GTMust

A very accurate, well built, detailed model....... hmmmmmmm!

OK... Gonna put my foot in my mouth. Your work is amazing John... so by no means a criticism.... but isn't the Matador 1/25 scale and the Revell Nascars 1/24? Can't help thinking those tires look a little big for the body. Maybe the AMT 1/25 scale Nascar wheels and tires would work better? Or maybe those are the Matador wheels and tires and the camera makes them look bigger? Or maybe..... I'll just shut up and watch the progress.... Tony

AHHHH... now that's a nice car! Wonder if I could could combine the hood and radiator from the Pyro Bentley with the body of the Pyro Rolls Royce Sedanca Coupe. Have to check it out. Tony

Hey Skip..... your post disappeared... what happened to it? Tony

Hi Skip, I have an unbuilt Pyro Bentley like your kit. I already built the Airfix version when I was very young(?), and still have it, so I've not been inspired to build the Pyro one....YET! I'm not familiar with the Bentley from the James Bond book (which one?..... was there a movie version?). The bodies on the Bentleys (apart from the hood) were a canvas type material over a wood frame so I'm not sure how the finish would have looked. I know that John Steed drove one in the original British TV series "The Avengers" while "Mrs. Peel" chased around in her black leathers in a couple of Lotus's (an Elite and an Elan if I remember correctly). Sounds like an interesting project though....... Tony

Here's my Pyro 1/32 scale 1909 Lozier Briarcliffe that I built about twenty plus years ago: I have another of these kits which I intend to use to build a replica of the second place car driven by Ralph Mulford in the first (1911) Indianapolis 500. After the race, Mulford challenged the win by the Marmon Wasp driven by Ray Harroun, arguing that he had passed Harroun when the Marmon Wasp had a flat tire and limped into the pits to get it changed. But the officials declared Harroun the winner and the Marmon Wasp became the official winner of the very first Indy 500 and into the record books. Before I start the build of the 1911 Indy 500 Lozier second place car (Ralph Mulford), I'm trying to get as much information as I can about the car and it's original color scheme. Although the Marmon Wasp (restored?) is in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, the Lozier may have been cut up for scrap, long ago. Here's the info on the Lozier from Wikipedia: Car #33 driven by Ralph Mulford Entered by the Lozier Motor Company Colour White So I'm wondering if anyone has any info on the car. What colors were the numbers painted, etc.? I did come up with some interesting statistics about the race. Three Loziers were entered in the 1911 Indy 500. Ralph Mulford..#33..Lozier chassis/engine..Start/29th..Finish/2nd(allegedly ) Teddy Tetzlaff..#34..Start/35th..Fin/39th..DNF: There is a third entry listed, but with no driver, number, or reason for DNQ. Though both the #33 and #34 cars looked the same, Mulford's is listed as white...and Tetzlaff's is white/red. But no record of what happened to the third. All three entries are by Lozier Motor Co. This is the Lozier at the Vanderbuilt auto race six months before the indianapolis race. Not much on color information. Based upon the black and white photo, it must have been a light color. This picture really helps as it gives me a view of the gas tank and spare tire arrangement. It's probably the same car that was entered in the 1911 Indy 500. I know the car was white from previous information, so now it's just a question of trying to determine what color the numbers were. I'm guessing red but they could be black. Anyone know or have any more information that maybe of help?

Thanks folks, Get ready.... there are a lot more where these came from, but I don't want to dominate the forum so I'll spread them out a bit. Soon I'll also be posting a "work in progress" of one of these 1/32 scale Pyro or Highway Pioneers kits.... if I can decide which one! Tony

