Junkman

Work. Can spoil the best of days.

The easiest way to get paint off diecast parts is simply boiling it off. Stick the parts in a pot, fill with water until covered and boil them for half an hour. Goes very well with BBQ steak, but then again, what doesn't?

Snow continues to be the same 06-02-12 THIS year's snow is the same as last year's, it has been confirmed. But scientists say they do not know if the latest snow is the same as the snow from 2010 because no-one can remember. Professor Henry Brubaker, from the Institute for Studies, said: "This is what makes it so difficult to cope and plan ahead. Because the records only go back 12 months we can never be entirely sure what properties snow will have. "Like last time, this snow is very, very cold - almost as if it's frozen - and incredibly white. "We also know from last year that snow is difficult to drive on. We think this is because of its whiteness. We did some tests and driving on talcum powder is also quite tricky, especially if you mix it with olive oil." He added: "But to really understand it, we need to know more about historic snow, so we're desperately trying to find someone who can remember what snow was like in 2010. One man from Derbyshire phoned-in to say that he thinks it was blue and tasted like meat." The department of transport has already given up on this year's snow but is hoping that, like last year's, it will eventually disappear. A spokesman said: "If only we knew why it disappeared then we might be able to work out why it arrives in the first place." The department will begin planning for next year's snow as soon as it has decided what properties it is likely to have. The spokesman added: "We've been bombarded with ideas so we're just going to pick one out of a tombola. I've suggested it will be invisible but will smell like a freshly waxed saddle."

Here is a 1/24 slot car a friend of mine in Germany built: But since Germans don't have any sense of humour, he quickly reverted to 1/32 scale and built this: Entirely btw. what you see in the vids is his own private Carrera track, not a club track.

It would be safe to say that.

Hey, thanks a lot! There is a story behind this though. When I started collecting kits in the early Eighties, a few friends and I did 'shopping trips', which meant we would literally drive across Europe and raid model shops all over. I never had much money, so I had to take, what the others left over, and that was usually the oddballs. I simply couldn't afford the mainstream stuff. I don't know what came first, my lack of funds triggering my love for obsure stuff, or my love for obscure stuff triggering me chosing a non-greedy lifestyle resulting in relative poverty. But one of the two is the reason why my collection comprises of such a relative high proportion of whacky stuff, and so few of the 'common' collectibles (please, take this at face value, I'm not trying to derogate the collecting of highly prized (and priced) collectible kits). As for these kits here, three things just fell into place - my love for the surfing sub-culture, which I always had, despite I have never been near a real surfboard (I said I'm a self-confessed hodad - and ###### proud of it!), that the kits were dirt cheap when I bought them, and none of the others wanted them. I do have all the old Hawk/Testors Silly Surfers, too. Again, nobody wanted them when I bought them. I'll see whether I can dig them up this weekend and make some photos. Entirely btw., this is what's inside the Pyro kits: I have no idea what those guys were on back then, but I sure want it too!

I would make my decision dependent on whether photo etch GMC scripts are available (any truck guys in the know?). Wasn't there someone who makes alphabets in PE in various fonts? If the GMC scripts are available, there is nothing to keep you away from building a Sierra. The rest looks repairable to me. Apparently, something like beams were glued to the sides of the cab, maybe beams for a snow plow of some sort? Oh, and I love tube glue - where you can't see it.

I had no idea this kind of stuff is going on in the States as well. Here in Europe manufactureres state a fuel consumption calculated from values established in laboratory tests. They are far from reality and differences of 20-25% to real life values are not unheard of. This inevitably led to court cases and now the Central EUSSR Soviet in Brussels ruled in favour of - you guessed it - the corporations.

Oh yes, the likelyhood to come across a Matchbox issue is almost 100% I'd say, but even they are few and far between. All six Chevies and the two T-Birds were available under the Matchbox label. Not sure about the NASCARS (they were available, but I can't remember whether they were in Matchbox packaging). What I didn't know until very recently is that Matchbox printed specific boxes for some European markets, which was very unusual even then. The illustrations are the same, but for example, all the text on the box of my 57 Nomad is in German only. I have also seen Boxes in English only, and boxes with multilingual text, the latter I would consider the norm. I wonder whether specific boxes were printed for France and Spain, I have never seen any of those. In Italy, they were sold in ESCI boxes with their own box art.

Don't tellem. They might not reissue them if they hear about this.

I'm a self-confessed hodad meself, aye:

It's time for a 1/16 comeback, what with the Pyro/Lindberg Bull Horn coming back and the Academy A-bones. I hope RC2 reads this and dusts off the tools for the AMT 1/16 scale Chevies and T-birds. There are some we haven't seen for decades and they all contain nice wheels and tyres.

Strictly speaking it's 1/24 scale. And yes, it is very popular. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=1%2F24+slot+car&_sacat=See-All-Categories

Ridemakerz is kewl. I've seen Chip Foose using their stuff.

Unfortunately, no model kits exist of most of the real cars I've owned. But if it does, it will always resemble the real car I had. I have now many diecast models of my former real cars, where available. I was able to fill quite a few gaps in the past ten or so years, thanks to a thriving diecast industry.

For wheels and tyres, you can check out the RC model suppliers. They are nominally 1:10 scale, but some are so large, that you could make a Donk out of a 1:12 model with them. There is a huge selection available.

Ye goode olde Polyglase GTse. What we would need is a decent set of steel belted radials.

Oh, I'm sure there is a site I know that's been around since 1999 that you don't know. There are quite a few sites on the internet, you know.

Nah, today was more like this: This is what it's like when it's not raining.

Is it only me, or do others also find that there is something wrong with the front wheelarches?

ROFL! Bookmarked!

Move to England and the Eastern sky will always look like this: The Northern, Western, and Southern, too.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=52564

The newer Japanese kits I was referring to took this one step further. They do not contain any text at all, not even to explain the symbols. They are explained with pictograms and little comic strips. The Japanese developed the art, to make themselves understood worldwide without using any text at all. It's brilliant. I have to dig one up tomorrow and post the instruction sheet.

For Pocher kits there are DVDs and downloads out there that supersede the instructions delivered with the kits. Not many of us ordinary mortals will ever come into contact with a Pocher kit. As for my old Jo-Hans, I can happily do without instructions, thank you. For the Revell Routemaster I read them already, looked at the parts, and it's gonna be likely a very collectible kit in 40 years hence.