charlie8575

Pail- REALLY nice job on that Imperial. Jim- I like the Corvair. Do you happen to have the Dupli-Color number for the paint you used? Doug- Cool pick with the Sunliner. You even picked a color to match its name! I've already done the stripping and repaint on the exterior, but I'll get in with a Jo-Han '61 Olds F-85. This car will probably not be "perfect." Honestly, it's a little too far gone for it to be that way. This car will end up with the look of an older car that's been used, but hasn't been beaten too badly. Yeah, it could used a little freshening, but it's still presentable and solid. Someday, I'd like to grab another one of these and do a factory-fresh (or closer to it) car. Pictures will developed and up sometime this week. Charlie Larkin

My dad does a lot of medium-format, especially 120 slides, which are beatiful in terms of color and appearance. He has a Mamiya 745 (I think,) and one of the older dual-lens reflex models, I can't remember what it's called, as well as a bunch of pre-war cameras. He still does a lot of black-and-white and does his own developing. The color stuff, unfortunately, as well as the slides, have to be done by outside sources, as developing color is a little too touchy for doing it by hand. I do most of my shooting on 35mm, and will try to play with the 120 stuff once in awhile for a little extra practice, or if I want a large negative for some reason or another. I like the flexibility and ease film gives me. I've found I have less and less success and luck with electronics as they become more advanced. I like things that are analog- like my brain. My personal grails, camera-wise, are a Voigtlander Bessamatic and an Nikon F6. Two of the best cameras ever made, regardless of medium. Charlie Larkin

I noticed a similar type of issue with one of the fender lines on my similar-vintage (+/- 2005) '66 Mercury. It's going to take a bit of doing with some thin styrene to make the fender line right again. I'm trying to figure out how to do it now. More first-rate quality control... Charlie Larkin

Jim, I may copy your lead on that. The Emerald Green Testors has is actually a good bit darker. You might need to lighten it a little, but it'll be a good start. If you can, you might want to see if you can get some of the Tamiya metallic green spray lacquer. That's much closer to the car in the picture. Charlie Larkin

Welcome to the board. I especially like the base. It looks like you used an actual piece of hot-top. Is that the case? Charlie Larkin

Trust me, Barrett, build that 300 and your mind will change. Nice work on both of them. Did you order the Parade Green from MCW or find another source/close match? Charlie Larkin

Actually, shipping paint, especially in the spray variety, by air freight has been forbidden long before 2001, mainly for the possible toxic hazards. That's why paint vendors like Scale Finishes and MCW are pretty much confined to the lower 48. I remember even in the 1990s MCW couldn't ship to Canada. For our Canadian and other friends, your local paint jobbers should be able to supply you with something that can be translated from the American formulae. Charlie Larkin

Been working very hard on rebuilding a Jo-Han '61 Olds F-85. I built this when I was 12, didn't do too well, and now I'm doing my best to make it presentable. The way and manner in which I did things, however, is making that a bit of challenge. I've decided to go for the "used, but not abused" look with this car, to help "explain" some of the little problems that've cropped up on the body. Pictures will be forthcoming soon, I hope. Charlie Larkin

One problem I see in my cars is when I think I did a decent job with seams, filling sinks, etc., painting it, and then one I missed jumps out at me! Or a deep gouge from sandpaper or something similar that you needed a glossy (i.e., paint as opposed to primer,) surface to make it visible. Ouch. This problem has surfaced with a rebuild I'm working on right now. I prepped the body as best I could, but a lot of little (and not so little) issues have now surfaced. As this car was going to represent a "used, but not abused" car, given the shape of what I started with, it was nearly impossible to get it perfect again, so in this case, I'm just running with it. Sometimes, you can use the issues to your advantage, especially if it lends some credibility to your build. But when it happens on cars I don't want it to happen on (and I didn't really want it here, either, but, as stated, it won't really harm the final outcome, either,) it's painful and upsetting, especially when oftentimes, a great deal of labor has been placed into the build to start with. Charlie Larkin

You'll enjoy building that Modelhaus kit, Jim. Don's stuff really is that good, and he's a nice guy, too. Definitely an exemplar to the aftermarket industry. Charlie Larkin

Very nice fabrication work, Romell. Your metal-smithing is impressive, to say the least. Charlie Larkin

For a visual of the type of shot I was talking about earlier, here's a couple from the '67 Cadillac brochure. I would think that would be pretty easy to replicate with a black photo-box and some thin cloth draped around the back and under the model, at least for the black backdrop, and a white one for white or other colors you might like to use. Charlie Larkin

