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My only surviving model from the early years.


jrherald420

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I built this model when i was 13 or 14 yrs old, so around 1995 or 1996. Back before i knew there was a better kind of glue than the Testors red tube, before i knew that it didnt take a huge glob of glue to hold a tiny part and what the reason for clear coat was. The reason the hood and air cleaner are on the hood and roof is i remember scratching the paint pretty good. lol

It was a Xmas gift to my dad that year, he owned a few Mopars back in the day and this was one he always talked about. I look at it now and think man what a pile of junk but my dad looks at it and remembers the days of driving it around town and racing stop light to stop light. Makes me feel good that he still has it.

P.S. I didn't have to wipe off any dust before taking these pictures, i cracked the case open for the first time since i put it on and there wasn't any dust on the model after all these years!!!

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IMG_8291 by jrherald420, on Flickr

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IMG_8293 by jrherald420, on Flickr

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IMG_8295 by jrherald420, on Flickr

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IMG_8296 by jrherald420, on Flickr

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Best i can remember, i started building models in 1995. This was one of the first 10 i ever built. I remember i built it as a gift so i had a reason to build a model and to get my mom to buy me the Testors paint it during Xmas time. I think this was the first rattle can paint job that i did that came out without runs or junk landing in the paint.

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As a father of a fourteen year old boy, you don't know how much I'd love him to give me a model of a car I loved. It'd beat the heck out of anything I can think of.

My son is 20 months old and i cant wait till he builds his first kit......he will never see it again till hes older!! lol I loved to smash them as much as building them.

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My dad was not a "car person" at all, but he did however teach me how to drive 50 years ago. Dad also helped in the wheeling & dealing of my first three car purchases. I took up car model building, and drag racing on my own. I still love 1 : 1 cars, nostalgia drag races, and car shows and cruise nights. I belong to three model car clubs and have a ton of kits to build if I ever get OFF this keyboard.

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That's pretty cool , and it looks pretty good too !

I've got several "survivors" from way back when , some in good shape but most have seen better days . Maybe there should be a topic started so we all can show our "survivors" !

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That's pretty cool , and it looks pretty good too !

I've got several "survivors" from way back when , some in good shape but most have seen better days . Maybe there should be a topic started so we all can show our "survivors" !

That's a great idea!!

very nice for the age it was built, its great that you still have it

Thank you, my dad is very protective of it. He was telling me little story's about taking it away from my older brothers that were looking at it too rough! lol

Edited by jrherald420
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Nice model James, all my originals have been lost to father time :(:(

Thanks! Now i feel really bad for finding my all my dads models in boxes in the basement and smashing them up for fun.

Great bit of family history. I wouldn't change a thing. Put it back in the case and enjoy it.

I did, i cleaned the inside of the case, rewired the hold downs since i didnt do a very good job back then doing it and taped it back up.

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Cool build , great story.

I think the oldest I have that I personally built is a Johan 1969 Road Runner done as a Sox and Martin car. Best I can remember that car was built somewhere maybe 25-30 years ago give or take a few years. I've been with my wife for almost 23 years , and I know it was built before then

I had got out of the hobby lock stock and barrel back in the later 70's - very early 80's time frame ( chasing girls and chasing real cars took over in a BIG way) . and came back to it real late 80s or so and this one was one of the 1st when I came back to it .

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My oldest surviving models? Since I lived outside the country and it was tough to get models, mine usually got broken down for parts for my next great idea. So I never had a whole shelf of finished models. Once we moved back to the US I did buy and build a bunch, but I left it all carefully stored in my old bedroom closet at my parents house. Termites got into that closet and my father threw it all out when I was in my 20s. And I wasn't all that concerned about it in those days.

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My best survivor is my favorite Mini Cooper that I've had since I was 12 (I'm 54 now). This is diecast and was sold as a finished model that I've seen in the US, but it also was available as a prepainted diecast in Europe. I had seen The Italian Job which got me into the Mini, but yellow and black were my colors, so I held out until I found one in the right colors. Those tires are lettered by me with Testors white that somehow dried and the hood was brush painted Testors lumpy black. I thought it was cooler without the grill and I painted the interior and installed orange felt carpet. It has always been on my shelf, so it's survived all these years. When I was in high school it was the subject of our one frame animation movie.

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and here's one that survived the termite closet. I started this Anglia in my teens and it got just this far. Paint job stunk and I did zero body prep so I don't know if it is deserving of getting finished this way or stripped and redone in the scheme I meant to build back then. I remember that I wanted to make myself a street car instead of a drag car. There is another engine and tires in the box too. And of course you notice the color scheme.

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I also have a Revell Porsche 914 and a few Airfix 1/32 kits from my life in Europe.

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