1978 El Camino Estrella

I was chatting with Steve about Lego's new Mountain View Observatory and it got me thinking again about the Mt. Lowe Observatory and the very fictional El Camino Estrella. Although I used the Estrella's background story in the Streetcar Noir series, I haven't posted a collection of pictures of it here.

I worked on this project just before getting going on the Custom Dodge Rampage build*. You can see some of the Rampage parts on the workbench as I was test fitting parts for that project during final construction of the El Camino. So, maybe it was built in 2005 or 2006 - I should keep better records.

The base kit is Revell's '78 Chevy El Camino Lowrider 2 'N 1. Many additional parts came from my scrapbox, but I can't remember which ones - again, I should keep better records.

Although, I can say the telescope's body is scratchbuilt from styrene tubes. Also, I think the telescope's support yoke came from an AMT Moonscope kit, and the eyepiece was - believe it or not - a gnarly 1/24 scale carburetor I found in my scrapbox that seemed to look the part.

I don't know why I bothered, but I did a little underside detailing and weathering. It might be authentic and it might not, but it does look dusty under there.

Well, that's that. I'll close the tailgate and be on my way.

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*Being nerds, Vince and I are discussing the definition of kitbash as opposed to its alternatives like kit-mingle and kit-lance. This is kind of a how-many-angels-can-dance-on-the-head-of-a-pin discussion because even though the popular, mainstream definition of kitbash is firmly entrenched, it's still an interesting theoretical diversion. Ok, cutting to the chase, I think the Rampage project falls into the more formal definition of kitbash as several kits were used to produce a single model. The Estrella is not really a kitbash, but a light customization - more a mingle than a bash? Well, the discussion continues. Maybe I need to consult the non-existent pages of the non-existent Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms.