Ace-Garageguy

First, you probably shouldn't assume I've never been in that position. Second, I stand by the logic of my original statement, which is that the "accident" wouldn't have occurred in the first place if one or both of the drivers involved had been competent AND paying attention. The safety of vehicle occupants would be well-served if there was a comprehensive and effective driver-training program in effect in this country, along with heavy fines and license revocation for repeated idiot behavior behind the wheel. And drivers who are "accident" prone shouldn't just have their insurance rates raised; it should be CANCELED to keep them from being in control of moving vehicles at any time. Of course, in a society where taking personal responsibility for anything has fallen out of favor, the likelihood of this happening is minimal. And shut down onboard two-way communications in moving vehicles. Several real-world "accidents" I'm personally aware of in the very recent past (one potentially fatal) were immediately traceable to the use of and distraction from handheld-devices by the at-fault drivers. The following excerpt is quoted from: http://www.complex.com/sports/2013/02/germanys-fatal-accident-rate-is-less-than-half-of-ours-despite-driving-at-155-mph "In Germany in 2012, there were 44 traffic related deaths per one million inhabitants, people could drive over 200 mph on public roads, there were tons of bikers, and there was lots of additional traffic from other countries passing through because of Germany's central location in Europe. Those all sounds like factors that would increase accidents and fatalities, but ze Germans are clearly doing something right, because in the USA we had 104 deaths per million. Car & Driver's German correspondent, Jens Meiners, claims that this is due to more rigorous driver training, scheduled vehicle checks ever two years, and the autobahn, where you can drive as fast as you want, but will be punished for not giving other vehicles space. He claims that the space and the fact that nobody is ballsy enough to try to text and eat a hamburger at 120 mph. "

There's a lot of wisdom in the advice to just try to "take things one day at a time" Try to focus primarily on getting your health back, and try to avoid letting yourself get overwhelmed by the complexity of the situation. You'll always have my sincere best wishes, no matter which way your life takes you in the future.

That's pretty much the way I feel about ALL my machines. I don't want a smart fridge to tell me my milk is chunky, or a smart washer with an LCD touch-screen control panel that will cost twice the value of the damm machine when it fails in two years, or a smartass car that thinks it has to pull back on the power when I'm turning...or that can parallel park itself because it was designed to sell to incompetent morons. And I sure as hell don't want a "smart" gun. What I WOULD love to see is a world full of smart PEOPLE. Yeah, like that will ever happen.

Lord knows there are enough running-on-3-cylinders clapped out rusty auto-trans Camrys around here that could have been destroyed and nobody would have missed one.

More great news. Kick its butt, Harry.

Good reason to learn how to actually control a vehicle, and avoid "accidents" which are really usually not "accidents" at all, but are instead the inevitable results of lapses of concentration and simple incompetence. It's a real shame the "safe space" mentality has become so all-pervasive that many folks refuse to take primary responsibility for much of anything any more. Nerf-cars may be good for people who really shouldn't be driving anyway...because it seems to fail to register on their over-coddled brains that operating a 3000-pound moving vehicle with 20 gallons of highly flammable fuel on board, at 50+ MPH, in the presence of similar oncoming-vehicles AND 40,000 pound trucks is inherently DANGEROUS. Seatbelts have ALWAYS been a good idea, but airbags, crumple-zones, active radar-controlled "accident" avoidance and all the other insidiously creeping carp people seem to view as necessary these days are nothing more than technical compensation for sloppy and distracted DRIVERS.

Very nice. Just-enough customizing, and the two-tone works well on that body design. I'd be happy with that one...the real one OR the model.

