Mike999

What is it about Pennsylvania? Here's another outfit in Mayfield that seems to have the same business practices. And the same Contact Info: none, except for an e-mail form. The link says "Wholesale Hobby Supplies," where the other one says "Retail." But all the BBB complaints seem to be from retail buyers: https://www.bbb.org/us/pa/mayfield/profile/wholesale-hobby-supplies/internet-hobbies-0241-235973355/complaints

Just did a parts trade with fordf100. Great trader!

OK thanks, I wasn't aware of that. If I stop in during this sale, maybe I'll use the 40% off coupon for a fresh can of DullCote. Or Tamiya fine white primer.

Just got the email. Here's a link to the weekly ad showing all hobbies, including model kits, at 20% off. Plus a 40% off coupon for any one item, if you need it. https://www.hobbylobby.com/find-savings/weekly-ad?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HLSunday_12_02_2018 (2)&utm_content=S10_Hobbies&spMailingID=37598065&spUserID=MTA3NzM3NjMyNTk1S0&spJobID=1420168944&spReportId=MTQyMDE2ODk0NAS2

Thanks for the reminder! Forgot to set the DVR for that yesterday, but I'm recording it right now. I'm really glad TCM re-runs "Noir Alley" at 10 AM Sun. morning. For vintage car-spotting, vintage L.A. architecture and just plain weird film-noir fun, one of the best movies is "Kiss Me Deadly" from 1955. Link below to the ImcDB page. That movie has an amazing bunch of vintage sports cars: '51 Jaguar XK-120, a Jag Mark V Drophead Coupe, and even a Hillman Minx. The movie was also the film debut of a very young Cloris Leachman. The pic below shows Mike Hammer's '54 Corvette under the Angel's Flight funicular railway. That's the old Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles. It was re-developed out of existence in the 1960s and the railway moved a short distance away. In 1955, Bunker Hill was still a low-rent area that attracted retirees and other people of limited means to its cheap boarding houses. One kid who grew up dirt-poor in Bunker Hill was Jack "Dragnet" Webb. https://www.imcdb.org/m48261.html

Vas ist BV-141 glider? The only BV-141 I know of was weird enough - the asymmetrical recon plane built by Blohm & Voss. Its appearance freaked out pilots at first glance, for good reason. It looked like something that shouldn't fly. But AFAIK, that was actually a pretty good aircraft. It didn't go into full-scale production only because it was beaten out by the Fw-189. For years, the only 1/48 scale kit of the BV-141 was a...challenging short-run kit from Historic Plastic Models (HiPM). The entire crew pod was molded in clear plastic. A few years ago, Hobby Boss released a very nice BV-141 kit in 1/48. According to the reviews, it's even a pretty easy build.

"The Getaway" from 1972. Steve McQueen, cars and a great heist movie. Win-win-win!

"Ghost of Drag Strip Hollow," 1959. Sort of a sequel to "Hot Rod Girl" from 1956, shown in the second pic. No L.A. riverbed, but some very cool cars.

Well, I'm part of a common theme in here...forced into retirement back in 2013, when my entire dept. at a Big Los Angeles Aerospace Company was axed. In one way I was very lucky; I had just hit the age to qualify for early retirement with a pension. I was also lucky with the bonkers L.A. real estate market. Sold my townhouse in the San Fernando Valley in 2015 and moved back to the rural South, where I grew up. Told the local realtor there was only one thing the new house absolutely HAD to have; some place to work on my Weird Hobby. Found a place with a huge basement. I thought I'd be spending 8 hours a day working on models but...well, it hasn't quite worked out that way. I'm easily distracted, especially by books, old movies and true-crime shows. I've started a lot of projects but many end up on the Shelf of Shame. I still love the idea that I can wander down to the basement any time and pick up the glue or the airbrush. One way I look at it; if I did spend 8 hrs. a day at the bench, that might be more like a job than a hobby. So I'll keep poking along, building and painting when I want to and wasting time when I don't.

Happens to the best of us. I was in the Air Wing of the Marine Corps and remember classics like: "Go get me a yard of flight line, and a bucket of prop wash." I also spent a lot of time as a Tech Writer on various stuff. One of the last jobs I worked on was the C-130 LAIRCM system (Large Aircraft Infrared Countermeasures). As seen in the movie "Olympus Has Fallen:"

"Point Blank" with Lee Marvin, 1967. And I just learned something I didn't know - our favorite river bed was used as No Man's Land in the 1930 version of "All Quiet on the Western Front." Some of its bridges also appear in that movie, when the Germans are attacking a "French" village.

I thought that was weird too. Especially since "Death Proof" made the cut. Lots of great cars in it, and I enjoyed the homage to "Vanishing Point" etc. But good grief, what a boring yak-fest between the action scenes. Also, no "Two Lane Blacktop" on that list, which annoyed me. Thanks for the Darracq info. I've read in several places that the Airfix "1/32 scale" 1904 Darracq is oversized, and really closer to 1/25-1/24. I have the goofy MPC version of that kit, with the even more oversized custom parts. The box art always gives me a smile.

Here's a guaranteed argument starter. "The 20 Best Car Movies of All Time." https://hiconsumption.com/2017/03/best-car-movies/

Before he started directing, Ron Howard made a couple of back-to-back car movies: "Eat My Dust" in 1976 and "Grand Theft Auto" in 1977. They're goofy but fun, with lots of crashes, racing and demolition derby action. Keep a box of tissues handy, the 2 flicks destroy a lot of now-vintage cars. Including a nice '68 Dodge Charger in "G.T.A."

