Ace-Garageguy

Hampshire County in England is home to much picturesque beauty.

Tiny overstressed engine that has unavoidably high mechanical wear rates Only available with many-speed automatic gearbox Insane level of complication due to the above, plus the hybrid drivetrains Poor repairability once it's out of warranty Pretty much worthless once it hits the secondary markets because all of the above Where do I sign up?

Boxes of unfinished models where the work has been done to a high standard are preferable, IMHO, to display cabinets filled with 3rd and 4th rate "finished" ugly dreck.

Probably need to light a fire under my tail, if I intend to get some projects done in this lifetime.

It's not a bad looking thing for what it is, and it's certainly more attractive than some of its competition...but that said, I'd never buy one when, for the same money, I could have something old and cool that would run forever and appreciate in value. Different folks have different wants, different tastes, different priorities.

I have a 1/24 Testors Chrysler Crossfire kit, purchased because it was the only game in town for that car at that time, and I really like the design of the fastback. It's a very nice model. Not on a par with the best of Danbury in terms of detail, but still a very nice, well-proportioned model. The older diecast Revellogram (unpainted) MGTC and Jag XK120 metal kits are also well proportioned, and with the included plastic parts, build up beautifully (though the TC wire wheels are somewhat toylike, and some heavy mold separation lines on the bodies need to be aggressively dealt with). There are, unfortunately, some real turkeys out there too (not kits, but interesting cars). The "Racing Champions" '49 Plymouth is one of the worst models I've ever seen in terms of getting the shape and proportions right.

Some of the guys I know in the real car 'hobby' are total exhaust-ports, if you catch my drift. It's impossible to have any kind of conversation with them that doesn't focus entirely on how much they spent to have (insert big name here) do whatever, and that they usually have zero understanding of anyway. They'll rabbit on endlessly, using the wrong terms for things, explaining incorrectly how things work, impressing the absolute begeezis out of themselves. There are other guys, even occasionally owners of Porsches, Ferraris, and other marques that are routinely associated with ego-inflated butts, who are entirely down-to-earth, nice guys overall, and a genuine pleasure to deal with. Whatever you do, whatever you're involved in, it takes all kinds.

Great looking model, very realistic. And whoever tooled the up-top and boot did a great job. The up-top, particularly the flush-looking fit of what would be soft plastic windows on the real one, is about the best I've ever seen.

Beautiful model. Looks quite real.

Thi linked thread below explains how to make a replacement windshield from clear PET. The only problem is it assumes you have an existing windshield to use as a pattern. But don't despair. You can carve a pattern yourself with some skill-building effort, and form a new clear part as shown.

"Bait and switch" can be a very profitable business model, for a while.

I am at heart a "builder" and "restorer" rather than a "collector", so I tell myself (though my ratio of built to unbuilt models would indicate otherwise). My early forays into diecast were for damaged versions of 1/24 subject matter that has never been kitted in styrene, probably never will be, and would afford me the pleasure of repairing castoff models (which I particularly enjoy for some odd reason), or give me a relatively inexpensive basis to build modified, custom, or racing versions of same, much like what I do with styrene. My love of machines is deep and complex, and a large part of it is visual. There are some things I can just look at for hours, and as I began to realize the range of visual delights was far wider in diecast than styrene, I began to acquire examples of designs that had particular appeal from a purely aesthetic standpoint, then more from an engineering or competition milestone standpoint, then old trucks large and small...but always with an eye to controlling expense by going after damaged or (occasionally) perfect examples priced way under market value for one reason or another. At some point I began to appreciate the convenience of having models I could look at to get an eye-candy fix without having to build them, and my very modest diecast collection is made up of vehicles that strike a particular chord within my soul, models I'll take out and savor for their interplay of volume and line, light and shadow and proportion...and some that just remind me of what I firmly believe to have been, in many ways, a much, much better time to be alive.

"Gross" is what half-asleep me thought when I misread the post above and thought it said "spouse meat".

I'm running out of future, but not the kind of future you guys are talking about.

Sounds like 50% of what's in my stash. Nice scores too. I didn't know that Yotyto BJ kit existed.

Grapple rhymes with scrapple, and if you don't know what that is, here's a recipe.

Well, there's an extra "L" in "smiling" to make up for it.

Good looking trucklet. Really wish I had a real one. The work you did on the vents makes a huge improvement in the initial impression it makes, much more than I'd have imagined. Nice fu-job overall.

Best thing I've found for header slip-joints so far... https://www.mcfarlaneaviation.com/products/product/DAM20-4.0/

Yeah, the road-tests say it handles well. Put 500HP and a manual gearbox in it, and even I'd be a lot more positive. EDIT: Gut one and set it up with a longitudinal, high-winding 340, full-time 4WD, and lower it about six inches. Now we're talkin'.

With the overwhelming underwhelming response it's had here so far, kinda makes you wonder who was in the inevitable focus groups they consulted before green-lighting the poor thing.

Indeed, and that relying on battery-powered glorified golf-carts when you absolutely positively have to get there just might not be the best idea anyway. Even Mr. Musk, in his infinite wisdom, has stated there are still rational uses for IC-powered vehicles. SMILLING ???

That's not stupid you're feeling. That's new neural pathways being forged as your experience makes you a better problem solver. We learn to do...as the saying goes. EDIT: If I had a dollar for every time I looked back at something that had me flummoxed and thought "that should have been obvious", I'd have a pretty big stack of dollars.