And if we over-focus on one thing like that, we'll never progress. Forcing the hand of science like that will be retarding the advancement of society, not advancing it. Why? Because nothing else will be happening. We'll all be over-focused on one thing. I'm guessing you've had a lot of cancer in your family. So have I. My mother has been a patient for breast cancer. I've lost several very close friends to it. Cancer is a horrible disease; yes, I do agree we should put more into it. No, I don't agree we should be putting the brakes on everything else. And not one of them ever said we need to put brakes on the rest of the world. In addition to which, forcing scientists in other fields away from their own specializations is not just an inefficient use of their talents and skills, but a total waste of them. I hope ideas like self-driving cars aren't forgotten. These are things that will affect all of us in the future. And who knows, perhaps some algorithm they come up with might crack some chemical code an oncology researcher needed to open the door to success in curing cancer. Cross-over discovery happens all the time, and many times from places you'd least expect. Take a moment to read this article; it'll explain things better than I can. http://www.thefreemanonline.org/headline/markets-and-human-excellence/ Charlie Larkin

At the risk of sounding a little bit like a wise-guy... What if your car is gray against the Kodak gray background? Wouldn't you want something with a little contrast, like black or white, or maybe even another color, like maroon or blue? Or, some cars, like my GTO below, I took pictures of on top of my Caprice, which was silver, and it didn't work too well. The digital camera didn't like it. I didn't try it with my AF 35 mm SLR, and now that I don't have the car anymore, I cant experiment. I kinda like Harry's idea, of doing something like a mix of black/white/and maybe gray as the backdrops. It solves the problem. One thing I've always wanted to do for my pictures was to replicate some of the brochure photography of the 1960s (Cadillac espeially comes to mind,) in which large sheets of fabric were draped behind the car, sometimes even the same color, and the lighting was set so that the car would still be set off from the back-drop. The overall effect is really quite elegant. Charlie Larkin

I tend to echo Bill. Use caution with paints, although I regularly use whatever primer I have under any automotive or hobby paint, and don't have issues. Just be sure it's a quality primer. A lot of the cheap stuff is cheap for a reason. If you need to strip, regardless of what I use to strip, I ALWAYS wash off everything thoroughly in soap and water, let them sit, usually overnight, in a sealed container, drain, rinse, agitate the rinse a little (i.e., shake the closed container around gently,) to get the soap off, drain and air-dry. Charlie Larkin

I was wondering the same thing. And those cars were in pretty nice condition. If it was me, I would've left them alone. I'd like to see what happened. Charlie Larkin

Well, unlike the hood, at least the foil isn't foiling you... *rimshot* *dodging rotten tomatoes.* Good work, Mike. Charlie Larkin

Very cool concept. Great job. Charlie Larkin

I could see a special endorsement being needed. I could also see a special license created for people who might not normally be able to drive, for example, my friend who has cerebral palsy probably will never be able to handle a regular car, despite his attempts at learning how to, but with this type of set-up, he might be required to take a special test that demonstrates to the Registry inspector that he can program the car properly. He'd then be given a restrictive-endorsement driver's license (e.g., along the lines of requiring glasses to drive,) and then could get around easier. The possibilities are endless. Charlie Larkin

Apology accepted, Lee. And believe me, I understand where you're coming from after most of the last five years of part-time and under-employment. It would be nice to see a new complete '63 Vette coupe, I agree. Perhaps it'll happen someday. As to your paycheck bouncing- if it continues to be a problem, check to see if Minnesota allows some kind of action about that; that might be construed as employment under false pretenses. A one-time goof is one thing, but if it becomes a consistent issue, it will need to be dealt with. Charlie Larkin

Interesting. And why can't we cure cancer at the same time? There are plenty of resources to go around, it's the realm outside science and engineering that usually results in the waste and inefficiency. This could be a lot safer for a lot of people- those who can't drive, particularly those not near public transportation. Those who shouldn't drive because of medical or other problems (like, as Jared said, "just suck at driving,") and the list goes on. This promotes freedom for more people. I'll be interested to see where it goes. Charlie Larkin

This is a new reissue? I'll have to keep my eye open. Really, really nice, Kurt. Charlie Larkin

Ford used to call those "pillared hardtops" in the 1970s. Works for me. Charlie Larkin

As someone younger myself (35,) I've always had a great love of the capital C Classics. These were the inspiration in so many ways for great cars of later times that they deserve to be made into models, and the Auburn is a prime example. I like a lot of the calls made here. I'm going to add the 1969-'72 Grand Prix, seeing the tool was nuked for those customs in the 1970s. I think that was one of the nicest-looking cars to come out of G.M. in the last fifty years. In the vain of personal luxury, a new 1963-'65 Riviera would be cool, too. Actually, a new first-gen Toro and F.W.D. Eldo would also be welcomed. I'd like to see a lot of the Jo-Han Mopars, Oldsmobiles and AMCs updated, too. Charlie Larkin

Another nice job, Jared. Those Syclones were quite something. I remember a couple of them around here when they were new. They'd blow by almost anything else on the road in this area. Charlie Larkin