W Humble

Re: my dog riddle -- I sure must have hit a nerve! Never again! I hope that when I bite someone, my forum buds will stand up for me at this level! Ha! Wick

Again, thanks!! This style is used by a number of car artists; the one I liked enough to adapt is Jeff Godshall, a designer for Chrysler, and auto historian. He did a whole series of 'Spotter's Guides" for a mag I used to write for, Hemming's Special Interest Autos, now long gone and replaced by a muscle car mag. It's dramatic, evocative, and best of all not too hard to emulate! Bob Hvorka also worked in pen/ink similarly; very pure and attractive both illustrators. Wick

Just turned 78, and your praise is music to my ears! Thank you! Wish I had time for more!! I have mentioned it in other places, but I have (besides my 1990 book 'How to Restore Your Datsun Z-Car', still in print) three novels set in 1959, 62 and '64 about a group of teenage friends on Kindle (eBook and paperback) called "A Place on Mars" -- not about sci-fi, but adventures in a small western town. "The Flood", "The Wildfire", and "The Explosion" -- soon to be joined by "The Hunt" and tentatively "The Scandal". Lots of cars -- even AMT 3-in-1 kit references -- danger, comraderie, and feel-good endings. Below is the cover art I did for number III, the aftermath of the explosion of a Titan I nuclear missile -- which happened in our town! Wick

The best joke I ever made up: RIddle: How many pit bull owners does it take to change a burned-out bulb? Answer: Two -- one to say "It ain't burned out!" and one to say "Well, it shore wouldn't have burned out if you hadn't teased it!" This was about fifteen minutes after I was bitten on the left hand by a young P.B. bitch while delivering PPG products to a jack-leg body shop on my route. I was 71 years old, and didn't even see the hound which got me as I set down a heavy carton of paint! OW! Wick

It's probably been covered and re-covered in this long posting, but issue number one with using lacquers is their proclivity to lift and wrinkle layers of paint they're applied over; true in 1/1 cars also. Lac isn't much used any more, and Dupli-Color is one of the few sources; it's good paint, meeting the professional quality standards with body shops, but has drawbacks besides the above: it isn't nearly as durable as the newer paints, and can be touchy. Also, on 1/1 cars, it must be 'cut and buffed', or block-sanded with progressively finer grits and then rubbed out with various grades of abrasive compounds. Thus, it must be thicker: "20 coats of lacquer, blockingout between every third coat' etc. For 1/1 jobs, though it's usually much easier to 'spot in' when one makes boo-boos, and it dries very quickly. A whole chapter of auto finishing in and of itself! I find it ideal for scale models, but one has to recall the 're-melt' hazard, and use compatible undercoats. Oh, and lac can still tolerate the old-timers 'red cap' lacquer putty, which is very verstatile on a tiny project like a model (and dries almost as fast as catalyzed putties) but is often unhappy under 2K finishes, causing bubbles and lifting. Whew! I prefer PPB 660 or 661 spot clear, with hardener, thinned a bit. Ole' Wick

LITB used Fords until it changed networks, then went to all MoPars -- except for the teenager's Fords and Chevrolets. They, along with Father Knows Best centered an amazing amount of sitcom story material around autos; FKB at least one car epsode (or motor scooter) a month! In one LITB, they use two different '60 Plymouths, substituting a wooden door post/divider to simulate the sedan. Note: ya have to watch them a lot of times to spot it all; I used to run that episode for my fine-arts classes when they did a streets/maps/transportation unit. (Wally gets busted when Beaver and pal let Ward's car roll out of driveway and block their street; bro drives in back in -- without a license!) Like Ricky's glassless Pontiac, most of the b &w shows dulled-down the paint to avoid glaring reflections from their lights and big reflectors, esp out doors; some very poorly done, which must have made the carmaker's PR guys unhappy! One FKB has the Andersons borrow a station wagon for a family trip -- which loses a fuel pump and strands them in strangely uninhabited countryside -- and since Mercury sponsored the show and supplied the family sedan, the loaner car is a Chevy!! My wife and I love the old sitcoms (everything else on today is such trash!) that we enjoy the vintage cars a lot. Thus, my model diorama, still in progress, of Lumpy's neat 'forty Ford ragtop, and Bud's decrepit Model A touring 'hot rod'. They later replaced it with a late 'forties Ford ragtop; probably didn't really run! I painted mine Ford sky blue, but Billy Gray, 'Bud' emailed me that he recalled it being gray, with brush painted flames! Ha! Wick

