Brian Austin

Update! I have changed direction a bit. Wheels are from Revell's snap '57 Chevy. I'm not sold on the tires that come with it. I'd rather have some taller bias-ply type tires, but I have nothing that will work. I haven't decided on the final color for the wheels, but I'm aiming for a typical Halibrand finish. Rear bumper got swapped from the custom piece to the stock one, dechromed. I think it flows better.

Those Fireball 500 kits are fun for kitbashing.

1965 Ford F100 https://classiccars.com/listings/view/1135472/1965-ford-f100-for-sale-in-brainerd-minnesota-56401 1970 Ford F100 http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/ford/601995-1970-ford-f100-rare-sears-roebuck-short-bed-utility-truck.html

Here's another view of a similar Corvette. The problem is that the floor boards appear to be slightly translucent. I'd try applying colors over a solid undercoat using transparent layers. Perhaps the additional layers could be applied with the dry-brush method. https://www.stlouiscarmuseum.com/vehicles/749/1966-chevrolet-corvette-stingray Note that some other Corvettes in this dealer's inventory have their underbody painted black. That would be an easy way out for a model. https://www.stlouiscarmuseum.com/vehicles/sold?utf8=✓&ftx=corvette

I'd love to see F-350s derived from this series, but it's probably not going to happen. FWIW, I have seen pictures 1:1 trucks of these generations with utility beds, even short wheelbase, apparently. One listing claims that a particular '65 F100 was ordered as a chassis-cab, with a 3/4-ton axle and rear suspension. A Powers utility body was installed at the dealer. I think modelers will be happy to see a nice utility body they can put on any chassis.

I had the Chevy Caprice stock car in this series. Very toylike.

For the Museum's Mack LJT tractor, I rebuilt a Corgi Classics model. I didn't have to repaint the cab, I simply removed the tampo lettering. Thankfully, the chassis was easy to shorten in wheelbase, as it was made in two pieces held with screws.

The 1:1 trailer was made from intersecting I-beams. The problem with my model is the styrene was perhaps a bit too thin. My trailer turned out to be a bit flexible. Indeed, it was intended to display my diecast Corgi PCC streetcar model, but it's so heavy it causes the trailer to sag a bit. The prototype hauler went through several "revisions" over the years. Mine attempts to depict it as it appeared in the '50s. In later years the gooseneck was swapped for one sourced from a tandem trailer. Luckily the old one still existed on the museum property for me to photograph and measure. Certain details still remained for me to have to guess though.

Back in the '90s I set about to build a replica of the unique bit of equipment the Seashore Trolley Museum built in the early '50s or so to haul newly acquired exhibits back to the museum in Kennebunkport, ME. After a false start, I took the following pictures as the project progressed through 2000.

Yes, that one is perhaps a bit better thought out. FWIW, while I didn't consider the one I posted to be particularly pretty, I thought it was a creative use of the Jeep pickup cab. The one just posted is a better demonstration of the overall concept.

The graphics might be the most difficult part.

So the guy set the model on fire and covered it in Rustall prior to restoring it? There's some rather odd damage to it that doesn't add up.

That sounds like a good way to describe a lot of people who oppose EVs. They don't realize that technology and production methods are constantly improving to address the "issues" critics throw around in every discussion of EVs in automotive forums. We can't even have a nice historical discussion with out naysayers railing against their very existence. https://evannex.com/blogs/news/debunking-electric-car-myths-again Ironically, the tone of this discussion reminds me of those who scoffed at the development of the automobile itself over a century ago. The cry was "Get a horse!". Thankfully, inventors pressed ahead and the public eventually came around.

At local shows I have seen a late-model Chevy pickup converted to battery power.

