Wickersham Humble

In the big green machine, you go where they say to go, and do what they say to do; period. When my local board ended my student deferment in 1968 by agreement, I'd gotten my B.A. in Art/Education. One of the luckiest things that ever happened to me: they assigned this grunt to a 'C.A.S.' (civilian acquired skill) M.O.S. (military occupation specialty) as 81E20: 'graphic arts/illustrator' -- sent me to Ft Sam Houston/Medical Field Service School as a curriculum support guy. There I stayed for two years -- luckily avoiding VietNam, and put my education to use. It's hard using an air brush and keeping your fingers tightly crossed for 24 months, believe me! I went from buck private (E-1) to Specialist 5th class (E-5 = buck sergeant), and did every 'art job' you could think of -- including putting 'halos' on the portraits of generals with titanium white through a Badger air brush -- you know, like the promo photos of all realtors, nowadays? Also worked in the Army Medical Museum a day per week, usually. I got my ETS date, bought a new 240Z, came home to CA and married my wife (of so many moons, another lucky thing, believe me!), and grew my hair back!, Also, dug out my collection of kits, built and begun, and found out that someone had put a very heavy object atop the carton, and broken most of them! Wick Well, hey; this was all in response to a nostalgia question, huh? I think I was a decent bargain, at between $106 and $278 per month...

As I noted, I began building -- mostly aircraft -- in third grade; 1953, One source of car colors was OEM touch-up paints, either in those slim bottles with the brush in the cap, or later aerosols. Dealerships often had a rack; usually depleted. I used both, but also hardware-store rattle cans -- with mixed and disappointing results. I didn't use nail polish much, because it mostly came in reds and pinks then; not for me! AMT had a line of candy color cans by the early 'sixties that go a lot of use. Testors and Pactra, of course, and some other mfrs. I eventually went to PPG (and any other brand I could score cheaply!) when I started doing 1/1 car stuff, and cycles. I painted custom bikes for a niche bike guy; two frames, sand-blasted and painted for $25, but he supplied the epoxy paint. 1/1 paint with high voc's and plenty of resin was so great and easy! I learned air-bushing in the Army, no less, but didn't have my own until about 1970. I suppose I've tried about every kind of paint method and material by now. Wick, age 79 in N CA

Just stumbled across this post: I have been painting since about 1968, strictly 'shadetree' >haha< but have gotten to know 1/1 finished pretty well. My M.A. project in art was air-sprayed paint on sculptures, mostly. And, then I worked at a PPG store as a retirement job; so I have lot's of 'mis-match' colors (too many!) and some experience. I'd be glad to see your column/addendum George, can I PM you my address? I had to change from the old one; got hacked! I've only had problems once using 1/1 auto colors on styrene (well primere, oc) and I think it was lacquer materials. I like them, but there are rules, as with any system. I gave up aerosols a long time ago, but tried Krlylon yellow and UPOL clear on a recent build (an annual '62 T-Bird Syline kit that I began back when!) and was pretty happy with the result. People in mags and shows are very picky about out-of-scale clear depth, so you have to get it with one coat, usually. I have a few kits, compared to most (40-50) built over 60-years or so; a couple I just polished the styrene with toothpaste, and one AMT Deuce coupe I did in '61 with liquid shoe polish! Thanks for the info. Wick

I'm going to do my '53 Ford rag with the top converted to a Carson top, and would like to source a windshield sun-visor to adapt, if anyone knows of any. I still have some very old trade parts... I want to do a 'pink & black days' lowered car, like one I used to see in our little CA town back in the 'fifties. All those cats drove black cars, wore black poplin wind-breakers (and pink shirts!) with the collars turned up in back, penny-loafers, and smoked unfiltered. Bad bunch, but seemed 'old' to we younger guys. Their names were... ! Thx!! Wick

