LUKE'57

Thanks guys, but there's one thing I just can't figure out. I see posts with half as many "views" and five to ten times the commments. Just kinda wondering what it takes to get feedback on here?

The Perfect Storm..........in 1/25 scale. Junior Johnson plus Chevy's new "Mystery Engine" 427 plus red clay means that all the pieces are in place. I think I'm getting the hang of this here PhotoShop stuff.

Got contacted by a guy doing a DVD on the history of Augusta Speedway (dirt and asphalt ovals and the road course) to do some photos for it of cars that ran there that they had no photos of. I built a copy of the steel rail/wooden retaining wall for the oval shots and will use my '60's vintage models to replicate moments in the tracks history. Here's the first one with Bobby Isaac in Junior Johnson's '65 Galaxie. The front stretch way is very strange looking but that's the way the real one was.

In the sixties, not only did they do the convertibles first but they also used the same convertible interior, doglegs and all, for the hardtop kit to save money.

Got a phone call from a guy down in Georgia that is working on a DVD for the group running the Augusta Motor Speedway site. They are doing sort of the same thing there that the guys at Columbia Speedway are doing but on a larger scale. He needed some pics of the Grand National cars that had run on the half mile oval both when it was dirt and asphalt along with shots of the road course. He was at a loss as to how he was going to get them and then someone showed him a photo CD with what he thought was a bunch of vintage photos of real cars. Guess what, next thing I knew I was getting a phone call from Georgia. LOL Like most projects of this kind, it's gonna be a rush job so I've got a pretty narrow window to get my part done. Looks like tomorrow is gonna be the only day to get the outdoor stuff shot and I can get the "VooDoo" done on the computor on Sunday while it rains. Wish me well. Here's the first test shot for the asphalt short track with his crowd and my car and track. The track had a strange combination of steel guard rail over wooden retaining wall that I replicated but I think I may go back and use the reall wall for the shots. What do ya'think?

John Anderson (April 20, 1944-July 31, 1986) of Massillon, Ohio was an American NASCAR driver who made 32 Winston Cup starts with a career best finish of 5th. He also made 5 Busch Series starts with a best finish of 6th. He is most probably best known when he flipped over a number of times in the 1981 Gatorade 125s at Daytona. The accident was featured in films like Stroker Ace and 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story. Anderson drove the #77 car for car owner John Rebhan when the accident occurred. He would be killed in a highway accident in 1986 at Charlotte, North Carolina.

Don't know where you got all that info but at least part of it is very wrong. Burt's T-bird was built by Will Cronkrite. It was not like the T-birds that were run in the actual races. It was a shorter wheelbase than the legal T-birds. The race versions had a few inches added to the stock wheelbase that Will's car didn't. I've got some pics of Elmo Langley's T-bird when I lettered it (the real car) before the contingency decals were applied that really shows the difference.

I wrote a closing to an article I did in Racing Collectibles Price Guide back in the early ninties that ended, similarly to Jimmy Durante's TV show closing "Good Night Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are, with the line, "and goodnight Larry Frank, wherever you are."It took a quirk of fate five or six years for his search for me to let me know just where he was. I was working with Racing Collectibles Club of America on their initial diecast release, a '63 Ford Sportsroof Grand Nartional Racecar when mine and Larry's paths finally crossed at a show in Charlotte NC. His '63 Daytona racer was one of the versions I was working on. He and his lovely wife were signing autographs in a big tent with several others for a vintage race car show that B.D. McClure and Alex Beam was putting on at McClure's memoriabilia shop just across from the Charlotte Motor Speedway. He told me that he had been looking for me ever since the article ran and we had a great time during the weeklong event. He gave me several autographed photos and we bench raced and swapped stories like old friends. I never got to show him the model of his '62 because we lost touch when I left RCCA and I'll always regret I didn't get the location of his body shop in time to send him a photo disc with the models. The real racers are few and getting fewer. We should make sure, if and when we have the chance, to let them know just how much they mean to us. And good night, Larry Frank, wherever you are, my good and cherished friend.

