July 28: The Great Pause

So what did you do to keep busy while the world shut down? Took a trip? Not likely. Called a few friends? Probably. Read a bit? Yep. Went for walks? Yes. Watched tons of Netflix? Definitely. Did some baking? Maybe. Cruised the net? Of course.

And if you are fortunate to have an engaging hobby, this was a great time to spend quality time working on a few new projects.

Me? You know I'm your Car Guy and my hobby is building models of all those great cars, that I'd like to have in my garage or that I find interesting.  A quick look at one of my walls of shelves shows you that there are a lot of good ol' American cars that I'd like to own and drive. Call me the Jay Leno of model cars. Jay has hundreds of the real thing, worth millions, but I have hundreds of 1/24th scale replicas worth_____? Who knows, but they won't amount to an early retirement.

And yes, I did all those other activities that I list above, but with the models, my buddy, the Car Modelling Cat (CMC) and I, built or rebuilt several. Rebuilt? I've been working this hobby for years, but most of the models I built eons ago, were done to my skill level of that time (give me a 3 out of 10). So I take the old model apart (most come apart easily), repaint them, chrome them up, add details where necessary and viola, a restored classic looking like the day a proud owner drove it off of the showroom floor.

Here she is, the darling little CMC, looking over many of the models we worked on during that too long pause. A mixture of old and new, but they include a couple of state police cars, a '65 Caddy, a '60 Valiant and a '63 Mercury...........

 Like anything, some were easier to pull apart and redo than others and one, we are still working on, is agonizing, because it simply won't give in to our deconstruction efforts. Oh well.

Here's an example of a toughy..........

When first built, I was a mere pup and I gave this 1963 Pontiac Bonneville a lousy paint job, so this time around we had to remove it, which was not an easy task. Compare it to the real thing........

Not a bad job under the circumstances and a definite improvement over a much younger Barry's 1963 effort. Although hard to see, our model even has the gold Bonneville lettering on the grille and side trim.

Let's hope our leaders get it right and we can eliminate this dam virus. Hope that we don't have to go into another long pause and shut down. If we do, how are you going to spend your days?

Until next time........