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Lamest "Mini-Van" of all - Pinto Cruisin' Wagon done!


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Well, after a lot more work than I thought it would be, the Pinto Crusing Wagon is now done! Just like the real car, this one was lot of headaches interspersed with some chagrins. Thing is, it’s an old MPC, and I was expecting some trouble. Not as much as I got, but I sure didn’t expect a “Clean Getaway”, so to speak!

 

I’m really very glad to have a stock representation of one of what might be the lamer attempts to add performance through striping. I am now excited to get my hands on the ’77 Cruising Van that Round 2 just put out, so I can have two examples of Ford’s attempts to conjure up tapestripe horsepower!

 

Check out this little beast at the link below, and be warned: you’re likely not going to see this kit built often simply because there’s so much wrong with it. However, in the end, it is all worth it, because it’s a Pinto Cruising Wagon, and how much lamer does it get than that?

 

<link removed> - Indeed! Check the link in the signature for the site, and scroll down for a few more pics, including an in-process shot!

 

pinto-162.jpg?w=332

Edited by Faust
Sorry Adam - we don't permit links to blogs to see more pics after you post one tiny teaser. Post at least four proper pics, and if you put your blog in your Sig, people that want to see more will be able to click through.
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49 minutes ago, JeroenS said:

 I would appreciate some more pics on here though, you make it quite a read!

 

In fact, there's every chance that the mods will shut this down PDQ because of the link to the private blog. Whether it makes sense to you or not, it's against the rules...

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18 hours ago, Rob G said:

 

In fact, there's every chance that the mods will shut this down PDQ because of the link to the private blog. Whether it makes sense to you or not, it's against the rules...

Oh, dear. 

 

Please understand, I meant no offence. I would like to see where that rule is. I looked around for something like that, but couldn't find it. It hasn't been a problem before... My warn bar isn't currently showing red, so I didn't think it was a problem. 

 

On that note, though, I don't make any money form my blog, I just do it for fun and the entertainment of others. I didn't think it would be a problem if it was just a like to a private site like mine.  If that's against the rules, then I guess I have contravened, and while ignorance is no excuse, I cannot offer any other explanation. I will, of course, respect any decision made on that front.

 

I haven't included more pictures for a couple reasons:

 

1.) It would make the post longer, and maybe longer to load. This way, if people see the pic at the bottom and decide it's of interest, they can just follow the link. If it's not their thing, It's a minimum of time wasted.

 

2.) I work very hard on my models, and on my writeups. The only "payment" I get is when people visit my site and I get to see my hit counter advance. I like to know that people are enjoying my work, and as you've seen, my writeups are far too long to post here in their entirety. 

 

As I mentioned, I do my blog for fun, and if people come to it, they might find more things they're interested in. I have a wide range of interests, and I think others do too. So, a link here could lead to somone finding out about something they didn't know existed before, even! I've had that experience before, and always enjoy it!

 

As for my writeups being long. I hear you. They take a long time to write. However, that's my style. Anyone can build a kit and post pictures. I want to be more than that. I want to inject some humour and context into my writing. I want people to understand the subject, not just the kit. However, I also want them to appreciate how the kit represents (or doesn't in so many cases) the subject it purports to be. This is a big undertaking. It takes me hours to do a writeup, and I do apologize if that's not your thing. However, if you see a lot of words you don't want to read, you can always scroll down to the next picture. That's why I take the time to caption my pics too; if you do skip there, you'll still have some context and info!

 

I treat each article like a mini version of the old "Profile" series of plane books - graphical and written information together to tell a story in a fairly compact package. 

 

Most people are astounded I put in such effort and thank me for teaching them something new, but to each their own!

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It doesn't offend me in the least, but I'm not a mod and you don't need to convince me. I'm just saying that it's site policy. <shrug>

 

That said, I know it exists and it was still a task for me to find the relevant thread. I should email them about it and get it put somewhere accessible. Here's where you'll find it:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235003759-posts-advertising-magazines-blogs-websites-forums-channels/

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Good morning Faust, 

 

I'm sorry if I didn't sound properly astounded 😋. Look, clearly you put a lot of effort into building and "story-telling" your kits, and the end results are absolutely worth it. Your skills are obvious. As for the forum, I can only speak for myself on this, but for me the purpose of being on a forum is exactly that: being on a forum. It's "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" (which for a lot of people here, me included, is scary enough), and it's also a great source of information. There's a search function on the forum that can be used to search for specific information about a brand of paint or the use of a technique or whatever. That's the added value of posting that kind of information on here. That said, I'm not here to tell anyone what they should or should not do, to each his own like you said. 

