ToyLvr

Mike: It's still a great find! I had been looking for one (kit or promo) and finally found the same friction promo at a swap meet a while back (see attached). I, too, wish Round 2 would dig up the old tooling and reissue the kit version. Great looking car; one of GM's best, IMHO.

I guess the mods will move it to the new off-topic column. ;-) FWIW, I say "ditto" to mspeanut's comments....

I got kicked-off the board when I tried to post earlier today, so here we go again... I suppose some folks think that we old geezers are selfish for trying to lure younger folks into the hobby. I don't see it that way. I picked up the hobby from my older brother, who was into the hobby big-time back in the late 50s through mid-60s (what I refer to as the "Golden Age" of the hobby). It's been a passion of mine for nearly 50 years, and has brought great joy into my life. Why wouldn't I want to pass this along to the younger generation??? As you veteran modelers know, this is more than just a casual hobby. It involves exercising your brain in the process of planning a project, reading and following instructions, learning the use of basic hand tools, learning some basics of chemistry through the use of adhesives & paints, etc., etc. I remember reading a story where a young fellow was helped in overcoming his dyslexia by reading the instructions in his model kits. In short, young folks can learn some basic "life skills" through model building, and in some cases it even helps them in their chosen career. I also think it's great that this is a hobby where the whole family can participate if they choose to do so. As Eric mentioned in his earlier post, I agree that it's a good thing to get the young folks to set aside their electronic gadgets for a while and do something *real*. There are, of course, other "old school" activities such as sports, or maybe marching band for example, where we encourage our youth to participate because we know that they'll learn "life lessons" in team work, and stretching their physical limits. While I don't think that we should force our hobby down the throats of our kids, I feel that all of the above can ultimately lead to good things for the participants, and make for a better society. If the younger generation chooses to engage in this hobby, and by so doing encourages the kit manufacturers and aftermarket to give us more product, then it's a Win-Win for all of us.

Keep up the good work, Andrew! It must have been a real trip to get to thoroughly inspect a real Duesy! And Clayton, good job in teaching this young fellow. Can't wait to see the finished model down the road. (and to think that there's some folks on this board who don't see the value in passing down this hobby to the next generation....here's a perfect example of the good that can come of it)

Greetings to all... April 2014, updating my list: Outragis (not sure why the moderators blacklisted him, but he did right by me) Brodie_83 S.Svensen Michaelbaskett HNTR (several times) GluHead Jantrix Mazdat Disabledmodeler Kingsix Crazyjim Midnightprowler VWDave Sam I Am (took care of a problem shipment and made it right!) DrewCfromSC Glusnifr All the above were really great guys to deal with. Items were as published, packed properly, shipped promptly. I would like to give a special shout-out to the following: Michaelbaskett; Outragis; Gluhead; HNTR; Disabledmodeler; These guys made super-special effort to help me with much-needed parts and/or kits. Last, but not least, the following guys are ones whom I have not yet had the pleasure to trade with, but they have helped me in other ways, including information, advice, moral support: Edsel-Dan; Lazlow; Gtx6970; In short, I have found 99% of the members on this board to be friendly, helpful, trustworthy, even philanthropic. My thanks to all of the above.... Mike

UPDATE: My thanks to fellow Forum me member John Bissinger for getting me in touch with Paul! ************************************************************ I'm looking to get in touch with Paul Burke, last known to be in Cotati, California. I saw his build of the AMT "Silhouette" on the website Showrods.com (Dave's Show Rod Rally). I consider this build to be one of the most perfect I've ever seen of this particular kit, and I would like to ask Paul some questions about. I've been trying to build a decent one for myself for years! Thanks, in advance, for any info that will get me in touch with Paul. Mike Adams E-Mail = ToyLvr_2000@Yahoo.com

Ain't she sweet!

Jeez, I've got socks & underwear (and models) older than you! You're still a kid....

My brother has this neat book entitled "101 Uses for a Dead Cat". I'll have to borrow it and share some of its wisdom. I seem to recall that one of the uses was "potholders"....

PM sent....

Bill: Why can't you work on something "uncomplicated" for a change??? ;-) I remember reading an article in one of the model mags a few years ago about someone opening the hood on a '63 Galaxie promo. I'm pretty sure that the author used the chassis from the new-tool '60 Ford Starliner (as Mark mentioned above). I don't think it required a whole lot of modification, and I bet it would work fine for a conversion on your '64. I'll see if I can locate the article in my archives and post the info. Mike

Welcome, young man! Nice to see a guy like you who is interested in the "classics". I've always considered Duesenbergs as America's first Muscle car. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

Uh, Pat, did you leave it in the purple pond too long? Looks like it shrunk! ;-) Way too cool!

Andy (and everyone else looking over our shoulder as we hijack this thread): Regarding the JoHan Turbine Car kits, attached is a photo showing what I know to be the three (3) box variants for various releases of the kit. The brownish colored box is #1, Blue is an early reissue, and the slightly larger box is for the later reissues. Some of those later ones will have a sticker on them saying "Seville". BTW, the original brown was a bit darker. This box in the pix is badly faded; not one of my better examples in my collection, but it was the first I could lay hands on. The other pix I'm posting are of an original promo of the car. I hope that these two (2) pix will come through clearly on this post. If you can enlarge the pix, you'll get a good idea of the color that the original kits and promos were molded in. Note: the early promos had sort of a metallic pearl clearcoat. Hopefully you'll be able to catch a glimpse of that in the top-view photo. Hope this is of some help and amusement to y'all. For info on the 1:1, I highly recommend the book entitled "Chrysler's Turbine Car: the Rise And Fall of Detroit's Coolest Creation", by Steve Lehto, published in 2010. You should still find it available in paperback at "Amazon", and I got a digital copy recently off of iTunes for my iPad. I have been fortunate to see a couple of the Turbines in person at the Chrysler Museum, and at the Petersen museum in years past. Wish I could visit Jay Leno and get a ride in his personal Turbine which he got from Chrysler engineering department! Regards, Mike

Rodney: That's actually #2, I think. Original box was that size, but more of a brown color. Also, the color of your kit plastic does not look like the original "Turbine Bronze", but that could be the camera and your lighting playing tricks On my aging eyes. I'll have to dig one of mine out of the stash and post a photo.

