Ace-Garageguy

Did laundry, a few errands, cleaned Mr. Spot's box, and hit a couple of hobby places. It's still cold and rainy, so I'm thinking about making a fresh pot of coffee and sitting at the model bench with some Christmas music on just to see if I can remember what it feels like to work on something I don't HAVE to.

Trips can have a way of getting out of hand...

Stopped by an America's Thrift Store while running a few errands, and snagged a set of artist's pastels in the box for $2.99 and a set of big chalks like kids use to mark hopscotch grids on sidewalks for $1.99. Both are excellent materials for weathering techniques. Also found a really nice heavy-duty Velbon camera tripod in its carrying bag for $12.99. I have 2 others I use for my little cheap old Nikon digitals, but I needed a heavier one to handle a real SLR. I'm happy. And speaking of weathering...grabbed these at HobbyTown:

And never confide your deepest secrets to anyone. No matter how "trustworthy" and "loving" they may be, they WILL use them against you at some point.

Today 4 hours ago is now yesterday, or more specifically, last night, but now right now is this morning.

Pretty easy straightforward to scratchbuild except for the Ford script, and even that's not impossible.

Mouth these words: "hotses" (^^^) can be led to culture, but you can't make 'em think.

Looking good. Inline sixes in rods create a whole big bag of additional problems.

Had I known several years ago what I know now, I would have done a few things differently.

I agree with everyone above. These are great kits, and produce superb models when built with your obvious care and skill.

Much of this comes back down to the fact that, as in many cases, it's not so much the tool as the user that's most important. Even though it's not particularly hard to get very acceptable photos suitable for web forums, I've seen no end of photos on here that look like they were taken with a potato covered in vaseline, dark and blurry, with zero apparent effort at composition, and distracting backgrounds detracting from shots of finished models. Some understanding of the capabilities of whatever it is you use to capture images with, and a little experimentation, will get you the best results. And "a lot of light and a tripod".

DeMille be like wun a dem Cataracts.

Smell that there roadkill?

Loud people are often compensating for something.

^^^ '57ish Dodge of some flavor. EDIT: Looks like the '57 Sierra had the patterned silver metal instrument background, but who knows what others.

Yeah, I could start a weekly record of the stuff that's dumped across the street from my house. Wasn't like that here when I moved in. It was a clean working-class neighborhood.

Pretty sure he meant he goes to a body shop he's used several times, and they give him some automotive-grade solvent-resistant masking paper.

Week in, week out, I still stink at the end of the day. Housework is usually the last of my priorities.

Become the person you always wanted to be, the best version of yourself you can imagine.

Very pretty, appropriate and good looking upgrades. Missed the WIP somehow...going to take a look.

Kinda similar to what we do on real cars. Quality tape for "demarcation", solvent-resistant paper for the rest, or in some cases, clear masking plastic made for the job. It's never a good idea to leave any masking material in place for an extended period, as noted above.

3 more built-up HO scale Varney (steel) ore cars. Buying built RR models is always a roll of the dice, as the build quality isn't really apparent on web photos. Even when I snag this stuff locally at flea markets, I rarely do close examinations pre-purchase. If they look pretty decent, I buy 'em. The last group of built-up Tichy (wood) ore cars I bought were done very well...except for one ham-handed glooey "repair" attempt done by somebody after the fact. This group of vintage Varney cars is not so nice, with unfortunate misalignment of panels and mold seams and flash not addressed at all. Still, they're well worth what I paid (about $6 each, when online asking averages around $15 plus shipping), and will be rebuilt to my standards. Two of the cars, the ones with the early cast metal underframes, have the same car number, but that's not hard to correct. All of these have very nice sprung metal trucks, actually worth more than the cars themselves. The tooling of these models dates back to the 1950s, and is the basis of similar ore cars in production to this day. They're that good.

Probably some good info in this thread, but I haven't looked at all of it...

Very pretty.