Madhouse Thanksgiving Road Trip 2019
I have to be honest... I'm not much for holidays. To me they're more of an inconvenience than anything. But I get paid time off, so I can spend the day doing something other than paperwork and ordering around my subordinates. And I don't need to be up and at 'em at six in the morning, which is always a bonus to me. So for this Thanksgiving, I set out bright and early at about 11:00 AM and took a little trip.
Not too far from the Madhouse Warehouse, there sits a large barn. During the summer months, many weddings are held here. Yeah... I guess barn weddings are a thing. Nothing more romantic than saying your vows in a building that used to be full of hay dust and cow shit, I guess. I drive by here all the time but I rarely pay it much mind. But on this fateful Thanksgiving, there just so happened to be this lime green MG Little Person parked out front. Strange as it sounds, there's never been a 1:24 or 1:25 scale kit of an MG Midget. K&R did one as a resin kit in 1:43, however. It still blows my mind that there's no "mainstream" kit of one of these, considering how popular they seemed to be. Seeing this one only rekindled my disappointment.
Moving eastward down M57, I arrived in the little hamlet of Chesaning, once home to the famous Chesaning Showboat, which was basically a paddle-wheel barge with a particle-board superstructure. I had pics of it just before and after it was dismantled, but I have no idea if I still have them. Near the Dollar General... because every town has at least one Dollar General, and at least two Cooper Tire dealers. Really. You could wash up on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific, and once you penetrated the undergrowth and made your way to the center of the island, you'd find a Dollar General and Cooper Tire outlet right there, side by side. Wait... what was I saying?
Oh, yeah. Next to the Dollar General in Chesaning sat this blue '82-'86 Bronco. I've got a couple of the AMT/Ertl (ex MPC) kits laying around, and this one exhibits all the typical Michigan Bronco rust. Hell, this is "light" rust for one of these in this neck of the woods. This truck also displays the current bane of redneck truck style... tiny, but searingly-bright, LED lighting on the snow plow.
Then there's this. Yes, it's a coupe, but Lindberg did make a Sebring convertible promo and snap kit, so if you have one of those laying around, and you aren't sure what to do with it, why not give it the "budget pimp" treatment like this one. Tacky as some of the features on this car were, the bodywork (including the shaved door handles) looked to be competently done. I'm not sure how good an idea it is to run sidewalls that short in Michigan, but they look an awful lot like Pegasus wheels blown up to full scale.
Next up we hit Montrose, which has nothing going for it other than being the home of an antique store that's been for sale for nearly a decade, and the world's most annoying sign shop owner. It's also the namesake of an early Sammy Hagar group. I think? Hidden behind a fully modern gas station and car wash is... this interesting structure.
A local trucking firm had these two Mack Superliners on site. Both are a little on the rough side as far as appearance goes, but that's fine with me. Old heavy haulers look best with a little age on them. Italeri kind of made a Superliner. I say "kind of" because it has no Mack markings and rides on a Freightliner chassis. But it looks close enough to a Superliner to be workable, and it could be made into a rundown-looking tractor like these two as well as any other kit.
Italeri also did the Lincoln Town Car of Class 8 trucks... the Ford LTL. Yes, it's also perched atop a Freightliner chassis. Hide that with some wet tanks and pit fenders and you're good. Unless you're a real stickler for such things. Auslowe makes a damned nice day cab panel for this kit, as well. I love how elegant and dignified this LTL9000 still looks, despite it's careworn appearance.
AMT's Super Stones kit would come in handy here, as would the standard 8' bed and Custom grille from Morgan Automotive Detail. This truck is either a '78 or a '79 Custom (base model). I should point out for transparency that I was the guy who made the master for the MAD Custom grille. This truck appeared to be an older restoration with a few accessories added.
Outside of town sat this 35th anniversary Trans Am, which appeared to have been sitting outside for a very long time. I remember in 2002, every Pontiac dealer had at least one of these in stock, but I never recalled seeing many on the streets. Funny thing is, in 2002 you'd have been king of the trailer park if you rolled up in one of these. Funnier thing is, the same thing would probably be true if in 2019 if you rolled up in this actual example. Revell did this special edition in kit form back when the car was new, and they're pretty easy to find online. Doing one as a rundown example like this would be an interesting twist to add.
