maxwell48098

In the 1:1 automotive world they use a "system" when painting where all of the products are from the same manufacturer that are coordinated in their chemical composition to work together as a syste. All lacquers, or enamels are not the same despite them being lacquer or enamel. I always test my paints for comparability using spoons or scrap parts first. Rather to have a paint job go bad of a plastic spoon, or old/spare plastic part then on the actual model. A.J.

I have a feeling that Hobby Lobby has lowered the price on the Alumilite products that they sell because they are changing the name of the retailers versions of their products to the "Amazing" brand. Looking at Alumilite's web pages shows that the smaller quantity molding and casting products, and kits, now have the "Amazing" brand name and new packaging. My local Hobby lobby has already started selling Amazing casting resin in the model section. They sold Amazing Clear resin in the jewelery for years. Some of the silicone casting kits, like those sold at Hobby Lobby have already changed their branding and packaging. The larger size resin and silicone products seem to still have the Alumilite brand, but with updated labeling. A.J.

I took one of those same exact kits and turned it into this:

One benefit for me was that when a Hobby Lobby opened five years ago near a hobby shop that I frequent, within two weeks every automotive kit was marked down by 20%, some more, along with most military kits. I asked the owner Thursday last year how his sales of kits went in the years since cutting his prices, and he said that kits sales actually doubled over the previous five years when he opened. His prices on most paint and supplies are now down 15-20% below "retail" as well. Needless to say, about the only thing I've bought from Hobby Lobby were Alumilite products with 40% off coupons. FYI - The local hobby shop moved to a larger 10,000 square foot store four years ago now, about double the size of his old location. A.J.

FYI - Praesidian also owns Planet Fitness gym chain for 15 years you folks that work out there. Planet Fitness has expanded every year except 2020 due to Covid gym shutdowns. So maybe the new cash is a a good thing.

Interesting that the automotive content in Fine Scale Modeler was greater back in 1981 when it first came out, but as the years went by and new editors who personally were plane or military modelers, the automotive content declined to nothing. In about 6 years, except for a sporadic "mistake," it had become a military modelers magazine and I dropped my charter subscription. It has been decades since I bought a copy. And when my current subscription expires later this year, I won't renew. But since 1947., Model Railroader Magazine hasn't missed a copy, or changed format, and it's also owned by Kalmbach and has always had a model railroader as its editor.

I've used it on big rig and light truck engines to represent oil leaks and gunk build up for years. But that's not you why you asked.

Superb. A.J.

Another awesome build. A.J.

In the past, I've used plain, old black electrical tape folded over onto itself, It is cheap, easy to trim to the desired width, and easily formed. A.J.

Keep in mind that those Chevy kits have the hub cap and wheel outer half as one piece so you have to paint the wheel portion in body color, or any color of your choice to be totally accurate. Some of the AMT '61 to '63 Ford F100 pickups had the small hub caps molded and chromed to the outer wheel half as well. The Ford wheels were always white, unless specila ordered in another paint color of 1:1 Ford pickups. A.J.

Heat up those solid tires with some hot water (I've used a heat gun......but be very careful) and they will expand, as well as soften, and you can get them to fit on the wheels. A.J.

Once the publication comes out, watch for Kalmbach sales that occur in summer, around Father's Day, as well as around Black Friday/Cyber-Monday, and always at Christmas when you can get publications like this for at least 30% off, and sometime 50% off. A.J.

It's interesting that the complete turbine engine is contained on one tree, and could have been offered as an accessory parts pack in the $10-$15 price range. A few years ago at a toy show I spoke with an R2 representative and he said that they did have the turbine engine tool and it was complete, but didn't think it would sell by itself as a parts pack. It's good that it will finally be back. A.J.

Looks like they tooled new, wide front tires when you watch the video. It also now has two mixer drive options. I wonder if this was the new, big rig tooling mentioned last month? A.J.

If the price was right, I've done it. Just like I've purchased multiples of the same kit at the same time. And years later, I'll end up selling some duplicates when I need cash for the latest project. A.J.

Back in the early '70's when I was a service rep for Chrysler Corporation, I had a very small (20 vehicles sold per year) Dodge dealer in rural Illinois that had 7 or 8 brand new, old Dodge cars and pickups literally parked up against his barn at his farm home. (Besides being a dealer, he owned a farm that he leased out to others to actually farm.) When a new vehicle arrived at his dealership, he'd literally take out the check book and send Chrysler a check to pay for it, no floor planning or financing, just like his dad used to do dating back to the Depression days on the late '20's and early '30's. He would keep the vehicles at his dealership for up to two years, and if it didn't sell, he'd drive it out to his farm, and park it! He'd only have one or two "stock" vehicles for sale on his dealership lot, and every other one was a special order for his customers. The ones at the farm were all special orders that the customers backed out of, for whatever reason. While at his house for lunch one day, he gave me a tour of the place while his wife prepared the lunch. I guess the look on my face when we turned the corner to the back side of his barn was such that he burst out laughing at me. That's when he told me the story behind each of the vehicles there. He said that from time to time, he would sell one of these "sleds" as he called them, and had to work through our regional office in suburban Chicago to make sure that the warranty was honored. The last I heard is that around 1976, lightning struck the barn setting it on fire, and destroying the old vehicles when the burning wall collapsed on them.

I've built several of the '65 & '66 Fords, and haven't had a problem. A.J.

Bill, you'll be missed, especially by builders like me. I do want to say that your products were first class, along with your service, which is somewhat lacking in today's aftermarket ommunity. Tkake care of yourself and your family as that it the most important part of life. A.J.

It would be nice if they re-released the IH S-series kits which I heard some time back were missing some of the tools for one of the chassis sprues, but were otherwise complete. A,J,

I've used the "plastic spoon" fix for at least 15 years when that new engine wouldn't fit against the firewall. My wife thought I was nuts for stealing spoons from box in the kitchen, but good, cheap fixes last forwever. A.J.

I worked in the service and parts departments of a local Ford dealership while in high school and college from '66-'72. That "wrong bed" started life with the '57 Ford F-series pickups, and continued to be used on 4X4's from late '61 until '66. The dealership I worked for sold lots of fleet trucks and the local Reading body conversion up fitter would sell the "new" used pickup boxes back to our dealership for $50.00. We had an off-site storage building where we must have had 50-75 of these boxes on racks that we used in the body shop to repair wrecked pickups, or sell to other dealerships and local body shops for $300! Sometimes the color of the replacement box was a perfect match for the wrecked one. A.J.

In my 44 years of marriage, my bride has never, ever bought me a model, although I've been building car, truck, and fire apparatus models since 1958. For Christmas back in 1980 she bought me a clamp on, lighted magnifier that I've used ever since, even if it is just to light up my workbench. Best Christmas gift she ever gave me! (She says that she doesn't buy me kits as she said she's afraid that she might buy one that I already have. I never let on that I have bought duplicates or even more, of many of my kits. LOL ) A.J.

Take a look at what other builders have accomplished with the same kit over the past 50 years. Now think of comparing an automobile from 50 years ago with one of the new ones coming out today. As time has passed, technology has brought improvements not even dreamed of 50 years ago. Having grown up with the AMT kits since the late '50's, I appreciate improvements that I can easily recognize in today's kits versus those of 50 or 60 years go. But they can be built with patience. Here's just a couple I've done over the years that I still have: This is an original AMT KW925 torsion bar rear suspension kit with an added third axle, and Autocar dump box. Used second release AMT KW925 as the basis for this T800 conversion. This is another AMT KW 925 kit conversion using an AMT pumper body.

Here's my version following Phil's plans, but using the optional Holmes square tube booms: