Tiny junkyards for the spatially challenged.

(a badly weathered '74 Ford sits in a miniature junkyard. Photo courtesy of Bugsy's Junkers website)

I've always been a fan of scale models. As a kid I loved to build them, and sometimes, destroy them via BB gun, Black Cat firecrackers, or by lighting them on fire in mock "accidents". My childhood achievement in model building was my '71 Hemi Cuda in Hemi Orange, which won not only Best Overall in my 7th grade Exploratory Program class, but took Fourth at the local West End Fair.

Recently I poked around online to see how the hobby has progressed over the last 25 years or so. I was both surprised and pleased to see a few builders taking steps towards what I would call "Ultra Realism"-that is, rather than turning out kit after kit in flawless, showroom-shine finishes, they chose to go in the opposite direction, and show the effects of time on plastic "sheetmetal". Borrowing some techniques from model railroaders, they weather and rust their kits to near disintegration. Some go as far as to build minature junkyards with piles of "wrecked" cars. Combine two things I love and you are bound to get a mention on my blog.

(No junkyard, mini or othewise, would be worth its salt without an old racer or two in the pile. Here, Bugsy has a Vintage Chevy Gasser awaiting restoration or, maybe [but hopefully not], the crusher. www.bugsysjunkers.com)