Chuck Most

As weird as it is (to me) to see *this* kit of all things released with Rat Fink graphics, it works. The color scheme gives off old school Ceasar Romero Joker vibes for some reason.

Bumping this for a couple reasons. It now has two little sisters (thanks to the recently completed '79 Caballero), and also to honor Dave. Now if you will pardon me, the RJ's GMC General that I started right after doing the '72 service truck is calling me...

Did you get an e-mail? Mine was about to lapse but I recieved an e-mail last week with a link to renew.

Update on the site... I noticed I could see it on my phone but not my laptop. I cleared my cache and cookies on the laptop and now it comes up no problem, so it may be a technical problem on your friend's end, like it was with me.

Long story short... one day my reply to "What did you get today" will be "the basement sealed". ?

Here they're fairly common in colder climates. Not so much in places like California or Texas. Or so I've heard. I have the basic "creepy Michigan dungeon" style basement. Years ago, such an affair would contain a water cistern (mine is still there but it's been blocked off since the 40s) and a place for cool storage of perishables. Fairly common in rural areas, but obviously those two purposes don't really apply in the modern age. I even have an "ice house" on the property, which was basically the pre-electricity version of a walk-in freezer. Mostly my basement is dedicated to the plumbing (water pump and heater are down there), laundry, and the house's HVAC system, which is pretty typical. Also typical is having that stuff somewhat elevated, for those times when flooding occurs. ?

This might be the second one I've seen lowered, counting the one I built. It's weird how good an old Jeep J-truck looks lowered, and in a world where Mustang II clips and air suspensions exist I'm a little surprised there aren't more.

I can't say enough good things about Joel's products. Always fantastic quality and quick order turnaround. My biggest gripe with them is personal- my budget doesn't allow me to buy at least five examples of everything he makes. ?

Friend of mine had his basement flood (and I mean REALLY flood, as in, all the way to the first floor) so I got off pretty easy. I have a habit of not storing anything I care about and/or can't replace down there for a reason, the bad part is the unused upstairs bedroom looks like the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark at this point. Serves me right for buying the house in a valley next to a pond anyway. ?

Not really model car work, but my basement started flooding for the first time in several years, and naturally my sump pump decided to take a dump sometime during 11pm and 7AM on Wednesday/Thursday, so I moved a few large UHAUL boxes of models up to higher ground. Water never got much deeper than 3" or so but it's definitely gonna be damp down there for a spell. Fortunately none were on the floor (a few were last summer...) . May have lost some decals but no big deal, nothing in those boxes rare or impossible to replace (hence why they were in the basement to begin with).

Pure speculation on my part but he may be swamped with orders, and/or having problems getting material. I haven't even been able to access his site recently. There's another notable caster in a similar situation right now. I had Chris' cell number at one time but naturally I didn't save it to my current phone.

Metallica- Motorbreath Metal Church- Badlands or their cover of Highway Star Morbid Angel- Opening of the Gates Jerry Reed- Eastbound and Down Pantera- Strength Beyond Strength Megadeth- Hangar 18 Iron Maiden- The Trooper AC/DC- A Touch Too Much Six Feet Under- Manipulation Pretty much anything from Danzig-era Misfits On the other hand, No Stranger to Love by "Black Sabbath" is a good slow burn for lower speed cruising.

This guy's name is Dinner. He showed up one day as a stray bag of bones, and I was making dinner and he kept pouncing my foot. I told him if he didn't knock it off he'd be dinner. He didn't... So now he's Dinner. That was six or seven years ago and he's stuck around. I thought he was a girl the first year because he was neutered. ?No longer a bag of bones either. He likes falling asleep in weird contortions...

It's rare that I listen to music while building. 95% of the time I'll have something from RedLetterMedia playing in the background, usually Best of The Worst. When it is music, it's normally the same sludge and death metal I would be listening to any other time, or the occasional grunge, prog rock, or even Enya album depending on mood.

This started out as a red MPC '79 El Camino promo, which had, for whatever reason, been treated to some 4-lug turbine wheel covers from an MPC Monza promo. I took it apart, cleaned off the decades of dust, dirt, nicotine and cobwebs, repainted it in black to use the Ray's Kits decals, added some parts box mirrors and decals, and lowered it a bit with some Pegasus 19" IROC styled wheels thrown in for good measure. From what I can tell the Diablo was equivalent to the Royal Knight package on the El Camino- basically and already decently-loaded example sexied up with some vinyl graphics. I do tend to dunk on GM quite a bit, but getting appearance packages right was one thing they used to be pretty good at. (Grand National being an excellent example. It's just a blacked-out Regal T-Type, but look at how much more those sell for compared to a "regular" Regal T-Type)

Unless... it's a farm truck and it's been used to haul fertilizer and the owner isn't too good about keeping it clean. That'll rust it from both ends. Or it was bought new in New Jersey and came up to Michigan later, once it had already earned it's streaks. Or both. ? Whenever I see an old junker like this in real life, I always wonder what turn of events transpired during it's service life to make it as messed up as it is.

