Ace-Garageguy

So there!!!

Thank you, sir. There were more than a few early lakes cars built on similar non-Ford frames, and the OHV Olds head on a T block was one of the low-buck speed tricks...known as "the poor man's Rajo".

Kindof a shame that thing got Barrisized. Are the stock(ish) parts still in the box? Some of that stuff is appropriate for early dry-lakes cars.

Longish rooves with lots of curvature are the hardest to chop...VW Bugs being among the most difficult to get right. Just take your time and eyeball everything very critically.

America, America, man sheds his waste on thee, and hides the pines with billboard signs, from sea to oily sea.

Resolution of films that have been copied multiple times from tape to tape often looks like what you'd expect if they were recorded on a potato.

Groups of snarling angry people with torches and pitchforks are best avoided.

One thing you can pretty much take to the bank...most competition cars, no two are ever exactly alike (especially after a season or two racing) and this goes double for Ferrari. Point being that if you do some research, which obviously you have, and you can reasonably back up the build-decisions you make, you're going to be fine. The guys who build a particular car at a particular race, and do tons of research to get every that-day-detail right have my respect, but if you're building a generic whatever, particularly something abandoned or found in a barn, you can cut yourself a little slack and still be "correct".

Along here somewhere is where I thought I saw the severed head. Shop now for Christmas and beat the rush.

"MOTEL" shining in neon letters in the distance is a welcome sight to a weary traveler.

If you really really want to go all vintage nostalgia, start-a-whittlin'...

"Other than the gangrene, malaria, and dysentery, how are you feeling?" asked the missionary doc in the jungle tent.

1) You'd be safe saying it's any of those years, as it's not a particularly accurate rendition of the body, and could easily represent a car that was heavily wrecked and rebodied by a different coachbuilder anyway. 2) Yes, some were bodied in steel. Rust is rust. 3) You mean this? I'm not 100% certain, but I'd bet it was steel. It's supposed to seal against the underside of the hood-scoop area, and an aluminum part would be too easily warped to be much good at sealing after the hood was closed a few times. They were finished in "crackle" paint like the cam covers, and it's pretty tough stuff, so some would most likely remain even after long exposure to the elements. EDIT: Though this one is bare aluminum. 4) Dash tops in high-end Italian cars of the period were typically covered in hand-stitched leather. It dries out and cracks, and splits if not cared for. EDIT 2: In case you missed it, here's a serious effort to get the AMT kit to more look more like the real cars...

PM'd

Great project. The car in your reference shots appears to have a Mercury hood and grille.

This is one of those places where some knowledge of how things work in the real world can be very helpful, and if that knowledge is absent, it's also a great opportunity to get some. Much of what I learned early on about real machines, I learned as a kid building models. Lacking the interwebs and Foogle way back then, it took some serious digging to find a lot of answers. Today anything you want to learn is just a few keystrokes away. Just remember not to accept the first result Foogle vomits up, and that a lot of info on the web is garbage.

Words are tools, so if you want be understood accurately, it's best to know how to use them.

Much ado is often made over nothing.

Got hammered, made a fool of myself, fell down in the front yard and couldn't remember a thing afterwards, so I don't do that anymore. (PS: spellcheck/autocorrect gets stupider daily, must be programmed by folks not especially proficient in English usage and vocabulary)

No offence to you, but to me, that looks as misshapen and odd as anything Palmer or Premier ever put out. Come to think if it...everyone ought to build some of those P&P gems just to put in perspective how GOOD some of the more recent kits are in comparison.

Yes. Thank you. Good stuff.

Got a pretty good deal on my third brass locomotive, an older (1970s?) but beautiful Fairbanks Morse "Erie Built" diesel, HO scale, new-in-the-box, made by Red Ball. The "collector value" isn't high enough to preclude a little super-detailing and some revisions, plus possibly upgrading the running gear. It's factory-finished in clear lacquer to keep it from tarnishing, and I may just leave it as-is...with a backstory that after having been repaired after a wreck/restored/re-engined by the locomotive shop represented on the layout (and getting a restyled nose), it was painted to simulate a brass model locomotive as a rather elaborate and expensive joke. EDIT: The FM "Erie Built", produced from late 1945 to 1949, was styled by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy, the '53 Studebaker and Avanti guy. Unfortunately, the engines were derived from WWII submarine powerplants, and were not well suited to railroad use. The resulting engine failures and maintenance procedures that were more difficult than competing locomotives of the time, led to re-engining a fair number of them with GM/EMD prime movers. The last one was scrapped in 2010. To keep it company, I snagged a slightly-used A-B-A set of FM Erie Builts from Proto 1000 (dating back to 2001). There are significant styling and detail discrepancies between the later-model plastic units and the brass one. The noses are very different, the brass one sits too high on its frame, hatches and access panels are different, etc., so some research into what's "correct" should be interesting...though I don't really intend to modify the brass unit much. It's very nice just the way it is...though it will definitely get lowered to match the newer ones. EDIT2: The nose on the brass model, though apparently incorrect, is prettier, more graceful, and has a longer pilot than the "correct" plastic models...and all of 'em lack the second headlight hole, the upper of which would have been an oscillating Mars light (or Gyralight?) on a Santa Fe loco. The real deal...every one of these beautiful machines was scrapped.

No matter what field you're in, from plumbing to brain surgery, and no matter how proficient you are, how much experience you have, or how many accolades you've accumulated from your actual peers, there's always going to be somebody who tells you you're doing it wrong. The internet is awash with ignorant idiots who have zero social-skills and think they know everything, and the anonymity tends to encourage keyboard-warriors to engage in behavior that would have gotten a man knocked across the room in more civilized times. It's just the way it is.

"Seen and not heard" was once, a very long time ago, the description of well-behaved children.

This one's pretty hard. I only know two right off the bat.