Brian Austin

I have a Japanese diecast in 1:60 scale from the '80s or so. Not the most detailed, but I always liked these COEs.

Also, one of my go-to reference sites had been Fantasy Junction brokers. https://www.fantasyjunction.com/sold/1965-jaguar-xke-series-i-coupe/photos Hit the OVERVIEW button for the car's story. Note it appears it have been restored. For more cars hit the NEXT CAR button at the bottom.

I love the Beverly Hills Car Club site. Lots of good photos of sorry-looking cars. The descriptions are very upbeat but somehow fail to mention how rusted or burned to a crisp the car may actually be. Also, in case you're wondering, they are not a club, but a dealer that's not even located in Beverly Hills. Every once in a while I trawl through their site for reference pictures. Last time I checked there appeared to be quite a stock of E-Types in their inventory. Here are some of the pics I've saved. This is a '62 Series I Flat Floor Roadster. Note the patina...

Here's a museum I'd like to visit, but it's a bit out of the way for me. https://internationaltowingmuseum.org/

Put some bat fins on it. :-)

Those Burtone concepts are actually kind of cool. I saw the white one just this past Sunday at a car event at the Larz Anderson museum in Brookline, MA. It's one of the temporary exhibits this season. You can only see it from the front + 3/4 angle, but it has some interesting things going on.

The amazing craftsmanship of Danny Downs... https://www.worldsweeper.com/History/DannyDowns.html https://www.worldsweeper.com/History/DannyDowns3.14.html http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2020/10/in-2013-danny-downs-of-topeka-kansas.html

Interesting...just yesterday I saw a very similar modification to a more modern motorhome posted for sale on Facebook.

That's a great looking model, Tom. Where's the canoe from?

I'm wondering if the one in my B&W photos has Bondo slathered on the front fender. Big chunks chipped off. :-)

Sometimes I think internal combustion engines are overrated. :-) I've come to appreciate that in daily life, most car sounds are noise pollution. I do love the sounds of vintage-built machinery at car shows and similar events, but for me there's a point when noise can be just noise.

Yeah, the display was a sight to behold. Sad to lose another bit of classic roadside Americana.

Are the kits out in general release in the US yet? My local hobby shop didn't have them as of a couple of weeks ago.

Someone on the Spotlight board combined the two kits and found dimensional differences. The Futura is noticeably smaller.

If you're going to decommission a police car, perhaps you can turn it into a taxi. :-)

It's a shame that people who dare to work outside of society's box are met with suspicion and derision. I spent a day at an art car even years ago and the people were fun to be with. Just ordinary artistic folks who happened to paint their cars up in funky ways or glue things to them. Art cars bring joy.

What is art to you then?

For centuries, well-known artists often have had assistants to help with their work. As far as the value of art goes, is there "fraud" in the pricing of built models? Also, old movie props regularly show up in auction listings. Their prices are pretty high as well. Some are clearly based on a toy or model and not scratchbuilt. What's the true monetary value for a film prop? Look at a showing of photographs in a gallery. Matted and framed, they can each carry a price tag of hundreds of dollars. Seem high for a photograph, right? An artist's time is worth something though. Materials add up as well. Also galleries might want to take their cut. Lastly, I suspect the artists that grab headlines are outliers. Most artists aren't Hirst or the guy with the banana. I have the impression that people tend to think of artists as con men. I think these people are upset they didn't come up with the ideas first.

The banana was TAPED to the wall. I think it was all done in fun. Does art have to be serious? I went to art school. I learned right away there's no strict definition of art, and that's a good thing. I don't always understand modern/contemporary art, but I'm glad it exists to challenge my expectations.

How can you run out of truck pictures? :-)

Oddly, I'm not seeing the album link in my original post. Here it is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brian_w_austin/albums/72157687922611815

UPDATE! Sadly, Roadside America closed in 2020. The display and collection were broken up and auctioned off. You'll have to slog through several pages of results, but here are the auction listings. The auction itself is closed, but you can still view the pictures. https://auctionhowze.hibid.com/catalog/255594/roadside-america-liquidation-auction/?ipp=100

Why not? :-) https://www.autoblog.com/2014/04/29/vw-bus-dub-box-report-video/

https://blog.jadlamracingmodels.com/2021/03/02/revell-1-24-easy-click-vw-t2-bus-twin-build-review/

The problem with surveys is how the questions are formulated and communicated, and then how the responses are communicated and noted. Language can get distorted for any number of reasons. I just recently saw a great video on Adam Savage's YT channel addressing a certain myth that has caused much heated argument some years ago in the MYTHBUSTERS show history. Note here that Adam cuts to the core of the story. All it comes down to the language of the question, and he stresses that those who disagree with his conclusions aren't stupid, but just misunderstand the surprisingly complex question in the first place.