I've said it about many things, but it also applies to model kits... Prices set expectations. We're living in weird times where the local hobby shop has this for 45 bucks, along with Tamiya reissues for under 25 bucks on the same shelf. Sheesh... new Tamiya kits are a few bucks cheaper than the Surf Shark, by and large, nevermind Revell stuff. And pretty much any of those kits would be a more satisfying experience than this one. Personally, if they'd tooled up the parts to make a stock ambulance (or hearse... can we let Johan have their five decade monopoly on the hearse model kit market continue?) at this same price, okay, maybe I'd spring for it. But for what amounts to a de-contented reissue of a relatively common kit, with a couple little doodads and the stock surfboards they've stuffed into a couple of recent reissues? Well, I won't knock anybody for being excited about this kit or buying it, but the value per dollar ratio just doesn't quite do it for me. And I remember balking at the price when Revell introduced the two in one version of the '64 Thunderbolt (TWENTY DOLLARS FOR A MODEL KIT!!!???) but I still bought quite a few of those, because it at least felt like I was getting something out of it. This Surf Shark kit's MSRP is more in line with something like the '63 Nova full detail wagon, which inexplicably sells for less... Maybe they believe they'll make up for it in volume with the Nova wagon. I dunno.

... it's a Case VAI, courtesy Thunder models, via Airfix. It's rendered in 1:35 scale and offers the option of a military unit or a civilian Case VAI. The kit has some really nice photoetch, like the side step plates (which unfortunately have no positive location marks... you just kinda have to "feel around" for where they sit on the transaxle), and radiator fan (totally hidden by the shroud on the finished model. Rare for me, I kept it totally box stock with a weathered finish. I had planned on going with Case Flambeu Red (Model Master Chevrolet Engine Orange is a decent match) but liked the rusty basecoat so I kept it like that. Eventually I would like to tackle the version with the loader.

I bought this kit when it was first reissued, and sat on it until just now. I've heard the kit was a nightmare to build, but overall, I just plugged away at it for about a week and a half worth of evenings and had no real issues with it. Windshield fit isn't the best but overall it didn't fight me much. It is mostly out of the box with a few exceptions. The open wheels are from an AMT '50 Chevrolet 3100, though the left rear tire is the kit piece with the molded on hub cap (why, MPC? Why?). The kit air cleaner was replaced with a crusty chrome one from the spares pile. In the bed, you will find a milk crate from Iceman Collections, which contains a few empty booze bottles from an MPC '28 Lincoln, along with the kit spare tire (with it's lug and hub holes opened up) and some crushed resin cans. The side view mirror was nabbed from an AMT '70 Ford Taxi. There's also a baseball cap from Kitchen Table Resin resting on the front seat. The kit headlights are just smooth chrome discs, so I swiped a set from the Datsun Monster truck kit, which at least have a reasonable attempt at molded detail. I went with a mismatched front sheet metal ensemble featuring an olive drab driver's fender and splash apron, red hood, and yellow passenger's side fender. The overall color is Tamiya Park Green with a dull coat, it looks like it might be a decent match for factory Datsun Pistachio Green. Salt, sanding, Vallejo rust washes, and AK Interactive weathering pencils round out the finish. I used the kit decals for the fender badges and lenses... they look better than I was expecting them to, especially the front turn signal/parking lights.

