Maindrian Pace

Back in '81, the rather well-to-do family across the alley from my folk's house had a son turning 17, and it was time to get him a new car. He was a great guy, did very well in school, no bad habits, so I must say, he deserved it. He could have picked any new car within reason, and his pick was a new Citation X-11 hatch back, white with red stripes and rally steel wheels. I thought he was nuts, he could have had a Camaro or Mustang or Z car, but those didn't interest him. He waxed and detailed it almost every weekend and it was always spotless. It eventually grew on me, in a way. He drove the Citation throughout college, then traded it for a BMW 318i. -MJS

Very nice Jules, and it looks like it's been run through plenty of Metropolis muck. -MJS

Why aren't there classes for them? Because usually, not enough show up to justify a separate class. -MJS

And $25,000-$28,000 less expensive, lol. -MJS

Very cool car, Matti. It does have familiar American styling, I can see a bit of '68 Torino in the design. -MJS

That's a beautiful truck, Ron. Just right in every way. -MJS

Pull out the razor saw, Ron. It's therapeutic.

Thank you Gentlemen. Preparing the house for tonight's club meeting has pushed this aside for a while, but here's one more mockup shot with the grille and tailgate. Body to frame contact points are finalized. -MJS

A black Volkswagen Eurovan.

I knew it sounded like it was powered by a 283 with a stuck lifter.

Looks great, I like the seats and the instrument cluster. The power window conversion is easy on these, eh? -MJS

I like this picture the most. Super crisp build, and that engine looks like it was made for it. -MJS

Outstanding doesn't even come close, easily one of the best police models I've ever seen. -MJS

Tell the Graveyard Carz guys. They'll fix'er right up.

I wonder why they removed the Cobra snake from the grille of Farah's II.

That is great to know. The possibilities are now officially endless. -MJS

Outstanding, this is just the type of build that I was hoping to see with the Meng F350. It'll be nice if/when a resin caster comes out with a set of correct dually wheels for it. -MJS

The words... they fail me... I opened the thread, saw the first picture of the truck, and immediately knew who built it. You've got an unmistakable style, Clifford. -MJS

I think it's wild, and I'd like to see the progress too. Are the flares step side fenders? -MJS

He isn't exactly Snake Plissken in this movie, but if you like cars, it's a fun flick. Plus, it was filmed about four miles from my house. -MJS

This promotional item contained one of several different MPC kits from the era, anything from street cars, NASCAR, or dragsters were put in. The "kits" were often just a bunch of parts from the regular version of whatever made it in the box, almost never complete and buildable as supplied, and sometimes even included a tree or other parts from other, unrelated kits. Back in the late '80s, I turned one down for $10. As it turned out, not one of my better decisions. -MJS

The 4x4 suspension rides high out of the box, I just glued the rear springs a little lower on the frame, and used small strip spacers between the spring and the axle. On the front, I used spacers made from Evergreen tube on the coil springs and modified the radius rods a bit. If you are using the 2wd twin I beam suspension, it can be raised like the 4x4 front axle. AMT already did it for you, and the '79 Bronco version has much better chassis, suspension, and engine detail than the pickups. -MJS

A bit more progress, the frame is shortened and mocked up. Lift kit is mild, 3mm front and maybe 4mm rear. The Tires are Satco Bridgestone Desert Duelers, the wheels are Monogram High Roller '80-ish F150, rechromed by Chrome Tech. The seam and frame splice angle: First mockup: -MJS

-MJS

That's coming out very nicely, lots of shrinking and stretching when combining scales like that but it's matching up well. -MJS