Ace-Garageguy

I sometimes have a hard time believing that an entity capable of creating this would have intentionally created so much stupid, but maybe that's just part of the Cosmic Joke.

Depending on whose version of the "truth" you subscribe to, everything that defines 21st century civilization is subject to the constant fear-mongering "existential threat" bleating. But I always tend to consider the source when I see hysterical headless chickens running in circles, waving "the sky is falling" flags. Still, perception is everything. On a quantum level, there is no reality that can be easily grasped by our tiny little minds anyway, so take the sage's advice: "Don't Worry; Be Happy". "Don't Panic" is also good advice. And always know where your towel is. Finally, remember that the answer to everything is 42. Or not.

Then there's another way to look at it. A sufficiently powerful "simulation" machine could well take an infinite amount of "memory" and computing power. Think of the reflection of a mirror in a mirror as the "simulation", and reflections that go on to infinity... Again not a very good analogy, but...hmmmmm.

Assuming, of course, that quantum entanglement is a "real" phenomenon, and not just the appearance of something "real" happening. Consider the number of particles involved in displaying a moving picture on a 2-dimensional screen, compared to the number of particles involved in the "real" 3-dimensional environment the 2D display represents. Not a very precise or particularly apt analogy, but you probably get my drift. PS: My cat's middle name is Schrödinger.

Very nice. Always liked those. Italian accented Japanese.

The hits just keep on comin', folks. Today's is a Johan USA Oldies-issue 1962 Chrysler 300. Unmolested and complete. I had a nasty built-up that needed a hood and other bits to restore, found listings but missed the closing bids. Saw this complete kit for about the same dough as a "I'm not sure if all the parts are there" version, decided to spring for it and copy the stuff the other one's missing. The ratty one told me it wants to be a Zocci-inspired custom... ...or maybe just a hot street driver.

If you haven't looked at high-quality HO stuff recently, you might be very surprised. Some of the detail these days is so fine, you really need magnification to appreciate it. And I don't imagine there's much complex detail on the hi-rail apparatus anyway. Heavy steel fabrications, big pivots, and air or hydraulic cylinders to actuate it. Somebody even makes just the hi-rail conversion in HO:

^^^ I agree entirely with Lunajammer. And while I have a great deal of respect for good digital artists, to me, it can be kinda annoying in the way digital photography can be. When everybody and his little dog has a digital camera, we kinda see a smaller percentage of "photographers" who have any real, basic understanding of the medium, and concepts like composition within the camera, exposure, depth of field, lighting effects, bracketing, panning, lens optics, and on and on. You can correct or modify just about anything in digital media, even with my old dinosaur Nikon photo processing tool, and while it makes what used to be a fairly complex and skilled hobby or profession accessible to "everyman", it also can encourage laziness, and substitute speed and convenience for art. I find that almost universally, someone who has mastered the old-school skills, or is at least cognizant of them, produces better digital art as well (this goes for 3D printed modeling too). A friend of mine was a talented and successful commercial artist, having done well-known images for Rolling Stone covers, things like Breck shampoo's Breck Girls, etc. The guy was at the top of his field. When the digital revolution came, he was rapidly eliminated by kiddies who had zero old-school skills, worked considerably faster, and were consequently cheaper to hire. As he was close to retirement age anyway, rather than try to learn the oh-so-much-better-faster-cheaper new way, he quit...and sadly, never painted again.

Blame the the Starbucks effect: "...Venti Caramel Crunch Frappe, double blended with five bananas, extra caramel drip, extra whip, extra ice, extra cinnamon dolce topping, extra caramel crunch, seven pumps of dark caramel sauce, seven counts of frappe roast coffee, one pump honey blended and heavy cream..." They look at me like I'm nuts when I ask for a medium black coffee. Oops...I meant "grande".

Which brings up another point...religiously test fit everything before you start painting, and remember to give enough gap on the edges of opening panels to compensate for the eventual paint thickness. I've read over and over on this board and others "the paint came out great, but I buggered it assembling because things didn't fit together at the end, and my touchups look like jell".

