Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 5: Uplifting Christmas Thoughts

Test assembly after lifting. Nothing is glued together.

At the end of the last instalment I thought I'd move on to smoothing out the seams in the pickup box. I did a little putty work, but then thought, why avoid the next big job, just get on with it.

So I did.

The 'prototype' from Car Model magazine, Sept '72. To me the stance is hyperactive.

Lift it that is.

But not too much.

Even when I was 12 I thought the body sat too high above the wheels, so when I raised it I figured I wouldn't raise it as much as the one in the magazine.

Ok, so let's get going.

The box stock chassis before shortening

There are two steps:

1. Shorten the chassis because I shortened the pickup box.

2. Lift the chassis because we're goin' Baja!

First thing: cut out the gas tank. The 'prototype's' gas tank is in the pickup box.

MPC kits were my brand back in the '70s when I was obsessed with building plastic model car kits. I liked their subjects and the pieces always seemed to be clean, sharply moulded, and unwarped, all of which made for a good assembly experience. Revell kits, at least the ones I bought, were a crap-shoot. It was always 50:50 odds a kit's body would be horribly warped, or the parts would be blobby, or some other insult had been inflicted on the parts that would require superhuman modelling skills I didn't possess to properly fix the thing. It was heartbreaking as I didn't just like Revell's  subjects, I loved them, but they didn't always reciprocate. I built plenty of AMT too - I just saw a re-release of an old flame which likely will show up here next year - but there was something about their kits that never got a strong reaction out of me save for a rare few. 

There were a couple of Christmases where I received MPC kits as presents and was very happy. Christmas was the only time I had a stash! I might receive 2 or 3 kits and there it was: a 2 or 3 kit stash! Normally I would buy and build immediately. I never suffered from the embarrassment of excess kit build up in the basement region :-)

After much measuring and marking and soul searching,
the saw is drawn,
the cuts are made.
Shortness is obtained.

 
So, this Dodge is an MPC and a re-pop of more-or-less the kit I built in '72, less a few custom parts for the Baja Brute version. It's showing its age. There's considerable flash to clean up, and the chassis in the pickup box area is a little warped. These aren't big things and are easily corrected, but it's clear time has passed on these moulds. 

Reuniting the severed parts with soothing styrene glue and an impromptu jig

Shortening the chassis and lifting the body is not overly complicated stuff, but the old CM article is very misleading as it leaves these steps out and concentrates on what I'd call detailing. That is interesting stuff, but hardly the meat and potatoes of this build. Maybe the article was just filler to boost the page count to their minimum, or maybe the magazine was too long and they cut the mundane part of the project, or maybe they ran the article to promote a new kit, or something else? We'll never know.

Reunited and it looks so good: A bond to build a dream on.

On the way to this point in the build I was thinking about how a real vehicle of this sort would be constructed to accommodate a shorter box and lift. I knew mine wasn't quite right. I started to fret about it as a modern modeller would who is browbeaten by the unyielding scrutiny of digital cameras and the internet. But, I had done all this cutting and gluing and having fun and didn't care anymore. Worrying about reality was spoiling the fun of building.

I decided just to proceed based on what looked interesting to me. I'd add greeblies and details and paint as I felt necessary get the look I'm after. I'd check for real life practices if that became a concern, but I wasn't going to let that dominate the project. 

It was a breakthrough of sorts.

Reconstruction begins: A piece of 0.040" thick styrene is rough cut to fill the gas tank hole.

And that I realized was the hidden message from 1972.

Back then I got pleasure from these projects when I tried hard to make them as 'realistic' as possible. Getting pleasure in that manner isn't what I'm after these days. There's so much prototype information readily available today it makes kit assembly seem merely like the final stages in an industrial process to assemble the kit in accordance with all that information. Well, at least it seems that way for me. These days I want them to look as interesting to me as possible. What 'interesting' means is going to vary from one project to the next. 

0.250" tall styrene blocks were added between springs and chassis.
Prototypical? Nah.

As far as this Desert Dodge is concerned it was interesting just to slip into a flow state of mind and work on lifting the chassis without prototypical worries.

Interesting? Yeah!

Given the fun I'm having modifying this pickup I'm thinking of doing the long delayed custom RDC project.

