Harry P.

What figures are those? What type of survey? Taken by whom, consumers or industry "insiders?" What questions were asked? It's possible that total revenue in the industry rose slightly while actual consumer numbers dropped, due to rising prices of products. We would need to see a lot more specifics to really know whether the industry is growing or shrinking. And besides, the question isn't if the industry overall is growing, I think the OP was asking whether car modeling (which is only a relatively small segment of the overall hobby industry) is growing.

In terms of the actual number of people who are actively into model car kits, the hobby is shrinking. But today, those who are still into it tend to spend more per person than people did in the "good old days" of the hobby.

Two guys start up a conversation in a bar. The Texan says, "Howdy! Where are y'all from?" The Harvard grad says, "I'm from a place where we don't end our sentences with a preposition!" The Texan looks the Harvard grad up and down. "Ok, then... where are y'all from... jerk?"

The phone rings and a guy answers. It's his doctor. "I have bad news and worse news," the doctor says. "OK," says the guy... "I can take it. What's the bad news?" "You only have 24 hours to live." "Oh my God!," replies the guy. "That's terrible. But what's the worse news?" "I've been trying to contact you since yesterday"...

A guy walks into a bar and asks the bartender for six shots of the best whiskey in the house. The bartender grabs the bottle, places six shot glasses on the bar and fills them one by one. The guy grabs the first glass and drinks it down in one gulp. Same with the second glass, and the third, and all the rest. "Wow!," the bartender says in amazement. "I've never seen anyone drink that much whiskey so fast!" The guy replies, "Well, you would do the same thing if you had what I have." "What do you have?," the bartender asks with concern in his voice. "About 50 cents!"

It looks nice and clean. Good work.

Our thoughts are with you, Terry. Let us know as soon as you can.

Anyone who sees this thread and thinks that making their panel lines black is "realistic" needs to pay attention here. Look carefully at Marcos' model. See how realistic the panel lines are? See how they are NOT black? Marcos deepens the panel lines on the bare body and applies black to the deepened lines. Then he paints the body the usual way. Once the paint is on the body, it subdues the stark black of the panel lines and makes them look very real. Adding black panel lines after you paint the model is wrong, and not realistic at all. It winds up looking very "modelish." Panel lines on cars are not black (except on black cars, obviously)! They are simply body color a few shades darker, and Marcos' model is proof.

A woman has twin boys, but unfortunately circumstances force her to give the twins up for adoption. One of the boys is adopted by a Spanish family who names the baby Juan, and the other boy is adopted by an Egyptian family who names him Amal. Years go by, and one day Juan sends a photo of himself to the woman. When the woman sees the photo, she says to her husband, "It's so nice to get this photo, but I wonder what Amal looks like these days?" The husband looks at his wife quizzically. "But they're twins... if you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal!"

The high school chess club made the state finals, and won. When it came to board the bus and head back home, the chess players milled around in the hotel lobby, high-fiving and strutting and generally making a scene. The desk clerk looked up and said, "I'm sorry, but you guys will have to wait outside for your bus." "But why?," asks one of the chess nerds. "Because," replies the desk clerk, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer"...

The local paper was holding a "Send us your funniest pun" contest, so a guy sends in 10 puns, with the hope that at least one of his puns would win. But unfortunately, no pun in ten did.

"Doc, I have this weird problem. I can't seem to be able to stop singing What's New, Pussycat? " The doctor replied, "Sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome." "Is it common?" "It's not unusual"...

Anything is possible. It's a matter of finding someone (or several someones) with the time, talent, and $$$ required to pull it off. My guess is that this particular niche is so small that nobody would want to get involved.

Yeah, that crank could do some damage if you weren't careful!

Only if you enjoy self-abuse. They're gone. You can't rewrite history. Onward...

Right! As if a real car is made of styrene plastic!

Ok... how many of you guys actually know how to start up (and drive) a Model T? I knew it involved a crank, but I didn't know all the steps you had to go through to start one. Heck, I didn't even know they had an ignition key! And I wasn't sure how the pedals worked (they do not work like a modern car!). I found this video while looking for something alse. It's really interesting. Watch the whole thing, you'll learn something...

I recently got the new Trumpeter 1/32 scale Junkers Stuka kit. A new kit, it has separate rubber tires, not molded plastic.

Come on, Cruzer! Surely you know about Google image search! http://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=1957%20ford%20interior&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.51156542,d.aWc,pv.xjs.s.en_US._-554IbEZc0.O&biw=1229&bih=693&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=fwgdUtvMKqeqyAGSsoHgAQ

I'd say pretty much everything has dried up in Detroit...

Sure there is! You just have to do a little creative thinking. The tires themselves can be molded as 2-piece units split centrally around the circumference. The tread area can be slightly recessed, a shallow "channel" around the circumference of the tire when the tire halves are glued together. The tread itself could me molded as a flat, thin strip that you glue in place by wrapping it around the tire in that shallow channel. If engineered well, the tread strip could even be just a snap fit onto the tire. You could mold some really fine, crisp and detailed tread with that method. The drawback would be the added cost of the tire tooling and the seam where the tread strip starts/stops, but that could simply be placed on the bottom of the tire where nobody would see it. But I don't see any particular advantage to tooling up very realistic tread patterns at such a small (1/24-5) scale. A lot of tooling, but it can be done. But it probably won't ever be done, because there's just no big cry from customers for that. They're perfectly happy (even prefer) the usual black vinyl tires we all have come to know.

Bring on the Feats of Strength!

I think all the relevant points have been made.