Darin Bastedo

I think the reason is the current "Hall of Fame" is from the The International Model Car Builders' Museum. I think that is the main thrust.

I question the need for a hall of fame. Is this not a hobby? Do we do this to be recognized? I did this hobby for 15 years before I discovered model car magazines. The only contests I entered were at the local hobby shops and at the Syracuse Motorama, and I did that mostly just for fun. The only trophies that I have kept over the years are one for best paint, as I was really proud of that one. (I had struggled with paint for years up to that point.) and one from my model clubs meeting. Basically each month we'd bring our recent completions and during the meeting vote for the one we liked the best. They chose mine, and that was a real honor. Beyond that awards and recognition is so far down on the list that it doesn't register most days. Turning this hobby into a popularity contest I think takes some of the fun out of it. How many times have we seen people in the forums self destruct over ego? Would people get hurt if someone who had been at this less time who they perceived as a lesser builder got in the Hall of fame and they didn't? Will my enjoyment of the hobby be increased if someday that list includes my name? Will it get me dates? Will it bring in big dollar endorsements? No it simply means that a small percentage of modelers, who represent the car model hobby, which is a niche with in Model building, which is a niche within the hobby world, voted me in. This is not to discount the achievements of those on the list, but just to put things into a real world perspective. Take that list to a crowded street and ask people who the people in the list are, and you will draw blank stares. We are the only ones who do care. So how about this. If someone on this board inspires you let them know now. Comment on their builds shake their hand at a show, let them know they are special now, not decades from now when they are either dead or have "finished their careers". Given that there are only so many inducted in a year, the odds are that almost all of us will never be on that list. But the words "cool build" will always raise my spirits for the day, and that for me is enough.

The keystone of copyright law is whether the action causes damages. According to the letter of the law unless you are making a copy (and there are strict limits on the number and types of copies depending on what it is.) For educational, Promotion or critique purposes, making copies with out permission is against the law. Fair use does not cover you for making a few copies for you and your friends even if you are not making money off of it. That said there is the question of enforcement. With the exception of Movie and music piracy, and counterfeit products (trademark infringement) Copyright is a civil issue. To win in court, you must show damages. (you can still get the court to order the cease and desist but you may not get a financial award. This where it gets specific to resin casting, models and us. Model companies rarely if ever care about resin casters copying their products, primarily because; 1. Injection molded kits are far less expensive than resin casting. 2. Generally the caster is making trans kits that still require you to buy the original kit. Take for instance the Open road Camper that AMT/Model King came out with. Scale Equipment Limited offered a resin copy of that camper for $125 dollars. which was less than a mint kit was going for before it was re-issued. The Reissue kit came out with a retail price of $20. The resin copy did not affect the value of the original. The limited run sold quickly. On the other hand take a limited run resin kit. lets say Ferrari Lusso conversion for the Italari Ferrari GTO kit. (don't we all wish). I spent a year scratch building all the parts had 100's of dollars in time and materials and I put it on the market for $150 dollars and limit it to 100 copies. Then someone comes along and copies it. He only had to put in enough money to cover rubber and resin and he starts selling it for $50, and will sell as many as people want. Now I can't sell mine for $150 because you can get the copy all day long for $50. I've lost the possibility of turning a profit, and lost at least $10,000. That is actionable because the copy diluted the value of the original. But what if you copy it after the run of 100 were sold and it is no longer available? The reason I limited the run to 100 was to create a sense of urgency with the consumer. Just like Revell's SSP runs, it's limited so that you will buy them now. How many of us on regular issues like the New Revell 'Cuda, say, "I'll pick it up later". I might just be taking a break to allow demand to build up for it again, But if you make the cheap copy in the mean time, the demand never builds and my original becomes worthless. Copying other people's resin with out their permission is a bad idea.

No you missed the point. The point is, that just because you had a bad experience doesn't mean everyone does. I've ordered From them dozens of times over the years and always got good service. I'm not "defending lousy service". I'm stating that I never got bad service. The only time I had to wait a long time for anything, was for something I simply could not get anywhere else, even direct from the manufacturer. I'm sorry if the fact that I'm happy with Strada Sports gets in the way of you trashing him, but I'm happy with the Price, service and communication. If you aren't there are other vendors. Use them.

If you pay with credit or debit you aren't handing over your money. If it's out of stock and available elsewhere get it there, that is what I do. If you choose not to buy from Strada, then don't. There are many other vendors out there. It really is that simple. If they are out of banana's at my favorite grocery store, I buy them at the store up the street.

