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jb, it's cool! It's also something that Abarth could have done if he wanted to. "Dare to be Different". The "What If?" built models are just that, what if (insert designer/builder here) had done (insert car here). As long as it is a plausible idea, like Disney's "Plausible Impossible" cartoons, where you know what the character is doing is beyond the Laws of Nature and your minds eye fills in the rest therefore it is plausible!

The inside looks rather stylish. Outside, now that's another story. The first thought that came to mind, it looks something like a "Cyclops Pig!". It could have been pulled off more tastefully with a better looking front end / driver's compartment, again the inside of the "Bridge" looks cool as long as you stay inside it would be fine! Pretty sure it would leave a trail of broken rear view mirrors in its wake!!!

The Mini Mk I should be the easiest of any Mini to open the doors on, there isn't much if any structure to the door itself, those hinges are spot on. There are a couple of Mk I Mini specific websites which should give you a good idea of how to construct the door structure. The Mk II Mini door is almost identical to the Mk I, Mk III and later had roll up windows and different doors The Mk I Mini is 10 foot 6 inches long, 4 foot 7 inches wide, 4 foot 5 inches tall. The inches vary from source to source, the 10 X 4 X 4 dimensions are pretty much the standard measurements that most people (I know) quote. I remember reading in a couple books where BMC's original design spec/idea for the Mini was that "Four Adult Men Wearing Hats" could ride comfortably. It was almost designed from the inside out. I've never had any standard sized adults ride in the back seat of my Mini, I'd feel sorry for anyone who tried!!

There have been several over the years for me, nearly anything Pyro (fitting name, torched more than a few), many of the Lindberg Line, lots of off brand stuff. I would have to say that my biggest disappointment had to be Revell's '53 Chevy Panel and I'd also toss in the '53 Chevy Bel Air as they were nearly the same kit in many ways. Bought the panel to build a model of a friend's panel. I was able to get the job done using another engine and front suspension from an AMT '57 Chev. Pretty sure that 409 is one of the not so great engines Revell ever made. There were other things about the kit which made my disappointing list as well like lots of blob like parts. The tools were sort of cool, nice crisp molding in fact some of the best in the whole kit. For some reason the '53 Chev and panel seemed just a tad bigger than 1/25th scale, (eyeball measurement that is). So what was your biggest disappointment once you got the plastic wrap off and got an eyeful of the fresh styrene within? (Keep it clean and nice please.)

Dried Paint in brushes is the pits! If it were mine I think I'd try a soak in the Purple Pond. Better yet if you have an ultrasonic cleaner, try Purple Power in the reservoir, I have heard of people using thinners in the reservoir. I'm sort of leery of that one though. If you manage to strip the brush with the Purple Stuff, you most definitely will need to condition the oils back into the brush, try loading it with mineral oil dip it and hang vertically brush end down for a day or so. Clean as per normal prior to use. If the Purple Pond caused the brushes hairs to be frizzy load the brush with a mild hand soap, run the brush along the bar then shape by hand. Let the brush dry that way then do the mineral oil conditioning. Hope this helps.

The MINI is becoming so large lately that BMW/MINI should start calling it the MAXI. I'm not sold on the design of the New Beetle, it does sort of harken back to some of the early Porsche designs though.

I am quite surprised that the Mini is not on that list. With a production run from 1959 to 2000, badged under several different BMC nameplates like Austin, Morris, Rover and variants Riley, Woolseley... Nearly every British driver during that run either had one, or drove at least one. Imported through-ought the United Kingdom, U.S. (Until 1967), Japan. All four Beetles, Enzo Ferrari, Peter Sellers, Twiggy, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, James Garner, Jackie Stewart, Britt Ekland all owned Mini's. Not to mention the bazillion other non-famous owners. Have to wonder also if the 5 - 6 million production numbers were for the domestically produced Mini's excluding those produced in Australia and a few other foreign market countries. I can see the Model T on that list, Ford's high volume assembly and long production run saw to that, same with the VW Beetle. The Passat?

Skip, Have you tried that mixer on any One Shot! I hate mixing that stuff by hand. (Me too!) Not yet, I'm sort of be worried about aeration with enamel applied by brush. Air bubbles in enamel are no fun! I'll try it the next Job though. I've always used a pallet knife with a four inch flat blade. The Badger mixers are intended to be used with enamels, urethane, acrylic, lacquer.... Anything else you wish to mix up, primarily got it to mix up acrylics to feed the airbrush. Good investment in my opinion, it'll probably find it's way into my kit sooner or later. Maybe later I'm set in my ways!

Glue stick, you can either pick it off or wash it off. Sets quicker than white glue or tacky glue.

Very High Quality resin, Steve's castings look like styrene. I was highly impressed with the parts that I bought from Calnaga Castings. Highly recommended. Super quality, speedy turnaround. I'll be buying more of Steve's stuff as needed, hope Calnaga Castings is around for a long time!

