Lunajammer

As child of the Gemini and Apollo ages, Neil's passing is huge. He was among the last great, true explorers, on the scale of Magellan, Columbus and others. Many of us were just lucky enough to be alive to witness it.

Looks like a good start to making a project similar to what I saw this year at a car show. Just a couple reference shots if you don't mind.

As Rob's link and Wikipedia says, "Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction." I think this is brilliant! I tried building a steampunk gun and it's harder than you think because your "stuff" has to look like it has a functioning purpose so you end up uber thinking everything if you want it be believable; scientifically, compositionally, artistically and fancifully. Sort of a crazy industrial art.

Summer is always a slump for me. It's just too hard to shut my eyes to the long days, pleasant evenings the bicycle, motorcycle and all the outdoor things. Yet one day while killing time at work I found a canoe pattern online and scaled it. Next thing you know I'm all fired up scratch building some obscure and unpredictable project. Who knows where inspiration comes from? As mentioned above, don't force it, let it.

I LOVE your overall aesthetics; paint, color, graphics, impact, etc. I wouldn't know any better so it looks right to me.

Thanks guys. Those mid to late 80's Monogram kits had some good hard plastic that buffs to a mirror finish. I did the same thing to a black '71 Plymouth Roadrunner of the same vintage. I'm not sure how bright some of those older brown and tan soft plastics that AMT once used would gloss up.

Which is exactly what I did here. That swirl-free aqua was too luscious to cover. (The "La Bamba" issue Monogram 58 T-Bird).

Let me guess, a dispute over ownership and royalties?

It first has to test well as an X-Games exhibition, then get full sponsorship from a major power drink and be documented in a video with lots of shaky cam before you can even think about pitting international political foes against each other in a modeling cage match.

I don't think news of it got west of the Mississippi until about '73 when it started becoming a reminiscence.

1988. Age 26. Octoberish. Every now and then I visited a mall hobby store and was drawn to the models. I always saw a sign for a model club meeting and after a year or so decided to check one out around the same time I decided to build a Monogram '57 Nomad. It was mostly young to middle aged men and I learned in a few meetings about things I never even knew existed, like Bare Metal Foil, masking products, mould seams, wiring, resin, paint polishing, etc. Like many here, it's when I got caught up in what appeared to be a growing modeling renaissance.

Your flip front matches up pretty well. Beautiful work. Striking color.

You sure do a good job on the midgets. It's obvious you are passionate about them. As a collection it makes for a nice tribute.

I love it. Big fan of the factory stock. Beautiful build of a limited subject.

Precisely.

Nice photo choices too. That's about as nice as I've seen that kit done. Lovely.

I never saw the Mustang similarities before until I saw this thread. Looks like you're off to a great start.

Beautiful work and well shot. Less is more.

All this time I've been trying to figure out how graft on '57 Chevy fins. Looks like I've been considering the wrong path. Exciting model. Nice job.

Hey, you're really onto something there Zen. You should consider having that cast.

Yup. The Skoal Monte is on my list of sentimental favorites. Top notch on all of 'em.

That's funny. Sort of like grunting, scratching and barking out baseball highlights after being caught getting misty eyed watching Terms of Endearment. I enjoy watching Danica Patrick race. It's okay to like her car outright. Nice work on the roll bars. It sure makes a difference in appreciating the complexity of the safety cage.

Yes, the front end is turning out quite nice, good job. But I sure have a hard time getting past the visual weight of that panel van roof. It steals the attention from your other careful details. Here's sample of how a window might look. Sure, it's a little cliche' and it wouldn't have to be a window but I feel like something needs to lighten that area.

Agreed Mike. From certain angles they're almost as sexy as the muscle car based nascars of old... almost.

...And the wrong information. There are always a handful of (well intentioned?) folks who are more motivated to tell you how much they know than try to give you a useable answer your question. Yes a searchable, photo database would be a lot of work but any internet database is. Yet there are some amazing sites of obscure subjects that do just that because someone took it upon himself to start. Plan59.com is one and it's a must see. One person alone couldn't do it but with contributions from users and a little time it would at least grow into an ongoing resource, not unlike the Drastic Plastic instruction sheet database. Regardless of differing opinions of good or poor, you could at least use your own judgement if there was a starting place that let you browse as swiftly as your creative thoughts.