Brett Barrow

My home computer is fried, so I can only get on the internet at work, I would have posted some pics. Hope Santa brings me a new computer!!!

By "the old folks" I meant the previous groups of people in charge of AMT/Ertl, not just plain "old folks" like you. Old Folks do realize how important good box art is to a kit!

They're shipping now, should be in shops this week, along with the Titan 90, Lil' Stogie, and the '51 Chevy convertible. I work for a distributor, so I get a couple days head-start! Since this one is the first kit that's not just a straight reissue, I was interested in what they'd do differently than the original boxings.

Got my '60 Starliner today, if this is what we're to expect from the new crew running AMT, WOW! It finally looks like someone in charge gets it. You get gorgeous '60's inspired box art (which sells more kits than the old folks* realized) , a fold-up "mini-box", a good-sized (about 3") AMT sticker, and..... Oh, yeah! - The plastic kit! You actually get the parts from both original '90's AMT/Ertl boxings (stock and custom) in one box, now in a shinier and whiter plastic than AMT/Ertl had been using, all for a suggested retail of $17.95, - not too shabby, sure you'll see lower street prices out there. Also as a neat touch you get pre-painted whitewalls on the stock tires, not plastic inserts, but tampo printed right on the tire. I think we've finally got some real car modelers calling the shots and I can't wait to see what's coming from the "new AMT". *the previous owners of AMT/Ertl, not senior citizens in general!

It's covered in Sharpie marks, I can tell you that! I won't comment on anything based on test-shots, because I've seen first-hand how much they change til production. According to "unnamed sources" it will be out on display at iHobby, in the Stevens/Trumpeter booth, of course, right on the main aisle. I wouldn't be totally shocked if Trumpeter showed up with a built-up, they always bring a few surprises! Me too !

Thanks, those parts would help, but there's more to a '51 than just the grille and dash, the hood trim is different, as is the front end/grille opening , it's closer to the '53-'56 . I think these would make good custom parts for a '53-'56 , but it's not a full conversion. I'm sure these are what i saw in SA, but the wording "conversion for '50" made me think there was more to it. Right now I'm leaning towards a 1/18 scale Welly die-cast '51 re-paint. I'd rather stick to 24/25th scale plastic, but my grandad has more die-casts than plastic built-ups anyway.

Thought I saw someone offering a '51 conversion for Revell's '50 F1 kit a while back in SA's truck column, but I can't recall who made it. I want to do some of the 1:1 pick-up's my Grandad has (or has had) while he's still around, really wanted to do the '55 F100 he and my uncle are working on now, but the Revell '55 is such a beast, I could use an AMT '53, but I'd rather build the super-nice Revell '50, but he never had a '48-'50 Ford(though there is a '49 in his junkyard). He's got a '51 that's next in line for a restoration, plus I love the looks of the '51 so much.

A test shot exists. I've seen it with my own eyes It'll be at the iHobby Expo next week in Chicago, don't know if it will be on public display or only out for trade days(or if it's super-duper top-secret and I shouldn't have said anything ).

Thanks! Funny, the other one doesn't need watering, either, cause it's now concrete and asphalt! Martinsville had long been paved by the time I was born, but I do remember when the stands were all concrete and about the size of a high-school football stadium. Used to be free to go to anything but races, I must have gone to watch testing and qualifying with my granddad a million times as a kid. He always called 'em Grand Nationals, too, but to me they're forever Winston Cup. I hate the term "NASCARS"!

You could have left the line - the wheels are forged magnesium and have a parting line on the real things - but not all contest judges would know that They're also powder-coated in real life, so I like to give them a super-heavy coat of paint to get that same look on the model. You've nailed it on this model. I think your paint choices will look great, as the Tamiya decals aren't as flourescent as some of the aftermarket versions of this paint job. Flourescents don't come across in photography anyway so I think your colors will better represent the way the bike looked on TV and in print. I think Tamiya bike kits are great - large-scale detail and engineering at a fraction of the cost of their large-scale car kits - easier to display, too! Did you use some sort of carbon-fiber effect on the gas tank and seat support? It looks spot-on!

