Dr. Cranky

No pics?

Yum, Doctor Cranky loves Ratz! Great job on that sloop, swoop--whatever you call that roof slant! Perfect.

Pure eye candy, you are making lots of great progress. More, more, more!

Very nice build. Excellent.

Doctor Cranky says: LONG LIVE RUST. You've done a marvelous job.

That looks fabulous. I hope to be able to do that with a blue I'm mixing to shoot soon.

Great job, and beautiful results. I love how-tos like this! Thanks for sharing.

Wow, a white engine. It's looking good, Tom. Keep it going.

Making slow progress, and here's a little bit of what I'm doing:

You better believe it! Yes, how-to away, buddy.

Wow, what a line up! Beautiful job!

Yes, you should be able to but flakes even HOK rainbo flakes are tough unless you thin down considerably.

I love the weathering on this one!

I've only built one so far in my time back in the hobby and I remember it went really well. It is a good kit.

Sure thing, I am watching this one closely!

Looking good. Love the color and shine . . . so far so good. That engine is perfect too!

I can't wait to see more. This one is going to be a nice model. Keep it going, please.

I know, I know what you are working on here, what it is called: ART What a beautiful frame!

Although it's not much fun to watch glue dry, I am making progress on the base . . . stay tuned in for more progress.

Darren, it's looking good, buddy. You are taking your time and it is paying off.

Excellent job. It's a neat little model. Be proud and take good care of it! Congrats.

That's a great price. I'll have to look locally.

All right, that 48 rocks. I'll have to save up for at least half a dozen of them!

Here's another point, and this pertains to car model builders in particular. You develop your tastes whether you like it or not by cutting your teeth on styrene. It seems to me you are not going to build what you don't like, right? Why waste precious time building yet another box stock or whatever if you don't like it . . . the same is true for the vehicles and styles you don't like. One of my great disappointments when I went to build my first Nascar (I built it for a friend's mother for a birthday gift) was that all those kits are the same . . . of course, I don't know anything about Nascar but it dawned on me that the parts that came in the kits were really limited, and I felt I lacked all the skills to be able to produce a good model, so I naturally blamed the kit and not my skills at that time . . . anyway, it turned me off from trying to build Nascar, but it doesn't mean I don't respect a well built Nascar model. As a matter of fact, I would say that your limitations as a builder are exactly the attributes you end up respecting in someone elses' work.

This is the way Doctor Cranky looks at it. If it draws my attention, I don't really care what it is or what they call it. Rat Rods (many of the ones I've seen with my own eyes) have a great cool factor, and like those huge and uncomfortable choppers, I would not go to the corner store in one (well, maybe to the cigar store) but they are INTERESTING in so far as they show the builders' imagination working with what they had. RAT RODS are really a way to push the envelope in terms of WILD, but in terms of functionality and drive-ability. I grew up in Los Angeles in the early 70s during the heyday of Low Riders and Low Rider culture, and I could tell you those amazing cars really made people flock to them. It's no wonder they were all bought out by the Japanese and Germans to showcase in their living rooms or something. I mean, they all disappeared. What's my point? You like what you like and like good democracies, you respect other peoples' views and move on.