"Best" isn't really an adjective I'd use for my vehicles, as they've mostly been oddballs, prone to a variety of maladies. But my all time favorite was the Lotus 7 Series II/III SCCA race-spec car, acquired from Coventry Car Sales back in the early 1970s, after it was sold on by Lotus following its appearances as the London Auto Show car in several incarnations. Pushrod, crossflow 1600 Ford "Kent", with Cosworth rocker stands, main bearing caps, and two side-draft Weber 40s. The most responsive thing I've ever driven on the street, period. I still dream about it some nights...and parting with it was one of the stupidest things I ever did. The Beck 550 Spyder I have now promises to be right up there with the Lotus, but still needs work. Second favorite is a tie between the '89 GMC 5-speed pickup I have now, and a '72 Chevy P-20 Step Van I fitted out as a mobile shop when I had fleet accounts back in the late 1980s. Both of them are/were as reliable as bricks, after having had long, hard, abused lives as commercial vehicles. Simple and very tough, they responded happily to being repaired reasonably correctly and well maintained, and never let me down once.

Went back for another look. Yup...damm man, NICE!

As far as Mr. Guthmiller goes, I have to agree with him 100%. The Duplicolor black is a very clean, dark black, covers exceptionally well, and self-levels nicely if you learn to spray correctly with rattlecans. The Duplicolor nozzles work well, produce a nice fan pattern, and you get plenty in a can to do more than one model, including enough to fix whatever goes wrong. But I also always have to chuckle at the widespread misinfo concerning black paint. The fear-mongering began because black shows any minor defect in a surface, and because it's a mirror-like finish if it's shiny, waves and poor bodywork jump out at the viewer. This has morphed into an erroneous idea that "black is hard to paint". It isn't. Get your prep right, get your bodywork spot-on, and you won't have any problems. I've been painting real cars for more than 5 decades, and frankly, I find that shooting black is the easiest of any color out there. A quality black covers better than just about any other color, matching is usually pretty simple (though there ARE different "blacks", stay with one known good black and you won't have issues), and if you lay it down slick, you can very easily make out the wet edge on each coat, helping to get even coverage. The only real "difficulty" comes about during the sanding and polishing phase...if you don't understand the process or try to skip necessary steps.

Bring on the "confused" emojis... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beautiful model. I'm still in awe of the quality of most of the DM offerings.

OMG !!! OMG !!! BAN HIM !!! BAN HIM !!!

There are models in HO scale. Purchase one, copy parts design and scale-up, not too difficult to scratchbuild what's necessary. Use G-scale wheels from a handcar or small G-scale narrow-gage equipment.

Sealed 1969 release of Revell's 1/8 scale Harley police bike. I got interested in these large scale bike kits while doing my "Then Came Bronson " custom Sportster a few years back. One thing I've learned about these big Revell bikes is that the tires sometimes shrink so badly as to be unusable. I'm just about to open it up to see what they look like. Here's a link to the Bronson Sportster build, in case anybody's interested.

Looks great, especially the way it's posed and photographed in your very convincing and realistic setting. That said, I still can't get past the incorrect windshield height. Not your fault, of course, and the rest of Revell's proportions look fine. How really good this model looks is inspirational as well. Thanks to your post here, I think I've determined how to achieve a relatively easy fix for what has been bothering me about this kit.

What is this thing called "hobby store"?

Beautiful print. Bill Cunningham is the man as far as 3D-print-based models go at the moment. I saw his completed Maser birdcage here back in November, and it's staggeringly good...probably well beyond anything I ever hope to achieve. I was fortunate to have a conversation at the event with both Bill and Pico Elgin, another pioneering purveyor of nowhere-else-available 3D model files and parts. Great guys, both of them. Nice to see you getting in on this one, and your adoption of the technology.

about the price

Love that Fordomerc business coupe...

I'll probably leave the asking to the confused party. I figger I did my part by posting in understandable English.