Thanks for replying, Bluesman, I really appreciate it! I'm a little more of a "scientific" modeler, where some are more "artistic". I like to know something has worked for someone else, and that if I reproduce it in my workshop it will work for me also. That's why that article has stuck in my head for these years, it was very precise, you know, like "8 parts Testor's #1234 + 1 part #5678 thinned with DuPont thinner 70%" I love that kind of info. I go through enough trials and make enough errors as it is! But I learn a lot from the 'net and magazine articles that I would have never thought to try myself. I was hoping to start a thread that the other "scientific" guys out there would get some use out of, too, you know, to turn this into a sort of depository of little paint-detailing tricks that other members use when painting and weathering their engine bays and chassis, and to come away with some fresh new techniques that I could try when I get back home(I'm away on vacation this week) and get back to the workbench. As for the Andrea Colors, I use the very similar Vallejo, as the hobby shop I work in carries them (employee discount - woohoo!), and I love them, they are the best hand-brushing acrylic paint I've ever used by a long shot. I have almost every color they make - I even have a really cool paint carrying case and an actual paint chip fan book my boss brought me back from a trade show, some of the perks of working in the hobby world! However, I dont like Vallejo's metallics, I prefer Citadel(Games Workshop) or enamels when hand-brushing. I hear good things about craft store brands like Ceramcoat, Folk Art, and Apple Barrel, but as I'm already at the hobby shop everyday, I tend to use what we carry. For folks that don't have a well-stocked LHS they seem like a great(and cheaper) alternative. And to Olle F and ubermodel - I love Testor's Black Chrome, too, I used it a lot back when I used enamels. It's a unique color, both in shade and sheen, it's not a true black. I wish they made it in the Acryl line. I use their Aircraft Interior Black a lot now, but it's a tick more grey and flatter. TS-29 and also TS-6 matt black I use a lot, too, I'll spray bomb most of the chassis stuff still on the sprue and pick out the details later in the build. I think the key to realistic paint detailing is to use as many different shades of black and silver as you can find, each one has a little different color and sheen and helps to show that on the real car the parts are separate, not one piece as they might be on the model, or that a hose is really made out of rubber and a radiator support is really painted metal. And I never thought about painting blocks flat or semi-gloss, that's a great tip. Those red and blue blocks really jump out when the paint is super glossy, they always get a "dirty thinner" wash to try to tone them down some, but painting them semi-gloss will help even more, as the wash will also stain the flatter surface rather than just collect in the recesses. And I'll also throw out a technique of my own, rather than just mooch off of others: - for cad-plated parts like brake boosters and master cylinder lids, first paint in a pale gold shade, like Tamiya X-31 or Alclad Pale Gold, then, using Testor's square-bottle metal flake red and green, unstirred, make a very thin wash/glaze out of the carrier liquid and thinner and apply random blotches of both colors over the pale gold, leaving some areas untouched, but never mixing the red and green with each other. I've been known to paint brake boosters and master cylinders this way, even if the real car had them painted black!

Wow, I wish I had been a member of this forum when this was first posted, as July 2nd is my birthday! The King has always been my hero and I never knew we shared a birthday. I was born and raised in Martinsville, Va, where he won 15 times - for 12 of those wins he received the famous grandfather clock, made by the nearby Ridgeway Clock Co., where my mom worked as director of customer service and quality control for many years. It was always a childhood dream that he'd need us to come down to Level Cross to work on one of those clocks, but it never happened! Great post!

Hello, I found this forum a week or two ago while looking for some reviews of Revell's '08 Shelby GT500, saw some familiar and much respected (by me, at least)names here and thought I'd sign up and join the fun. I've been wrenching on my R/C cars all spring and summer and now that fall's aproaching I feel like getting back into scale modeling. I've been into several segments of scale modeling the past few years, but I think now I'm going to commit myself fully to car modeling, as it was where I started and I think it's what I'm best at. I work for a hobby distributor, most of the time for our retail store. I didn't give my location, as it would give away who I work for, and I don't want anything I post here to reflect on my employer. I'm a pretty low-level guy there and not really in-the-loop when it comes to industry matters, anyway. I enjoy working in the business, though after a long day spent around models sometimes the last thing I want to do is work on one at home, so my builds usually progress at a glacial pace! I build primarily OOB, I'll do anything - from rat rods to MotoGP bikes, often the quality of a kit is more important than subject - I will buy a well-engineered kit, even if the real-life subject doesn't interest me that much, the GT500 being a case in point, not a big fan of the real Mustang, but I think Revell and Jada's kits are great and I have them both. When I get my workbench cleared of all my R/C stuff these will be the first projects I'll start, I'll be sure to post them here. I also started a thread on the tips and tricks page looking for some engine and chassis paint detailing colors, would love to get some responses in that. Thanks Brett

Well, I didn't want to come right out and ask for that on a competing publication's forum! But I think Tim Boyd may have written that article, it was certainly in the same vein as his articles, in fact it was the pic of the headers of his Mustang in the current SAE that made me think of the old one. If he's the author, maybe it'd be OK to post here? I would just order a copy but Kalmbach/SAE don't list the contents of all the Car Modeler annuals on their site, so I'm not sure which one it was in (think it was 99) or even if I'm mistaken and it was a regular SAE article. I thought this thread would get a little more action, maybe it's because I'm a noob! Or maybe I need to be more specific about what I'm looking for, I really just want a good mix for cast-iron headers! I thought I'd be fun to expand the topic and create a thread with all kinds of engine compartment and chassis detailing colors, rather than just asking about one specific thing.

I see a lot of good work out there, both in print and on the 'net, where modelers use custom mixes for things like rusty/heat-stained headers, carbs, cad-plated items, etc... but they never seem to give the readers the mix! Or they'll say "I used various shades or Alclad" - well what shades exactly?!?!? I remember a Car Modeler annual from a few years back that had a great article on detailing Ford FE engines that had a chart with mixes for things like rubber hoses and iron headers and the right way to paint alternators and all that, exactly what I need, but I can't find my copy. I'm not asking for a post of that article, but for y'all to post some of your favorite underhood and chassis colors(or a link to another thread if this has been done before) Thanks! Brett

Cool! I immediatly thought of this scheme when I saw the retro-Sunoco article in SAE a few issues back. I'll do mine with raw metal side-pipes and unpolished five-spoke mags, I like that better than the yellow-painted ones. We had the Revell Make 'n Take event at the hobby shop I work in earlier this year, I got to help build several of these, what's there really does blow AMT's out of the water, the interior is beautiful and it even has brake discs, unheard of for a snap-kit. Just enlarge all the holes for the locator pins and it goes together well. Plus the metal axles are a couple millimeters too long(that or they don't go all the way into their holes). Ditto on the Tamiya tape comments, lots of folks get the full-on sales pitch from me! I think the Revell snap-kits make great paint-test subjects, the last model I finished was a '34 Ford I painted just to try out a particular Tamiya color combination - I needed to see it on something larger than a plastic spoon!