2002p51

It looks pretty strange to see somebody using it that way too!

Since we're on the subject, I saw this at a race I was shooting over the weekend: She was shooting video with her iPad. I went over and talked to her and she showed me the video. Image quality was surprisingly good! (and no, she's not taking pictures of the light pole! )

Yea Pete, I think you are missing something. As you know, like Jeff, I'm a professional motorsports shooter and one thing I can tell you is that panning with a 200 mph race car while you're holding the camera at arm's length trying to get a critical view in that little screen is nearly impossible. And while it's true that I've been shooting with SLRs for 30 years now and I'm too used to it (i.e. too old ) to change now, I think the traditional SLR system will be with us on the pro side anyway for many more years. I also echo the previous comments about the camera only being a tool. It's the photographer that makes a great photo, not the camera. It's almost an insult when somebody says; "Gee, your photos are great. I bet you have a really nice camera!" Having said that however, I've become really impressed with some of the "cheap" cameras that are out there now. It used to be the worst camera you could have was the one on your cell phone. Most of the early ones were simply awful. I would see people using them at car shows and such and just feel it was a waste of time. Last year I got my first "smart phone", an HTC, and I'm using the camera in it more and more. Not for my racing of course, but I now think of it as being able to have a decent camera with me at all times. And that's a big step for me! So, before I ramble on anymore I'll just say that the choices on the camera market today may seem confusing but you just have to really think about what you want to use it for and find the right camera for the job. Just don't fall into the "more megapixels, the better" trap. That's a whole 'nother rant!

It actually took me less than 12 seconds to add one. But it took me about a minute and a half to figure where to go to add one!

Nice save. Looks real nice.

Well, I usually stay behind the camera but . . . . This is when I was skinny and proud of my car in 1978. I'm still proud of my car but a lot more laid back these days!

The whole point of eBay, to me anyway, is different than a live auction. In a live auction the highest bidder wins, on eBay the LAST highest bidder wins. There is absolutely no point in bidding before the auction is almost over. There are some kits over there that I'm watching right now and one of them already has 10 bids on it and there are still FIVE DAYS to go! All those guys are doing is running up the price. Stupid. I never bid on an item until at least less than a minute to go, then I will go up to the maximum I'm willing to pay. I win 90% of the auctions I go after that way. Of course, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. I once lost an item by .50 in the last second or two. That's fine, it happens. I do like By-it-Now items and will get them when I can and yes, like most of you, I take the shipping charges into account before I decide if I want to go for an item or not. Overall I like using eBay to find stuff I want, stuff that you just can't find anywhere else, and I can't say I've any real bad experiences.

Is this what you're looking for?

Well, since you asked, no, probably not. The Hudson was a much too heavy car to be competitive in the gas classes. And while there was nothing in the rules to prevent it, what would be the point in spending all that time and money to build a car that couldn't win?

I really hate to break this to you because you've done such great work on that engine otherwise, but . . . . What you've got there is two different injector set ups on the one engine. Those two box like things under your bug catcher is an Enderle injector with it's own set of butterflys. Then you've got the more typical "bug catcher" style injector on top of that. Wouldn't work. You need to use just one or the other. The "bug catcher" could be used as it is, or if you use the Enderle, then you just need a plain scoop for it. Like this: Or this: Sorry, just trying to help.

Vinyl tires! I hate 'em. I know, I know, but I can make hard styrene tires look more realistic with paint than those rubbery things do.

All this talk, and dare I say, excitement about the Mobious 1/25th scale Hudson reminded of this little model I built a long time ago. The kit was made by Precision Miniatures. It's 1/43rd scale and made of cast white metal. (It's surprisingly heavy for such a small model!) I don't remember exactly when I built it but the copyright date on the bottom is 1981, so it had to be right around that time. There's no engine and minimal chassis detail but it does have a full interior. As you can see, the decals are slightly out of register but they are very complete, even down to the little red "Hornet" logos on the trim pieces. Because this is still the only 1/43rd scale model in my collection, it doesn't have a real "home" on the shelves with all of my 1/25th models, so it just sits on my workbench and has been there for all these years! I hope some of you enjoy seeing it.

Let's see, arriving at the airport two hours before flight and waiting, and waiting, and waiting in multiple lines, intrusive airport security measures, seats that are uncomfortable for a 6 footer before you even leave the gate, no service in flight, (if you're lucky you get a bag of peanuts and half a Coke!), old worm out planes that drop parts in flight, air traffic controllers that put two planes on the same runway, pilots who have been drinking or fly right past your destination airport because they're not paying attention. You pay hundreds of dollars for the privilege, and after all that, they lose your luggage! Now, consider that I absolutely love to drive and enjoy nothing better than a long road trip, and I see no reason to ever get into one of those flying aluminum tubes and put my life in someone else's very untrustworthy hands.

