Ace-Garageguy

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I set out to make a credible model of the 1951 GM LeSabre show car. I started with the abysmally awful Premier kit, but it was SO bad, to the point that every single thing would need correction, I decided to shelve the project...intending to carve one out of a solid block some time in the future. A little while ago I found a pretty good 1/24 diecast made by Franklin Mint. It has multiple accuracy issues, but it looks decent and should the desire to do a really good one ever arise again, it's a great jumping-off point.

You can always decant and airbrush 'em...

Amen, brother.

Cool build. Fascinating period in aviation history. I'll need to build a trolley similar to yours for an upcoming Supermarine S6B scratchbuild.

Nice. Liking those frenched lights and antenna too.

Yup, definite different appearance between chrome and polished aluminum. Thanks for this input. I was wondering about the Alclads now that Testors buffing metalizers are no more.

Pretty cool. I always had a kinda thing for the babe from Metropolis.

Very nice work all the way through.

This one is 1/25. There is a 1/20 kit also.

We need a lot of different skills to be good at life, period.

Here are some ideas:

I'm late to this particular party, but it sure seems like every time I've seen a list anything like that in the past, the chorus starts singing that none of that stuff is "relevant" anymore, it would only appeal to past-it geezers with one foot in the grave, and that trainloads of money should be poured into new tooling for soulless, lookalike or downright ugly late-model shiboxes instead. People would stand in line to get models of this, right?

Definitely. Since 2016, we've only had one other hire who was worth the paper he was printed on. Smart, fast learner, hard worker, stayed for 3 years and moved on and up to a "name" Atlanta rod shop (this shop, where I'm finishing up one long project, primarily does vintage and classic car maintenance and repair...not much fab unless I do it, and I'm not taking on any new work).

One of the shops I work with recently hired two new kids as apprentices. So far they both seem smart, willing to listen to the old geezers who know a little about how things actually work, and are eager to be doing something (as opposed to hiding while they play on their phones). Most excellent so far.

Just about any model-car "glass" can be made from clear sheet styrene, acetate, or PET (soda bottles), and if you do it right, it looks much better than the kit parts.

Counting to three must now be harder than it used to be. I ordered and paid for THREE books, tracking showed three books shipped together under the same number, opened the package and saw three books on the packing-slip...BUT THERE WERE ONLY TWO BOOKS IN THE ENVELOPE. Now I'm getting the runaround because USPS shows all three delivered. Morons everywhere.

It just depends on how much work you want to do, and how accurate you really want to get. The opening doors on the '40 can be glued shut, of course, and they actually fit pretty well, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. But the firewall's wrong. There's obviously a fair bit of forward-cab modification necessary to get the '37 truck cab to fairly accurately represent the '38. But another thing I've been looking at from time to time is using the '37 CAR (Monogram 1/24 kit) firewall and forward cab ahead of the doors, grafted to the '40 pickup cab. I'm generally pleased with the way the build looks now from a proportion standpoint, but there are several ways to skin this particular cat.

Thanks for the continuing interest and comments, gentlemen. Glad some of you found something of value herein.

Looks like really nice work on that. An attention getter, for sure.

Exactly. In heavily-glooed situations, you have to choose which part to save, then proceed accordingly.

What parts do you need? Any window or windshield can be made using old-school techniques, from clear sheet styrene, PET, or acetate. Headlight and taillight lenses can be easily copied using small molds that can be made by anyone with reasonable ability.

Great illustration of using both old-school and newfangled approaches to the best advantage, where appropriate. Rationality wins.

Entex. Very simple kit, very few parts in the box.

Very nice upgrade of a kit that's really more toy than model as it comes. Looks great.

Today it's a '38 International D2 pickup. Made by First Gear, Speedway livery. Little truck's had a hard life. Missing front bumper and brackets, LH headlight, wipers, interior bits, and there are definite signs of having been "fixed" by chimps some time in the past....and no opening hood or engine on this one. On the up-side, the scaling (1/24 or 1/25), engraved details, and proportions look very good. A pretty decent model for what it is, much less toy-like than the '49 above, and for $2, I have no complaints.