MAGNUM4342

At least this article was clean and true. I saw another one the other day (sorry for not posting it) that said he was the lead designer on the 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. This article had it's fact right. I honestly kind of liked the look of the Edsel and had I been alive back then might well have owned one. But i'm wierd so...

Almost nothing matches up to the red on the decal sheet. For proper STP red you want to use a NEON red, not a flourescent red. There is a difference. Neons are made to glow brightly under natural light while flourescents are made to glow only under a black flourescent light. There are a few types of neon available that do the trick. Testors neon racing red is about the closest i've found, but if you prefer Tamiya paint their #TS-36 is a good paint to work with. It's intensity can be built up in layers to reach the proper hue. You might get lucky and even get it close to the decals, but believe me when you apply the red of the decals you will be dissapointed! The Tamiya is more orange and the Testors is more red. The caveat here is that the testors is not only a flat that will eat a few good coats of clear gloss it is worth it in the long run. Especially if you clear it with future, as the uv protectants in the future will help keep it bright for years. The Tamiya is a great paint but it just doesn't have the redness to it. However, it doesn't need glosscoat and is very convincing on a Petty car when used in tandem with thier #TS-23 blue. Again, the blue isn't dead on but it's close enough for anyone who doesn't have an eye for color matching. I spent many a year around the Petty cars from 1976 to 1989 and have even been behind the wheel of a couple. This is the best advice I can give you. Just don't fall into the trap of people telling you the colors changed down through the years. They did not! What changed was lighting, cameras, film types and quality. You can take three different shots of the same car and see three different hues. This is because maybe one shot is in the sun while another is under clouds, a third still is under the garage. It can easily fool the eye and make you think it's a different color. So once you get a color combo you like stick with it and your Petty cars will all be sharp as can be!

I also have the DVD... gotta watch it again to see if they used a clean print of the movie or restored it.

I don't think they should all be awesome. Think about this for a moment- If all kits were awesome and perfect scale reproductions, where would your skill set be? There would be minimal room for improvement beyond cleanup, painting and assembly. Then, once those three skills are mastered you'll find that the kits become boring. Traditionally as a species, the more we improve things the worse our state of minds become. we got computers...which of course spawned computer shorthand...IIRC. Then cell phones gained the ability to text...this spawned the ever more popular texting shorthand. Now ask yourself, how well are our children doing in school these days with oh, say, reading and WRITING. Not very well are they? No, because text speak LOL is too easy and longhand cursive is quickly becoming a thing of the past. The smarter our phones get the dumber we get. If all kits were perfect, none of us would know anything about bodywork, chassis stretching or the mechanics of engine swapping. Well, some of us might, but my point is if it was easy, it would no longer be fun.

Welcome! Jump right in and be part of the group. This is the best all around modeling site you'll find!

This time last year my answer would have been the Polar Lights Batmobile, but at this point in time, give me a 1/16th Petty Charger and i'm in my own little world.

If I can get better at resisting this site, and put some time in I will be offering all MOPAR items. A friend of mine and I are both MOPAR fans and noticed that much like in 1:1, the offerings for Dodge and Plymouth kits are sadly in short supply, and needing a dedicated company to produce them. Although he has left for parts unknown, I have decided to carry on in his stead. I will strive to make everything I offer as a plug-and-play kind of item. If I find myself in a corner with a great set of wheels that do not match any available tires, I will make sure I make sets of tires to fit. The largest part of what i'll make though will be in standard sizes matched to the most popular tires of either scale. Ambitious?...yes! Outrageous?...yes! Will I be able to pull it off? Idunno...but it's going to be fun trying. Sadly I won't be able to accomodate everyone but I will try my best to expand the MOPAR kit line as best I can being one man. For more of what's going on check out the ongoing thread MOPAR or NOCAR in scale in the resin's section.

Also keep in mind this movie was originally released in 1983, and thus has not yet been digitally restored or enhanced so there's a certain wear factor to the film. You'll notice that the truncated version AMC shows, has some daylight scenes taking on a slight sepia tone due to aging.

I double dog dare you!

Sweet serendipity! I was just sitting here this moment, trying to think of a way to make the STP reds on my Petty builds more red. For the most part they tend to come out orangey as they normally look after a days racing. I prefer mine to look pre-race. This might be just what i'm looking for.

