Snake45

Red dogs under illegal legs. She looks so good that he gets down and begs.

Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone! I hope you got at least a grin out of this little beast.

It's good stuff except for it comes out pebbly and has to be sanded smooth. Fortunately it sands magnificently with #800 Wetordry, used wet.

Very nice! Great color, too! Near as I can tell, the Revell snapper '70 Chevelle has a more accurate body than either the AMT 1/25 or the Monogram 1/24. I'm working on one myself even as we speak. I hope it comes out as well as yours! Nicely done and model on!

Some years ago I saw a photo of a newly restored Sea Fury being rolled from the hanger without any paint or markings. I forget whether it was bare aluminum or overall silver paint (which would probably be polyurethane these days) but I was struck by the inherent beauty of the Sea Fury airframe and thought I'd build a model just like that. Hobbycraft 1/48 kit built 100% out of the box. Paint is Tamiya rattlecan Gloss Aluminum. Exhaust panel and spinner airbrushed Testor Chrome Silver just to get a little contrast, though it doesn't show up all that well. I was right. The Naked Fury is a thing of beauty, is it not? (Note for non-airplane people: What's a Sea Fury? It was one of the last piston-powered, prop-driven fighters, and one of the very best. Too late for WWII, it saw action in Korea and at the Bay of Pigs and was used by Britain, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Cuba, and Iraq, just off the top of my head. It was the follow-on to the Hawker Tempest, which was the follow-on to the Hawker Typhoon, which was the follow-on to the famous Hawker Hurricane. It was comparable in size and performance to the late-model P-47 Thunderbolt and F4U Corsair. Today, several race in the Unlimited class at Reno along with the Mustangs and Bearcats.)

Trick or Treat! Doesn't this little '53 Studebaker look adorable in its Bandit costume? I built this about 20 years ago to demonstrate my position that the '53 Stude was styled at least a decade, and maybe two, ahead of its time. AMT kit built out of the box except the wheels—I forget where they came from, maybe the old AMT '70 ½ Camaro, perhaps, or something of that nature. When a modeling friend saw what I was doing with this, he gave me a nice gold decal to put on the hood. I think it might have been from a GMC Diablo truck, or something, but when I saw that it fit the Stude's hood like it had been made for it, I had to use it. When my friend saw the finished model, he named it the "West Virginia Trans Am."

Ode to Billy Joe, or something like that. Bobby Gentry. '66 or '67, somewhere in there.

Aqualung, Tull.

What he said. Now, if you're doing it '50s style, you wouldn't use a metalflake. If doing from the '60s up, go for it.

Very interesting treatment on the front fenders....

He was talking about The Prophet Tom Petty. As for Randy Newman, I Love LA is one of my favorite songs EVER. But the only album of his I've ever owned is Land of Dreams, on cassette. It took me several listens to "get it" but it's some pretty good stuff. I assume you have that one? If so, Double Bonus Points question for you: What other, much older song did he base "Follow the Flag" on?

I think some of today's country artists could do justice to TP, like Luke Bryant, Florida Georgia Line, Brad Paisley, Montgomery Gentry (they did a decent cover of Bon Jovi), etc. Blake Shelton's done Won't Back Down, as I posted a link to earlier.

I know exactly what you mean. I've been playing with Krylon Satin Black and Gloss Black for chassis. They both craze plastic. However, shoot them over cheap Walmart Color Place Gray Primer and they're okay. The Satin Black is pretty flat, and the Gloss Black is sort of semigloss black. Both will work for chassis stuff.

The ancient Revell kit is 1/25. So would be the '57 Bel Air coupe, but if I had that kit, I'd just use that whole body. Come to think of it, I do.

Rock is full of "acquired taste" voices--Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, and there are prolly dozens more. Have they ever done a Tom Petty tribute album?

As I recall it, the dealers always put the fanciest, sportiest stuff--especially convertibles--in the showroom. The Biscaynes and 4-doors and station wagons were outside on the lot.

You can't tease us like that and then not show us a pic or two, Ron!

Are you going to correct the wheel opening shape on the rear fenders? That's one of the things that's always kept me from building this kit...that and the weird shape of the "spear" trim. I think I'm gonna try to graft on the rear fender "sheetmetal" from a Revell '57 Chevy, maybe, if everything will line up....

I've never met anyone before who doesn't like at least some Tom Petty songs. AFAIC, anyone who doesn't like Tom Petty just ain't hooked up right. If you don't like Tom, how about someone else doing one of his songs? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBU8PDlYX_Y

Neil Diamond, America or Coming to America or something like that. One of a very few songs of his I like.

Very nice! And the color's passably close to '67 Marina Blue, too. Well done and model on!

I've long said that Tom Petty is what Bob Dylan would sound like if he (Dylan) could sing, or enunciate, or carry a tune at all. Is TP the best voice in the bidness? No. But I'd rather listen to a moderately competent--even somewhat whiny--voice with a great band singing a great rockin' song than Frank Sinatra or Dean Marin or Bing Crosby or Tony Bennett or Michael Bubbly singing anything.

Very interesting! I have a vague memory of a hemi-powered '56 Nomad in one of the old east coast hot rod magazines back in the late '60s or early '70s. I think maybe it was bright orange.

Boy, it sounds like we could have been Separated At Birth. That's almost exactly my painting routine. Except I find I don't need to wait a week for LT-thinned MM enamels--they're ready to sand and/or polish in 48 hours, and usually within 24. Here's a tip for you: Next time you're airbrushing MM enamel, try thinning it with naphtha (lighter fluid) instead of lac thinner. The stuff has a slower drying time than LT-thinned paint, which means it flows out better than LT with less pebbles/orange peel, but not so slow that it will have more problems with runs or sags than LT. It too is ready to work in 24-48 hours. I usually use naphtha now if I'm shooting a paint I don't want to clearcoat but polish out direct. With this stuff I find a very light polish will give me a very nice "factory" paint job. There is one WARNING on using naphtha, though: Do not thin more paint than you're going to shoot in the immediate future. The stuff will turn to Jell-O within a week, sometimes in as little as 3 or 4 days. Once this happens it can't be brought back; the paint is history. (Lac thinner thinned enamel is good almost forever, as long as it's stored airtight. Just yesterday I shot some I know for a fact I thinned almost three years ago.)

Okay, here's my ten favorite TP songs, right off the top of my head. I Won't Back Down Love Is a Long Road Zombie Zoo Last Dance with Mary Jane Swingin' The Last DJ Scare Easy You Wreck Me Southern Accent One Story Town I Will Run to You (with Stevie Nicks) Just since you got 11, my list goes to eleven too.