Ace-Garageguy

Last weekend's batch was different, but still something that could have been cooked up on the chuckwagon on the trail with whatever was on hand, which, after all, was pretty much the point of chili. 1.5 pounds chuck roast, cubed and browned One big red onion, chopped and cooked down to translucent w/ meat 1/2 cup old cold coffee 1 can beef broth 2 tblsp minced garlic One medium potato, cubed. Add another one if you want to get more yield. The peppers are hot, and go a long way. 8.1 oz jar of diced chipotles If you know how to use dried peppers, so much the better 15.5 oz. can of black beans More if you want to stretch it, or take some of the heat out. 2 tblsp raspberry jam (or just about anything sweet; I had that much jam that needed to be used up) Bring everything to a boil, turn down heat and simmer one hour after last ingredient. I served this over penne pasta, with grated cheddar on top. Crumbled Feta is good too, and fresh cilantro.

It's going to depend on which issue. The most recent can be seen here at about 3:14

'50 El Camino?

All the levels I rely on to accurately indicate level were made in the USA when dinosaurs ruled the Earth, and have adjustable bubbles so you can zero them. True story...when I was looking over my last house pre-purchase with the beautiful blonde realtor babe, I noticed there were several wonky courses of block at the top of one basement wall, with red lines snapped from a chalkline going every which way. Obviously the highly-skilled block guys didn't understand how to use a line-level. I remarked on the wonky last course of block that had been chipped and hammered so that a reasonably level bottom plate could be installed for the stud wall above it. The realtor babe had an instant answer: "Well, this house was built in 1969, and I'm not sure levels had been invented back then". And that, boys and girls, is why realtors make the big bucks.

Cool cool cool. Coming along nicely. Your bubble-top is quite an achievement. I especially like the Olds. I've always had a build of that in mind fer somewhere down the road. And just FYI: PET, both clear and green tinted, is widely available as soda bottles, and is often used by modelers for vac-forming or heat-forming windscreens and other clear parts. Another FYI: to get a really good vacuum-molded part, the buck has to be prefect. Not just kinda, but perfect. And vac-forming is a black art, frequently requiring much trial and error. I have some commercial clear slot-car bodies that are like cellophane in some areas, plenty thick in others. One more FYI: canopies for experimental aircraft (like gliders) are usually blow-molded, as suggested above, which helps to deal with thickness irregularities resulting in optical distortion. Several real-car custom builders have had to resort to blow-molding their bubbletops too. As an aside, one of the top-end suppliers of aircraft canopies is rumored to have to throw out 4 for every good one they get...which partially explains prices that can be daunting.

Impressive "quality assurance", both by the manufacturer and the retailer. But why would anyone think a tool should be fit for its purpose? That's just old-fashioned. Besides...there's surely a "metal shear" app for your phone.

Which is why I always watch what rings through on the screen, one item at a time...which only takes a small fraction of a second per. I've often had scanners apparently double-scan a reflection as the item was being moved away from them, and fairly frequently physically-marked or "sale" prices show up wrong on the screen. It's easier and quicker to get a human attendant to correct a double-scan or a wrong price as soon as it happens than it is to have to go back through the tape to figure out what went wrong...especially when there's a line for the self-checkout aisle. Technology doesn't mean you just take for granted it's working perfectly and eliminate any personal responsibility. Unless of course you're sleeping in your Tesla as it crashes into a big white truck it mistook for open space, which can result in permanent elimination of taking personal responsibility.

Just FYI: Many modelers have used short lengths of styrene hex stock to simulate fittings and bolt heads or nuts. https://plastruct.myshopify.com/products/90873-mrx-40

Those amber lights are interesting. Generally, directly visible white lights on the rear of US-market cars are prohibited for anything but reversing (indirect tag-lighting doesn't count, obviously), The lower lenses on US Studebakers like this were commonly white reversing-lights, and the stop and turn-signal functions would be combined within the large red lens, standard US practice at the time. The amber lenses may well have been fitted to European-market cars, with the turn-signal function moved out of the large red lens to comply with Euro regs...thus eliminating the reversing-light function unless a separate white lamp was provided elsewhere. I have, however, seen supposedly US-market Hawks with amber lower lenses, and no reversing lights. Curious. There's surely a Studebaker aficionado who knows the straight info.

Stunning, spectacular, museum-quality automotive art doesn't really express how impressed I am with this whole process. Don't know how I missed it up til now, but sure am happy to have found it.

"Hexagonal beads" or "hex cut seed beads". The size will, of course, depend on the size of AN fitting you're trying to model.

Nice work on the exhaust. Finding something as useful as those after-muffler pipes is a stroke of luck indeed. For whatever reason, building scale exhaust systems ranks close to the bottom of my "things-I-do-for-fun" list, right above jabbing myself in the eye with a stick.

Nice job of re-working a bad kit into something good.

I don't like the mandatory registration of a "way to pay" that feepay has instituted for "make offer" sales under BIN. I've never welched (PC police take note of the spelling) on a deal in my life, but I feel I'm being penalized for the bozos who make offers and omit the actual paying part. Probably a good thing I have dangity near every model I could ever want, 'cause the more they tinker with feepay, the more I'm getting to hate it.

