gowjobs

All weathered up and ready to run the obstacle course!

There's no way around the "backward wrinkle" with these slicks, except to photograph the LH side of the car instead. Each tire wrinkles the wrong way on the side facing the RH side of the car because they only tooled the wrinkles one direction on the halves of the slicks. Perry's resin makes a set of smaller slicks that wrinkle correctly, but they're pie-crust style, which shouldn't wrinkle - they had a 2-ply sidewall, and were too stiff to distort like that, even at super-low pressures. Dave

Cool! I nearly gave away a '59 HT I scored this afternoon. It was missing a wheelcover, a custom skirt and the wheel backs, but not a car I dig. A buddy of mine does like 'em, so he bought it for $5.00. Heck, it only cost me $2.00. I'll be interested to see how yours comes out.

A little progress today:

Slammed!

Some progress made:

I need to trim the body just a little more, but... ..the headers will exit between the rear fender and the upper portion of the tracks in back. It's a Tamiya 1/35 M3 Stuart Light Tank hull, suspension and turret.

Yeah, I knew it was an Imp, but I was having better luck coming up with witty names based on "Manx" than "Imp". I have a ways to go, but the upper hull is coming together now. The next time I post photos, look for a Groovy Grader V-8 in the rear and a quickchange axle peeking through in the front. Hmmm... maybe a few skeletons - Rommel Rod needs a Desert Rat rival.

Nice job! No headlight?

Like I didn't have enough projects, I won a Tamiya Stuart light tank in a club raffle last night, and the wheels started turning after I got home from work today. A couple of hours later: Now to find that Hogan's Heroes Jeep I had laying around...

Started some paint - check out the slightly altered version of the "long" tank from the kit:

Yeah - if I actually end up using this little peanut tank, I'll slide it forward so that it JUST misses the triple trees when you lay the forks over. I think I may still scratchbuild one.

Motor is close, but doesn't touch, and the pipes clear. I like my choppers and hotrods tightly packaged, so the closer everything fits together, the happier I am. I'm really tempted to scratch-build an old-school kick-start (with the spiral spring visible and all) and ditch the starter and battery altogether for a little more hardcore feeling.

I like it... just realized I haven't even LOOKED at the decal sheet for the Crusader yet! These things may be a touch simplistic, but that's what made the Tom Daniels showrods from Monogram so great.

I bought the Crusader this afternoon and immediately started kitbashing with AMT's old MPC Shaker Trike with what I feel are favorable results. To increase the rake, I shortened the top tube of the frame approx 1/8" ahead of the motor mount, requiring the short tank to be utilized, though I moved it back until it nearly will touch the front of the seat. The back of that seat will rest right up against the severely bobbed rear fender. I'm not sure yet, but I may go ahead and scratchbuild a new tank. This has taken on such a "Choppers, Inc." look that I may try a Billy Lane trademark angular tank as well.

It looks to me like the kit has an "outer" firewall that shows when you open the engine compartment (see the gap between the inner fenderwells and the forward interior bulkhead. I haven't seen the kit, but they probably curved this panel to clear/support the dashboard/windshield. If they really did it right, ther should be some vent/wiper valance detail on the top edge of the firewall, under the trailing edge of the hood.

Orale! Nice build of a firme Cadi!

So the Crusader must be the hardtail, huh? Looks like a cool start to build some custom scale choppers! That Ace is definitely a softtail - you can see what is molded to look like a seperate trailing triangle and the tell tale crecent-shaped frame bracket that would mount the pivot for the rear suspension, with the shock/spring concealed under the oil bag. No doubt Revell didn't include all these details, but if you want to make this really resemble a hardtail, you need to remove that arc-shaped portion on each side of the frame.

Hmmm... yeah - looks like they ordered the wrong front wheel bearings - lots of slop in there. I'll make sure to get that fixed before I fire up the turbine. These turbines will run on just about anything - kerosene works well enough, but they'll run on propane, gasoline, even diesel. When I was in the Navy, sometimes the tanker we were refueling from would be out of DFM (diesel fuel, marine) so we'd end up having to run the boilers on JP-5 (naval jet fuel) instead. We wouldn't get as many BTU's out of a gallon (it burned much hotter, but flashed faster), but it sure cleaned all the crud off the tubes in the boiler!

If somebody wants to build a gasser-style Predicta or Beatnik Bandit, I'll be glad to pose them at the tree...

Picture it with turbine power and the exhaust stacks shooting out the side coves, little arials with clear discs above the headlights, out the center of the taillights and some other choice places, and some pearl/candy paint. Anybody know where I can get a pinup-style pic of Judy Jetson?

Ah!!! BUT... Lots of guys realized that if they broke trying to get a better qualifying time, neccessitating an overnight thrash, they could see what they were doing better lying on their back with a flashlight/Coleman lantern if the underside of the car was painted white or light gray.

I receently picked up the Gunze version of the Royale, but with "Victoria" cabriolet coachwork. Is this the same tooling, or comepletely different? I figured that for $5, I could at least open the bags and use it for parts...

I'd better get started grooving some cheater slicks, or else I won't have nearly as many models to show. The "Chip Tooth Design Award" is a great idea. I would think that it would likely be awarded to a very crisp, clean custom or rod in a fairly modern style. If there are certain types of models that you personally would like to see represented, I suggest making up and promoting a theme award of your own. I'm going to put my head on the block right now and tell you guys that I'll be sending at least one "Open Mind" award (an electronic version of the custom-painted trophy I award each year at our Gold Coast NNL) to the model at the "cruise" that shows a real "out of the box" mindset.