Dale W. Verts

Car- 95+%. Photos- WOW! I DIG the pics! Dale

Sweet. I know this ain't happenin', but if it was at all do-able I'd like to see something like the back-half of the McLaren grafted to the front of the Ferrari. I'd need to draw that out on paper and see. It might be pretty ugly (although some of the Chapparals in the day were ugly, and I liked them just fine). Dale

You guys are reachin' (or need glasses) but thanks. They're fine for what they are. The Mustang is Testors Gloss Custom Red Metal Flake over grey. The Goat is a Dupilcolor Honda Blue Metallic over silver (that one was a PAIN). The Thunderbolt is the correct Duplicolor Ford Wimbledon White over gray. And the Roadrunner is twelve coats of dollar Wal-Mart paint over grey. I didn't try to shine these up at all- I wanted them to look just the way they do. One of the few things about the builds I can say I got right . Thanks again! Dale

Bobby, the GTO really does look nice. Harry "shamed" me on my first pic-post too (thanks Harry). It took me a few months, but the BMF has been handled. I'll never be a big fan of it, but it IS worth the effort. Dale

Oh yeah! Dale

A "THING"! I'd probably pass out. Dale

Oh yeah, the Thunderbolt was by far the best kit with the most detail The GTO pretty much sucked. How's that for an in-depth assessement and kit review? Dale

A preface- I love this stuff, but I'm too picky for this hobby. I had to really get ahold of myself and bare down to finish the following projects. Waiting for my skill level to catch up with my wants and needs has been tough. I've been broke down since April with an ankle injury. Originally (mis) diagnosed as just broken May 1st (I walked on it for two weeks before goin' to the doctor) and after enduring the first cast for six weeks in May and June, I ended up having surgery on it three weeks ago (forty staples, two screws, two pins) for a broken/torn tendon and ligament, and am now in my third cast . Point is, I thought I'd have LOTS of time to do this model-thing. Wrong. The main problem is distractions. Kids home from school made it hard to concentrate. Being fairly immobile for half this time period doesn't help. My back hurts a bitch after walking on a tilt, and with crutches, for over five months and makes it hard to set for any amount of time. The painkillers since the surgery are the worst. Fuzzyness, weird-dizzy and lightheadedness does NOT lend itself to detail work! My guitar playin' has suffered the same as the models. Good sleep has been tough to achieve. Concentration has been difficult. Anyway, weaned off of the pills last week, kids are in school, so I got busy, and the results follow- Wow. When I came back to this hobby in January I had no idea. I reckon I figured I'd build a model every week or so, in my spare time. Wrong... I've got one model completely finished for myself in all this time. In March I decided to build some of my friends' :Dream Cars"- what they'd own if they could. These were built to my friends' specs, including colors, tires & wheels, etc. The only real change to any of them was the Thunderbolt, which I did drop some. Otherwise they're OoB stance-wise (I couldn't stand to have a real Mustang that sets stock like this one does!). The first four were finished this morning, and man- I'm tired. I am fairly satisified with the results, and I didn't get too carried away on details with engine wiring being the only real Micro-work. Unless you count BMF, and these were my first attempts at that LUNATIC part of the hobby. Actually, the Goat was my FIRST BMF, and it was enough to about freak me out. But I survived the deal, and it definitely gets easier. I also muted chrome with a wash, which I thinks adds tremendously to the looks of the final product. Again, they're not pieces of art by any stretch, but they are what I intended- somethin my buddies can put on a shelf to enjoy and dream about. Thanks for lookin'. Now, on to the next project... Dale

Oh yeah! Sweet! Other Explicatives! (still want a wide eye, though) Dale

I hadn't thought about that magazine in YEARS. Used to love it. Dale

That's FINE right there! Dale

Took me a long time to get parts. They did say they were sorry... Two sets of sprint car tires had bubbles on the rears. Since they were just on one side I figure they'll work. Parts look fine other than that, but it took a LONG time to get them. Dale

I found the cow to be "mooving". Dale

Disgusting. Just disgusting. However, I LIKE disgusting. ESPECIALLY in dirt cars. Dale

Gracious. Just freaky (that's good). Dale

I'm still "new" (again) myself, and I think it looks great. While I want to get all the details and fine stuff perfect, right now I'm shooting for the "looks great setting on the shelf from three feet away" effect. Dale

Grew up loving the Beach Boys, mostly beacause of the car songs. Can you imagine songs being written about kids' cars today? Dale

For the right Telecaster, it would be tempting... It'd be a steal too (I don't have that much in modeling stuff yet). Dale

Love 'em. Dale

I must be an almost-dead guy. Dale

I love the smell of Jack Nicholson in the morning... Dale

'57 was the last year for the oval window Bug... Any well-made, era and mechanically correct Beetle. The Thing, for sure (see above). A modern sprint car, and midget. No one's done a midget in about fifty years. Just not popular enough, I reckon. Dale

If you ask me, you ought to build more hot rods. Very nice. Dale

Just made a more complete-looking body. Some buggy kits looked pretty cheap. Dale

I remember when every Camaro, Mustang, Nova and Charger was jacked up high in the back, to the point of being ridiculous. Just going around a corner slow was a trick for some of them. Few of them went slow. We were poor and, I had to buy everything I ever owned myself. And what I couldn't afford was the '69 Chevelle I wanted most. I couldn't stand the idea of a "stock" ride, and souped-up stuff cost big bucks. So I bought the first of many VW Beetles in about 1982. Did some work to it, increased the mileage and made it run better than new to boot. And for a ton less $ than a SB Chevy. I owned about sixteen different bugs, mostly Bajas, over an eight-year period. It all culminated in my last bug, a 220hp (barely) streetable car that would turn upper 11's to low 12's... My custom plates read "I8AV-8". Got me in some trouble with the "big car" dudes, but I pretty much held my own. Surpised more than a few of those V-8's. Then I grew up. My wife and I can afford a hot rod now, and we've been looking heavily at '57 Chevys... But, we're also looking at, you got it, BUGS. She's always wanted a convertible, and I could lower it, build a motor, etc. Maybe I'm not so grown up after all. It's too bad. I'll bet most of the folks responding to this topic are over forty years old. Many considerably older. School parking lot hot rods nowadays are tuners with coffee-can exhaust. Not many teenagers hanging around the local speed shop, or working hard to save the money for a new carb and intake from J.C. Whitney. I find it horribly sad that my own soon-to-start-driving fifteen year-old son, while appreciating SOME rollin' iron (he calls a lot of Icononic cars "old and busted" however) has ZERO interest in turning wrenches on something of his own. He doesn't know, or care, about compression ratios, ignition timing, induction theory, cams, porting, etc. etc. Sad. Sigh. Dale