clovis

You know, Tom, the world of buying a Bentley or Rolls is a world that I simply don't understand. While there are thousands of people who can afford that type of vehicle, it is just so...well, I just can't imagine having that much money, and also spending $300,000 for a car. I almost keeled over last year when we looked at some new Buick Lasabres. $43,500, plus 7% sales tax, not including dealer add-ons? I literally almost fainted.

Thank you, Skip. Do you know of any others?

Overall, this has been a great thread. As I mentioned earlier, I think that Harry nailed it when he said that many of us less experienced builders aren't even aware that some of this detailing exists. Heck, I was proud during the last build to have actually engineered around a significant problem on a vintage kit. At the same time, I have learned tons of stuff on this forum, as well as YouTube. I will say, though, sometimes it is a little hard to find stuff that actually shows how to do something. I am at the point of being better than the kid building a glue bomb, but finding very precise step-by-step instructions can be a little elusive. Generally speaking, there are tons of YouTube vids that show advanced steps, and there are some builders who should be embarrassed to show the simplicity of their work, but I find it hard to find those precise step-by-step instructions that would enable me to step up my work. Not sure that makes sense, but it is hard to find great instructional stuff sometimes.

I had no idea that it was called "coaling", but it is a common sight around here. Most of the people who are coaling appear to be: 1. Rich farmer's kids who have plenty of money to blow. 2. Young guys who can claim "my grandpa/uncle got me a job at ____________ (we only have one blue collar employer that still pays stupid amounts of money for a 40 hour work week) and I have money to blow like there is no tomorrow. 3. My dad owns a super successful business, including the truck. The truck and the fuel are tax write offs. 4. Any combination of the above. I mean really, who has $60,000 for a new Cummins diesel truck? Who has the money for $4 diesel??? Who has the money for $5,000 rims and tires, not to mention the thousands spent on lift kits, pipes, computer chips, and the like??? The majority of the kids that I see driving these $90,000 trucks are twenty-somethings, and young twenty-somethings at that. In fact, I've never seen any 'old guy' driving a vehicle like that. Not once, not ever. When I was a twenty something, I was proud of myself when I finally achieved the financial ability to pull in a gas station, and full up my tank, and it not crater my bank account. Of course, gas was 1.25 a gallon back then. Heck, these days, it hurts me to fill up the tank on my Chevy sedan, let alone having the money to blow black smoke for a mile as I tromp on the accelerator.

1960 two door Cadillac. I am a sucker for huge tail fins. My fave is the 1959, with the bullet style tail lights.

Since we are dreaming on this thread, I would love to see a 16th scale 1959 Cadillac, both hard top and convertible.

I couldn't agree more!

I have an uncle that had a cherry 69 Chevelle SS with a 396 that he dumped for $700 because of gas prices.

I would also like to know if there are any great eateries in the Detroit metro area. Nothing too fancy or expensive, please.

My wife and daughter are going to see the One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer concert at Ford Field, which are my daughter's favorite bands. I would imagine that parking is going to be in demand. Any tips? The current plan is to drop off my wife and daughter at Ford Field, and pick them up again after the concert. Will this idea work???? Is the Ford Field area fairly safe? We'll probably stay in the Dearborn area. We can't get enough of Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum. Also, is it still illegal to broker/scalp or re-sell tickets in Michigan? I may or may not have made a killing one time, buying and flipping tickets, on sheer accident, when we ate at a restaurant near where the Tigers play while we were on vacation. I had no idea that it was against the law to resell tickets in MI, but was happy to walk away with almost $100 in profit in three transactions. Thanks!!!!