Now traveling southbound, we come to the charter township of Flushing, which was once the home of Dean's Hobby Stop. It is still the home of this long-abandoned automotive glass shop, which has housed at least a few different businesses over the years.
Now we're in Schwartz Creek, which is a town, not "the dark side" as depicted in Spaceballs. Speaking of... when is "Spaceballs 3- The Search For Spaceballs 2" coming out? Anyway, I came across this small dilapidated farmhouse a few miles into town.
A few more miles up the road is an office for Waste Management, where you'll find this International compactor. This model of IH is available in resin, but you'd need to build the compactor body.
Heading further west, you'll come to Owosso. Owosso is an old Indian word for "Not quite hipster but goddammit man, we're trying". (Note- that is a very loose translation. But mostly accurate.) On the west end of town you'll find Bob Dedic's auto body shop. There are always interesting vehicles near the shop, including a '57 Chevrolet that's been perched atop the roof for decades. I'm told the headlights come on at night but I've never been by the place at night so I can't verify this. Maybe it's wiring, or maybe the car is possessed. The 1957 Chevrolet is perhaps one of the most over-kitted subjects in the history of scale automotive kits, so...
The shop truck is this Advance Series Chevrolet, which is a '54 with an older style grille. It is riding on a late model GM chassis. The AMT kit (full detail or snap) would look great done up like this. IT reminds me of a real-life version of a model by the late, great Blair Pletcher.
How would that Revell Jeep kit look with a friggin' snowblower strapped to the front? Well... like this. Something like this.
Leaving town, this 1936-ish Dodge (?) was pressed into service as a Christmas display. As much as I'd like to start deporting people who start decorating for Christmas early, I actually liked this one. I never snapped a photo but for most of the summer there was a dirt track Neon sitting about where this truck now rests. There's a diecast '36 Dodge panel out there, but any old truck kit could serve as the basis for something like this.
My next stop was The Mint City, St. Johns, home of Terry Hanks' Sundance Buick GMC. For those outside of Michigan, Terry Hanks is an elderly man who always wears a cowboy costume and speaks with a southern accent, in spite of being a Lansing native. His radio ads are annoying enough, but he does TV ads as well. Hearing him is bad enough. Seeing him...well... There's also an unsubstantiated rumor that he's a coke head. Cocaine would be the only way to get me to go around in public dressed like Roy Rogers but Googling "Terry Hanks cocaine" yields no news articles or court cases. But he's not the only questionable car dealer in town. Right next door I found this unfortunate MKZ. No, there is no model kit of an MKZ. But as an MKZ owner I just had to share my pain.
This MKZ was HERZ, dammit! The letters stolen from a late model Chrysler say so! I will say that I've had a diorama idea for a sleazy car lot, and a quick lot-prowling session in St.Johns has given me more ideas than I'll ever be able to build in ten lifetimes.
The local salvage yard had a great example of how to puck up an Escalade. I'm no stranger to this school of thought... for proof, check this article- http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2019/10/31/A-Different-Kind-of-Pink-Cadillac
Revell's Escalade kit has no engine detail, but if you were really ambitious you could kitbash with the '99 Silverado 1500. I've always wanted to do a realistic wreck, and an Escalade in this condition would be a great candidate. Or whack the AMT kit into a pole. I think it would be fun to do a row of bent models.
On my way home, I wandered to the sleepy village of Maple Rapids, where Larry's Service is located. A building like this would be a great first scratch building project... it's nothing but right angles and rectangles. And it' has just the right amount of "lived-in" weathering. Though Larry seems to keep things clean and organized, for a model you could dd all the clutter you'd like.
Approaching home, we passed this long-abandoned two-car garage. This is right along US-127, and has stood abandoned for as long as I can remember. This would be another easy one to scratch build, even though the aged structure is beginning to collapse and lose it's form. There used to be a couple of old service stations in the area as well.... unfortunately they're long gone now. This building, and the adjacent ranch-style house, will most likely join them at some point.
