Ace-Garageguy

I'm almost sure I've read it. Somewhere. Somewhen. But if the answer is anywhere, this book probably has it. https://www.windcanyonbooks.com/product_info.php?products_id=1164

THANKS !! Got heem.

^^^ My lord, that's a beautiful airplane. I wish somebody made that in 1/32 or 1/24. Damm that's pretty.

Nice recovery from that crackle-finished disaster from a while back. Impressive never-say-die comeback. She looks GREAT, and those wire wheels really set her off. And thanks for reminding me of Curt's terrific wheels. I contacted him, but I never put the order in. Finally, I'll be able to finish up a couple of mine that have been hanging fire.

Man. What a bunch of knockout models.

Small heat shrink, split.

Has some other pretty spectacular hardware too.

This double kit? You need one of these, too...

Snake's right. It's as basic as you can get. Two fuselage halves, two blisters for the cylinder banks, two strut assemblies, 4 float halves, a wing, two horizontal stabs, a prop, and a clear canopy. Plus decals. But it's the only game in town for reasonable money in a reasonable scale. S1595 is on display in unrestored condition at the London Science Museum. Original paint.

Glad to hear that.

Sprung a few bucks for a cheap 1/48 scale Testors Supermarine S6B floatplane. I've always wanted a big-scale model of this aircraft, and though it's only 1/48, the plan is to use it as the source material to scratch one in 1/24, to accompany my big warbirds. I built lots of flying balsa models as a kid, so doubling the size of this little girl shouldn't present any real difficulties. I already have bunches of reference material on the thing.

Got another almost virgin first-issue AMT '36 Ford, really hoping to get at LEAST one good "artillery" wheel between two kits (I bought another one last week). Nope. That's close to $100 and no wheel that's usable to cast copies from. Anyway, the kit itself is complete, the other box is nicer, so I'll probably put the best bits in the best box and keep it intact as a "nostalgia" piece to take out and look at occasionally. I REALLY wanted a nice one, so I'm still reasonably happy. Also got a little AMT 1980 Yotyto 4X4 snapper. I'm thinking of finding my '92 Silverado a good home and putting the bucks towards an early '80s Yoda 4X4, this was cheap, so I got one to help think about the decision. And I've seen so many really great builds of big trucks over on the other end of the board, I've been picking up a few of my favorites. I haven't built any big trucks 'cause frankly, I know very little about them...other than I love the way old trucks look and sound. But there's so much knowledge available here, I figure I can learn. Funny thing is, I almost bought a pair of semi-derelict cab-over Freightliners back in 1980 or so, to build one from two, and get myself in the classic-car hauling business...but they wouldn't fit through the doors to the shop I had at the time. Sadly, they probably ended up scrapped. Anyway, these have joined the hoard. The SD was partially started, but not bad. Somewhere around here there's a conventional Pete snapper too...and I want the needlenose conversion.

Thanks for the review, Bill. The nose looks good enough now that I'll make the effort to correct the other obvious flaws...at least to the point where they're not SO obvious.

A greasy pan-fried 1/2 pound cheeseburger, on slabs of heavy whole-wheat bread, smothered in melted sharp cheddar + Hellmann's, Dijon, and cracked pepper. Need about a 3-hour hike to clear my arteries now.

Yup. Yup yup.

I guess the promoters/producers of the event were unfamiliar with highly esoteric concepts like "wind" and "top heavy" and "tying things down". I think we have a new contender for entry in the Stupid is the New Smart category.

Well sir, that's the shape of today's big pharma. Find an empty market slot to fill (or apparently make one up) with a do-nothing drug that has side effects worse than the ailment it's purported to alleviate. Convince doctors to push it, and convince oldsters they need it. The American public has been effectively brainwashed into thinking that, as they age, they HAVE to be on multiple drug regimens to even survive, and God help the man who tries to get some pill-addicted fella separated from his meds...or tries to get him to make healthy lifestyle choices like exercising regularly, keeping his weight in check, and cutting back on booze, cigs, and garbage food. Yes, I know, many people have legitimate health problems that require drugs. But when you look at the numbers of overweight and OBESE people in the country today...which is a CHOICE...you just have to realize that MANY health problems are also brought on by making poor life choices.

Just a word about reality...it's hard to make much money flipping low-end vehicles that need a lot of work, unless you think $1 per hour is pretty good pay. People very rarely get their money back out of fairly expensive rods and customs, either. While it IS possible to come out ahead if you find something not running that, with just a LITTLE work, will drag itself down the road, I really think the smart move with most old cars is to get something YOU like, wouldn't mind being stuck with, do a NICE job on it, and then ask a high price that actually reflects the effort you've put in.

Yup, that would be my recommendation. It ain't cheap, but it IS designed for REAL automotive use, and CAN be topcoated with urethane automotive clears containing UV inhibitors without any dulling or muddying. https://alsacorp.com/

That blue racing Goose really does it for me. Along with Panteras, I have considerable real-world experience with the Mangusta, and it's always been a car I've lusted after (ever since I saw a brandy-new one in the showroom of the now-defunct Baker Motor Company in Buckhead, many moons ago). For anyone wanting to build a well-detailed model, seek out the old series in Sports Car Graphic wherein Paul Van Valkenburgh goes through one, eliminating most of the things that made older Italian cars notoriously unreliable, and turns it into a daily driver. The 1/24 SMP24 kit, at least the gray one in the front 3/4 shot, really misses the mark on capturing the correct lines of these beautiful cars. As the only game in town in 1/24, it's someplace to start, but it's about as poor a representation of the real car as the awful (Arii?) C111 kits in the same scale. For over $200, I'd kinda expect the model to have been scaled from the real thing, rather than being a Palmer-esque warped misshapen mess that's obviously more "artistic interpretation" than scale model. PS. I seem to recall that Pico Elgin was developing a 3D printable body shell in 1/24, though I may be mistaken.

Sorry I didn't get back to your PM earlier, but it looks like you found what you needed. This thread has some very helpful info on the differences in appearance of several of the FE pushrod engines.

Excellent. Missing little things like this can spoil an otherwise very nice model. You'd be surprised (maybe) how often real car builders get it wrong too. Next time you're at a car show, look at how many cars have snarling, off-center, or drooping bumpers.

Man, that's some good Schmidt. Really well engineered too.

about a turnip

Only that there's this thing called "bankruptcy", and that if Gregg wasn't sincere about keeping the thing going and getting subscribers the issues they've paid for, in the face of the setbacks he's faced, he could have very easily filed for same, shut the doors, closed down the forum, and left the whiners twisting in the wind. But he didn't do that, now, did he? Nope. He's continued trying to find a way to make it work. I'd really like to see anyone else here who, if they had to deal with what has happened since the mag started falling into difficulties, do as much as Gregg has in keeping this forum alive out of a love for (and probably a sense of duty to) the hobby. Frankly, I would have shut it down long ago, given the subscribers pennies on the dollar, and just walked away. It's always easy to judge from the comfort of a chair in front of a computer keyboard. It takes a little more guts and class to get things happening when it's almost impossible. I didn't put this thread up with the intention of it becoming more about strategies to save the MCM business and criticizing its performance recently, but just to remind folks what a resource for the model-car community THIS SITE is, and that we all might remember, again, to say THANKS.