capsgs

From everything I've read on these kits from their announcement, they were to be replicas of the "Newstalgia" cars. That said, I am completely impressed that Revell molded an accurate chassis for the CTH. If you think about it, this chassis is only good for one car as it is a one off. Some of us get pretty hung up on the "rivit" factor. (myself included) I've come to realize that there will never be a kit that will be a museum quality representation out of the box. That's what makes this so much fun in my opinion. One thing for sure these are the first "new" tool F/C in maybe 10-15 years. Buy them up my friends and let Revell know that we will support future releases. There are a lot of cars that will be able to be done if the Hawaiian has an accurate Logghe chassis in it.

Folks, trust me on this one. This very subject was thoroughly researched by another group of hard core modellers that I belong to and included correspondence from Butch Leal himself. The car was never black!!! Cap

April Fools?

Plasticoat for me. I think it sands better than any other, until you get into white primers. None of them no matter what brand sand all that well. For light colors I use Tamiya white.

Here's a few of my older ones. As you can see I'm a drag car nut.

Thanks guys for the comments. As I stated this was a very fun build and even squeaked in a few new techniques. Cap

Hmmmm Maybe!!! I don't know. Do you frequent the Spotlight Hobbies board? <G>

I finished this one a while back. It features scratch built coil overs, fuel pump, injector nozzles, parachute, home made decals and seat is made from brass. paint is HOK candy red over ultra gold base with no clear. It was a fun build.

Well seeing as you let some of the cats out of the bag, I would suggest that you do an engine that has never been represented in scale correctly. The Ford SOHC motor. In 25th scale, as long as it wasn't too expensive, I'd buy a dozen right off the bat. Cap

Very clever!!! Cap

I think the movie your talking about is "Ingenuity In action", but it's from 1958. Here's a link to Youtube. There are 5 parts. Cap

I got an empty checking account for Christmas. Does that count? LOL

Well Ben, You could always make your own. Here's a link to a tutorial. http://www.straightlinemodeler.org/wirewheels.htm Cap

The P/L kits were such a treat because it had been a long time since any of the manufacturers offered a kit with a Logghe style chassis. They are decent, with just a few easily correctable problems. In my opinion the JoHan Logghe chassis was the best. Too bad those molds ended up in the debacle. I am looking forward to seeing what Revell comes up with in the new kits. You have done a wonderful job on this build, especially considering the time doing it. One thing about building old drag cars is that it is very academic. Those cars changed from day to day let alone week to week. Cap

Alps printers are still available new, but you would have to order it from New Zealand. It will cost you about $900 us. Supplies are still available, but are expensive. There are a couple of distributors in the US that carry supplies. You can purchase a used machine for between $350 and $550, depending on the model,but it's buyer beware. These machines are very finicky and prone to problems if not cared for properly. Also there is a quite steep learning curve in the use of these machines and the graphics software to draw the decals. However if your up to the challenge the results can be quite rewarding. Cap

Gotta be my new favorite band "Here Come The Mummies" Here Come The Mummies

I just opened a Revell 56 Chevy California Wheels edition last night that I bought at a toy show a couple of weeks ago. At first glance I thought "man this thing's got a lot of parts". Then I looked closely at it and noticed one of the bags is the 57 BW interior stuff. Then I notice the chrome trees are from from the 57. It also has the bag from the 57 with the hood and radiator supports. There are 2 bags of what I think are the correct clear trees for the 56 in it, but I'm not sure because the instruction and decals are for the 57. Then I noticed there is no 56 chrome tree. I think I'll be having a chat with Revell on this!!! Cap

Along with what Wayne is talking about, there is also a company called Precision Scale Co. that makes plastic bolt detail. They are cast with washers. I get them from Walthers. Here's a link. Scale nuts and Bolts

These are nostalgia cars, thus no corporate entities to deal with, just the NHRA. I just hope it ends up being a good chassis and engine. There's lots of resin out there to fill the rest of the void. Cap

I had to share this with you. I just recieved 2 67 Buick GS coversions from Speed City. They did a remarkable job on them. They come with frt and rear bumpers and grill, stock hood scoops and dash. the resin is as close to styrene as I have ever seen. A definate must have.

