Phirewriter

I'm still blessed with having Model Empire in my back yard. Hopefully they won't be going away anytime soon. Speaking of Chicago, I do miss Al's and Venture Hobby!

Ah, good! Too many people seem to have the opinion that they're entitled to other people's things nowadays. Nice looking bikes by the way, I unfortunately let my Grey Ghost 5speed go a number of years ago when I needed money for medical expenses. Still have my Orange Krate and a phantom Grape Krate custom built.

Wow, as many times as I was in the Chicago area in my youth I don't recall ever seeing that! In addition to all the LHS's we've lost, the Milwaukee area had some great independent toy stores that had all models and diecast a budding auto enthusiast could want. As a collector of vintage diecast (Redline Hot Wheels, Lesney era Matchbox, Corgi, etc...) I really miss those places too. We even had a couple of bike stores that carried models, I could get my plastic and Stingray fix in one visit.

Joe, do you have someone in your apartment community that is tied to it's security? We've had problems in the past with some residents who've had friends/relatives with nefarious intentions. We were generally able to deal with any situations with our management company. I wasn't to enthusiastic about moving to a condo for numerous reasons but it does have it's upsides sometimes.

It is in fact close to 1/18 unfortunately, but a cool kit none the less. I don't collect 1/18 but have a few muscle cars from my late father that would look good towing it.

Very cool, hopefully nothing happens to them. I collect Krate bikes and muscle bikes too, have some of them hanging on my garage wall (amongst other automobilia, collectables and motorcycles). My garage is my retreat and workshop. I should be able to make it nice and not have people snooping around. I can't tell you how often, if I happen to leave the door open and run upstairs for a moment, come back to find people IN my garage thinking that they're going to be able to buy or ? The joys of living in an unsecure condo development I guess. They act shocked and surprised when I tell them to get the heck out, never come back and if I see them hanging around I will call whom ever is necessary to deal with the situation. I'm not running a shop/showroom for their benefit. Good thing I've got an alarm system (and other personal protection) People have no boundaries anymore.

Nice job, love Deal's Wheels kits. Hopefully when the dust settles on this current fiasco we'll see more down the road.

Excellent!

Talk to any person in the southeastern Wisconsin area who has any kind of hobby (models, R/C, trains, etc...) And they'll probably have an interesting Happy Hobby story.

I had asked about scanning items a while back and was told the following by the person I usually deal with... They basically have most of the items in the store on sale at various times during the week (if you get their daily email updates you'll understand) and reprogramming sale prices would be a logistical nightmare. Guess it's been their business model for quite some time and doesn't seem likely to change any time soon.

Jimmy Flintstone has a Ranchero in his line that uses the current Del Rio kit. Only one version for now with the Custom 300 trim.

Yeah although the nostalgic side of me would have liked a original style (scale) repop, I've found the current edition an incredible parts mine for some projects. Many of the chassis parts can be used with old Revell parts pack chassis (got a small hoard of various styles) and have been messing around with bashing them. I've got a few of the dragster and roadster accessories packs but given they go for a small fortune I'd rather use the parts from this. I'm happy they made the effort to bring this out regardless of some issues.

Anyone make a kit of the 512S in 1/25? I've got a number of diecast in 1/43 and a few of the Hot Wheels versions.

Clearly you've never dealt with Dennis from Happy Hobby on 78th and Burleigh. Was told to leave if I was just looking and not buying anything. That was only a few years ago.

Outstanding! Love the concept and execution. What format are you making the faux box artwork in?

Thanks for all the kind words guys!!

Wow that's nice!! Got one started, think it's time to get back to it.

Built these awhile back but am slowly digging out my builds now that I have new displays to put them in. The blue one is oob from the Galaxie LTD re-release. Painted House of Kolor lacquer; candy oriental blue over a half-half mix of gold and silver base with 2k clear. The other was a original kit-glue bomb completed with a parts bin raid. The motor is from an original issue AMT T, velocity stacks front wheels/tires and axle from?? The headers I believe are 4 banger items from the Revell '31 Model A while the rear wheels and tires used to live on a Edmunds modified build. The roll bar is polished aluminium tubing. The paint is a vintage pearl from the late 50's or early 60's I got in a number of boxes of custom paint and pearls from a friend of my dad's when he closed his body shop in the early 80's. The candy magenta also comes from this score and I believe is Metalflake brand. In keeping with the vintage flavour l did the clear with wet sanded and polished RM lacquer. Got a nice little stash of vintage paint carefully stored, amazing that it's still usable for the most part after 50 some years.

Looks great! The T'Rantula is one of my favourite TD designs. Probably built 3 or 4 in my wayward youth.

Devins and Bocars show up regularly at the historic races at Road America. I'm fortunate to live in reasonable distance and go to these events when I can. The last event I was able to attend had the Cheetah reunion, those were something to see racing. Going to the vintage motorcycle event tomorrow, could go to events all summer if work and life didn't get in the way.

Thanks Bill, the negative speculation, constant criticism is becoming somewhat tedious lately. There's so many factors that effect this and many other hobbies that we have no control over. The Hobbico situation has hit quite a few R/C guys I know and I don't see the same amount of doom and gloom from them. They're just adjusting and keeping on keeping on. I sometimes wonder if people new to the hobby come here and wonder what the heck are they're getting into.

The hobby hit a bad spot after the slot car crash in the 60's and again in the late 70's I'm old enough to remember that and it always seemed to bounce back to one degree or another. It may not come back the way we'd like to see it but it will given time. I'm one of those guys who's been in it for a long time and have amassed a almost ridiculous collection, so fine... if there's never another kit produced I'll be ok. That said I'm not going to be negative about it. We're in a spot of uncertainty right now, given time we'll see what happens and go from there. No reason to get negative, doom and gloomy about it. As it's been pointed out here, we're (US) not the only market and the hobby seems to be fairly strong in other parts of the world. It's certainly not as though every model company is standing on its last legs. The Revell fiasco was unfortunate but was due to corporate issues from their parent company and not Revell itself. If you have kids or know someone who does try to get them involved. That's one way to do something to make a difference in the future. Be patient, enjoy and build what you have and see what happens down the road.

From this version comes the Model A grill. (Google photo)

My father was an engineer and probably was why he got into models and vintage car restorations in the late 50's he had a love of cars. He was definitely a hands on hobbyist. Although I didn't follow him into that field he instilled a lot of that type of thinking in me.