What non-auto model did you get today?

[Roadrunner]

On 4/9/2018 at 3:39 PM, SfanGoch said:

That's a steal, man. When completed, it's almost three feet long, no?

Oh yes, an excellent deal. How big it is, once completed, I don't really know, but it's pretty large. I've seen a couple built before, and they can be pretty impressive.

[SfanGoch]

I checked. It is 32" long when assembled, almost as long as it's namesake Tamiya 1/350 aircraft carrier (38 1/2").

I stopped in at the Forbidden Planet Store in Manhattan some years ago. In the front window was a huge Enterprise. This was long before the PL kit was released. I asked one of the momos working there how big it was. He said it was 1/350 scale and 33" long. Nice. He was happy to inform me that I could buy it for only 1200 bucks. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

5 hours ago, cobraman said:

That's a monster !  I really like that front end.

She'd do well over 100 MPH too...pulling a train.

I'm looking for one of the Henry Dreyfuss-designed NYC 4-6-4 Hudsons...  

And a Raymond Loewy-designed PRR S1...   and T1...  

Loewy also styled the Baldwin "Sharknose" diesels. I already have two of those in HO, restored to running condition.   

He designed the PRR GG1 electrics too. Still searching for a complete, cheap, broken one.    

For those who don't know, Raymond Loewy is the guy who designed these...   

[Roadrunner]

23 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

I checked. It is 32" long when assembled, almost as long as it's namesake Tamiya 1/350 aircraft carrier (38 1/2").

I stopped in at the Forbidden Planet Store in Manhattan some years ago. In the front window was a huge Enterprise. This was long before the PL kit was released. I asked one of the momos working there how big it was. He said it was 1/350 scale and 33" long. Nice. He was happy to inform me that I could buy it for only 1200 bucks. 

Yep, that sounds about right.

Oh, and Bill, if you ever get to St Louis, check out the transportation museum here; lots and lots of locomotives and other train stuff, including the 4006 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, most impressive.

[Ace-Garageguy]

9 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

...Oh, and Bill, if you ever get to St Louis, check out the transportation museum here; lots and lots of locomotives and other train stuff, including the 4006 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, most impressive.

 Thanks for the reminder. Current plans call for a cross-country road-trip sometime in this coming fall. I'll be SURE to time my passage through to coincide with open hours. Do you figure it's worth more than half a day? A full day?

Pretty cool score on NCC 1701 A too.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 4/3/2018 at 7:02 PM, SfanGoch said:

...An original 2001 release of the Polar Lights C-57D Starcruiser in glorious 1/72 scale...

Cool. Big scale for the star cruiser. I had no idea. Does she come with Anne Francis and Robbie too?

 

[SfanGoch]

The original 2001 release includes Robbie and no crew figures. The 2009 release has Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, three crew members, Robbie and the Id Monster molded in clear styrene. I've seen this kit on Amazon and eBay going for over 350 bucks. 

[Roadrunner]

On 4/11/2018 at 4:31 PM, Ace-Garageguy said:

 Thanks for the reminder. Current plans call for a cross-country road-trip sometime in this coming fall. I'll be SURE to time my passage through to coincide with open hours. Do you figure it's worth more than half a day? A full day?

Pretty cool score on NCC 1701 A too.  

It depends on how much you like trains, I guess. Since it's so close to me, I can drop down anytime I want, but still usually manage to spend several hours there. The Big Boy is definitely showing some serious deterioration as a consequence of being stored outdoors. There was talk of a restoration, then moving it under shelter, but I have no idea if they ever proceeded or not. I have the Revell kit of the 4-8-8-4, so took quite a few detail photos so far, but I'll be headed down there again this spring to snatch a bunch more.

[cobraman]

That loco is a beast !

[Earl Marischal]

Bill,

If you're after a NYC J3a Hudson --> http://www.broadway-limited.com/nyc20thcenturyltdhudson.aspx

steve

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 4/14/2018 at 3:21 PM, Earl Marischal said:

Bill,

If you're after a NYC J3a Hudson --> http://www.broadway-limited.com/nyc20thcenturyltdhudson.aspx

steve

Broadway Limited makes some very nice locomotives, but $500 is a little steep for what I'm after. I can get a nice running non-fubarred older model for around $100, and something needing work for a LOT less. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Got a few more pieces of vintage HO rolling stock recently. I've always been an admirer of GM's Aerotrain     Two real ones were built.

When some NOS kits and factory painted shells came up, I jumped. No drives or chassis, but I can easily make some up from the multitude of "broken" and mistreated old diesels I've amassed lately.

I've been collecting some of the old wooden one-of-five-thousand Ambroid kits too, as well as other makes. The most recent two acquisitions build up to look like this:

...and this:

Got a nice pair of NYSW 40' boxcars too:

                                                           

 

[cobraman]

Never saw that locomotive before. Wild looking. The Jimmy Durante of locomotives ! When were they built ? Were they in service ?

