Ace-Garageguy

Gasoline vs petrol.

Usually known as hydraulic and fuel "lines" in the US, I've encountered them frequently referred to as "pipes" in the UK. Then there's "scuttle", in US-speak "cowl panel". "Firewall" pretty universally here, sometimes "bulkhead" in other English-speaking countries.

Hmmmm.... Not much worse treatment "for simply being a man" than to be ripped out of civilian life at 18 years of age, forced to abandon just about every facet of civilized behavior, and put in a position where you have to kill without remorse and risk being killed, violently and often horribly, by people you've never seen and with whom you have no personal quarrel...and then, as in the case with the Vietnam period, to be spit-on when you come home. Yet this is what happened through two world wars and assorted "conflicts" where it was the strongest and healthiest of the young MEN who were shipped overseas to kill and die. It wasn't that women weren't "allowed" in combat. Nobody in his right mind WANTS to go to war. It was because women were PROTECTED from combat. Why?? Because WOMEN were universally seen as being MORE VALUABLE than men, the future of civilization, the real strength and core of humanity, and the ones who stayed home and held a country together, a country that had IDEAS and IDEALS that seemed to MEN to be worth fighting and dying for. Sadly, successive generations of slackers and whiners and crybabies have been doing their dammedest to tear down everything that seemed to be of real value. While it is true that men start wars, it's also true that GOOD MEN DIE TO END THEM, and the freedom to moan and carp endlessly about how horrible and "oppressive" this country is, is one of the things the whiners all have to be thankful for to the MEN who gave their lives for the right to free expression.

You can indeed street-drive a Lenco, but it's not the ideal gearbox for a nice quiet drive in the country on Sunday morning...

Not a lot. When I was a twerp kid, my "completion" rate was 100%. One kit, one kill. Years later, when I'd progressed to the point where my models didn't look like they were built by a drunk chimp, my completion rate dropped to almost zero.

Marketing, actually.

Feel free to start.

I once had a client, for whom I designed a 1:1 body kit for a popular Porsche, insist on setting a selling price for the kit at less than the cost to produce the things. When I pointed out the economic fallacy of his approach, he argued vehemently that he'd "make it up on volume". Honest.

Sorry, I disagree. "Manshaming" can only manipulate chickenexhaust little wusses, not actual adult men...but there are fewer and fewer of those every day. And an actual adult man can quite easily talk about "difficult or scary" subjects.

If the built-ups of this kit I've bought over the years are any indication, it takes at least one, maybe two tubes of glue to build it.

I'm never going to buy into the white-male-privilege carp that's endlessly promoted now by whining feminists and myriad other "marginalized" groups who only want a free ride. Anydammbody who has a reasonable brain and works HARD in pursuit of a goal CAN make it in the USA. Still. I personally know (and like and respect very much) a black man who, as a dirt-poor kid in a rural South Carolina town, used to walk by the podunk little airport, fell in love with airplanes, decided he wanted to work around them, and talked the airport operator into hiring him to sweep floors and clean toilets. He worked hard and showed up reliably, saved his money, went on to become a licensed A&P mechanic (he's one of the best aviation sheet-metal men I know), and got his pilot's license and multiple ratings. I also know a fairly recent Mexican immigrant who does excellent body-work. He doesn't speak English very well (his English is a whole lot better than my Spanish), but he's set up his own little restoration shop, on the side, and is making pretty damm good money. Sara Blakely, the Spanx queen, is a local woman who REALLY made it big in business. Whining is for whiners. Achievers just get the job done. And in response to the OP's question " Were you ever been (sic) treated badly because you are a man? Divorce, etc" Men have traditionally come out on the losing end of divorce. The woman has always tended to get the house and most of the assets, plus alimony and child support. Ain't nothin' new. God knows, I've paid MY share.

The kit has a lot of potential as scratch-bash fodder. I started making up the trailer here from bits of it.

No, but it's a sure-fire cure for depression.

Excellent points, both. And the reason the oil pan is smooth on many older engines is because it's stamped sheet-metal, as is the timing cover, sometimes...though it's sometimes die-cast, which is also smooth. Contemporary engines, however, very often have cast oil pans and timing covers, with a very fine or no texture. When in doubt, Google images of the real engine you want to represent, or ask here.

