Dave Ambrose

Congratulations, and we're glad you're here. It still surprises me how time's passage catches me off guard.

That car would make a wicked cool lowrider.

That’s a lovely Miata. We just retired a ‘94 M Miata from our household. Got many good miles off it including a 2 week camping/driving trip. Great cars, and so much fun. Lots of comfort and go fast bits for them too. My favorite accessory was a pair of Piloti driving shoes.

This was posted to Facebook this evening. To all friends of MODEL CARS Magazine: By now, just about everyone has learned of the impending demise of SA. While it is in some senses the "end of an era", it is also a moment of truth for our beloved hobby. I started writing for the former Scale Auto Enthusiast Magazine in 1982. In 1989, The late Gary Schmidt, who founded SAE, asked me to pen a column for a new sister publication to be called CAR MODELER knowing my penchant for replica stock modeling - which I was happy to do, called it STRICTLY STOCK, and lasted through the five years of that magazine's existence. STRICTLY STOCK then moved to the pages of SAE, and I am still to this day grateful and appreciative for all the kind words and comments from our readership. That column, and my relationship with the magazine, ended with the "revamp" into SA without an E. From that moment on, I have been happily a part of MODEL CARS Magazine - and that relationship remains unbroken. Gregg, like Gary Schmidt before him, understands that this hobby is not a solitary one - that there is a social aspect to it. Not everything is about "How to [fill in the blank]." Both men infused their magazines with that spirit, and fortunately for us, one of those magazines kept that spirit alive and kicking - and Gregg deserves major kudos for that. As my dear friend, the late John Slivoski, one of the founders of NNL East, once commented to me over a hamburger at Johnny Rockets, "Its not about the little plastic cars. It's about the friendships we make along the way BECAUSE of the little plastic cars!" I've known Gregg for many years, and he has become one of my closest friends. I've known the trials and tribulations he has gone through and continues to go through, and I also know firsthand of his love for the hobby and his passion to keep MODEL CARS afloat despite all the obstacles he has faced. I am both proud and happy to stand with Gregg in the reboot of the magazine, and to help keep the promise of MODEL CARS being the best and most relevant publication devoted to our beloved hobby. Its been said that nobody gets rich writing for a magazine. While that may be true, I look upon it as a labor of love, much the same as our hobby is a labor of love, as twelve years of STRICTLY STOCK was a labor of love for me. That said, I hope you will join me in welcoming MODEL CARS Magazine back into the fold, with the promise of it being better than ever, and to promote efforts to keep the brotherhood of our worldwide model car community alive and well. Yours truly, Larry Greenberg Associate Editor MODEL CARS MAGAZINE

Thanks! This was fun. My wife and I watched it last night.

Backing stuff up is a complicated subject. No medium lasts forever, and even archival DVDs are only good for 20 years or so. Then there's the matter of obsolete formats. I got whacked by that some time back. Information was stored in an archive format that's no longer used, and I can no longer run the archive program. Oops. We go to a lot of trouble to protect this site. We have multiple backups in multiple locations; including an air-gapped hard drive that isn't plugged in to anything unless we're copying data to it. Our problem, and I suspect other sites' problem is that the backups have gotten so large. Backups for this site are now running at 250GB and growing at about 15% per year. We're lucky that big hard drives are relatively cheap, but I look like a data hog to my local internet provider. We learned some hard lessons when we got hacked. Now, we're pretty well protected from both vandalism and data loss. But, this is still something I'm actively working on.

You should post a link to your site in Links to Aftermarket Suppliers. That’s the place we reserve for parts vendors and suppliers.

I (and my friends) was shocked and saddened. Good guy. Any time you can help people be smarter, and actually think, you've done something great.

This weekend, my wife and I were driving south on the Pacific Coast Highway, south of Cardiff. We encountered a motorcycle club driving north. That wouldn’t be unusual, except these people were riding Vespas instead of Harleys.

Our web server is a vital part of our forum. It's our foundation and the bit of technology that makes the forum and web site possible. Our server runs a version of the Linux operating system. It supports the web server, forum software, and database; all of which let us deliver information quickly and seamlessly. Our current version of Linux is going off support and we have to upgrade the server to a newer version that will be supported for the next 4 or 5 years. This cannot be done in place. We actually have to start up a new server, install all the software, then transfer the data from the old server to the new. I'm still working out how long this will take, but right now, it looks like we might be offline for a day or so while we transfer the information, then verify the new installation. The benefits aren't immediately visible, but they're huge. Those of you who were around for our hacking incident know just how disruptive a system intrusion can be. Keeping Linux up to date is a big part of preventing successful attacks. The upgrade will also reduce our operating costs, which is getting more important as time goes on. The upgraded system will also be easier to maintain, something I appreciate more than most. ? I don't have any dates yet, but it will need to happen well before November when our current version reaches end of life. I’m aiming for August so we don’t get caught in a mad rush of servers in need of updating. I'm also anticipating a major upgrade to our forum software. That will happen later this year. We get some new features, some security improvements, and again, it will be easier to administer. I don't think the appearance will change much, if at all, but I don't know for sure yet. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted almost everything. We're lucky we have model cars to keep our minds occupied with something positive. To that end, my goal is to keep the board and web site operating well, and the experience here both pleasant and positive. Thank you all for contributing to our community. It's needed more than ever. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them below or send me a PM.

I was talking to our local hobby shop, and they say Tamiya paints have been hard to get. They order a lot and get a little. The racks In the store are looking rather bare.

That's great news! I hope her recovery continues to go well.

I think I see the problem. If this is regarding messages from Fiat Boy, those are messages in your feed, and public. Notices for those are turned off by default. You'll want to continue that conversation in private messages.

The first episode was excellent. The MG TD got my immediate attention. This being an MG heavy household and all. . . . . .

Wishing the best, for both of you.

No apology needed. Why do you want to delete a topic? If you want something removed, you need to ask a moderator.

I think there are a lot of us walking down that path.

Very nice. I love that era of T-bird.

Best wishes for both of you.

If you need to resize pictures, Irfanview is free, versatile, and handy.

I’m looking forward to this. Been looking at my two Grand Sport kits and wondering if my skills are up to the kit yet.

I've seen this car. It's a very clean build.

I remember that finish. It was A Thing(tm) for a while. Don't know why they thought that was a good idea. You might be able to just etch the concrete to get rid of the slickness. I'd try that first. Behr makes non-skid paint in various colors. We painted a shed floor with it, and the texture is just right. It goes on quickly with a short nap roller. It's also usable on concrete, but I would certainly acid etch the concrete first. I plan on using that paint in my garage, and maybe the patio, tho I really want to stain the patio concrete instead of painting it.

We had someone threaten to attack the site and dump a bunch of objectionable stuff on us. It was one of the attack vectors, and we had to put the time limit on it. I’m working on a better solution, but it’s surprisingly complicated.

I call it autocorrupt for exactly that reason.