The '3' truck was indeed owned by Richard Childress and was very similar to the Cup car. It was driven by Mike Skinner and the team won the first ever "official" NASCAR truck race at Phoenix in 1995. Here's the model I did of this truck many years ago: Drew

I've been using Fotki for years just like many here. But here's a little hint for those of you who use Photobucket and like it. If someone posts a link to an album here or any other board and I see that it's a Photobucket album, I don't even bother going there. Photobucket is just too annoying to view. So if you want people to actually look at your photos use Fotki.

Honestly, I don't remember who it was. I intentionally ignored names. The model was a very nice '32 5-window.

Okay, there's a lot of theories being thrown around here and a great deal of speculation. Let me interject my 2 cents. (Well, it may end up being 25 or 30 cents, we'll see) First of all, a couple of you need to lighten up. In the overall scheme of things, this was done for a TV show, nothing more and you shouldn't be trying to make it out as the savior of the hobby, or the death of the hobby, or any indication of the state of the hobby, because it was none of those. It was a product promotion for a TV show. And just because they called it a "national" contest, you should not compare it to any other truly "National" contest, either past or present. As for the judging "criteria", let me go over that item by item; I actually dug the papers they sent me out of the trash when I got home from work tonight. (I had just done a little housekeeping in the hobby room and tossed them out.) So here is the list of criteria that I had and my interpretation; (And I'm talking about those 6 or 8 models that made the final cut) 1) Creativity and originality. None of the models I was judging displayed much of either. In spite of this being the "Unlimited" class, they were all pretty much straight out of the box. 2) Use of the Revell/Monogram kit. All entrants were from the Revell/Monogram kit. So, a wash. 3) Adherence to the theme, Hot Rods and the product list provided. Again, they all were, another wash 4) Fit and finish. This was one of things that was difficult to judge critically from photographs. There were no major gaps or flaws visible in any of them. That could be as much due to the lack of crisp detail in the photos as anything else. 5) Use of color. All of the entrants I got full credit for this. And that's it. These very basic "criteria" leave a great deal to be desired but, and I have to repeat this again and again, the photos made it nearly impossible to be anymore critical than this. I was asked to pick one winner, and one Honorable mention for Best use of Color, and one Honorable mention for "Most Out of The Box", which I thought was very odd to be included in an "Unlimited" class. This one was a very difficult choice too because, like I said, almost all of the entrants were pretty much out of the box. Included in the photos they sent me, I got the name and address of each builder (which I didn't need or care about) and what basic kit he used. I was not given any other information like modifications, paint used, other parts used or anything like that. As to the low number of entrants I have no doubt this was all there was. Didn't surprise me at all since this contest was really not aimed at the hard core modelers. And to the point of trusting that the entrant named was the actual builder of the car, I will tell you that my original pick as the winner of the class was later "withdrawn" and they came back to me to make another choice. So let's drop the whole debate about why the number of entrants was so low, and any speculation of weeding out a few before I got my hands on them. It was for a TV show, nothing more should be made of it. Are we all happy now?

Well, to tell you the truth, I was glad there weren't any more. They gave me a very short turnaround.

Okay, maybe criteria wasn't the best word. I know there were rules, what I meant was I wasn't told how to do my job.

Harry, I remember covering a local contest for that "other" magazine many years ago and there were guys who could not answer the most basic questions on the tech sheet. "What color and type of paint did you use?" "uh, I don't remember." "What kit is the basic model from?" "Uh, I don't know." It was painfully obvious that these guys did not build the model.

I was only required to judge one class, "Under 15, Unlimited", I think they called it. (I'm at work right now and the disc they sent me is at home.) I have no idea how many total entries they got. I was sent 28 entries. I was not given any criteria on which to base my judging, I was on my own to do it any way I wanted. I will tell you that I eliminated about half of the entries immediately for various reasons that included technically bad photos and the fact that a half dozen or so entries were so obviously better than the rest. I then went over that final 6 or 8 looking for the basics, i.e.; no fingerprints, wheels in alignment, etc. My final choices then became somewhat subjective, again, because having only photos to go by I really couldn't get much of a "feel" for the skill of the builder. That was the most difficult part, having only photos to go by.

Well, in a perfect world all contests would be fair. I can tell you stories from now until your head hits the keyboard from boredom about contests where the "fix" was definitely in. Both model and 1:1 shows. The only thing you can really do about that is not support those shows next time with your participation and your dollars. (And I have done that!) My favorite kind of awards, in both scale and 1:1, are those that are a simple "pick em". There's no formal judging. Either the sponsors or the show participants just "pick" a car they like. It's wide open and nobody can really argue with the results because the winners were just somebody's favorite car. And it's funny, 9 times out of ten, the best cars still win.

Yes and no. I enter contests because, for me anyway, it's fun to compete. And I am trying to win, but I also just want to show off my work and see what others are building. I have the same attitude when I enter 1:1 car shows. If I win something, that's icing on the cake and just made my day better, but if I don't win anything, I'm fine with that and don't get my knickers in a bunch, because I still had a good time at the show. So I do care if I win, and don't care if I don't. Does that make any sense?

Tell you what, here's my e-mail address: dhierwarter@yahoo.com I will answer any questions and tell any of you whatever you'd like to know.