Both Backyard Billie an d Driveway Dave have been working hard to get their cars finished and they're almost done. Billy has updated his original 1981 four banger with a modified '85 style front clip and custom spoiler and hood. Rear tail lights have been changed to later style units from a wrecked 1985 GT and '88 GT wheels that Billy got from a local wrecker. The bigest change came when he removed the tired 4 cylinder motor and replaced it with a 302, 5 speed and the rear end and other parts that he got from the same wrecked '85 GT. Using his skills as a body man in a local auto shop, he cut and welded in a set of T-Tops. He also added a roll bar, racing seat for the driver and a 5 point safety harness for a short lived effort at auto cross, but gave it up after hitting a light pole in a local event. This led to a quick paint job. (Painting the car in the open air in his backyard, he was less than satisfied with the results, but couldn't afford a professional job. He decided to paint the side moldings the same color as the car, following an example he had seen in a hot rod magazine.) And now he's almost done. He still has to locate the dual snorkel air cleaner that went missing among the spare parts, intall a couple of driving lights in the front spoiler and the "blue oval" badges at the front and rear of the car. Driveway Dave is in pretty much the same situation. His '79 has also received a custom front spoiler, a set of rear window louvres and a custom spoiler on the rear deck. Wheels are the special metric TRX wheels which he plans to change when the tires need replacing, as these metric tires are very expensive to replace. The original yellow paint has been covered with a $249.00 quickie paint job in black and he has replaced the original tan interior with all new red cloth and vinyl. Door panels and other interior pieces have been sprayed with rattle can vinyl paint from the local Auto parts store. So here are both cars together. One more weekend and the boys should have them completed.

I realize they may not be to everybody's taste but I hope there is enough space in the forum to show another side to automobile modelling. These don't have the finite detail of a lot of the amazing work I see here, but they sure are fun to build, don't take a lot of time and take very little space on the display shelf! Even a 1/32 scale diorama takes up a lot less shelf space than it's bigger brothers (and sisters?). Thanks for the encouragement Jim, Harry and John. Lots more to come and soon a WIP of a 1/32 scale Lozier racer from the first (1911) Indy 500, when I clear my bench of a couple of builds.

I just am fascinated by the development of the automobile from the early beginnings though to the muscle car era of the '50's and '60's. Anything newer than that "just don't rock my boat" (with the possible exception of the new Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers)! Here's a couple of real "Antiques". Both are 1/32 scale Highway Pioneers kits from the '50's and you can still occassionally find them on Ebay today, but they are getting scarce... and expensive. The black one is an 1895 Duryea, a real pioneer in the American auto industry. The green one is a 1903 Sears Autobuggy. How many of you knew that Sears sold automobiles through their Mail Order catalogues back then?

A while back I found these pictures of a 1913 Mercer racer and just had to build it in miniature! Starting with a 1/32 scale Highway Pioneers kit from the '50's, Here are a few photos of progress along the way to the finished model: And here's the finished model: Hope you like.

Thanks guys.... I really appreciate the comments. There aren't many of these kits left around and the prices on Ebay are getting ridiculous! Fortunately I have built up a stash over the years when the prices were more reasonable and I have enough (do we ever have enough?) to do some variations on the basic kits. I particularly like the early race cars from the 1900's which make very interesting scratchbuild subjects.

Bill and Dave: Thanks for the additional info. I didn't know that. Niko: Mine also started as a glue bomb, covered in dust and missing the bumpers. These 1/32 Monogram Snap Tites were actually pretty good. I also have the '78 Corvette, the '78 Camaro, the '69 Camaro, the Cobra, the '79 Mustang coupe, the '70 Mustang fastback. I'm missing the GTO and the '78 Trans Am and I think there's a couple more as well. Unfortunately the decals issued with these models are "fantasy" decals. It would be nice if they had original style factory decals available. Tony

Back in the 1970's, I built this Pyro 1912 Packard Touring in 1/32 scale: It was built OOB and painted red. Sometime last year, I came across this picture and was inspired to build the model again, but this time with the top down and in the grey/black color scheme. So here it is, together with the original top up version from the seventies: Hope you like these 1/32 scale models of yesteryear.

Here's one I started a couple of years ago, lost interest, put it back in the box and forgot about it. Recently I got a DVD of the movie "Two Lane Blacktop" (which I love) and remembered this old build. So I dug it out and got started on it again. Then I realised that the movie car was a two door post and the model was a two door hardtop! But the movie was great inspiration so I kept going on it anyway, figuring I'd follow the same general guielines but modify it as need be. Here's the actual movie car: (The same car was driven by Harrison Ford In "American Graffity" but painted black.) And here's the cast with tha car: Boy.... has James Taylor ever changed! But still really cool! My version is a little different but follows the same general idea. I am building the hood scoop similar to the movie car. I almost forgot to mention....... mine is 1/32 scale!