Thanks; but I'm not likely to want to fab a complete 'wide/long bed' -- gettin' too old! The Modelhaus resin '64 Dodge D100 'Custom Sports Special' body was shown in one of Tim Boyd's articles on recapping all non-Chevy/Ford mainstream truck kits, and other than the 'Power Wagon' chrome on the hood sides, WAS the one I'd need! I was just hoping that one existed out there, and was affordable. I just put that mag (SA, I think) back on my 'collection shelf' with all the other model periodicals I've saved since Fred Flintstone was a Cub Scout, and when I riffled through them, couldn't find. I'd have to make side-racks (steel pipe, very architypical for USFS rigs) and a water tank. The live-reel hose would be perfect. We didn't have turnout rigs, respirators, etc. in 1964; the FS provided a hard-hat, one-each well-used, and we crewmen ponied up for all the rest. Boots, gloves, a 'war-bag', bandanna and long sleeved khaki shirts were all from our first paycheck, or the plastic card bank. Also, b-fast, lunch and dinner. We were on-shift from eight until eight, but after five we could pitch horseshoes or play volleyball; still one-minute response time mandatory! Thanks, keep me in mind; Wick

"Chrome Aluminum' ratcan paint; been around since Moses, I guess. It seems like none of it, even Molotow and that ilk, ever really equal real chrome plating -- or the 'vacuum aluminumized' stuff that we get in kits now, which is really very good for gloss, etc. I probably mentioned before that a couple of guys in our little town, c. 1960, tried a couple of cans of the old skool stuff on their rims, and got a horse laugh. At that time, however, NO ONE in our burg could afford chromed rims, much less 'mags'. A fond dream! A nicely customized '58 Impala from a 'big city' pulled into our high school parking lot with a set of deep-reversed chromed wheels, and our whole mechanical drawing class (all male, oc) jumped off their stools and dashed out the door to admire it at one accord. The teacher had to interrupt his nap to be alarmed! Oh, the two aerosol customizers got the label for their rims of "Okie Chrome!"* Ole' Wick *Again, not wanting to malign the birthplace state of my Dad!

I just finished a '60 Chrysler body that I salvaged from my own ineptness (back in 1961) that originally had that chassis -- funny 'torsion bars' and all -- and I used a Revell Duke's Charger chassis and interior tub with some success. It's a little narrow, and I should have lengthened the wheelbase about 1/8", but in other respects was a good fit for a 'door slammer' CHP cruiser of that era! I like steel-axle builds, because it's harder to accidentally glue a wheel stationary; they usually roll okay with steel. I subsitute brads on the front, cut to length, for the spindles which takes a bit of adapting, but gets past the axle-through-engine bugaboo. I am finishing a '62 AMT T-Bird Syline kit I began in '61 as a Bonneville/streetable special (Yellow; I call it 'Big Bird', with phantom CAT Diesel V-16 and twin-turbos in the trunk) and pressed the Chizler JoHan chassis into service, as it will be a curbside presentation. Waste not; want less! Wick

It took me a couple of years to realize the benefits of primer in ratcans; mostly I used silver basecoats for candys or metallics, or what was often called 'hot rod black' aka flat-black. I was proud of my three-layer colors by 1963: metallic silver, gold, or occasionally bronze first layer, then usually a dealer touch-up aerosol of some stock but attractive color, followed by a couple of coats of the appropriate candy. Ford had a nice burgundy metallic color that came in a small aero touch-up can, and I followed it with (Testors? AMT?) burgundy candy, for a really nice finish. In my little town (Simon & Grafunkel?) we had only a 'five & dime' store and the old couple proprietors stocked a goodly number of AMT 3-1 kits -- all convertibles -- but no hobby shops, so it was the hardware store or new car dealership for paints, unless a rare trip to a 'big city' a hundred miles away offered, and there was a bick and hobby store that had candy and flashy metallic paints in the little squat rattle cans of yore. Meant saving up the old pennies! AMT/SMP kits at $1.39 -- printed proudly on the end of the carton; no allowance for inflation there -- were the staple for me, but in another town (where we now live) there was an 88-cent Store that sold JoHan kits (all MoPars; still have four or five) that were curbside, but only 88-cents! By the time I was hot into car kits, I had a job at the local muni airport on weekends pumping gas, which was a city job paying >gasp< minimum wage; $1.25/hr in 1960! Until I turned sixteen, and bought my first car (a bitchin' '55 Chevy Delray 2-door sedan, with 3/4 cam, solids, power-pack 4-bbl & duals!) I had a budget for kits; after car, and all my dead-beat 'friends' who wanted to ride but never kicked in gas money, I wasn't so flush. Broke, most of the time, was more like it! But, I used to keep all my kit 'chrome' bits in an old model box, and sorted them for recreation until most began to wear thin! Thx! Wick

