Top End Miniatures is now carrying Ross Gibson engines. Two new engines are available. A Ford 815 cid mountain motor, and a Chevy 737 cid thumper engine. There are a 100 uses for these babys !

I'm partial to the Ford one myself. Can I cram one of those in a '32 ? :-)

Acme Resin Works is offering a resin Dodge W300 Crew Cab. Some other parts with it seem to be a sidestep bed, interior, seats, floor pan, and door panels. I don't see a mention of a chassis, but any truck chassis probably could be adapted.

Acme Resin Works W300 Crew Cab

Models by Mike is starting a collection of online model instructions sheets. These can be handy if you lose your original decal sheet, or you just want to see how a particular model is put together, even before you buy one.

He has just started this, and I can see this collection growing fast. They are easy fast .zip files.

www.modelsbymike.com

If you like hot rods and street rods, here's a model gallery for you. There are a lot of build ideas in there.

Hot Rod Gallery

Order early and save $ 2.00 ! Scale Auto Magazine is about to issue their all new 2006 Contest Cars book, chocked full of great photos and modeling ideas.

Plus, right now, you can get a great deal, and have it delivered right to your door, so take advantage of it now !

Heck, I'm still enjoying the 2005 one. I keep it in the truck just to browse through when I am stuck in traffic !

I have been getting these for years, including the first one in 1988. And get this, that first issue is all in black and white, no color pictures at all ! (except for the cover). My, how far we have come. Now they are printed all the way through with high color glossy pictures !

Here is a fine build of a Jeg's Pro Mod car. This gallery has some good images of scratch building and detail work. Even some reference images, from the engine to the decal graphics.

It looks like no detail, no matter how small, was overlooked.

Be sure and check this walk-through build ! It will blow you away !

Scratch building can be a mind boggling model art, but Ed seems to have no problem with it. Here is a modeler who doesn't sit around waiting for kit manufactures to offer a kit, he just gets on with the job and builds from scratch what he wants.

Check out Ed's website for some very detailed and incredible work.

From Ships to Log Haulers to Wheel Loaders. Simple amazing.

Trumpeter has released their new 1978 Monte Carlo kit. Here is a link to see all the goodies inside the box.

Looks pretty good. The separate chassis and detailed suspension makes this a good choice for lowering old school, or modifying into a custom or lowrider.

If you remember the movie Corvette Summer, you probably remember the custom Corvette Mark Hamill (yep, that Mark Hamill, from Star Wars) builds. The movie is late 1970's, and for the kind of movie it is, it's not to bad.

Interesting enough, the car was right hand drive, among many other custom alterations. In the movie, the car is stolen, and Hamill spends the movie tracking it down and trying to get it back.

A model of the exact car has never been issued, but that doesn't stop a modeler from crafting one up. Check out this gallery of the build, and see how one modeler made an outstanding replica and tribute to the real car.

Sometimes you just want to browse and look at some model box art and tops from the past. It can be a real trip through time. Some rare kits, and new ones. Here are a couple of galleries to check out.

• El Camino Billy's Gallery
• JC's Model Box Gallery

Here's a pretty cool gallery. Imagine 1/25 scale models of Hot Wheels Redline cars ! They made some pretty wild vehicles, but that hasn't deterred this modeler from building some great re-creations.

Check out the pictures.

It's almost here ! Model King's 1979 Ford F150 pickup truck kit. This was originally the Firestone Tire version. This kit is a 4x4, and it has the extra long wheelbase (the wheel well is set back some). You can make almost any 1971 to 1979 example, just by changing the grille and other minor corrections.

To convert it to 2WD, AMT made several 2WD it of Ford F150s in the 1990s. The Ford I-Beam front end didn't change much on Fords, so you could probably use the front end off any of those kits. The 1979 kit has a full ladder box frame, so you can do just about anything with the bed area.

The kit includes I believe a 460 big block and a roll-bar for the back.

Looking for ideas when you get a few of these kits? Check out the gallery of photos here to give you building ideas.

Be sure and visit Model Roundup for more information on this kit.

Time to post some links to some model shows. There's nothing like a gallery to get the creative thoughts going for the next model project.

Scale Auto Magazine has some images on their site form the HMCA show. Be sure and check those out. I especially like this Honda Civic. The graphics on the side and interior colors really make it stand out.

Some other show gallery links -

• 2006 Mid-Atlantic NNL, MAMA Model Show
• 2006 Mid Atlantic NNL
• 2006 MAMA's Mid-Atlantic NNL
• 2006 Mid Atlantic NNL

If you like some model car nostalgia, here are some scanned George Barris Tips pages from past model instruction sheets.

Get model tips from the master customizer George Barris himself.

The 2006 Testors Dodge Charger kit will be out soon. Bruce Owen has finished building the car for the box art, and you can check out that build here.

It looks dead on. There are some possibilities with that modern muscle car. It's hard to say whether the chrome clashes with the body style or not. I'm thinking a modern black wheel treatment, maybe some Fujimi wheels. And maybe blacking out the grille.

You may have seen this site before, but there are some pretty slick models and photos on this site.

HiroBoy Gallery

Scale Auto magazine gives us some great photos from the show. Check them out.

They plan on having a lot more pictures when the issue the Contest Cars 2006 comes out.

Actually, it's a pretty good battle, and really shows what you can do with a modern computer. Even with next to no budget.

It's not totally model related (well, except for maybe the lightsabres themselves), but it's still a pretty good show.

Check it out.

If you are a first visitor to the Model Blog, the April blog has been archived. It is also listed in the right column if you want to view older postings or look for something I may have talked about before.