Actually Dave I'm 50 years old and have been in this business in this position for over 30 years. The reason I made that statement is that if you look way back to the initial entries of the foreign cars, they were in no way even close to the designs that our cars were. If you look at cars from Datsun, Toyota and Honda from the beginning they were just basic transportation that were reliable and no frills. They eventually started designing cars that were more what the US were used to. (mid sized sedans etc.) However, if you look at the mechanics of it, those designs were copies of US technology that they did manage to improve on. But not original in any way. I do agree that the US manufacturers were way behind in quality and efficientcy and that we have been playing catch up for a long time. I'll even go as far as to say that the foreign cars are the reason our quality is what it is today. Again though, as far as original styling, they were all influenced by the US designs. Just one example is the Honda Ridgerunner. If that thing isn't a direct copy of an Avalanche I don't know what is. Now I know that this example is a very blatant one, but it does illistrate my point. Eventually the foreign designers did come around and start doing some original stuff, but not much that wasn't influenced by US designs. Take note that I'm speaking designs here and not styling. Take a look at the ammount of money that the foreign manufacturers have stuck into SUVs and Trucks and only to have come up with mediocre results. I had to laugh when I attended the Nascar truck race in Mansfield and saw 2 Toyota show truck trailers being pulled by a Chevy and Ford truck! Do you know about Toyota's recall on their truck frames for rusting out? If not don't worry a lot of people didn't. Why? Because the media didn't splash it all over the news. You mention BMW in your post. Great cars! The ride, handeling and comfort are on par with the best out there. However if you delve into the statistics on their cars you will find that they are the worst in their segment for cost of ownership and problems per units. You won't catch a BMW owner telling you about that though, because it's a status symbol. I have even heard BMWs refered to as Bring Mechanic Withyou. And this was from a BMW dealer!!! Look my point is this. The foreign manufacturers have wooped the US manufacturers behinds, no question. Are their current designs attractive? Yes. Are they a quality product? Yes. Are they better than US cars? Not any more. The US manufacturers just need to become the leaders they once were and quit following.

Guys, All of this discussion has been quite amusing to read and mostly subjective to "car people". I'm a service manager at a Chevy Caddy store. Let's first look at the design of cars and trucks today. Face it "car people" are a niche in todays automotive design. I read on here that the foreign manufaturers are making much better looking cars than the domestics. Now I ask you to take a good look at the automotive scene and that statement. Nearly all of the foreign designs, with the exception of a few, are direct coppies of domestic models and have been for a long time. It is true that the foreign manufacturers got a jump on us when it comes to quality and efficiency. That was because they needed to produce that for their own markets long before our market dictated it. One only needs to look at the early offerings from foreign manufacturers to to see this. Fuel efficientcy became a premium in foreign countries long before it was in the States. (due to the cost of fuel) I'm not going to go into the whole he did she did aspect of this portion of the discussion in an effort to condense this post a bit. Also, in case you hadn't noticed, Toyota, the one time quality king, has dropped to 5th in initial quality. Is it because they started building a lesser quality product? No, it's because veteran car buyers started buying them instead of what I have seen labeled as "The Cool-Aid " generation. Once evaluated by seasoned buyers their quality is only on par with domestics...hmmm!!! Now let's look at marketing. If there is one thing the foreign manufacturers have done better than the domestics it's been marketing. They have convinced the American public that their cars are better. While this may have been true at one time, it hasn't been legit since the 80's. For some strange reason the media is involved in all of this too. Does anybody know what the most recalled models were for 08? Of the top 10, 7 were foreign cars and trucks. You don't see that statistic in the news though. However let one of the big 3 have a recall and it gets plastered all over the front page. Nuff said on that aspect, as I still don't understand it. The American manufacturers fell victim to something that the foreign manufacturers will see soon also. They flooded the market with slightly used vehicles due to the popularity of leasing. This drove the price of the used car market way down. It caused the public, who's buying habits are largely dictated by payment, to start buying 1-2 year old models with low milage instead of brand new ones that were twice the payment. The big 3 abandoned leasing and took themselves right out of the payment wars. This is the only reason that the foreign manufacturers did so well with the clunker deal, because they still have leasing. You could lease a Camery for $198.00/month with the Government's $4500. There's whole lot more to this story, but this post is long enough without getting into the political aspect of it all. Hopefully I've given you some info that sparks some thought about all this. Everything I put in this post is fact, and I tried to keep my own personal views out of it. So please don't shoot the messanger!!1 Chris Capucini

Actually Mike that's the way that kit came, unless yours is really hogged out. I'll never understand why they did that. Anyway nice build of one of my favorite Pro Stocks. It's the car that started the tube chassis revolution.

Len, Who did the one with the turbo motor? Cap

While the paint and body work is nice, I'm more impressed with the chassis. You have successfully modified a PL chassis to fit as it should in all of their kits. The rear section of the frame (although the short body left no choice) is shortened up so that the body pivots around the tire instead of lifting off the tire. Itlooks like you corrected the back sloping roll cage also. Nice job on a great model.