highway

Not in the southern half of the world!!!

Yeah, what was the deal with that?? I seen them mention it on The Weather Channel, but didn't get to see the story about it.

Wonderful work as usual Mark. Your level of talent and eye for detail are simply amazing, and it is always nice to see builds that don't need $100 of aftermarket "bling" to stand out.

Jim and Anthony, if you really want one, you can have mine!!

What is up with you and horrible pics this week Harry?!?!

No kidding, it's hot here too!! Two words can describe my plans for the rest of the week: AIR CONDITIONING!!!

If I spent more time building and less time planning, I wouldn't have over 500 unbuilt kits sitting on the shelves collecting dust! I have plenty of them built in my mind, but that still doesn't make any room on the shelves! Seriously though, I do think that I spend too much time planning a project that by the time I'm ready to work on the project, I've spent so much time planning it I'm already burned out on it before the kit comes out of the box. Then other times I plan a project and think "No one else would do this" or "I haven't seen it built this way before" and guess what, I open the next month's MCM or SA and there is my idea in all it's glory BUILT BY SOMEONE ELSE!!! I've actually given up planning a build, unless it is something that I want to be accurate such as a certain race car driven at a certain race. Those type of builds are ones I may spend years collecting the correct research materials, collecting all the aftermarket details I'd like to use to make it accurate, and buying aftermarket decals to match the certain car. One case in point is a Dale Earnhardt Sr. Bass Pro Shops Monte Carlo, it was a one race paint scheme, and after some research, I discovered the decals were incorrect for the car, there was a color left out of the stripes around the bottom of the car. A couple years later, I found the correct decals at a show. Now just to pinpoint a correct color for the gold paint job. Other than those "have to be correct" builds, I just found that planning a build leads to one thing for me, A CHANGE IN PLANS!! This is one of those builds where I couldn't tell you how many times the plan changed for it, and it's been "in progress" for almost 12 years! It's at least went through three engine changes, and has about 4 different kits for donor parts. The only thing I know for sure is it will have a Candy Apple Red paint job and it will have the large Mickey Thompson pro street tires in the back. One other thing, whether it stays with the current Top Fuel engine or something else, YES, IT HAS A HEMI!!! And yes, the blower will also still fit under the hood!!

THAT PIC IS HORRIBLE HARRY!! I'm going real on this one, even though in this case, I actually hope I'm wrong!! I know a lot of you have said just because it's clean, it has to be a model, but you'd be surprised how clean well maintained equipment is. If it does turn out to be real, I'd say the clean and new blade could be expained either by it being a new dozer or even just a new blade, and as long as the tracks are clean when it's loaded, there would not be dirt on a well taken care of trailer. If this is real though, and why I said I really hope I'm wrong this week, you couldn't pay me enough to haul that the way it sits!! Those chains are not even close to being tight, in my opinion not even in the right place on the front of the dozer, and for the weight, there should be more chains. Other than the license plate that is missing that Pete also pointed out (and yes Pete, it needs a license plate, only thing I could think is it's a new trailer and the temp plate fell off ), but there are two other details lacking that a driver like me would notice. First is the lack of an "Oversized Load" or "Wide Load" banner on the back of the trailer and flags on the widest part of the front and rear of the load. Even though it's not that much wider than the trailer, it is still hanging past the trailer edges, and even if it was within the dimentions of the trailer, it is still oversized due to the weight. The other detail I see missing is the federally required DOT red and white tape on the sides and rear of the trailer. That has to be on all new trailers, and is also supposed to be added to older trailers. Just in case you don't know what I'm talking about, it's this reflective tape, and needs to be across the rear and down the sides at spaced intervals. If this thing is real, a DOT enforcement officer, know as "Diesel Bears" to us drivers, would have a field day with this one!!!

What, are you trying to say it gets rough in the back lot sometimes!?!?!

Not sure about when the next new one will be, I'll check my DVR and get back on that one, but normally the show is on Saturday mornings. That is if Formula One doesn't change up the schedule. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Well then, we all have just been building models of the fakes!!! Now back to serious me and the topic at hand, I'm just surprised no one has mentioned the other Trumpeter car kits. Now I"m far from an expert on either the Nova or the Bonneville, so I don't know exactly how accurate they are to the 1:1s, but I'm impressed by the kits. Another Trumpeter kit I'm impressed by and know a little more about is the American LaFrance fire engine. I'm not happy it doesn't have a full detail engine, but detail wise it's the best large truck in my "fleet", well until I can finally buy a Moebius Lonestar and tear into it. I must say, and even Trumpeter beat Moebius on this detail, it is the ONLY heavy truck that has a correctly molded drive (rear) tire with a realistic tread pattern instead of a "one tire for all positions" generic steering tire.

Really!! The voices in my head tell me that I'm crazy all the time!! It sounds like the voices in my head and in your head know each other too well!!

You think that's bad Andy, my Italeri Ford truck that had the sleeper try to grow wings was $80!

Why do I build models??? BECAUSE THE LITTLE VOICES IN MY HEAD MAKE ME!!! Oh, and like Harry I like the way the glue smells too!!

Actually the new season started this past Thursday with the tornado relief episode. You're a couple days LATE!!!

Mike, even though I'm not very big in the slot cars, I must say if I were you, go with the Scalextic set! One of my LHSs had one set up during Christmas and I was amazed by the performance of the cars. If Santa would have had more money, I might have even found a set under the tree!!

Jim, when I tried this paint for the first time on a test body, I did not paint the rear of the car in the gloss black basecoat and the colorshift didn't even show up over the gray primer.

Looking good Nick and Gray, and if for some reason I forget, remind me to update the list for the both of you. I'm just too lazy to do it now!!!

Hopefully your camera regains it's senses soon so you can post better pics!! From the ones that weren't blurry, it does look nice.

I can't really help much in the way of the classes you mentioned, but as for track times, if you are building the Mustang as a dirt tracker, you would not use the time decals. The dirt trackers I've seen around my area and that friends ran very rarely even have windshields, just some screen mesh to cover the driver's side of the windshield opening so large debris does not enter the opening and hit the driver. As for the contingency sponser decals, which would be the small decals like "Fram", "Crane Cams", "Edelbrock", and so on, in the case of NASCAR and NHRA, those teams usually get money or other kickbacks from those companies to display those decals on the car. In the case of the local dirt tracker, that isn't the case, they usually are from parts that came with those decals in the part's box. It would be entirely up to you to add them and how many to use, but I would suggest only a few and not the entire front fender style like you'd find in a NASCAR kit.

What about those of us who use real computers!?!?

Mike, I just finally read my newest issue of "Hot Rod" that has a story on this engine, and IT IS GOING IN A TRUCK!!! The builder is also planning on driving that truck in the '12 Hot Rod Power Tour.

That project was called "Rolling Thunder", and actually a Mazda B2000 that was reskinned with a Ranger front clip. Of course, the Mazda is still just a Ranger in disguise!

Thanks for curing my brain fart Jerry!!