Richard Bartrop

I didn't think I could get enthused about a Chevelle, but this one is growing on me.

Nicely done, especially considering what you had to work with.

Exactly. I only said this three times, and even qualified it right at the start.

I made the kit. I sculpted the master, made a mould, cast the parts, packaged them, and made the rounds of the local hobby stores, and some of them put it on their shelves, where some of them were purchased.

I think I put a fair amount of work into it. All the same, I sold it as a kit that he had to assemble, and he had to paint, a point that some people seem to have trouble grasping. This was a product I was selling. The difference between what I was doing, and what Revell does is purely one of scale. That in no way means I had no feeling about what I created. I thought it turned out pretty nice, and thought I'd share. The folks at Revell have always struck me as pretty passionate about the stuff they make, and the people behind Modelhaus has always given me the impression it's been a labour of love. I'm going to toss this out to the resin casters and 3D printers in the group. Do you feel your work is in any way diminished by the exchange of currency? Do you lose any sleep over what people do with your wares? Those of you who do work for the big kitmakers? Would you be doing what you're doing if there wasn't at least a little bit of passion there?

A little reminder that what I was talking about was a kit that you had to assemble and paint. This would be like someone at Revell or Modelhaus getting mad because you made a contest entry out of one of their kits. The guy who bought it was something of a local superstar among the figure modelers, and scratched up some pretty amazing figures of his own, so just that he thought one of my efforts was worth purchasing was pretty high raise, in my opinion.

On the other had, I did make and sell some resin figure kits way back when, and when I saw one entered at a model show, that actually felt pretty good.

It is a nice workshop, but the gist of it is that all you need in an X-acto knife and some sandpaper, and you're in business.

Cannibalizing an Astro Vette kit to use the suspension for a hot rod back when I didn't know any better. Not getting more of those large scale Japanese exotic kits when they were still on the shelves. Seeing a bunch of Renwal Revival kits in a drugstore, and not acting on it soon enough.

George Barris did exactly that with the Ala Kart, so they put a stop to it.

Piece of cake. Answer sent.

I'm definitely hoping the Revell continues to offer its excellent vintage hot rod and custom kits. You can add my voice to the chorus that wants to see their Model A roadster and couple back on the shelves.

Going back to the really early days, I always liked the Packard Cable Special. The old Indy cars had some pretty nice liveries

If they were claiming as their own work, yes, it would bother me. Now as for the resale example, it is theirs now to keep or sell as they see fit. I might kick myself if it went for some crazy markup, and think about adjusting prices accordingly.

It would have to be the black & gold John Player Special livery.

Nice job on the body.

There are people in Europe who like American cars, just like there are fans of European cars here, so we'll see. And yes, it never hurts to let the kitmakers know what you want.

I built this one in the early 80s. I've kept it in one of those Jo-han Sho-cases to preserve it.

For a 1/25 kit from a mainstream American manufacturer? Are we at the point where it's not? Now, I can live with the markup if I'm getting value for money. I shelled out $50 Canadian for the Mod Rod, but that give you enough parts for two complete models, and a whole bunch of custom parts. The recently reissued Edsel is one of AMT's nicest kits ever, on part with Moebius offerings, and they added some extra parts to boot. Now Round 2 wants me to shell out that same amount of money for a basic kit with nothing extra, and a body that looks like a well used piece of soap. Like I said before, not happening. That by your own admission, there are cheaper ways to get a better Ford sedan body just reaffirms the wisdom of this decision.

I'm sure you could do any number of things, and if you want wide whites, you could paint them too. The point here is if you're going to demand a premium price for a kit who's main virtues have traditionally been that it's cheap and simple, maybe put a little effort into it.

I know Lindberg has something they called a "29 T", but there's no such thing, and it doesn't look like the Lindberg kit. It looks like a 23-25 T. In fact, the interior looks like it came from Mnogram's "L'il T", or one of it's variations. Nicely done, in any case.

That early issue one does look very nice, but it's not three figures worth of nice. One of the nice things about the Revell '40, on top of all the really nice chassis bits, is that they came out of relatively fresh moulds. I'm more inclined to grab one of those while I still can.

So it's probably going to be dangerously close to $50 by the time it hits the shelves here. Yeah, not going to happen. Just a note to the folks at Round 2. Maybe don't worry so much about whether the boxes are pretty, and perhaps put a little more into freshening up the moulds?

Slick model, Ronald! If ever there was an American car that deserved the large scale treatment, this would be it. The big stumbling block I can see is that Revell doesn't operate in the US anymore, and Round 2 seems to be geared more towards people who want to relive their childhoods. On the up side, mid engined exotics seem to have international appeal, so maybe some of the foreign kitmakers might be interested? Revell Germany springs to mind, and the Japanese have done kits of American iron in the past. I'm probably dreaming in technicolour, but a Corvette given the Tamiya treatment would be something to see, even if the price would rival the full sized version. For those who want to get it one piece at a time, D'Agostino has done iconic American cars