Jimmy, Used to subscribe to Signcraft for quite a few years, I've been subscribing to Bob Bond's "Autoart" magazine for a long time as it fits the stuff that I do a lot more. John's shop is about 45 minutes away, I stop by when I'm in his neck of the woods, super nice guy, about as humble as they come. The last Airbrush Action Getaway that my nephew and I attended in Vegas John was there. Nephew took the four day Pinstriping class from Gary Jensen, Tramp Warner showed up too. We had a great time panel jamming after the classes were done for the day. We hung out until hey literally kicked us out every night. Mentioned One Shot Size as I was not sure of your experience level, Luco and One Shot probably being the two favorites that I use on a frequent basis. One Shot is probably easier for a non-trade person to get anyway. I've tried the water based size, not sure I like them yet, they have a different "Feel" to me. Learned the Sign Trade in the late 60's early 70's as a pesky kid hanging around a sign shop, one day they got tired on me hanging around they handed me a used sign blank a brush, can of One Shot and an easy alphabet to copy. Then told me not to come back until I could do the copy; I showed up two days later proud of my effort, only to be ragged on hard! Took me a couple more days to produce acceptable copy. I got another to copy and practice the first, then another and another... Within a couple months I was doing easy copy with one caveat I had to keep up my grades in school or no sign work. Must have worked, I worked sign shops on and off through college ending up as a Civil Engineer. Still have my Sign Kit and keep my brushes "Wet" on occasion Striping and Signwritting.

Ugh! My first though was, "Bernard's building wrecked Custom diorama..." Then I read the reason behind the carnage, that's too bad looked like you had a lot of work into the body already. Besides, your dents on that hood are just too overdone, they just look unnatural, stick to what you do best Cool Period Correct Rods & Customs. Seriously that really stinks bad!

Nice mixer, great idea. I'd use it but I just got a brand new Badger mixer while ago off of evilBay for $8, free shipping. Deals are out there. Just have to look and be patient.

James, Not sure what size you are using to stick the Leaf or Foil. If you are using "One Shot" Size try this, it may work with other brands of size as well. (I've only used this with One Shot because that's what I was shown the trick with and all I use anyway.) Mix a small amount of un-thinned yellow or orange One Shot into the size you have paletted out until the size has just a slight tint to it. Doing so makes the size visible on the surface it is being applied to. (Can't take credit for that, it's an old Signwritter's trick passed among each other.) The other hint I would add is to never work out of the container, lessons the risk of contamination to the material in the can; I use a flat 3 inch long clean palette knife to transfer from can to palette. Seems to lesson the contamination by dust and other crud that can make its way into size (paint too), if the size becomes contaminated its junk the leaf will flake away from the dust / particles.

Go with the least invasive solvent base you can. You mentioned that the tape went through the dehydrator, is it still sticky or has it already gone to the kind of dry powdery very un-sticky state? First I would try vegetable oil, Ronson (sp) lighter fluid (basically the same as sticker adhesive remover), WD40, rubbing alcohol, mineral oil, turpentine. If the residue is really dry you will have to do something to try to rehydrate it like maybe the vegetable or mineral oil or start color sanding and hope it comes off. What ever you use I would test first on a painted spoon or sprue, some of the stuff that will remove the residue will also attack the paint too. Unfortunately you may have to start over, hope not.

As much as I liked the Blackbird, I have to say that I like your color combination better, it fits the car and is in keeping with Larry Watson's colors on many of the cars he painted. Not all of his panel paint jobs were done with candies and pearls.

Nice group of Minis, the Mini Cooper looks great with the arches and Minilites. Love seeing those colours, looks like you missed red though. Kind of partial to red, I've got a red/black RHD Mk III in the garage.

My great uncle was one who stormed the beach, wounded and went on, the scar from the German bullet just above his left a shoulder was the only thing that said he was there. He sure didn't, he never talked about it even on the day he died. He talked about his job at the Federal Prison in Cannon City Colorado and some of the though customers he dealt with there over the years. Never about "D Day" or About his experiences during WW II beyond boot camp or how sea sick he was on the troop transport being shipped to Europe. He wasn't the only WW II Vet I've known who left the war behind them when it was over. Another uncle was at the "Battle of. The Bulge", still refuses to speak of it. Earlier in my working career I worked with a soft spoken Engineer who was on the brink of retirement who had worked for Boeing during the design and testing phase of the Boeing B-17 as soon as it was accepted by the Air Corps, he volunteered as a flight engineer flying B-17's over Europe. I was always told that he felt bad about some of the things he had done, he knew he had to do it and why he had to do it just hurt him deeply. To those who served our Country during World War II for the hope of a better World, Thank You, the World was made better by your selflessness. True Hero's don't need to brag about their deeds. It's enough for them to know they did what they had to because it needed to be done.