I'm going to stick with my 'sitcom mutts' for the time being. I haven't found any 1/25-24th figures I could use so far; maybe it a lost cause. I need four, easily adaptable to Eddie Haskell, Wally Cleaver, Lumpy Rutherford, and Bud Anderson and a girlfriend in his broken-down Model A. The '40 Ford is done, the A-bone just needs the brush-on flames. Sure is a lot of fertile ground out there for subjects, tho! Thx! Wick

Rick; yeah -- Hollywood! Go figure! I almost bought a '55 Buick two-door sedan, and a stick-shift, too! One forgets that the Special of those days had a nailhead one cubic inch smaller than the new Chevy small block: 264 cu.in.! Buick-Olds-Pontiac had horrible old 'selector-shift' transmissions then, and this one wouldn't stay in second gear, so I passed. The floor-shift conversion for that box were bizarre; speed-shifting definitely discouraged! Dynaflow wasn't better, either! If one looks closely, there are lots of hokey tricks; notice how often cars with nice finishes (like the obviously lacquered finish on Lumpy Rutherford's pretty Ford) are de-lustered to accomodate the camera lens. Whatever shine-killer they put on the paint was often painfully obvious, at least in the version we now see, with better definition than on that old Zenith or Admiral b&w screen! Even on 'I Love Lucy' it's easy to discern that the windshield has been completely removed on the RIcardo's new 'Ponny-AC' ragtop! I've viewed the Perry Mason canon more times than I care to admit. and though it featured droves of cool cars from the late 'fifteis and early 'sixties (eventually even a Mustang) their studio never removed glass or used gloss-killers. Well, a lawyer based in L.A. would be behind the wheel often, and his rides had to reflect the current sponsorship. One favorite that showed up in many PM episodes was just a 'used car' by then, a very trip '55 Chevy Nomad. And of course, dectective Paul Drake inevitably wheeled a rakish ride, leaning heavily on T-Birds and 'Vettes! Lots of rich details! Wick

Just wanted to say 'thank you' to MCM for this site, and for how well it works! I'm old, but new to online stuff compared to younger modelers, but I do use other sites, esp 1/1 type topics. Yours works the best of any; it's easy to use, looks well, and really reaches the troops for us. Some really don't, and have the clunky appearance of something Fred and Barney used in the day! I've had almost 100% good luck with MCM forums, and found the folk out there to be honest and super generous. If our dag-nabbed country were run this well... there'd but little to carp about. Kudos from a guy who started modeling with Aurora 'Famous Fighters' kits (still have the Me.109 instruction sheet!) in about 1953, and 'helped Dad' make his Revell Highway Pioneers cars, too. Wick

Well, that's not so bad! I found (with my two surplus AK noses that if you cut off the headlight pods, fill the gaps with good polyester and invert, they make a great track nose for an early rod. Since about 1964, I've probably bought less than 20 kits, as I have a nice pool of VSOP (Very Special Old Projects) to complete, and am racing with aged infirmities to do so. Unfortunately, my aspirations keep escalating, and my powers declining -- word to the wise! Ole' Wick

I'll have to search that! Thx! Wick

I stand corrected! But then I'm persistent... I have an 'undersized' 283 SBC from an ancient Corvette (Palmer/) vkit that I always intended to convert into a Buick/Olds 215 aluminum V-8 -- saved it since about 1960, and now that I own a '61 Tempest V-8 (Buick version, stock, about 2000 built) I may do that. The exhaust manifolds look like Ford 221-260-289 units, which might adapt, or just make headers with the 1-2-3-4 exhaust port spacing, rather than the 1-2/3-4 of the Chevy. Add the front distributor and presto! Thanks for the 'late model' update!

Sorry, I can't get along without MCM, but... Larry Greenberg seems to toss me a challenge every issue or so in his Kit Reviews, usually regarding the 1:1 car stuff. This time he emphatically states in the Ala Kart review, "Engine" ..."it has one grievous fault; it is VASTLY undersized, at first glance seeming closer to 1/32nd scale than 1/25th!" If Mr. G. is familiar with the early Dodge 'Super Red-Ram' hemi motors, he will realize that the 1/1 engine is considerably more compact than the much more familiar Chrysler/DeSoto full-sized hemis. After all, how many Gen 1 'Firepower' hemis have been included in kits over the years? I have a ton, and still have kits made from my two AMT Ala Kart kits from the original issue! I did a bunch of wrenching (and driving) of a '54 Dodge equipped with the SRR 245-cu.in. V-8 (with three-speed overdrive manual with column shift) and it's truly a 'cute' little version of the fabled hemi, and a neat choice by Richard Peters for his show-bomb. A great novelty swap into very small cars, too! It was considered thus when the car hit the magazines, and probably more SRR rods would have been built except for the rather limited production of the mill. Bought from a local air-tanker pilot, the one with which I was familiar had marvelous torque,and got very good fuel mileage as well; the guy eventually drove it from CA to MI for his dad's collection with no problems. Just sayin'... Wick