 

One thing though, I'm sure you didn't mean it like that, but saying "anyone can build a kit and post pictures" is not very nice to the rest of us mere mortals, also there are quite a few people here who put a lot of effort in posting on the forum and in creating very informative and entertaining threads. 

 

Have a good day, looking forward to more of your work!

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20 hours ago, Rob G said:

It doesn't offend me in the least, but I'm not a mod and you don't need to convince me. I'm just saying that it's site policy. <shrug>

 

That said, I know it exists and it was still a task for me to find the relevant thread. I should email them about it and get it put somewhere accessible. Here's where you'll find it:

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235003759-posts-advertising-magazines-blogs-websites-forums-channels/

Ah! Thanks Rob G for posting that. I didn't think to look under announcements, so I would have never found it. Rather a feisty thread, that one. Although, I would have expected no less! 

 

While I'm not out to convince anyone (as "rules are rules", as per the cited thread) I do find two things interesting: 1.) I've posted other links to my site and no one has mentioned it before, and 2.) I found this place because someone posted a link to my Trimotor on here! I won't get into the irony. If the powers that be wish to close or pull the topic, there's little I can do about that. I did my best to explain that it wasn't a hostile attempt to redirect traffic, and it was an honest "mistake". The chips will fall where they may. 

 

I do find it interesting that this seems to be a British thing, though. On the American sites I post on, the exact same way, I get many people thanking me for the link and the information my site and writeups provide. However, this is the THIRD British site that has generated a negative reaction for me. I guess it's just a slight cultural difference, but interesting from an athropological standpoint, nonetheless...

 

16 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Good morning Faust, 

 

I'm sorry if I didn't sound properly astounded 😋. Look, clearly you put a lot of effort into building and "story-telling" your kits, and the end results are absolutely worth it. Your skills are obvious. As for the forum, I can only speak for myself on this, but for me the purpose of being on a forum is exactly that: being on a forum. It's "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" (which for a lot of people here, me included, is scary enough), and it's also a great source of information. There's a search function on the forum that can be used to search for specific information about a brand of paint or the use of a technique or whatever. That's the added value of posting that kind of information on here. That said, I'm not here to tell anyone what they should or should not do, to each his own like you said. 

 

One thing though, I'm sure you didn't mean it like that, but saying "anyone can build a kit and post pictures" is not very nice to the rest of us mere mortals, also there are quite a few people here who put a lot of effort in posting on the forum and in creating very informative and entertaining threads. 

 

Have a good day, looking forward to more of your work!

No worries. You are correct, too, that what I wrote didn't come out quite the way I meant it. I'll admit it could have used a proof-read extra over the one I gave it! 😕 I'm sure we've all seen reviews or threads that are of the "a few pics and not much info" though, that have left us wishing there was more detail. It was about those kinds of things I was speaking. Of course you could also say that calling my article "quite a read" wasn't exactly far short of a backhanded compliment either, but that's the issue with text; it's always without intonation and thus difficult to derive context! 

 

I am not sure quite whether I'll be able to post more of my work here, sadly, because I don't want to cause a row, and I don't want to offend anyone, either. However, I have absolutely zero intention of changing a posting method that I find works, works well and is also highly efficient. I guess time will tell!

 

For now, while we can, let's revel in Ford's terrible little Econobeater and it's "little engine that couldn't"!

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That's a very nice model, though the car is errrmmm, interesting shall we say?  Your write up was good too.

Whilst the Pinto's incendiary reputation is reasonably well known over here, the 2-litre Pinto engine was used in a lot of Ford's cars this side of the Atlantic and no one accused 2L Cortinas or Capris of being slow!  Mind you in the seventies a family car here rarely weighed over a ton, so my father-in-law's Cortina with all the family and the caravan fully loaded for a holiday probably still had a better power to weight ratio than the empty smog-gear-laden Pinto Wagon!

