71 replies to this topic

[Dr. Cranky]

Your styrene addiction is showing, Chuck. LOL!

[Art Anderson]

well i was going to do a post about me finding this kit and i forgot about this post well there's one at my LHS
and was in shock when my buddy only wants 43.00 for the kit i am going to grab it this Thursday looks like a nice kit to me and the tin is frigging sweet!!!! just wondering how good or bad is detail on this kit???

Blake and all who weren't around when kits like this were new:

Plastic model kits are a combination of "art" and "technology". Now, the technology of injecting molten plastic into steel dies has been around for perhaps 75 yrs or so--and it hasn't changed all that much. However, the "artistry" of plastic model kit design and development has evolved considerably since the first plastic model car kits were produced about 1950-51.

There were two major factors in the design and development of plastic model car kits in those early years: First, the types and grades of plastic available at the time, and second, the expected age range of the marketplace for those kits. Plastic model kits of all subjects began as an outgrowth of the toy industry (Yes Virginia, Revell started out as a plastic toy manufacturer!) The people involved in design and development were, at the outset--more industrial designers and pattern makers, given that there really weren't highly skilled scale modelers around back then, certainly not to the extent we see today. In those early days, "plastic" anything made primarily for kids had a rather bad reputation. Some of us can remember plastic stuff breaking, giving numerous cut fingers from the resulting shards which could be as sharp as shattered glass. To counter this, acetate plastic was pretty common--often termed "shatterproof" plastic. But that required rather thick sections, as acetate warps badly over time (witness all those warped 50's promotional model cars from the 1950's).

Those early model kits had to evolve around parameters such as described above, frankly. There weren't all that many adults building model cars in the 50's, even into the 1960's--model cars (and even plastic kits of planes, ships and other subjects) were seen, and more than truly were, the province of kids from about the age of 8 or so, to perhaps 15 or 16. So, enter "buildability", or ease of assembly--our attention spans were really not that much different than kids of the same ages today--we wanted the model, we wanted to get it built, and get it built "right now". Being kids, we also wanted to play with them once built, and play with them we did. I still remember (and will be meeting up with, next September, my old schoolmates at our HS 50th anniversary class reunion) getting together with buddies, either my place or their's, finding a tabletop or a cedar chest that could serve as an aircraft carrier flight deck for "launching and recovering" those plastic model airplane kits we built.

With the coming of more or less shatterproof styrene plastic compounds by the middle 1950's, the warping went away, and as multi-slide core molds came online-one piece bodies. However, that early styrene was still pretty brittle (even today, a MIB AMT or Johan body shell from the late 50's/early 60's can break like glass -- and that meant still thicker body shell thicknesses, and correspondingly "heavy" parts like frames, Ford I-beam front axles--all that. In addition, wire axles were pretty much standard--for all the reasons I noted above--not the least of which the ability of the finished model car to be played with by young hands.

It wasn't until kits such as the AMT Double T 3in1, the Double Dragster (both kits originating in late 1961/early 1962, along with the Ala Kart/'29 Model A Roadster) that model car kits began to evolve into the much more highly detailed, more intricate kits that we know today. And that brings in the "artistry" of creating really neat model car kits, kits which once built, could not withstand much, if any play, but looked cool as all heck when finished. That took a lot of work on the part of kit manufacturers--and a considerable learning curve as well. Some of the Revell products of the mid-60's, for all their appeal (and MPC as well!) were highly designed, lots of minute, intricate parts, but exhibiting either tremendous fragility, sloppy fit and tolerances, or often, both. Remember too, CAD and CAM were light years into the future--those older model kits were first drawn up by drafting pens against T-squares, triangles, and "french curves" on vellum--no computer aided design back then, no laser scanning either. Tooling mockups were made in basswood blocks, 2-2.5 times larger than the production model kit as well. Tons and tons of hand work at every stage of the game. Tooling itself was cut on milling machines, using 3-dimensional pantographs which both created the 3D molds while being dialed in to reduce the shapes from say, a 1/10th scale mockup down to 1/25th scale, all the while translating a "male" 3D mockup to a "female" injection molding cavity. With all that, one should marvel at how well that all came about really!

