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This is sort of a spin-off of Derick's "This years Darwin Award goes out to..." Hopefully we can humor his injured digit back to full function with a few laughs at our own expense. We've all done something really stupid, so let's hear about it. I've got two to start off with. First, I was using a Dremel "slit saw" in the flex shaft (no guard of any kind) cutting into a chunk of aluminum. Next thing I know there is a redish spray and a slight pain to the tip of my left ring finger. I quickly shut the Dremel off, examined my finger which is split open from the tip through the nail to the nail bed, not bleeding yet! My wife came to see what all the four letter adjectives, asking if she should look or not, "no just get the car out of the garage so you can take me to the ER". The Doctor thought that this was a very humorous injury, even calling another Doc over to look at it. The nurse throually enjoyed scrubbing it out with a "wire" brush as the feeling had now come back with a vengence! I was told that they didn't stitch up these type of wounds anymore they just superglue them together. They even gave me a couple of tubes so if things opened up again, I still have one in the garage and the other in the hobby room! Finger healed up nicely, it was more embarrassing than anything. Lesson learned, just use a razor saw, as in the right tool for the job. Second, While sitting at the drawing table that I was using to build on at the time an exacto knife went rolling down the table top between my knees. Now I knew better than grabbbin the thing with my hands, I might get cut! Without a thought as the flying exacto was dead center between my legs, I quickly brought them together, with enough force to impale myself halfway up the knurled tightening ring!! Hole in jeans and leg, oops! Worst of all hole in flesh is squirting blood, just barely knicked an artery! Again ask the wife to get the car out so we can go to the ER. Evidently the Doc felt compassion or just didn't want to get blood everywhere and got me sewed up quickly! I was lucky that the cut to the artery was small otherwise they would have had to do it in surgery. Two lessons learned. First - if an exacto knife becomes airborne get out of the way and let it fall. Two - feminine hygene products are good for more than their intended use, don't be embarrassed to use what you gotta use!!

Looks like solvent pop.

Anne, Great story! My neighbor had a cute daughter and a A/A fuel dragster. The dragster drew me to his garage first, then I "discovered" girls and hardly spent as much time in the garage!! Went to a whole lot of races though and had a lot of fun with both.

The header on the film clip says that it's "Hot Rod Magazine's Ingenuity in Action 1958". One of the coolest cars that they didn't show run is Creiton Hunter's Sidewinder Dragster. I've only ever seen it in magazine pictures, those are few. In '58 Ohio George was probably running a blown Caddy, he was using a '57 Cameo truck to get it to the strip and back, (I think that I read he won it at Indy). I don't think that a model of the Green Monster was ever offered. The Allison engine was in Parts Packs and the "Miss Budweiser" hydroplane, locating one would be half the battle.

Everyone keeps saying to soak or wash their Resing parts in Wesley's Bleche White, but I havent seen it in the auto parts stores in a while. Where is everyone getting theirs these days? I've been soaking in the purple pond and having no adhesion issues. I think that I heard or read that some use TSP - Tri-Sodium Phosphate on their resin, stands to reason it is a standard painter's item that cleans almose anything.

That's a great fit on the chassis, perfect for a "Street Freak" which is what the Shorty / "Stubby" Tri-Five Chevy wagons fit into. None of the sanctioning Drag Racing organizations recognized them as Gassers, they would be classed as Altereds. I remember seeing a few Stubby wagons at the drags, they were relegated to bracket racing, even so they were fun to watch! How many inches in scale did you remove out of the middle? All of the Stubby wagons that I remember seeing started out as four-door wagons that had the doors modified to fit the radius over the wheel wells from the rear of the back set of doors. The way that you are doing it looks like it is going to result in a cleaner look when it's finished. Looks Great!

While you'e at it figure it out for the Fotiki guys too.

