Danno

Looks good, Bryan.

Timbo! Good to see you on the board, old friend!

VERY cool!

Excellent work also, Wayne!

Your figure work is terrific, Wayne! Thanks for sharing.

Much as I hate to agree with Martay in public, I must also say, Great Save, Tom!!!! Sweet build. Bring it to GoodGuys next month!

Mushrooms?

Re-read what I wrote. That's exactly what I said: Until all the facts are known, none of us, professional or guesser alike, is in a position to pass judgment on what happened. That was my point. I did not make any arrogant statements; I pointed out things that were apparently outside her sphere of knowledge and recommended she not draw half-baked conclusions until the facts are known. I certainly did not intend to come off as ... well, I won't use your language ... or arrogant. That is apparently your opinion. But regardless, you are welcome; glad to share my expert opinion with you. And you can rest assured, I wouldn't try to tell you how to service an airframe or scold you for knowing what you're talking about in your field of expertise. A man has to know his limitations and I keep to my fields of expertise or experience. I certainly agree that Ms. Blanchard has every right to an opinion ~~~ as we all do; you and myself included ~~~ so long as it is clearly aired as an opinion and not as established fact. The important thing to remember about the right to air opinions is that it ends when someone else suffers from it. While the officer in DC may not be directly adversely effected by Ms. Blanchard's posting, it just isn't right to allow unsubstantiated speculation to go unchallenged without presenting balance. To my knowledge, her rights have not been taken away. She just ran headlong into 'the other side of the story.' And, you and your brothers/sisters do not have a corner on the market for fighting to protect freedoms; many of us have done so. I will confess: I am perplexed by where that comment came from or what you meant by it. Relax.

Great looking paint. I, too, love that Fiery Orange!!

Let me see if I have this straight ... back in Michigan you were the Midget King? Are you sure you want one like this? It has no sun protection for your head.

Greg, You may need to quit sniffing the saguaro, dude! Seriously, worse things could happen.

A quick 2-cents. Being very involved in the promotion and operation of many substantial model car shows/contests for more than a decade and a half, my observation is that builds of vintage street rods/street machines/customs have always far outnumbered the builds of vintage factory stock cars/trucks in public showings. Granted, many builders may have factory stock builds at home, in their closets ~ if you will, but the models they bring out to shows/contests are the rods and street machines and customs with immediate "gotcha." I'm not surprised retail sales of strictly stock kits trails far behind the kits with "gotcha" features and parts built in. And remember, when Revell announced the '49 Merc kit, the immediate reaction was that it, too, would tank because '49 Mercs had been "done to death." Well, it rolled out with a pre-chopped top and lots of "gotcha" and lots of goodies and has been a best-seller. Stand by for more of the same! I predict we'll see a LOT more fat-fenders on the tables in the Street Rods, Street Machines, and Customs classes for the next couple of years. Hide and watch.

It's a '48 Ford. There's never been much going on back there!

Better still are the endless pix of an unpainted body, several different combinations of too-big wheels/tires propped under the body, and a creative master modeler asking "What color should I paint it and which set of wheels should I use?" Duh. Let me build my model and post pix of it, and then you can see what color I think it should be and which wheels/tires it should wear. Was that insensitive of me?

Thank you for your expert analysis. Actually, one thing you may have gotten right is that the accident likely occurred as a result of a communications failure. Not a 'lack of communication' but a breakdown in the communication process. What you may not realize is that when a road is closed to traffic by issuance of a permit for a special purpose, the road is not closed to police or closed for emergency vehicle use in emergency situations. The fact that the road was cleared of normal traffic would actually make it a better shortcut than "open" traffic-filled streets, so long as the closure was not for the purpose of a street fair or other gathering of pedestrians (as an example). The only other type of 'closure' that would render the route unavailable to an emergency response would be situations where the route was obstructed by construction (ditched, excavated, pavement removed, etc.) or bridge failure or removal, etc., or by collapse of buildings or surrounding terrain, or the types of situations that would render the route unpassable. The available information indicates (1) the bomb squad officer was responding to a possible bomb ~~ in our nation's capitol ~~ which is a situation that actually places "innocent people" at real risk, (2) the bomb squad officer notified the traffic and special duty officers that he was responding through the closed area, (3) and apparently the movie crew 'rolled the action' anyway. Keep in mind the videos have audio tracks in which the bomb squad officer's siren can clearly be heard approaching even before 'Optimus' and the other actor/vehicles get the signal to begin rolling. What has not yet been released (if it has yet been determined at this point) is what happened to the information that the bomb squad officer's emergency response route was bringing him through the cordoned area being used as the movie set. It is known that he notified the officers working the movie set (perhaps relayed by police dispatchers). Obviously he drove through the closure barricades at the far end of the cordoned area where those officers were stationed. Questions remaining unanswered publicly are (1) did the special duty officers notify the film crew/director and (2) what did the film crew/director do to hold the "action" for a couple of minutes until the bomb squad officer cleared the cordoned area or (3) did someone disregard the warning and proceed to "roll" anyway? No doubt, further professional investigation by true experts will determine the facts. Then, we'll all know for certain rather than guessing. Accidents involving emergency vehicles responding to emergencies occur all too often ... maybe not every day, but quite often. The drivers of emergency vehicles are usually quite well trained in handling such situations. The vast majority of emergency vehicle accidents are not the EV driver's fault. While it is possible the bomb squad officer erred, it is too early to jump to uninformed conclusions as to guilt.

Very illuminating!

Pix are hard to see, but it looks like you turned some nice rims. Waiting for the finished products!

Serious question here: PURPLE concrete?

I'm delighted to see Revell willing to take chances with product. Boy, did the '49 Mercury custom kit blow us all away despite the initial concerns that it might flop because those mandatory styling cues might not sit will with all potential buyers and because '49 Mercs had been done to death. The Merc was a surprising hit and I'll bet this one turns out the same! Batten down the fade-away hatches, boys! This one's gonna be interesting.

Surreal, sir!

We missed you, Tom. It was a good turn-out! This project is looking good, Tom!! Keep it going.

Boy, aren't you picky! That's for proper friend-or-foe identification during upside-down passes. The pile-it simply passes on right or left of the target, depending on his horizon-orientation. I thought EVERYBODY knew that! Good job, John, on deliberately and carefully designing that subtle touch into your build! It's all GD!

That's neither model nor REAL!