Athern HO scale RDC body shells

In 2024 when I was working on my Le Grand Défi entry I bought two Athern RDC body shells online. I thought I'd create shorter RDCs in Kitbashed-X style for use on a micro-layout I had in mind. Although I built the RDC-X, I got squeamish about cutting up 'good' shells and postponed indefinitely. I shouldn't have.

It doesn't hurt to check things twice, it works for Santa Claus.

Hopefully Kitbashed-X style will see a resurgence in 2026.

What's next for the Desert Dodge Do-Over? Your guess is as good as mine. Stay tuned!

A 'simple' colourization of a photo of E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley Railroad

Gemini's colourization of an EVRR photo after 4 or 5 prompts

I'm more and more intrigued with the idea of colourizing E. L. Moore's photos of his layouts and dioramas, especially his Elizabeth Valley Railroad. I wanted to do a little test, and decided to ask Gemini to colourize a fairly generic photo of the EVRR. The black-and-white photo below is the one I used:

I'm not going to show the various intermediate steps, but after receiving the initial colourization I asked Gemini to match the colours of the Red Eye Saloon, the Elizabeth Valley station, and the Rocky Ridge depot with the colours they actually were - Gemini had made some guesses.

What it did surprised me: as well as changing the colour on the Elizabeth Valley station and the Rocky Ridge depot Gemini also changed a few details on those buildings. If you look closely you'll see for yourself.

The lesson for me is I'm going to have to create a procedure to retain structural  details across prompts for colour changes. This is something I wasn't expecting, and it makes the colourization exercise somewhat more challenging.

An enhancement of the track plan for E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley Railroad

An enhancement created by Gemini of the photograph of the postcard track plan

Longtime readers may remember that from fall 2016 to spring 2017 there was a big hunt on here to figure out the track plan of E. L. Moore's Elizabeth Valley Railroad. It came to a conclusion when a generous reader sent me a photograph of one of the postcards Mr. Moore mailed to readers who wrote him asking about the EVRR track plan. He had a stack of postcards printed with the track plan on them. That's a photograph of one of the postcards shown below that the reader sent me.

A photograph of E. L. Moore's postcard track plan of his EVRR

Well, it's actually an enhancement of the image that was forwarded to me. I cleaned it up a bit to get a little better contrast. The labels aren't very clear, but the overall track plan is and ended much speculation. 

As I've been asking Gemini to do photo enhancements recently I wondered if it could clean up the track plan and read the labels on it. The lead photo to this post is what Gemini produced.

The track plan drawing is quite decent, but the labels are either dead wrong or gobbedygook. I know, and you know too, they're wrong because they don't correspond to what's at the various locations as seen in photographs of the layout.

However, I was intrigued that it put some writing that is supposed to be E. L. Moore's handwritten signature and the year 1948 in the bottom right corner. I don't see that in the original at all, and we've seen enough of Mr. Moore's signature to know the one in Gemini's image is fake; however, it was the year 1948 the caught my attention. From what we know it's conceivable he came up with the track plan in 1948, but I think he drew the postcard plan in the mid to late '50s to deal with requests. 

I started to wonder about Gemini's ability to decipher written text so I asked it to read E. L. Moore's handwritten note that appears on the back of the postcard. Here's the high resolution image I entered into Gemini for deciphering (so you can test your skills against its!):

Here's what it came up with:

This is my reading:

Here you are tho you may need a magnifying glass. Radius, elevation, wiring connections, sections all marked, if you can find em. 

Good luck, 

signed E L Moore

I think sections is more correct than signs because sections - meaning how the track has been divided into electrical blocks, or 'sections' in model railroading parlance - is more meaningful to model railroaders who are going to build this track plan. 

Regarding sections, I should review the markings in Gemini's plan that would indicate sections to a model railroader and see how they compare to my guesses about how the track was electrically divided into sections, or blocks.

I guess one lesson here is if a person can sort of read some blurry text it's likely that Gemini can also take a stab at it, but if a person just can't read it, it's unlikely Gemini can either. And, and this is a big and, without other knowledge brought to bear on Gemini's output, one must take that output with a considerably big grain of salt.

An E. L. Moore Christmas Photo

A Gemini colourization of this .....

If you were to say I'm becoming obsessed with colourizing old E. L. Moore photographs I'd have to agree. The old photo below has a Christmas vibe to it so I thought now was a good time to ask Gemini to colourize it.

