Danno

Heartfelt sympathies, Ray. That's a tough situation to deal with, but prayers are with you and your family.

Same thing happened to us! Scale Auto wouldn't publish ANYTHING from us, while Model Cars Magazine always featured our event in the MCM Contest Annual. So, we gave up on SA (no E). One other thing: MCM has always given us gift subscriptions for Best of Show winners and raffle prizes, they've always provided us (and all the other shows) ample, free pre-event promotion, while SAE always insisted on charging big bucks for the slightest want-ad type mention. So, we gave up on SA (no E) along time ago . . . with no noticeable loss.

A well-placed but anonymous source has indicated it's been sent to the printer.

DITTOS!!!

It does appear to be a phantom, most likely someone's "interpretation" of what a '57 police car coulda looked like, at least in their mind. However, that said about this particular car, it should also be said that one cannot dismiss oddities. Many small town departments bought their police cruisers from the local dealership and were often limited to off-the-lot purchases due to time ("we need it right away!") or even financial considerations ("I can give you a better deal on this one, Chief, than I can on a special-order"). It wasn't too uncommon to see unusual trim or accessory packages on the "squad car," even including up-graded models. Hey, if they had an unsold Impala at model year's end and the town needed a new prowl car, a killer deal might be had on a 4-door hardtop police car and Barney might have 6 taillights instead of 4! Local politics being what it has always been, there's powerful pressure on smaller governmental entities to patronize the local businesses. For example, the small town where I grew up alternated between the two dealers: one patrol car was a Chevy and the next purchase went to the Ford dealer, then back to Chevy again. There was no brand-loyalty, just politics, and since there was no Dodge-Chrysler-Plymouth dealer in town, we never saw a Mopar cop car. Realities of a one car fleet! Even the county sheriff's department "spread it around," driving a couple of everything. Only the state highway patrol bought on spec and operated a one-brand fleet. Later, in the late 60's - early 70's, the concept of letting municipalities and counties "piggy-back" on the state's fleet bid was born. Then, small towns could add their one patrol car purchase to the mass state buy and they could end up with a real, honest-to-gosh police package police car. It became the gold standard, and off-the-lot police cars/oddities became relics of the past.

Congrats, Russ!! Good luck!

There you go!!!

Don't know why I missed this earlier, but glad I finally found it. Outstanding, Ray!

Nope. Nowhere close any more. But, I've been to Salida . . . many times . . . and I've stayed one night (ONLY one night) at a Holey-Dump Express there.

Hot dammn that's looking GREAT!

Ah, yaw. You betcha, dern tootin' doancha know. Aw, geez, Mr. Scott, you got some Lutefiskin' goin' on there, now, fer shuuure. Juss borrow me some a them tickets there sometime, you bet. Uuff da!

So, what are the 'Just Can't Miss' places to eat in Carlsbad / Oceanside and vicinity??

Yeah, but you guys have Walleye-on-a-Stick! And, Lutefisk.

Burned to the ground the very night you were there? And, you have THE matchbook???

OH, NO! Say it ain't so! {Caboose} Have they announced where they are moving? When? I've spent soooo many wonderful, magical hours wandering their jam-packed aisles . Not to mention mucho dinero!! Don't let it be, Lord, that the Caboose is fading away . . .

Cameron, Here's a quick run-down of the shops I know about: COLPAR HOBBIES has a store on South Wadsworth Blvd., near Southwest Plaza Mall in Lakewood, CO. The Don't-Miss-It shop is COLPAR's Aurora store in the 1100 block South Havana, Aurora, CO. There's a HobbyTown USA that's pretty typical HTU; it's on Wadsworth Blvd about 95th Avenue (the other end of the world from Colpar). And, not a model kit store per se, but the world's BEST hobby store is Caboose Hobbies on Broadway just North of I-25 in the south downtown area. If you have time for nothing else, you owe yourself a visit to Caboose! It is to die for. The biggest model railroading store known to man, they have the every product imaginable including electronics, scenery/diorama materials and supplies, paints, adhesives, tools, parts, raw materials, trains, trains, trains, and more trains. I'm a train fan but not a train modeler/collector, but I've never left Caboose without lots of goodies that I couldn't live without for my automotive modeling! If I missed any shops, it's because it is/they are new. Enjoy your visit to the High Mile High City!

Dittos!!

Steve, Looks great! Watching this for sure. G, and anyone else interested: I also did the color research a couple of years ago; Steve's right about the GM Midnight Blue metallic but I didn't find the Ford gray reference. The KHP source indicated the gray color was originally blended up in their shop so as to not show dust and road grime as readily as stark white. FYI - 'Light Dove Gray' is even too dark. Over the years, KHP bought cars from the Big 3 manufacturers at different times, always based on bids. But, they wanted the cars to look the same, so they didn't tie the colors to a specific manufacturer's paint offerings in a given year. The colors came to be known by the monikers KHP Blue and KHP Gray. I passed my info along to Jameston Kroon and he dug a little deeper into the paint archives and mixed up perfect matches for me. He carries them in his ScaleFinishes line without factory paint code tags; you can buy them from him ready to go. No surprise, he carries them labeled as "Kansas Highway Patrol Blue" and "Kansas Highway Patrol Gray" without paint code references. If you try them, tell him I sent you.

The Quantums are UnGainLY, that's for certain!

Will do! He's busily scratching up a master for this project: Mesa AZ Engine 208 - a Pierce Quantum. Mesa has a boatload of these.

Scorcher? Try 23 consecutive days of 110+ degrees. But, what pleases me is that after tomorrow, the temps are supposed to break and we'll have a cooling trend: 100 - 109 for the next week, then dipping down into the 90's for awhile. C'mon chilly!

Dittos to Tom's comments. Great news, Bill! God be with you throughout your recovery.

Pizza? Within the context of chain operations: 1. GODFATHERS!!! {Yes, they are rebounding/coming back!} None better. 2. Papa Murphy's. 3. Pizza Hut. Gotta give PH a shout out. The chain started in my hometown and I worked for the founders in a couple of their other early business enterprises. Great guys and their success was well earned. The rest all taste alike.

Beautiful model, A.J.! And, neat first-hand experience with the 1:1s! Charlie, Tim lives here in the Valley [of the Sun] now. He's doing well and back into modeling. He's an active member of a couple of the local clubs. He and I have a couple of joint projects in the works. He's inspected my original Eisbrenner and my two recently-acquired Eisbrenner/Uptown resins. He's actively engaged in trying to beat me out of one!

God bless, Bill. Thoughts and prayers for your full and speedy recovery.