Ace-Garageguy

I think it's a car that's going to look better in person, like a lot of recent offerings. And it's attractive, without breaking any new ground. That said, it definitely has an essential "Corvetteness" that I'm sure the designers were going for. The great news is that it will probably help to drive the prices of C5s down ever further (great for me anyway, 'cause I want one).

No shortage of hard info out there for anyone who's serious about doing it. Much of it has been around for many years...

A for effort. Unfortunately, 3D printing is not a substitute for the rest of the skills required to build a car. That's some of the nastiest carbon fiber work I've ever seen. There are welding and fabrication and fitment issues too. If you're going to do something, learning to do it right is always a plus.

I liked XP just fine too...but it was getting a little overwhelmed sometimes by all the "rich content" on websites (which as far as I can tell is nothing more than hysterical in-your-face audio and visual marketing trying to get you convinced you need to buy more useless crapp). God, I love AdBlock.

I haven't admitted that yet. I can still do 'em all...but sometimes it takes a little longer.

I'm chapped knowing I'm going to have to replace my computers with Win10 machines shortly. Tinylimp is shutting down support for Win7 at the end of the year. That means no more "security" patches on the holes in it. I don't like Win10. There's not a damm thing wrong with Win7 for the way I use it. It works just fine and dandy for what I need it to do in the machines I run it on. But the powers that be in Tinylimpland have a greed-need to force everyone who's using their trash into spending more money through planned and ENFORCED obsolescence. Maybe it's finally time to take a hard look at other general-use operating systems.

^^^ sbk is one of the best around. If you're not familiar with his work, now's the time to change that.

Anybody here built any 1/24 scale Profil 24 kits? If so, what was your impression of the casting quality, symmetry, scale fidelity, etc.? They're kind of expensive, and before I jump I'd like some input from folks with actual first-hand experience. Thanks.

I've known some doofy pilots, but not that doofy. Then again...we once had a guy pick up his plane, taxi 1/4 mile to the runway, take off and fly to another airport 30 miles away...all the time dragging two 5-gallon buckets full of concrete we used for temporary tiedowns.

Not spending as much though.

They were introduced about 1950. Cool project. Just FYI...you're going to have to "zee" the rear of the frame considerably to get the stance in your rendering, and either fabricate a front axle with more drop, or raise the front crossmember, trim a few spring leaves out, and notch the front frame rails to clear everything.

Two more notables from DeHavilland...The fantastic DH.98 Mosquito, mostly wood structure, mahogany veneers laminated over end-grain balsa cores (concepts carried forward from the DH.88 Comet racing plane and DH.91 Albatross) and the forerunner of all of today's foam or honeycomb-cored composite airframes: And the DH.88's namesake, the post-war (1949) DH.106 Comet, the first jet-powered airliner. Another pioneering design that taught the aviation engineering world valuable lessons regarding metal fatigue in pressurized alloy aircraft structures, and necessary design and construction considerations. Though the first production aircraft had several catastrophic mid-air structural failures, the redesigned aircraft flew millions of miles, and several militarized Nimrod versions flew until 2011:

Wowwee zowee Batman. I didn't know Corvettes ever looked like that, but if it's on the internet, it HAS to be true. Goshawhillikers. Wait 'til I re-bleat this all over creation. I can be a cool guy too.

That's a great article, pretty much the definitive resource for this body style. But all those different cuts are entirely unnecessary on a plastic model. They're necessary on thin steel sheetmetal so the cut lines will line up well, to minimize shrinking, stretching, and hammer work in general. As I noted above, because of the thickness of plastic model bodies, all that's usually required is to take a straight section out of the body, glue it back together, and file to finished shape.

Back in 1977, F-4 Phantoms were still operating out of Dobbins AFB. I had a shop just across the highway from one end of the main runway. Quite often, a flight of two F-4s would head out at dusk in full AB. The sound was overwhelming, as was the sight of the twin cones of flame at their tails disappearing into the darkening sky. Lotsa memories. I happened to be at Mojave 2 decades later to see some of the first F4s converted to QF-4 target drones by BAE Systems. Very sad (to me) to know these exquisite aircraft were being readied for their last flights, but it's a fitting end for old fighters. BAE has done over 300 such conversions.

For pure badass in my book, nothing beats the P-47 Thunderbolt... And its namesake A-10 Thunderbolt "Warthog"...

Looking good, especially clean work on the black around the windows. Did you open up all those gills, or does the kit come that way?

I was so sure this thing was based on a Ford Escort Mk II, I didn't look at any other makes. Duh.

Sectioning is a lot easier on a model than on a real car, because of the thickness of the plastic. For the most part, all you have to do on a model is remove a strip of material, glue everything back together, and file to shape. For the top-chop, this is excellent advice. Masterson's method avoids all the horrible messes people usually make with widening or lengthening the roof, and cutting up the decklid. The finished product flows very well. Here's the article about how he does these cars in Hot Rod. Follow through all 30 photos, do what Mr. Masterson does. https://www.hotrod.com/articles/0903rc-1950-chevy-chopped-top/

Along with several of the others, I think these deserve mention: B-47 Stratojet F-100 Super Saber Howard Hughes H-1

So far, this is one of the best looking builds of this kit I've ever seen. Your skill and extra effort show how good these can look in the hands of somebody who cares enough to go a little farther than most. Nice work.

Hmmmmm...again, I don't know, but I have an idea what it might be based on.

^^^ Yeah, I could deal with having to look at a Miura every day.

You're correct. The Ala Kart body is a '29 RPU cowl and doors, with a '27 T bucket rear panel forming the curved section. A stock '28-'29 roadster pickup body is flat in back, below. '30-'31 RPU bodies are curved in back.