Cheers

Will 

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6 hours ago, malpaso said:

That's a very nice model, though the car is errrmmm, interesting shall we say?  Your write up was good too.

Whilst the Pinto's incendiary reputation is reasonably well known over here, the 2-litre Pinto engine was used in a lot of Ford's cars this side of the Atlantic and no one accused 2L Cortinas or Capris of being slow!  Mind you in the seventies a family car here rarely weighed over a ton, so my father-in-law's Cortina with all the family and the caravan fully loaded for a holiday probably still had a better power to weight ratio than the empty smog-gear-laden Pinto Wagon!

Cheers

Will 

You just hit the nail on the head, Will. It's the smog equipment that made anotherwise perfectly good motor a sluggish, almost dangerously slow bundle of scrap. The 2L Capris (LOVE those) are quite punchy, but you guys didn't have the same kind of smog choke going on that we did here in North America!

 

As to it being interesting... that was the "Taste" at the time. There aren't quotes big enough for that... Motoring here in North America went seriously off the rails in the late '70s, and little typifies that better than this little guy!

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15 hours ago, Faust said:

I've posted other links to my site and no one has mentioned it before

They probably slipped through the net - we can only be in four places at once, and this is a busy site.  This time around, someone popped a report in the box, so we came to have a look.  We're not angry with you at all, as you can probably tell from the tone of my comment, we just prefer people to post stuff here, without click... I hesitate to use the word, clickbait :)

 

Now you know, it shouldn't be an issue, and you're correct - it hasn't affected your standing or warn level so far ;)

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Ah, I see. Well, you're right, this is a busy place, for sure!

 

So, someone ratted me out, eh?  I tell ya, you can't trust anybody these days.  ;)

 

Fair enough, and thanks for coming on here and reading what I put as my reasons, too. I appreciate it. 

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6 hours ago, Faust said:

You just hit the nail on the head, Will. It's the smog equipment that made anotherwise perfectly good motor a sluggish, almost dangerously slow bundle of scrap. The 2L Capris (LOVE those) are quite punchy, but you guys didn't have the same kind of smog choke going on that we did here in North America!

 

I can relate to that - my old Pontiac was from that dreaded late '70s period and when I looked it up I found out it had about 135bhp from a 5 litre V8. Then a bit more research revealed that the standard car had 135bhp, but mine was the 'sporty' SJ with the uprated 150bhp engine.:rofl: To quote Jeremy Clarkson - How do they get so little power from such a big engine? (As you say, the answer is smog control).

 

But I digress, and sorry for drifting away from your topic. I can understand why you have the car in your blog and that you don't want to repeat the same thing over and over again on two (or more?) fora, but I'd love to see a couple more pics of it. From the photo there, it looks like a good build up of a subject unlike the norm, and I like to see something different.

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In the interests of of making amends for my transgressions, I've put up a few more pics of the Pinto below. Of course, there's a lot more info at my site, but these should give you a good feel for the little blighter.  I couldn't resist putting in a pic of the EXP with it. Two of Ford's best! :)

 

Oh, and getting no horse power out of a big engine is an American specialty. Someone's gotta do it! 😕

 

pinto-153.jpg

pinto-181.jpg

pinto-159.jpg

pinto-131.jpg

 

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Thanks - they look good, particularly that Pinto. There is something about having the white lettered tyres on something like this - it looks muscular, but in a pathetic sort of way. Nice job in particular on the FORD lettering on the bonnet - so far I've managed to escape having a kit with that type of badging but it's not a job I look forward to if/when I have to do it.

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Thanks!

 

The white-lettered tires are a.) very nicely done in the kit and b.) perfect for this kind of "slowball" pseudo-street machine. It's more like an avenue machine, or maybe a circle machine. Not much "street" in it.  :)

 

As for the lettering; get yourself a Molotow chrome pen!! I used the 4mm and then just 'blopped' out a bit of chrome on a piece of card and used a filed-down toothpick to apply the letters. Quick and easy!

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Good to hear that the Molotow pen is the tool of choice for this as I have the 1mm and 2mm versions sitting here:) They worked very well on the chrome trim for the Honda S600 I did earlier in the year, although I did mask before using, but at least I won't be a total beginner on the technique when the time comes.

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