unclescott58

I'm wondering if Revell or anyone else will consider making a new Jeep Gladiator? I really like that vehicle, and would love to see a model of it.

Non Catholic. Learned it in public school. The beatings came at home. But that's another story we don't need to talk about here. I'm sure part of it came from being a little dyslexic. I'm neat but slow when writing in cursive. If it's not written neatly, I have a hard time reading it. Rearly use it today. I print even better. Dreamed of being a architect when I was in junior high and high school. So I learned to print beautifully. Today, I work in a high school with special education kids. All the hand written things I do for them, and even for "regular" kids is printed out. Because we live a computer age, the kids haven't be taught cursive writing in many, many years. It's becoming a lost art. I have mixed feels about that. By the way, even if the kids today don't know cursive. They sure know how to at least curse! One of the ways world has changed that I'm not please with. P.S. It's not just the kids cursing too much today. Most adults are just as bad. If not worst.

I too bought the above at the time. The Revell model, the "Man in Space" book, the "wall chart" poster that came with it were great. The other science books you got later? Not so much. Both the Man in Space book, the the poster, a couple of the other books, and the "library case", can be seen on display at the high school I work at. I have a display case at Spring Lake Park, MN's high school, where several of my more "educational" models, etc. are on display. The original model is long gone. But, last year I bought the latest reissue, and a copy of the old instructions, and built kit according to those instructions. Asseen in the photo below. That model is not on display at the high school. I have a more accurate model of the moon landing there.

That is my handwriting, making note of the day Mr. Nader signed it. I knew at the time if I didn't note the date, I was sure to forget it.

After a talk at the University of Minnesota in the late '80s I got him to autograph my copy of Unsafe At Any Speed. By coincidence, I was writing my paper on history of Corvair at the time. I naturally disagreed with the conclusions in his book. But, I liked the man, and found him to be sincere. And if one really looks at the true history the Corvair, his book did not have as much to do demise of the car, as the Ford Mustang did. Mustang and Chevy's response, the Camaro, were the cake of Corvair's death. Nader's book, was just icing on that cake.

As most people here know. I have other hobbies besides building model cars. I also have a very small N Scale Train layout in my basement. Recently, in the last couple of weeks, I picked up some more N scale building kits to add to my layout. The three I got are all part of the Walthers Cornerstone series of N scale of building kits. I love their kits. In general, they look like real buildings you'd find here in the United States. They go together quite nicely. The details are perfect for N scale. And in several of their kits, the give you options to build the kits in slightly different ways. The first kit I'm showing is their "Classic Car Restoration" shop. Kit #933-3824. A very nice kit I built without any paint. I love the decals in front windows. The first one reads, "Have Your Favorite Car." Second, "Brought Back to Like-New Condition!" Third, "We Restore them All!" Fourth, "From Model Ts to... Vipers." There are a few options in this kit to build the kit a few different ways. Mainly a different rear wall without the extra garage door. The only problem I had with this one. On the very last billboard light, as I was cutting the neck part for it from the sprue. I dropped it. Losing it somewhere on the floor. I'm going to contact Walthers and see if they'll help me replace that one tiny part. The second model is their "Vintage Dairy Queen." Kit #933-3845. Again, another nice kit. This one I did have to paint a few details. The roof sign is very nice. No decals required. The Dairy Queen sign comes as you see it. Preprinted. I had no problems at all building this one. The only option given in this kit is blank generic shaped sign you can use on the roof. The third kit is their "American Bungalow." Kit #933-3889. Again, it's as nice to build as the other two. To me it's a very cute little 1 1/2 story house. That comes with a nice detached 1 car garage. The basic house and garage walls were molded in a very pale yellow. Not the blue shown on the box art. And since I love blue, I had to do some painting. This kit came with several options. As seen on its box art, it comes with a second, enclosed front porch option. Which I though was ugly. When I bought it, I knew it came with the option of another porch. And the in the Walther catalog they show the their basically same HO scale kit with a nice (to me) opened porch. I took the chance that that was the option in the N scale kit. With few differences, it is. Another option in this kit is to build it without the two side dormers. A third option is leave garage door open. In fact the garage was pretty nice detail on the inside walls of the garage. You can see the inside wall frames. Problems? Nothing major. I discovered after I finished it, if you look closely, I put two the side widows in upside down. Though in N scale this is very hard to see. Most, if any will ever notice it. Also there was the very minor of a pain of having to cut out the glazing representing the window glass in this kit. It's very similar to the glazing used in several of the older Revell kits. I thought it would ridiculous to try cutting window glass for small basement windows in the foundation of the house. So I chose to do those with Testors' Model Master Clear Parts Cement & Window Maker. And that worked just fine. They look fine, when they dried.

