84vanagon

Jody, check out the car racing thread at the bottom of the page. The board's own Jarius is very versed on this subject!

No, but good guess! The builder frequents the board.

Stunning as usual!

Aerocar. Late 40's.

I was looking at some of my model car magazines, and I ran across this cool cover car. I know at least one of you can identify the well known, well liked and very accomplished builder. No cheating please (LOL).

Depending on a lot of circumstances the alcohol in the blood may have been normal. Due to various conditions (ie. the fire, the amount of time before the autopsy, etc.) the B.A.C. might have been due to normal decomposition. With out reading the actual coroners report it is hard to say what really happened. The police report is interesting, if gruesome, reading but is somewhat vague in certian instances.

You and Skwirley just made my week! THANKS!!!!! Spelled Skwirley's name wrong the first time. Had ta fixit. I 'magine Skwirley pissed is a lot worse than "Christine" riding the cotton pony!

Very nice Ed! Please keep us updated.

It looks like the AMT "Motor City Stocker Series" Chevelle. It was a budget line of kits that were derived from the 1970 annuals. All of them had motor plates in them. The series consisted of; 70 Buick Wildcat 70 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 70 Chevrolet Monte Carlo 70 Ford LTD 70 Ford Thunderbird 70 Ford Torino Cobra I don't know the kit number of the Chevelle, but the LTD is X851 100. Retail price on them was a whopping $1.00. Retail on most of AMT's full detail kits in 70 had jumped up to $2.25!

Happy Birthday Nick! I hope the plastic gods were good to you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kevin! 20 huh, you are succeeding in making an old man feel even older. Oh well enjoy it, and I hope you get massive amounts of plastic!

THANKS CB! This picture really made my week!

Dadgummit CB! If I don't have enough projects that I'll never finish! Between you and Treehugger Dave I'm going to go more insane than I already am!

Ah the MASTER at work! Keep us informed, we know Skwirly II is gonna be great!

I have always been a car nut. My first model that I built was a 63 AMT T-Bird 'vert. It was probably in the trash by the time Johnson was warming his chair in the oval office. My oldest surviving build is a 72 (?) AMT Pontiac Ventura II. I don't know how this one managed to survive, other than the possibility that a feeling it wouldn't be re-issued. The body is unpainted except for Testors silver. The engine, chassis and interior were also brush painted. The sbc has then "state of the art" thread plug wires (my first try). Through many moves it has reverted back (almost) to kit form.

That hurts CB! You must have really made the styrene gods mad at you. They stole in during the night and smote your Skwirly-bug down with fire and brimstone. It must have stemmed (no pun intended) from your pre-holiday endeavors with that natural stuff called wood. Actually it looks like some of my custom body work! Well splittie transporters are cool too. I can't wait to see Skwirly II!

Glad to see ya back playn' with the styrene CB!!!! Hope Santy Klaus was good to ya. Keep us posted on dis here beetle-buggy! I knoz its gonna be tooooo cool when you slip ur unique twisties in on it! Ps. I know why you took a sabad... sabbatta... a rest-em-up after you finishied yourn Lil T. I finally found one... geez its smaller than I 'member it beein (no jokes pleez). Mebbe my hands were smaller and my eyes were bigger way back then!

Hah Daniel! I've got you beat. Clinton was in his first term as president the last time I finished a model. I guess that means I'm a static modeler!?

AMEN!

Hi Cal. I agree somewhat the tops are the "tops". Five come immediately to my mind. I know what trade three of them toil(ed) at. The other two, I'm not sure. One of the "fab five" probably is well into the highest tax bracket. Two of the others were "working Joes". Two of them have sadly passed (which is happening all too often). All of them have/has their models featured in the publications. All but one would gladly answer any questions that were asked of them. Salt of the earth. I could name drop, but that wouldn't be fair to anybody. The fifth one fit into your "upper middle" class. He built a string of "pretty faces" when the machined aluminum craze first started. You could tell which models went with him. Flashy and loud. I never saw him pitch a hissy fit if he wasn't happy with the judging, but It was clear he was po'd. I'd bet his road trip buddies got an earful on the way home. I haven't seen his name in any of the mags since his initial 15 minutes of fame. Yes contests seem to have gotten all to "cliquey". Even at the "bull" sessions. However the best times I've ever had is at the pool side sessions at GSL. There it's about the hobby only. Later I'd found out that I'd been talking to "insert 'big' name here". WOW that's who that was? He's a "REAL" person! Great boards like this are a double-edged sword too. How can I get anything finished if I'm playing around on my stupid stupid computer instead of slinging plastic?

