Ace-Garageguy

Damm Randy...that engine is some kinda nice. Makes me want to go work on my real one.

Got a little built-up Pyro/Lindberg Triumph GT6 to do a flat-red-and-primer car I owned long ago. I ran that car on straight ethanol during an experimental pilot program at Ga. Tech, back in the early 1980s. Man, that exhaust smelled good. Hard to start in cold weather, but otherwise just fine after some magic tuning. If I recall correctly, she'd run on anything higher than about 140 proof. Not a bad build, and the shape of the Pyro kit is pretty OK overall, though there are a few huge cringe-making flaws that need to be corrected for the model to give an acceptable first impression...like the windshield opening. Also snagged a ratty built up pair of old Tom Daniel Monogram kits to hack up, a Pie Wagon and an Ice T

Most excellent. I hope they hang the little bugger. Pity they won't. Seems like if he's smart enough to pull off a sophisticated fraud involving fake PayPal emails, he ought to be able to make enough money honestly to buy just about anything he could reasonably want. Some folks just aren't wired that way though, unfortunately.

Yeah, that's another thing. People generally assume CD or DVD info is secure and will last forever. The truth is that anywhere from 2 years to 100 years is what you can expect. You never know until it's gone bad. And home-burned discs usually seem to be more easily corrupted than professionally manufactured ones. So burning copies is no guarantee you can keep your data intact, any more than backing up to hard-disc, flash-drive, or the cloud guarantees it.

...unless you've been "educated" fairly recently.

It seems that a lot of present day "historians" know literally nothing about the last 200 or more years, even though there's no shortage of "dead-tree" archived material available. I wonder which will have the more profound effect on mankind's future...the somewhat ephemeral nature of digital media, or intentional historical revisionism coupled with willful ignorance.

Kinda like "I casted them parts..."

Yeah, which always makes me wonder about all the useless add-on "spoilers" and wings on run-of-the-mill production cars. My old Neon has one. From new. Every time I look at it, I cringe. Little car will never go fast enough to need downforce on the tail, the silly wing probably doesn't make any anyway, and if it does have any aerodynamic effect, it most likely induces drag...hurting gas mileage rather than helping it. Can't just take it off though, 'cause it's bolted on through holes in the deck. Which reminds me...the huge silly wing on the rear of the Countach slowed the car by 5MPH on the top end, and made lotsa noise doing it.

And that, right there, is the problem I have with relying on digital info systems for everything. A drive or server crash, changes in "policy" enforcement from an online provider, or a hacking event...everything gone. It's not living in the past to be somewhat wary of digital storage, boys and girls. It's living in reality.

Actions of a local body shop that transcend incompetence and constitute intentional fraud. Photographs of a vehicle taken immediately after the collision clearly show the damage from every angle, but my inspection of the vehicle on the body shop premises after teardown shows considerable additional structural damage that was absolutely impossible to have occurred with the bumper cover in place. Looks like they picked the wrong guy, my client, to try to cheat. This is a well known chain, who are DRPs for several insurance companies. In the first place, I've rarely seen such a bungled initial estimate (for instance, they added time on the R&R of the radiator for "automatic transmission cooler", when the car is a manual) and the added "supplement" is curiously consistent with additional structural damage that, again, simply could NOT have occurred with the bumper cover in place. Looks like some mouth breather drove the car into a post or bollard AFTER the bumper cover was removed, probably while looking at his phone, and the damage was added to the estimate in an effort to cover it up. Unfortunately for them, the supplement caused the car to "total". It's an older sports car my friend bought new, the value bottomed out, now it's become desirable and is appreciating, he loves it, and brought me in to negotiate a way to save it from the scrapper. And guess what I found...

Yup. It's a sensual pleasure, pure and simple.

I found a 9mm or .38 bullet hole in my Neon the morning after the 4th...

Good looking models both.

I'll be interested in hearing/seeing what you figure out. I have a similar situation that needs rivets on a truck cab, and a D-type Jag that needs 'em too. Though I've bought several sets, I haven't had time to play with them yet.

When the content goes away, what's the point of "supporting" any publication? I expect actual value for money. When I find I'm paying primarily for advertising pages and dumbed down regurgitated content, I withdraw my "support". Knowing what I do of what contributors to mags get paid, it's certainly not a financial inability to attract competent writer/photographers that is to blame for declining content. It's just not trying very hard. You have to have fresh, useful content so people will buy the dammed thing to see the ads. Lousy content, mostly ads, no "supporters". Pretty simple really.

Yup. The cast logo appears to be printed cleanly, which is the real magic here, and smoothing the ribs just isn't all that difficult. BUT...what I wish is that all these engines would come WITHOUT BELTS. Any reasonably competent modeler can create believable belts that look a whole helluva lot better than painting printed ones.

I quit reading SA a long time back, as it got thinner and thinner, with less and less of interest to me...as with most all of the car and other hobby mags. Content is down across the board, writing quality continues to decline everywhere (as does reading comprehension), and most of the "experts" aren't. There's a lot more useful info published on this site every day than there usually is in a typical monthly issue of most magazines now...though there are some notable exceptions...so why bother? Damm near anything anyone could want to know is available online anyway (if you're knowledgeable enough to sort through the BS and rebleated gibberish that is 90% of what's out there) so why continue to mess with paying authors, layout artists, printers, and mailing? I personally MISS quality print mags, but they've been few and far between for a long time now.

I quit reading SA a long time back, as it got thinner and thinner, with less and less of interest to me...as with most all of the car and other hobby mags. Content is down across the board, writing quality continues to decline everywhere (as does reading comprehension), and most of the "experts" aren't. There's a lot more useful info published on this site every day than there usually is in a typical monthly issue of most magazines now...though there some notable exceptions...so why bother? Damm near anything anyone could want to know is available online anyway (if you're knowledgeable enough to sort through the BS and rebleated gibberish that is 90% of what's out there) so why continue to mess with paying authors, layout artists, printers, and mailing? I personally MISS quality print mags, but they've been few and far between for a long time now.

Thank you sir. One original is mint, one very close, but I have several builders too. The mint one even smells new, and transports me back to a far better time with just one whiff. I've started exactly the kind of build you're talking about...mixing the best parts from both kits to get what I would consider a much more accurate representation of the real car than either kit builds on its own. The stance of the original kit is horrible, and many of the proportions are a little off in the re-tool, most notably the ridiculous 1/32 scale engine.

Very attractive model. The relationships between the visual masses and the overall stance are much better than most guys manage with this kit.

NASCAR front suspensions are generally of the unequal-length-upper-and-lower-control-arm type, required to maintain acceptable camber patterns in turns...something drag racing cars do not have to deal with. NASCAR vehicles have to contend with high lateral and vertical loadings for an extended period of time (due to high-speed cornering forces), and for multiple intervals per lap. So in general, NASCAR front suspensions will be much more heavily built than the light lower-control arm-and-strut type suspension shown on the example above. However, the relative simplicity of the illustrated suspension makes it a natural for scratch-building.

Bloody talking-head TV "journalist" reporting on the fire aboard the Bonhomme Richard not knowing the difference between "ordnance" and "ordinances". Kinda like kit designers not being able to measure and divide accurately. If you get PAID to do something, try to do it right. Oh...wait...using the right word and being able to do simple arithmetic is hard. Wah wah wah. Seeing one of our Harrier carriers burning is kinda irksome too, and of course the interdwerb is awash with know-nothing morons commenting on it. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2020/07/12/amphibious-assault-ship-ablaze-in-port-san-diego/