It's amazing to me that makers of 1/43 scale kits and aftermarket parts can do such a superb job of making wire wheel's..... yet the larger kit makers wire wheels are mostly way oversized (the wires, I mean). There are a few 1/32 scale slot car suppliers, mostly in Europe, that make some fine 1/32 scale wires but none, as far as I can tell, for the type 59. I'll just keep my fingers crossed and keep looking. By the way, those are two beautiful models.

It's been raining a lot.... Backyard Billy and Driveway Dave have not been able to get much done on their cars. Luckily a friend with a truck has an empty garage, and invited Billy and Dave to use it (as long as they kept it clean), in order to finish their builds. Here's Billy cleaning up after he and Dave moved their cars in.... hopefully they'll now be able to get them finished. Dave took the picture but hasn't figured out the focus on his new camera yet. I'm sure he'll do better in the future.

I have built a couple of the Pyro Bugatti's in this scale but they're not very well detailed. The 1/32 scale Matchbox Bugatti T59 is a superb kit..... but the unique wire wheels are to clumsy and heavy looking from the kit. Unfortunately I've been unable to find a decent set of aftermarket wheels to finish the model so it's still in limbo. (This model was converted from the two seat road car to a single seat race car.) If I ever find a set of accurate wheels I'll finish the model and post it " under glass". And thanks for all the nice comments.

Thanks, Jairus. You and a few others definitely got the point I was trying to make. The inane comments made by some, we'll just forget about! Tony

Thanks for the comments guys. Still more of these to come........ flashback to the early pioneering days of the horseless carriage.

While I agree that a lot of what we hear in the news is a lot of bull and that a lot of people are making a lot of money out of the global warming scare (David Suzuki and Al Gore to name just two), I, for one, question a lot of the so called "experts" when financial rewards are to be made by the main exponents of these theories. However, as far as the oil reserves are concerned, to think that 80 years is a long time is only considering the present generation. And after we are dead and gone, should we not be concerned for our children and their chidren, etc? To say that we should not worry about oil as we have so much of it just doesn't make any sense. It will not last forever.... that's for certain. I started this thread to express some interest about where the world will be when there is no oil left, and whether you believe it or not, that day will come. It probably won't happen in our lifetime, and my interest in this issue is to wonder what will replace it. And in turn, what kind of vehicles and transportation methods we will use and what will that mean to society? The main interest of this particular forum is motorized vehicles and miniature versions of them. I'm no scientist, so I could be wrong, but isn't plastic a byproduct of oil? If it is, then what will our model car kits be made of in the future? A silly question perhaps in the overall scope of things, but an example of so many uses we have for that finite resource. Or I could just stick my head in the sand like a lot of people, and forget about the whole thing...........

They're part of the fender assembly and I just brush painted them Humbrol Satin Black. The rest of the car was painted with Krylon "Short Cuts" rattle cans.

I finally got one finished and off my workbench! I've been working on this build in between the two Fox CPB builds and the D50 pickup. Now, with the Stanley completed I can get the Fox Mustangs finished for the July 1st deadline (I hope!). Although I know the Fox CPB will be open ended after July Ist, it still gives me a target date for completion. Anyway, back to the Stanley. This is a vintage 1/32 scale Pyro kit that was re-issued by Life Like and they're extremely rare and hard to find. The kit comes with a "convertible top", but it sits so high and looks totally wrong that I left it off, as per the prototype photo and many others I found on the web: (this is a runabout, mine is a tourer.) Here's the model: Anyone that follows the diarama threads will see I've made absolutely no progress on this one at all!!

Great ideas and pictures John. You've got me thinking.... again! Thanks, Tony

I hope you have access to the internet (I expect you will) while you're away, so we can all keep in touch. Take care, and have a safe trip, my friend. Tony