Well said Dave. I always have viewed model contests as a "social event". To me contests are a place to see old friends from far away. I haven't entered a contest since the early '90's. This isn't due to any judging bias, just that I have a terminal case of C.F.S.A. Through these contests I have met, and came to know, several of the "upper echelon" builders and 99% of them are great people. The best I have managed to eke out were two third places at the long defunct SouthWest Challenges. I don't have a competive mindset, so I was tickled pink with these two third places. If I ever do finish something it will be entered. If I don't place, good, if I do place, that's good too. In our club we do our best to split the judges in groups of three. One from our club, two others from different clubs, to keep the bias at bay. Over the years I have seen I have seen judging bias happening but we try our best not to do it. I've heard the " '----' built that so it's a winner.", and "Who's '-----', never heard of him, so let's look at '---'s' models." The only place that I've seen some really blatant forms of this has been at some IPMS contests. We do have a few "trophy hounds" in our club, and there has been several instances where these hounds had every reason to question the judging. The only way around this would be a "points judging" system such as the ISCA has for the 1/1's. I think the IAAM (?) tried this in the 60's. This is possibly a "TOO big can of worms" to have ever happen. We too are somewhat guilty (?) about "spreading the wealth". If "-----" has first and second, we might be a tad too critical on his third place entry. I don't know if a "no sweep rule" would be fair either. This point is a tough one. As far as an upper echelon modeler's class goes that is another toughy. After the judging was over in one contest that several of our best modelers entered, a HASTILY NEW class was created called the "Exspert Class" (their spelling). I can see the black and white sides to this also. Unless the contest has a big enough draw to attract several "names", maybe one person will be competing against themself. There goes another sweep. In all the vast majority of people that I've met since I joined the club in 1985 have been a great bunch of modelers. In very rare occasions have I ever seen any one who wouldn't answer any questions that were asked. To that end I just "won't go there" if faced with a big ego. Dave, as usual, have come up with another thought provoking topic again. Thanks, Don.

WOW! Neat Marty! Keep showing us more of those beauties! I just purchased a '63 Tyco track (minus cars) to run mine on ("vintage stuff rules"!). I never thought to post H.O. pics here. I have two Plano tackle boxes full of H.O. to bore y'all with. Most of them are "runners" as there were two tracks in D/FW that we RACED on. Both of them have closed down . An R/C place has acquired the tracks, and we're supposedly going to have commercial racing again! The T-Jets and non-magnatraction A/FX are my faves.

Hi Buba. The older Ford medium and large series trucks used both gas and diesel engines. The series nomenclature ran ( for example ) on the L series trucks: L= Louisville build plant. 700= gas engine, 7000= diesel engine. Depending on the year model of gas engined truck it could have either a 361-391 "FE" block. This could be depicted by a passenger car 332-428 engine. Later models used the 370 or 429. This engine was called the "385" series engines. The "385" engines were found in the biggest Fords, Mercurys, Lincolns and some of the smaller Hi-Po muscle cars. Externally the engines looked quite similar to the passenger cars, but had "accessories" unique to the truck lines. The gas engines looked very small in a space that was usually occupied by the larger diesels. Since you are looking for a "wow factor" a 1/24 scale "427" or "429" might be what you need. Look at the Monogram 1/24 kits for engines. Even though they aren't 1/25 they might "fill" your needs.

Too cool, Tony! As If I don't have enough styrene on my bench, you just had to finish this one! Green with envy here. Computer model sites bite! (Just Kidding Gregg! ) Too much plastic not enough time!

No I think Kevin is OVER medicating! Better living through chemicals! Looks great Kevin!