.... E. L. Moore black-and-white photograph.

To me these colourizations, even though they are speculative, bring his work back to life. His old layouts and dioramas seem new and vital, not relics of the past. Attempting to make 'accurate' colourizations will be an interesting project for the new year.

Snow on E. L. Moore's EKRR

Gemini's colourization after a couple of prompts

It's been snowing like crazy here and it got me thinking I should try asking Gemini to colourize one of E. L. Moore's snow scenes. I thought the photo below Mr. Moore shot of his giant snowplow model was a suitable candidate.

The lead-in colour photo wasn't the first image Gemini produced. This one was:

Gemini's first attempt at colourizing the photo

I didn't ask it to colour the loco green and the plow red. I thought the green was an interesting choice given it was E. L. Moore's favourite colour. This was likely just a coincidence, but it was an interesting one. I had to ask Gemini in a second prompt for black.

Snow must be a rare occurrence for those fellows digging out the train given how lightly dressed they are.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 4: A Big Mistake

The shortened pickup box before filling and sanding the joint into shape.

At the end of the last instalment I was off to the hobby shop to buy a new razor saw blade to replace my old, dull one.

With blade installed I then began to merrily cut out 1 inch from the box's wheel wells to the back wall as called for in the article. I was enthralled by the ease at which the new blade cut through the plastic.

1" wide masking tape was used to mark where to cut

Well, I was until I realized what I had done.

It was obvious I had cut way too much out of the box when I compared my model to the photo in the magazine. I think the magazine's instruction should have said to cut out 'one half' inch, not 'one' inch, regardless I should have studied the magazine's photos a lot more before I started.

Ooo, that's a nasty gash on the joint. Hopefully with some filler it'll buff out :-)

Back in '72 this type of blunder would have thrown me into a funk, or tantrum, or maybe even an existential crisis :-) But not now, no. Ok, I wasn't so happy about what I had done, but I look upon this as a serendipitous customizing opportunity, not the end of the world. This project is now more than just a walk down memory lane, but something like tripping on a stone in that lane that puts me on a new and interesting path.

Next I'm going to work on smoothing out the joint in the walls of the new box. I think the article writer might have skipped this part as there's a big Plymouth Duster decal over the joint on his model. Sneaky guy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In recognition of '72 being long gone, I'll leave you with Moe Berg and The Pursuit of Happiness:

Colourized old-time water tank scene on E. L. Moore's EKRR

Colourized photo created by Gemini

A reader's comment on the last colourized E. L. Moore photo I posted got me thinking about colourizing more photos. I thought the water tank scene on the EKRR might make an interesting colour photo and I think I was right.

E. L. Moore's photo of his old-time water tank diorama

These exercises in colourization have got me thinking. It should be possible to take the information we have in colour photos of Mr. Moore's models, along with paint colour specifications he gave in his articles and knowledge of railroad colour conventions and create speculative colour images with AI tools of what his layouts may have looked like. I emphasize 'speculative' because we may never know what his layout actually looked like in colour, but we maybe able to develop an approximation. I might undertake this project next year.

Such an exercise might also be useful in discovering previously overlooked details in his photos. When I saw this post's colour photo the little building on the left jumped out at me, likely because of the red / green contrast. There's a sign on that building, but I couldn't read it so I asked Gemini to have a go. It proposed 'M of W', but its reasoning seemed all guess work to me. We had a further discussion about the sign, but it went off on a tangent about railroad signs and naming conventions. Frankly, it couldn't read the sign and didn't want to admit it. Regardless, colour makes image details more readily apparent that weren't so in the original. There might be discoveries to be made.

Finally, you may want to compare Gemini's colour water-tank to the model of built by David Fugere that I posted about last year. It just emphasizes that Gemini's interpretation is just that, one interpretation among many.

Just in time for Christmas

The Mt. Lowe layout emerges from the workshop for a Christmas appearance. Here's what it looked like around this time last year.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 3: Relics

Leftovers from the '72 project.

I was going to modify the pickup box after I had done removing the cab's roof, but during that bit of plastic surgery I found my so-called razor saw was so dull it couldn't cut through warm butter on a hot day. 

The article says an inch needs to be removed from the box in front of the wheel well.

Well, the blade is quite old now and I need to buy a new, sharp one because cutting an inch out of the box from between the wheel well and the box's wall is something of a precision job. This is a task the article doesn't show the reader how to do, but just assumes one knows how.

