ChrisBcritter

I've got a nice vintage built-up of the old Merit kit: One of eight Merits I got from an estate sale in Van Nuys many years ago. Wish I could have met the guy who built them.

Today? MAD Magazine was hitting that issue over 50 years ago. The more things change...

Just for fun, here's a very rare shot of the original car, in an ad from the 1959 Bullard High School yearbook from Fresno, CA: (The Ala Kart's owner, Richard Peters, was from Fresno.)

Wow - I'm looking forward to more (a green '50 Deluxe was my first car). At least it looks like the '51 promo was molded in styrene - no warpage there. Hopefully you can resell the '50 kit on eBay to offset some of the cost.

Well, this was a big surprise. This car had been sitting for a week with little action, but it was from that same seller who has a big following. Just before the end I threw out a lowball bid and sat back to watch the feeding frenzy from my fellow piranhas. Figured it would go for double what I bid - instead I won the thing: '59 Edsel 'vert that looks never to have been sullied by fender skirts, side pipes, antennae, scoops, louvers, extra tail fins, hot lacquer, 80-grit sandpaper or three tubes of glue. Plus it has new Modelhaus wheelcovers, taillights and fender ornaments. Downside: No front or rear bumpers, so I'll be on the lookout... Anybody have a set?

Beautiful job, but I think you may have installed the rear bumper upside down? (...And this is coming from someone who's had a Craftsman '66 in process two years waiting for foiling and reassembly... )

The Estafette wasn't imported to the U.S., but a few snuck in through Canada - this one, with '50 Buick taillights, was burned up for an episode of Adam-12 (images from imcdb): Apparently they were supposed to come here (brochures were drawn up and a dealer in Kentucky even had an ad) but the plans were cancelled at the last minute.

There are also a couple variations of the Opel Admiral in 1/24 (top up and sedan), but still no 1/24 Packard yet.

I'll be getting one, as I've said. They're a bit off in the license plate font - funny thing is that number is the same one as the sample from licenseplates.tv:

Sadly, it's probably because the U.S. market for '20s and '30s classic kits dried up (or went the Franklin/Danbury route). Otherwise we would have had a full-detail Auburn Speedster or Pierce Arrow or Cord L29 by now. In the meantime bidders fight tooth and nail over a '62 Olds 88 on eBay.

Wonder if AMT had access to factory blueprints and MPC didn't? One exception to the rule would be the '59 Fords - AMT, Revell, and PMC (of all people) had models whose parts could be swapped around and dimensions that were near identical.

Took this one the other day by the library - with the temperature below freezing and salt all over the street: Guess it's a CA immigrant like my Buick - despite the plates it had a rear license frame from Mission Viejo. It also had factory A/C. Also spotted this recently at the Baker's Square pie shop - talk about not practicing what you preach

Oh, yeah - I should have specified that I'm building a "movie car" rather than a real police car: the '65 Belvedere from the movie Cooley High. The movie was set in late fall 1964; they didn't have a huge budget and a lot of newer cars show up in it.

We had one as well; Cay Coral and white - my uncle loaned it to us while he was overseas in the early sixties. If you want to build a four-door, look for the original promo - the warpage/shrinkage usually makes the rear end fold down but you could probably pie-cut it at the rear door lines to straighten it.

To be honest, I love the wheels but I might go with tires with a little smaller diameter to lower it a bit - how do the Moebius tires compare in size to the new AMT wide whites (or the American SATCO tires if you have them)?

Just spotted this one on eBay tonight: Man, if I'd bought the thing new and saw it do this... Best thing would be to carefully paint it beige and call it a movie car from What's Up, Doc?.

Got an AMT '57 Chevy ProShop kit from eBay seller blzzzfn, who sells off lots of stuff every Saturday evening. Odd thing was I got it for only $7.00 on a last-minute bid; he has a big following and all his models (even common ones) sell for at least retail, usually more.

misschicken.com has some photos of cars like this - look for the ones marked Hobby, Late Model or Jalopy. This guy, "Tiger" Fillingim, was my mom's cousin; unfortunately cancer got him before we had a chance to meet:

Hmm. Wonder if you could build a pseudo-promo out of this?

Sweet. Plus you can trace the driver's side window opening to get the correct dimensions for the AMT '65 Bonneville.

Good to hear! I've held back on buying Moebius kits, but I really want this one to convert to a 4-door Chicago police car. Will it have a bench seat?

Magnificent work, Bill! Now I don't feel so all alone when I look at my '61 Comet with the 12-piece-and-counting interior. Do you prefer to use polishing cloths over polishing pads, or do you use both for different applications?

One more: Or do you mean the Victor estate that was around 1/20th which was last issued in Russia? (Airfix also made a Viva.)

Also don't forget licenseplates.tv - fonts are more accurate than Acme and you just need to take a screenshot, save and print (Sometimes the spacing needs a little tweaking). Downside is no CA, TX or FL although if you access the older versions of the site through archive.org you can get the blank plates and work from there. Here's a few I've made:

Finally put the two together for some photos. White body with chunks missing is the AMT Bonneville: Moebius chassis in AMT body. Note where the rear wheelwells are; the chassis should be extended about 3/16": So there you go. Thanks again to Steve for letting me use the Moebius body.