Reprising an old question: I suppose the Modelhaus '64 Dodge D100 'Custom Sports Special' body is extinct!? Or, at a price beyond rubies? I would like to build a replica of the USFS Class IV tanker that I was crew foreman on the last summer I fought forest fires, 1968. It was actually a '62, tired 318-A that broke a few times (cracked manfolds) 3/4 Ton 4x4, with POWER WAGON on both sides of the hood. Tall, skinny 16x7-inch steel rims, two Utility boxes on the bed, a fifty-gallon rectangular water tank, putt-putt motor and pump, with 100-ft. live-reel to drizzle it out, all too fast! Big Motorola radio in bed, with whip on the roof, green with gray. There was room in the bed for fencing equipment, and when not on fires, we built miles of bob-war fence! And, killed rattlesnakes! I was a Red Card 'Crew Boss' (still have the card!) and it was my fifth fire-season, my second as foreman on the Modoc Nat'l Forest, in N CA. The previous season, I had a '64 Dodge 1-1/2 Tonner, Class III with 300-gallon tank, a slip-on unit, and seats on the bed for three crewmen, plus myself and two more in the cab. I refused to shave off my mustache in '67 (peace, love, what's your sign?) and losing the bigger truck was my 'reward!!' Some adventures for a college kid! Then, the Army. I'd like to commemorate so many of the great guys I worked with... if I can get a kit, a donor, and some fire equipment. Wick

I began with aircraft models, ships and military until about 1958, when I got two of the Revell customizing kits ('56 Ford, and Buick -- still have some of the parts and decals, too!) and struggled with the multi-piece bodies current then. Even so, the idea of a load of fender skirts, louvers, finlets, and other kitch appealed to the 12-year old me! It was when AMT/SMP came out with the one-piece bodies (promo-based, but we didn't know that then!) that let a budding Barris or Starbird start hacking and filling from day-one that led me to give away all my other models, and concentrate on the 'restyling' feature of the 3-in-1 kit! About half the kits I have today are from 1959-1965, and some still unbuilt annuals! Duro 'Plastic Aluminum' was my hardware-store staple for filling in or building up the styrene, and Duco Cement the standard until the better glues came on the market. Who hasn't 'melted' a kit (usually aircraft) with too-liberal beads of plastic-solvent glues? I switched to AMT's little tubes of putty, of course, on the way to using real Bondo and Red-Cap lacquer putty. Plastruct or Evergreen: a '61 Lincoln 'sports roadster' kit I'm just finishing up has a solid tonneau made from a chunk of a family soap-dish, even yet! Pieces of ball-point pens, shirt-box plastic, and straight pins were stand-bys. I used Pal or Schick injector single edged blades, and a hunk of hack-saw blade (ouch!) for heavy slice & dice -- occasionally on my fingers. I still have a '60 T-Bird turtle-deck from when I tried to build a 'Bird Ranchero, from Dave Shuklis'(sp?) plan, and the like-new bumper/grilles. Also, what's left of a roll of 1-mm. wide foil tape that Auto World sold for chrome trim; and it still works! Spotlite Books small-format issue on Model Car Building was a revelation to me, in our tiny, isolated N CA town (oft said to be closer to OR and NV than CA!) and I first learned that Chevy make a fancy pickup called the 'Cameo' from it. Some of the kits featured even had opening hoods and engines; V-8 kit motors were hard to find in 1960, man! That set me to opening up all my older cars, and also hoarding engines from all and sundry. Another still have it: the mill from the Renault Caravelle kit I botched up! I have a model shops three-ring binder, acquired at a 1/1 swap meet, that has a solid inch of manufacturers sales catalogs and promotions. Boy, I never saw an Aurora car kit, but did they make some fanciful ones! ITC, Palmer, Pyro, and many others long gone; ooh, and that Renwal* 'Visable Woman"... Well, you shouldn't ask if you didn't want lots of reminisces! About those balsa and tissue a/c model kits... Ole' Wick *Or was it...?

