Had fun (again) at Autofest. Was assigned to the same table as Craig (Mt Yoder) for the dinner. After dinner, promptly traded my diecast cars for the dinner slots.

Saturday I hung out with Craig and Randy (Afx Nut) in the way-too-hot, AC-broken-down room set up for the drag races. Couldn't take the heat (literally) and went to check out A&M Raceways in Fremont, IN (about 1-1/2 hr drive). They're in the middle of moving, but had the roadcourse up, so we ran for a few hours. AW had prototypes of the next set of Thunderjets, XT Semis, XT concept Camaro and Challenger, and the next 3 race sets: A larger DoH set, the Concept Challenge (Camaro & Challenger), and a Speed Racer set. They are all good sized sets, but the only drawback was that they only used 9" curves. Overall the show is still heavily weighted to diecast, since AW is the only slot maker among the 6 manfacturers present.

Sunday I popped in for a little bit before heading home, but before I left, said hi to Craig and Randy, and bought a MCT Nova (green). On the way home I stopped over at RT 93 Raceways in Akron, OH for a couple hours to stretch my legs.

Hope to make it next year.

What, no pix? :freak: rr

Great seeing you dlw.

Take care of that Mercury #2 Stocker I sold you. SCJ came buy looking for it later, he wanted to trade. And another gentleman wanted to buy it after that. I had alot of fun. I wished Tom would've stopped by Saturday. Somebody must have told him about the heat in that room.

I'm hearing Autofest '09 will be in the Century Center next year. That'll help the slots out greatly. We'll be in the same area with everything else. There wasn't room in the vendor area for us or the Gravity Diecast Track that was there last year.

It was a great show this year. Lots to see and do. The people at this event are the highlight for me. Just a genuine bunch of down to earth people. It's primarily a Die-Cast event, but being a slot car hobbiest I really felt welcome.

The Dirty Bingo was a blast. Jeff from MotorCityToyz had a white mystery prize box stolen from him 3 or 4 times. I had one until late in the game but, it got snagged. I ended up with two cool diecast cars.

Had fun with the Custom contest. Improved to 2nd place this year. MTYoder took 1st and People's Choice.

Can't wait until next year. Randy.

I had a great time again this year! Thanks to everyone for everything! What a great bunch of people you all are. Lookin forward to next year.

I also enjoyed the show!! Thanks MTYoder for bringing the drag strip!! I had cars packed to bring, but forgot to grab them when packing the car:(
Marty

Sorry guys, don't have a cam that's Vista compatible, yet.

What, no pix? :freak: rr

Nothing warms the heart more than seeing slotheads immersed in all kinds of slotty plastic goodness. Would be nice to see some pics posted for those who could not attend. (hint-hint) :rolleyes:

One thing though... dlw, Were they really promoting another DOH set??:freak:.... Good lord I wonder how many of those bodies they have left over??... I would think there are about a dozen other bodies/themes that would be waay cooler seeing how they already did the DOH thing. nd

Yeah, it was a larger layout in the 2nd DoH set.

how about some pics?

Can't believe we haven't had any pix posted yet. :eek:

rr

Sorry about not posting any pictures. I didn't see anything in Autoworld's case that hasn't already been on the Autoworld Thread Cam.

The Autoworld guys dropped the ball on the slot car end. The 2009 Autoworld catalog was actually a 2008 catalog with 2009 printed on the front. Tony stopped by the Drag Racing for a visit. (Thank you Tony) But Tom didn't though. There is some 1:18 scale diecast cars coming from AW that look good and a gas powered car of some sort.

Jeff from MotorCityToyz donated 3 cases (36 cars) as give-a-aways and Mark H. provided medals. Every car and every medal was given away. John (SCJ) Clark provided the trophies for the custom contest. And Craig (MTYODER) brought his portable 1:8th scale mile drag strip.

Next year the AutoFest is going to be in a bigger place and the slot stuff will be in the same room as the diecast stuff.

I have pictures that I took of the Drag activities and will try to post them soon. But if you want to see some just contact me and I'll send you some. Randy.

Hopefully SCJ will cough up some pics eventually...hint hint. I'd at least like to see some concours photos.

purdy pleeeeeze!

Here's some pictures of what I had at the Autofest. The COP OUT car took 2nd place.

Okay, here's some more. I drew the logo and turned it into a decal. In a sense, I made my own Autofest cars. The 55 is an Autoworld car. The two 57 Chevy's are made from The Aurora 57 Nomad and the 55 Bel Air. The yellow one I made a year ago and the orange one I finished prior to this year's Autofest.

The Abrams Main Battle Tank is a Roco Mini Tank with a Thunderjet 500 chassis inserted. I hand painted the 3 tone Camoflouge pattern as well as the vision blocks, head lights, tail lights, loader's M240 MG and traverse ring, and the M2HB ( Ma Duece ) 50 Cal.
I had this tank on an H.O. flat car for my train layout. But I wanted to make this into a slot and enter it into the custom contest.

The Abrams Main Battle Tank is a Roco Mini Tank with a Thunderjet 500 chassis inserted. I hand painted the 3 tone Camoflouge pattern as well as the vision blocks, head lights, tail lights, loader's M240 MG and traverse ring, and the M2HB ( Ma Duece ) 50 Cal.
I had this tank on an H.O. flat car for my train layout. But I wanted to make this into a slot and enter it into the custom contest.

Much better use for it! :thumbsup:

Thanx for the pix Randy.

How'd ya do the trim on your '57? It's very sharp!

I paint it by hand. I'm 43 and I noticed in the last year and 1/2 that my vision requires me to use reading glasses to see to work on these projects.
I also paint the trim and other details under a magnifying glass.

If I get too far off the trim I lightly scrap away the excess witha hobby knife.

I've got ideas for new projects and hope to get them done in the months to come. But I need to get to the Midwest show for some junk bodies, chrome goodies, and other goodies. Randy.

Much better use for it! :thumbsup:

I think it is also. Besides I didn't model all of the required number of chains that are used to tie it down to the flat car.

When we loaded them in Germany we only used 4 chains, 2 front and 2 back.
Randy.

Cool Custom Cars!!! I'm voting for the 57 Bel-Air 2 door. Nice top replacement.
Got any fabrication and rearend pics??? RM

Cool Custom Cars!!! I'm voting for the 57 Bel-Air 2 door. Nice top replacement.
Got any fabrication and rearend pics??? RM

I don't have any fabrication pictures. I'm going to look for more at the Midwest show and the next one I build I'll take pictures of the build. I'll have to take some more rear end pictures and post them later.

I think my wife is getting me a resin casting kit for Christmas. These 57 bodies I want to cast. Randy.

Here's a couple more rear view pics.