Ace-Garageguy

Not today, but yesterday I stopped by the local HobbyTown to see how the styrene and basswood stocks were, pick up a few things, and snag a few old free railroad (model and real) magazines. One of the fellas who's worked there for as long as I can remember, and is an avid modeler himself, took me aside to show me some new stock, some new product lines, and we discussed some crossover uses of a few things. Than we started talking about bare-metal finishes, and he showed me a few more things, shared some knowledge only accomplished aircraft modelers are likely to be aware of, and was generally one of the most helpful and knowledgeable people I've come across anywhere in a very long time. Just like the old days of real hobby shops, and I don't care who says techieworld is better...there's absolutely no substitute for personal interaction with somebody who cares about the job he's doing and enjoys sharing his knowledge and expertise...even if he is trying to sell you something. I walked out of the store with WAY more than I went in for.

Sure looks like it. Knew I'd seen one, but couldn't place it. Thanks Steve. Apparently Bowser either did or is producing an HO scale "Hammerhead" RS3 model (though last I heard Bowser was out of business). EDIT: But they appear to be back...YIPPEE!!! Aha. It's in the Walthers catalog. But the one I bought came from a collection I understand is too old for it to be a factory job (though I may misunderstand, or may have been misinformed). It was listed simply as a "complete non-running AHM road diesel", and I haven't yet found a reference to AHM having made one. I need to see if I can find some history, as rather a lot of current production rolling stock is based on very old tooling. Curiouser and curiouser... Thanks again. EDIT 2: I took the body shell off the frame, and it's definitely a scratchbash on an AHM drive, but one of the nicest pieces of this kind of work I've ever seen. Separate wire grabs on the high-hood end, see-through fan grating with a free-spinning fan, invisible seams on the body shell, and a practically perfect, texture-free paint job...plus excellent light weathering. Whoever built it was GOOD. EDIT 3: Looks like the builder never finished what he'd started. The low hood end still has the molded-on grabs like a stock AHM RS, the end railings are still the thickly-molded stock AHM parts, and it's missing the side railings entirely...but flat wire stanchions are available and the handrails can be formed from round wire. All of those things are well within my ability to complete, but now I have to decide if I want to leave it where the builder stopped, or finish it to the level he'd partially already attained. EDIT 4: Turns out my locomotive is a replica of Lehigh Valley #211 posted above by Steve. She was originally delivered to the Pennsy in 1953 as #8445, was renumbered 5569 (which my model carries), was transferred to Penn Central in the '68 merger, then traded to Lehigh Valley and repainted/renumbered as 211 in 1970. She was saved several times from the scrapper, and still exists. Here's her story: https://www.rgvrrm.org/about/railroad/lv211/ EDIT 5: Here's a similar conversion, but the guy who did mine thought it out a little better. https://www.rmweb.co.uk/forums/topic/69887-western-maryland-hammerhead-alco-rs3s/ EDIT 6: Interestingly, Pennsy 5569 is one of the factory versions from Bowser. Thanks again to Steve for pointing me in the right direction.

"Still waters run deep" means that the quiet guy in the corner who never laughs or talks may be plotting to...something not nice...or might actually be thinking instead of running his yap constantly.

I've got a whole 12-pack full of empties across the street, and somebody hit the box overnight, so now the "spill" is spreading. And the habit here now is whenever the drive-byers see trash on the road, they throw out MORE to keep it company, so there's a trash-bag full of trash now. I'm deciding whether or not to clean it up, but one thing I'm 100% sure of: NOBODY ELSE WILL. Funny thing is that this county was CLEAN when I moved here, and lots of the inhabitants were "rednecks". Now, with our rapidly evolving demographics, it's becoming a pigsty.

Stool with 3 legs don't rock on uneven floor, but stool with 4 legs do, an I don't unnerstan why?

For those of you bemoaning the passing of printed car enthusiast mags, I have good news (though it's not new). I picked up my first copy of Modern Rodding yesterday at Barnes and Noble because somebody gave me a gift card. First impression: I like it, and after a quick shuffle-through, it seems to be more to my taste than some of the titles we've lost, with some focus on hands-on car building. If the next couple of issues don't disappoint, I'll be subscribing. https://nitroactive.net/collections/modern-rodding-magazine I also brought home the current copy of Classic Motorsports (which I used to read fairly regularly), primarily because it has an article about repairing stripped head-stud holes in old 911 engine cases, a piece of work my own car needs. It's just as good as it ever was, with lotsa stuff on what I'm interested in at that end of the car spectrum. I'll most likely subscribe to this one too. https://classicmotorsports.com/ Just thought some of you might like to know.

Sad to say, but if you believe everything you read, apparently almost everything "tastes like chicken", including rattlesnake and alligator.

Rude people make me glad I'm not them.

Clean indeed.

Sat. 8-11-24, 9:46 AM EDT Hanging when changing topics, looking at notifications, etc. EDIT: And now at 9:53 it seems to have pretty much cleared up.

A few HO scale locomotives came in today, the most interesting to me being a 6-axle Alco RSD 4/5 from AHM... ...and what I think is a "Beep", a 1-of-1 Baldwin VF1000/EMD GP mashup built as an experiment by Santa Fe to repower old switchers with prime movers pulled out of retired road diesels. Far as I know, no manufacturer ever made an HO-scale model of the one-and-only Beep, so this may well be a custom build...something I'd intended to do myself at some point. It's in NP livery instead of SF, it was missing the cab roof (already scored one off a junk engine from the flea market), and the wheelbase is somewhat shorter than what it should be. Still, if it's a custom build, somebody did a masterful job. Other than the missing cab roof (and the 48" EMD fan on the top of the long hood) it looks factory (though the drive is a little on the cobbled-up side). From the same collection came what is, I believe, another custom build, this time a mashup of Alco RS and EMD GP bits. I'm pretty sure I've seen the prototype of this one somewhere, but I have more research to do. Again, beautiful craftsmanship, looks factory, but isn't

Touch me, feel me, see me, heal me...but not necessarily in that order.

