spike morelli

I don't remember what company made this kit, but I'm fairly sure it was a Japanese company. Again, I built this over 20 years ago. It's the robot from the Lost In Space TV show. it stands approximately 14" high, lights up, and repeats a collection of sayings in English and Japanese. Voice box, power-pack, and battery inside main body.

More of the aircraft. My Dad used to sell Pratt& Whitney radial engine parts, so these were on display at his shop. Nowadays, I do cars for the fun of it, but always dug doing the aircraft stuff.

There was a time when I built nothing but aircraft, 20 years ago now. Here's some of my work from then.

Roth stuff! That man was so original in his time,...and even more so today. I have some of those car kits.....and these...Mother's Worry, Drag Nut, Mr.Gasser, and Rat Fink hisself.

You are so right! These are great cars and the 390 "dogleg head" engines are so under-rated. they came with Borg-Warner T-10 four speeds and limited slip rear ends. Right in line with the best of the "musclecar" era. I've always been kinda partial to the metallic turquoise color they came in, as well as the matching engine block metallic turquoise color. Shirley Shahan ( "The Drag-On Lady" ) used to kick serious behind driving an AMC.

Craig, your '06 is very nice. Has any company produced a model kit of your year? I think the "retro' look of the '05-'06s are cooler than the newest looking body style, but then, I've been accused of being "traditional" for years.

Good eyes!! That is, in fact, Aetna St. There's a handful of body shops in this particular block, one of which is Bravo Custom Paint and Body. Bravo freshened up the paint on my "Medium Yellow Gold" Mach 1 , 4 years ago, the shop owner and I have been friends for many years before that. The GT-500 pictured belongs to a friend of ours, and I believe Bravo did the paint on that. Same fellow, Joe, who owns the blue '67 Shelby also owns a '66 GT-350 that he's been slowly restoring and driving. I know......lousy to have TWO Shelbys! Both Joe and I have owned our cars long enough to each still have the original license plates that were issued to our cars when first bought, his '67 runs the black Calif plates, and mine runs the blue Calif plates that I believe started around 1969. Both are California cars with no rust,....mine was first sold by Russ Davis Ford ( Gas Rhonda's hang ), in Corona, Calif, which sadly isn't there anymore.

You know, If one was to be for sale, I wouldn't be opposed to getting it for her. I just bought her a new Ford Edge SUV type thingie...her choice. By the way, SUV stands for severly ugly vehicle, and not what I'd ever want for myself. I've been driving a '71 Mach 1 for 30 years now. While the Mach is not a Shelby, it has won me over, it's dependable, it's fast enough, and darned near everybody seems to like it when they see it, so it's a keeper. I had a '66 GT-350 years ago, and would love to have another.

One thing for sure, Scott, you have a flair for the "odd" rod!

Here's a friend's Shelby GT-500, a 428 car with A/C ( note louvers on hood ). My wife says she wanted one after seeing this one. Right on Honey!

Ah......An early '67 Shelby GT-350......likely the last of the Carrol Shelby built Shelbys. I've worked on many Mustangs in my automotive career, and the better car, as far as the big block cars go, is definitely the 428 Cobra Jet fastbacks with the Drag-Pak option ( picture Hubert Platt/ Tasca Ford ), over a 428 Shelby GT-500. Having said that, I have a soft spot for any Hi-Po 289 Shelby, as this GT-350 would be. Oh, enough about that.....beautiful model!

I've seen, in real life, a few Starliners done as Lowriders, and they look pretty cool "slammed". I'm not a huge fan of Lowriders, more of a "hot rodder",but there are some freakin' nice ones.

The "Winged Express" is one of the most iconic drag cars in the history of drag cars. I was fortunate enough ( read that OLD enough ), to see it race in person at Lions and OCIR. Personally, I kinda dig the version running the Scott Injector vs the Enderle or Hilborn on this car. Larry Dixon Sr. drove the Howard Cams Special/Rattler using a Scott Injector too. I was at the Lions Dragstrip Museum opening, ( Google it ), in Long Beach, and the "wing" was there on display. One of the museum coordinators, turns out, is a friend of mine, and mentioned that the "wing" was missing the magneto. I told him that I had a spare 392 vertex mag, ( having Hemis in my drag boats ), and ended up donating it to the cause. Strange feeling, to know that I had a small part in restoring something I'd idolized as a kid. Here's the Scott Injector pumping fat and happy in a cool night shot.

I love the detail in the "Zolotoned" inner body sections...….as was the real car. This is a very well done piece of art. Certainly , this is as perfect a job as most anyone can aspire to. I have this kit on my "to do" shelf, along with maybe 50 other kits. If I ever get to it, now I know where the "bar" is!

I'm currently working on the "Hurst Hairy Olds" kit. I'm using the very same paint you are ( that sparkly gold looks just like the Testor's Extreme Laquer Pure Gold that I'm using). Everything is done on my kit so far, save for masking and spraying the gloss black areas over the gold body. The body has received two coats of clear over the gold, so I have my fingers crossed that I will achieve sharp masked lines. I hope it really comes out good, 'cause i'm not sure this has been re-issued and I've had the kit for years, and I'd hate to screw it up now! I guess I'll soon find out whether or not the decals are still good! I've seen this kit, The "Hurst hemi Under Glass" at my hobby store, and am tempted to get it too. Yours came out very nice. On a side note, being that I am a drag and ski boat owner, and have Casale V-drives in all my boats, I noticed the "Casale V-Drive" decal used on your model's bellhousing, but from the underside view, it would appear that no V-drive is used on this car, as the driveline comes directly off the clutch and right to the rear end. Was that "Casale V-Drive decal in THIS kit?

