OldNYJim

I grew up watching more dirt than asphalt racing, but as I'm getting older I'm starting to enjoy the asphalt stuff more. The local track to us is South Bend, and the racing has been GREAT there this summer! Good mix of classes, good fast close racing and a great atmosphere. I DO like the changing track conditions that you get with dirt though - certainly throws an extra element into the mix, and I LOVED the dirt race that NASCAR did at the start of the year.

Can I get a large Big Mac meal with a Coke, go easy on the sauce, ten chicken nuggets, a medium iced coffee and two donuts please? Oh, and gimme some extra napkins wouldja? Thanks

…builds really cool miniatures - like this sign: And all this stuff: https://instagram.com/what_thehell?utm_medium=copy_link Thought you all would appreciate his work!

That ramp truck is KILLER! That would be a GREAT build!

Nice pics! I really like the first 57, that VW bus and that patina-y yellow 55...I wonder if that's a legit olden-days paintjob? It's masterfully faked if it isn't real!

So I did a little reading last night, and apparently a rule was brought in to stop the air boxes extending beyond the top of the roll hoop, reasoning that having anything much higher than that hoop was a safety issue. Once the turbo cars started coming in, the turbos were mounted low on the cars, so the air intakes moved down accordingly - generally into the side pods.

A topic discussing it generally? You might have just started it! What did you wanna discuss? I like dirt track racing!

I’m not sure why they were banned, I’d like to find out more about that…will research! Some of them were RIDICULOUS though: Maybe something to do with the engine specs of the cars changing from naturally aspirated to turbo’d in the eighties meant that they didn’t need to be quite as large as they were too? It’s an interesting question. To Google!

Thanks Tom! Started work on the cab today - had a few ideas I wanted to go with on this one… First up, I wanted to open the roof up, and have an opening windshield…cutting a hole in the roof was easy enough but I had to scratchbuild the windshield frame. That windshield frame is made with styrene channel, except for the curved piece, so that I can install ‘glass’ into it and hide the edges - it was pretty delicate so I cut some thin brass strips to help hold it together. I also wanted to notch out the front of the cowl for those hairpins - I’ve seen that done on a few 1:1 builds and I figured it would be a fun little detail to add: Used some styrene bar to rough-in a new trim line - I’ll clean that up when I get to the cleaning-up stage. Next up, I wanted to open that cowl vent - like the windshield, this will be posed in a slightly-open position when finished: Then, final project for today was drilling out the sunvisor. A trick I like to use when I’m trying to layout equally spaced holes is to lay some Washi tape down on a steel ruler and use a pencil to transfer the markings to the tape: Then, you can lay the tape down and reposition it until you’re happy and use it as a guide for the holes…isn’t totally necessary for something flat like this, but it helps getting even measurements on curved surfaces for example: And this is about how it’s looking now - plenty to do but I’m having fun on the journey! More soon, soon as I’ve done more!

Is the distributor touching the firewall, stopping the body sitting down right maybe?

That’s good to know about - I wonder if the Valpo Walmart has got a display too? I’ve been meaning to check them (and the local Meijer - they’re almost across the street from each other)

A little more progress on this one - been working on the ‘bed’ this week. As I mentioned before, the bed won’t really be a bed - just a couple of sides and a tailgate. Would’ve been simpler just to modify the kit bed and use that, but I wanted to do something that referenced the Roth Mysterion a little (no, I don’t know why either ?) Made a styrene sandwich with sheet, and styrene tube ‘holes’ for strength to get the approximate look I was going for: Quick mock-up to: The bed sides attach to the frame with pins, nothing too complex - and tonight I started messing with the tailgate, with some big ol’ receivers for some nice Mysterion-inspired taillights: Not sure if the bed will be chrome like the Roth frame that I’m taking as inspiration, but it’ll be bare metal at a minimum. Plenty to do still in the mock-up stages, but it’s the weekend so I should get a bunch of bench time to keep playing here. More soon!

Seems like a bunch of places are getting theirs today - one eBay seller had five at $27 shipped, and by the time I got the checkout they had sold ? Found one to order anyway...

That gives me a lead anyway - thanks buddy!

Ahh, cool! I have family in Akron (well, my wife does...) - I'll try and stop in some time! Pity it's a 9 hour round trip from here or I'd come grab a '30 ?

What is your shop called, Justin?

Thank you SO MUCH for all the pics @eastown - really helpful post! I never saw those Scenes Unlimited ones before - some nice looking parts there! @Mark - do you have any recollection of which AMT kits those might have come in? Curious to see if I can find a set…will do some Googling in the meantime!

Given that last time around it seems like not all stores got the same selection, they could pull a smart trick with any remaining inventory by sending kits to stores than they had the fire time around. My local store, for instance had a bunch of late model Camaros but no VWS, and likely vice-versa at some other stores. Not sure if they CARE enough to bother trying this though - they seem to disappear pretty fast when they get stock anyway...

There's a good build up of a Mooneyes dragster (just not this kit, specifically) in Model Cars Mag issue 192, which you can read online for free here - scroll to page 36: https://issuu.com/modelcarsmagazine/docs/192_200dpi

There's one on eBay right now for $20 with no bids on it - they're not super valuable. The last two that sold on there sold for $6 and $8, respectively

I like building hot rods, and I like drum brakes. I really like the ones in the Revell 29/30 Ford kits…but are there any other kits with really nicely done brakes that I can look out for? Finned or not, I’m interested to see what anyone comes up with… I seem to recall the Fujumi Porsche 356 kits had some REALLY nice drums with a bunch of detail (but that particular kit of mine is in storage 1000 miles away currently so I can’t check very easily…) Any suggestions of other good sources for nicely done (or even just interesting) drum brakes for kitbashing? Pics a bonus, if you have them!

That’s actually a 32 - but I like the color!

Contest Cars 2021 is out this week, for anyone interested: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/product/special-issue/vt-sac211101-c (CART20 gets you 20% off, btw)

Some useful reading, with paint thinning ratios: http://www.gslchampionship.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/HowToBuildChampionshipScaleVehicles.pdf

Might be cool on a funny car chassis! Were there any stretched Cobra drag cars?