I thought it might be interesting to hear some of your "remember when" stories about cars, back in your day. I was in high school during the mid-1980's, just about when old muscle cars were becoming popular. Here are a few of mine: The high school parking lot was half full of 64-68 Mustangs. Those Mustangs were everywhere, it seemed, and were relatively affordable for many high school kids. It seemed like the other half of the parking lot was full of Camaros, and many kids, especially those who were well heeled, drove '67 through '69 Camaros. It was also commonplace to see 60's era Chevelles and Novas, many of them SS models. You might find this story odd to mention, but I remember when I was in high school, there was a local junk yard that had a row of VW Bugs as far as the eye could see, and those Beetles were stacked two deep, for almost the entire row. If you owned a Bug, that yard was the place to go for used parts. If they didn't have it, you were probably out of luck, at least in our area. I think I witnessed the end of an era, with all of those Bugs finally being sold off as non-repairable junk to the junkyards. Those rows sat in that yard for years, with many bodies bought by those wanting something cheap to drive. It seems to me that they sold complete bodies for $150, but I could be wrong. Then, one day, I showed up at the yard, and the owner had sent every last VW to the crusher. And something that is funny, in this one little pocket, located in one zip code, back during my day, nearly everyone drove GM and Ford, but during my era, GM was king. Our town had Chevy, Buick, Pontiac and Ford dealers, but not any Chrysler brand dealers. Chrysler was considered the bottom of the list, except for one guy I went to school with, who proclaimed we were all wrong. I can still hear him proclaiming "Mopar stuff is hot in other places, just not here...and it is going to be worth a fortune someday." We all thought he was crazy, but it turns out, Jack did know something none of us ever did. So what stories do you have to share about 'back then'?

I have to say that I am surprised by some of the dollar amounts that you might spend on a new large scale model. I am newer to the hobby after a long hiatus, and am just now learning how expensive some kits can be. I am also chea....I mean 'wise with money', as I prefer to say, LOL. While I don't think that it will ever happen, I do think that the model companies are missing out on a good market in large scale kits. I think they are missing the boat, or at least, that is what I think. It will take some very good quality kits, followed by good marketing and advertising, but the market can be built, no pun intended.

You are right, Tom, on several counts. I think that many of the electric power companies are looking and dreaming about the possibilities and "what ifs" when it comes to powering cars in the future. . I think, that if the truth were known, the power companies would like to use the electric cars as storage units to regulate the need for electricity. This regulation is to help flatten the line between peak demand times and when demand is extremely low. During peak times, like during the summer, if they could pull power from your car, it might reduce their need for having to buy power on the open market, which is very expensive for the utilities. They might be paying 80 cents for electricity that they are selling back to us at 22 cents. (The prices that utilities can charge the consumer is tightly regulated.) So, if they could...we are dreaming with this idea...find enough cars during those peak times to "borrow" electricity from to offset their needs at full peak, it would save the power company tremendous amounts of money. The next five years could be interesting with the loss and scaling back of coal fired generation. The utilities cannot build enough natural gas fired plants, and what are called "peaker plants", and there is concern that there will not be enough generation and production to go around after the coal fired plants are shuttered. Some insiders say that there isn't going to be enough electricity to go around, and prices will soar. Since I am great at going off on tangents, as I have already done: High electric rates could have a staggering affect on the cost of operating EVs, and therefore, the sales of new EV makes and models.

I think that a total electric car is the wave of the future. I wonder what year it will be when hybrid (gasoline and electric) cars will surpass the sales of total gasoline powered cars? When will sales of total electric cars surpass the sales of hybrid and/or gasoline cars?

In my estimation, the next step will be electric cars with gas powered chargers mounted in the car somewhere. Until there is a vast network of charging stations, I think that 'range anxiety' or 'range fear' will play into the consumer's mind and their driving needs. Right now, if I won a sweepstakes with a choice of a free Tesla or Chevy Volt, the Volt meets my needs better than the Tesla does. We simply don't have the charging stations in our more rural part of the state. I don't think there is a charging station anywhere in town, and there might not be one in the whole county. If there is, I am unaware of it. I do see a huge evolution coming. I can foresee a day when grocery and mall parking lots are filled with solar panels that are built where you can pull in under the panels, charge your car for $2, and all the while, your car is sitting in the shade while you shop. I can also envision large wind generators being installed at big box stores to power the charging stations that customers will use while they are shopping inside the store. Like I've told my friend, who loves to discuss renewable energy, cars and the like, "We ain't seen nothing yet." While engineers at car companies keep studying weight, fuel economy, resistance, drag, etc., personally, IMO, they haven't touched the tip of the ice burg yet.

I got to thinking...I'd love to see any 1968-1972 GM A-body, but I would be thrilled with a Pontiac GTO, with Lemans, GTO or judge options.

