Ace-Garageguy

Loose framislater bearings are the bane of mechanics everywhere.

"Rooty" well describes the tree that invades your septic tank.

You're welcome, sir.

Face the music and dance, we must.

My second-to-last ex with Pablo the pool boy Later that same day...

More...

SEE THIS:

Spanked monkeys can be very resentful.

PM'd

Critters like possums and raccoons eat the feral cats' food if I leave it out at night.

Kid me not, "gross" might be your reaction to this article on eating roadkill. http://www.masterjules.net/roadkill101.htm

Be there or be square.

Here is where you are.

If there's not, it wasn't unusual to run an offset distributor drive (there are many designs) to deal with clearance problems...or dimpling the firewall, depending on where the clearance issue lies.

I've loved heavy old trucks and equipment since I was a little kid (when these were new trucks ). Very fine and inspirational work...and my inner 5-year-old agrees enthusiastically.

Yeah. An "optivisor" helps.

Yup. I've seen a lot of so-called "blueprints" of cars and aircraft published for modelers over the years, and many of them have had little relation to reality. A sense of proportion and line is absolutely necessary (a God-given talent that can be enhanced with experience and effort), as is respect for the numbers that define dimensions of the object being modeled. Slap-dash no-talent phone-it-in creation of CAD work just doesn't cut it. As MeatMan notes, it IS a serious skill to be respected. And any raw print of anything is still going to take a lot of work to make a finished model. No matter how far advanced 3D printing becomes in our lifetimes, I sincerely doubt it will ever be able to spit out a "contest-quality" model made up of multiple parts all finished in appropriate colors and textures. 3D printing is just another tool in the modeler's box. Granted it's a very powerful game-changing tool, but like EVERY tool, it's only as good as the person wielding it.

Interesting idea. Keeping things square is always desirable.

Good color for it, really brings out the curves and lines.

Fear not. I'm a glutton for punishment...and I don't have 3D printing capability yet anyway.

Very fine machine work, brass fab, metal shaping. Reminiscent of Mr. Wingrove.

I have had similar feelings over the years, as a "hands on" old-school visual artist, protographer, and draftsman. Digital cameras made film and darkrooms obsolete, and allowed "everyman" to turn out wonderful photos...assuming he had an eye for composition and color, ect. But frankly, most people don't. And happily, there are still enthusiasts who shoot and develop and print from film. Digital art made painting and drawing largely obsolete, and the techniques and eye-hand coordination traditional artists use aren't necessary to turn out beautiful pictures. I think that's sad too, but again, there are still artists who use traditional media, and probably always will be...and it still takes talent to make "art" with a computer interface between artist and product. CAD made drafting tables and inked lines and lettering obsolete, and though I use CAD as a time-saving tool sometimes, I still do my rough and concept work the old ways. Unfortunately, I know "engineers" who are virtually incapable of doing a "napkin" concept sketch with a pencil...and "machinists" who can't make something unless they have a CNC program to tell the 5-axis mill what to do. We lose a lot as a civilization when we allow manual skills to wither and die, but we gain from having time-saving TOOLS in the box, which is what, for ME, all the newfangled tech offers. NEW TOOLS and techniques to augment OLD TOOLS and techniques...but not to replace them. As far as model cars go, Bill Cunningham's spectacular 3D printed birdcage Maserati (for example) took at least as much fitting and finish and paint work as any plastic kit, and the result of his dedication to learning the new ways added to his mastery of the old ways (he's a scratch-building whiz too), produced a 1/24 scale model that was simply beyond what anyone in this hobby could do just a few short years ago. I look forward to embracing 3D printing as soon as I have the time. I've wanted a model of this since I was about 5, and could have, of course, dedicated the requisite weeks to scratch one...but now, in the same time, I can have every Chrysler-Ghia concept car I could possibly desire...but I'll still need to take each one from raw print to finished model.

Thanks for your interest and comments. I got bogged down on the engine, as my source, supposedly 1/24, is on the small side, and some of its details are blobular and toylike. I've got to get the engine dialed in, mocked up in place, and headers made so I can see if the 3X2 induction will clear the hood blister before I go any farther with the body. The engine is actually back on the bench as I write this.

Yes, I've considered all of that. There's also the fact that Modelhaus is no longer in business making resin kits, and as nobody has stepped up to buy their tooling or take over production and sales, nobody would be adversely affected from the intellectual property standpoint. Bottom line is that the Modelhaus body shell has issues, having been pulled from a warped promo, so I'd need to make a mold and cast a copy to CORRECT first, and and then hack THAT up into what I want, so as not to destroy the Modelhaus body. Either way it's a lot of work.

"Be dee be dee be dee be dee" said the little robot...but he meant "dayamm!!".