Jim, always avoided 'Hogan's Heroes' so-called comedy series because of the mistaken impression it gave of Nazi prison life! "They knew notheeng!" MAD Magazine did a scathing satire on H.H. back about 1970. I was docenting at CAM when an older gent visited, and we got into a conversation about heavy bombers, etc. He asked if I knew the stories of Ploetsi in Rumania and the heroic/disasterous raid by B-24s there, which I had read a lot about. There was one Lib that crash-landed on ag land, and the farmer helped the whole crew hide from the 'cops' and later sneak into Turkey -- he said it was his grandfather! Some interesting stories come if one is ready to listen. A friend of my late Dad was a B-24 tail gunner (little, short guy) who had some interesting tales to tell! Thx! Wick

Our local (Chico CA) air museum has an awesome cutaway P&W R-4360 Wasp Major, and a salvage Wright R3350 which I wish we could spiff upig outside display on that one. We have a P2V Neptune that used them. Researching the 3350, I discovered that, being introduced prematurely because of the war, it had more modifications, upgrades, and 'enhancements' on record than the total number of engines C-W produced! Eventually was a very good mill. On the P&W, I just tell young 'uns that in displacement, it exceeds ten Gen II Hemis! Darn, none of our engines can be run, so no 'sound of round' noises! Also have a rare Fairchild-Ranger V-12, used only in a few a/c, and not a keeper. However, this one is inverted (regular v-configuration that we're used to) and is the actual engine that Art Arfons used to set the top time in the Nationals in 1957 in his 'Green Monster 1'. 770-cubes, SOHC, centrifugally blown. Crazy Bell SP-77 mini-fighter was design that tried it -- inverted of course. Also affiliated are a Travel-Air 3000 with Lycoming, and PT-13 with Continental (?), which get flown and are instantly identifiable, plus a PT-19 with Ranger I-44o six.

Boy, that's choice! Wish I'd done it!! My dual V-16 streamliner uses a gas stove lighter 'body' with brass chassis; pretty interesting look. Caddy wire wheels & tires, so far... So-Can; I like that, eh?! I remember trying to build the Challenger (and Ivo's Show Boat) back when first issued; defeated me, but left lots of parts! I 'm doing two phantom Miller roadsters, one with Bugatti spokers, which Harry M. did first, btw! Ah, 'the life so short, the craft so long to learn!" Wick

Only just tipped off to Cults; I'd like to build a bellytank racer, with an off-beat mill -- like the SOHC Pontiac resin I just bought! My publisher, the late 'CA Bill' Fisher, was a B'ville regular and member of the Inliners Club. I believe he and my editor Tom Monroe built a L-series Datsun Z (G-nose, etc!) for the 'Flats in the late 'seventies and set a record; have to check. We used to have belly tanks all over our rural county in N CA; surplussed and sold to folks to use as fuel-oil tanks for their home heaters; very common! Also knew of some put side-by-side and made into pedal boats, to rent. Exciting shape, to we kids listening (not yet watching) Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, and Space Patrol shows! I have no way to 3D print, but someone might do some for sale. I seldom see the kit version available. I still build nostalgia drag beasts, but salf flat/lakes cars are very interesting, and have a considerably longer history. Thx again! Ole' Wick

I am building several Bonneville phantom contenders: 1,) 'Big BIrd', a '62 Bullet-Bird (AMT Styline kit, begun in '62!) with apocryphal CAT V-16 Diesel, dual turbos, 2.) a streamliner powered by two Cad V-16 engines (Monogram, tail cockpit from old Mono Indy-car kit, rest scratched) called the 'Catholic Comet' -- vs. the 'Mormon Meteor' Deusie, and 3.) a '53 Stude with scratch-imagined NOVI V-12, full belly-pan, Kamm fastback, etc. I tried Indycals Firestones, but they look undersized, even on the 1/25 T-Bird; though nice on my BBC/Avanti. I've had a hard time finding good speedway or B'ville looking tires in 1/25-1/24 (even posting some time ago in this topic) for them. I have one soft-rubber from a very old (lost) Comet 'Panther' racer kit which looks good, but no luck finding more. Now, I'm trying a new tack: using Harbor Freight firewall grommets with the 'slot' filled with neoprene O-rings and 3M weatherstrip adhesive (black death). They fit a regular stock wheel backer pretty well and have a tall profile. No sidewall detail at all, of course, but that can be added. With Parks scale 16-inch spun aluminum 'Moons' and a coating of 'salt' on the tread area (new white glass-beads) they should look about right! Maybe I'll try Good*Year lettering on them, just to be iconoclastic? Thx for any help! Wick

