ChrisBcritter

Bidding has started - but a lot of the vehicles are heartbreakers; single digit mileage and thoroughly wasted by the elements. A lot of the seventies vehicles are pretty much going straight from the dealer to a demo derby, if not the scrappers. Oh well. Bid early, bid often, but brace yourself: https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=68561

Part 3: When I first saw the miniature junkyard display, I decided to build my own. Once I finished it, I traded the whole thing to them for some unbuilt kits, so some of the junkyard cars in the previous photos came from here (the '57 Chevy modified stocker got repainted with "Brame Auto Body" on it; thanks guys!):

More: These were taken over a few different years, which is why you see the yellow Mustang II in different places. Next: Part 3, where some of the junkyard stuff came from. Edit: That school bus in the second photo was originally a Japanese tin litho toy called "Noble Bus" - I stripped out the chassis and the metal window fillers, gave it a few heavy coats of Polly S yellow, added some hand lettering and warning lights, and voila... ;thank goodness it was in rough shape when I bought it for a buck at a flea market because it's apparently very rare and valuable in good condition...

As promised, here are some photos from the 1970s of the Old Town Escorts and NeuChamps model displays at the World of Wheels car show at McCormick Place in Chicago. They're big files so this is part 1: Hope you like 'em.

Friends, are you sick and tired of building that same old AMT or Revell '58 Impala? Try building it this way: Yep, it's a '58 Impala hardtop hearse. From a Florida Craigslist ad that's already been flagged for removal, but a fellow H.A.M.B. member saved the shots. The car may actually be in Sweden. I'm seeing it in turquoise with a load of surfboards...

^^^No wonder the price of bread keeps going up. If you know your TV movies, you may remember the 1971 ABC Movie of the Week Love Hate Love. There's a black 275 GTB that gets pretty banged up by the end. I did the IMCDb entry for it; here's the car's page: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_374263-Ferrari-275-GTB-1965.html Now it would be worth more than it cost to make the movie...

I've had both '59 and '60 El Camino kits, and the '59 seems a bit smaller than the '60 - or is it the '60 that's too big?

Rich, did you have any trouble fitting the Modelhaus interior like what happened on the DeSoto? I have a '56 Plymouth that's going to be a mild custom (lowered, shaved, '58 Ford side trim, deep dish chrome reverses from the '57 T-bird and converted to a 2-door) and the interior is the next big item.

Was there today - next weekend will be the last.

Large scale ITC '53 Vette - paid a dollar for it at a rummage sale and sold it for $75.

Some photoetched saws at Hobby Lobby, and scored a Fireball 500 missing the body shell but otherwise complete from Adventure Hobbies for parts the other day. (Does anyone make a resin '66 Valiant with an un-altered wheelbase?)

Bandwidth for me. I'm only using 16% of my storage. I thought it was because of my H.A.M.B. postings on the "Vintage shots from days gone by" thread, but I'm starting to notice other folks on the boards I'm on getting limited as well. So they really don't give you trouble for multiple accounts, or they just haven't caught up to you yet?

Rich, you've really brought that kit a long way! Did you ever think about combining the DeSoto body with a Moebius Chrysler 300 kit chassis? I'm wondering about making my '56 into a hardtop by combining them and using the 300's roof.

I have some, not a lot; '60s Ford fullsize cars were my favorites. That's fortunate for me because they're easy to find and not too expensive. So far I have a really nice coral styrene PMC '59 Ford wagon (no interior), a red styrene PMC '59 Ranchero that is being combined with a Revell Skyliner to make a nice early '60s style cruiser (the Revell parts fit it almost perfectly), an ivory '62 Galaxie, a beige '62 Country Sedan, a red '63 convertible, and an aqua '65 Galaxie hardtop. Also have '61-'63 and '65 T-bird coupes (AMT must have made ten jillion of them!) plus a '67 T-bird radio car that works when it wants to. In non-Fords I have a pale blue '64 Barracuda friction, a '64 Riviera in some odd metallic terracotta color and a '66 Chrysler in dark turquoise with a white interior, plus '58 and '62 Lincoln sedans. Not a huge collection but it's what I like.

A earache my eye! How would you like a... sorry couldn't resist.

Along with the slots on the top of the grille, and weren't there some other items that were fixed? Add to that the corrected grille on the AMT '62 Bel Air, and the upside down script on the '63 LeMans. Jo-Han issued the USA Oldies '62 Plymouth Fury with the wrong wheelcovers, but corrected them at some point.

Take another look at the order form - they offer '69 Charger and Coronet assembled model kits (promos?) as well as the Charger customizing kit. What magazine was this from? Maybe the $1.00 price was aimed at Dodge dealers only?

(Mods, hope it's OK to post this - pull it if not) I was at AdVenture Hobbies in Wheeling, IL last weekend and found out they will be closing down for good in two weeks. I was told they will be selling the remaining inventory online after that. They do have some kits on sale ('70 Impala, some '70 Super Bees and a couple Fireball 500s for about $11.00 among them) but most of them will be at regular price; however the "perishables" (mainly paint & cement, etc.) will be discounted. They're in the shopping center at 23 Huntington Drive, off Dundee east of Buffalo Grove Rd.

AMT '57 Ford, with all the original custom parts - I've built five since I was a kid and I'm getting better at it now. Just hope someday somebody will make the wraparound ends for the Meteor grille...

Here's something different. Found this on a Cuban car site (caristas.blogspot.com); '49 Ford wagon reskinned with metal - pretty nice work considering the source (mods please pull this if it's not OK):

I've picked up my share of eBay stuff - got my "holy grail" decently built-up '57 Ford Country Squire there. Only mistake I made was when I bid on two different built '58 Ford convertibles at the same time, thinking I'd win one - ended up with both. Maybe I'll make one stock and the other NASCAR?

Born in Evanston, raised in Glenview and Northbrook, then three decades in Southern California, now back in Northbrook. My main hobby store was Klipper's (which I found out recently was originally a Crosley dealership, so they went from selling little tiny cars to selling little tiny cars). I also went to Hobbymodels in Evanston (back around '73 they dug up a complete 1953 AMT 3-car kit which I bought for $15.00) and Bargain Town in Niles. Just east of there was the Topps discount department store - nothing special except back in 1966, in the toy department, there was a big tray table full of unboxed promotional models from which I picked out a white '65 Falcon convertible; probably paid a buck for it, if that... then when I was older I started going to the Old Town Escorts model swap meets after seeing the Chicago Tribune magazine article that featured Ron Merkel's brown '61 Ford wagon on the cover. I have some old Instamatic shots of the OTE and NeuChamps model displays from the 1970's I'll be posting soon in the main section.

Cone with a depression in the center... Maybe take the full wheel covers from the '53 Studebaker kit and cut them down to dog dish size, then remove the three little ribs, paint them aluminum silver and add the black ring. Good luck with that lettering, though.

Boy, that is big, Tom. Wonder how close the Buddy L station matches up to it (figuring in the extra bay?)

If I could suggest a resin and photoetch transkit, the old Pyro/Lifelike/Lindberg Auburn Speedster would be a good candidate for one - isn't the basic body/fender setup pretty correct?