LUKE'57

I just ripped the whole front off the almost ready to sand paint museum building because it just came to me how I wanted to do it. I had gotten some of the shelf dividers that are used with big cans of spray paint when they replaced some of the "test surfaces" on the paint rack at a friend's store. I figured they would come in handy for something and I think I just figured out what. This is one side and not quite half of the front of the building. I'm planning on a section of glass frontage on either side of double doors for the entrance. I'll paint the whole thing with sand paint to give it a prestressed concrete look with some assorted signage on the building and the parking lot walls to dress things up a little and give it a racing flavor. When I get the front windows and entry doors cut out I may add a covered entryway I'll know more whether I've hit the look I'm after. There'll be a different roof treatment and the foundation will probably have gravel border and some boxing for shrubbery. I'm planning on using the gravel and curbing surround on the building to make it removable for easier storage, After all, it's gonna be sitting on a scale 96 foot by 180 foot walled in lot with landscaping. It's two stories with a movie theatre upstairs continuously showing vintage short subjects, documentaries and movies like "Redline 7000", "Thunder in Carolina" and, of course, "Thunder Road". Keep a close eye on this forum for updates and to see if you get invited to the grand opening so you can be ready. Rent a tux? Of course not. So you can make sure you've got a Wynn's Friction Proofing warmup jacket and a pair of white paints and Wellingtons or penny loafers. RC and moon pies anyone?

I didn't know that about the villian. I never would have connected ol' Beau and Mr. Wilson though. I think that the Beau character was based not so loosely on Jack Smith. I've got a '65 Ford Wendell ride that I'll post in a little while, hope you like it.

Well I guess it would have had to be inaccurate to look real then because the real one had all the trim removed. The only thing photoshopped into that picture was me and my logo.

Don't worry about where I got'em. Don't worry about how I got'em. Just be glad I got'em. One of my favorite lines from "Greased Lightning" uttered when Wendell Scott (played byt Richard Pryor) asked his "main man" where the tires for the new race car came from. Nowadays not many "midnite auto supply" parts can be used on a race car and not many have the panache and style of the factory based stock cars like this one from the Ol' Redneck Race Car shop.

Thanks Tommy but am I gettin' that predictible? LOL

Can you guess what's missing here? While I was going through some stuff when I got home last night I found a diecast kit I had bought some time ago when Wallyworld was phasing out the models. Usually the only time I buy diecast is to use for "lot lice"to use as background for my photo shoots because I don't have to build them and they are extremely durable. But, the subject matter ('56 T-bird) and the price (regularly $14.94 marked down to $4.00) helped me to make an exception and take a chance that the roughed up box didn't disguise lost parts. I started cutting parts off the sprues while I was waiting on some pictures to download (dial up is a pain) and built this little Thanksgiving 'bird in between my surfing in about an hour. Seeing as how it's the first thing I've built in over a year, and it turned out pretty good, maybe I can get revved up to build some "real" models over the winter. Not what I would have picked on the color (Tuxedo Black would have been my first choice) but with tampoed emblems I was pretty much stuck with this. Maybe it'll grow on me but I don't think so. Oh yeah, what's missing? This is the first model I've built in about twenty years or more that doesn't have numbers on the doors or sponsors on the quarter panels. Maybe that's why that color looks strange to me. LOL

Most of that type car now is kept up pretty good during the season but he most definately CAN get that job done. Hey, little brother, show him that "late in the season" James Sears white Camaro you did. It's got dents, rips in the bodywork and even a duct taped cracked windshield! I've got a pic somewhere but it's buried in some old photo boxes and it might take a while to find.

Harry, as long as it's taken for me to learn this, a "pint" won't do get it done. I'll need a couple of fifths! LOL

Hey, there's nothing to it. You just do this then you do that and do that other little thing and do this here and that there and VOILA there it is. Or at least, that seemed to be how my son told me when he was explaining it. By the way, did I mention he works on computors and designs web pages and expects his old man to know enough to keep up when he's explaining this stuff. LOL

I know my son gets tired of trying to tell me how to do stuff but, bless his heart, he keeps trying. He would probably clocked me if we hadn't been ten miles apart while he was teaching me this new stuff. Problem is that we're just alike, LOL. Now I know how he felt when I was trying to teach him guitar. I decided to try some of the stuff I do in PictureIt in PaintShop and find an easier way to cut stuff out. I got him to tell me the basic steps and I wrote'em down so I could take it a step at a time after he hung up and here's what the result of all that tense conversation and stoney silences on the phone came to be. Kind of makes my junky ol' builds look like something pretty neat. Not too bad for a dumb ol' hillbilly, huh?

I know you're not trying to tell me what Moonrunners and the Dukes of Hazzard are all about. Maybe you didn't understand when I said that I knew the sister of the man that Moonrunners was based on.

