jbwelda

that's a heavy little kit there and I think you might find the white metal a challenge to work with. good luck and keep us posted! I have a couple of Western 1/43 and I know they bring some high $ sometimes jb

its not the recording that's not up to par, its how they are "pressed" and how the substrate isn't stiff enough to lay flat while playing. what you have to do is glue the record to a piece of stiff cardboard and play that. there are actually some very rare songs on what were called "flexi-disks", they were the same sort of thing but just pressed on very thin plastic. that's actually what these records mentioned here are, but they are then pasted on flimsy cardboard. they can actually play very well when they are prepared properly but they only last for a few playings usually, they are rather similar to what were referred to as "acetates" and were used to demo how things were sounding at the end of a days recording. could be given to the musicians to take home and listen to on their record players. these acetates were literally acetate or sometimes hardened wax with the sound grooves cut into them, but a few passes of the needle and they started wearing out rapidly. one song that was only released on flexi from a major outfit was Exile Blues, a medley of phrases from the rolling stones then new album Exile On Main Street in which I think Ian Stewart plays piano and Jagger sings. very kool record that was released only to fan club and radio stations. you are advised to tape a coin to it to make it play better. jb

man that's really stoopid...I LIKE it! jb

Bantam grille shell? jb

those wheels look great and these are really amazing cars, wish I had bought one new. try Tamiya clear colors for your tint, try to spray lightly on the inside of the glass. or mix food color with future (etc) and spray it on. the Tamiya clear works better in my experience jb

at some point in the past year I bought a Jungle Jim Vega Funny Car that was mostly built, just needed a few finishing touches. body was well painted and decaled, and the chassis was well constructed, and the engine was wired and plumbed so it looked like a pretty nice display model for like 20$ shipped. and it was nice, it sat around for a while but the truth is I just don't much care for Vegas, or funny cars either for that matter. theyre kool and all but just mostly don't do anything for me. but one day I was looking around for something and I ran across this pretty crude chopped top and who knows what all else 34 Ford (I am guessing here...feel free to correct me) body that I had picked up somewhere cheap. and it is crude: doorlines aren't consistent and are missing altogether in some cases, there are lumps and bumps in the roof and side panels, the outside body bracing is very crudely done, the interior is clumps of raw unfinished resin. pretty much junk. or...hey this body fits right on this chassis! very nicely too, if only it had a firewall. one firewall later I was priming it and preparing to paint it a dark deep blue, much like the JJ Vega is. but then I thought about another project I have going: a replica of a friend of mines 41 Willys pickup. I had bought some Chevy HHR Sunburst Orange (I believe it is called) in buzzcans so guess what? this reworked body is a test mule for the color shade of the Willys! (turns out, I shot this color over Tamiya white primer but Dennis' car looks a bit orangish...so I think I may experiment next with shooting the color over red primer) actually is turning out pretty nice, the chassis was all assembled when it came but with me handling it, it has come apart in relatively nice ways, like the engine is removable at this point and some other parts can come off, so I am rebuilding and improving a bit as I go along. also I was sitting one day looking at the body on the chassis and wondered how the track nose from Revell's Midgets would look on there, covering the fuel cell. darned thing fell on there like it was made for it. questions, comments? bring it! heres the Jungle Jim Vega, anyone have any ideas for it? wanna swap something? jb

hola amigos, time for an update: with a new kit in hand I was ready to redo the interior for the Suzuki Cappichino, otherwise known as "Cappy". this time I am doing it in Tamiya Italian red with embossing powder carpeting, an orange Sparco racing seat, and also orange trim to complement (?) the orange hood. ok kinda mixed up but its a bat outta he double l and says so right there on the deck lid! also took the roll bar out of the new copy of the kit but I neglected to pose it before taking photos of the completed tub...almost completed, need shoulder belt for passenger seat! decided on the wheels and they are the ones that came with the kit (what a concept), and pretty much done up like the boxart. look pretty good. also started looking at fastening them to the chassis to achieve the stance I want: low to the ground with a slight forward rake. first step is always stick em in there and see how it sits, that's what I took a couple pics of. I might have to do some unseen surgery on the front but the back looks pretty good. I think I will camber them slightly like with the Beat above. one thing that bothers me that I didn't really notice before: the gap between the body kit nose and the original nose on the body. maybe I was supposed to cut that away (maybe I still could...) but the new piece fit over the old nose so well that I didn't bother. I know that's how some body kits look but I don't like it, so I will have to fill it, maybe with screen material or if not then something solid (don't really want to because that would mean major paint repair there). I think something quick and cheap is in order there just as in many prototypes of this style. moving slowly along... any questions or comments holla jb

well its been awhile amigos, but there has been some progress. I had front sheet metal including track nose made up for me because I am lazy, but so far I don't really think it is what I had in mind so not sure I am going to use it...if I do I think it will be in for some major restyling which really was what the exercise was for: get myself to a starting place. I also sourced a solid but soiled chassis that I am going to use as a test mule for some pretty major modifications...I want it to hug the offy engine and fit inside the narrow track nose hood. I didn't take any photos of the body chassis because it is still so in flux but I have made some progress on the Offenhauser engine, I spent a near fortune on micro hardware with only mild success...the rough spots will probably be hidden by the intake and exhaust hardware and they actually look pretty good except for a few problems, mainly with scale. here are the cam covers. really wish these parts were a little better out of the box, theres a lot of work put into them as they are now and unfortunately that work obliterated some details. the little crown nuts are a bit out of scale, if these base pieces were any better I would have taken the time to countersink them but my experience so far is that might well lead to the resin part crumbling under the stress. they are done in Metalizer aluminum plate which I have found gives the most realistic shiny metal of any of those paints, but it just shows up the flaws in the finish of the cam covers themselves. oh well its a hot rod... here are some misc parts to finish off the covers: end plates, fuel block, fuel pump and drive, rear brace V: on to the engine itself: as I mentioned there are a LOT of bolt heads on this motor, those two upper covers have 40 in each one! every buildup of this engine I have seen uses bolt heads that are too big to my eye, I consciously sought out smaller, more in scale ones. I think these are pretty close, small a bit if anything, but it made drilling the holes and spacing them properly without breaking the part edge a little easier. I was really stressing out on this and in the end it turned out looking ok at least despite me almost giving it the heave ho into the junk pile a couple times. next I need to go to the electronics store and pick out some suitable 1/8 scale spark plug wire and then glue down the cam covers and wire the ignition. then I will be able to tackle the induction, not sure if I am going to go with the regular injection or switch over to some sidedraft Weber carbs...certainly the injection would be more correct and feasible but that just seems so common. thanks again for looking and any comments please speak up! jb

>You should try the ignore feature for the whiners. some excellent advice from Casey, advice that i am following with his PM that is sitting in my inbox! jb

>...and pretty soon, we'll live in a world where nobody has any actual physical skills at all, because >everything is designed in virtual space, mostly by machines, and made by other machines. People can >become entirely fat, lazy and totally unproductive, and exist solely to be entertained every waking moment. I suppose that's one way of looking at it, but its a very narrow perspective. not everything has to do with using ones hands; many people in the world get by with using their brains. and that part about fat lazy unproductive...you are 30 years too late on that prediction to the extent that it is true, which it isn't. now if you shop at walmart on any consistent basis...well then you deserve the conclusion, just don't look at yourself in the mirror. a different way of looking at it might be that it is one part of a solution to the problem of way too many people existing on this planet and no sign of relief on the horizon. we may well have to move to the virtual because there will not be raw materials or environmental justifications for continuing to exploit what is left for mere pastimes. that day is rapidly approaching especially as independent countries continue to fight the exploitation of their resources for the benefit of first world people. all this adds up to a necessary path to the future supplanting physical items with cyber equivalents which cost nothing but the space to store them. What you espouse would be equivalent to opposing the coming of vehicles in the early 20th century because they would make the populace fat and lazy, plus think of all the blacksmiths who will be out of work, and never mind the coming of civilian access to personal computers and such a thing as an internet. now if you were to oppose the coming of vehicles based on what you forsaw as the ruin of the world through pollution, highway construction, and unhealthy reliance on far away unstable regions for its very lifeblood, you might be on to something. its too late, dude, the future is fast upon us and standing around complaining about how everyone is fat and lazy doesn't really do much good. its far better to adapt and take what you can from new technology, we aint got that much longer to enjoy it anyhow. life is going to be very different 50 years from now in many many ways, most from necessity for survival, and I think there is a good chance most of our "civilization" will be negated in the next 100 years as a fight for mere survival becomes increasingly necessary. one other thing: someone has to make the machines that make the machines. and someone had to use their brain to design those machines. that part will not go away and that's the part the smart people identify and train to fulfill. jb

