad, because if ever there was an ideal environment for electrics, this is it, though I can see apartments eventually making the upgrade if the demand is high enough.

I suppose the biggest hurdle would be how much all the various sponsors would want for the right to use their logos.

That's just it, they charge what they think people are willing to pay, and if what Shapeways charges them is more, then it's just not going to work.

And like they said, if you can build a car, you can build anything. Imagine, instead of printing out a frame, printing out a set of injection moulds.

A bullet nosed Stude? Take my money please! And the idea that you should only be interested in whatever happened in your childhood is a pretty sad and limited way to live your life. Thankfully, not everyone subscribes to such a stunted worldview.

If you're ever in the mood to build something a little different.

From what I understand, they only charge when someone orders something.

The 300s were on my want list for years, and of course, the "experts" would always pipe in about how if there was any serious demand for them, there would already be a kit. For that matter, how many brass fans even dared to dream that we would see a brand new 1/24 kit of a 1910 Renault? I for one find this way more exciting than the stream of bland vanilla junk that the self appointed spokesmen of the hobby keep telling me I'm supposed to want. So yes, when the talk turns to what kinds of kits I want to see, then yes, I am going to tell them, and if certain people think they're too odd, too obscure, or too out there, that's just too bad.

It looks promising. When I saw the augmented reality design session, I immediately thought of this painting by Syd Mead, which depicted pretty much the same thing.

One of the collectible companies offered a built up version some time ago, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

I have one. Buy it.

I've heard they're doing a pretty good job of it, but Brazil also a lot fewer cars than the US (43 million total vs 255 million, or 207 per 1000 people vs 910 per 1000, according to Wikipedia) Whatever you use, even if humans can't eat it, you're still going to need land to grow it on.

The flip side of this would be, which childhood models would you not want to recreate? For me, it would be Aurora's 1/32 Porsche 356. There are so many better Porsche kits out there.

Good question. Edison developed a new battery for electric cars that charged faster, and held more charge, but gasoline power was already pulling ahead by the time he came up with it. What's driving battery technology now is all those cell phones, tablets and laptops. From what I understand, the big deal breaker with alcohol is that the US doesn't have enough farmland to both fuel every car, and keep everyone fed. One result of WWI was a boom in trucking. One of my favourite stories is how during WWI, people were agonizing over how to find enough railcars to transport all those trucks, until some genius suggested that they could just drive them.

No argument there. Electric trucks? Been there, done that.

They already knew a fair amount about aerodynamics even back there. Here's the Stanley brothers using the same approach which their steam powered "Woggle Bug" Those surplus belly tanks were just a quick and dirty way to get the same results.

Apparently the current electric LSR is 341.4 MPH

Though not strictly speaking a bellytank, still a neat piece of history. That would make an interesting subject for a model.

Now if we can just persuade them that they need to do their Packard and Mercedes 770K in 1/24

Please tell me it's 1/24. And it is. Definitely looking forward to this one.

Get the one you like. The main value of the investment angle is that it sounds more responsible to friends and relatives. You're not just blowing money on a hobby like some kid, you're making an investment, like a sensible and responsible adult.

https://imgur.com/PGJbvxZ