Ace-Garageguy

Well, it's not "chrome". It's highly polished aluminum. BMF, actually being aluminum, would produce the most realistic finish, and it's thin enough for rivet and panel lines to show through when it's burnished down. There's only one "chrome" paint I'm aware of that can be clear-coated and is durable, but it's not really cost-effective to do only one small model with it. Some of the 'dulling' of "chrome" paint can be mitigated by wearing thin cotton gloves during assembly.

Up the chimbly he rose.

No idea. None, zero, period.

You can lead a horse to water, but if it has a certain mindset, it'll die of dehydration just to spite you.

If you have some kind of problem with everyone around you, there's a good chance the real problem is you.

There's no time like the present to put something off until later.

Real world solution: custom trans mount and a longer custom driveshaft. Pretty easy on a model too. Far as the starter goes, real-world solution would be either an aftermarket bellhousing that relocated the starter, common at one time, or machine work and fabrication to accomplish the same thing...also common at one time.

It depends. The '32 bolt pattern was 5 on 5.5", '40 Ford was 5 on 5.5" too, vs. the 5 on 5" of some later cars (other than the "wide five" design). (Though the bolt pattern is the same, I do not recall if '40 wheels will bolt directly to '32 hubs.) There are multiple ways to use later rims on earlier cars. 1) '40 wheels may bolt directly to '32 hubs, or spacers may be required. 2) Wheel adaptors for different bolt patterns 3) Re-drill the brake drums and use spacers if necessary. 4) Swap wheels and their corresponding brake drums entirely. This was common practice when upgrading early Ford cars to '39 and later hydraulic ("juice") brakes, and can be accomplished with a minimum amount of machine work. Junkyard parts were plentiful and cheap. Remember that if you're building a "period" car, there were a whole hellava lot more machinists around then than there are now, and finding someone capable of performing these relatively simple mods was no big deal. 1940 16" X 4", 5 on 5.5" Ford passenger car wheels, below: Wide five wheels, below: Wide five adaptor, below (there are several designs): EDIT: The '32 Ford "Blackjack" built for James Hetfield by Josh Mills when I was working for him (I had zero to do with that build) ran wide-five wheels using only period parts and technology. IIRC it used '39 drums, backing plates, and wheels. The car was a contender for the 2017 AMBR.

While much information has been repeated in subsequent issues of vintage magazines or online forums, much has not. I personally prefer printed reference material to the digitized versions, for a variety of reasons.

"The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month" Fyodor Dostoevsky.

"Wet noodle" is frequently used to describe this Canadian National Railway logo.

"Class" is a commodity that's sorely lacking in today's world.

The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself – Sun Tzu

Big smilemaker. Well done, sir.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin

"Spirit ain't worth spit without a little exercise." Eastwood in Pale Rider

But frankly, I don't understand why all the fuss...

Encountering "The Government Is Closed" on several websites. P A T H E T I C Next time my taxes are due, I assume it's OK to just send a note that says "This particular well has run dry".

"Get a horse!" https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/01/get-horse-americas-skepticism-toward-first-automobiles/

Found a reasonably well-built Monogram 1/24 Scarab for $10. I have a few of these as NIB kits, but this one will probably be the one that gets (re)built. I'd like to show it with the front-engined Strombecker version.

Also brought home a complete Lindberg 1/48 Snark kit. Not really cheap (different vendor from the train stuff), but less than online. I buggered a Snark model (Revell) when I was a kid, and always kinda wanted to do a nice job on one. Some of the rivet detail at the fuselage seams will be tricky to get right, and I may or may not change the raised panel lines to scribed, but it's worth a shot.

Nice and cool this AM but I was creaky, moving slow, so instead of going straight to the shop, I slid by the little church car show held every first Saturday just a couple miles away. When that wrapped up, since I was in the neighborhood of one of the 'antique malls' where I sometimes find HO train stuff... Jackpot. 32 NOS/NIB blue-box-Athearn, Accurail, and Branchline Blueprint Series freight car kits, some with high-end sprung, metal-wheel trucks and Kadees already in the boxes. Also got an old Athearn powered SDP40 in Santa Fe blue-yellow freight livery, damaged and "worked on" by some ham-handed chimp but restorable and also sporting Kadees, plus four Heljan, Con-Cor and AHM structure kits. $5 each. Sad little loco, below. Box was marked in pen SD30, but it's actually an SDP40. Broken motor mount and driveshafts, buggered wiring, and a few loose handrails "reattached" to the body shell with a soldering iron...but the dual-flywheel motor runs fine, the trucks are OK, and I have the parts. Repairing everything else is pretty easy, and it needs a paint job. These were built for passenger service so wouldn't have been in freight colors (the longer squared tail houses a steam-generator for passenger car heating), and AFAIK SF never owned any anyway. One of the structure kits, below. The Branchline Blueprint Series kits are particularly nice, US-made, with separate ladders, grabs, doors, etc., and separate ends and roofs with nothing molded on that can be used as masters to cast more for upgrading el cheapo rolling stock.

However...it's the same basic concept. Raising the spindles relative to the rest of the suspension is exactly the same functionally as installing 'dropped spindles' in a real car. Models in general can benefit from the builder having real-world knowledge of how things work, no matter the genre. On the other hand, building models is a great way to learn how things work in the real world.

Receipt-hoarding might be a handy affliction if you get audited by the IRS.

"Pen is mightier than the sword" had more validity back when reading-comprehension was thought to be a valuable life skill.