So what modeling tools have you bought at Harbor Freight? What were the "Good Deals"? Which ones were Duds? Good Deals: 1.) 6" Digital Calipers ($14.99 current sale price) - Just make sure they're off when stored 2.) Safety Glasses (Couple of Bucks, Eyesight Priceless) 3.) Small Ratchet Bar Clamps ($2.00) 4.) 30 Peice Mini Drill Bit Set - sharp out of the package! 5.) DeLuxe Airbrush (Decent Starter Double Action Airbrush for the money) 6.) Dental Picks and Carving Tools 7.) Airbrush Compressor (Paid around $50 a while ago, still in use as back up to a higher $$$ Name Brand Compressor) What else have you found at Harbor Freight that you use on your modeling workbench?

Just got an order from Altered States Models yesterday before I left for work. I rushed home this morning so I could open the box and see just how good their stuff really is, I'm in awe. Everything I ordered is perfect almost styrene perfect, no flash, mold lines are nonexistent. Chuck's quality is amazing, even more amazing is the way that I was treated by Chuck he kept me informed the whole way through the process. Even told me that he thought one of his molds was worn a bit so he made another one, the part looks like it is straight out of a brand new kit, let alone a piece of resin. Dealing with Chuck is customer service the way it should be, he just earned a spot on my preferred vendor list!

Bernard, that's what I have been thinking, pretty much have the profile with the Revell Parts Pack Roadster (T Bucket) frame. Doing so would make for a pretty unique looking frame compared to the channel and box section frames that most Model T based Hot Rods are built on. In some of the old magazines I've seen more than a few cars based on this kind of chassis, so this probably wasn't the only prefab tube chassis that looked like the one in the article. Looks like it goes under anything from a 23 T to Model A Roadster Pickup or even a Bantam Roadster which is what interested me in it. I've had a couple of the Parts Pack Bantam Roadsters sitting for a year or two looking for a good chassis to go under it. I haven't found one that really looks right so will probably head in this direction with it.

This is the chassis that I was referring to, that weird kick up looks pretty similar to the one on the Revell T Bucket chassis. The profile of the frame rail is what I am referring to.

I have both versions of the Revell Parts Pack T Frames, the competition (Drag) frame in my opinion is the better of the two. I wouldn't use it under a Street T though. I was extremely disappointed when I first saw the Street T frame the kick up is just too weird, it may have been patterned after a frame that was used to build a T Bucket in Car Craft Magazine about '63 - '65 timeframe. The CC T frame was based on a production T frame if it was then Revell took some real liberties with it, the frame used in the CC articles was a parallel tube frame quite similar in shape. The tube frame was in production when Revell did this frame, so it's shape may have been somewhat "Borrowed" from that frame, the name Bird comes to mind, I'll have to dig the magazines out for a definitive answer though. (I got it to go under a Bantam body, and still may use it as it is close to the original frame of the Hot Rod I will build out of it, although it will be modified.) The two what I would refer to as "Classic T Bucket Frames" would be the ones under the AMT '25 T Roadster/Coupe and the monogram "Little T". Both look like the T Bucket Frames which have been in production by various companies since the early '60's. Having seen the TV Tommy Ivo T when it was displayed at the NHRA Museum; though the AMT / Monogram frames are not exact they have the lines and proportions which could be tweeked to look right. Not sure about the frame under the AMT Fruit Wagon T, haven't seen one in almost thirty years but I remember it being the same as the Roadster/Coupe Hot Rod Frame. Since your stash of vintage parts are 1/25th scale the AMT '25 T Hot Rod frame is a good starting point. If you were going with 1/24th scale the "Little T" is almost there, all that would be needed is the Injected Nailhead Buick. The '25 T Hot Rod Front end as mentioned looks odd for T Modern or Traditional as it is too narrow and doesn't have enough drop. Take a look at the Hot Rod front axles cast in Resin by "The Parts Box", they also have ribbed brake drums to go along with them, I have a couple of their axles they would look perfect under a T. Although 1/24th scale the Little T had a great front axle complete with period correct backing plates, it would probably be too wide under a 1/25th scale T. Hope that gives you an idea or two.

Looks too light to be "Washington Blue" looks great though. Tired of seeing bright Red Deuce Coupes so seeing blue is really cool!

Your Nana sounds a lot like my Grandmother, she was just a couple of months shy of 100 when she passed, very spunky gal too. She was still managing her stock portfolio almost to the day she died! (She did well on the Stock Market too!!) You don't get to live to triple digits being a stick in the mud. Wish her well. Just a few years ago a broken hip was almost a death sentence for older folks, now it's for the most part another dip in the road. Medicine has come a long way.