Sunday 9 March 2008

Dave Marek's Red Baron



I've been thinking a lot this weekend about inspiration. I spent all of yesterday at a dog show, which was surprisingly like a car show in terms of the camaraderie and atmosphere, and then spent all of today dragging a reluctant girlfriend around a motorcycle museum in the morning and then a car museum in the afternoon. Payback for the dog show, see.

Every time something grabbed my attention this weekend I snapped a pic of it on my little Pentax digital camera. I've got dog pics, pics of interesting people doing interesting things, pics of some cool little design features in my hotel room, pics of motorcyles, pics of cars...if I thought it was cool in the last 48 hours I snapped a shot of it. Why? Inspiration.

Today's blog is what happens when one of my favourite artists, slash designers, gets inspired by one of the most famous and recognisable model showrods.

Dave Marek, who has already penned updated versions of such classics as the Cop Out, the Orange Crate 32 Sedan, and the Badman 55 Chev, turned his attention to the Tom Daniel designed Red Baron. The above "doodle" done during a "long meeting" is the result.

I'm not even gonna try to critique this one, it's just too cool for words. Sounds like Dave's gonna build it too..."already have built the motor from the Horny Toad and suspension from misc. Working on the frame and body." he says. Now THERE's a build that I can't wait to see in the plastic.

If you liked that "doodle", check out some other crazy creations from Dave here. Some of these have already been reproduced by modellers in scale, and most of them could easily find themselves projects on MY bench. One of the most inspirational artists I've yet seen? Yeah, totally. Dave can stand with TD, Roth and all the greats with his head held high and proud. Whether he's paying tribute to those before him or taking the present day and warping it into something cool, Dave's a guy who's next work should constantly excite and inspire.

JB

PS: Many many many thanks for Dave with being so cool about letting us feature his image here. Most artists freak out when you mention reproducing their work and not paying them (which kinda rules us out, seeing as we don't make any money from this blog), but Dave couldn't have been cooler. Thanks Dave!

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