krow

Arrived 12 2 19 in sealed bag in southern Wisconsin. Happy to have it!

Add the "Get Smart" variant of the Sunbeam: An Alpine, with the 4 cylinder power plant. Lots of work to fix the hole in the hood for the machine gun, but it is a variant. The rest of the "Spy" gimmicks were mercifully glue on dreck one can ignore, But the hole in the hood is unfortunate.

And then when they start saying "Dude, those cars never ran in snow!" you can just point to the little sign on the display in very small letters saying Cobra Daytona at Bonneville and smile blissfully as they redden up and storm away. All kidding aside, that one shot of the rear looks for all the world like they took it out into a snowstorm.

I guess I don't really get too hung up about it all. The logistics of putting a magazine together with a skeleton/nearly non-existent and voluntary staff and putting it together in a really nice package are something I cannot wrap my head around. A very professional looking output makes the result look easy. It is not, the support network that other magazines have is not there (and if it were, Model Cars wouldn't exist, since it isn't a big magazine). Newsweek had to go begging for an owner not too long ago, and if you haven't been to a good sized bookstore lately, check out what has been happening to automotive titles: They're dropping like flies, because people with unrealistic expectations about making money in publishing are shuttering them. I can wait for Model Cars, I'd rather have something well assembled and professional and relevant to my hobby arriving late than never.

Now that you mention it, do you suppose Tim or one of his accolytes was designing kits for Pyro back then? It could explain a few things. All kidding aside, I am going to be on the lookout for the Pyro "Pustang" or "Minto", however it can be described and do a build. It probably won't look as nice as Marks' but it will resemble the 1/1 almost as well.

Well said! Most of the kits mentioned are in my collection and I have built (or at least tried in vain to build) most of them. For all the faults we can find in them, they still have their charms. My attempts at most of these look awful, but I had fun working on them. I love the 53/54 Revell Chevy kits and now that I have seen the Palmer 75 Mustang II I have to find one, it looks like someone tried to recycle a Pinto mold with a fresh front treatment that was lifted from a Chevette and something faintly Mustanglike for the grille. A new FrankenFord model! Tamiya makes some great kits that are marvelously engineered, and I have some of those, but a trip to the "island of misfit toys" is kind of a nice diversion now and then too.

LED's are fairly cheap these days, and since they're getting used in Christmas lights, the replacement "bulbs" are available in a bunch of colors, white, blue, red, amber, yellow, green etc. etc. The only thing I don't see with the schematics and stuff in the tutorial is they don't have current limiting resistors for the LED's. If you're using battery power, they may not need them in theory (AA cells don't release a whole lot of current), but if you are thinking about using a power supply for the project, you'll want to do a search on LED current resistor and there will be a bunch of programs that you can use to figure it out. If you don't have a current limiting resistor attached the LED will use all the current it can get, light up very brightly for a second or so and burn out. Different color LED's typically take slightly different voltages too, 3.6 volts for white/blue 1.7 for green/red/amber. The nice thing about them is they don't produce the heat that a regular incandescent grain o' wheat bulb does so they can be left on for longer periods of time, and usually they can run on less current too. The only part of the project that might be difficult is flasher circuits and sequential flasher circuits if you're going to go there. Then you might have to start playing around with counters, or microprocessors. For a simple flasher circuit 555 timers can get you there, doing a reproduction of the lights from K.I.T.T. would probably take a microprocessor, or a mitt full of logic chips to recreate.

I like the whole look, but the headlights really look cool, with suede black paint and all four headlights sparked up this thing would be like hell's very own spider coming up behind you in the rearview. For the few seconds you saw it, that is. One of the most creative rides I have seen in a while. Neat!

The center indent on each spoke (little hole thing that looks like a recessed screw) makes them look to be ET Fuelers, which are something of a knockoff of Halibrand Sprints. I thought they were Halibrands until I checked the difference between the two. Nice wheels in any case, for a street rod project.

Jeweler's saw blades, #3 fine (something like 100-120 teeth per inch) 12 per package for a dime a package. I bought many. It was one of those close out sales in an art supply store that only comes around once in a lifetime.

Neat stuff. Hope you didn't think I was accusing you (or anyone here) of check book modelling. The linkages and u-joints do not look store bought, but look like someone did some really good work in shaping and forming sheet aluminum into a dead solid perfect miniature version of the real thing. It's neat when people who are creative enough to devise a way to do this show a way to get there. Me, I'm still in basics mode, but it is neat to see the envelope stretched and even blowed up from time to time. Thanks! Ken

Hi Donald, I usually lurk here, but thought I would throw my two cents in: There are people here (and on several boards out there) that are talented to the point of being a little intimidating. What you'll find is almost all of them are willing to share techniques and ideas with you. Not all of us have lathes, milling machines, drill presses or the skills to whittle wheels from solid blocks of brass or aluminum. But we can get a whole lot of ideas and inspiration from them. It never occurred to me to look at the plastic I was throwing out as a source of sheet plastic and shapes that can be used in models, but someone posted a tip on using parts of a McDonalds coffee cup lid for subwoofer cones and it really made me think about what else is out there. Another one came from someone who mentioned beauty supply shops as sources of sanding and polishing sticks (manicure finishes aren't all that different from our stuff) and airbrushing nail polishes for paints. It doesn't always need to be modeling by checkbook, though there are some pretty neat aftermarket bits that don't cost an arm and a leg. Hang out for a while, and check out what these folks can add to your modeling experience, they're good folks and they know their stuff.