OK, now that I've got your attention! When you post a picture what size do you post it so that it is bigger than a medium sized thumbnail picture like the ones I always get. I've tried messing around with the pixel counts but don't want to get something that is so huge that it takes up a whole screen, the one above is 800 X 597. Some of you guys get a really good sized picture in your posts. What's the trick for the rest of us "Image Post Challenged" users? Help please...

Posted the size only a while ago it is 48" X 30", finally got things together the countertop is now mounted on the wall, shelving is hung, best of all I can build again!!! Still have to get my paint booth moved and set up, still operationa where it is at so it's a matter of getting in mounted to a a benchtop and temp ducting set up. I use formica sheet with dryer vent to exhaust the fumes which has worked out great in the past, just open the window put the formica in the window then shut it and shoot. My wife and I traded our rooms, she needed a little more space for crafting and I got a perfect sized closet to hang my countertop in with two other 5 ft tables, one that I water color paint and another that I do smallish sign work and small pinstriping jobs on. The next step is removing the carpeting and placing some decent engineered hardwood floors. I'e always wanted to do a room in hardwood that looked like it was a part of a basketball/sports court with the striping for the top of the key randomly placed in it. I've done full sized sport courts in the past and it's not hard, stripe, seal and finish.

Occasionally I use liquid cement to glue butt joints or panels I have a dedicated cheap paint brush for this purpose that I've marked with tape to keep seperated from my other cheap brushes used for paint. It keeps the little bits of melted plastic out of the paint both on the model but in the paint container itself. img-03881.html

Both heartwarming and sad, very good story.

Nice Classic Mini Mk I. That Color/Colour always looks great on a Mk I, looks like it polished out nicely. (We have a couple of Mk I's in the Mini Club I belong to, Old English White top looks great on them.) Can't wait to see the finished model. I was checking out your wheel build up and thought to myself, "Hey where are the cooling holes?" Not a "Cooper S" so no cooling holes! Wonder when Revell will come out with the "S" version? Then again who's complaining that's one sweet Classic Mini.

You are getting to be a regular Mini-ac . Always liked the looks of the Broadspeed Minis, they look so much better than the Mini Marcos which is a similar Mini variant. With the "different" definition of vehical registration these body swaps are legal without any change to the car's paperwork; for some reason in the UK a car's body is considered a changeable part! As in if the body gets too rusted out, you could (maybe still can) buy another brand new Mini body and still be registered as the same year Mini. Keep up the good work, or should that be "Keep calm and carry on".

Anyone know how to get barf out of a keyboard? Maybe it's going to be in the next Disney "Cars" movie throw a wrecker on the back and it could be To'mater's long lost cousin from England.... Nah they have better taste than that. Back to cleaning the keyboard.

She probably does have an advantage on a short track where the driver is on and off the gas the lighter car is going to accelerate quicker. On a track like Daytona it's probably a moot point once up to speed they keep their foot planted. A restrictor plate track the heavier driver/car might have the advantage as the added weight makes for added traction, 20 pounds adjusted weight probably isn't going to make a huge difference. (Figure that's around 5 pounds a tire / corner.) The other thing to consider is that all of the cars on the track have the same issues poking a hole through the same air not just the light ones. Sounds like a lot of whining, if it were such a huge issue wouldn't it make sense to see a whole bunch of Nascar guys on Weight Watchers commercials and diets?

1965 Pontiac GTO (Real Hard Top) 1933 Willys Coupe / Sedan Stock height roof & Front Clip 1956 Ford F-100 Yeah all three have been done before, but all three deserve to be done right!

The sign industry has been using the Scraperite blades for quite a while, they do not damage paint with normal pressure. They will scratch with with a heavy handed pressure, as with anything you should try for the least invasive product. If it were mine I would try using Simple Green, Purple Power or Easy Off before scraping with anything. If you have a polishing kit you should be able to correct any cloudy areas from the paint etching the plastic (hopefully it hasn't). You didn't mention whether the paint in question was black or not, if it is black I would try the easy off first, then you may have to resort to scraping and may need to polish afterwards. Good Luck.