From what I recall, the recent repops do have the correct box art of the originals. If I'm wrong, I like to know about it, and see what the originals really looked like. But, they both look right from everything I've seen.

Today I got two kits I have no intention of ever building. They are AMT's recent reissues of two Buicks. Their '65 Riviera. And '66 Wildcat. Two kits that I love. And have built a couple of each over the years. So why buy two more with the intention of never building them? The box art. They have restored the packaging basically back to their original box art designs. To box art designs I've liked, but never had the opportunity to buy back in the day. I've done this with at least one other kit. Their '71 "Birds of Paradise" Thunderbird they reissued a couple of years ago. It too will probably never be built by me. Like the Buicks, I have another previously built one. And did not need another. But, I liked the box art on that one too. I have bought other recent AMT and MPC kits because of the restoration of old style box art. But in those cases, always with the intention of someday building the kit within. In the three cases mentioned above, I just bought them for the love of the box art. In someways that seems kind of sad. I've always believe the purpose of buying models is to build them. Not just collect them. At the same time, it's kind of nice to now in life to have money and space to buy with collecting in mind.

I'm not sure how I feel about the overall looks of these kits. But, on several levels they are cool. And I may have to attemp building one someday.

Looks good. I like the Discoprise. Next to the original, it's my favorite version of the Enterprise. And the Polar Lights, as seen by your model, builds up into a very nice miniature of the ship.

The painting on the jacket really makes your model stand out. And you painted that yourself? I'm blown away! Your a phenomenal painter. I especially love Van Gogh's Starry Night. One of my all time favorite paintings. I did not expect to be overly impressed by a bust of Van Gogh. I figured it would be something showing Van Gogh with his head wrapped in bandages after he cut off his ear. I was nice see something that is completely and pleasantly different from what I expected. This is great. I'm very impressed. Thank you.

Interesting. A very nice job.

I love it. I built mine about a month ago. Both the Discovery and Enterprise build up very nicely. Though the decaling can seem a little much. But, a shown by your builds, it's worth the effort in the end. Very nice.

Very nice. Did you have to paint it? I got the impression from your first comments, it may have come prepainted. I like prepainted kits. It's takes care of one of my biggest, and least liked hassles in building some kits. The first photos you show, bring up another question. With the use of screws, does this kit have a diecast frame? Not that screws automatically mean diecast. I've been building a few plastic model that use screws in their assembly lately. But, the look of the frame in the photo, and your comment about color, make me wonder if it's painted and/or diecast. Either way, I like the end results. You built a very nice looking bike. Between your building skills, and the typical quality and design of Tamiya kits, it looks top notch. I'm impressed.

Wow! Looks great. I like it. I've have the Apple Krate version in my pile. Waiting for me to build up the courage to attempt to try building someday. I've heard so many stories about how hard these kits are to build. I'm more than a little intimidated by it. It's nice to see how beautiful your's turned out. I hope I do half as well when I build mine. Great job.

A couple of days ago, at a local Barnes and Noble, I found a new reproduction of the 1960 version of the game Life. I had to get it! Mainly because I hate that in the new versions the game, you use game pieces that are politically correct, soccer mom, mini vans. The reproduction version gives us back the convertibles with fins! I couldn't pass up a chance to drive my blue finned convertible around. With my pink plastic wife, and four or more plastic kids in the back. It's the way "Life" should be. The good "Life." In more ways than one.

In the last year or so, I've had a lot of fun, picking up and building several 4D Vision models. They are prepainted, and require little or no glue to build. No glue, because parts in some cases the kits are designed to come apart for better viewing of the internal parts. In general, they go together fairly well. With only a few minor problems here and there. Depending on the kit, they can be a little bit pricey. But, obviously with the number I've picked up, I feel they worth it. The best of bunch. And most expensive one I've picked up, is their 1/100 scale Saturn V cutaway model. I've built two of those over the last couple of years. One I've gave to a middle school science teacher for his classes. The other, I presently have on display at the high school I work at. So I'm not able presently to show you those. But I believe I've posted pictures of them in another thread here in the past.

Being out of work because of coronavirus. But, still be paid. I decided to go ahead this morning and order the Franzis' 1/4 scale Porsche 911 engine kit. Like I said above, I was so impressed with their Mustang motor, I couldn't resist buying the Porsche 911 version too. I'll post pictures here, when I'm through building it.

I'm liking what I seeing. Very cool.