So, instead I had a look through my bag of parts leftover from my '72 build to assess what I had on hand. Not much survived, but I'll make use of what I've got.

I got curious and went looking on eBay for either old Baja-Brute kits or parts. I didn't find any kits, but I did find a few sellers offering miscellaneous parts for eye watering prices. I'll take a pass on them and go with what I have.

The other thing I did was check scalemates for the MPC Baja-Brute. The timeline shown there confirms the lineage from the Brute to the base kit I'm using for this project. Here's a snippet:

To check further I test fit the tailgate from the old model into the box from the new one:

A perfect fit! I'm not going the repaint the tailgate, just leave it as is, maybe colour the Dodge logo with some chrome paint so it stands out. So, the paint job on this model will be a bit of a hodgepodge, but I want to preserve this relic as-is as a reminder. The other relics will be fixed up and repainted, but not this one.

Today, I gotta go buy a saw!

Colour brings life to the Spumoni Country Estate

Image colourized by Gemini's Nano Banana Pro

When I logged into Gemini recently it kept informing me it was now using Nano Banana Pro for image processing. I decided to try it and asked it to colourize the E. L. Moore photo shown below of the Spumoni Country Estate that made an appearance in the July 1955 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman.

An E. L. Moore original photo of the Spumoni's Country Estate

Needless to say maybe, but I'm quite impressed by Gemini's image. If Mr. Moore's layout was even close in colour to that image the layout must have been more captivating than I've previously imagined.

Your Brain Changes When You Make Things - Here's the Research

I'll tell you straight away that this video isn't directly about model railroading or model making of any kind, but it's indeed all about model making :-) If you're a scratchbuilder, kit assembler, model customizer, or any sort of model maker you should watch this video. And if you're not? You especially should watch it.

One last thing. Even though my last name is of English origin I have Scottish DNA in me, which maybe is the reason I particularly appreciate her low-key, no-nonsense commentary later in the video. 

Is this where E. L. Moore's S. Tryon photography studio was located?

Image sourced from The Vault at The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library

A few weeks ago when I was trying to figure out what Gemini knew about E. L. Moore at one point I asked it for suggestions for 'new' E. L. Moore model buildings. All were variations on previous projects except for one: a model of his photography studio on S. Tryon in Charlotte, North Carolina. I liked that suggestion.

You may recall that a few years back I tried to find all the locations of his photography studios in Charlotte from 1933 to 1963. This was a detailed follow-on to some half-hearted investigations I started in 2017 and 2020. From 1937 to 1946 (or 1947, the historical record isn't clear on the exact date) his studio was located at 114 1/2 S. Tryon, Charlotte, North Carolina. 

I knew of that location in 2017, but didn't know how long Mr. Moore was located there. I even found a building at 114 S. Tryon with Google Street Views that looked promising as it had an old look to it. I could have stopped there and simply went with the idea that his studio was a unit in that building; however, Gemini gave me some suggestions of where to look for historical photographs so I could dig further. I looked through those suggestions, and although I couldn't find a specific photo for 114 1/2 S. Tryon, I did find what seemed like an older version of the building that was standing at 114 where today's incarnation is located.

Let me back up a bit.

Ok, according to Google Street Views, here's what's at 114 S. Tryon today:

114 S. Tryon from Google Street Views

Here's the building to the right of 114, 112:

112 S. Tryon (First National Bank Building) from Google Street Views

Apparently the building is rather famous in Charlotte. This is the First National Bank Building that opened in 1927 (two years before the beginning of The Great Depression). For many years it was the tallest building in Charlotte at 22 storeys. Over the years it has had several names and owners: First National Bank Building, Liberty Life Building, The Baugh Buildings, and Tryon Plaza. It has a fantastic and unmistakeable facade. So, if you take another look at the image that began this post you can see that tall building is the First National Bank Building. I don't know when that photo was taken, but from the look of the automobiles I'd guess the late 1920s or early 1930s.

