Model Forum / General / Models / June 2008

...I've owned only one Ford in my life, and it was a 1979 LTD. I
bought it for two reasons:

1) That boat, despite poor gas mileage, was built like a
battleship(*), and until the gas line broke and blew gas across the
manifolds and the thing burned up in a Wal-Mart parking lot, the only
thing that went wrong with it was the alternator, which died about
every three months. I always kept two spares in the glove compartment,
natch.

2) At that time, some guy was making fiberglass Batmobile body
replicas with multiple mounting points. One of the chassis that it
would fit was the 78-79 run of the LTD. The car only cost me $1500,
and had a new tranny in it, so even if I didn't get the body replaced
I was still ahead for a backup car.

...In retrospect, there were other issues - the seats were
disintegrating, the radio sucked, and the back carpet had rotted due
to a window seal leak. But I actually miss that car as much as I miss
my Continetaurus - the former I could use as an apartment, the latter
was a car that I *wore*. But the sheer irony is that I've never bought
a kit of any car I've ever owned - only those I wish I had. Which is
probably why the only kit I've got these days is an AMTronic, and it's
still in box unbuilt, waiting for the day I decide whether or not to
build it as a Federation ground shuttle :-)

...Actually, the AMTronic brings up a good question. The original kit
had one of those "3D Ilusion" stickers for a solar panel. IIRC, a
Sylvania spin-off company developed the process to make such an
illusory surface, and it was based on 3D Baseball Card processes.
Sylvania's in-house 3-ring binders had their front covers coated in
this stuff, and what was wild wias that when you placed anything on it
- say, a pencil, a pen, a quarter, a die - the illusory effect
actually took the depth out of the actual object, essentially
flattening it. I've been looking for sheets of this material for about
30 years now, and I'll be fracked if I've ever been able to find the
source. I actually called Sylvania's marketing department in the early
80's, and a really nice lady - who had two of those binders and loved
them! - spent weeks trying to find a source for the stuff, and came up
empty handed. She said they weren't making them for Sylvania any more,
but offered to send me one of hers. Had she asked me a few years
earlier, I'd have been greedy and taken her up on it. But by then I'd
become humbled and greatfully but graciously declined her offer,
considering how rare those things were she should save them for her
grandkids!

...So, anyone got any ideas on where to find, say, a legal-sized sheet
of that stuff? I can see lots of uses for it on kits for not just
solar panels, but the hexagonal pattern ones reflected so much light
that they'd look great in the floor of the Flying Sub!

(*) On the other hand, when some dickwad backed into my 1989
Continental - essentially a pimped-out Taurus - and shoved the left
fender into the righ fender of the rear end of the LTD, the LTD's
fender caved in while the Contitaurus only suffered a minor chip on
the fender rubber. Steel vs plastic ain't supposed to do that, kids!

                OM