If I weren't so bogged in other kits (some begun over sixty-years-ago!) I'd dive into my Cyclone! I planned to build it as a derelict sitting on bamboo logs or an old pallet on some Pacific Island; maybe on cylinder removed, some bullet damage showing, and a puddle of oil on the sand below. Something different! Maybe from a Brewster F2A Buffalo after the Battle of Midway... I always felt that the Buffs got a raw deal from the USMC historian (Sherrard? Can't find his book...) when the mostly green Gyrene pilots waded into 60 seasoned Japanese pilots and lost over half their number in the little Cyclone-powered fighter. I would think that even guys in Hellcats or Corsairs would experience some trepidation taking on twice their number; advantage usually going to the attacker, also. Finnish Brewsters scored over Tomahawks, MiGs, Yaks, Hurricanes, and Airacobras over their border, and one Buffalo apparently holds the world's record for most enemy a/c destroyed by one ship -- flown in turn by two aces! Lack of R-1920's eventually drove the Finns to using salvaged Rooshian license-built Wrights in their fighters! It was obsolete, no doubt, but good pilots liked them, especially (like the P-39 and P-40) at mid to low altitudes. I wrote a novel that was on Kindle Vella, now closed-down, soon on Kindle eBook/paperback, that is centered around a Cyclone-powered naval fighter I call the Brewer Bison, and a hard-luck pilot/engineer whose life is linked to it. Begun in 1991, I've done a lot of research -- including Smithsonian A&S Archives in person -- on the beast. The book is called "Bird of Ill Omen" and is inexpensive; eg, not very profitiable! Wick

Suggest a source for 1/16 scale turbochargers (2) and ancillary plumbing, etc. so I can finish a MPC 'Dukes' Charger kit that my son and I started in the 'eighties! Not wanting to do the TV show car, we got a lot done toward a Bonneville competitor (who knows what class!) but need to put some pressure on the hemi to make it seem reasonable. Lift-off front end, big wing on the back, single racing seat, and the Centerlines and tires from an AMT Nomad kit we built. We were thinking Moon discs for the rims, actually. I don't suppose there are Halibrands and Firestone high-speed tires available? There must be a resin or 3D source for twin turbos that would look appropriate on a 426 Elephant, but I don't know where -- so I'm asking. Mom always said "How are you going to know if you don't ask?" You guys haven't let me down yet! Thanks X 10! Wick Oh, yeah: have two Accel turbos from Nomad kits, but they look all wrong, huh?

Since the advent of Aluclad II and Molotow, a lot of domestic ratcan producers have upped the shine of their aerosol offerings; some are impressive. Where were they all in 1959, when I was struggling with Testor's silver to make chrome trims and window moldings?! Two kooks in our little N CA town decided that Western Auto spray silver would fool us into thinking they had chromed rims, and gained it the name of 'Okey chrome'!* Wick * No slur on Okla, birthplace of my Pop!