Going WAY back, "The Crowd Roars" from 1932 had a lot of Indianapolis action. It also included some neat garage scenes of partly disassembled cars, engines etc. It was re-made in 1939 as "Indianapolis Speedway," using the same shooting script as "Crowd Roars." The action and most of the dialogue match the earlier movie almost shot-for-shot. "Indianapolis Speedway" also recycled the stock racing footage from the 1932 movie. During a TCM car-movie marathon once, I saw both of those movies just a few hours apart. It was a weird feeling. "Hey, I just saw this movie. Only that's not James Cagney, it's John Payne. What happened?"

I hope so too, but I'm starting to wonder. A brand-new Michael's just opened near me. I went there last week to check the kits. They had a couple of S&H Torinos, an AMT Firestones '78 Ford truck and IIRC a single ECTO-1 ambulance. That was it, except for a few aircraft kits. The model kit shelf was mostly empty.

It sure is. Whenever you see a movie chase through a "concrete canyon," you're probably seeing the L.A. river channel. Back in 1954, some pests moved into its storm drains and had to be routed out by The Thing From Another World/Sheriff Matt Dillon (squad car shown to stay on-topic).

Looks like Hasegawa re-issued that Lamborghini Jota not long ago, if you want one. Available from many online vendors, but some show it as currently "Out of Stock." I'm thinking of getting one myself. HobbyLinc shows it as "In Stock" for $28.09: https://www.hobbylinc.com/hasegawa-lamborghini-jota-svr-1975-plastic-model-car-kit-1:24-scale-21214

Signs you may want to re-think your project: when its first manned flight kills the test pilot... As always, thanks for a great write-up on this little monster. The WWII German aircraft industry seemed to share a lot with its tank industry: when it could have improved on well-tested existing designs and put them into production quickly, it was always haring off into Bizarro-Land and starting from scratch on totally bonkers ideas. One of my favorites is shown below, the P1000 Landkreuzer "Ratte." Notice another Bad German Idea shown for scale, the 3 "Maus" tanks. This thing is exactly what it looks like: a naval gun turret sitting on top of a hull about the size of a 3-story apartment building. It probably couldn't have been built in quantity with the combined production facilities of the U.S., the British Commonwealth AND Russia. Let alone Germany in 1945.

Could be, thanks. I'd forgotten about that little pick-up. I'm relying on my faulty memory. I remember those parts runner vehicles as being very beat-up and clearly marked for in-plant use only. But there could be many reasons for that. I also remember all the VW Bug taxis in Mexico City, with the front passenger seat removed so fares could climb into the back seat easier. Our team was 4 large Americans, so we couldn't fit in those. We hired a driver with a big ol' four-door Chevy Impala from the 1970s. The odometer had probably turned over 3 or 4 times, but that car was always immaculate and looked like new, inside and out. Long as I'm reminiscing...for taxis, no place could beat Alexandria, Egypt. When I lived there from 2005-09, most taxis were ancient Russian Ladas. Since Alex is right on the Mediterranean Sea, many were so corroded that trim/parts would fall off as you rode in them. They were all equipped with a giant, cast-iron Russian taxi meter marked in Cyrillic letters, that would crack your knee if you got into the front seat. None of those meters had worked since the Brezhnev Era, and you had to negotiate the fare with the driver.

Back in the 1990's I took a work trip to the Ford plant in Mexico City. At the time that plant was building the Ford Manure (Contour) and its sister, the Mercury Mistake (Mystique). We also visited the VW plant in Puebla, where they were still building the Beetle (and would be until 2013, IIRC). What caught my eye at that plant was the parts runners: VW Rabbits with the rear end whacked off to make a sort of pickup truck. Those were only driven inside the plant property, not on the public streets.

Not a ship builder myself, but here's a good build review of the TAMIYA 1/350 scale Fletcher Class destroyer. It includes lots of info and history on the ships. https://modelingmadness.com/review/misc/ships/leefletch.htm

Great! But the tires in older kits I've seen aren't bagged. They are loose in the box. Everything else is bagged, even in that 1987 kit, except the body and tires. And the fire-hose cloth material/wire, which can be easily lost from those awful end-opening boxes of later kits. Older issues came from the 1980s came in a regular 2-piece box. I put the tires in a Ziploc bag myself. I noticed 1 tire in that 1987 kit is starting to collapse. Maybe mounting the tire on the wheel will fix that, with help from a little steam or other heat. It could also be that Revell improved its tire formula over the years. I sure hope so. Like others, I might try to order some replacements.

No alternative AFAIK. Those big Dunlop tires seem unique to these kits (and maybe the Revell Mercedes fire trucks, I haven't checked). But I've also seen the Unimog melting-tire problem and griped about it somewhere on this board. In the process of melting, the tires also "sweat" an oily residue that will ruin anything it touches. Like the body, which is an unbagged part in those kits. That RW-1 Unimog must be a popular kit. I have a version of it from 1987. I know Revell has also done more modern Unimog fire rigs.

The listing says "Snap," so that must be the simplified snap-kit of the Batmobile. No engine, but it still looks pretty good. The link below will take you to a review of the Snapper from That Other Magazine. Polar Lights released several different versions of the Batmobile back around 2011. If you want an engine, look for one of these: Kit #POL-837: comes in a standard-sized kit box. Has a 27-piece 429 Ford V8 with C6 automatic trans. Kit #POL-881: Deluxe Edition. Comes in a long, flat box similar to the Round 2 "Art Box." Optional 429 Ford or simplified "jet turbine" engine. Also includes photo-etched stainless steel parts, resin figures of Batman & Robin, and other goodies. http://www.scaleautomag.com/how-to-models/kit-reviews/2011/10/polar-lights-1966-batmobile-snap-kit