I think the bottom line ought to be: Round2 (and AMT/Ertl before them, in their Blueprinter Series) never has (to the best of my knowledge) pitched this double kit as something new, the latest and greatest; but rather exactly for what it is, a reissue of a long hibernating model car kit from 50 years ago, that some people might just want to build another one of. It's neither fish nor fowl, neither a plastic blob nor the latest and greatest--but it is a "blat from the past" for a lot of modelers with more grey than color in their hair.

Art

[Daniej01]

I was wondering if anyone has built this model. If so what are your thoughts? Would like to see some pics if so.

[jbwelda]

well i built it as a kid, dont remember much about it but i do know i built multiple copies of the fiat and kitbashed it a lot, often with the revell parts pack and fiat body. as i recall i never had any problems, it fit together nicely, at least for a kid. i do not know about the current reissue but i would imagine its the same except for a couple re-engineered parts (tires, windows) and probably has more flash than the original did.

sorry if that didnt help much!

[cobraman]

Funny that you posted this. I just bought it an hour ago at Hobby Lobby. I built it as a child many years ago and as I remember it was good for the time. I am now 61 and maybe I am just trying to recapture my youth. I have been building a lot of the re-issues of older models lately. I have not yet popped it open so I can't confirm if there is a lot of flash or not. if there is, no big deal so I spend an evening cleaning up and maybe stripping some parts. It's part of the hobby.

[Daniej01]

Funny that you posted this. I just bought it an hour ago at Hobby Lobby. I built it as a child many years ago and as I remember it was good for the time. I am now 61 and maybe I am just trying to recapture my youth. I have been building a lot of the re-issues of older models lately. I have not yet popped it open so I can't confirm if there is a lot of flash or not. if there is, no big deal so I spend an evening cleaning up and maybe stripping some parts. It's part of the hobby.

lol I just got it today at hobby lobby.

[Nick Winter]

I have an Original Release box & instructions that I received with a bunch of original issues builders/parts and I'm wondering if the new AMT Retro Deluxe issue is the same? I've been wanting to build them like the original box art models, seems to be lately I'm wanting to do a lot of Box Art builds.

Thank You.

Nick

[Casey]

I think there are only minor differences, Nick, such as the red and green glass in the newer version.

[High octane]

Here is "gas" dragster that I built last year from the Double Dragster kit.

[Bernard Kron]

I’ve shown these before so apologies in advance. The AMT Double Dragster kit is a venerable classic with a very high level of detail and an accurate representation of early 60’s ¼ miler technology. The recent Round 2 re-issue was first released in the limited edition tin box and then in a cardboard box version. The two releases are largely the same with the important difference that the Tin Box comes with extra wheels, colored glass options, and a second copy of the chrome tree that contains the Chevy V8 blowers, injectors (both types) and exhausts, 12-spoke front wheels, front suspension, quick change, dragster rear wheels, etc. This is a significant uograde, IMHO, and makes the Tin Box well worth the extra cost. Both kits benefit from an excellent crefurbishing of the molds which make the kit largely crisp and flash free.

The extra parts allowed me to come up with a strategy to get 4 builds out of the Tin Box and take advantage of the extra dragster chassis rails to build a second digger as well as a second altered. For me the importance of this kit is in its excellent period detail and well-engineered construction quality and not its nostalgia for a kit that I might have built back in the day (although its potential in this regard is enormous).

Here’s the family picture of all four builds:



Here’s the breakdown on the four builds:

Tin Box #1 – AMT Parts Pack ‘25T Altered featuring the Altered chassis from the Tin Box and body and Pontiac motor from the AMT Competition Parts Pack.




Tin Box # 2 – Fiat Altered featuring the wheels, tires, roll cage, interior bits, Chrysler motor and Fiat body from the Tin Box with a scratch-built chassis.




Tin Box #3 – Side by Side Twin Engined Dragster – Almost entirely from the Tin Box with top mounted blowers.




Tin Box #4 – ’32 Bantam Competition Coupe with Tin Box chassis, aftermarket resin body, and hemi from my parts box.

[route66modeler]

a vendor had one of these for $15.00 at the louisville show. I just missed it. I guess the larger decals sheet only comes in the tin kit.

[High octane]

Yes the larger decals and colored glass only comes with the tin kit.