The swept-wing thing is often attributed to German tech; the Horten flying wingies, even the Me.262 slight sweep -- this about equal to the Shinden. The XP-55 was more radical, I imagine needed more for c/g stability with canard design than the kind of transonic problems overcome in converting the N.A; FJ Fury to the F-86 Sabre. Still, it was a harbinger of the future for most supersonic aircraft. Most 'tailless' a/c had swept wings, including the Westland wierdies of G.B., or Dunne naval biplane pontoon seaplanes of the pre-wwI era in U.S. Hot rods like the underpowered but dramatic Douglas X-4 or Lockheed F-104 had straight but small wings, even so. The Japanese jet/turbine engines were derived, supposedly, from the German models sneaked back to Japan via their big submarines during WWII. They had one Me.262 look-alike twin-jet fighter, forgot the name. Also, the delta wing idea is credited to the German research; achieved swept forward edge (XF-92, etc.) The Shinden is easier to convert because it was radial engined, and fatter; the planned Continental engine of the prototype XP-55 (replaced by a P-38-style Allison V-1710 when cancelled) is much skinnier in section. Oh well; what could have been! Also: I can't find my pic, but check out the artist's impression of the prototype Lockheed P-80 -- amazing lines, and perfectly stealthy! Not at all like what evolved! Wick

Very slick; old skool to the max! WIck

Swamped with family issues right now, but soon. I've learned more! BTW, a number of these were published with some of my articles in Hemmings, Old Cars Weekly pubs, and the late Street Rodder, etc. I wish I'd have copied more, back when! I have a roll of 35-mm. film somewhere... Wick

Bill, coming from you I consider that quite an accolade! Thank you very much! I have some other pen and ink drawing from the height of my art career, 1966-1974, that I can probably contribute. Funny, most were made to be done with ink wash, but were never finished; I'm going to get them mounted so the paper can stand up to some water/ink mixes, and hopefully complete them. Most everything was modeled on photos from magazines, and ones I took. I still draw a little, but mostly write fiction, and make mediocre models! Note the later-model turn signals on this drawing; later I wished I had faked-in the period-correct parking lights instead. I had to weld up and fill quite a few holes inthe cowl and roof drilled there by the fire department guys. When it was primered, we hauled cordwood, and because N.S.S.M.L. had two original and two modern )10.00x20") rear tires, it left some pretty funny tracks in the soft dirt! Also, it carried the entire Modoc Union High School band for a Xmas parade in '68! I swapped the '37 to an old farmer for the 1935 Packard '120' coupe that was behind his barn (not a runner, tho I had the '41 straight eight rebuilt!) straight across, and hauled it to Chico CA, where we still live. The coupe was about half-restored when both kids needed tonsillectomies the same winter, and... it had to go. Later our Gypsy Red '55 Nomad, and later yet my one-owner Datsun 240Z left to provide finances for family needs. At least NISSAN USA bought the Z-Car back for a display car down in Carson CA! They gave my resto book a factory parts number, too! Wick

Oddly, those mirrors were on my ex-firetruck, and were okay. I drove Petes, K-Whompers, Freightliners, plus Fords and Chevys; like the big West Coaster mirrors best, of course. I still have (what's left of ) an old time lighted sempaphore turn signal arm/pivot. Remember those very well on trucks in the early fifties. Ah, the racket of a Cummins GMC Cannonball on the highway late at night! "Six days on the road, and I'm gonna make it home tonight!" Thans for the kudo! Me, too! Wick

So I'm not the only one who nukes his own models?! What a migraine! Luck! Wick

Love the bike, love the build! 'We are not worthy...!" Wick

Did anyone mention Mr. Haneys disreputable 'truck' on Green Acres? What was it? In one episode Oliver and Lisa rent it to haul their hay crop; lots of views but I didn't recognize it. OC, many 'trucks' and 'tow cars' were made from automobiles, like the Olds. Here's my victim: Wick