I bought this kit recently. I must say, the box art, ( a photo of the real car blazing the hides ), is sure a selling point. Any front engine dragster from the 50s-60s gets my attention anyway,......but really Amigos, the era was dominated with the early 354/392 engine, as was McEwen's powered by. I'm not sure which former release this new kit was based on, ( I suspect the Ramchargers kit ), and just added the front airfoil, decal set, and Hilborn upright injector set-up to bring it closer to looking like Tom's rail. The engine included, a 426 Chrysler, is TOTALLY wrong though, regardless. Still.....I wanted to do this up, so I bought a 3-D printed Hilborn injected 392 engine from Shapeways to rectify the sitch. This little printed engine is cool. I may have to aquire some MH Racemasters to replace the Goodyear slicks supplied as well, and there are a few various other details , but they're small, and changeable. It should be nice when I'm done. Here's the replacement engine from Shapeways….

My '70 Olds 442 W-30, which is a 455, was the light metallic blue. There was also a high performance 350 cubed car which was called the W-31, and that engine was gold. .

Cool....Kinda reminiscent of the Christman sedan from the good old days.

Superb. A job worth looking at twice. Those tri-five Chevys are ageless aren't they?

I know a guy, who was the Blown Gas Hydro record holder back in the sixties, with his Hallett hydro "Golden Komotion". Someone made a resin kit 1/25 scale of the boat, I want to say "Mad Dog Resin Kits" is the name who made it. I have one of those resin kits, and I got it from Don Edwards, who owned and drove the real one. I haven't built the kit yet, although I did start on scratchbuilding the trailer. My photographic skills are limited, the last models I tried to post ended up kinda blurry, but I'll dig out the kit and show you all here. It's the only scale model drag hydro I've ever seen . Hold on

Tim, you have sharp eyes! Yes, the Mortician was in that book. It has a lot of history.....the model will be done up exactly as raced, along with a Hearse tow vehicle, which the real boat had. Your twin engine hydro is just spectacular! I think you had posted that on another site, because I have the image saved to my computer, and I was so impressed with your work. In reality, there were a small handful of people who tried the mating of two engines but most never really performed as well as expected. Of note, two boats made waves ( no pun intended), and held records. The Mortician was one of those, along with a hydro named "Adios Two", which your model reminds me of very strongly. Attached are photos of the Mortician being towed by the hearse, as well as photos of the twin engine "Adios Two" hydro.

Yeah, in that particular photo I was in the process of building the engines, so empty "mock-up" engines were dressed up and installed just for show. Those engines lacked all internals, but had most of the outer accessories bolted up.

I think the above kits do all have the same boat. I have the last one pictured, with the Pontiac Bonneville to tow it ( which I wont use ). The 427 Ford "Cammer" is a fairly rare engine in the real world, and I'd substitute a different engine to represent the heyday of hot ski-boating, were I to build this kit as a ski-boat. My family had hot flatbottoms in the sixties, and most people towed with something more like a half ton pick-up, El Camino, Ranchero, or station wagon, although there were those few who used their everyday passenger cars to tow with. The kit's centerdeck is a bit wide, for the scale, and I'll narrow that, or remove it altogether. Centerdecks were found most often on wood decked hulls ( yes, a few manufacturers made 'glass decked hulls with a centerdeck, but most were not ). Today, I still own a few boats, one of which is a 5-time World record holder for Unblown Gas Flatbottom, and I want to use this model's hull to base my model kit vershion of the "Mortician" ( sitting in my garage as we speak), complete with two injected 327 Chevys, inline, on Nitro! See photos....

Good job son! Kudos for Dad having time for Father-and-Son time too. When I was a very young kid, I used to scavenge any soda bottles I could find and turn them in to the market for the refund money. My allowance was 25 cents a week. Within two weeks I had the coinage to trot down to the nearby "five and dime" to by a 50 cent ( plus tax) bagged little model kit. I did this a lot. My skills were less than savvy, but I loved building things. This love of building things still resides within me, as, today, at 63 years old, I'm still building model kits, as well as being an engine builder at a performance engine shop for a living. Kids, keep it up....modeling can help with skills when you grow up......or should I say get older ( some of us don't exactly grow up per se ).

Years ago...………..must have been in the late 80s,.....I was working in San Diego, and , in some off time, decided to catch the drags at Carlsbad. I'll never forget some guy rolls up to do his burnout and he's got a Pinto coupe with a 429, slicks, tubbed, he holds short to vent his Nitrous...….ON NITROUS!!!!!! The damned thing must have handled like a Fuel Altered! I just pondered what I was looking at for a moment, and decided this guy was the king of " small lightweight car with biggest engine "syndrome, and geeez did that car git...….