Ace-Garageguy

Thanks to cobraman (Ray Kurn), I've just about completed a full set of the old Merit 1/24 sports and GP cars. Ray noticed I'd said I was lacking the Lotus XI, and was kind enough to notify me when he saw one come up on Ebay. The kit is a little more interesting than just a straight Merit offering, though. The body shell is indeed Merit, but the rest of it is a resin reproduction, made by none other than Tom Coolidge. The repop parts are absolutely beautiful, and it all came in the original postmarked-1995 box, straight from Mr. Coolidge. A nice little piece of car-modeling history. Thanks again, Ray.

Yeah, the Vallelunga is a neat little car. It's got an English Ford 1600cc pushrod 4-cylinder, a 5-speed gearbox based on an upside-down-and-backwards VW case with Hewland guts, a steel backbone chassis that's kinda Lotus-like, and a fiberglass body. And it is small, only about as big as a Lotus Europa. Driving one is like a slightly heavier Formula Ford race car, with two seats and a roof. It was, of course, the DeTomaso immediately before the Mangusta. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Tomaso_Vallelunga

I'm a moron. I must have seen dozens of those, but never really noticed them. And all the time as I kept thinking to myself "it sure looks like a Ford somethingorother", I even looked at the Taunus 12M, but I didn't think to look at the 15M (the 12 is very similar, but lacks the stamped indentation down the body sides). Doh. Good job stumping the chump.

I'll for sure want one in 1/8.

Very fine. I love historic race cars, and this one is a real smile maker. Nice work all around.

Thank you sir. Much appreciated.

Train modelers have been using pastels and chalks for well over 50 years to excellent effect. If you want to see how it's done right, just watch some videos. Here's one. ( Keep in mind you don't HAVE to buy the pre-packaged products. You can experiment and develop your own techniques easily too)

Google is your friend too.

Here's a start, and it addresses your problem.

Sounds like that was a great show, great weekend. I could listen to radial aircraft engines all day and all night. An aviation company I worked with in Az. was located next to a firebomber base. The Canadair CL-215s they were flying are powered by two Pratt & Whitney Double Wasp R2800s, the same basic engines that were in the F4U and P47. The high point of my day for quite a few months running was hearing those engines run-up. I've been around warbirds off and on much of my life, from the time I was a little kid with my father. Not much recently though, but I was glad the owners of the little birds flew them out prior to the forecast storms...which largely failed to materialize. Past highpoints were a ride in a jumpseat in a P-51, and a longish ride in a B-17 several years back when she visited McCollum airport in Kennesaw. Some people I worked for for a while owned and flew a T6 (SNJ), and maintained an F4U Corsair. Sadly, the Corsair is no longer with us. They also brought in a Russian Yak-3 (looks kinda like a cross between a P51 and a Spitfire) disassembled, and sold her on prior to completion. She's flying somewhere in the States now though. I believe Fifi is a B-29, and was the only one flying prior to the restoration of Doc, completed in 2016. There's a static-display 29 about 7 miles from me, at Lockheed.

I'm kinda new into resin. I have a few older kits that are marginal quality at best, and I wasn't terribly impressed in general. But after seeing some of the fantastic stuff that's available in historic race cars, I may have to keep working at least another year to be able to afford everything I want. It's an addiction, a disease. Make me stop...

If anyone here is familiar with the HRM Cheetah kit, I have a specific question regarding the instructions. Does this kit normally come with any exploded or assembly drawings, or is the verbal (written) instruction sheet all you get? I bought it from someone who's had it for some time apparently, so I'm curious as to what's supposed to be there. The written instructions are fine, and I've found plenty of reference pix of kit builds online. I also have occasional access to a real one, and understand how cars work in general...so building it is no problem. I'm just curious if pictorial material is supposed to be in the kit. Thanks in advance to anyone who knows and answers.

Rough stuff. Sincerely wishing you well.

Looking good.

Here's a '72 small-block AND a big-block. $5.99 + $3.64 shipping. A seller I've done business with, never any problems. http://www.ebay.com/itm/A72CN-AMT-1972-CHEVY-SMALL-BLOCK-ENGINE-SET-1-25-Model-Car-Mountain-/142528291152?hash=item212f592150:g:DDwAAOSw5FpZ1St6

Ebay can be a great resource when you're looking for parts too. Though there some sellers who ask as much for one part as you can buy the entire kit for, there are others who sell parts reasonably. Here's a Revell '69 Z 28 engine. Bidding now is at $4.73, plus $3.43 shipping. There are many other even better deals. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Revell-1-25-1969-CHEVY-CAMARO-Z-28-RS-ENGINE-AND-RELATED-PARTS-/302481512083?hash=item466d4d9693:g:NikAAOSwT6JZ2UHU

I used to know a Bulgarian used car dealer who made a fortune shipping ex-underwater high-end cars to Russia and the Balkans. He dropped out of sight somewhat suddenly, but probably not too surprisingly. You really don't want to screw some of those guys.

Just trying to get the collection filled with things I really want while I'm still drawing a decent paycheck. Several things I've acquired lately I haven't even seen for years, and I figured they won't be getting any cheaper, so why not? My luck, I'll die shortly after retiring, and all my stuff will be on Ebay again anyway. But at least the people responsible for liquidating my estate understand the values. Still, maybe I ought to put dollar amounts on every box...

Absolutely. Stunning.

Beautiful so far. Any plans to make copies of the body available? What scale? As it's the immediate ancestor of the Ford GT40, I'd love to have one.

Yup, and though some complain about them as being "fiddly", with a little care, they build up into real gems. This is the Pontiac engine from the same series. Nicely detailed with freeze-plug bosses, bolts, etc.

I bought a pretty decent die-cast Power Wagon in civilian garb recently, pretty cheap, to do a military truck from. Just a thought. The ambulance body should be fairly easy to scratch.

This comes up often, and because all the Chebby "small-block" engines are very similar externally (with the exception of manifolding and accessories) virtually any Chevy engine in the family (265-283-302-327-350 and some others) can represent just about any other in scale. One of my favorite engines in 1/25 is the beautiful old Revell kit, available still quite cheap. You may have to change manifolding and accessories for your particular installation, so it's good to know the era your build will represent, and the power output. This kit comes with the option of two 4-barrels, or a front-driven "Potvin" blower setup.

Finally sprung for the HRM / VRM Cheetah coupe. All I can say is that so far, it looks to be among the best quality resin anything I've ever seen. Whoever did the tooling knew what he was doing, and had the caring, talent and skill to put it all together. The decals are gorgeous too. I've been impressed with everything I've bought that was made by HRM, and this is no exception.