Lunajammer

Today. Just wow! ?

I've had some Scale Motorsports decals for a few years and decided to give them a try. First order is to tame that flat tan with gloss so the decals will stick better. To create my pattern I taped over the seats and tried to get rubbings of the piping. Then cut out the pattern and lightly laid them over the sheet to cut the decals. I used painters tape. If you use this rather than light tack tape, I recommend rubbing it over your pants first to decrease the stick. Yikes! While it's not my intention for this to be looking so "Town-'n'-Country," it certainly looks like adding a tent and fishing rods ought to be next.

I've had these Scale Motorsport upholstery decals for a few years and decided to try them out. I painted the flat panels gloss first so the decals will stick. Man, I don't know Anthony, maybe you know something I don't because if this doesn't look even more Town-'n'-Country then I don't know what. Maybe I need to just throw in a tent and a dog, head for the mountains and let you speed freaks duke it out.

My mockup pics have mostly become a gallery of shame for all the cool projects I'm neglecting for no good reason.

So when I saw him here in Fargo just three or so years ago, the opening part of his set was very regional/local and he really made the audience feel like it was personal, just for us. Did a whole segment just on his winter drive from Duluth to here. Really very funny!

Totally not the direction I'm going on this, but I really like the idea. I even have a resin canvas topper that would work pretty well (not so much the Town & Country siding) ?. If I ever did one like that it would have to be 4WD to complete the vision. I've already explored doing this with a '59 El Camino and Revell GMC chassis and it looks kinda neat.

Primed and sanded. Got some paint. It's a Krylon color called Celery. Discontinued, I bought it on sale some years ago and have been waiting for a project to use it on, wasn't even sure if it's still any good. Also, I'm still undecided about the five slot mag wheels, so I did a mock up with some deep dish, six lug steelies that I cast a few years ago. Still undecided, but I'm getting the picture of where this is going. After priming, the interior bucket was shot with camouflage tan from the big box hardware store. It's a fairly dark tan and is very flat. It has a micro fine texture, almost powdery.

I'm considering some five slot deep dish wheels from my vast parts box inherited from many over the years, but one rim is broken, so I tried to fix it with a spare ring. Broken rim is ground off and the ring is prepped. All four after repair and awaiting paint. Still undecided if these are what I really want to go with but that's where I'm at for now.

While I intended to use the spare Thunderbird 390 engine from the Lindberg '34 Ford pickup, I decided to keep it simple by sticking with the kit-provided engine, which is a 427 big block Chevy... ya know, the one with the hole through it. So that's the first thing to patch. I bought the kit at a swap and the engine halves and heads were glued on with no particular care. I'll live.

This is my entry into the 2022 Cannonball Run CBP. I wanted a searchable record for this build so future curiosity seekers won't have to pool through 29-pages of Community Build. Also I'll be adding slightly more info that gets into stuff that might just hog space over there. The CBP theme is "year of birth." I was inspired by revisiting a kit I built in my tweens sometime in the mid 70's. This was the first model I used spray paint on. I didn't love the kit so I never prized it, but I'm more nostalgic now and it's like visiting an old friend. My starting point. Talk about a timeless kit. Since this is supposed to be for a hypothetical cross country, outlaw race, I'm doing it as a street machine. First task, I'm hogging out the wheel openings and adding flares. This is what I'm using for the flares.

So the 61 Ranchero got some paint. It's a Krylon color called Celery. Discontinued, I bought it on sale some years ago and have been waiting for a project to use it on, wasn't even sure if it's still any good. Also, I'm still undecided about the five slot mag wheels, so I did a mock up with some deep dish, six lug steelies that I cast a few years ago. Still undecided, but I'm getting the picture of where this is going. Interior was painted with some camouflage paint that is very flat, almost powdery and it's dark, as tan colors go.

Though I'd been shooting 35mm since 1980 (no color darkroom experience), my only occasional commercial photography has been digital in support of products for billboard ads. Here are a couple of the very few personal pics I have access to from this computer. Wild horses in late dusk in Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l Park.

Hey MeatMan, I see lot of cool and interesting progress on your entry in another thread. No love for the CBR? ?

I really appreciate your presentations here. Your excellent, clean photos do a lot of talking.

Lots to like here. Certainly a good source of inspiration.

Or the opposite... One of our museums displays under glass a fair sized collection of common, poorly built, unpainted, busted, glue splotched airplanes. Probably belonged to a member or big financial supporter, but it bothers me that this is what's supposed to represent museum worthy scale replicas. If they want to honor the donor, hang a picture of the person. They probably didn't want to tell the widow they wouldn't display them. Meanwhile one of the best aircraft/military modelers in our area for decades passed away. I found his airbrushed and accurately detailed aircraft piled up and broken in a rummage box on the floor at the thrift store. Broke my heart.

When a club member passed, other key members joined his wife in liquidating as much as they could at the annual toy and hobby show. Knowledgeable members set the prices, hustled and hawked while the wife greeted and thanked the buyers. They set and dickered the price of the valuable kits and tools, but wasted no time haggling over common kits and small stuff. At day's end, most was gone, she made a little money, was free of the burden, buyers got great bargains and it all ended up in the hands of people who wanted it. Win-win-win.

End of weekend update. Body has been primed and sanded, misc. parts have been sprayed, revealing some color clues here.

Has Tamiya ventured into the BMF space? I'd be surprised if they didn't but I've never heard mention of anything.

Don't Look Up. The lovely Ms. L. and I watched it last week. Definitely a dark, satirical, socio-political commentary about very contemporary times, brought to us by former SNL writer and regular Will Ferrell collaborator Adam McKay (Anchorman [1&2], Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, Ant-Man). While it dramatizes all the absurdities playing out in current politics and culture, it does so without pointing fingers at any identifiable people or political parties (with the possible exception of Elon Musk). Not an easy task for almost all current comedy, satire and op-ed writers whose meal ticket is the easy "low hanging fruit."

Mario Andretti eulogized him by saying if he had half the patience Big Al had, he'd have won more.

Here ya go, Bud...

Among the celebrity obits, I was surprised there's been no mention of the passing of Indy great Al Unser, Sr. December 9, 2021 after a long battle with cancer. I only found out a few days ago and can't find any mention on this forum. Regardless, he was one of my favorites. One of those classic, all-around racers.

While I intended to use the spare Thunderbird 390 engine from the Lindberg '34 Ford pickup, I decided to keep it simple by sticking with the kit-provided engine, which is a 427 big block Chevy... ya know, the one with the hole through it. So that's the first thing to patch. I bought the kit at a swap and the engine halves and heads were glued on with no particular care. I'll live.

Wow, heck of a list. It's going to be a busy year and a competitive finish for sure. The Ranchero is going to get a street machine treatment, beginning with opening up the wheel wells. Some quarter-round rod for fender flares.