Chuck Most

Yeah... sad part is, the bikes are better than the cars in that series, quality-wise. If you must have one, I'd suggest getting it for the cheapest price you can possibly find. As for the cars? I'll repeat the 'not worth it' statement already made on this thread.

Roger's setup is quite a bit like mine- concrete steps and ol' Sol for the lighting. (Slightly overcast days are best, or I can wait until late afternoon when the sun is behind the house.) If you've ever seen any of my photographed projects, you should know my front porch steps well. With my camera, if it's overcast TOO much it does screwy stuff with the image. Haven't quite perfected that yet. I like the sofa/blanket backdrop idea though. Hey- it seems to work pretty well, and just looking at the photo of the truck, you'd be forgiven mistaking it for a purpose-made photography stand.

Nice! I'm guessing it's a snap kit, right? Even if it is, now I'm thinking of buying one.

It's not a starry night in Vegas, but it will hurt just as much. Ugh... my 'dork' is showing... Awesome job! Love how you did the scanner.

If you've seen one retail store's practices, you've seen 'em all. All retail chain stores opererate more or less the same way. Believe me, I used to work for a couple of retail chain stores. Know why they shuffle inventory so frequently? SOMETIMES it's to make room for new product, but 99% of the time it's just done as 'busywork' for the store crew, as if they don't have enough on their plates to begin with. I was having a conversation with a few local modelers earlier today, and I think I spotted another 'mixed message' some modelers give off... "We'll chomp at the bit and gripe about a kit taking too long to get to market, then moan and groan about how crappy it is once it's finally out, and go on and on about how they should have 'taken more time on it to get it right'." Let's just say a local guy wasn't too happy with a delayed reissue he'd just picked up. After hearing what he had to say, I recalled it wasn't the first time I'd heard such a thing, and I doubt it'll be the last time. And Drew... I also don't understand why people still pay for their purchases with checks either. They have these neat things called debit cards now. Fish around for the checkbook and a pen and write a bunch of stuff or just punch in four numbers... which sounds quicker and easier?

Not. Even. Close.

Well... I'll just cross my fingers and hope the cab visor deflects enough air upward and over the stacks for that not to be a problem.

Oh, and there's this 1-off OHV 'commercial' version I'm playing around with...

Ugh... I was afraid of something like that. Oh, well. I'll wing it. She's a brand-new truck, after all. I'm thinking I might use the side skirts after all, just cut down and refinished in semigloss black. They're both cut down now, and soaking in the chrome stripper at his moment.

It shouldn't. I've seen a handful of 1:1 trucks done up like that. One guy I spoke with who had his slash-cut pipes set up like this said it seemed to help a little with keeping soot off the trailer.

Here are three of the seven Hudson sixes I'm working on. Yes, I said seven. None of these engines are 100% complete. Left- drag racer with mechanical injection and headers, based off the engine in 1964 Winternationals Lorne Sapp's Anglia. Center- mild street engine with dual Strombergs Right- Soon to sport a side-mounted Roots supercharger Not shown and still in its embryonic stages at this time- Nonexistant (in 1:1) Ardun-type OHV conversion head and manifolds. All three finned cylinder heads are scratchbuilt. Some of these will end up in Hornets. Some will not. More updates as events warrant...

The 'slash' cuts angle upward from front to back (looking at the truck from the side), so if that's backwards, then, yeah, they're backwards. Tried them the other way and didn't like the look.

First one of these I've ever seen built up. Really nice!

Hey, look! Progress... I used some K&S aluminum tubing to make some slash cut stacks. I wanted them to be tucked behind the cab instead of out past it, though the pipes did end up a little closer to the back wall of the cab than I'd have liked. Too late to change it now, though! I do have to go back and polish some areas where the superglue fogged the aluminum. There's no muffler- just a straight pipe off the turbo to the T on under the cab. I also cut off the kit mudflaps and replaced them with ones made from thinner (.020") styrene. I also made new weights and decorated them with some Detail Master truck mates.

I'm calling this one done enough for now. Eventually I plan on adding some top bows draped with tattered fabric, and some broken glass fragments on top of the dash to represent the driver's side pane being smashed in. It's a curbside with a glued hood, and since I plan to eventually put in on a base sunken into dirt up to the rockers, there's only enough suspension componentry to keep the wheels in place.

I'd suggest finding a kit with a separate bed and inner walls, then trimming as needed to fit the Charger body. Jairus also did a rendering of a custom Pontiac-camino like the one shown (I think), and if I recall Pontiac built a car/truck prototype in 1959.

NICE!!!!

Ah- right! That distant thumping sound you hear is me smacking my forehead...

Don't worry... just today I bought the 9/32" aluminum tube which I'll use for the smokestacks on both this and the LoneStar, and I've started work on the frame for this one. Should be some updates shortly. I can't guarantee how shortly, but shortly.

See why I love WRC so much, despite the fact that practically nobody in the US broadcasts it?

Followed the buildup on this, and love the end result. Came out great!

Clean and VERY realistic.

This one's a little out there. Grain of salt- this is the 'shrunken' '34 body, taken from that awful Revell 'Saints' street rod kit. Remember the underscale '34 body proportioned to fit the Buttera T chassis? Yeah, that one... I used the grille from a Revell Kurtis Midget, but it might look a bit puny with the larger, closer-to-correct-in-size AMT body.

Looks like I've got a few choices for what I'm after, or at least a few sources. Thanks, guys! Jim- I'm not sure about R&K- I saw the transkit listed in an old issue of 'Truck Stop' in SAE ( a 1996 issue I think)and it was reffered to as being cast by a company called R&C Trucking.

What James says makes me wonder- in a lot of ways, trucking is becoming more of a 'punch in, punch out' kind of job than it has been in the past. Even a lot of the old-timers I know who were diehard OTR guys for years are taking jobs with more localized routes. There's always going to be a need for long haul trucks (and folks to drive them), but it seems like trucking is becoming less specialised. I've noticed that even the trucks are beginning to reflect that- nowadays you can get heavy trucks with automatic or clutchless manual transmissions, meaning that just learning how to operate the truck wouldn't require as much skill as in the past.