Ah! Palmer kits. I have never purchased one myself. But, I sure got a few of them as gifts growing up. Well meaning, mainly older relatives and family friends who knew nothing about models, would give them to me. And in many cases, two at a time. I'm sure they thought two Palmer kits would be better than just one AMT or MPC kit, for the same amount of money. Little did they know. The only good thing I could say about Palmer, is they did offer a few subjects other model companies did not. I've always been a big fan of personal luxury cars. And was disappointed after 1971, that AMT quit offering kits of the latest Thunderbirds. Well, Palmer to the rescue! For Christmas of 1972, I got a new Palmer '73 Thunderbird. It was not great. But it at least look fairly close to the real thing. Plus, with its separate roof, it made it easy to paint it a separate color. Representing a vinyl roof. (Though I like the real '73 Thunderbird with a vinyl roof better.) Still, it and the other Palmers were bad. No two Palmer kits were ever worth the price of one AMT or MPC kit of the time.

I work in a school that's been on spring break for the last week. I was looking forward to going back to work this coming Tuesday. This morning our state's governor announced the closing of all our schools in the state. Starting this coming Wednesday. And going though to Friday, March 27. So a one week break, has now turned into a three week break for our kids and most of our staff. Oh well. I too plan on working mainly on models over the next two weeks. I've got most everything I need. Including now more time.

Here's two I just recently built. In fact, I just finished the Revell Visible V-8 last night. The Franzis Mustang V-8 I built in the evening about a week ago. I have more info in a thread I started in the large scale section here.

I am very much looking forward to the '64 F-85 Cutlass convertible kit. And I'll be very happy if it's brought back as close to original kit as possible. Including the metal axles and metal screws to hold the chassis to the body. I love those old 1960's AMT kits. They maybe "too" simple by today's standards. But that's always been fine with me. The kits always looked great sitting on my shelves. I rarely have cared how detailed the chassis looked on most of my kits. Heck, I didn't even mind if the didn't include an engine. As long as the car look right. Some of my favorite kits were the old AMT simple Craftsman kits. I'd love to see several of those kits come. Especially the '59 Ford Fairlane 500, '63 Falcon convertible, and '64 Corvair coupe. There was some comment earlier in this thread, about Round 2 reissuing the AMT 1/16 scale '57 Thunderbird? I hope this is true. But, even more so, I love to see them reissue the AMT 1/16 scale 1955 Thunderbird. And isn't it time we saw a new reissue of MPC's 1/16 scale '63 Corvette Sting Ray too? The 1/16 scale '55 Chevys they've reissued in recent years have not been big on my wanted list. But, the Thunderbirds? That's another story. I'll be very happy to see and ad either 1/16 scale Thunderbirds to my collection.

Here are two fun kits I recently finished. In fact, I just finished the Revell Visible V-8 last night. It in general was a nice little walk down memory lane. I'm surprised that I didn't miss the features that Revell deleted from the kit from the last time I built one. It seems to work better without the electric features it once had. The second is Franzis' Ford Mustang V-8 Motor. I put that one together in one evening about a week ago. My, how far technology, model design, and mold making has come in the last sixty years, since Renwal introduced their classic (now Revell) Visible V-8. The Franzis kit is by far superior in every way. It's bigger in scale. 1/3 vs. 1/4. The electric components are much easier to install. And they work perfect. Plus we know for sure what motor the Franzis engine is modeled after. It's Ford's '65 Mustang 289 K code engine. Where we're pretty sure that the Renwal/Revell model is mainly based on the the Studebaker 232/259/289 V-8? But, there are a few things that are not exactly correct for a Studebaker motor. Plus the manual that comes with the Franzis kit. It's really a book, rather than a manual. It's square bound, and 104 pages. Over half of them dealing with history of the Ford Mustang and V-8 motors used in Mustangs over the years. With beautiful color photography in the history section. And wonderfully clear instructions on how to build the kit itself. A manual well worth keeping, after one finishes the model. Again, I had fun building both models. It's easy to praise Franzis' 289. Yet at the same time, the old Revell Visible V-8 is still a pretty good kit. Especially when comparing the price of the two kits together. Yet despite the price, I liked the Franzis kit enough, that I'm considering picking up their Porsche 911 motor down the road. Also, as of Friday night, I have found and purchased from a vendor on eBay, AMT's Transparent Chevy 289. And I'm talking with a friend about buying a Testor's Visible Hemi kit he got as a gift years ago, and has shown no interest in building. Now if I could just find Revell's Slant Six kit. Complete and at a reasonable price. I'm not holding my breath on that one. But, hopefully in the near future, I can compare and display the AMT Transparent Chevy, the Testors' Visible Hemi, and the Franzis' Porsche 911 motor, with my Revell Visible V-8 and Franzis Mustang motor. I'm looking forward to it.

Lovely. Still the coolest (IMO) bicycle, in real life or miniature ever designed.