Went by the flea market to check the ultra-cheapo HO salvage stuff, and snagged a few more rescues. I'd been walking by some car kits in another stall, pretty reasonably priced, so I asked Mom if I could have a few. She didn't say anything (would have been creepy if she had...), so taking that as a "yes", I let these follow me home. 70 1/2 AMT Camaro, body painted with easily stripped enamel, otherwise complete and relatively unmolested; AMT '40 Ford Tudor recent issue, sealed; Revell '68 Hemi Dart, sealed inside; and a Revell Miami Vice Daytona Spyder fake kit-car, also sealed inside. About $20 each. Nothing I'd particularly been lusting after, but I've had a road-racer gen-2 Camaro in the back of my mind for a while. The AMT '40 Tudor is one of my favorite kits, every car modeler needs a Hemi Dart, I'd kinda wanted to see what greasy bits Revell had put under the kit-car Daytona body (turns out it's a relatively correct Corvette underneath)...and my expensive Japanese Daytonas are too nice to hack into hot-rod outlaw or drag cars.

Getting closer to being in Az. so I can get rolling on the full-scale '32 roadster, so I bought a few new-old references for when the time comes. Yeah, I know all I have to do is "Google it", because everything on the web is posted by genuine experts, and everything they post is 100% true and correct. Anyway, Vern Tardel is one of the guys who actually knows what he's talking about from having done it for a long time, and I kinda like printed references I can scribble in the margins of. And though I've been building stuff for a while myself, getting genuine correct info is just something I do on every project. Anybody who doesn't know me, this is the 1/8 scale model of what the full-scale car will be... ...and this is the build thread that inspired me to build a real one just like it...

14 arrived today, which is good. One of the others has been within 30 miles of me since the 6th, bouncing around local/regional facilities, so that may be a problem.

Great review of a kit I had no idea existed, and info on a plane I knew very little about. Thanks.

Cool critters. Right now I have an indoor cat, two outdoor cats, and a house full of assorted bugs.

Any chance we'll ever get to see some built?

"Poetic justice" is when somebody gets back the kind of ---- they dish out, usually used referring to negative actions, like if a thief gets robbed blind.

Another quote from the article: " 'Once children see the model railways in action, it captures their imagination,’ says Quest. ‘It’s a fantastic hobby for young people. It’s sociable, it’s therapeutic and it teaches them a bunch of skills. I’m not sure who said it, but a model railway layout is like the contents of someone’s mind laid out on a table. It’s about creating a world and having control of it.’" Doesn't sound "pointless" to me.

"Pointless"? Really? And I find the quoted little ----- rather condescending: "I found all this mortifying when I was a teenager – ‘Your dad still plays with trains?’ – but see it as rather sweet now that he is in his 70s." I guess if your entire life revolves around sitting in a cubicle in front of a screen, social-media, and a substitute for a functioning brain called a "smart phone", anything that doesn't involve constant typing and texting and "connectedness" is "pointless". As Johnny Holt remarked: "Anything that keeps the mind working to solve problems" is going to stave off mental deterioration. Gardening, and woodworking are especially good, as you can eat, sell, or use the results. PHYSICAL SKILLS work parts of your brain like nothing else, and I see the decline in physical skills as contributing to the decline in problem-solving and critical-thinking in general. But even READING, rather than simply sitting in front of pre-digested video pap, keeps your mind sharper because YOU come up with the visuals that accompany the words, instead of having everything fed to you by the spoonful, no chewing necessary. EDIT: Quoting the little ----- again: "There’s plenty of stuff I enjoy doing – playing various instruments, learning languages, cooking, drawing, Scrabble, chess, cinema, ceramics, making the kids’ Lego models – but the idea of devoting head space and house space to activities with no prospect of return on investment feels weirdly decadent." My take on that: p a t h e t i c.

Here's a thought: the engine (or other means of propulsion) is the heart of a vehicle. Without an engine, there's simply no point in the thing even existing. Engines are important in my car-modeling because they're important in my reality. That's my position in a nutshell. EDIT: Kinda the same reason I generally gravitate towards other modeling subjects that make some effort to represent reality in all its complexities, like framing and planking and reasonably correct rigging on larger scale, wooden boat/ship models. My favorite aircraft models represent their engines reasonably well too...though I do have some smaller scale kits that don't...essentially "cubsides".

I think there's enough evidence to suggest the majority of purchasers today don't even understand how an engine runs or why the car goes, so it's no surprise full mechanical detail isn't much in demand.

Yup. That's what I meant. Apparently my statement was cause for much levity among certain non-actual-builder quarters. I'll be using the guts from an old-school Revell Bronco in/under the new AMT Bronco, which is the only way I'd have one in reality. I like the looks of the new one, but I've seen the fragility of the axles, tie rods, etc. up close and personal, and the gee-whiz-lookit-all-the-techie-wizardry under the hood leaves me cold. How you going to work on that mess if you're really far offroad? The new ones are nothing but egoboo mall-crawlers if they don't get significant upgrades and mods, so why not just swap in tried-and-proven real offroad components?

Water in your gas can wreak havoc with drivability, and if there's sugar dissolved in the water, it can lead to a permanent no-go.