Yes sir, well done indeed.

Those are the best looking scale wires I've ever seen. PE is nice, but always the spokes look flat to me, and they never have the adjustment nuts...at least the ones I've seen. The tires look right too. From all those color shots, I'm sure your in the ballpark.

Thanks for educating me on the Con-Cor Aerotrain. I had wrongly assumed it was another repop of the venerable old nee-Varney tools, further assuming it was such an obscure subject, nobody would invest in new tooling. Nice to know somebody thought enough of it to do a new version. I just found a 2008 review of it in MR. Guess I'm a little behind the curve in model RR knowledge. At the price it was back then, I'll probably not be adding one...butcha never know. All mine are dummy shells, but I have enough fairly correct power trucks, car trucks, frames, and drives to get one up and running. I like the proportions of the old version, and it's good enough to be an acceptable 5-foot model (for what I'll be doing with it) with just a little upgrading.

Yes, yes, yes. I think this is the best-proportioned of any of the '32 Ford kits. I don't know what they did, and I never measured it, but it sure looks right. Congrats on overcoming the desire to re-engineer and put something more representative of a correct frame under it. These don't get built enough, and I think your approach is the perfect way to go. Thanks for the info on the dropped Super Bell axle too. Guess I need to put some of those on my shopping list. Sigh. It just never stops.

Lucky man to have a wife-unit who gets it, or is at least not disparaging of your interests. Anyway...I lucked into a couple sets of Tyco-boxed Aerotrain power units and car shells some years back. I think the tooling was originally done by Varney, which became Tyco, and went on to Bowser and ConCor. Sure wish reality had stayed that cool. Nice to know both the Aerotrains ever built still exist, in museums.

When I got her up on her feet with the body on, I realized I'd made a mistake copying the rear wheel arch from the right to the left. Made a new transfer template, took more careful measurements, fixed. Engine tidied up a bit and back in the chassis with a rear trans mount in the right place, carbs and air cleaners mounted right to finalize hood clearance, etc. This shot also shows just how far the engine has been set back in the chassis. The firewall just forward of Lefty's feet used to extend as far forward as the part to the left (above in the photo) of the rib. The setback problem is aggravated by the stagger of the Poncho heads (right head forward, opposite of a SBC), but even with this much setback, I still have workable room for pedal swings if we were building in full-scale...and that makes me happy. Pretty sure at this point I'm going to do a cowl-induction hood to solve the clearance issue. First production cowl-induction ...not to be confused with cow-induction ... was 1969 Camaro IIRC, but an intelligent rodder could certainly have come up with something similar a couple years earlier. Also lets me pick up cabin air from a better source than the clear hood scoops the stock panel has, and fill the holes (which makes more room on the LH firewall for a brake booster as well). These things are hot to drive as-was, better to duct air from somewhere else probably. Cowl-induction would get cooler intake air to the engine than the stock through-the-radiator flow, of course...plus further annoy the purists. And she likes hanging out with her build-sister (an ancient 1964-issue Monogram 275P gluebomb rescue/rebuild) when they're between sessions. For the bajillionth time (well, maybe only the tenth or so), I say again...the effort it takes to add posable steering to any model car is, in my opinion, one of the most effective mods to add realism you can do.

Not much new other than a fresh coat of Duplicolor sandable red oxide primer for continued blocking. Getting close to paint. I still maintain that poseable steering is one of the most impactful upgrades you can make to any model car. Seen here with her build-sister Gunze Ferrari 250GTO with Pontiac GTO power. Geez. Lookit all that trash I didn't dust off.

Oh yes, most definitely yes.

I'm intending to start building the HO-scale model RR layout I've been putting off for 6 decades, in the attached 2-car garage at the new place out west. I don't need the garage for cars, as there's a sizable real-car shop on the property. The period is to be late 1950s, early '60s, during the end of the steam-to-diesel transition, but an alternative-history interpretation focusing on America's vanishing heavy industry as much as railroading. John Allen's masterpiece, the Gorre and Daphetid RR layout, has been an inspiration to me since I was a kid. I've acquired a few pieces of commercially-produced commemorative rolling stock over the years when they came up cheap. This is the latest, a drover's caboose in G&D livery. With appropriate trucks and brakes, a car like this could still have been in interchange service in the target period. I've also been buying cheap, distressed rolling stock in interesting road names, mostly "fallen-flags" from the period. As they are usually in need of repair / overhaul to bring them up to current performance expectations, I also have been buying multiples of the industry-standard Kadee couplers when they come up for well under retail. Latest batch, below. Anyone who has an interest in model railroading, dioramas, or modeling in general owes it to himself to look at some of John Allen's spectacular work. https://greatdivideline.com/the-original-masterpiece How's this for inspiration?

I'm almost certain that, on the real cars, there are at least two different windshield heights depending on body style. Somewhere along the line, I might check those part numbers...

So...does this stuff work like the "buffing" metalizer, or is it like the "non buffing" stuff? A while back I bought every bottle and can of the "buffing" colors I could get just before the prices went crazy, but it would be nice to know there's an equivalent replacement.