Jump to content
Model Cars Magazine Forum

What did you get today? (Model Car Related Items)


Recommended Posts

 

Found this Model Factory Hiro Abarth 1300OT, had to spring for it. No telling when or if I'll ever find another one for reasonable money. 

hl010_002_b.jpg

 
I was crew chief on a team that raced one back eons ago. We bought the car for around 10 grand from the eccentric but near-legendary Fiat/Abarth wizard Al Cosentino, when he was headquartered in Florida. He'd had a number of DNFs with it, including an ill-fated start at the Daytona 24. Out after 3 laps, down on power and overheating IIRC.
 
The car was based on a Simca 1000 platform, heavily modified, with lots of Fiat 850 bits, slick all fiberglass baby-Ferrari bodywork, built to a 1300cc prototype specification in 1965. For the most part, it was obsolete by the time we got it, but it made a pretty flashy C Sports Racer in SCCA...and 1300 OTs had an impressive competition history in Europe, including (I believe) a class win at LeMans in '66 or '67.
 
Naturally, my mission when we got it home was to find out what was wrong. All the specs and tech notes we had were in Italian, so one of my first jobs was to go down the road to Ga. Tech and find someone who could translate them. Turns out the cams were retarded quite a few degrees. The cams in this particular engine rotate opposite to crankshaft rotation, and apparently whoever set the thing up didn't realize it...though you couldn't help but notice as you turned the engine through. Cam timing is dialed in via a Vernier sprocket / cam interface that will be familiar to any old Alfa or Jag mechanics out there, and this engine was my first exposure to a cast steel block, as opposed to cast iron. Anyway, after getting the cam timing where it was supposed to be, I took her for a long test run through the late-night back streets of downtown Atlanta, and she went like a scalded ape.
 
Running at close to redline on the way back to the shop, one of the sprocket retainer bolts backed out (having apparently been previously partially stripped by some ham-hander along the line). The little Vernier bolt wasn't enough to keep everything in time, and she bent every valve...bad. There were only two valves per cylinder, but they were huge for such a small engine, running in hemispherical chambers. It ran Weber 45 DCO-series carbs, with something like 150 HP at 8800 RPM. At about 1500 pounds, it had a similar power-to-weight ratio as a big-block Corvette, and by any reckoning was a real little screamer.
 
After lots of phone calls and Telexes to Italy, we located the required parts, including a replacement camshaft, as its internal threads were also stripped. We had everything air-freighted in, and after a few long days she was ready to load on the trailer at 03:00 for an initial outing at Savannah the next day. I drove the transporter, and with no sleep, spent the test session jetting the carbs for the hot, muggy conditions. We still had no proper cover for the fuel cell, but tech allowed us to run with a plate duct-taped in place, as the chief tech in the Atlanta SCCA region was a friend of the car's owner. EDIT: though a fuel cell cover plate is an easy part for me to make now, I was not a fabricator at this point...other than being able to make simple gas-welded sheet steel things like throttle return-spring brackets, etc.
 
He took her out...the first time he'd been in the thing...and finished a very respectable third on the intermediate tires that came on it, so hard as to be almost unusable. Little car finished every race she ran with me wrenching, never lower than 3rd.
 
I'm pretty sure she survived, but I lost track of her when the owner and I parted company after he got in a little legal trouble.
 
Old geezers livin' in the past, ya know?   ;)
 
Edited by Ace-Garageguy
TYPO
  • Like 5
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/3/2022 at 3:14 PM, cobraman said:

This arrived today . Looks like a nice kit . I only hope I can do it justice . The wire wheels are beautiful . Came from Portugal quicker than stuff I order from here in the states !  Should look good in blue with Cobra stripes and Cobra wheels .  I am only kidding about the Cobra stuff . Will build it as close to what it should be with my limited talents . Cost too much to screw up ! 

[...]

I got that last August, it is a nice kit.  Is there a blemish above the right rear wheel near the roof?  I plan to kitbash with a Revell 612 Scaglietti, about the same size wheelbase and everything else.

Had to try this circuit board holder, $13.30 is cheaper than a kit.
 

IMG_3169.jpg

Edited by 89AKurt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Sledsel said:

My $50 flea market "bundle" Cougar sealed, others sealed inside. Happy Happy Joy Joy

IMG_20220109_173114139.jpg

Very lucky on your find! We don't have anything like this in the UK, most of it's rare and when you do find something it's super overpriced!

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the Atlantis repop of the mooneyes dragster, have to say I’m not super impressed.

with all the hype about this I guess I was expecting a lot better, the amount of flash and sink marks is discouraging. However it is a great source of some really cool parts.

 

5420ADE2-A853-46E8-88F2-AA7EFCB4688E.jpeg

C0AB8FED-99F8-471C-9B1F-7D35F3807365.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, Bullybeef said:

Got the Atlantis repop of the mooneyes dragster, have to say I’m not super impressed.

with all the hype about this I guess I was expecting a lot better, the amount of flash and sink marks is discouraging. However it is a great source of some really cool parts.

Even the ancient issues took a fair bit of "extra" work to build really good models, but they still strike me as worth the effort, as there's no other source for this particular chassis design...very popular back in the dark ages...to the best of my knowledge.