One of the original kits with the holes filled in on the hood and a Monogram Nascar roll cage reworked and most of the chassis.

.....I told Ralph about my little expedition this past weekend with the yellow Starliner. "And they are", he proceded to explain, after checking out the two bolt main 390 in my 3900 pound 119" wheelbase weapon of choice, "you've got too much racecar and not enough engine." After I told him that the big ol' Galaxie was all I had, he told me to drop by the airport..........and bring a trailer. He promised me that all my problems would be solved as soon as that cross bolted main, high riser 427 in that little Fairlane fired up. What's better than havin' friends in high places? Having friends in air spaces, Douglas International Airport air space, that is.

Thanks Harry.

Harry, my stuff leads a hard life so it's gotta be durable. The tubing is solid rod from Home Depot and the mesh is metal from an air cleaner element from a real car. Wire twists just like the real fences to hold it on.

It's the Revell trailer with a four dollar model show build up. Since it was a Gator delivery I didn't want to use my semi-scratcbuilt trailer and my old Ford shop truck.

............Gator backing a trailer up to the impound yard at my shop. There's just no telling what might be on it but I know it's always something very special. Here's the delivery from Christmas ready to roll off the trailer. It's been so cloudy here that it took me until this Saturday to get enough sunshine for some good pics. Hope you enjoy them.

I could tell but then I'd have to kill you. But since I can't find my Marvin the Martian U-235 Molecular Disrupter I might as well tell you. I just outline the car in PaintShop pro edit and use the motion blur feature with the direction marker in the direction of travel. You can vary the strength of the effect to do different speeds on each car. Sometimes you have to go back and clonebrush the edges to clean it up but it's really pretty easy. Have to be or I couldn't do it,

Well, there was that time I knocked that tea bag all the way across the kitch........what........LiSton?? oh...never mind.

Don't be silly, when did he ever build a model?

I mean tell me, who else can build the car and then drive the car and shoot pictures of the car, all at the same time!.....................Well, yeah, there IS Gator. Here's Ol' Yeller at speed on the secret test track so far back in the woods that the only thing farther back is a still or two.

.........I was filling up the thermos and loading the race car to try out the new test track hidden way back in the woods. Here she is about daybreak this morning all loaded up and ready to go. Do you know how hard it is to tie down a trailer and not take your hands out of your pockets? I've got a pretty good shot of "Ol' Yeller" at speed that I'll post later.

Thanks Nick, you're no slouch yourself. Wait'll you see the new "at speed" track shot I got today at the test track. I think you'll like it.

Thanks. I finally got some good shots after the wind settled down. It almost blew the shop off the back of my truck when I first started trying to get the pics. Got some good race track shots that I'll share a little later.

....you've got a new car to shoot pics of and the parking lot is so crowded that you can't get the angle you want? So you park it the best way you can and go across the road to get the shot and then the traffic starts gettin' thick. I give up. I'll just have to wait until tomorrow when we're closed to have the lot to myself I guess.

Thanks guys. I'll try to get the new months posted in plenty of time for you to print them. I might just be on to something, huh?

Nope, I'm doing them as a gift to the board members and are free to download, print and enjoy as you see fit. Sort of a late Christmas present that should last all year long. Maybe I can strike a deal with one of those companies that print calendars for next year, keep your fingers crossed for me.

Cover for the new Vintage Stock Car Model Calendar. I may change some of the pictures before the actual months come out. This was just put together last night and I may either make new choices or shoot some new pics before the pages ar posted. I guess I'll have to own up to being a little prejudiced in favor of Ford products after checking the sheet and seeing ten of them, two GM products and no Mopars. :oops: I'll try to be a more "diverse", and not "perverse", person in the coming new year and decade. But I've been a "Blue Oval" guy for a very long time so I'm not makin' any promises. :laugh2: