Zoom Zoom

Thanks Matt for all the great pics! We had a blast at the NNL itself and also both Friday and Saturday nights in the hospitality room (Gregg's going to post some seriously funny, sometimes disturbing pics soon :shock: ) and from our lunchtime field trip on Friday. We had 611 models entered and 657 on display, and Randy Derr won Best in Show and Best Pony Car w/his USAC Foyt Camaro that is in the most recent issue of Model Cars Magazine.

Hope you do make it next year! Randy Derr cleaned up yesterday w/his Foyt Camaro; best pony car and best in show 8)

Nice rack! We missed you today at the show :cry:

Home Depot/Lowes carry some really nice metal cases w/foam inners, you cut out the foam blocks and insert your models. Great for carry-on luggage, that's how three of us took our models to the NNL East via Air Tran. No damage at all, no problems w/security. Didn't even have to open any of the cases. We looked sort of like the model geek version of the Blues Brothers. All wearing identical ACME shirts and carrying identical cases 8) We'll have a "Model RX" table at the show for folks who need a place to sit down and repair a model. We'll have simple tools and glues so if you can't bring or forgot your own emergency supply, you should be able to get it presentable.

I honestly have no idea why I couldn't get it to link before, it was adding a space at the beginning and when I manually removed the space there was no link at all, just the code. It was doing it again when I was replying here, then it worked...hmmm. It seems to be okay for me now :roll: :? Thanks for fixing my link, and I think I can show another angle: BTW, I love the C5/C6 GS's 8) . I too was expecting the fire-breathing racers. Having seen a 1:1 C5 Z06 just like Ismael's, it really was cool-and I had to look twice as I thought it was a factory job. Great stuff!

I'd like to join in the GS tribute, but for some reason this board isn't working correctly for me to post a picture. Every time I try to post my picture, it comes out as a link, with the closing tags as part of the link. Something is wrong. I've never had trouble before posting pictures here. I hope someone can figure it out! I'm using the "img" as normal, copying my photo's url, and then using "close tags" as usual. And the link you see above is what's happening. Strange. If I add an extra space at the end of my photo URL, at least there's a working link. But that's not what I want, I want the photo to show up here. As it has done countless times before. Something wrong w/this picture?? All fixed! - Jairus

Hope you can make it! There are quite a few driving up from FL; including our club VP who just moved to Tampa. Here's a thread from the contests/shows section w/all the links/info. you need. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=216

Steve, I look forward to meeting you here! We're going to have a blast 8)

I gotta have that Firebird

Sweet. Love that kit, I think me, Henry, and Wayne are going to build ours next year once we get our NNL and Porsche stuff out of the way! Henry actually is going to build two, he knows a guy in TN that ones the real car and he's building one for him.

Greetings! Great to see you here.

Sadly we found out today that Cobra Colors has closed. I emailed Leon and here's an excerpt of his reply: "I had to close due to a sudden responsibility I have to take on which won't permit me the time necessary to continue to operate and develop Cobra Colors. I closed once before under similar circumstances and came back so I've learned to never say never, but for now I have no idea if or when that might be." I hope that Leon is able to get back to Cobra Colors at some point. His product and service were incredible. I will really, badly miss Cobra Colors :cry: Cheers and good luck to Leon, I hope he can get back to it whenever, if ever possible. I'd rather be sad that he chose to shut down, vs. what happens to paying customers when an aftermarket company gets behind and doesn't fulfill their obligations nor communicate with them, which is far too common these days.

Looks great! That color suits it well. I'm sad that Cobra Colors has ceased doing business though. Here's an excerpt of what Leon wrote me: "I had to close due to a sudden responsibility I have to take on which won't permit me the time necessary to continue to operate and develop Cobra Colors. I closed once before under similar circumstances and came back so I've learned to never say never, but for now I have no idea if or when that might be." :cry:

This model is beyond too cool 8) Looks great, and looks like you're having a blast building it.

I couldn't agree more. While I like the STS-V and would build a model of it, the real hotrod with both street and racing cred is the CTS-V. That would certainly make for an awesome 2-in-1 kit if they did that! There's also the Corvette-based XLR-V that would also seem to make more sense, in a kit-sales way of thinking-even though I'd much rather have a Corvette in the first place :wink:

Ismael, those bottles look much too...full :wink: Now if they could make lacquers spray as nice and smooth and glossy as enamels without eating modern plastics....

