Ace-Garageguy

Very nice work on one of the better kits out there.

The Tamiya engravers are pretty spendy for a tool you might not like. This Trumpeter tool cuts a curl on the backstroke like the Tamiya tool, but is a lot cheaper, if you just want to get a feel for how they work. I bought mine at HobbyTown.

"God" is dog spelled backwards. (NOTE: No disrespect intended or implied)

Opera is usually an art form I can do without.

Very nice. Missed it first time around, glad it's popped up again. Fenderless "fat fendered" cars aren't often seen, and usually don't look anywhere near this good.

Looking good...

Very nice. I've always found watercolor to be the most unforgiving medium to work in, and envy anyone who handles it as well as you do.

Morning in winter before the first cup of coffee usually means grogginess and pain and cold and dark.

Tonight, if I had a sweetheart, I'd take her to dinner, but I don't, so I won't.

The circumstances would seem to indicate something wrong with the clear...like it's missing a critical ingredient. ( Alkyd-based paints, for example, require the presence of particular "driers" to function correctly. https://www.goldstab.com/articles/types-of-driers-and-their-functions ) Paints and Coatings based on alkyd or modified alkyd resins are common in today’s markets. These air drying systems require catalysts to accelerate the chemical reactions of the drying process, called "driers". I'd apply some of the clear to a clean, inert substrate, like bare steel, and see if it dries hard...thus eliminating any possibility of weird interactions with the plastic or paint substrates on the model. That should tell ya if the clear itself is "bad". EDIT: A further step would be to pull up the TDS for the clear, which should be available online, and see what the chemical composition is. If the base is an alkyd resin, this applies, which should give an indication of what got left out of your batch. https://patchamltd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Paint-Driers-2.pdf

Glad this one popped up again. Truly an inspiring build.

Gorgeous.

Irresponsible individuals gave the whole postwar hot-rod movement a bad name. "Serious" car clubs working with local communities opened many dragstrips to channel the competitive spirit into safe venues...most of which are long gone, bulldozed to build housing developments and shopping malls. The simple truth is that when owners of 500+HP vehicles gather in one place, the temptation to show off and/or race can be overwhelming for those lacking sufficient self-control...and those who have no sweat-equity in actually building their cars are probably going to be more likely to abuse them. EDIT: Somehow, I don't see a resurgence of local dragstrips in this safety-obsessed world we live in now. The last one reasonably close to me closed years ago, after owners of homes built nearby long after the strip was built (in the middle of nowhere at the time) complained so loudly about the noise that the facility was shut down by the local gubmint. The closest one now is about an hour and a half away, still quite accessible for those who race responsibly, but not worth the effort for the others.

Unintended negative consequences are all too common results of well-intentioned actions, policies, and procedures instituted by groups or individuals who don't fully think things through. "What's the worst that can happen?" should be a prominent consideration during any decision-making process. EDIT: ...particularly in engineering. Any engineer who's not thinking down the road about potential failure modes is only doing half the job. The big difference between good race-car prep (or car building in general) and everything else is a constant awareness of what can go wrong, 'cause ol' Murphy is always looking over your shoulder to exploit any weakness. Acknowledging the potential for and planning for failure is the reason that aircraft have double and triple redundant systems, why wiring harnesses and plumbing elements are carefully supported to prevent chafing, and why work done to anything that flies is supposed to be done by highly qualified people and double-checked by even more highly-qualified people. Problems with engineered things, from water systems to airliners, are ALWAYS way more expensive to address after the failure than if addressed thoroughly early in the game, but somehow, the legions of bean-counters working away behind the scenes everywhere haven't yet accepted this one great truth universally.

Buy a whole lotta cheap stuff you don't need.

"Movie" was pretty much synonymous with "drive in" when I was a little feller.

Ah yes. Few things in life as much fun as cleaning up after morons, especially crooked morons.

Country music on the radio goes well with long drives across barren plains.

"Specialty of the house: meatless burgers!!!" on the menu will get me out the door pretty quickly.

Definitely some are doing that...and they catch a lot of folks not paying attention, too.

Yup. "Vibrasonic". https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/04/motorola-vibrasonic-something-i-dont.html I seem to recall there's a reference to "Vibrasonic Sound" in the Beach Boys Custom Machine. EDIT: Yup.

...which is the reason for using a tool with a ground, hooked tip that cuts like the Tamiya engravers (which you can make yourself with a grinder) by removing a "curl" of material on the backstroke, deepening the groove without displacing material to either side.

Even if you didn't know it right off, the resemblance to an Aston Martin DB4 with a different face marks it as most likely English, and the styling is late '50s early '60s, so a logical starting point is searching images of that period English car builders. I plugged in the image-search term "AC cars 1960s" into floogle, and an image of this thing came up about halfway down the first page.

You might try the Tamiya engraver tools, as they "scribe" by taking a very fine curl of material out of the cut, rather than brutally scratching like the "backside of a #11 blade" does. Used very gently, they MIGHT work for deepening panel lines post-paint, but they're not cheap. They are, however, worth every penny to me for the beautiful pre-paint scribing they're capable of delivering once you learn to use 'em.