Danno

Ohkay. Thanks, Greg. I had no idea. Now I do. Appreciate the info.

C'mon, Man! Somebody has to know the scoop. What happened to Dr. Cranky? Where is he and why isn't he here?

Wow! Just - wow, David! Good job on this beast. Amazing what you can find at the DSC swap meet, huh?

Excellent job, Tom. As always!

PS: A couple of other non-essential comments from a keeper of odd knowledge: The Greg Wann Mastercaster Novas are not 3D printed or cast from 3D printed masters. They are cast from a master very expertly and artfully created by a friend of mine here in the Phoenix metro area. [I wouldn't mind identifying him, but he prefers a lower profile and I don't have his permission to 'out' him.] Greg is also a friend of mine. I can take a little credit for the Novas, as I pushed, pressured, and cajoled him into doing them - and our mutual friend ponied up an excellent master. The rest is history. I was supposed to have a Nova build camera-ready a few years ago but life got in the way. (It remains partially completed.) I also used the same sort of strategies to get Greg to cast his exquisite Cosma Ray kit - also not 3D printed. I managed to get a build of the Cosma Ray finished just before another friend, John Teresi, debuted his amazing build. Mine stayed in the shop. *Sorry to highjack the thread, Tom. I'm looking forward to seeing your Nova finished.

Greg, Good observation. Many agencies ran "alley lights" mounted to the ends of the light bar base, usually dropped somewhat to not obscure the side 'flash' of the beacons. Often they were offset to the front or rear of the light bar. Some agencies used rectangular halogen driving lights, which had a much lower vertical measurement. Altogether, the large round lamps - such as depicted in the kit instructions shown - were rare . . . for the very reason you cite. But, yes, some agencies paid no attention to that detail and mounted the 'alley light' in a fashion that blocked the side 'flash.' Those were the days when emergency vehicle lighting was minimal. BTW - there's some argument as to why 'alley lights' came to be in the first place. It was said that they were a convenience for one-man patrol units (they were), but there seemed to be a surge in use when the bean-counters figured out a set of 'alley lights' - at least on the right side - was cheaper than A-pillar mounted spotlights.

Tom, You are right also! I forgot about that batch of Satellites and Furies that were, indeed, all tan with white roofs. Apparently, Chrysler spec'd them in that two-tone cheaper than Phoenix could get the sand/tan sprayed on white cars. Just goes to prove what I always say . . . and should remember my own dang self . . . there are no absolutes except that there are no absolutes! This '67 Ford lives a couple of blocks from my house . . . driven by a honcho of the Phoenix Police Museum. Like many photos of the cars, the sides are so light in hue that it's often difficult to see the paint break (depending on lighting as you can tell from these two pictures of the same car), but generally these were all white with just the sides, rockers and wheels sand/tan. The breaks were right along the top crease. The Novas were painted this way. PPM has been working on restoration of a '60 Studebaker Lark - also in the white with sand/tan sides scheme. Thanks for the lead re: Scale PD. I had mine custom made and haven't seen any others anywhere else. Again, your Nova is shaping up very nicely. Farther along than either of mine. (Two started; two others unstarted.)

Greg can be reached at Mastercaster1@cox.net His resins are superb. Superlative. Super. Tom - I have a couple of the 9C1 Novas going also. One a replica of my patrol rocket from back in the day. I've been toying with doing the second as a Phoenix PD car. Question: Do you have a source for the old PPD shields like the one depicted in your photo? Note: Constructive - not meant to be critical, but . . . the color breaks were not as you have on your model. In that era, 50's through the 70's, Phoenix painted the vertical sides (fenders and door skins) light tan over all-white vehicles. They were trying to offset the desert sand discoloration of the all-white cars so they didn't have to wash them so often to maintain better appearance. By the eighties, they gave up and just ran with the all-white cars with no custom paint. That's how they still appear today - all-white but with large blue swoosh panel graphics. Regardless, your Nova is terrific!! Once finished, I'm sure it will be another winner as all your builds! Like Carl says, I've always admired your fleet.

Excellent!

Truth in advertising. They don't call it a flu prevention or flu mitigation shot, do they?

I, for one, stand corrected. Obviously mixing and mismatching '55 and '57 info. Sorry about that.

Personally, I'd much rather see a 1968 Galaxie (or Custom) brought back. But that's just me.

Even more ironic is that AMT once issued a pre-finished Masterpiece version of the 300C in a dark forest green color. It, too, was good looking but it, too, was a non-authentic color. Your model looks great!!

Amen to that. I've read and re-read their exuberant announcement and I'm still not sure I understand their proposed pricing schedule, etc. It all smells like snake oil to me.

My electrician was the one who was incredibly disappointed when he finally found out that a "ground fault interrupter" was not some kind of new tech anti-earthquake device. He tried to be a political activist in college, but he was always a few ohms short of a full-on revolt.

You've found my electrician!

Indeed! If it's good, I'll need a couple, too! Thanks, Steven.

Excellent.

Congrats on beating it! I've seen this kit and I have one, but the fiddliness of it has encourgaged me to spend my little time on other stuff. Glad you built this one! Thanks for sharing it.

Awesome!

Scary thing is . . . where did they find those kids???

Another fantastic kit that replicates a magic police car. "Magic" because it doesn't require any sort of antennae for its radio equipment! Nor does it require inner shafts and handles to operate its A-pillar mounted spotlights! Semi-"magic" because it mates a 2020's car with a 1980's-1990's prisoner divider/cage. Ahh, well. There's always another year . . .

Wow. I am so sorry to hear of Al's passing. My sincere condolences for his family, friends, the NNL East family, and you, Tom. Very sad news. I can't say I knew him, but I've email-conversed and I've admired his work. Good enough for me to feel the loss, too. RIP, friend.

. . . And, HELLO! S U B U R B A N S - S U B U R B A N S - S U B U R B A N S - S U B U R B A N S - S U B U R B A N S - S U B U R B A N S!!!! Did I mention SUBURBANS??

There seems to be a lot of 'who knew?' going on in the EV field. One of my favorite - although sadly ironic - is LAFD decided to be avant garde and lead the way by buying and placing an electric pumper into service. Great idea. Until it set itself on fire and burned up. I mean, really - who couldn't see that coming? Building a fire engine with a big tank of water on top of the huge batteries? It developed a little leak that was a big enough leak to short out the batteries. Gave a whole NEW meaning to Fire Truck. Or, "On-Fire Truck!"