While a good spray booth prevents most of the paint fumes from smelling up the house, don't forget that whatever you have painted will also smell like fresh paint until it's dry! If you are going to invest in a spray booth, you may also want to buy or build a food dehydrator or drying booth that will accelerate the drying process.

I've raced a couple of 1/32 tracks at a couple friends homes and have a few 1/32 cars. My HO track is much longer in scale than 1/32 would allow-you have to have a huge layout to run a 1/32 car flat-out for more than a nanosecond (unless you go to a commercial track); the 1/32 cars are great to look at but racing them is a chore, they're always running off the track and a lap time, if you stay on track, is very short. Racing is more fun for me on an HO track w/the Thunderjets. Less chasing after an off-track excursion, more track time per lap, much more full-throttle time, still challenging. However technology has made racing slot cars less enticing...I enjoy racing GT3/GT4/Need For Speed on my PS2 more than chasing down slot cars (and it takes up no extra space in the house). But if I'm slot racing, my personal favorite is the old-school HO style vs. the modern 1/32 stuff.

I've got an HO track setup in my basement, have tons of cars from Thunderjets to Magnum 440 X2's, Super G Plus, etc. My favorite cars are by far the Thunderjets and Tuff Ones; they're quick, they hang the tail out in the corners, and don't need monster magnets to hold them to the track. The fast cars are so fast you can barely see them, when they crash they're like rockets. The newer Johnny Lightning Thunderjets that I got from Hobby Lobby run great. The new motors/chassis are fast. There are some great online stores that sell repro bodies and some killer upgraded wheels/tires for Thunderjets. Minilites, Magnum 500's, Chevy rally rims, Halibrands, etc. The track is fun, but I only use it occasionally. It's atop a bunch of storage shelves so it's not taking up floor space. I probably have 50-60 feet of track set up, and four transformers to keep power even (one car won't fly off the track from a burst of power when the other car crashes). It's more fun to race than 1/32, but the cars aren't quite as interesting since they're smaller. Here's a link to the place w/all the cool repros, originals, decals, rims, parts, etc. I got a '68 AMX from them and a '69 El Camino w/surfboards to replace one I had when I was a kid. Far cheaper than the originals. The resin is amazing; looks like molded plastic. http://www.ho-slotcars.com/ My HO AMX sitting next to a Johan model:

I can't say for the standard Mini that you show; but the Stella Bridger version from the Italian Job is a full-blown JCW Mini Cooper S w/LHD and all the various JCW appearance options, bodywork (fascias and skirts) plus the glass roof and BBS wheels (though they're a bit wide and I prefer Revell's that are in their WRX diecast model). It's a really neat model, and I suspect it's the only LHD JCW from Fujimi. The boxart of the one you are looking at seems to show the wipers in a position that's seen on RHD cars. It wouldn't be that hard to convert a Mini from RHD to LHD as the instruments are in the center and the tach is on the steering column. http://www.hlj.com/product/FUJ18574

Great pics! I knew it was David that I saw walking through vendor row, I should have stopped him to say hello. I was glad to have gotten the ride back to Wayne's in "No Way" Jose's C6 8) Wayne's Cayman looked pretty sweet from behind (especially when the spoiler went up)...the C6 was begging to get ahead though Who here knows how to pronounce the name of the Canadian guy who sounded like a WWF announcer all weekend...Mr. Hnatiw? Nah. Choo. :wink:

It certainly was a fantastic weekend 8) Glad to have the chance to meet you finally! Glad you and Jose could make it to our ACME club meeting on Sunday, we really enjoyed having you visit. Looking forward to seeing all your C6R pics!

Glad to see you join us here Jason!

See you tomorrow!

I get HLJ orders shipped via SAL; once shipped from Japan it takes about 12-16 days to hit my doorstep (sometimes it takes them up to a week to get the order out the door :roll: ). EMS is much faster, but much more expensive. One of my friends just ordered a number of the B-501/502/503 cans from them. Gotta love the global economy 8)