Exactly. You're creating "orange-peel" intentionally...a slightly pebbly texture on the surface of the paint. You have to experiment to get the right look though. Different paints will flow out differently, and the texture itself doesn't need to be coarse at all. To look right in 1/25 scale, you only need a very slight surface roughness, with the gloss of the paint still visible. You can use Testors metalizers to get a similar effect for bare cast metal on wheel centers, aluminum rear-end housings, etc.

Measure a real one. Divide by 12.

Maybe ya'll oughta check your safe-spaces.

"Mallot" is a word in Finnish and Catalan (not in English) and a city in Pakistan. A woman's one-piece swimsuit is a "maillot", with an "I" in the middle. I hope that wasn't too rivet-counting-confrontational, critical and crude.

I'm going to say a few things, but I have no ill will towards anyone here, including you. I'm just getting tired of personalities getting triggered by nothing other than their own imaginations that cast me as some insulting, bullying, nasty old fart. I've honestly never spent any time analyzing the potential functionality of your models, or I would have noticed the things you just pointed out. I don't really care if somebody else's model could really work or not. I've commented on several of your builds, and not once have I ever criticized a lack of potential functionality...or if I've mentioned it, I'm absolutely certain I did it in a "mentioning" sort of non-confrontational way, with no criticism intended or implied. If someone, anyone, wants to take my mentioning that something doesn't accurately reflect functionality as criticism, I really can't help it. I'm responsible only for what I actually say, not for how it's interpreted. And yes, "gasser" is a word that describes a class of race-car, and words have meanings. When we arbitrarily decide that word meanings just don't matter anymore, we start down a slippery slope, but that's another topic for another forum. Is it important for every model labeled "gasser" to accurately reflect the old class rules? No, and I've never tried to force down anyone's throat that they have to. Nor have I ever been "crude" about it. Or if you disagree, quote the "offensive" or "crude" posts, if you'd be so kind. What I have done is to remind a couple of builders, NON-CRITICALLY, that real gassers weren't built with their noses high in the air, and for very good reasons. I've spent many hours here responding to technical questions about modeling and real cars from people who seemed to want more understanding and facts, as opposed to the typical internet gibberish frequently following "I heard" or "I think", that usually comes with absolutely no basis in first-hand experience or even 'book-learning'. Part of my passion for model cars and trying to correct misconceptions and foolishness comes from my passionate life-long relationship with REAL cars, and THAT, in turn, was kindled by building models when I was a kid. I learned from those models the names of parts and assemblies, and where things were located, so I had a basis to at least partially understand what I read about the REAL cars and trains and planes. My career was the ultimate result of model-car-building, and that's why for MY OWN work, I'm a stickler for function and engineering being accurately portrayed. But I have NEVER been the one to initiate unkind criticism or name-calling...but, for pointing out somebody (including the kit-manufacturers) could have done something a little differently if they wanted to reflect reality accurately, I have been verbally attacked and called a "rivet counter", "know-it-all", "lacking in social skills" and any number of other unnecessary and unkind names when my only intent was to try to impart some accurate information when much of the world just doesn't give a damm about getting the details right. I've even been physically threatened via PM. One "adult" modeler actually stated he wished I would just die. Nice. Yet you say I'm crude. Un frigging believable. I've seen a lot of butthurt that's not the result of anything I've ACTUALLY said, but the result of somebody's INTERPRETATION of what I've said, and their apparent insecurity influencing their decision that I MUST be talking about them. I'm beginning to feel I may have wasted much of the time I've taken out of my life to write these 15.000 posts, a great many of which were full of accurate and useful information not readily available elsewhere, and which was offered in the spirit of helping members of the community, and sharing knowledge gained through my own experience. All for free, without trying to make a nickel on a single one of you with some damm click-bait blog. It was my attempt to defend the community as a whole here, from some non-modeler I saw as simply wanting a free ride on our love of the hobby, and this carp is what I get for it. Typical.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll see it.