Ok, so it seems E. L. Moore's studio was more-or-less right beside this Charlotte landmark. I went looking for historic photos of that bank building hoping I'd catch a glimpse of 114 or 114 1/2 S. Tryon. Findings so far have been sparse. Other than this post's lead photo I found this tinted postcard image:

A postcard of the First National Bank Building sourced from Hip Postcard

I'll assume the image is an accurate representation of nearby buildings, but keep in mind that maybe artistic license has been generously applied. The website from which this image was sourced states the date on the postcard is 1936. Whether or not the image was created then is unclear, but let's say it represents the building from the late 1920s to the early to mid 1930s, just before E. L. Moore's studio opened on S. Tryon.

Although we only see a sliver of 114 in the opening photo, what we can make out does generally correspond to the postcard representation: there are 3 columns of windows, a lone centre window at the top (maybe flanked by two thinner ones, it's not quite clear), and an awning over the street.

Was 114 1/2 a unit in that building? Or maybe 114 1/2 was a separate building squeezed between 114 and a neighbouring building? Of maybe 114 1/2 was a building behind 114? Or maybe something else? I can't say which is correct. My money is on it being rentable space in 114, although I have no supporting evidence.

Also, I think the current version we see on Google Street Views is a renovation of the original 3 columns of windows structure. Instead of those columns of discrete windows, the building has been modified so that the far left and right window columns are each just very tall, undivided windows. The middle column has been replaced by a grand entrance with a small top window to cap it. So, the three window columns built into the original structure are still there, but have been stylistically modified. There's another difference: the new building is shorter than the one in the historical images. The old building appears to rise to the top of the bank building's facade, but the new one is a bit shorter. Maybe the upper floor was lopped off during a renovation? I'd have to dig into the architectural history of the street to know for sure.

What about to the left of 114?

Google Street View image of 128 S. Tryon on left and 114 S. Tryon on right.

That restaurant named MOA is at 128 S. Tryon in the First Citizens Plaza Complex. So, if there was a separate building at 114 1/2, it's long gone.

After this extended journey I still don't have an answer to what 114 1/2 S. Tryon looked like, or where exactly it was located, but I think I'm closer, and I think I have a little bit more information about the scene at the time E. L. Moore was there. 

I'm wondering if Mr. Moore ever built a model based on the building he worked in on Tryon much like he did with the Clarabel Hotel. I don't see any similarities in his known models. 

To close, I asked Gemini to make as realistic an image as it could of the glimpse of 114 S. Tyron shown in the postcard. This is what it produced:

It's a bit underwhelming, and needs considerable work, but maybe after some Moorian refinement it could be that 'new' E. L. Moore model I asked Gemini about earlier in the month.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 2: The First Cut is the Deepest

Let's cut to the chase: there's no way I could have built this model according to the article when I was twelve. Twelve year old me was right not to attempt to cut the roof off. I would have mangled the kit, and that would have been that. I didn't have any money to buy a second one, so I would have been mighty disappointed.

I've learned similar lessons with other projects I wanted to do as a kid, but never did. Moon Scope Variation #3, Gran Turismo, and Cal's Lumberyard come to mind.

Removing the roof was a lengthy process of carefully using a razor saw, sprue cutters, knife, Dremel barrel sander, as well as several grades of sanding blocks, sticks and papers to get to the final shape. Even with all that care I nearly botched the job over the window frame on the driver's side. It's a little on the thin side, but noticeable only if one looks hard. Twelve year old me had neither the tools nor the patience for that job.

What's next? I don't know. Stay tuned!

Digressions:

The song The First Cut is the Deepest has been covered by a lot of artists over the years, but my favourite is Keith Hampshire's. It hit #1 here in May 1973, so it's period correct for this model building era :-)

Of Painted Backdrops, Mt. Lowe, and E. L. Moore

One of the backdrops hanging from the curtain rod support ready for a photo shoot.

I've been working on painting two backdrops to be used when shooting Mt. Lowe layout glamour shots. They're fairly big things: 30" x 40" illustration boards painted with artist's acrylics. 

I haven't done these sorts of paintings before and was a little reticent about getting started. At first I thought maybe I should get a couple enlargements made of photos I took on the Mt. Lowe trail to use as backdrops, but gave up on that because they wouldn't look right. They'd be 'photo realistic' and the layout would be 'craft realistic'. The two forms of realism wouldn't go together.

I finally realized that even if my backdrop paintings were rough-and-ready things it didn't matter too much because in any given photo not much of the background would be visible. There'd just be hints of sky and distant mountains. Once I realized this I didn't have any problem diving in and having a go.

