Pete J.

Shoot Mark, I thought you were going to mount some smoke grenade launchers! Very nice battery! Love the complete scratch build of everything. Love the work!

Equally important, if you have photoshop, the numbers that fit the roundels are Arial rounded MT Bold 36 point. I formated them to 4 X 6 because I have some white inkjet decal paper in that size and it goes through my HP printer in the photo tray. I also have a ton of plane photo paper in that size from HP. They use to give you a stack of it when you bought their pack of three color cartridges.

Ok, just been playing with photoshop and created this file for mass consumption. It is a "scale" plaque and number rondel. All are welcome to use it. It you can't download to print, PM me and I will attach an original JPEG file for you to use. It is scaled to 6"X4"

Yup, me too! Also have a Roget's Thesaurus and Perrin's Writers guide. All required for college freshman english. Probably the three most frequently used books on my desk! I still prefer to look some things up the old fashion way. What I learn perusing the adjacent words is far more interesting than the popup ads when I look it up online.

I would add some oldster thoughts. Discord, in this case, seems like what a fair number of people do nowadays when the right word doesn't come readily to mind. They uses something that sounds close. In this case discourse would better describe what the intent of the site is. I blame spell check to some degree. It gives people words but no context and discord sort of sounds right. Blame the electronic age. In times gone by, we had to look words up in a dictionary(remember those odd things. You know, two pieces of cardboard with lots of paper with words on them, stuffed in between. When you looked it up, you also got a definition and some clarity on how to use the word.

Ride height and tires look about right for the roads. Nice start! What I find fun is to look at the race pictures at the start in Peking, cars all bright and shiny and then at the end all beat up and mud caked!

Tim, every time I see you have updated photos I get excited to see what you have done. Thanks for the new photos.

I'm good with that. It's just good to deal with is up front.

Rob another interesting point about painting the vehicle. This is what the rules say. Advertising is restricted. Any sign writing or stickers, including Charity involvement, should be discreet and in period style and confined to the bodywork to the rear of the front doors. The glass areas, front wings, and bonnet are reserved for the crew and team names and the front doors are to be kept clear for the competition number panel and any Organisers’ publicity material.

Rob, another question. The rules state that the plaques must be metal plates. My question is that several of the race entrants, particularly the newer cars, have stickers/decals instead, particularly the Mustangs and Porsches and they vary significantly in size. Having the identification is of course critical, but must is be a metal plate? Whatever you say is fine but is some cases it may be difficult to put a large plaque on the car.

just corrected it. 42 duh!

Rob, thanks for running this. I noticed that several of the cars have a "route" sticker along with the plaque also. Any chance that the info you have, has one of those in it that you could post one of those in high def also?

I'm in. 73 porsche RS. It is a small car so there will be a load of external stuff on the roof rack. I call dibs on number 42! The answer to life, the universe and everything! Got my towel, ready to go!

Certain sections of the race look like Sherman pass or Vedauwoo in March!

Not a bad idea. I was thinking that I would do mine as if I were the participant. Done that with other cars before. The rules for the real deal assigned numbers that must be on a rondel on the door panels. I spent good money on a circle cutter that I have never used. This could be a great excuse to get it out of the drawer. It we get to choose our own number I call dibs on "42" - the answer to life, the universe and everything!

I honestly wish you would reconsider that part of the build. The P2P is all about the trip and hauling your stuff to get there. Every car looks like a family campout gone bad! I think we need to have some of the flavor of a cross country endurance race. Perhaps it doesn't have to have it all, but I think it would be fun to see what the builders come up with. Maybe just carry the two spare tires and sleeping bags as a minimum. Just my thoughts.

I think the other challenge in this is going to be in the section 9 rules. Seatbelts, roll bars, tow ropes, two spare tires, spare parts, tent, sleeping bags for all crew and plastic sheeting or drip trays. Getting all this stuff in a model is going to challenge most of the modelers. There is plenty of this stuff in armor scale, but precious little in 1:24 scale. it is going to be fun seeing how non-military builders learn how to do this. I am included in that group, so it is going to be fun.

I think the package handlers union has some sort of vendetta going on. I get a lot of packages(my adult kids think my house is a safe drop off place) and most have at least one crushed corner at best and totally mangled at worst. In this conditions I would be reluctant to ship a model anywhere. Recently I had the opportunity to trade a Gunzie motorcycle kit with another modeler. Both of us understood that the kits were valuable and took the time to put packing in the box, the pack the box in a box that was at least an inch bigger in all dimensions. They both arrived in good condition, but with mangled outer boxes. I think one of the problems with shipping models is that they are very light weight and led themselves to being tossed with vigor. Shipping a build model is a problem of even support all around the model and anticipating shock. I have used pluck fit foam to ship things and it's ability to conform and provide shock protection is very high. Unfortunately, if you get an unsupported mass, like the engine it is likely to separate if not well glued to the frame. For this reason I build with solvent type glues like Weldon, Tenex and Tamiya extra thin where I can. These make the plastic a single homogenes piece. Superglues and white glues rely on the strength of the chemical bond much like the peanut butter in a sandwich. They are not as strong and tend to separate with the right type of shock. Regardless, the fault lies with the shipper for the most part. One day express, will not only get it there faster, but any reduction the exposure to the shippers employees is a good thing.

Joe, I'm interested to hear how your experiment works out. I tried a number of other clear base coats and the chrome looked just fine but it didn't have the durability I got using the Alsa base coat. I also found that I could only use a 2k urethane over the chrome as a basecoat. I found that Alsa base coat is waterborne and is thinable with distilled water but don't try it with the chrome.

Joe, glad to hear your are really using this stuff. I was very taken by it when I got my first bottle. I was lucky and got two kits on sale so now I have a little less than 6 oz. I think I should do a video on the stuff. It does work well.

This was my first major use of the easy chrome. This looks a little different for a reason. It's a half of an egg plane mounted on a mirror and shot outside so the reflection in the mirror is the sky. I wanted a "in Flight" look without any supports or wires. This has been clear coated with automotive urethane.

OK, I'm stoked about this! Count me in for the P2P. Got my kit lined up and will get it mid- november. Going to be fun loading it up with all the stuff it has to carry. Sleeping bags, tent, spares parts, tires. Yup, this is going to be fun. I might even make a couple of decals for it. Long live the Rally!

Oh man, the guys going to go nuts and buy the whole state!

I found it interesting the veriety of cars run. There was a '69 and '70 mustang run. With the 1976 cutoff I think it would be interesting to see what the muscle car builders would throw in the mix. Taking a GTO or Superbird on a trials course would be a unique challenge. The rally is all about getting through some very rough roads. It brings back memories for me. My first car was a '69 Mustang and I had 4 miles of Nebraska dirt road to drive to get to pavement. Well, I should say mud pits, frozen ruts, snow drift covered paths, but the Mustang navegated them for the last 3 years I was home.

Maybe I have an answer for the bidder who bid twice for the same amount. I had that happen not long ago. I placed a bid for an item and was the high bidder. A little later I logged in and raised my maximum bid and it showed as a second bid at the same amount. I guess that way, I can't be stupid and bid myself up.