Front-wheel-drive, hybrid power drives, and V-8 engines (among other things) were also invented a lot longer ago than when the average person might think they were. One should remember that a hundred years ago and earlier, all automobiles were short-range and horses were still in use for work. Roads were poor, speeds were very low, and long-distance driving wasn't common prior to the development of paved roads. So electric cars were viable, and were popular with women, particularly affluent ones, who didn't want to have to hand-crank to start a gas car. In more modern times electric cars were seen not as superhighway cruisers, but as runabouts for shopping or running errands around suburbs, for commuting to work, or more recently, for use in cities to fight pollution and cut congestion. Perhaps common electric cars aren't well suited to commuting in modern urban sprawl with hundred-plus commutes to work out west. UPS and other companies had battery-powered delivery truck fleets in the early days. (I know of one '30s UPS "package car" that had wound up at a trolley museum in Maine after it had become surplus, and then in later years the company had re-aquired it. It was treated to a full restoration and was used for promotional purposes. UPS was promoting electric power again.) I think the mid-20th century drive for interstate highways had erased the institutional memory of electric automobiles. Also, every once in a while, someone reinvents the steam car for a newer era, but these efforts never seem to gain traction.

It kind of looks industrial, like it belongs on a crane. :-)

Where would you put the Smallblock Chevy in the 1902 OLds? :-)

http://www.northwestclassicautomall.com/ClassifiedAds.html?pid=9525&step=4 There is at least one diecast model of a Jeep pickup that could donate the cab...

From Facebook...

From a Brazilian sales site. Looks rather peculiar as a six-wheeler. :-)

Translation from Brazilian sales listing: "Ford F100 1981 Rat Rod, factory equipped with 4cil engine and four-speed gearbox, revised mechanical part and running perfectly. Original can and paint with minor repairs between the front and rear bumper, not worth restoring, stayed years abandoned under a tree until it was rescued, resurrected and put back to run, so before closing deal have absolute science that you are buying a real mouse, if you need to consult your wife before closing business. If for a moment pass in your head a willingness to restore, easier to buy a new cabin and bucket.* It's running perfectly, I walk every day, documents strictly in days, 2019 paid, registered engine. Value for sale at sight R$ 24.800,00. We are located in the city of Dois Irmãos-RS, service only by appointment. Acquisition by photos is at the buyer's own risk, because it is an old vehicle is sold without warranties and without possibility of further complaints. We deliver throughout Brazil, request budget for your region. Request photos and video." *Pickup bed.

Yeah, it's a shame the ARII/IMEX kits are so far off. Jo-Han's '58 Cadillacs are also "off" in proportion as well. It might be mentioned elsewhere in this forum, but these kits were copied and issued under the LEE brand. Detail is said to be somewhat more soft. According to Scalemates, these kits were reissued by Heller. These kits do seem to get around. FWIW, Danbury Mint did a '57 Eldorado Biarritz in 1:24. For their price I hope they're better in proportion! :-) Scroll down this page for an idea or two for finishing your own Revell Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. For instance, someone kitbashed one into the Town Car concept car. https://www.newcadillacdatabase.org/static/CDB/Dbas_txt/photoy57.htm

Literal shower thought last night: Round2 might have to modify the interior bucket to remove the molded-in "Ecto" equipment. The Polar Lights version seems to be less of a problem here than the AMT one. Just for fun here I dug out some old comparisons I made. The AMT kit is the lovely opaque off-white plastic, while the Polar Lights kit is in a more translucent white with violet-ish cast. (Parts generally won't interchange well between the two kits.) IMHO each kit has its own plusses and minuses. I'd be happy to see a reissue of either one, as I cut up mine for projects long ago.

In art school I learned to work with guache for class assignments, and found it OK to work with, but didn't pursue it to any degree on my own. Interestingly, I was fascinated by commercial art (particularly the work of Maxfield Parrish) but my art history professor was rather condescending toward that field of art history. One of my model club friends was involved in the Boston advertising art scene decades ago. He had many fascinating stories. The artwork and props generated for each shoot are valued only as a means to get the job done, and are often tossed afterwards. So many manual processes involved in comp work are lost today. So many materials and products made for this very specific work that the majority of the population won't even have heard of.