Harry P.

Ok, here is a real pet peeve of mine... poorly engineered and poorly thought out parts trees. Here is the kit dash... Notice all the ejector pin marks? That means I will have to sand the dash smooth, repaint it, and scratchbuild the switches on the right side. All extra work that I as the consumer should not have to do! There is absolutely no reason why they couldn't have designed this parts tree with the dash flipped the other way... so that the ejector pin marks would be on the back side of the dash, where you would never see them, But no! They had to do it the stupid way. Sheesh... I expect better from a kit at this price point (MSRP $195!!!). Even though I paid much less, still... boneheaded mistakes like this have no place in a "premium" model kit.

John, I do it for two reasons. One, it's fun! It's like writing a magazine article (except for no pay, of course...). But seriously, I do it because I know there are several guys like you who like to follow along and watch a kit being built that you yourself would probably never build, but like to see being built.

Don't know what happened. It just stopped working, said my profile had been lost. Ok, so I deleted the existing Firefox off my hard drive and figured I would just download a fresh copy and start from scratch. But when I downloaded a fresh version, installed it, and then tried to open it, I got the same "lost profile" error message. So now I can't even download and install Firefox at all. How did my profile suddenly become "lost?" WTF???

I'm just getting started on the engine. The block was sprayed metallic silver, then two coats of Testors Transparent Black window tint. If you look closely you can see where the mating surfaces where the cylinders will go are clear of paint... because I placed the cylinders on the block first, then sprayed the block... so no tricky scraping needed around those areas; I can just glue the cylinders in place. And of course, the block got a wash of Future and acrylic black, to bring out the detail. This engine has well over 200 pieces, so it's going to be a while...

Sometimes you have to come up with a clever way of attaching the handle to the part you want to paint. In this case, I wrapped strips of masking tape around the ends of some shish kabob skewers until the tape was just the right diameter to slip into the cylinders. The reason there's metallic paint sprayed on the bottoms of the cylinders is because I temporarily press fitted them onto the block, so that I could spray the block and keep the mating surface between the block and the cylinders free of paint. No need to scrape paint later! The fact that the cylinders got paint on them doesn't matter, as they will be painted black.

Well, today the sciatica took a day off, thank God... so I was able to put some time in on this. First thing I always do is glue together any parts or subassemblies that will be painted the same color... For some reason they molded the springs in light gray, but the shackles in black! Also, the tie rod is supposed to be attached using the "heat the pin sticking out and press it down to flatten it" method, but I don't like doing it that way, so I made "nuts" out of hex-shaped styrene rod (that's why the tie rod nuts are white... they aren't from the kit.

Glad to see you jumped aboard a thread heading downhill fast...

Absolutely! But it's quite a haul from the O'Hare area. Volo is just south of the Wisconsin state line. But definitely worth going out of your way to see. I bought my '67 Impala there.

They both look really good!

His last visit here was Dec. 21, 2015.

Lots to see and do at Navy Pier. Also a great place to drop a few bucks really quick! It's Chicago's #1 tourist attraction. This is from out in the lake, looking west towards downtown...Sears Tower at the extreme left (the black building with the white TV antennas)...John Hancock building at extreme right (the one that tapers as it goes up)... Lake Point Tower condos (the black building in the center with the rounded sides)...and yes, that's a Ferris wheel you see near the entrance to the pier. If you don't mind dropping a few bucks, it's a fun day.

That price is just a bit out of my league...

Here's a thought... if you wanted to rent a car for the day, a drive to downtown and a ride along Lake Shore Drive would be fun. Downtown Chicago is spectacular... the architecture will blow you away. Just a fun drive down the Kennedy X-way to downtown, get off at Ontario, head east to LSD and go south. And bring a camera, because downtown Chicago is just that good. Or get off the Kennedy at Addison and head east towards the lake, til you get to Wrigley Field. Always a cool place to see for an out-of-towner. You could even stop into one of the many bars/pubs/restaurants around Wrigleyville for lunch, then head back to your hotel. Might be a fun way to spend the day.

You will miss the "Exxxotica" show at the Rosemont Convention center by just a couple of days. Bummer. That would have held your attention for the day, for sure! Nothing scheduled for the Convention Center the day you will be there... and besides the shows and events at the Convention Center, there's not a whole lot of anything going on in the Rosemont/O'Hare area. If you want to take the time and trouble to go downtown, however, there are tons of things to do. The Skydeck in the Sears Tower... Navy Pier... shopping on North Michigan Avenue (the "Magnificent Mile")... the museums, the Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium. But one thing's for sure... taking a cab into the city and doing any of those things ain't cheap. Chicago is $$$$$ no matter what you do. The cab ride into the city alone will set you back 50 bucks. Sorry I don't have any better suggestions for you.

Does anyone know what Don and Carol intend to do with their inventory, molds, etc? Is the business for sale? Or do they have kids that will inherit the business? Just wondering, because Modelhaus always had such a stellar reputation. It seems like someone ought to carry on the business somehow.

So all the thin-skinned people are here, and all the "I can take it" guys are on Facebook? I find that hard to believe. Are you suggesting that nobody here should be allowed to post comments or critiques of other people's work? How is it that you get this concept to magically work on Facebook, while according to you it doesn't work here?

Bill, you are comparing apples and oranges. In the specific case you described, the circumstances were far different than the "resell Modelhaus kits for a profit" idea. You had a personal bad experience where you feel you were taken advantage of. A specific experience with a specific set of circumstances. But a person who buys merchandise from Modelhaus, at Modelhaus's asking price, then owns that merchandise fair and square. Modelhaus was not taken advantage of or ripped off... the customer bought their merchandise at their price. So if the customer now wants to turn around and resell that Modelhaus merchandise for a profit, that's perfectly legit. It in no way "takes advantage" of Modelhaus. After all, they sold their merchandise at their asking price. A perfectly legit and above-board transaction. So if the customer who bought that Modelhaus merchandise turns around and resells it for a profit, that's his right to do so. Modelhause is no longer a player in any subsequent transactions. You are conflating your own personal bad experience with something entirely different.

Thanks, Charlie... but my sciatica has been acting up big time the past few days. It hurts just to sit, so I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to devote to this project. It's really hard to concentrate and enjoy the project at hand when you have a constant shooting pain in your left leg/hip area. I think I might need a Cortisone shot just to get this pain under control. The painkillers the docs have prescribed just aren't working.

Gee... I thought that's what this place is all about.

If the visor is there to keep the sun out of your eyes (I assume)... doesn't drilling a bunch of holes in it totally defeat the purpose?

Pretty good. The spokes are pretty close to scale thickness, and there is no flash. Each wheel builds up from four separate layers. The four layers are connected around the rim by screws...

I saw Rudy Giuliani on Bill O'Reilly tonight. Man, that guy has the common sense of two people in one. I would love to see him as our AG one day.

I do like the oddball stuff, especially early 20th Century. But I am definitely not looking forward to building those chains. I had a hard enough time with the chains on my Pocher 1907 Fiat Grand Prix, which is 1/8 scale. Doing it in 1/12 scale is going to be a challenge.

Or... different people have different concepts regarding what's "ethical" or not. I see absolutely nothing unethical about buying a product and then reselling it. You do. A classic case of "agree to disagree."