Model Forum / General / Models / August 2005

    Outstanding!  Another modeler has admitted he's "in need of" models!
I've been trying to pin down this 'need' but my wife's not having any of
it.  Maybe, if enough of us get together, we can all be certified
'needers'.  Anyone else wanna step up to the mic?
    Hehehe...

Frank Kranick

  Glad to help lighten your wallet a bit. As with you and the others
in this thread, I too suffer from Styrene Accumulation Syndrome (SAS).
It's terrible, terrible disease. I acquired it long ago. First
recollection of this affliction was when my Dad bought me an Aurora HO
slot car set back in 1963. Hey, look at the little cars go 'round the
track! Of course I was not satisfied with just the two set cars oh hell
no. I had to have MORE.

  In '64 the Mustang came out and *boink* wouldn't you know it there
were baby plastic ones esconced within the semi-nutrious confines of my
favorite cereal boxes. I had to have MORE.

  Ford was spitting out mail-in coupons that garnered you a 1/25 scale
screw-bottom promo for a buck, delivered. I thought these larger cars
were even niftier than the HO ones, although they just sat on the shelf
quietly and all. I had to have MORE.

  Dad came home one day with an Aurora Batmobile and some Testor's
glue. I marveled at all the little pieces. I dug on the smell of the
glue. So BIFF! and BAM! and KAPOW! I built that sucker, and by the end
of the night I had contracted full-blown SAS. And, indeed, I was to
have more and more and...

  We had a big earthquake in '71 early one morning. As my family ran
down the stairs and out the door screaming for their lives and the cat
made tracks across the ceiling, I remained behind, perched atop my desk
and blocking my cars from being jettisoned off the display shelf. Hey,
they roll, you know. Ever see all your neighbors running about
helter-skelter in their underwear and pajamas? Pretty damn funny.

  So here I am, the end product of a Southern California Kar Kulture
the likes of which will never be seen again. In the closet resides a
box containing perhaps 40 survivors of my early model building days. In
the other room are 200-300 unstarted kits that I've been "collecting"
since '95.

  I think it's time to start it up again. Apparently, lots of new
techniques abound. The question is, are there enough car guys around to
bring me up to speed here in Usenet, or am I better off somewhere in
the Web?

  Lots of military fans here. Were he alive still, my dad would be
impressed. He worked on the L-1011 and P-3C and SR-71 for you-know-who
after serving in the Army Air Corps in Papua, you-know-where. But me,
I'm a gearhead. I eat chopped-up old gaskets for lunch and shower in
90-weight. And on a good day, I can imitate a Super Stock pass so loud
that the cat makes tracks across the ceiling.

  Varooom!