Ace-Garageguy

Mrs. Peel, my how you've aged. Same bone structure though.

The AMT '32 Roadster is one of my favorite old kits, and I've done a bunch of rebuilds of gluemess versions of it too. The firestone slicks are AMT, but they're later than what came in the first issue of the kit (the early issues had no-name piecrusts) and the Chebby engine is a swap too; the kit came with a Chrysler Hemi as the optional V8. The finned rear drums look familiar, definitely AMT...I've got a lot of vintage AMT kits on the shelf...but right off hand I don't recall which kit, or even if they were included in the early issues of the '32. Over the years these got molded in a variety of colors...black, white, gray, tan...but only one color per box. The yellow one you have is probably tan underneath, kit #6585, and built to match the box art with that kit's tires / wheels.

The Wicked Witch ?

Somebody'd already answered the Gene Tierney one, but here's another photo...because you just can't have too many photos of this exquisite beauty.

Another easy one...Judi Dench.

Bingo.

Another thing to remember is that "cars as appliances" have really been the norm rather than the exception for most of automotive history. A Model T was pretty basic transportation and only came in one color, and for every '50s gaudy, chrome-laden, optioned-out top-of-the-line impress-the-neighbors turnpike-cruiser, or '60s factory drag racer (the cars that tend to grab the focus of our looking-back perspective), there were a hundred or a thousand plain-Jane, low-line get-to-work-and-back strippers that were bought for price alone, or Dad's brand loyalty, or simple utility...and had nothing whatsoever to do with passion for automobiles.

Exactly. And because beading wire is labeled in its actual outside diameter, if you do your scaling math, you can get exactly the right scale-diameter for the application you're doing ('30s car, contemporary top-fuel, etc.) Guaranteed to avoid the wired-with-noodles look some models get done with, too.

One thing to take into consideration is that if the automotive transportation industry is ever 'rationalized', it just doesn't make sense to have multiple platforms from several manufacturers, all entirely different, but that do exactly the same thing. A much smarter and more cost-effective way to build cars would be platform and parts sharing across the industry, with differentiation between 'makes' being achieved through styling alone. If (BIG IF) energy ever becomes cheap again, and aerodynamic efficiency isn't such a primary design requisite, we might see some flashy and flamboyant stuff for the masses once more.

I probably should have included the xB, but I prefer the particular versions of the Cube for its proportions and exactly what you refer to as its "cartoon caricature of a car" looks. It's almost as though it's an inside joke that's so subtle, most people don't get the joke. I like that. Then of course, there are the cars nobody but Arab oil sheikhs can afford. I also think Porsche has done a nice job bringing back more of the feel of the original 911, but updated...even a Targa version...

Easy one. Jill Ireland

Gee willikers...'round that time I remember being excited, along with most of the adults, when the new cars came out every year. I also remember most "old-timey" cars not being appreciated very much by anyone other than eccentric old men and hot-rod builders. We musta lived on different planets. This is one of the most popular cars on Earth. Actually, it's a very good car. It's also bland, boring and completely forgettable.

I'm beginning to think this must be P'bucket's IT staff...oh...except they should be wearing shorts and t-shirts.

One of those small things that used to make life tolerable.

Angie Dickinson, I think. Mmmm.

Battery and solar cell manufacturing and recycling CAN be clean processes. Yes, there are toxic byproducts, and those things have value if they're efficiently recycled. Burning coal is also dirtier than necessary, but it too CAN be a very clean process, with value extracted from the waste stream. The technology exists ALREADY to clean all of these "problems" up, but there's more energy spent on foot-dragging, political posturing and hand-wringing than in just getting the damm job done.

I still think there are some stunningly original designs out there, even in "affordable" cars. Two I'd like to own are the Nissan Cube and the Honda CR-Z. The Cube tries hard to LOOK like an appliance, and I think it succeeds. It's a non-car in styling, eminently likable for its iconoclastic practicality in the way the original Beetle was. The Honda CR-Z always makes me do a double-take whenever I see a real one on the road or parked. I'd buy it just for its looks, and illegally put some kind of screaming powerplant in it to go with the pocket-rocket lines.

Steven Tyler?

Indeed.

Besides being beautiful, both Donna Reed and Hedy Lamarr were highly intelligent and multi-talented. Lamarr was co-inventor of a spread-spectrum radio guidance device for WW II allied torpedoes, principles of which are still in use today in communications. Reed was, frankly, a very classy woman. She did some fine photography later in her life, and was one of the founders of Another Mother for Peace.

Here's one.

My lawyer made me add a disclaimer.

Revolutionary new weight loss miracle discovery !!! Look at this just before you sit down to eat. Guaranteed to kill your appetite.

Hmmmm. Wonder why soldiers are required to wear uniforms. Looks like they'd be a lot more comfortable wearing whatever they wanted to. And all that saluting and "sir" stuff...what's that all about? Everyone should be treated equal, and have a say in how things are run. It's all so unfair, having a chain of "command". I mean, just because somebody's a general or something, how does that make him the boss of me? WARNING: THE ABOVE REMARKS ARE INTENDED TO BE SARCASM, AND NOT TO BE TAKEN AS REPRESENTING MY REAL OPINIONS. THANK YOU FOR READING THE SMALL PRINT.

Your gloves could very possibly have been contaminated during manufacture. It's NOT the nitrile that does it, rather it's the possible lubricants the factory used on the machines or to ease some processing step. Different manufacturers use different processes, and many Chinese manufacturers are notoriously sloppy about following specifications, contamination, etc. I don't like fisheyes, I don't like re-dos, and I try to avoid handling things I'm just about to paint. I've been known to wash my gloved hands with isopropyl alcohol before handling a model before paint, just to head off any potential problems. Another note: A tack rag won't remove contamination, as you probably know. It will take off lint and dust, but just smear contaminants like silicone all over the model. My final step just prior to painting is a wipe down with lintless white paper towels and iso alcohol. I got in the habit while painting real high-end cars and aircraft, where a re-do can cost you thousands of dollars. Since I started using the iso wipe in 2009, I've had zero problems...except for once when I forgot, after a model had been sitting on the bench for a while, in primer, prior to paint.