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Mark

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Everything posted by Mark

  1. For some reason the roof never bothered me (having some of the annual kits as well as a couple of promos), but the curvature of the quarter windows does bug me. The side glass on the Duster/Demon/Dart Sport is more curved than that of a Dart or Valiant, but the quarter windows on the newer Duster look too curved to me. The annuals might be a bit flat, that might magnify the difference in comparison.
  2. I've got a similar setup on the Toyota I bought last month. As cold as it has been in the past week, I haven't used it and don't really intend to. Given a choice, I'd really rather have an engine block heater.
  3. Tootsietoy, probably late Sixties or early Seventies.
  4. Walmart purged model kits from their shelves after the 2007 holiday season, give or take a year. According to the UPC bar codes, they didn't move off of the shelves before they actually had to pay for them. Toys R Us got rid of them before that if I remember right, I do remember they had massive quantities of AMT new tool '57 Chevy kits and they were blowing those out at three for ten bucks. My buying lately has been a mix of local, online, and at shows. I would like to do more locally, but local has to meet me halfway. When I see new items marked up over retail, when I can have it sitting on my porch in a couple of days for a few bucks less...local loses every time.
  5. Great to see Humbrol enamels still available. I have had no luck at all airbrushing them, but they are my go-to for brush application on small parts. Their silver enamel actually dries, unlike Testors. I haven't tried Tamiya enamels yet, as neither of the hobby shops locally have gotten it in yet. If it's as good as their other paints, they will become another choice versus the dwindling/neglected Testors line.
  6. Not sure what the rim width would be, but you should be able to turn up the specs somewhere online. In the early Seventies, my older brother ran a '66 Chevelle in NHRA Modified Production class. He ran VW Beetle tires on the front, on Fenton aluminum slotted wheels that were 4" wide as I recall. (If I had to guess, I'd put the stock VW rims at 4" or maybe 4-1/2" width.) That was around the time drag racers seemed to be more conscious of rolling resistance on front wheels. More people seemed to be running taller/narrower tires up front, and aftermarket vendors like Jere Stahl were offering such tires (which were probably just rebranded cheaper tall/narrow street tires).
  7. The Harley, Honda, and BSA were only available fully chromed in the USA parts packs. The Triumph was available plated or unplated (20 cents less). I have a Revell of England boxed kit with two Triumphs, one plated and one not. I have seen a similar two-Harley kit, not sure if that one was one plated/one plain as with the Triumphs.
  8. I have seen more pics of 1:1 units that resemble the MPC kit piece, than ones resembling the Petty '64 unit. The NASCAR piece in Jo-Han Mopar kits is squared off like the MPC one as I recall.
  9. The only available cement is MPC Notox. Smells like lemon, sticks like...lemon. When disassembling builtups assembled with it, you still get a whiff of lemon upon separating the parts.
  10. The stock engine has two carburetors, as did all stock 426 Hemis 1966-71. The NASCAR engines had one carb, this air cleaner attached to it.
  11. The Harley was always the toughest of the Parts Pack cycles to get. My older brother was an avid model car builder back then, he told me he never had one because he never could find one. The parts packs came to the hobby shops in assortments, with maybe two of a particular item in a shipment. Someone always found them first.
  12. Michael's around here has seldom had a very good kit selection in recent years. They'll have only a few different kits, but several of each on the shelf. They whacked the Testors selection way back last year, replacing the normal enamel sprays with brainstorms like "temporary paint" and "glitter". Only a couple of months later, the brainstorm items were in the clearance area. But the regular stuff never came back. I can’t remember the last time I bought a kit at Michael's.
  13. My local shop relocated at the end of 2022, the new location did not open until October for myriad reasons. They haven't restocked Tamiya sprays yet. I also heard prior to the relocation that Humbrol enamels might be going away due to changing EU regulations. From what I have heard, Humbrol uses too much of whatever it is that makes Humbrol level out prior to drying (which makes it my favorite for brush application to small parts). One other thing I haven't seen there, or at Hobby Lobby, is white Milliput putty. HL has the dark green Milliput, but not the white.
  14. The Monogram '55 pickup and panel truck weren't stock, they had a later small-block engine.
  15. Monogram's switch to 1/25 for car kits came in 1993 with the '59 Eldorado convertible kit.
  16. A relative of mine used to keep a ball peen hammer in his car, in case someone parked too close and prevented him from being able to open the drivers' side door. It was dubbed "the windshield hammer", when it was used it was applied right in the driver's line of sight...
  17. These. Every decent size automotive swap meet will have at least one vendor selling cheap tools, and one of them will have a bin full of these in various shapes.
  18. The older kits were molded using bigger machines. As I understand, overseas kit production uses smaller groups of tooling injected using multiple smaller machines. Not sure what the reasoning is, but it is what it is.
  19. The individual bags of white/unplated parts likely each contain the output of one molding machine. The axles and (if any) other metal items like screws or hood clips are packaged in another area (probably in advance) so those will be bagged separately. Clear and tinted clear parts are also made separately from the main portion of the kit, so those too will be bagged separately to avoid scratches and loss of individual parts. They wouldn't do it if it weren't necessary.
  20. The window piece for the chopped top doesn't fit particularly well, especially at the back.
  21. The wheelbase of the AMT F-350 Camper Special is a scale 8" longer than that of a regular F-100 pickup. As for the short bed version of any pickup versus the long bed, the thing to do there is get data on both (brochure, online) and just figure out the differences.
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