Mike999

The kit dates back to the 1960's, and was originally in the MPC "Gangbusters" series. It came with gangster figures, weapons, a safe for the gangsters to crack and other fun stuff. Like a bullet-riddled windshield and radiator. If you want all those gangster parts, you'll have to find an original. The '32 Chrysler 2-door roadster has been reissued several times with the Gangbuster parts, but AFAIK the Imperial 4-door was only re-issued as a stock kit without those parts. All of them are pretty easy to find on eBay. Round 2 is about to re-issue the Roadster, with the vintage motorcycle that originally came in it. Here's the box:

Got this recently. The Legend #1327 ZS-55AM civilian wrecker conversion. It converts the 1/35 scale Tamiya T-55 tank into this heavy-duty tracked wrecker. The model is based on a real vehicle in the Czech Republic. It's a VERY complex conversion with resin and photo-etched metal parts. And all those neat decals! I found it on deep discount at an online vendor.

Another great Curtis series is "Pandora's Box" from way back in 1993. It's 6 one-hour episodes, dealing with all the ways societies have embraced technology. And got bit. The first episode deals with Stalin's attempts to turn humans into "scientific, rational beings." It would almost be funny, except it ended with the "Engineers' Plot," show trials and people getting executed. Weird Trivia: the "instant" Russian city of Magnitogorsk was modeled after Gary, Indiana. Since trees wouldn't grow on the steppes like they did in Gary, the Russians built Magnitogorsk with metal trees. The last episode is a history of nuclear power in the US, UK and Russia. If you saw the awesome HBO series about Chernobyl, in this episode you see some of the real people involved. Regardless of the country, it's amazing how many times Curtis interviews scientists and engineers who have the same comment about their politicians: "We told them not to do that."

Wanna see something that explains how all those commercials work on our brains? Check out Adam Curtis' 4-hour BBC documentary from 2002, "The Century of the Self." The whole thing is available to watch online, if you can't find it in a queue or stream. It's about the invention of modern P.R./advertising. Which was mostly invented by Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud. Bernays wrote his most famous book, "Propaganda," in 1928. He believed the scientific manipulation of public opinion was necessary to overcome "chaos and conflict" in society. Bernays developed his ideas to sell toothpaste and cigarettes. It never occurred to him that those ideas would be used by people like Josef Goebbels, to stir up chaos and conflict in society. On-topic! Each episode of the documentary starts with a short, weird video of a woman and a masked man. That video is "Design for Dreaming." It was produced by General Motors, to promote the 1956 Motorama. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

The headlights and searchlight on this 1/35 scale Rolls were painted with Alclad Chrome about 10 years ago. The fuel can and side-lights were painted with Alclad Polished Brass. The photo is recent, from just a few days ago. The chrome parts were base-coated with Tamiya Gloss Black acrylic, then sprayed with Alclad and polished with a soft cloth. I think the brass parts were hand-painted (even though Alclad tells us not to do that). Anyway, they're still nice and shiny!

re solder: if you ever see a pack of this stuff on eBay or at a swap meet, grab it! Hudson & Allen #9612 Detailing Solder. Because it was sold for modelers, not electronics technicians, it comes in the small sizes 0.010, 0.020 and 0.030. That little pack has 30 feet of solder, 10 feet for each size. So it will last a long time. Hudson & Allen is still in business, mostly making 1/35 scale diorama items. But they seem to have discontinued the Detailing Solder. I bought some years ago and still use it.

The great Dorothy Parker was going thru a door, and a woman said "Age before beauty." Parker replied: "And pearls before swine." Parker went to a Halloween party and saw some guests playing a game. She asked the host what they were doing. "They're ducking for apples." "Change one consonant, and you have the story of my life."

Thanks. The same thrift store had some 1/18 scale diecasts for $10 each, but they were all foreign/modern cars that didn't interest me. The store also had a '53 Chevy slush-metal bank/promo, with quite a bit of paint worn off. They're asking $50 for that. I got sort of excited when I saw the box for a Revell '40 Ford Standard Coupe kit. Also $5. But it was brush-painted and mostly built (glue-bombed). And missing some parts, like the grille. So I left it on the shelf.

Found a Welly '55 Olds convertible in a thrift shop for $5. No box but it's in very good shape. And 1/26 scale, but it fits with the other die-casts. Colors are red/white, just like the pic below. (Which I stole because I'm too lazy to get the camera out right now.)

The heat staining looks good to me, and the overall job is fantastic. I also like the wear on the seat, and the oil stains on the tank. Thanks for all the steal-able ideas!

Thanks, I've never seen that thing before. Neat!

OK, maybe I should say something nice about eBay. How often do you see a complete set of the Aurora 1/16 scale Racing Scenes? The link is about 3 miles long, so just go to eBay and search on "1/16 Aurora Racing Scenes Complete Collection." That should take you right to the listing.