This was from an Instamatic photo of a '37 Chevy truck I owned; former town fire pumper with 7K actual miles, but lots of hours on the engine! It never had this van body, but just a home-made flatbed when I bought it in 1968; another guy in Alturas CA who had won an almost new Homelite chain saw on a bet and I decided to haul firewood with it. I'd been a forest fire fighter all that summer, and was waiting for the draft to get me after using up my 2-S student deferrment getting my BA in art/English. He was waiting for second semester to start school, so in the fall we gave it a try; mostly ate donuts and drank coffee because the snow came early that Fall! The thing ran like a top, but the guy who bought it surplus from the city (another wood hauler) had built the bed and painted the cab stove-black enamel. We named it "Not so Sweet Martha-Lorraine" after the Country Joe & the Fish song; as sometimes it was even more reluctant than we to start the day! I drew this while at the Medical Field-Service School at Brooke Army Med Ctr, Ft. Sam Houston, in SanAntone. (I was influenced by a professional named Jeff Godshall). It's on a 24x24" piece of illustration board, and actually doesn't have any lettering on it; not finding a teaching job after getting my MA. I went back to what I learned from my step-dad, who had a Mayflower Van Lines agency/warehouse; (aaugh!) moving and packing household goods for $3.25/hr! But I was friends with the agent in my new town, Chico CA, and when he bought a second agency in nearby Redding, I made three photo-mechanical transfer (PMT) copies, lettered each with his two and the old man's names, and gave framed copies to them. Armor's was the family business, now long gone. I posted the real classic truck from H.P.'s little fleet on the trucking forum: a 1952 White 3000 tilt cab with factury sleeper; had it once but had to sell! H.P. had begun driving in 1933, and was near retirement. So, in 1971, I found a 1935 Packard 120 Business Coupe that an old Alturas farmer wouldn't sell, but he fell for "N.S.S.M-L" and swapped me. By then it was stripped and in primer; he painted it Rusto green, and gave it to his dad! Yep, I wish I still had that facility, but it was over half a century ago; that bird has flown, as did the Packard when both the kids needed tonsils out the same winter!! Wick

This was from an Instamatic photo of a '37 Chevy truck I owned; former town fire pumper with 7K actual miles, but lots of hours on the engine! It never had this van body, but just a home-made flatbed when I bought it in 1968; another guy in Alturas CA who had won an almost new Homelite chain saw on a bet and I decided to haul firewood with it. I'd been a forest fire fighter all that summer, and was waiting for the draft to get me after using up my 2-S student deferrment getting my BA in art/English. He was waiting for second semester to start school, so in the fall we gave it a try; mostly ate donuts and drank coffee because the snow came early that Fall! The thing ran like a top, but the guy who bought it surplus from the city (another wood hauler) had built the bed and painted the cab stove-black enamel. We named it "Not so Sweet Martha-Lorraine" after the Country Joe & the Fish song; as sometimes it was even more reluctant than we to start the day! I drew this while at the Medical Field-Service School at Brooke Army Med Ctr, Ft. Sam Houston, in SanAntone. (I was influenced by a professional named Jeff Godshall). It's on a 24x24" piece of illustration board, and actually doesn't have any lettering on it; not finding a teaching job after getting my MA. I went back to what I learned from my step-dad, who had a Mayflower Van Lines agency/warehouse; (aaugh!) moving and packing household goods for $3.25/hr! But I was friends with the agent in my new town, Chico CA, and when he bought a second agency in nearby Redding, I made three photo-mechanical transfer (PMT) copies, lettered each with his two and the old man's names, and gave framed copies to them. Armor's was the family business, now long gone. I posted the real classic truck from H.P.'s little fleet on the trucking forum: a 1952 White 3000 tilt cab with factury sleeper; had it once but had to sell! H.P. had begun driving in 1933, and was near retirement. So, in 1971, I found a 1935 Packard 120 Business Coupe that an old Alturas farmer wouldn't sell, but he fell for "N.S.S.M-L" and swapped me. By then it was stripped and in primer; he painted it Rusto green, and gave it to his dad! Yep, I wish I still had that facility, but it was over half a century ago; that bird has flown, as did the Packard when both the kids needed tonsils out the same winter!! Wick

I sure hope I haven't duplicated from another topic; here are three tho one isn't a car! The drawing with the custom '63 Galaxie is by my HS pal, Tom Johnson, who got on probation and 'had to join the army not long afterwards! We later drag-raced his H-D Sportster and won a Street Eliminator locally. The Comet/Dodge was a semi-fantasy from '64? Have lots more! Wick

Got that one! Dr. Strangelove, The Loved One, Young Frankenstein, Mad, Mad World, Spinal Tap (a weirdie!), 1-2-3, The Jerk, Wanda, Without a Clue, Producers, Hot Shots 1 & II, Dead Men don't Wear Plaid, the list goes on and on! I wish I couldn't admit to how many times I've made my poor wife watch these! She draws the line at my 3 Stooges and Bullwinkle collections, tho. Not enough to laugh about in today's world, except maybe... today's world? Thx! Wick