I think a lot of these customs are perfect examples of why less is often more when it comes to customizing, and a good reminder that just because somebody has the skills to do the physical custom work, they don't necessarily have the eye to do good-looking, coherent modifications that actually improve on the subject. Though taste is subjective, good design is more easily defined...but it's still something of a matter of personal taste as to what "good" is. In general though, "good design" presents the viewer with something that looks like it's "all of a piece", with an almost calming effect (for lack of a better term) because all of the separate elements seem to belong together. A very radical and aggressive vehicle design can be "calming" at the same time, if it's well thought-out and integrated. The much-reviled Nissan Juke and Pontiac Aztek fail because so many of the design elements of each have no relation to each other. Lines going every-which-way and shapes that clash don't provide the "calming" effect you get from good work. When re-styling a car that starts out as handsome as the stock Merc is, it's usually best to respect as much of the original design as is practical while striving to express individual creativity. Joe Handley's concept sketch takes what's particularly attractive about the original design, and plays off of the basic lines and proportions that are already there. It's successful because the modifications work well together, and appear to be integrated into an overall theme, with no one part fighting for attention...or just stuck on. Some of the other customs shown above are simply trying too hard, with non-visually-related elements added almost randomly in some instances. The gull-wing car is interesting, but is very obviously mimicking the Gullwing Mercedes. The door design makes sense on the Mercedes because the wide and deep lower sills are there to cover a major portion of a spaceframe chassis, but they're just "look at me too" on the Mercury. Adding major design elements that have no rational function other than to copy the appearance of something else rarely works visually.

I LIKE your concept sketch. A LOT.

Most excellent news !!

Just the fact that you feel good enough to check in is the bast news we've had for days. Everyone on the forum is pulling for you, so just focus on beating this thing.

It's really good to hear from you. Best news for days. We know the situation thanks to Skip Jordan and Cato, everybody is pulling for you, so just focus on staying strong and getting well.

Have you image-searched specifically "sectioned '49 Mercury"? There are a lot if interpretations of the line, some fairly successful, some not so much.

Over the years, I've found several small, very-fine nylon strainers in cooking departments. Nylon strainers can be cleaned and re-used indefinitely. Another good small strainer in a pinch can be made with nylon-stocking material. Just make a small strainer-frame from some kind of stiff wire, make a pocket in the center sorta as above, and strain away.

That Riv looks pretty good from the back, too. Concept sketch:

And THAT, boys and girls, is also the effect of the image sampling-rate of the human optic system that I began explaining above. The effect is exactly the same as the one that makes moving-pictures of rotating prop blades sometimes appear to stop or reverse or even distort oddly. Ain't science fun?

Good to know he's more-or-less stable, anyway. What really sucks is that he seemed to respond so well to the radiation, and was feeling a lot better. I wonder why the somewhat sudden decline. As unclescott says...get well Harry. Fight hard. Lots of people really care about you.

I thought I was pretty much up on most of the little miniboxes, but I've never seen this one. Interesting.

Interesting concept, looking forward to more.

A beautiful car in reality, one of my own favorites. Though this kit can be frustrating to get to look really good, there are several builds of it that have been posted on this forum that are inspiring. Looking forward to seeing your work here.

It's this... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/110483-dieselpunk-alternate-reality-turbine-hybrid-ii-design-adjustments/?page=1

Very often not. They'll often look OK. BUT...for some odd math-challenged reason, not all 1/24 scale cars and 1/25 scale cars turn out to be built "to scale"...so it can kinda depend on the particular models in question. For instance, I've seen diecasts labeled as 1/24 that were much closer to 1/20 or even 1/18, and I've seen various models of engines supposedly all in the SAME scale that were wildly different...even from the same manufacturer. Numbers are hard.

Hmmmmm. Maybe I should build this... for this little guy...

I honestly don't think that was either "racist" OR "bigoted". I happen to know some non-native-English-speaking Japanese, and they DO have a problem with differentiating between our pronunciation of R and L. As a matter of fact, I know a Japanese woman who has a stuffed toy kangaroo, which she laughingly refers to as "Loo". Get it? The third-party-PC-outrage thing is really getting out of hand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers

Something wild or weird. i'm putting one in this...