The second backdrop.

The skies are just loose mixes of Liquitex cobalt blue and titanium white acrylic tube paints. For the mountain profiles I first troweled on some Golden brand Fiber Paste to give them some texture as I didn't think I could create convincing textures with paint alone. Once the paste was hardened I painted on colours I used on the layout's mountains. When that was dry I applied some thin washes of cobalt blue to create a little aerial perspective.

Backdrop painting E. L. Moore used for his Canal Boats article.

This work on backdrops got me thinking about the backdrop work E. L. Moore did for his photo setups, especially the one I think he used for his unpublished Canal Boats article. I still don't know if he painted this one or any of the others he used over the years. I wouldn't be surprised if he did, but I don't have any supporting evidence.

A Gemini colourization of the Canal Boats backdrop painting.

Be that as it may, I started to wonder what that Canal Boats backdrop painting would look like colourized. I asked Gemini to colour it, and that image up there is what it produced. It's quite credible, and Gemini seems to have done a little restoration to the image as well.

Looking through E. L. Moore's photos it looks like he used a number of painted backdrops over the years. I'm curious to see if Gemini could strip out the foreground images, fill in missing backdrop imagery from the stripped areas, and colourize the result to create pictures of what those backdrops might have looked like. An interesting project for another time.

Desert Dodge Do-Over, Part 1: Remembrance of Things Past

The Desert Dodge was the cover story on the Sept '72 issue of Car Model

Back in September I was thinking about the Javelin AMX custom model car - the so-called Ghost Dancer - built by Hank Borger that appeared in the January 1973 issue of Car Model magazine. Back in the early '70s I was in awe of that rear-engine customization based on AMT's Mark Donohue Javelin kit with some parts from Jo-Han's Cadillac hearse and Rambulance kits thrown in. I thought if by some miracle I stumbled across the Javelin kit at the September model show for a reasonable price I'd buy it and finally build the Ghost Dancer.

No such luck. Even if I did see the kit the internet tells me it would cost a small fortune and I wouldn't be inclined to customize it. 

12 year old me thought this thing was cool; 60+ me isn't so sure

But, the other project I had in mind as I was dancing with ghosts in my memory was the Desert Dodge customization that appeared in the September 1972 issue of Car Model. That one I did have a go at building way back in the summer of '72. Well, to say I built it is a bit of a stretch. I bought the base kit, MPC's 1972 Dodge pickup, called the Baja-Brute as the kit was configured for off-road racing in Mexico. I raised the body a bit and painted it yellow, but that was it for customizing. I had no source for the parts required, no specialized tools for customizing work, and, probably most importantly, no nerve to cut up a new kit. But, I loved that article and read it many times. For some reason I think I really liked the idea that something commonplace could be transformed into something unique. I also think it primed me for E. L. Moore's projects that I 'discovered' the following summer since customization is just one step away from scratchbuilding. In my mind E. L. Moore and custom cars are forever linked. Strange, but true.

It's only 2 pages of instructions, but I think it's a little more involved than we're lead to believe.

Tackling this project today wouldn't involve tracking down rare kits as long as I wasn't a stickler for 100% authenticity. If all I wanted to do was go through all the construction steps as laid out in the article to see if 12 year old me could have done them, and end up with something much closer to the customization spelled out there than 12 year old me produced back in '72, then I could proceed.

The new kits + the bag of surviving parts from the '72 build

MPC recently released kits of a '78 Dodge pickup and the so-called Dodge Warlock. I think they're re-pops, but don't quote me on that. Yeah, the '78 body isn't exactly the same as the '72, but it's close. There're enough parts between the two to provide most of what I'll need. Also, I have a small zip-lock bag of parts from my '72 build that survived the decades scattered in my ancient spares box.

In case you were wondering where the train content is, it's up there :-)

It's amazing some parts from the first build survived because the completed model didn't. Sometime in the mid-70s it experienced a horrible kitbashing accident and got turned into the monster in the above photo. Warning: trains, monster trucks, unsuspecting plastic model kits, and teenage ineptitude don't mix. I wish the hood had survived as it's an interesting shape and will be hard to duplicate. 

I think the first job will be to cut the roof off the cab. It's sort of a psychological barrier that I couldn't overcome back then, but shouldn't be a problem now. And I've got two cabs incase a major screwup occurs.

More to come.