Shardik

Mark, I'm very glad your buddy ended up in the right home! I'll wager that your investment will pay rich dividends...a true friend is priceless.

This thread keeps getting better, and my reading list keeps getting bigger! @ Jay; The Creature from Jekyll Island is next on my reading list. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. You might also consider The Road to Serfdom by Austrian economist F.A. Hayek (sp?). @ Dave; Heinlein Rocks! My favorites are The Door into Summer and Friday. These deal more with sociology than science, but still have plenty of action. Reaching back through the years, in my youth I wore out two copies of My Side of The Mountain. Oh, and of course: Shardik! If you can find it, you'll know the secret of my screen name. (Hint: my friends call me Bear)

Here's my two "babies". Sarah (the one with fewer appendages), is in her final year at UNC studying to be an art teacher. Her biggest difficulty is that she looks younger than her students. Audrey, my 6 month old Brachypelma Beohmi, is on a mission to rid the world of crickets.

I thought about cleaning my workbench, but I couldn't find it ... so I just built a new one instead.

This is a great topic. It doesn't surprise me that so many of us read extensively; left and right brain working in concert, and all that. Here's my contribution to the discusion: Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology - Ayn Rand Consider it a users manual for the human brain. One of her last published works, it was intended as an introduction for a more extensive treatment of Objectivist philosophy. This work does, however, stand on it's own. This is the most satisfying answer I've ever gotten to the question "What do we know, and how do we know it?". Rand understood that philosophy is needed by everyone, not just the intelectual elitists, and so has presented her philosophy in a manner accesible to anyone with a functioning brain and the willingness to use it. Bloody April - Peter Hart A fascinating look at military aviation in its infancy. This work focuses on the air war over Arras, France in April 1917; refered to as Bloody April because of the devastating and one-sided losses suffered by the RFC. Over half the book is comprised of after action reports and other correspondence from pilots and other personel directly involved with the conflict.

Just got the word, via facebook: Sasha will be coming out in 1:24 scale soon!

I confidently voted "REAL" , based not only on detail that is present, but on a particular detail being absent.

AAAARRGG! Too many great ideas in one place! My heads gonna explode from data overlode. I'd love to see separate complete threads on each and every one of these! So much creativity, so little time.

I find a lot of good buys at antique stores: MPC 1:12 1930 Bentley for $30.00 (going rate, about $300.00), and several 1:72 Airfix air craft for $1.00 each.

I've been building/repairing/restoring guitars and other stringed instruments for the last six years. Interestingly, I've only been seriously playing for two. My forte (get it? forte ) is old Scotish folk songs. It pays dividends here too. I think that's the remains of a D string.

Well, in MY opinion.... aw never mind. Neat find though.

That is one beautiful build! Looks like an awsome kit. And here's where I reveal my ignorance (since everyone else seems to know allready): Who made the kit? And add my name to the list of those who love the color combo.

I like, I like!

Growing up, in New Mexico, my neighbor had one of these (1:1). What a blast! You've captured it pretty faithfully (except his was metal-flake gold); nice clean build.

ARRRG, What's in your wallet?

O.K., I'm in. Here's one of me heading off to work.

As promissed, more photos: The fuel tank, rear end and dampers have been installed. Here's a closer shot of the damper assembly: scratch built from .010 & .020 styrene, except for the adjusters which were carefully sawn from the kit parts. Also, like Harry, I shaved off the wrapping detail from the leaf springs and replaced it with thread. The cast texture was added to the axle housing with thinned putty and a peice of foam packing material.

WOW! I love this car, and am very impressed by your reproduction of it. That interior looks absolutely authentic. How did you get the texture of the seats so perfect ?

Harry, this is ammazing. Glad I spotted yours before I got too much further on mine. I had elaborate plans to make new stone shields for the headlights from brass sheet. Your solution is probably going to save me a good five hours work , and they look fine! The tonneau cover is another thing I wasn't sure how best to deal with -now I have one more good idea to add to the arsenal! Thanks for being so generous with your explanations of your techniques.

Ken, Dave, Bob and Harry; Thanks for the encouraging comments. More photos soon.

I've just returned to modelling after a 25 year hiatus, so of course I jumped right in at the deep end. I found this oooold MPC kit, partialy assembled, at an antique mall and thought the price seemed pretty good for a kit of this scale; $30.00. It looked like everything was there so I took it home and proceded to disassemble what I could. This was made easier by the fact that the previous owner had left the plating intact, so the glue joints just popped apart with little damage. Next, I carefully sawed off the fuel tank ( it was a mess and would have to be replaced). Here's the engine, rebuilt, painted, detailed (sort of), and weathered. I shaved off some details and replaced them with copper tubing. The magnetos were reshaped and wired with solder. the linkage was made from styrene and music wire. I made a new starter because the kit part didn't match any of my refrences. The starter wire is a low E string from my guitar. Next, I cut .040" styrene formers using the remains of the kit fuel tank as a template, and "skinned" it with .020" sheet. The aluminum mesh isn't quite right, but it was the closest thing I could find. (of course, after it was painted and installed I found the perfect material!) More guitar string, and fuel petcocks made from Evergreen rod. The straps are .005" styrene strips and the rivets are resin decals from Archer. Here's a closer look at the strap tensioners and the rivet detail. More coming, but be patient: I work slow.

I'm curious about the "wave" graphics on the side panels. Is that a decal or hand painted?

This is some realy incredible work, guys; I'm impressed! Here's a humble offering from a re-newbie. (just got back to modelling after a 25 year abscence). 1:12 scale 1930 Bentley 4 1/2 liter supercharged, by MPC with a few bits and pieces scratch built. Note: this kit is about as old as I am, but has since been reissued by Airfix.