Spex84

Drag City Casting is still in business! Ed makes awesome resin...but the menu shifts with time, as molds wear out and demand for old products wanes. Every so often he'll bring a retired product back, like the '34 Ford body etc, so definitely keep an eye out as he brings new parts online. There is also a Drag City Casting Facebook page now, and it will have more up-to-date information on that stuff.

This is all fascinating stuff, thanks for adding these video links to standalone posts. The 3D printer you mentioned in part 1 is the first printer to really make me sit up and say "wow, this could be the one I actually buy!". Acceptable detail at an acceptable price, perfect! As for 3D printing molds for a desktop injection molding machine, when I look at the whole process, the bottleneck is the slight texture imparted to the parts by the 3D printed tooling. If they could be printed perfectly smooth, then it wouldn't be an issue. Metal molds can be polished--witness the complaints that arose when Moebius kit bodies had a slightly pebbly texture, but they allegedly went back and smoothed things out some more (I wouldn't know, I don't have firsthand experience of that issue). Fix that, and everything becomes possible, including 3D scanning and rapidly producing shoddy ripoffs of production kits, haha. Exciting to see what the possibilities could be for scale model production in the very near future!

So last year I got back from vacation and Chevy had announced a spectacularly ugly truck. I drew a little spoof image satirizing Chevy's current design direction and posted it here. Now it's a year later, and here we go again, except this time I'm not even gonna bother with satire. I mean...wow. WOOF!

Wow, what a serendipitous post--I have the exact same part sitting on my workbench; it was loose in a box of random parts and I was wondering what it was from. Now I know!

MAN, this thing is nice. I'm very impressed by the opening windshield--that's a detail I considered adding to my bare-metal '30 but it seemed too darn finicky to be worth it. Fantastic detailing!

These are awesome!! Thanks for posting I like the square-body Chevy versions.

Nicely done, and from a Lindberg too! I like the color and decal choice and period-correct detailing. My only critique would be that the headers look dangerously close to the ground if the car bounces at all Looks tough as nails though!

Love it! I think I learned a thing or two about derby car prep just from observing the details in this model. I like how it's built in a very clear style with parts called out in contrasting colors, almost like a technical diagram. One thing that jumps out at me--I've been to a couple derbies and the cars were never reinforced quite THIS much! Must be a different rule set

Beautiful! This truck has a certain flair that seems contemporary despite the pro-street stylings. I enjoy how the narrow "T" bed and tall '29 cab could potentially look ill-proportioned, but the fat tires and full fenders add visual mass and bring everything together again. I dig those single-rib Radir wheels too. Thanks for sharing these pics!

I can probably join in the new year. Easy...considering that 17 of my current WIPs are "dead" right now!! The oldest is about 18 or 19 years old.

Love this model--I went out and bought the mag off the newsstand because of it, then started a '34 project inspired it. But then it evolved rapidly into full east-coast territory with a low tail end and molded fenders, and I never finished it. Gotta get back on it! The stance and color combo are probably the things that grab me most with this '34, but there are many other details that keep me coming back.

Beautiful! Just yesterday I was admiring a photo of a '40 in red, almost exactly like this one in terms of style in stance, but with blackwalls...thinking maybe I should build a model of it. You beat me to it

Excellent stuff! Those are very cleanly executed models. I think my faves are the yellow and white RPUs. The 80s era isn't my favorite in terms of colors, graphics, and wheels, but when it all comes together the results are impressive. I had a bagful of those centerline-style wheels that I considered junk, but recently I was admiring photos of Lil John's '32 3-window (with the rectangular headlights) thinking that someday, I should build a genuine 80s-mid 90s street rod with all the bells and whistles....and finally put those wheels to good use! I'd like to have some hot rods from every major period, '40s through 2010s, on the shelf eventually.

I was unaware of the original "Mr Speed" rear-engine kit. That's darned cool. Looking forward to seeing this come together! I love that one-coat emerald and the molded-in taillights/headlights for the fiberglass body look.

Nice save! Looks much better with the new tires. It's still one ball short, though Gives it character!

Beautiful flow on that chop!!

Beautifully done! I've seen the "warbird" theme done many times before, but this version is so clean, with some excellent detailing (love the seat belts). The air scoops are appropriate and dramatic, and the paint scheme is well balanced. Very cool

From here, it looks like the engines are so tall they'll fill the body from top to bottom, making a chop impossible without the engines protruding. But that could be the angle... Very curious to see where this goes

I've been loving this build so far. Did you use Uni Posca pens for the blue stripes on the tires? They look really good. Nothing I've tried is the right color or sufficiently opaque.

This is demented, I love it

Oh son of a gun...the parts stash I acquired had some other Enterprise parts. These little bits just looked SO much like '60s customizing accessories that I never even considered the possibility that they might be spacecraft components. Wow. Nice detective work, that's a pretty bizarre and niche discovery, haha! Thanks Chris

I love the idea, and the initial impression is positive, but I feel like that body is just very toy-like. Overall I think it has lots of attitude. Might as well build it!

I read about the Mahindra on Jalopnik a while back, really neat stuff. Interestingly, Jeep tried to block Mahindra from selling the things in the USA, claiming that the shape of the vehicle infringes on Jeep trade dress (flat fenders, etc etc etc). *eye roll* Maybe they should have thought of that decades ago. Cat's outta the bag now! But if you want a highway-legal mini-SUV with 4wd, limited slip, body-on-frame construction, and no-nonsense but contemporary appearance....you want a Suzuki Jimny. I know I want one! It's the only thing that comes close to being a spiritual successor to my XJ Cherokee. And it's under $20k new. Like a Jeep Renegade that isn't lame. Of course, it's not available in North America. Nuts.

I'd agree with Richard's assessment. That Porsche 904 was one of the first model cars I ever built. It was WAY too difficult for me at the time (fiddly engine parts and thin engine cover struts), but apparently it fit together just fine, as it's still on my shelf. It's a great looking car and I'd love to build another someday.

Paramedic was definitely my favorite Star Wars character These are new to me. Cool!