Bruce; oh yeah; you're one of the bunch who take the trophies? Hope to meet! I wanted to come to your show, but couldn't find anyone else to share the trip with... I'm 79 & counting... Wick

Thanks, experts! I was surprised to note so much clear-coating on a/c; it seems like it would throw off the scale effect of the surface? I guess the main trick is giving the separate panels some texture/color differentiation. I've done some vol resto work at our local air museum; see all kinds of metal finishes there from over the eras. Our Aerovovodchody L-29 has a striated texture - tiny parallel mill marks that go top to bottom - and very hard to refinish, as after the USSR breakup the Czech AF scratched the red-star motif off with cold chisels, by the appearance! Who got to repaint them all? First guess! Even my Krylon bright silver ratcan gives a very chrome-like finish, but I'd rather have slightly weathered, like a/c not hangered get. I found an article also in an old Fine Scale Modeler that was somewhat helpful. Thx, again! The Shinden will have some bare aluminum replacement panels, and the huge lettering of the Allied Evaluation group. Ads for newer Tamiaya models show a weathered green finish. Apparently only three of either ship were ever prototyped. Wick

Everybody's seen products online that have a bargain price but the shipping (so called) is ridiculously high; one used book (Perry Mason paperback, not really collectible) was about five bucks, but the shipping was over twenty! The way the game is played, I suppose? On the opposite side, I used Marketplace to sell some 240Z parts a few years ago, and they put a five dollar shipping price on a forty-pound item that I advertised for thirty bucks; lots of unhappy customers there! I'll try craigs and MP and see! Thx! Wick

Yeah, I guess; this Ford was the cheapest today on ebay, because, I suppose, it was 'open, but complete.' If I swapped the Deusy, I'd expect something to sweeten it up. I have the 'original art' AMT '59 ElCamino (missing optional Cad engine) that I'd gladly trade, however. Shipping is the killer. I recently got a Olds resto retailer to cut his $18 ship charge in half by moaning that the product was a dozen small hub-cap clips (at $7 each!) which came in a tiny box. Funny, it's my gal child who's most into hands-on car resto, tho my son likes restomod cars; is getting Dad's '51 Chevy 2-dr (350, T-5, R&P, discs, A/C, etc. soon as I can finish it. I hope they drive the wheels off of them! Daughter wants to rebuild an early I-H Scout next; lucky her hubby is a gear head and welder! They're kids, but in their forties now! Wick

I haven't done airplane models since the 'fifties, but our local (Yuba City CA) IPMS annual show is heavily aircraft, at least half of all entries; so I'm trying a couple. I have Tamaiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver (rattle can) and the Krylon very-bright silver -- plus a number of PPG automotive silvers (which seem to have metallic too coarse for model scale) but wonder what else is accessible to get the finishes that modern builders achieve. The AS-12 aerosol (right out of the can) didn't look fantastically well on my Brewster Buffalo racer last year, actually. Not that I want to go to his extreme, but 2024 had a large-scale MIG-15 that had the most stunning 'bare aluminum' tones I could imagine; it was amazing! I'm tolerably good at airbrushing and masking, and probably will do some BMF low-gloss aluminum also: my turbojet-converted Curtiss P-55(B) needs to look new, but not pristine for a diorama with a jet-converted Kyusu 'Shinden' which will be IJAF green, with off-color panels, etc. and USAF/RAF insignia. This display hopes to simulate a post-war 'Ascender' at Itazuka AB alongside the Japanese experimental jet (as captured enemy a/c) for evaluation purposes, etc. Both were among the very few swept-wing a/c developed and flown in WWII, albeit as prop-pusher jobs; both make a fairly easy conversion to jet engines, the Kyushu looking more natural because of it being a radial-adapted fuselage, rather than the Allison V-12 fitment of the Curtiss. The P-55 looks awesome with tiptanks, ala P-80 (or P-90) though. I'll post some photos, if I'm not too ashamed of my re-entry into aircraft. I have both a/c with removable tail-cones on carts, like the P-80/T-33 birds. Ole' Wic

Just checking: is $55 with shipping included too high for a Revell '57 Ford unbuilt kit? Or, does anyone have one they want to swap? My daughter and hubby are building one 1/1 (5.0 Ford, A/T, etc.) and since I'm painting it, I'd like to surprise them with a model, as alike as I can make it. 'Battle Ship Gray' if you can believe that; hope I can intice them into getting some striping done! She and my wife are doing the seats, etc. Very plain, as it was a 6B business coupe from Dearborn; but their doing a back seat just to be practical. My best trade item is a Hubley SSJ Duesenberg metal kit, complete in the box, but I think it's worth a bit more than the Ford... Wick