My two cents: At the age of 7? An X-acto is not like a pocket knife. Most of the cheap pocket knives of today won't cut hot butter. An X-acto is more like a surgical cutting knife. I was an avid model builder as a kid. My cousin, who never built models, decided he knew more than I did, and proceeded to nearly cut his ring finger off, even while I was telling him "Don't do that!!! Don't cut it that way!!" He was 13 at the time. Two surgeries later, is finger healed up just fine. That hospital bill was over $10,000 after insurance, back in 1983. Did you read that??? The hospital bill was over $10,000, after insurance, back in 1983. There are too many ways to accomplish what you need to do with an X-acto knife, without having to use an X-acto knife. I do not allow my 13 year old daughter to use an X-acto knife, which is fine with me. I want her to have full use of her fingers for the rest of her days. I do not have $10,000 to spend on surgeries. I do not want her to have that much pain. When her models need the use of an X-acto, I let her tell me, and then I pick up the tool and follow her instruction. Otherwise, she uses clippers, scissors, sandpaper and files.

Very cool thread. Having been away from the hobby for 25+ years, I am proud of myself for using rattle can primer on the parts on my last few builds, LOL. I think that Harry is right. Most of us newbs and amateurs are so new that we didn't even realize what we could do, let alone, how to do it.

While it will never happen, I'd love to see Revell do the Model A in 1/16.

By the way, how did the 1/16th Volkswagen sell for Revell? I've casually watched those for the past two years on eBay, and the prices can be outlandish!!! I should have bought one when they were still cheap!!!!

Wow, thank you for a great post and for the outstanding input. I'd love to know the cost difference of new tooling for a large scale versus a 1/24 scale model. Is the tooling and engineering the same cost for both sizes, or does one cost more than the other? I am certain that the production costs are much higher on large scale. Not only do the manufacturers have more raw material in the product, they also have to have a large box. Most people don't realize how much the boxes cost the manufacturer. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the box for a 1/24 model re-release doesn't cost as much as the plastic inside. Boxes can be outrageously expensive. I haven't priced boxes in a long time, but I was SHOCKED the last time that I did. They also have higher costs on large scale kits for shipping boxes, and the shipping costs from China are going to be higher too. My guess is that the profit margins are much better on large scale kits, but only if they sell well. Nonetheless, Mark, keep pushing. I'd love to see some new kits. I'd just love to see some re-issues with new tooling!

Wow!!!! Nice job!!!!

Yes, you are right. I meant to imply that the model companies are eventually going to run out of subjects that would sell well in 1/24. Does that make any sense?

Following up on the other thread, what would you pay for a new, high quality kit of a new large scale subject? Let's just dream here, at least for a minute: Let's say that Revell said that they wanted to tool up a new large scale kit of a new vehicle. It would be their best kit so far, with highly detailed parts, numerous build options, a few sets of tires and wheels, with unbelievable fit and finish. We are talking about a very nice kit, not some cheap Lindberg kit featuring toy-like build ups. Maybe the new kit has a little photo etch thrown in for good measure. So, what would you pay for a newly tooled kit in a large scale? Does the price depend on the scale? How much does the kit subject affect your interest versus price? (Personally, a new kit of an exotic European car wouldn't interest me in the least, so I wouldn't pay a plug nickel for ten of them.) Let's say that it really was going to happen, and builders across the globe were raving about the nice quality. How much would you really pay for a good kit? How many kits would you really buy, if the subject matter peaked your interest? Thoughts???

Extremely well said, sir. I couldn't agree more. I am hoping that the new Foose Camaro opens some eyes. It appears to be selling briskly on ebay, and prices haven't seemed to have fallen much, generally speaking. I read on this forum that a big shot at Revell said in an interview that Revell would probably not pursue an large scale kits in the future after the release of the 2010 Mustang. It is saddening and disappointing to hear such news, and it is even more disappointing because they may be basing it on that Mustang. I understand that Ford was behind that project, but honestly, if Revell had given us a new Tamiya style kit, with extremely high detail and perfect fit, one of the 1964 through 1970 Mustangs, I think that they would have had a grand slam home run on their hands. While price of a kit is important to me, I tend to believe that for the average builder, price is not a huge factor, especially if they could have a high quality new kit. Look at the new Tamiya Corsair in 1/32 and the new HK B-17 that is selling for $300. Both appear, to me, that they are selling very well. I know it is a different genre, but what would the average builder pay for a new kit in large scale, given the opportunity? I also believe that the model companies will someday realize that the next new market is in larger scale. Sure, there are still hundreds of subjects left that need to be kitted, but sometimes, when I look at the new release list, it seems that they are going to someday run out of 1/24th kit subjects.