W Humble

Hoping this isn't inappropriate on this forum, I'd like to announce my 'A Place On Mars' Series of three novels and three 'novelettes' on Kindle Direct Publishing to the car modeling community: these are original young-adult tales about growing up in a remote westen small town in the early-boomer era, and are not sci-fi! They are loaded with cars, trucks and even crawler tractors, garage band rock n' roll, family values, plus danger and adventure! All reflect, of course, some experiences I had c. 1959-64, though vastly dramatized. Street racing, wildfire supression, college life, police matters (ahem!), demolition derby, deer hunting, boys n' girls... Kindle eBooks are very cheap ($2.99) and the paperbacks not expensive (about double that, right now) available through Amazon. Friends, I never expected to make bank from these stories, but I do need some reviews, or just ratings -- otherwise, Kindle lets my titles get buried under newer ones, and thus don't get read. Financially, I'm still trying to earn enough to offset the cost of donating sets of six to our local middle schools, etc.! The characters are very diverse, just as I encountered in real life high school (and in my teaching career) and have teen issues that progressively get more complex and stressful, but good friendship and 'The Golden Rule' are enough glue for the five friends, four boys and a girl -- who is also daughter of the local sheriff! THE FLOOD, THE WILDFIRE, and THE EXPLOSION are full novels, and THE HAZARDOUS HUNT, THE HIT & RUN, and THE DEADLY DERBY are shorter novelettes. All are barely "PG-13 rated." If you don't recall how hard it was for a garage band to afford decent equipment, or how a kid might leverage himself from one clunker to a better one, or how it was to attend a rural high school of 300 kids -- give my stories a read. Or, if you DO! In the first story, Ray debates the financial wisdom of taking a girl to the Sophomore Hop: "A dollar, drag? I could get an AMT 3-in-1 kit for that!" Thanks, Wick Humble (Modeling since 1953, age 79.)

Faint hope: I need tailights from an AMT '61 Bonne kit for a '60 Chevy Kustom I'm building. Even one would probably do, as I have one unused since '61! I converted mine into a Catalina back 63 years ago, and not very well! Got old stuff to swap! Wick age 79

You didn't specify what year, or era. Oddly, I got a 1/25 printed sheet of 1961 era state licenses as a premium from Auto World, the big models-by-mail store in NJ. I might have a color photocopy of that somewhere. Very old skool, oc. I laminated one sheet, and cut them out -- carefully -- for my old kits. Karma: I got '61 Massachusetts plates for my '61 Lincoln "Hyannisport Hot Rod" done for Pres JFK, no less! Annual Styline kit, begun in '61! Wick

Hemmings Classic Cars (last year, I think) featured a Stroppe-built Merc police special that has been restored. Retired CHP? I think it was once a 'kiddie-cop" patrol car for Chico (CA) State College in 1959-60. Big ole' 430, etc. It was around Chico for years with the door star removed, and flat-black rat-can primer on the white door. Interesting cars; some had to contribute their running gear to the big Edsels, even. The '57's came with a single headlight, I think, but a very awkward dual-light adaptation was available from the factory to be 'up to date' with the new cars with quad lights. Stude/Packard did this trick too, and it looked very J.C. Whitney, indeed!! Wick

Sorry to be askin' again, but I still need a hardtop roof for my 1963 Pontiac Tempest/LeMans ragtop body, to make it a coupe. Even a roof lifted from a big GM coupe of the 1962-64 era would help, if I narrowed it down to fit the Y-body. Funny, that roof appeared first in GM on the '61 'senior' compacts, and funnier; though Pontiac released a convertible body with Buick/Olds in '62, they never added in the true pillarless hardtop body -- until the Chevelle-based A-body cars debuted in '64, of course! I have a Tempest 'Monte Carlo' dream car rep model, a '63 421 Super Duty racer (both built in those years, or at least started!), and a '62 ragtop done like our 1/1 LeMans from a few years ago. I want to build my last '63 as a coupe, and paint it like our '61 Tempest 1/1 coupe, ivory white top with dawn firemist body. I still have trading material, especially from annual kits c. 1960-65. I'm a member of the 'Little Indians' chapter of POCI, and wrote the complete Tempest history for Special Interest Autos Magazine back in 1978 -- when Mickey Thompson, Mac MacKellar, Bill Collins, and all those guys were still around to be interviewed! Those were the days... ! Wick

Alan, I'm afraid I need to sell this car; my dear wife of 52 years can't comfortably ride in it, so what's the point, anymore! Out four times this year. It's never been driven through standing water, during about 500 miles of sparse use since 2019. It has lots of features that enhance the experience, believe me! Pettersen Motorworks (specialist) custom 280 engine (overbored, new pistons, etc.), aforesaid 5-speed, and just about NEW everything. Had one tiny bit of rust just just ahead of rear wheel-well, but cut-out and replaced with new metal. 280Z louvered hood, new bumpers, billet rear air vents (only ones in the world on a car!) It isn't quite finished; I started another project before I installed the A/C and 'sound system', and the oil cooler isn't hooked up yet. The grille is a copy of the Fairlady Z mesh that I made to accommodate the driving lights, but wasn't stainless as was sold to me, so I have to R&R and paint it graphite gray. I had a gennie Japanese market grille but didn't want to modify it. It has a Hobrecht roll-bar (braced), four-point belts, '20th Anniversary' leather Z seats with all the features. Lightened flywheel, RevLoc clutch, 'ram air' intake, Mallory distributor with Pertronix conversion, LED bulbs, custom console, ZX rear discs and Sumitomo 4-puck front calipers; all the stuff I really wanted. This car also has the 'home-market' exhaust manifold, without emissions fittings. I am asking $50K firm, as is. It looks really good at shows, and drives superbly, quietest Z in my experience! Comes with loud Magnaflow muffler, as an option! If you know of anyone... ? My first Z I bought in 1970, while still a GI at Ft Sam Houston, later restored and sold back to NISSAN USA fot a display car. The poor baby just sits around, and will go into winter storage soon. Sad. And, I wrote the book! Sorry for the 'advert'! I'm going through the stages of grief... Wick