Moonrunners, I haven't thought about that one in a long time. I remember when they filmed that one just up the road from here. The original General Lee wasn't named that but was named Traveller, for General Lee's horse. I didn't know Mr. Rushing but was friends with his sister.

Thanks, glad you liked them. I built about fifty or so of those chassis to be used under local dirt cars back when they were first released in the seventies. I put'em under Chevelles, Fairlanes, Falcons and later under Mustangs and Camaros I built for the local racers. You got to jimmie them around some to go under the pony cars but IIRC the Chevelle is pretty much a drop in. The only place you may have issues is the bars that parallel the windshield posts but on the Chevelle it might not need much "fixing". Here's one on mine with it under a '65 funny car body with an "un-altered" wheelbase and some "flow out the end of a small brush" decals. Why not give handlettering a try? On a dirt car it just "fits".

Ed, words fail me, that is a work of art. I would love to see some shots in the sunlight.

Spray the whole thing black and then paint the chrome sections with Alclad using a semi-dry brush technique on the cross hatch parts with side strokes and the brush hanging of the edges at a 90 degree angle and laying flat on the ridge? Or maybe one of the small sponge brushes? Never used Alclad so I don't know what its brushed on properties are so I'm shooting in the dark here.

Try googleing "Shep Paine" or books by him. He did a lot of the boxart models for the large scale Monogram planes and is an artist when it come to weathering and a pretty neat guy to boot.

IIRC the roof was made all it one piece on an English Wheel in house.H-M more than just finished it, the chopped and sectioned reroofed Falcon hopped a ship and went down to Nassau with a couple of Cobras and raced in the 1963 Nassau Speed Weeks races. Nascar driver Marvin Panch handled the driving chores and liked the little car. Marvin said that while the little car had trouble keeping up with the Ferraris it could handle most of the other "little pee poppers" fairly easily. He did mention that the fact the Nascar drivers were still racing when they got to crooked parts of the track unnerverved some of the sporty car set. LOL

I'm not Harry, but about him putting a "true" fastback on that Falcon, my buddies out at the airport have already beat him to it by about 45 years. Here's a shot of it in progress out at Holman Moody.

Harry, I agree with you on everything except the three body styles "right off the bat" part. The 2+2 was more of a 65 1/2 as it was introduced at about the same time in '65 as the Galaxie and Falcon fastbacks were in '63. I had one of the original '65 fastback Mustangs and it was a neat little car. But one of the best things that Shelby did to his was to take out those tunnel vision louvers and replace them with windows so you could actually see behind you when changing lanes.

Hey Virg, they don't have to get them over to me (although I would be more than happy to shoot pics for anyone), just a sample of the pictures to let me know what kind of problems they are having with their photography. Sorry if I confused anyone.

All right guys, since anything that I would build is gonna wind up looking like a stealth 'shine runner or a ready to paint race car in primer, I think I have found my niche in this contest. Instead of building one of the afore mentioned rides, I'd like, instead, to voluteer to help anyone who has trouble with their photography. What I'm proposing is that anyone who is intered in the contest can e-mail me a picture representative of whatever is giving them trouble when photographing their entries and I will try to come up with a simple solution to getting the photo fixed on the reshoot. It's not that hard when someone tells you exactly what to do to fix a certain problem and in almost 35 years of model photography there ain't that many mistakes I haven't made. And when I say simple, I mean very specific and easy to do fixes for whatever ails your entry. Not trying to be a know it all or "expert" , just trying to help ya'll find that level playing field.

Mine cost a bit more than that. It's a 21st Century but it's not the 1/32 kit, it's the 1/18 prebuilt one. My son bought it for me several years ago and it's like a Tribble. I started out with just that one and now I've got it, an FW 190, Spitfire, Mig 15, F-86 Sabre, a P-40 and two Mustangs cruising around in my den. Guess I should'a sprayed, huh? Sometimes it's more that I can do to keep peace in the family though. You wouldn't believe what a chore sweeping up all those shell casings is. LOL

Always been one of my favorite race planes. Great job on it but you better be careful cuttin' the pylons in front of me because the drop tanks are full of NoS and I left the fifties in mine. LOL 20th Century planes, the lazy modelers friend.

I first met Fred back in the late eighties and worked for the company that probably was his first (and maybe only) wholesale distributor. We had a very good working relationship and I hope he lives a very long time and enjoys it as much as he obviously enjoys making his superb decals. I'm very glad to know that he's still crankin' out decals and I don't have to handletter all of those darkside rides I've got planned. These old eyes just ain't what they used to be.

Even in the twilight of a career that ranged from early dirt track modifieds to pioneer Grand Nationals on dirt to the intimidating speeds and high banks of Talladega, Buck Baker was a force to be reckoned with. Pity the upstart that thought he could teach that "old man in tha little Chevelle" a thing or two about racing, by that time there wasn't much that the GN champion and three time winner of the Southern 500 hadn't already seen.