Junkman

Fluffy dice. Nodding dogs. It certainly was a fad in Europe. Not one of them seems to have escaped the treatment.

Pink 59 Cadillacs. Only after most of them were restored the second time, you realized that they can be painted in other colours too.

Jacked up Camaros on Centerlines with something poking through a hole in the bonnet: Gosh, where did they all go?

Baja Bugs. This one being as far away from the next desert as you can possibly get on this planet.

Surf Woodys. Generally nothing wrong with that, but you could see them in places like Kansas City.

VW powered kit cars that look nothing like the cars they try to resemble:

Yeah, I was wondering myself. Especially here in England. That four-door Nissan Animal sold like its going to be illegal soon over here. Must be for families who love wet luggage or a lot of rubbish tossed into their pick up bed by passers by. And you are right, the other ones do make sense - they are just trucks.

Yesss! I remember that, it coincided with me reaching driving age. Even the most luxurious cars couldn't escape that fad:

Talking cars. I think it all started with this one: The Renault Encore, or rather it's French cousin, the Renault 11. This led to yet another automotive fad - digital dashboards: Not even thoroughbred sportscars escaped this fad (or fate?). My 1990 ZR-1 had one.

Huge SUVs. It’s debatable whether the huge SUV craze that lasted through the 1990s and much of the first decade of the new millenium represents a fad, a market phenomenon or a national character flaw. Whatever it was, it reached its gas-guzzling peak from 2003 to 2005, when buyers had a choice of huge trucks — the Excursion, H2, Suburban, etc. — offering fuel economy between 8 and 14 mpg. Of course, these things were needed. People had eight children to bring to soccer practice, hundreds of pounds of groceries to pick up at Costco and an enormous boat to tow at all times. At some point in 2008, however, lifestyles must have changed, because when gas reached $4 a gallon, people couldn’t get rid of these vehicles fast enough, and the entire U.S. auto industry seems to have collapsed as a result. As fuel-economy standards get more stringent, it’s possible that these dinosaurs will become truly extinct in the coming years, but their impact on the oil reserves may last for centuries. What's worse is that they effectively killed off the station wagons, which only very slowly recover from the blast.

THAT'S where Milner ordered his front fenders! And here is a fad I remember well: BTW, only American fads, or do you welcome international fads too? Actually, the buggy craze was international.

Since when are car modellers a patient bunch?

Today I got my 1:12 scale Mustang: Box open: As you can clearly see, they opted to toss a few more parts in than Revell saw fit to include in their 2011 rendition. This one even contains a full 1:24 scale Mustang kit as a bonus! Basically, it's a room full of plastic: I like the translucent bits in orange and red:

Can you please explain why? I have neither kit, but they are on my shopping list. Based on what you wrote, I should consider buying one 63 and two 64s and use one of the latter to pimp the former?

Thanks a lot m8! Yeah, never got the point of illegal substances when the legal ones work so well...

Hmmmm... You guys should hear the cursing and swearing I do when I'm modelling!

I also like to use Word for license plates. I leave them in line with text, then space them horizontally with - well- spaces and vertically with CR.

They had some whacky cars in Seibu Keisatsu. Apart from the Machine RSes, there was the Super Z Machine X: A Nissan Gazelle convertible: and their mobile command unit: All of them were available as 1/24 scale kits from Aoshima. Thanks guys! I really appreciate your well wishes! Unfortunately I can't sit at a desk. Gosh, I don't know how to tell my boss on Monday. We are only two people in the team covering the time zone of this part of the world and the other guy broke his leg yesterday!

Unfortunately the joy about my parcel from Japan was slightly interrupted this afternoon. While playing with my daughter, suddenly my knee just buckled and I fell over. It hurts like hell and swell within minutes to about twice it's regular size. My wife took me to the hospital, but apart from an x-ray, they couldn't even do any further examination, because of the swelling and the pain. So they issued me with two brushed aluminium sidepipes, a blower safety blanket around my knee, and an assortment of drugs: Gosh, I look like a shmock. The bad bit is that I have a manureload of work to be done, which I can now nail at my knee. But there is worse news: Those drugs don't mix with whiskey.

The unthinkable? I was at Reno once and since then I'm only surprised that this hasn't happened earlier and isn't happening more often. All I can say is that a car race held under such safety conditions, or rather the total absence of them, would be nixed within minutes. And exactly like in Ramstein 1988, everybody who attended the event knew exactly what he attended and what the danger is. The thrill is a main motivating factor for many people to attend air shows, me included.

That's a rare Seibu Keisatsu "Machine RS"! Seibu Keisatsu is a science-fiction/police TV series in Japan. There are several different Machine RSes, all Skylines. Each carries different special 'future' crime fighting equipment.

Today arrived what must be the crowning piece of my 1:20 scale collection. It is a Mitsubishi Fuso "Dekotora". This is what the Japanese call their highly decoreated lorries. This one is modelled after a truck used in a Japanese TV series. Box open: Flat panels of the body and the huge decal sheets removed: The two red carton covers removed: The rest of the parts:

I should also mention my father, who, albeit only doing railways, is a very good modeller. He got me going in the first place, when my aunt gave me the Revell Robert E. Lee Mississippi steamer as a Christmas gift. I must have been eight or nine.

The real issue is that the Jo-Han and Lindberg kits depict two different cars. The Jo-Han is a Polara, whereas the Lindberg is a Dart 330. They have completely different roofs. So you need to first find out which model 64 Dodge you need to replicate in order to determine from which kit to work. And if it turns out to be the Jo-Han, you will need both, it's as simple as that. The Jo-Han for the body, chrome, and glass, the Lindberg for everything else.