Like the first-gen Taurus that came before it, it's hard to remember how radical the tenth gen 1997 F150 was. But, again like the first gen Taurus, after you see five or ten million of them, the edge (New Edge, as Ford might put it?) begins to wear off. I remember when these things were the latest and greatest thing in the light truck market... now I barely notice them, even though now they're getting old enough to stand out among later trucks, which have gone back to being stylized bricks, much like the ninth gen F-Series this generation replaced. The kit is the original (silver plastic) Revell '97. This same kit was also molded in white and listed as a '98 in the F-Series 50th Anniversary two pack, which also included the stock '50 F1. The exhaust is a dead giveaway the truck is a '97, after the exhaust (located in front of the right rear tire) was said to create problems with discoloration on that wheel, the exhaust was moved to behind the tire. All 1998 models also had a 50th anniversary graphic in the lower left corner of the rear window- a graphic Revell included on the box art of that two pack but not as a decal for the model. But I digress. The kit is mostly box stock, with the following exceptions. I had originally planned to convert the truck from an XLT (the super sexy luxo cruiser version), to an XL (super scummy poverty and fleet version), and had modified some old resin cop car wheels. Meant for a Chevrolet, I drilled out the centers, then cut the hubcaps from the Revell's XLT wheels. The caps were then pushed into the wheels and I had something closely resembling the base XL steel wheels. I ultimately chose to keep the truck an XLT but I still ended up using the XL wheels on three of the four corners. The other deviation from box stock were the graphics. The basic stuff is from the Revell kit, but the Old '97 graphics and rear window stickers came from a Gopher Racing sheet. My buddy Erik did the CARS logos for the doors, which were then printed off on Micro Mark carrier. The truck was treated to a heavy weathering job. The rust was a happy accident. I had planned to use masking tape to peel off the Oxford White top coat, revealing the grey primer underneath. Well, the tape peel method worked a little too well, as it lifted the top coat AND my grey primer coat, revealing the rust colored base coat. I went with it and used some Vallejo washes and Tamiya acrylics to create streaks. The hood was finished off in Tamiya USAF Grey and stained with some of the Vallejo washes, rubbed onto the hood with an old cloth. And before you say "Oh, yeah... looks like a typical Michigan truck, hahaha..." I'll have you know... its not nearly broken in half enough for that.

Now that the Turtle Wax 1982 (despite the fuel cap vs fuel flap disagreeing with the model year on the box) Dodge van kit is out, I figured it was time to build my last remaining Rescue 911 van. You remember that one... when MPC wanted to do a Cannonball Run kit, and found themselves without the first-gen B series tooling, they just dummied up the second gen kit grille with a weird Austin Alegro-like insert to make it look older. Unfortunately, this grille carried over into the Rescue 911 version, though thankfully molded in white instead of red. First order of business (or bidness, as late Wendy's founder Dave Thomas pronounced it), was to cut down the body. I've wanted to do a shortened van for a while, I guess now was the time. Basically I cut out the length of the passenger's side cargo doors, with the interior tub and chassis cut to match. Since these kits have a "saggy bottom" stance I also shimmed the rear suspension, but since this was a custom build I also lowered the front a little. It was then fitted with some MPC Cragars robbed from a '76 Road Runner... another time MPC got the model year wrong, though much more painfully obvious in the case of the Road Runner. Once all that was done, attention turned to that Austin Alegro looking grille and it's molded basketball headlight lenses. No way was that gonna fly, even for a stupid little fun project like this. That was cut out, and a new grille was made from .040 v groove sheet. The bezels are flat stock with borders made from .030" strip and play host to Moebius F100 lenses. I'll discuss the interior a bit because it's basically invisible on the finished model. The kit comes with seats that would look more at home on a swivel mount in a Taco Bell lobby, so they were replaced with some very vintage Design Factory resin A100 buckets. I also added a floor shifter, with a parts box boot, brass rod, and a knob from a Warhammer skull set. I stole the optional smoked glass from the Turtle Wax kit to use it here. The body was hosed off in Duplicolor Ford Oxford White. The decals came from a Gopher Racing sponsor sheet. Examining the photos it needs a few touch ups and I'm still toying around with the idea of adding some dummy side pipes, but overall, I had fun. Which I guess is the whole point.

Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I'm actually pretty happy with the way this one came out. Think I started the old '22 hobby season rather strongly... let's see how far I can fall. ?

This, with a couple coats of Testors Dullcote on top

This started out as the AMT 1950 3100. Conversion to a '52 consists of replacing the molded door handles with push button handles (taken from a Revell '50 Oldsmobile in this case), filling in the driver's side cowl vent, modifying the hood side badges (cutting away the 3100 basically), and adding wing vents to the windows. I also used the valve cover and air cleaner from the custom version of the kit just because I could. The topper was constructed from various bits of Evergreen plastic and Chesapeake aluminum mesh, and the trailer came from the '63 Nova Wagon 3 in 1. The trailer was given a set of '50 Chevrolet truck taillights. I also filled in the quarter windows to give the truck a low-line, base model feel. I don't believe that "base model" 1952s had white grilles (bumpers yes but the grilles seemed to have been body color) but I liked the look so I went with it.

It can get away from you sometimes (I'd rather not discuss how I know... ) On the flip side, I just tried another sheet of BMF and I'm not getting the adhesion problems like I did with the last sheet. Maybe my love/hate relationship with BMF will continue for at least a little while.