Ace-Garageguy

Like it. That rear 3/4 view is especially wicked.

Sorry about your friend, Carl. It sounds that, especially during all the crapp he had to go through over the years, he was lucky to have had a good friend like you.

Ahhh...if only it were indeed that easy. I'd discorporate this very instant.

Remarkable. And just about the only way to produce a part like this (3D printed). The bumps on the spokes are due to current limitations in the printing process, but this is a very good indication of what's coming in the next couple of years as the technology continues to develop and become more affordable for the mainstream modeler. I have several models that would look much much better with a set of these.

I've had to deal with Gecko-tier claims reps who had so little knowledge of vehicle structures, they wouldn't (for example) accept an estimate that included all 4 layers of structural stampings inside a forward door jamb that was punched inwards a foot. Morons. Trained and paid? How can this be? Their mantra was "if I can't see it, I can't accept it"...so either you call the tards back out for supplement after supplement...delaying the repair and using up the insured's rental vehicle time...or you force them to watch as you peel layer after layer of crushed metal off the car. Guess which one I did? I've had claims reps who were so morbidly obese they were physically incapable of bending down to check underbody damage, and again, refused an estimate that contained "something they couldn't see". We were forced, one time, to move an in-process vehicle off the lift and dolly the wreck in question on it, just so a fat fool could "see" the damage. I've had the "good hands" guys try to refuse paying the blown-head-gasket part of a collision claim that resulted from the head-injured owner of the vehicle forgetting to turn the engine off after the radiator was holed in the crash. Is it any wonder I'm completely disgusted with the insurance AND car repair industries? Honestly, only 1 out of ten claims reps I've ever dealt with were actually competent to do the work. Somebody help me understand.

I just love semantic distinctions. Consider these. Scale Model: A scale model is most generally a physical representation of an object, which maintains accurate relationships between all important aspects of the original object. (source Wikipedia) Toy: A toy is an object, often a small representation of something familiar, for children or others to play with; plaything. (source Dictionary.com)

Or move really close to the interstate and sleep with the windows open. Seriously, I know it sucks. That's why I joke about it. It's been a part of me so long I don't notice it much, very often, unless I think about it. The white-noise machine is a good suggestion though. A friend gave me one that does surf, rain, and a bunch of others. Quite realistic.

Yeah, won't even go in a freakin' straight line. Oops...more soon-to-be-dead-guy's "views"...

Ah Grasshopper...you have just taken your first step into a far, far larger world than you ever dreamed existed... Or, "Why did the Tom cross the road? To get to the chicken on the other side".

You be the judge. Monogram 1/24 '30 body, chopped, everything else 1/25 Real car...

You just have to get the plastic past its "glass transition temperature", Tg, which for styrene is about 100C, or boiling water. The tricky bit is holding it in the correct shape as you heat it, without cooking the meat off your finger bones. I'll do a scratch-built hood tutorial soon.

Every time I've looked at swapping Revell Boyd T bodies on to AMT fenders, it's worked fine. I've measured the things and they're really all pretty close. The turd in the Buttera and Buttera-derived kits (the itty bitty '34) is the Ford engine and automatic gearbox. They ARE significantly underscale...which is unnecessary, as a correctly-scaled smallblock Ford 289-302 etc. will fit. It's tight, just as it is shoehorning a little Ford V8 into a real T, but it goes in there.

'32 rails under a '26-'27 has been a popular look for quite a while... You can build jus' about anything on '32 rails...

Everything looks really good from here.

Yup. Real silence would be nice. Oh well.

Cool tip. I see it's time for more experimenting. How many coats of metalizer are you using to allow this?

Beautiful model of a beautiful car. Love the colors. The classic Packards are the epitome of understated elegance to me. Not flashy or showy, just clean and rich looking. Always loved the '41 180 Darrin (Banacek's car), too. Almost bought a running 110 sedan, cheap, thinking I'd rebody it from the cowl back and do a Darrin clone. Then found the 180 wheelbase and front fenders / hood are longer on the 180. Plan abandoned.