Liking the old flathead in there too...   :D

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Even the ancient issues took a fair bit of "extra" work to build really good models, but they still strike me as worth the effort, as there's no other source for this particular chassis design...very popular back in the dark ages...to the best of my knowledge.

Liking the old flathead in there too...   :D

 

Thank you Bill, I do like the look of a flathead in a lot of cars, the engine design is just appealing. And a potvin blown flathead has just got to sound bitchin.

42C3D63B-9B41-4BA2-B1C0-F4E20FB3C081.jpeg

A9A8AFF2-D9BD-4571-BB7D-82318A7BCA4A.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Took a trip to Hobby Lobby this morning with my $50 Christmas gift. Picked up the AMT 1967 Mustang GT, AMT 1969 Torino Cobra Fastback, and another Revell 1968 Dodge Charger R/T. Initial inspection has me really liking the looks of the Mustang kit. When I first went down the aisle, I noticed that the automotive kits were cut down by 8-12 feet and the military section was enlarged by that same amount. Must be they sell more planes, ships and tanks company-wide than autos?

DSCN9577.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Rusty92 said:

All my supplies arrived today. 
 

0EF1592D-E684-4C9A-BD18-7ECE2E05E76F.thumb.jpeg.0bb9ea489de2c58332d3291e62db3bea.jpeg



Nice supply haul..

11 hours ago, Bullybeef said:

Thank you Bill, I do like the look of a flathead in a lot of cars, the engine design is just appealing. And a potvin blown flathead has just got to sound bitchin.

42C3D63B-9B41-4BA2-B1C0-F4E20FB3C081.jpeg

A9A8AFF2-D9BD-4571-BB7D-82318A7BCA4A.jpeg

 

 

nice work so far..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

Picked these up for what I think was a steal. 100% complete, bags sealed, and they look pretty good. Haven't been able to find any pics of a completed kit though. Other than what's on the box. 

$20 CDN for the pair, about $16 US.

20220111_122008.thumb.jpg.e8eef0c2126e89e1ca8f21cf3af92889.jpg

are they some of the pirate tamiya kits? I had the calibra and it was very obvious it was a almost straight rip off from the tamiya kit

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, stitchdup said:

are they some of the pirate tamiya kits? I had the calibra and it was very obvious it was a almost straight rip off from the tamiya kit

The pirate kits were branded LEE, which were direct rip offs. The Ben Hobby were legitimate. Tamiya attempted to sell into the the China market by using this branding. Great score Dan. To find a finished model you just need to look for finished Tamiya 936s.

Edited by Bill Eh?
sp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 hours ago, stitchdup said:

are they some of the pirate tamiya kits? I had the calibra and it was very obvious it was a almost straight rip off from the tamiya kit

 

12 hours ago, Bill Eh? said:

The pirate kits were branded LEE, which were direct rip offs. The Ben Hobby were legitimate. Tamiya attempted to sell into the the China market by using this branding. Great score Dan. To find a finished model you just need to look for finished Tamiya 936s.

 

 

I have a Lee model kit. Incredibly obvious, low quality ripoff of a Tamiya Mercedes 560. Also have an HK Miya ripoff of the same kit. 

These Ben Hobby kits seem like much higher quality. And they seem virtually identical to Tamiya. The packaging, the instructions, even the paint suggestions use Tamiya X and XF paint numbers.

I've seen plenty of finished Tamiya kits, but no  Ben  Hobby kits. And from what you're saying and what I can see, I'm guessing this Ben kit will be exactly like the Tamiya. 

Anyway, will get one of these on the bench sooner rather than later, just because.

:)

20220111_220116.thumb.jpg.4b12244f4722884c54c99bc89410e663.jpg

20220111_220124.thumb.jpg.f9046099d13356dbe7bf432a1a9a8dc4.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 minutes ago, iamsuperdan said:

...These Ben Hobby kits seem like much higher quality. And they seem virtually identical to Tamiya. The packaging, the instructions, even the paint suggestions use Tamiya X and XF paint numbers.

According to several random posts on the interdwerbs, the Ben Hobby kits were indeed reboxings of Tamiya offerings. One fella even went on to say Ben Hobby was a Tamiya subsidiary concocted to sell kits in mainland China.

And of course, if it's on the interdwerbs, it has to be true.  ;)

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMG_7639.thumb.JPG.98d846f728723f0715c840eafe104941.JPG

Had this one as a kid in the exact packaging and picked it up on eBay for a little less than a new kit. I love this era of Monogram kit boxes. 

IMG_7638.thumb.JPG.7ddf65fda6a6d62646bbfdc91d7c028b.JPG

Hobby Lobby had their 40% off sale this week so I picked this up. The 40% off sale brings this $29.99 kit back down to $17.99. I'm thinking stock gas station truck, minty blue with grey interior for this one. Did I need it? No. But I think it's important to buy this stuff to support the hobby and keep it going when you can.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Stopped off at the dollar store (now the $1.25 store) to get some chepo paint brushes for my flocking adhesive. Always alot of stuff for model building there. These glass bottles are the exact same ones you get in the hobby store only smaller which is good because I often only mix some colors up in smaller amounts. Always hit the dollar store.

20220112_124432.thumb.jpg.614b55cad763772277c17584b90689c1.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • ranma changed the title to Bought two totes with model's in them at the US 127 Garage sales:: here's what was inside of them...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...