Ace-Garageguy

That's not exactly correct. The car shown above was referred to as the AC Ghia. It was a Ford-backed re-skin of the AC 3000ME that had been in limited production since 1979, shown below, and built through 1985. AC supplied Ghia with two AC 3000ME platforms, including one complete car which was de-skinned, and on which the AC Ghia prototype was built...but the AC Ghia, the subject of this thread, was never series produced (EDIT: though it appeared in at least two different paint schemes). The bare AC 3000ME chassis shipped to Ghia by AC was stretched to become the basis of another Ghia prototype for Ford, the 1982 Quicksilver. https://www.carscoops.com/2020/04/how-awesome-would-it-have-been-if-lincoln-produced-its-1983-quicksilver-ghia-concept/

Misinformed certainty is a hallmark of the interdwerbs in general and Facebark, YT, et al in particular. There has always been an unfortunate tendency, due to the intellectual laziness of most humans, to accept a lie as truth if it's repeated often enough...but the threshold has dropped precipitously in recent years. Hearing a single pontification of some "expert" or "insider" (whether real, self-appointed, or paid shill) seems to be all it takes now for facts and reality to be completely disregarded, and the incessant rebleating to begin.

I believe it's a poorly represented water neck / thermostat housing.

The Johnny Lightning diecast will be the basis for my entry. Little car has some scaling and proportion issues, but should make a fun conversion to a relatively simple rally car. Already asked Pete for decals, so I guess I'm committed. As restrictive as the rules regarding modifications are, it's not likely I'll go off the deep end (as usual) with micro-engineering.

Have you flown a Cirrus? I don't really like the side-stick setup and its lack of feel. https://www.aviationlawmonitor.com/2010/12/cirrus-aircraft/steve-wilson-the-cirrus-airplane-has-serious-problems/

Most excellent.

A few days back I got one of these jewels, a 1/24 Leo model, as a much appreciated gift. Back in the dim recesses of time I worked for an Alfa wizard, and this beautiful little car takes my mind back to a much better era. Thanks.

Tell ya what. You guys build yours the way you want. While I appreciate the input, I've also already done rather a lot of this kind of work over the last few decades...quite successfully.

It's already largely "remote control", and the "tactile sensation" is often faked. There is no direct mechanical throttle linkage on most cars now, and "steer by wire" uses no mechanical link between the steering wheel and the vehicle wheels. Brake-by-wire is here too, again processor controlled by the driver's pressure on a spring-loaded "pedal", with no mechanical communication from the pedal to the brakes. Marketing engineers touting "enhanced feel" and "quicker response" in these ridiculous overly-complex systems have obviously never driven a 1972 Porsche 911.

They do. Trumpeter and Airfix did different versions of the FW, Trumpeter and Bandai did Zeros, Airfix did a Hellcat, and again Bandai with the Shiden Kai. You may be right. Still, it's always easier to start with something than starting with nothing...and starting with a cast fuselage shape that has a clearly defined centerline to measure from, if any of those planes is dimensionally kinda close (preferably a little larger so as to be able to whittle the shape down, as is the case with the Spitfire/S6), I feel I'd get there much easier than carving from a rectangular block. OR...building using bulkhead stations and stringers (with cross-sections as per your suggestion, but developed from my own drawings) like a flying balsa model, and then glassing and filling the surface, is how I built both the 1/10 and full-scale versions of this: But it's all hypothetical now anyway...and we all know how often I actually DO what I'd LIKE to do.

Very interesting...

I have a Spitfire Mk 1 already in the lineup for the prototype. Yes, Dago Red isn't too difficult. Far as Rare Bear goes, I'm thinking of digging deep into the dimensions and specs of a FW190, a Zero, a George (Shiden Kai), and a Hellcat with an eye towards which one...if any...could be carved, stretched, bondoed, etc. into a presentable Bearcat from a solid form. If I get to these, I won't be going for intense detail, but I will be after dead-on proportions.

It's not a matter of "can't". It's a matter of caring enough about long term quality to DO it...even if it takes a little extra effort and shaves a few bucks off the profit margin.

I'm in for the ride. Got a deal on a boogered one of these a while back, thinking I'd do a Jota.

Yup...I've got the Hawk kit for just exactly that. The S6B was, of course, a direct predecessor to the Spitfire, and the dimensions are roughly similar. The Spit's a little bigger. The general plan is to splash molds from the Spit, fill them with a slurry of epoxy and styrene balls I developed decades ago for rapid-prototyping of real-car parts, and carve a 1/24 S6 from the Spit form, plus some bondo shaping and surface detail as required. Probably won't bother with trying to get any interior detail or engine, at least in the beginning...but the Merlin is visually similar enough to the R to use it as a starting point. Basically, I just want a big S6B to sit with my similar-scale GeeBee, and a baby-blue Spitfire prototype. If I live long enough, I'd like to do Dago Red and Rare Bear 1n 1/24 too. And this...

A pair of mild-steel 20-degree 2.25"-primary slip-joint merge collectors with a straight 3" exit, for the '66 SS 572 Chevelle project. The headers that were built by the last guy were a mess...wouldn't clear the steering, oil filter, starter, or engine mounts. When I started building new ones, it became apparent I'd have to slip-joint the collectors to get them in the car. Estimated the time it'd take and figured I'd come out ahead to buy collectors fabbed to my specs, and just build the primaries myself. Nice thing about these is that they'll serve as jigs to fit the primaries to, too.

One of these... ...and all of these... ... to hack into a reasonable facsimile of this, in 1/24 scale:

Nice!!!

Dollars or pounds...or euros?

Much approval for your careful, clean, layout and construction techniques. Your reference to a "poor man's milling machine" is a great reminder that it's not necessary to have a complete miniature machine shop to produce outstanding work. Some fine stuff going on here. EDIT: Just like building a real car from the ground up...only smaller.

They go well with the JC Whitney headlights...

It depends on the issue of each kit and exactly what tire compound they used at the time, and storage conditions. I've seen just as bad tire-melt with AMT, MPC, and JoHan as Revellogram...and there really seems to be no easily identifiable common denominator...short of a full-blown chemical analysis. I've also seen model tires that shrink, or get a dry powdery surface, or become sticky where the black gets all over everything, or crumble to powder.

If you followed the directions for each experiment carefully, there were a lot of practical illustrations of common chemical reactions. It all has to do with developing a better understanding of the world around us. I remember experiments to make water more electrically conductive, "wetter", and more corrosive. One particularly fun one was making amorphous sulpher, a kind of simple elastic/plastic (video below). (Of course, in the context of my response to Danno, the ability, as you noted, to make horrible smells, stains, and low-grade explosions would have been the desired outcome; making hydrogen sulfide is especially rewarding. )

After a fair bit of experimentation a while back, I'd suggest a very finely woven synthetic like nylon or acetate tricot, or polyester. You might also be able to use silk, or a very-high thread-count cotton (expensive sheets. etc.), but in my experience, "natural" plant fibers seem to be too "fuzzy" to look really good. (Silk's not from plants, and I haven't tried it yet) The synthetics can be ironed into sharp folds, and though they tend to be shiny, a spray shot of fabric paint will make them look quite realistic.

Ahh yes...the dreaded Countank. Guaranteed to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers everywhere.