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, cobraman said:

Never saw that locomotive before. Wild looking. The Jimmy Durante of locomotives ! When were they built ? Were they in service ?

Though not wildly successful for a variety of reasons, the two prototype trainsets were in pretty much continuous use for 10 years, from 1956 until 1966. Both locomotives still exist, and 4 of the original cars (which were actually heavily modified GM bus bodies).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrain_(GM)

    

 

Edited April 24, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Earl Marischal]

Fair point about the J3a Bill 

Is that boxcar a Kadee model?

steve

[cobraman]

Thanks Bill, great video. Interesting look to the rear passenger car as well as the locomotive.

[Ace-Garageguy]

1 hour ago, Earl Marischal said:

Is that boxcar a Kadee model?

Bachmann, which I find to be pretty decent RTR cars...especially at less than half the price of retail.

The layout I'm planning is an entirely fictional post-Atlas Shrugged environment, circa 1960 (so I can use a few GE U-boats in there too), with a locomotive and car rebuilding facility, close to a small steel mill, coal mine, and the beginnings of a new post-societal-breakdown Taggart Transcontinental.

Featured equipment is to be (fictionally) randomly salvaged last-of-the-steam-early-diesel era, with a lot of heavily weathered pieces sitting in the yard awaiting reconstruction, and shiny-new looking locomotives and cars (from different eras) coming out of the rebuild shops.

                                                                                     

Edited April 24, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[Roadrunner]

The transportation museum here in St Louis, has one of the Aerotrains too.

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Finally got an HO scale Walthers blast furnace kit. Most of the rest of the steel-mill buildings can be scratch-built fairly easily, but this would be more than I want to tackle.

                                                     

Got a nice little pair of HO IH Metro vans, too.   

[OldTrucker]

Got this from my son this morning. Think I will paint 1/2 of it and leave the other half clear!

[unclescott58]

On 4/24/2018 at 11:50 AM, Ace-Garageguy said:

Though not wildly successful for a variety of reasons, the two prototype trainsets were in pretty much continuous use for 10 years, from 1956 until 1966. Both locomotives still exist, and 4 of the original cars (which were actually heavily modified GM bus bodies).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerotrain_(GM)

    

 

I still love the old Aerotrain. Someone made a set for N gauge. Too bad it was/is a little too pricey for my budget. 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Got a couple of small ships to further the HO layout theme of post-Atlas Shrugged-apocalypse industrial complex. 

First one is the (widely incorrectly referred to as 1/72 scale) Lindberg Coast Guard patrol boat. An interesting commentary on failed math-teaching in the schools, as it's clearly labeled on the box as 1"=6' 9 1/2", which works out to exactly 1:81.5 scale (though SOME boxes are marked 1:82 scale!)...close enough to HO scale of 1:87 to work reasonably well. Interestingly also, the included figures are SMALLER than correct 1/87 HO figures, even though the model is a nominally LARGER scale. Math has apparently been too hard for adult professionals for many decades.

  The plan is to have her out of the water, like so...      ...under repair/refit.

The other one I got is Revell's 1/72 108 foot "luxury yacht".    Taking the kit's existing dimensions and converting to HO makes her 130 feet long in 1/87 scale.

She'll be modified to represent the fast-attack "pirate" ship of Ragnar Danneskjöld in Ayn Rand's novel. Though the ship is never named or described in the book, at 130 feet, the model could represent a steel-hulled ship large and heavy enough to be armed with a decent size offensive gun, and torpedoes. The Coast Guard boat has a 20mm defensive gun, so possibly a correctly-scaled version of that will grace this ship's foredeck, along with a significantly larger offensive weapon. The M101 105mm medium howitzer seems to be a good candidate. At around 5000 pounds, with a 7'7" barrel, and having a compact recoil system, it could be adapted for marine use, particularly effective against unarmed civilian shipping.

The torpedo launch tubes will be modeled after the units in this 1/72 kit, which is on the way...    

 

 

Edited May 7, 2018 by Ace-Garageguy

[High octane]

I picked this up today at my local hobby shop and a bottle of paint, all at no cost as they have an incentive program and I hit the mark to receive this stuff. Hopefully the bomber will be my upcoming winter project, we'll see?

[Snake45]

37 minutes ago, High octane said:

I picked this up today at my local hobby shop and a bottle of paint, all at no cost as they have an incentive program and I hit the mark to receive this stuff. Hopefully the bomber will be my upcoming winter project, we'll see?

That's a fairly decent kit that dates back to the late '70s and goes together without any real problems that I recall. You can do it in olive drab and gray, or in overall natural metal with silver dope control surfaces, or in the Navy tri-color scheme, or even in late-war Navy overall Glossy Sea Blue. You can pretty much forget about getting enough weight in the nose to get the tail up. Just use a prop rod of some sort under the rear fuselage. 

[Roadrunner]

Another review kit showed up here last Wednesday. I must say that despite some shortcomings, it's actually very nice indeed.