I lurk here frequently, it works for me. I have got a lot of good information from many of you on technique and certainly have been inspired. The only fault I see in the response that Christian gave to the newbie poster was that it was an itemized list of faults rendered to someone who really wasn't looking for such. It was quite the list of faults, and even though justified (I wouldn't have posted the pics myself) I cannot imagine anyone on the receiving end of a list like this taking it well, even with the best of intent on the part of the sender, I don't know if the poster was a kid in his teens, a newbie coming back to the hobby after many years or someone with handicaps that may have made his photography or his work appear the way it did. If you see something like this would it hurt to say "Fantastic! You might want to check out some of our in-progress pages, they have a lot of great information."? If one is comfortable enough in their abilities to ask for critique fire away, but know this: This is an old man's hobby. We can blame it on video games or short attention spans or I-Phones, but our choices in the hobby are being hobbled by a shrinking demographic. If we turn kids and newbies off to what we are doing the hobby will be dead when we are, if not well before. I now return you to your board already in progress...

Put a set of steelies on it, weld a cutout and add an exhaust system to it, add an insulated cover for the trans and fer petes' sake, a speedometer and you would have something. The Model A rims look nice but just aint up for early hemi propulsion. Black or gold steelies would look period correct and be safer and more responsive. Hopefully there's some sheetmetal over the front u-joint that is under the seat or the driveshaft flogging would be possible. Belts for the occupants would be a nice touch too. But it does look nice.

Neat idea, great looking, but it does make ModelCars Magazine look like the great bargain it is. If I had the bucks I would jump in, I may yet, but like I said, ModelCars is a heck of a bargain by comparison.

Art, Thanks for explaining things clearly and concisely: I didn't consider the "human element" in scale model design, nor did I factor the different returns on investment on releases from the past into things. If the technological advances have reduced costs in any way, that savings is eaten by the lower return on investment from reduced sales. As for the human factor, your point is very true-producing a replica in scale is much more than merely shrinking measurements proportionally. It's easy to lose track of that sometimes. Would I like to see more variety and cheaper kits? Yes. But given the current state of things, it isn't as bad as it could be. Thanks again, KenR

What I fail to understand in this is why the prototyping and machining advances and 3D rendering software advances that have been made haven't had more impact on tooling costs: It still takes half a million dollars to tool up a plastic model kit? Are model designers still in some sort of retro mode and whittling and pantographing these things or can they be created directly from CAD design input? It seems strange that with printable prototyping being here (albeit in pretty expensive form for us amateurs) it would start having an impact on lowering tooling costs for the manufacturers. If tooling is still being created the "old fashioned way" the logic of high investment costs and the current approach make sense economically. If they do have access to newer technology, the argument starts getting a little more difficult to support.

Neat project, If it weren't so low already, I would add some sabre teeth to the skull and make a "skrat" from Ice Age out of him! Looks good though. Who knew our bird feeder raiders could be part of our modelling life, or literally, part of a model? You gonna add a little squirrel or racoon tail to this build?

2012? wasn't that going to be the release date for all of the lost JoHan stuff, the lost Aurora stuff, etc. etc. I swear Revell and Round Two are using the Mayan Calendar for setting release dates these days... If this isn't the most stupid topic posted here to date, it has to be a contender.

It is really interesting to see a Willys done as a custom rather than a gasser or a street machine. I don't know why it never occurred to me to cut one up, but this is some inspirational stuff. It looks great!

The Japanese stuff with the "Patio Deck Airfoils" front and rear (I've seen vans that way too) kinda cry out for a keg and a grille on them for a tailgater. At least a couple of chairs and a table with an umbrella! Potted plants, some tiki lights, and you got a party right there. If nothing else, you can fit a couple of drums or a sheet of drywall or two on them for getting back from the lumberyard.

Would I own it? Probably not. But it's kind of like one of those reallllllly ugly little dogs some people have. It's just so messed up on so many levels that it's kinda cool. I wouldn't have done *Barbie Pink Pearl* with *"Glad to be aLime" pearl* flames, but the body work is kinda cool in a fugly, finky way. It looks like a kid that had a whole boatload of AMT customizing parts from 60's annuals left over built his dream car from when he was 14, just 40 or 50 years later in steel. You do have to admit, it will snap heads around, it's just that some of them will continue through a 360 degree rotation a few times...

A swing and a hit, it's going, going goooonnnne! Good issue, lots of useful how to's and great coverage. Just got it today, best part of the day.

I have dealt with these folks for years with great service and they have a good inventory of new and used kits and all of the supplies you would likely ever need: http://www.modelempireusa.com Model Empire 7116 W. Greenfield Avenue West Allis, WI 53214 Phone: (414) 453-4610 Fax: (414) 453-8180 They publish an annual catalog and it should be coming out in the next couple of months. Great people to work with. Try them!

Wow, just wow, imagine how much money and effort went into that project. A monument to the creators' and the eventual buyers' tastes. Sorta like the sheik that had all the marble statues on his Hollywood estates painted in anatomically correct colors. Money surely doesn't grow on trees but it seems to burn pretty well...