I'm thinking this new kit may get a lot of guys doing mods they might not have thought they could tackle earlier. Just like in building real hot-rods, what you can do with this new kit will be limited only by your imagination, and your willingness to step out of your comfort zone and do some hack-n-whack. Researching how it's been done for 60 odd years on the real cars will go a long way towards getting into these things, too. One of the big hard parts, narrowing a '32 chassis to work under a '28-'29 shell, has already been done apparently...and the other Model A frame comes pre-zeed. Those two kinda big-deals remove a lot of the critical alignment issues new scratch-bashers may have trouble with, and make it easy to focus on other stuff. Building a hood for an A with a '32 grille shell is just about the perfect introductory project for someone interested in getting into scratchbuilding body parts. The hood needs no compound curves, and if the body and grille are firmly jigged, it's easy to make a VERY accurate pattern from card-stock or masking tape. Then just lay the pattern on .020" styrene sheet, cut it out with a sharp X-acto, and bend it under hot water to shape. Done. I'm wanting a boxcar load of these kits, frankly. No more endless scrounging other kits and gluebombs. Happy modeling !

Thanks for the link. Great quality stream. I vividly remember the day Bruce McLaren was killed while testing a CanAm car at Goodwood in June 1970. Appropriate they're racing McLarens on this AM's stream. Got to remember to get set up to get the live LeMans feeds this year.

Yup, and it's probably been done ten thousand times in steel or aluminum, full scale. You'd think that "modelers" might be able to handle the job in a 1/25 scale piece of plastic.

The Barracuda the Barris Fireball 500 is based on is a 3000+ pound car. The Barracuda had higher-horsepower optional V8 engines to handle towing, and there was a factory towing package as an available option too. The race car and trailer combo probably exceed the recommended factory tow weight limit, but hey, you could get away with it if you're careful. Disc brakes and a limited slip diff were also available in '66...good for towing too.

I'm certainly not trying to get a flame war starting again, but I just don't get that attitude. If I told my employers or clients that...you know, people who PAY me to do a job... I'd be out of work and on food stamps. Last week I cut a piece of hose 1/2 inch too short on a custom AC install I'm doing in the '47 Caddy. I also decided I'd rather have a 45 deg. #8 service-port fitting at the compressor than the 90 deg. fitting I originally specified. Who do you think pays for the replacement hose, the new fitting and shipping? I do. Who does the rework for free? I do. Voluntarily. Mistakes happen? Yeah, they do. And I eat my own. I don't try to pass off half-assed work as "good-enuf". But maybe I oughta try it. Seems to be "good enuf" for so many of you all here. Nah. I'll do it right. There's a principle here. Remember those?

Hmmmm...not saying you're not correct, but I'm still peripherally in the body-shop biz, and the paint stores around here have a minimum amount they'll mix...because it's done to a formula by weight. Usually a quart, sometimes a pint if you're lucky. Probably a minimum of $50 US here. Some paint stores MAY be able to mix very small modeler-friendly quantities, but I haven't found one in 40 years (that doesn't mean they're not out there).

Frankly, my own criticisms of shoddy work are backed up by a career often heavily involved in developing and manufacturing parts for the high-performance automotive and aviation industries. I didn't have something to copy, like the kit makers do. I had to start with a need, and a clean sheet of paper. Make it work, make it economically, and make it on time. And look good. I simply did not have the option of multiple re-works and re-designs, and often when I was doing freelance design work (which I still do) if my first design had deficiencies of any sort, I'd be held accountable for the second and subsequent prototypes, and corrections to tooling if necessary. We're talking serious money out of my pocket if I didn't hit it dead-on, first time. Personal accountability and just giving a damm, and putting more effort into providing job-one quality than excuses when it's lacking...that's what's necessary. And one more time: I LIKE the Revell '57 Fords I have multiples of. Overall they're very nice kits. I'll correct the flaws when I build them. BUT I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO.

Well, I'm retrofitting my old '89 GMC shop truck with a carb and HEI distributor after the computer and associated bits went belly-up. What looked like a real piece of cake going in has turned into a loose-ends fest, with the EGR location needing to be turned into a heat source for the automatic choke, a bypass fuel pressure regulator that avoids having to drop the tank to change pumps, all weird and wonderful fittings on the GM fuel injection supply and return hoses that don't screw into anything I have for old US or Euro cars...so I'm having to make up fittings, the fact the pump is computer-controlled, so I have to bypass that circuit too...it's gonna be a while. Still, it's mine, and when it's done I don't have to worry about ancient EFI electronics failing on the road...and anything that DOES fail is an easy parking-lot fix.