Brian Austin

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015021029510&view=thumb&seq=1

FWIW, here is a 1940s restoration of a 1909 Model 20. Note the painted dash. https://trombinoscar.com/hupmobile/hupmobile0903.html Bottom line is you can finish it any way you want. Just say the scale owner of the model restored it his way. We all may not know the details of the car anyway to judge the relative correctness. Hemmings had a nice writeup on driving a Hupmobile of the era (the wood the dash is said to be made of is walnut) https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/huppwardly-mobile

From the Feb 1955 issue of Mechanix Illustrated. (Image from eBay). Note that the bright molding on the dash framing the hood is brass. Check out this set of pictures from a car show in 1963. Note the finished wood dashes. https://archive.org/details/1963CarShowParadeStadiumMinneapolisMN/1909 Hupmobile%2C July 1963 (2).JPG 1909 project car for sale http://topclassiccarsforsale.com/other-makes/191572-1909-hupmobile-model-20.html

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015064578787&view=1up&seq=1 Early school buses had longitudinal seating...

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112113438235&view=thumb&seq=4

There were numerous coachbuilders converting Cadillacs and Lincolns to pickups and wagons. There is the possibility that a conversion company did use GM ElCamino/wagon parts in their work, but there are also many backyard conversions as well. The rather shallow deck might suggest a flower car, but most I've seen had a stainless steel liner. Generally, flower cars are more than just a Cadillac El Camino. :-)

Large archive of IHC-related items, farm machinery as well as trucks: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS15303 Ex: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM2320 Ex: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM88103 Search term "trucks": https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?&facets=CATEGORIES%3a"Wisconsin Historical Images"%2cFacetSubject%3a"Trucks" Drawings: https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records?&facets=CATEGORIES%3a"Wisconsin+Historical+Images"%2cFacetSubject%3a"Trucks"%2cCONTENT_TYPE%3a"Drawing"

This piece appeals to me, but then again I went to art school and also enjoy art cars. The artist's name appears to be Esterio Segura. He's also added wings to a '50s Chrysler. https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/esterio-segura.html Here's a small amount of background info regarding the "Sub". It was shown in 2012 as part of an outdoor art show in Cuba. The one photo of the car is rather dark and just about unusable. http://artpulsemagazine.com/behind-the-wall Here's an all too brief video. As it turns out the car part of this art work is not fully functional...it is seen flat-towed to the installation in the pictures linked here. https://dedelmu.com/obra/home-made-submarines/

One known trick is to touch a soldering iron to the axle near the wheel just enough to loosen it.

IHC truck models come in a variety of scales. Back when the trucks were new PMC produced KB1 promos in glorious warpy acetate plastic. Scaling might be larger than 1:24. There were diecasts in 1:43 (Ertl) and 1:34 (First Gear). In 1:16 you have a diecast range of K-5s under the name of Toy Trucker & Contractor from the early 2000's. There also seems to be limited production diecast toys under the name Brunswick Toys that seem similar to the classic Smith Miller range in simplified style. These appear to have been made in the mid '90s according to some auctions I've come across, and along with the discontinued Toy Trucker & Contractor models I mentioned, won't come cheap. For fun, here's a "Chinese knock-off", so to speak, of a Russian copy of an IHC, the FAW JieFang army truck. This is a 1:24 scale diecast of the Chinese equivalent to Russia's ZIS/ZIL truck series. There still is a bit of IHC flavor to the hood and cab. https://www.vehiclediecast.com/diecast-faw-jiefang-ca10-truck-model-124-scale-army-green-p-151.html

Prior to auto-rack rail cars, automobiles were shipped in special box cars, often four at a time. There were special racks inside. I'd love to build one in 1:24-1:25. :-)

According to Wikipedia, Canadian-built Pontiacs shared components with their Chevrolet counterparts "... as a measure to reduce the cost of production for the relatively small Canadian market."* IIRC FoMoCo and Chrysler did similar things with their Canadian/export lines. Export models were built in Canada, with dash equipped for RHD if needed. I'm most fascinated with the '55-'62 Export Chevy and Pontiac models. * (scroll down a bit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_(automobile)

One thing that caught my eye was the caption stating the driver has to unload the upper rack to clear low bridges.

Mack hauling special boxcar containing whale. Note two tractor-trailer combos, back to back.

1962 Boyertown-Ford van.

Boyertown body on what is said to be a '66 Ford chassis.

Heavy haulage!

Mack BX rail truck from 1937 or so. I've known of their railbuses. This one I think is new to me. Here it is seen shipped on a flat car. I wonder where it went to. Note lights on the roof and bell on the front corner of the frame.

Courtesy link to full magazine via Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=Ci0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA184&dq=garage&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwih4O371J_vAhU1MlkFHYU7BZAQ6AEwBHoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false

Eleventy million.

Since my family had an HO scale model railroad layout, we've always had a few around. The range was box scaled, with proportions often modified to suit. The Greyhound bus has some odd proportions for sure. Interestingly, many of the ML models were copied and scaled down by Bachmann as N scale layout accessories. The copied box-scaling was even evident in "N". Their mail vans look especially huge next to, say, their fire truck.

Here's a neat article discussing the appeal of the Playmobil brand, from 2019. Apparently that year a Playmobil film was released. I don't recall hearing anything about it. From what I've read it did not do very well in either ticket sales or reviews. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/how-playmobil-went-from-simple-smiling-figure-worldwide-sensation-180973676/ Interesting quote from the article: ...However, one industry analyst thinks there is more to the story. Richard Gottlieb, principal and founder of Global Toy Experts, credits the European model for toy-making as a reason for the toy’s longevity and sustainability. “Europeans see toys one way, Americans see them another,” he says. “In the United States, toys are more of an impulse buy. In Europe, they are a planned purchase. They make them to be durable so they can be passed down from generation to generation. I think that’s a wonderful way to look at toys.” He adds, “I like to refer to the toys from Europe as legacy toys and the ones from America as landfill toys.” I'm slightly confused regarding Playmobil's scaling. As I noted above, the reviews claim 1:18, but I knew of them in the '80s and they were around 1:24-1:22. They even have their own G-Gauge train sets.

Interestingly, a certain long-running hobby forum has been criticized for not switching to a format such as this forum's. The argument went that discussions and photos would be archived instead of disappearing from the board after a few months. I'd counter this argument with the point that, yes, pictures often disappeared and links broke, rendering threads half-useless. Prior to Photobucket's watermarking policy, they simply made your images disappear from forums unless you forked over $400 (some folk likened it to ransom). So now at least the images are somewhat visible despite the watermarks, rather than just the broken links of 2017 or so in their place.

I missed that one. :-) Somebody has a sense of humor. Here's another review, shows the products as they look from the box: https://mudpiefridays.com/2021/02/12/review-playmobil-volkswagen-beetle-camping-bus/ And here's what can be done with LEGO bricks: https://theplasticbrick.com/shop/item/volkswagen-beetle-vw-beetle-lego-set-10187-1 Getting back to Playmobil, they have issued many vehicles over the years. In 2017 they issued a slightly simplified yet still nifty Ghostbusters Ectomobile. Proportions appear to be fairly close.