ToyLvr

The shape vaguely reminds me of my '72 Celica....

I love the Model Master "Nassau Blue". I've painted a couple of cars with it, and it layed down really nice.

Starbird is my favorite. IMHO, Tom Daniel's stuff was too cartoonish. To each his own, though.......

Bill: What you see in the photos is how the model is straight out of the box. It features opening hood/trunk/doors, operable "jump" seats, and a nicely detailed engine. Paint job leaves a bit to be desired on my example, but overall the model presents well.

One thing I know for sure, if they ever decide to form a new "Dirty Dozen" team for a new mission, I know where to find a bunch of misfits who like to play with explosives and fire! ;-)

Just like in the movie "Men In Black". ;-) Love the '63!

It was a sleek and glamorous new body style when delivered for duty as the Presidential Limo in '61, and it fit the style of the new President If only they had left the roof in place that morning in Dallas, 50 years ago.... R.I.P. JFK (For many years, it was a project in my mind to build a replica of the X-100. I searched for years to find a couple of decent & affordable '61 Lincoln models, and even traveled to the Henry Ford museum to view the real car and take photos & notes. Then "Yat Ming" came out with their Presidential series in diecast and I kinda lost my momentum in the project; bought the diecast)

I've followed this thread and Gene's other recent threads on painting woes. Have had a lot of similar problems, even though I've tried to follow all of the "rules" of prep, atmospheric considerations, etc, etc. I cannot seem to find even one (1) paint system that will produce *consistent* results. Have even encountered problems with the much-vaunted Tamiya paints. Have had some good results with some of the Testors product, bad results on other occasions. Tamiya seems to be a bit better and consistent, but too expensive. I've often wounded how long some of these cans have been sitting on he shelf, and whether that has any effect on paint quality and/or dispensing. Gene, I feel your pain! It's like you need some sort of anti-Voodoo mojo to ward off evil paint problems. ;-) Still, I keep on trying..... Hang in there!

AMT #2153 original '53 Ford pickup. Got this a few days ago; just getting around to snapping a pix of it for your amusement. Yeah, I know that the basic kit has been reissued several times over the years, but I always wanted an original for the great box art and decals. This is another on that's been on my "Holy Grail" list for a long time.

Gene - I did all the above when I was a kid, except I used gas instead of glue (it was cheap back then). Another method I remember...my bedroom was on the 2nd floor of my family home. I would get a model "revved-up" and roll it off the top of the stairs, sending it crashing to the floor at the bottom of the staircase. This was my way of simulating the car going over the edge of a cliff. Of course, I only built models that were screw-bottom chassis with metal axles back then. You know what? They were so sturdy back then that quite often they would survive the plunge fairly well, and I could gather up the pieces, glue them back together, and do it all over again! All of this would make my poor Dad so angry whenever he caught me doing any of this! He was raised during the "Great Depression", and seldom had any toys, much less any that he could afford to intentionally destroy. Once again, I wish I had all of them back again!!!

During my years in business, I used to travel quite a bit throughout the USA. People always talk about traffic problems in big cities like L.A. or Chicago, but the absolute *worst* traffic I ever encountered was the times I visited Boston! Don't know how you guys live with it, Charlie.

My take on the subject.... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=78616&hl=

Geez, Tom. And here I thought that my recently acquired JoHan '63 Caddy "custom" was *gaudy*. This one is way out there.... ;-)

IIRC, didn't he also contribute the design for the paint scheme on Air Force One? (S.A.M. #26000, otherwise known as President Kennedy's jet).

Wish I could get back some of the neat old models my friends and I blew up when we were kids. We also went through a pyromaniac phase where we'd put gas in an old coffee can, light it, and drop models in there to see them melt (seriously, my parents were good people and wouldn't have allowed this; me and my friends were just really sneaky and hid in the woods). I can remember in the 70s that I was building a '65 Olds (Havanna Banana kit?), and warped it when using some sort of touch-up paint. Didn't understand how/what at the time. That's another kit that I wish I had again. More recently, bought a "Predicta" parts car which had a warped hood. Previous owner was trying to speed up drying time on the primer, and got it too close to a light bulb. seems to be a common mistake...

Beautiful!

Steve: I have a copy of Ivo's biography, and there's a fair amount of info about the original fabrication of the Showboat. Feel free to send me a PM if you need any reference info.... Mike

Really Nice! More Pix!

Time to trade the old' gal in for a pair of later models??? ;-)

The "stash" isn't big enough. You can actually walk in the room. ;-)

Ditto.... Best kit I've ever built. Still one that modern kit manufacturers can look at for inspiration. Even the packing of the parts in the box was special...

Rob: Just build it, and be sure to post the pix on the "Workbench" for all to see. I'll bet that your "Secret Santa" will be watching your progress and enjoying it from afar....

I like it! Could look at these all day. Having watched the famous movie several times over the last 30 years, I keep waiting for the Christine kit in my stash to build itself.... ;-)

Really awesome work, Peter! And thanks for the trip down memory lane, too. Like you indicated, a lot of us share a similar history. I'm still trying to track down some of the milestone kits from my youth and recreate some magic. (Sorry if we're boring the young folks on the forum)

Aha, a new phrase for the stash - "Well Stocked" ;-) About a year ago, I embarked upon a mission to round-up and catalog every kit in my stash. As an old boss of mine used to say, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it". It's been helpful to know what I've got, where it's at, etc. Needless to say, I'm "well stocked". Like many others, I'm afraid my build ratio is pretty bad....