I really like the "Moody Monster" box art, and have always wanted to build a 1/25 scale hot rod with figures exactly like that: guy driving, girl holding umbrella. Here's the umbrella and the girl, but she would need some surgery to sit in the hot rod. I have an older Hasegawa set, "Racing Campaign Girls," that also has the umbrella in it. That umbrella is vacu-formed, in clear plastic.

I'm going back and forth on this one. I have a couple of the older '41 Plymouths, molded in that Turd Brown plastic. I might want one in white, just because my old eyes find that color easier to work with and spot flaws. One old kit will get the 4-door sedan resin body and minor flaws won't matter much. It will be built as a military staff car and they were painted Flat Olive Drab. The Coke items are a good addition. But I need to build a 1/25 scale diorama of a bottling plant to use all the Coke stuff I already have. You might say I'm having a Coke Overdose...

Not a problem. I just thought it was funny that eBay was trying to sell my own item to me. An item that had already sold, no less. My own Word Of The Day: ped·ant /ˈpednt/ noun noun: pedant; plural noun: pedants a person who is excessively concerned with minor details and rules or with displaying academic learning.

Anybody ever had decals re-yellow? I was recently looking for info on using old decals, and found this 2008 thread at the ARC Discussion Forums: "...putting yellowed decals in UV light to bleach them does work, but it's not permanent. They turn yellow because of organic compounds in the clear carrier film of the decal. The yellowing is oxidation, which cannot be prevented. Organic compounds in contact with oxygen will oxidize, and in this case, yellow. So put them in the window and bleach them, but be aware that even if you 'seal' them with Future, they'll still be exposed to oxygen in the atmosphere, and thus will yellow again over time (on your model). Just so you know." http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index.php?/topic/171670-hasegawa-decalsare-they-ok/

An eBay ad keeps running at top of my display. It's advertising a Yodel '77 Dodge Monaco CHP, described as "RARE! UGLY!" But when I click on the ad, eBay tells me that the kit is already sold. Well, I sorta know that, eBay. It was MY KIT and it sold earlier today as a "Buy It Now." ??? The "Ugly" was a reference to the box, which is ugly. Dirty, beat-up and worn. The kit's fine though, and should be shipped out to its new owner tomorrow. Maybe I should be grateful that eBay isn't identifying me from my posts in here.

After the songwriter Eric Bogle visited the WWI cemeteries in France, he wrote this: "Well how do you do, Private William McBride Do you mind if I sit here, down by your graveside? A rest for awhile in the warm summer sun I've been walking all day and I'm nearly done. And I see by your gravestone that you were only 19 When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916 Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean Or, William McBride, was it slow and obscene? Did they beat the drum slowly? Did they sound the pipes lowly? Did the rifles fire o'er ye as they lowered you down? Did the bugle sing 'The Last Post' in chorus? Did the pipes play 'The Flowers of the Forest'? And did you leave a wife or a sweetheart behind? In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined And though you died back in 1916 To that loyal heart are you always 19? Or are you just a stranger without even a name Forever enclosed behind some glass-pane In an old photograph torn and tattered and stained And fading to yellow in a brown leather frame?"

Everybody has difficulty understanding that, I think. Here's about 750 pages that helped me understand it a little better. "Valley of Death" is mostly about the battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. But to explain that battle, author "Ted Morgan" goes back and writes in detail about how the French, then the U.S., governments got sucked into Vietnam. "Ted Morgan" is a pseudonym of Sanche de Graumont, the only French citizen to ever win the Pulitzer Prize. As a young man he was drafted into the French army and sent straight to another of that country's disasters, Algeria. Many of his comrades in Algeria were veterans of the French war in Vietnam. They all said: "Well, we lost in Indochina. But we're not going to lose this war in Algeria." https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Death-Tragedy-America-Vietnam/dp/1400066646

Here's an article about a Yenko 427 Nova that was found in a cow pasture. I remember reading somewhere that Don Yenko said the 427 Nova was his only creation that made him lose sleep at night. It was just too much engine in not enough car. Some insurance companies even refused to cover the cars. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/rare-1969-chevrolet-nova-yenko-sc-427-was-parked-in-a-cow-pasture/

Great job! I'll watch the vid later. I wondered if you were inspired by the 2019 movie "Air Strike." With Bruce Willis. A Chinese-financed movie about its war with Japan, before and after WWII. Not a very good movie overall, IMO. But it does have some pretty neat CGI scenes of I-16's taking on Japanese Zeroes, Betty bombers etc.

Plastic Performance Products make a bunch of different vintage NASCAR wheels. Model Roundup sells them. https://www.modelroundup.com/category-s/129.htm

I also added a little wiring, and stuff like a battery tie-down strap. Also nuts and bolts on the front suspension, and a few other places. I went the Rusty 'n Crusty route with mine. And if a kit has a toolbox, I want tools in it!

I'm thinking about doing something like that with an old resin body. It's a '51 Chevy 2-door sedan with the post (or "B" pillar, I guess), just like that one. The resin body is very rough around the rocker panels, already looking like it's rusty/rotten. So I thought it might save me some work to build it as an Extreme Patina gasser.