Ah, c'mon Tommy. Boyd had a church funeral and everything. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt...

Stef: That poster would be awesome!

Stef: Check out on thread on the "General" forum entitled "Obscure Kits You Never Knew Were Made...Until Now". There's a lot of photos there of old and obscure kits. You'll probably find several that you missed...

Ah, bummer! Another one of my heroes gone.... As long as reruns of the "Green Hornet" are on cable, the "Black Beauty" will continue to shine in his honor. Wonder if he, Larry Watson, and Boyd Coddington, are working on something for the Big Guy upstairs?

I'm sort of a Turbine Car nut, and have dozens of the kits and promos. Andy, yours is definitely one of the later issues. All of the early issues from the 60s had a slightly smaller box, and all were molded in "Turbine Bronze" color. The earlys even included a strip of adhesive foil (sort of like "Bare Metal Foil") so you could foil the rocker panels. These originals go for high $$$ on EvilBay. Later issues, especially during the "Seville" era of JoHan, were molded in a variety of colors, some quite bazarre. Rumor has it that they used whatever plastic beads were leftover from their other injection molding operations. Regardless, it is a GREAT kit, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a challenge. If any of you are interested in some background info on this kit, drop me a PM. If there's enough interest, I'll dig out some of my Turbine kits for photos and do a retro kit review for the forum.

Thanks, Dale Shearon, for making the point I was struggling to find the words for, only you do it in a much more eloquent fashion! Internet stores do nothing to support our individual communities....

Hey Internet Shopping fans, I'm not entirely "down" on internet shopping - I do buy some things online. I'm just saying that for me personally, I can stop by the LHS on the way home from work (or while running errands on Saturday), and make a quick dash in to buy supplies (or even a kit) and be back home at my workbench in minutes. I cannot get that sort of *immediate* service and delivery when buying on the internet. So, for me, it really IS faster and more convenient to visit the LHS. As for making a "direct judgement on product quality", there are a lot of other components that are often involved in building a model car these days besides the kit itself. Aftermarket parts, for example, consisting of things like wheels, tires, prewired distributors, photoetch kits, resin parts, etc, etc. it's nice, in some cases, to be able to inspect these items firsthand before you decide to buy to assure that they meet your needs. And as for the kit itself, if you insist on it, a quality-minded LHS will usually allow you to open a kit and inspect it before buying. Photos on an internet site are helpful sometimes, but NOTHING takes the place of being able to examine the product in person, IMHO. In the final analysis, it's a free country, and we each spend our money how and where we want to (except for being taxed to death, but that's another never-ending topic for discussion).

Wow, we hit a nerve on this topic, eh? As I was telling our MCM buddy, GluHead, I'm fortunate to have one of those old-fashioned privately owned LHS in my area. Admittedly, the shop caters primarily to the Model Railroad guys, but the owner & employees make an honest effort to service the model car-ship-plane clan as well. Customer service there is great. The owner is willing to order most anything that I want if he doesn't already stock it. Prices are reasonable. The shop provides meeting space for local modeling clubs. I like being able to look at items and make a direct judgement on product quality, etc., before I buy it. And of course, I simply enjoy visiting the shop and talking with both the employees and other modeling nuts. Last, but not least, here's the kicker. The shop owner makes a point of shopping estate sales, etc., and buys vintage stock for his store. A couple of shelves are dedicated to vintage model car kits! I realize that I'm lucky to have this kind of shop in my area, where a lot of you have no resort other than internet shopping or driving insane distances. With all due respect to internet shopping fans, I cannot see the logic in spending hours staring at a computer screen and trying to locate an item and make price comparisons, pay elevated shipping prices, then wait for days for the item(s) to arrive. I have better things to do with my time. I find it decidedly more convenient to visit the LHS....

Electrical problems are not to be taken lightly, especially for those of us who are not electricians (as my Grandpa used to say, "Only 2 people take the back off of a watch: a fool, and a watchmaker"). A public service announcement... Most of us take the electrical system in our house for granted, as most of the time it operates flawlessly for years, until it doesn't..... Had a problem a while back at my home (built in '87), when I started smelling that weird "ozone" smell. Kept searching around the house to find the source. Ultimately, I thought to check the main utility box, and it was HOT. To make the long story short, the main 150 amp breaker was going bad, and was *melting*, and the electrician I called in to help said we were only hours away from a possible fire. If my family and I had been away on vacation or something, we could have lost the house. See attached photos. Moral of the story, if you live in an old house like mine, get the electrical system checked out once in a while, and get help if you suspect trouble. You'll be glad you did...

Nice resto! Definiely a worthy subject. I built one of these when I was a kid, but don't remember what happened to it (maybe another victim of July 4th firecrackers). Bill - did you get the little jar of paint with it??? ;-) Got to get another one....once I figure out how to come up with $150.00 to buy one on EvilBay.