I think he mentioned they are scalemotorsports carbon fiber decals, they make all kinds in all scales. jb

that's spectacular! I really like the way you got imaginative with the military colors, and it fits the car perfectly. sweet! jb

what gets me is the flip flop in color and look in the same car from a different angle or lighting. this Mercury really surprises me, I had to look close to see if it was the same car or not. that IS the same car, right? beautiful build and beautiful paint by the way! jb

that looks great! I could totally see something like that in the jungle driving down the red dirt roads! what did you have to do to get those big wheels and tires under there and get it so low? that's always a problem for me when I try to build something like this. jb

>I have no interest in 3 d printing. I love going to hobby shops, buying a kit, bringing it home, >opening it and groking the contents. you quite likely said a very similar thing about computers back 15 or 20 years ago...am I right? or was it 5 years ago? "groking"...didn't that come from a Robert Heinlein science fiction book? see the connection? jb

well personally I think a front mounted supercharger has a lot to overcome in the way of well mixed air/fuel delivery when you consider how long and twisted those intake plenums are. its a wonder the fuel doesn't condense on the top wall of the intake tubes and just turn into drops instead of staying mixed in a good combustible mix. that's one reason why for instance the Mooneyes dragster above really improved its performance when they went to the conventional setup after the original front mount which was mostly for low profile and streamlining effect. and it seems to me that's why the form is rarely used anymore except in nostalgia cars like this one I shot at a recent meet in California jb

this is the future of the model industry, like I predicted the last time I bumped into my own azz getting so ahead of myself. lookee here: the future is selling virtual models that you can assemble in cyberspace and then only if you want a physical copy, which I predict most will not when the screen becomes fully integrated into our lives, you can ship it to your 3D printer for a "real" model. I put "real" in quotations because it is just as "real" out in cyberspace to many people these days and those are the kids who will live long past most of us here. offering these scalable 3D prints are a beginning but soon (20 years maybe) complete kits will be offered in this way and there will be few if any actual physical "models" offered, it will all be cyber based. that is the way music has gone and I predict the same for our hobby. it really is a nice elegant solution: no costs for transport, storage or sales space, or even actual manufacturing, only for product design and advertising and supporting artwork. and if the auto companies get in directly on it too, then you will see some really amazing stuff. just watch jb

a long time ago I picked up this record at some yard sale: yes at a yard sale. now it seems to have come from a Revell Motorcycle kit of some sort, I am guessing their 1/8 scale various Triumphs, Hondas or others from the time period. But I don't know that...anyone know any particulars on this record and the kit it may have come with? It is a 7" record, which in this country usually have a big hole in the center and play at 45 rpm, but this one has a small hole center and plays at 33 1/3 which makes it more of an "EP" than the single most of us might know it as. the copyright on this record appears to be 1969 I have never gotten up the nerve to play it but both sides say "Music by Jack Shaindlin". (Jack Shaindlin, who was a music writer for Hanna Barbera cartoons...but I digress). so my guess might be that there is some kind of corny music on the disk that I would rather not subject my environment to, but who knows. back to the subject: remembering back to when I was a kid, I recall more than one kit either came with a 7" record or you could mail in a coupon and hopefully receive said record in the mail. I think I tried that once but the record never showed up...then again I lived in the Phillipines so maybe that had something to do with it. but I seem to remember race track sound effects and things like that...maybe a Ed Roth cornball surfer tune like that LP (at least one) of songs he was somehow behind. anyone know any specifics? like which kits did and perhaps photos of the records, hopefully with a picture sleeve along with it? or are there some model sites that specialize in these kits? seems like it was an interesting way to sell model kits, but it got my curiousity even back then. now I don't really mean the more common race track sound LPs and those records, I have quite a few of them already, I am really just interested in records that came as premiums in normal model kits. jb

just got through to him and yep that's exactly what he is trying to do. like I told him, if there is anything worse than failure, sometimes its success! great guy to deal with, am sending a check tomorrow for two sets jb

currently he does not seem to be answering his phone and his voicemail box is full. jb

sorry...aint buying that dreck for the wheels, I was just curious. I got enough real models to spend my money on, I support those who support me. jb

well that is really nice! pretty good imagination too, looks way better than most hot wheels and those wheels really set it off! jb

I think you might call that phone number on the package pictured above. that's what I am going to do, tomorrow morning. jb

are those front wheels and tires on those cartoon cars any good for a real car model? anyone have any pics of them on the tree or on a real buildup? jb

Serious advice? don't sit at the computer, sit in your hobby room/building space. go through your model stash or current projects. put two simple pieces together. next thing you know you will be building a model. jb