I order quite a bit from Strada Sports The only time I have to wait a long time is when I order hard to get Items. I placed an order about 6 months ago, he had most of what i ordered and all he lacked was A couple of sets of Foose wheels from Scale Productions. When I found out they were back ordered of course i checked other suppliers but they seemed to be made of unobtainium. So I just didn't worry about it. Lo and behold Kevin came through for me, a few weeks ago I get an email saying he got some and do I still want them. I said yes and the showed up for the original price and free shipping. Most other places simply delete your back-ordered items and you never hear when they come in. I will continue to order from Strada Sports,because he has good service and prices, and if what I want is out of stock I will check my secondary suppliers or wait until they are restocked.

We will never have an alternative to gas, until certain people stop politicizing science. It is time we start investing more in educating our citizenry, and less in wall street, Invest more into our infrastructure and less on policing the world. and start electing the smartest people instead of those who are the prettiest and play to our egos. our need for energy is constantly increasing while our resources are dwindling and the costs of those resources are increasing. Finding a way to reverse that trend is paramount. The key to those answers is scientific exploration. That process inevitably will result in some level of failure, as have all new scientific advances. To criticize that effort because 100% success is not achieved is short sighted. It took Edison 100's of attempts to invent the light bulb. Now it is an integral part of our lives. Alternative energy will be the same way.

Looking Good!

Actually 2.5 Million cars in 14 years isn't that big of a deal. It works out to less than 180,000 units per year. not exactly record breaking.

The Fox body and it's styling did not save the Mustang. The 5 liter engine did. The Fox mustang was mediocre at best until the 5 liter 4 bbl came out. The performance sold that car despite the boring two door Fairmont styling. Had it had better styling it may have actually out sold the camaro. as it is the camaro outsold the fox mustang most years of it's existance. The Fox mustang didn't save the car, it kept it on life support until Ford could get its act together.

The most recent update on this project is this; It needs new paint. The paint job is the key to replicating this car and I'm just not happy with the results. I have a 4 day weekend coming in October and hope to knock it out then. After that it's a simple matter of assembly as all the other work is done.

Ironicly many of Boyds cars were designed by Foose, He was Boyds chief designer.

Wow. Time flies. I didn't realize it had been over a year since I last updated this build. One thing this build requires is stance. That is something I was struggling with adapting the stock chassis to get the look I wanted. So I designed a new chassis from the ground up using some parts from various kits. and some evergreen plastic. It's still in progress but I have all the hard points dialed in. I designed the chassis to mount the suspension higher in the frame so that I could achieve a lowered stance but with full suspension travel. I converted the front suspension to a McPherson Strut type and used the rear suspension from a 1991 Mercury Cougar.

The photo etch sheet does make one mistake. The Side-pipe covers aren't supposed to have slots in them. the "slots" are actually painted on the real car.

The only 289 Cobra kit is the ancient AMT kit. A better plan of attack would be to simultaneously develop a street roadster/club racer, a dragonsnake, an FIA roadster, and a Daytona coupe. Many of the racing parts on the FIA roadster would be correct on the daytona, and they would be able to use the majority of the tooling in five different releases.

oops I will edit the post, and if done by a domestic kit maker it could be less than $30

Heres a source for detailed and accurate drawings for the Daytona. $600. And there is at least as much of a market for this as there is for the Hasegawa 1958 Ferarri 250 Testa Rossa, or Fujimi Ford GT40 http://home.comcast.net/~chuckcobra/Daytona/Index_daytona.htm http://home.comcast.net/~chuckcobra/index.htm

Because I can take a book into the bathroom with me. Even if I could do that with you, I think it would make things awkward.

How about this kit from Historic Racing Miniatures? It's $185 and worth every penny. I have one and hope I can build it this well.

I would be happy if someone did a kit of CSX2299. in my opinion it is the best looking of the bunch.

You are correct, about the diff cooler, which was only installed during the finishing of the few actual competition cars sold, the brake pads were changed to non-racing spec, as were the bushings. From what I under stand only a handfull of cars left the factory with dry-sump, and that was not a standard item when shipped to Shelby. It was installed here in the US by customer request. But as far as cosmetics go, which is partly the topic of conversation here, all true S/C cars (as opposed to street cars later modified to S/C spec to raise their value) Started as full comp cars, and therefore should cosmetically be identical.

None of the Competition Cobra 427 ran webers. They all ran single 4bbl carbs. Every 427 S/C Cobra started out as a Competition Cobra. There is no differences other than the street gear that was added when they figured out that couldn't sell the 100 Competition Cobras they had already built.

I'm not sure. I'm thinking of possible going High tech with the engine...a lot depends on what will fit once I get the kit.