Harry P.

Ok, a little obscure music trivia... Everyone knows that ABBA was huge in Europe. They were also very popular in Japan and Australia. They had an impressive string of hits on the European, Japanese, and Australian pop charts... they were the Beatles of their day, in Europe at least. But they knew that to be a real success, they had to crack the US market. Yeah, they had a few hits here in the states... Fernando, Waterloo, Take a Chance on Me, Dancing Queen, etc... but they never really made it big in the US. So they came up with a brilliant idea. ABBA teamed up with ZZ Top in a last-ditch effort to make it really big in the US. They called the hybrid band A2Z... and here's the result of Scandinavian pop mixed with Texas blues...

Ok, these guys are "only" a cover band, but they sound more like the Eagles than the Eagles do! They even have a "Glenn Frey" vocalist and a "Don Henley" vocalist. The Dutch Eagles (from Holland, naturally... )

Joe, you might want to try one yourself. They're a lot of fun to build... This is their home site, but you can find the kits for sale all over the internet. I actually bought this one from a hobby shop in England. http://www.occre.com/model-tram.html

Iceland isn't on the Continent...

I'd have to say Scorpions. And yeah, I like ABBA too.

Well... here it is. All done. I changed up a few things... left the handrails bare brass instead of painting them brown, and I left off the fences at the front and back ends because I like the look without them better. A few other small details are different than what's on the box art.

Here are many of those small detail items installed... The headlight was black washed to bring out the details. The clear "glass" is kit-supplied; I "glued" it in place by flowing Future around the edges of the lens... That's pretty much it as far as construction. Next stop: Under Glass!

Here is the finished chassis/wheel assembly. The kit provided strips of aluminum to use to make the reinforcement/connector plates, but I found it easier to make them of thin cardboard. All of the "bolt heads" are small brass pins...

The small detail parts are either photoetched metal, cast white metal, machined brass, or a combination of these that have to be assembled. Also, a few pieces have to be formed from brass rod. All of these various detail parts need to be painted before they can be installed...

The springs are cast white metal. After a little cleanup of minor flash, I painted them a dark metallic "steel" color, then added a black wash to bring out the details...

That's a "win-win" situation.

Maybe you weren't doing it right...

Just do it and see what happens... http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=open the kimono

It's a lot tougher than you think to avoid the low-hanging fruit and opening the kimono while you're thinking outside the box and shifting the paradigm.

Hey! I liked those Perry Mason TV movies!

Welcome aboard, Felipe. And since the Earth is round... there really is no "end of the world." We're all on the same big ball!

She can be my sidekick anytime... BTW... did you know she's still with us? 90-something, I think, but still alive and kicking.

Yep. Those "pre-code" movies got quite racy. Actual nudity, yes, in the 1920s!

Agreed. Take a scale inch or two off those wheel diameters and it would be killer.

How about this?

Who is this?

Ditto, ditto, and ditto.

So far, so good.

Don't feel too bad. I was building a 1/12 scale 1930's era Bentley... very detailed kit. I added a ton of scratchbuilt details, spent many, many hours on the thing. Then, when it was about 75% finished, I dropped it onto the ceramic tile floor. It basically disintegrated. I had to spend almost as much time fixing all the broken parts and rebuilding it than I had already spent to get it to the point it was before I dropped it. I was very frustrated. But I did repair and rebuild, and finally finished the dang thing. So don't get too frustrated... it's all "fixable."