Thanks for the source, I've been watching the Dr.'s videos as well.

Quite similar to vacuume forming except instead of using suction to pull the material you are using pressure to form the part. Thanks for the styrene sheet source, I have lots of contacts in the sign world but never thought of looking for styrene sheet there.

It's such a great tip that I think none of us noticed the bit about the misplaced swaybar! Seriously that's a great tip to transfer the clamping pressure where it's needed.

I know everyone is already aware that you can find some commonly used model supplies in the craft stores; haven''t seen this source mentioned. The other day I was on evilbay did a search on flocking. Came up with quite a few hits from both model supplies and craft supplies catagories. Looked at the model flocking first hoping that there would be some cheaper than hobby shop prices, they were almost all the same. On to the craft stuff, there were a whole lot of the Martha Stewart at higher prices than the model stuff, then there were the bulk baggies of flocking at $2 for 1 ounce. Long story short. I ordered four of the baggies of the craft flocking and was pleasently surprised to find that this is the exact same type of flocking a lot of us use to represent carpeting in our model interiors. The other plus is that there are a wider variety of colors than the usual gray, black... that you see in the hobby shop. Not to mention that you are getting like 4 or 5 times the material at half the price. If you do go this route and buy multiple bags make sure you ask the seller for combined shipping the seller that I bought from combined 4 bags for the price of 1 shipping, further savings. (The only drawback was that my wife is now dissapointed. She was going to get th flocking for scrapbooking if it wasn't the same stuff as used for modeling. Hmmm maybe not, maybe I can convince her to buy some and borrow it!!) Note: I didn't supply cool pictures because nearly everyone knows what flocking and baggies look like.

Harry, I hope you were being just an tongue in cheek as my original reply to your fake Pocher "click here" as I was with my reply; either that or someone is pretty obtuse! I must have clicked on that silly thing for a good ten minutes before finally figuring out your crafty ruse!

My Grandfather had worked the oil-fields from Santa Paula clear down past L.A. area from about 1928 to 1938-ish when he packed up and moved to Washington. Whenever he or my Grandma would talk about living in California they would always take a sidetrack to commet on what maniacs the drivers down there were. Seeing Wilshire Blvd. without any traffic markings of any kind just added to their stories. Even if it does show rather well behaved drivers in the clip. Thanks for sharing it brought back a flood of memories! If this was 1936 it would have been in pretty much the middle of the depression. Most historians agree that the beginning of the lend lease program an the beginning of World War II was the end of the Great Depression. Lasting from 1928 - 1929 (with government economic stimulation) until 1938 - 1940 or 1941. That's why we have whole generations who grew up during the depression who saved everything from string to bailing wire never ever throwing away anything that could have a second life as something useful. It was that "make do" mentality that made our Grand- parents and Great-Grandparents some of the most creative in our history!

Come on Harry you give a link to a Pocher kit on the cheap and the it don't work! What kind of example is that!!

Let's bring this back to the top again, Mark derserves Kudo's for what he is doing for other hurting guys in his community.. What I would like to propose is giving Mark more than a pat on the back we as a community could be getting behind him to help him on his selfless endevor. I'd like to challenge others to send one of your dust gathering kits that you know you'll never get to this year or even next. How many of us have those kits we thought would be really great to build at the time then and now are looking at it for parts or whatever. How about giving it to someone who will give that styrene the renewed appreciation it deserves again? This week I sent him a package of a couple models, some of my excess razor & X-Acto blades, super glue and other stuff. I was greeted in my pm-box with an excited, appreciative, Thank You! You know what it was worth every penny to get that kind of appreciation for doing something so little. How about it lets give Mark and his guys a helping hand, you'll feel great knowing your stuff went to a very deserving cause! How 'bout it? P.S. I'm not looking for a pat on the back, I've already got more than I deserve with Mark's heart felt Thank You!