A new web site...

Mister Bob's Model Works Emporium is moving...I am now at Bob's Model Works.  I cannot express fully the gratitude I have for the support my readers have given me over the years. and hope to live up to expectations in the years to come should our Lord tarry.  

Wordpress provides excellent service, including open source software, making it highly customizable.  My favorite feature thus far is the random picture header, enabling me to showcase more of my photography.  You should see a new picture for every page change.

It is a pay service, but it's just pennies a day.  Having lost a lot of work over the years to sites crashing, I feel much safer here, and hope to post more how-tos and projects.

Blessings, grace and peace to you and yours.

Leadership Charlotte 2013 charity auction, May 18, 2013...

...currently offering an N scale layout built into a glass top bar...



More here...

Lionel set 1590 from 1958...

One of the great bugaboos of the model train hobby is the mindset that I run into at shows or just at social gatherings.  John (or Jane) Q. Public has a train set that's "been in the family for a long time" and they want to know what it's worth.  From the look in their eyes and the tone in their voice, they obviously have the one exceptionally rare antique set worth enough to cover their mortgage and send one or two of the kidlets to Harvard, so would I be a dear and please confirm this delusion?.

Nothing could be further from the truth in this hobby.  Old DOES NOT mean valuable, whether it sports a Lionel tag or TYCO.  What the Lionel debacle did in the 80s was pull out from attics and closets across this fruited plain, box after box of grandpa's old trains, showing that what was once  considered "Rare" was actually just one of many hundreds that were buried, just like any other toy out there, waiting only for a good reason to be pulled out into the light.  5000 greenbacks for an original #300 Hell Gate Bridge will do that to anything out there, not just Lionel.

My 1590 set comes from a good friend who is settling his brother-in-law's estate.  Fortunately for me, he understands that only special pieces get special prices.  He found this mixed in the estate with a bunch of track, most of which had fallen victim to the ravages of Hurricane Sandy.  It is in cosmetically good condition and has all four cars, the blue gon just didn't make the cut on the too short shelf space.  The irony is that the value in the set is not in the whole, but in fact, one part...the "Range Patrol" truck that would have sat on the yellow flat car.  An orange or yellow truck can get double what the set complete can get.  Who knew...sigh...





Original 1958 catalog listing...


NOTE:  Settling this estate has been a hoot for my friend and his family.  With no will, the state and a reprobate offspring have ravaged the estate and my friend's life over the last 2 years.  Being married to next of kin just gives the state a warm body to sink their fangs and claws into.  They will get their pound of flesh, and it will be yesterday...

If you don't have a will, you are a fool and richly deserve every curse called down upon your corpse by the family you left behind.  Get a will...now.

Ertl Collectables 1:18 scale 1969 Baldwin Motion Camaro...

...yet another item received in exchange for the aforementioned track lot.  It reminds me of the Camaro used in one of my favorite cinematic guilty pleasures, 1985's "Better Off Dead", starring a young John Cusack...











How about a little something from Muddy Waters to close?

Highway 61 Collectibles 1:16 scale 1974 Chevy Custom Van...

Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein. --(John 12:4-6)

I have been much remiss in posting on this blog lately.  God has chosen to use this element of my life to bless others with His Word, and for a while I followed the council of those who did not have the best interests of my readers or myself in mind, heaping upon my head among other things, the "crime" of having material blessings that many others do not, when I should instead strip them from my soul, sell and give to the poor.

Mark these words...

Urgings for the poor far too often come from the ones who only seek to enrich themselves.

When material things come your way, delight in them with hands that don't close around them, and be ready to send them on to other needs as led by His Holy Spirit.

With that, recently I was given a large lot of American Flyer S scale track from a gentleman with the condition that I do not give it away, but swap it for something else, then let him know what I got for it.

Well...I got alot...starting with this rather awesome diecast van.  Having grown up in the 70s, this...and not some gas sipping tuner out of Japan...was what you wanted to drive.  --Well, that or maybe the '69 Baldwin Motion Camaro I also got in the deal-- Alas, during its packaging in the factory back in 2003, a factory worker left out the antennas, a large whip one for the CB in the rear door and a smaller one for the radio up front. 









These came in several variations, including a rather awesome one with this Frank Frazetta painting.  Unlike most diecast that go down (sometimes way down) in value, these vans have gone up rather dramatically...the Frazetta models typically selling for upwards of $400 each.  Even this basic black one can command $200 on a good day, very unusual for diecast and very generous on the part of the brother in Christ who dealt with me on it.

You'll hafta wait for that Camaro 'til tomorrow...