Not to worry Monty. I have accepted quite readily that I won't be the only one casting certain items. That's just a fact and I look forward to fair and friendly competition. I've always believed that if you provide a superior part at a superior price, you deserve the sale. It's that simple. There are alot of great casters here with awesome parts and I myself have bought from many of them. I probably will again for certain things in the future, but I would never be upset at someone who has an item I don't yet have.

I will be making them soon. If you can hold out a couple days. I'll be pouring molds this weekend and those are on the list.

I firmly agree!

I love the suicide doors and wide whites.

Looks great from here. I always find stark white paintjobs to be a pain but you did quite well. In my humble opinion, you should never force finish a build unless you mean using the force! That would be too cool. A model should be treated with patience and care and although you were battling weather and such, I initially thought you "forced" it just to get done. That's the opposite of what the hobby is about. Either way glad to see more NASCAR builders here. Rock on John.

I fully understand you wanting to keep your employer out of it, no sweat there. I asked about the Barrow name simply because I find the Bonnie and Clyde story fascinating along with Billy the Kid and that blonde criminal Custer. Thanks for the reply.

And many of us are just flat FANS! I am always in awe of the work John does, and can only aspire to his level of craftsmanship. John, you may not be king of the mountain, but you are definitely in the short line to the throne! Rock on buddy.

Alllllllll the time friend, alllllllll the time!

:lol: I think I know that guy!

As many of you regulars know, I recently underwent back surgery. I was scared out of my wits from the moment they started talking about cutting away part of my spine. One slip and i'm in a chair the rest of my life, which statistics say is only a little past half way. I contacted Gregg through a private message to ask for help in easing my mind. You've all seen his avatar, who better to ask right? His response was completely unexpected. Gregg wrote back one simple sentence that meant the world to me. "Why don't you call me." Now before I go any further let me state here and now, Gregg did not give me his number on a whim, and for no reason whatsoever will I give it to anyone else for any reason. I just want to make that clear. During our twenty minute conversation, Gregg told me everything I needed to expect from the moment I hit the gurney, until the moment I would be ready to leave the hospital. He left nothing out and did not hold back. Did some of it frighten me even more? You betcha! However Gregg knew that it was information I needed, despite how spirit shriveling it could be. What I found out during my ordeal, was that every single thing the man told me was dead on accurate right down the line all the way to the removal of my catheter. During which by the way it is said I made a sound that a human should not be able to make. A doctor and three nurses all heard it and none could agree on what it sounded like! But I digress. So yesterday I had a follow up appointment. It went so well, that I wanted to make one more call to Gregg before deleting his number, to personally thank him for his guidance in getting me through one of the worst episodes of my life. I could not do so. Gregg was apparently quite upset, upset enough that he was not accepting calls. Of course his first thought was most likely 'here's another call to ask why the forum is shut down'. One can hardly blame him except that I had no idea at that time that it was. So now, I am here, spelling out to everyone on the board what should have been a personal conversation between myself and my new found friend and O'hana. I have found, read and digested the point in fact that caused the shutdown and it sickens me. Do we really have to have that much acrimony on one thread? The purest answer is NO. However we are all human and sooner or later the overriding need to be RIGHT strikes us all. So in the future I ask this one simple thing. Keep in mind we are a family of sorts here, and as any man who has ever had a wife or longtime girlfriend knows, there is a question that often must be asked. "Would you rather be right? or happy?" Right and happy are NOT the same thing. Gregg- Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Not just for the magazine and the forum, but for who you are. No matter how long the site or magazine remains I for one will never forget the personal steps you took to help me. I am going to lock this post as it niether requires or needs replies. Should anyone feel the need to discuss it further, feel free to contact me privately. Just don't ask me for Gregg's phone number because you won't get it. It has been removed from my phone. Thank you for reading.

I think for me it depends on the kit itself. While I might have a little fun slamming together the average kit just for fun. I do tend to go overboard with something that really trips my trigger. Like the 1/16th Petty Charger or the Batmobile to name a couple. I don't think i've ever dropped more than a $100 on any one model though.

By the way, there is a "tell us what you think" button on the photobucket page, and I urge everyone to do so as I did...if you can get it to work!

If one may ask Mr. Barrow, which kit company do you work for? And are you any relation to the infamous Barrow brothers Clyde and Buck?

Looks like a real good way to get in trouble with johnny law!

Don't EVEN get ME started!! I'll just say I agree with everything above!