Ace-Garageguy

In all fairness to Revell, though it's hard to see it in some pix of the real car, there IS a stamped character line that runs down the side of the entire car, including above the door handle.

The Munsters babe?

V8 heads are, of course, almost always staggered somewhat to accommodate the connecting rods being paired on the crank journals. The stagger on your heads doesn't look all that bad, but what IS bad is the too-simplified tooling of the top of the block surfaces where the heads mount. The photos (below) show typical smallblock Chebby blocks. They're all about the same, so all you need to do is to make those ledges on the ends of the block that protrude from under the heads look more like the real block casting. Reference photos abound as to what it SHOULD look like.

Really depends on the specific time period and location. Gliding was a popular sport in Germany pre-WW II (as it remains today) and there were numerous clubs whose aircraft would have had only civilian markings. Germany was training pilots in Russia for a time prior to the war as well. This old photo shows a glider-trainer, not the same type, but clearly marked.

Doug, I certainly didn't mean to be rude or to imply you don't know what you're looking at. Though there is some lens distortion apparent in the photo of the model above, what bugs me most every time I compare the two shots is that the upper angle of the 'beak' where the bumper protrudes forward of the grille appears to me to be too flat, making the protrusion of the leading edge of the bumper necessarily too far forward, when compared to the real car. Another way to say it is that, to me, the angle between the plane of the headlight door in the header and the top surface of the bumper appears to be wrong on the model, and perhaps the height of the headlight opening contributes to the appearance. It's impossible for me to tell from Frank's model shot exactly what the relationship is between the height of the headlight opening and the seam between the header panel and the upper bumper cap. I've always thought these were quite handsome cars, and it's great to have a newly tooled kit of one, but again, to me, the initial impression of the real car doesn't suggest quite the snow-plow effect I see on the model.

We have a winner, folks!! Lena Heady. Also in Game of Thrones.

Nope, and nope.

No, sorry.

How's 'bout dis one?

I have no idea when these were built, or by whom. I got them in a bunch of built-ups, parts and just plain junk. They're both curbsides, and the work under them is pretty crude.

LH .65" RH .65" (16.5mm)

No. A razor saw looks like a straight razor, and has little teeth on it. 32TPI (teeth per inch) is good for non-wood model work. Nickel-steel photoetched saws that fit other (standard) X-acto (and other design) handles work well too.

A razor saw or Dremel cutoff wheels is all I use on model 'glass, and I do a LOT of model f'glass (real cars and aircraft too, so I have a little experience with the stuff...) Don't use any lubricant. Your model fiberglass is probably in a polyester matrix. Polyester absorbs moisture and other liquids. Cut it dry AND WEAR A RESPIRATOR. And yes, gluing to other materials with epoxy is preferred...and I STILL say that 5-minute epoxy is useless for anything other than temporary fixturing. You can also try "toughened" CA, like the Loctite product shown here. I usually err on the side of overkill when it comes to gluing structural parts, even model parts, that have to be handled, absorb any kind of stress, or require further work like sanding and shaping. I DON'T like having things break while I'm working on them. Also keep in mind that fiberglass is part GLASS. (I've actually had morons argue that it's not.) It has real glass fibers in it. They're very hard and very abrasive, so they will take the edge off of blades and tools rapidly.

The proof is out. Time travelers from the future are here. I just knew it. Cool models by the way, Patrick. I have a soft spot for sticks-and-linen aircraft. Odd what they did to the swastidoodle. Revisionist history marches on.

Your description of the operation of the airliner triggered a memory of another one I haven't thought of for probably 50 years. ITC (Ideal) made a 2-foot long electric (battery, multiple D-cells) diving submarine kit. It was complicated, and had what they called "cam action" that was run by the electric motor that also drove the prop. The cam would activate the dive planes and rudder, sending the thing into turns and actually diving under water and surfacing. Sorta. If I remember right, the seals on the prop shaft, rudder and dive plane shafts were nothing but Vaseline. They leaked. Duh. One end or the other would get heavy and she would stop responding to control inputs and sink to the bottom of the pool. The battery life wasn't much either, and driving all the action parts would only give you power for a few minutes. A very few. And my parents, though generous, wouldn't buy D-cell batteries by the gross. The thing looked cool sitting on the stand, whirring its prop and cycling its control surfaces...but in water, she wasn't too impressive. After she sank repeatedly through one whole summer, I gave up (though I learned to hold my breath and swim under water quite well).

The lovely Diane Webber, pinup model extrordinare and actress. Not as widely remembered as Bettie Page, but certainly worth a look or 3.

Cool toys, gennelmen. Great thread. I'd forgotten this one until just now. International Rectifier "solar" model car. The solar cell didn't make enough power to run the thing, which was a actually powered by batteries, but it controlled a transistor switching circuit that would turn the power to the electric motor on and off. Can't find a pic of it out of the box, but mine was black.

Still me, hard at work on a '33 Plymouth a couple years back. Not much change except a few more wrinkles and a little less hair. The car when I finished the metal work, just before going to paint... During the buildup...

"If you ever get a chance to see one in person you will get it"? Get what? My second to last significant other had a 1:1, I looked at it for years, I have rather a lot of design and photo interpretation experience (including scaling from photos), and I agree it MAY be camera angle...but I don't think so. I'll buy the damm kit and measure a real one.

It rook to me rike plopoltions got sclewed again. Maybe camela angre, but flont end rook too rong and pointy on modre. Arso, bottom rine of nose too frat. Shourd come up in flont a rittre, but is too high arr way arong.

German wind-up toys were wonderful little exercises in precision machining. I had a wind-up Mercedes I hadn't thought of in years...until you mentioned that very cool little set above.

Here's a thread about the FPPM 906 kit.