John, I believe in guide coating, and I know that the color sanding process is very effective, tho I don't belabor it on my kits. A great restoration shop shooter once told me: Hell, some of those sanding grits; you might as well just use the back side of the paper!" I'm sensitive to the problem with the 2K process paints; super wetlook shine, but the clear builds so deep it gets all out of scale. Strike a balance, I guess. I always used PPG 660 Hi Perf clear, but I know that many good body shops use the better rat-can clears for spot repairs -- must be okay, exposed to UV and IR rays, etc. -- so I've been using UPOL brand aerosol clear, and it seems pretty equal. With our cars not being 'parked in the weather' it isn't a t much risk, huh?! Just always and lightly on the hig spots, ribs, etc. Makes the hobby interesting, anyway. Wick, and gettin' old!

When I don't, I often regret it! Simple as using two colors of primer, but make the second a light once-over. For a gazillion years, body shops used this method (often with just dusting the surface with cheap silver rat-can paint), but now there is a more sophisticated system using black powder and a puff-like sponge. 3M, I think. Overkill for a 1/25 kit. A great step toward a better underlayer, which makes or breaks a paint job! Wick, once PPG guy.

Trivial, but what is the best source for old-timey hood pins PE, or ?? Thanks, ole' Wick

Bill, as always I value your comments (who wouldn't?) very highly! I used to 'decorate' every car ad in MT, HRM, etc with flames and scallops; lots of practice, even if it didn't make perfect. The '61 Furd wasn't the prettiest car in the barn -- esp compared to the '60 & '63, but I did driver training in one; 4 doors, six, and stick. All black too, just like the towns new police Interceptor except it had all the HD goodies. After I posted those two, I noticed that they'd gotten the same grille treatment! I did a number of scallop and flame-jobs later, but never mastered pin-striping. There were three guys in the Class of '63 at Modoc Union High School (N CA) who were artists, and I was probably third in rank. Tom second, and a kid named Danny the best; a cartoonist and natural caricaturist. Tom went on to be a Maintenace guy at our local State U., and Dan animal control boss of Pasadena! I got an MA in art, and then taught Kindergarten, mostly. I spent 1969-70 as an 81E20 Graphic Arts/Illustrator in the Army, which was an education in itself! I'll post a few more, since I dug out those. All too many are just plain embarrassing! The Henry J may not look better as a hardtop. The IH tractor was from the summer of '62 when I was sent to KS to work on my uncle's ranch, mostly bucking bales. If it weren't for KOMA radio R'nR (OK City) in that beyond rural existence, I'd probably have croaked at 16! The Bug is more study hall quickies! Wick, just turned 79

This moving pics is a challenge for me! Sorry if my attachments are screwed up to some degree. You can see where I finally got an elipseemplatee! The Camaro is from much later, obviously. Wickcrewed up to some

Having some probs with my laptop today; bear with me! These are 'study hall' or 'watching American Bandstand' drawings; pencil was about all I had in those old days; better media I learned much later in college and as an Army illustrator! I'll include two from my HS pal, Tommy Johnson; we were the two hot-rod/kustom 'artists' in a class of 60 kids. The twin Allison (inspired perhaps by 'Big Al' Ford sedan?) was influenced by the short fad for enclosed, streamlined diggers, and perhaps a bit of Big Daddy Roth? Typical of classroom 'qucky' scribbles; often when a friend suggested an over-the-top idea. These were done in '62 (Where were you...?) because Tom was forced into the Army by the local probation officer before our class of '63 graduated. Lots of potential here!

That, of course, should have been WWII, not WWI. Bad typist! W.

The panel lines thing is hard; even scary! You can ruin a good model -- or cause yourself LOTS of extra work -- with some bad engraving on plastic, I know! I'm trying to build a WWI diorama of two aircraft, a subject I haven't tackled since I was in eighth grade (when Ike was Pres!) and re-scribing the kind of panel lines that two 1/64 a.c. require is a toughie! Converting a Kyushu Shinden and Curtiss Ascender to 'what if the war lasted longer' jet canard fighters forced me to sand off all the surface detail from both kits (Japanese and Ukrainian plastic) and recreate them, plus a bunch of 'imagineered' panels from -- forgive the pun -- scratch! They don't look bad now, but that's not going to get it done for a show where most of the best entrants are aircraft. Wish me luck! BTW, for lines parallel to an edge, I use a tool from my old mechanical drawing set, a 'calipers inker pen' with adjustable jaws (sorry, no pic) which will do various widths (if you're vewy, vewy careful!) and least provide a guide for a more agressive scriber. A 'ready-made' tool, tho there might be better ones. Thx! Wick Boy, this font is little! And, how cum it isn't spelled 'scarey'?