Richard Bartrop

Pyro certainly got better as time went on, and I still think their Vintage Brass kits are little jewels. It's not like everyone else's kits were that much better in the mid 50s either. However, the object of the exercise is still to build a model. Anyway, we've probably dumped on this kit enough. Auburns are seriously cool machines, and this is still the only game in town. Can it be better? I think so. On Round 2's site, they were tailking about upgrading some of the Lindberg tooling. Now, in my dream world, I'd love to see them invest in a brand new Auburn Speedster kit with modern levels of accuracy and detail, but alas, we live in the real world. However,if they could see their way clear to putting in recessed panel lines, and adding some detail, that would be great. At the very least, if they could somehow splurge on the moulds for a decent set of wheels and tires, that would go a long way towards improving things. Likewise, a decent set of Lincoln hubcaps and wide whites for their Continental would be great, and provide kitbashing material for the traditional rod and custom crowd.

Definitely looking forward to seeing how this one turns out.

Now, I've only seen the reissues, so did the original issue of this kit have raised door lines, or was this done when it was refurbished?

They are doing a great job of catering to the traditional hot rod crowd, which is just fine with me.

Maybe not a case of not having the technology, so much as just being easier?

I started in the late 60's, and my drug of choice was those 1/32 Pyto kits, and those Aurora sports car kits. Everything Ace says about the state of the art is true, and it's still true that the bulk of the hobby revolves around planes and armour. However, the state of the art has advanced considerably. My Commodore 64 was hot stuff when I first got it, but I certainly wouldn't recommend trying to surf the Internet with one, I applaud people who are up for a challenge, but if somebody who I only know as words on a screen asks me if this kit is easy, it would irresponsible for me to tell them it is.

I'm going to guess pretty much what happens now when the factory no longer makes parts. They'll stockpile them, or make their own. People used to wonder how anyone was going to restore cars from the 60s and 70s with all the plastics and such that went into them. People figured it out, and people will figure this out too.

Preaching to the choir here, though of course the trick is to convince the kitmakers that enough people feel that way to make it worthwhile.

It's definitely worth looking through. It's both inspiring, and humbling. at the same time. Wishing someone would make a decent Continental kit here too.

Nicely done!

Didn't the pickup originally start out as an AMT kit, or am I thinking of something else?

If it's based on the pickup, then yes, 34 Fords do look like that, more or less

Some of the parts look like they might be usable for something.

The guys with practical experience would probably have a better idea about this, but how much of it was simply due to the limitations of belt technology at the time. Blowers make lots of power, but there also use lots, and the bigger the boost, the more power you're going to need, and maybe it was just the case a direct connection to the crankshaft could handle more power than a smooth belt relying on friction with a pulley. The Potvin style blowers seem to have fallen out of favour about the time the Gilmer belts because popular, so maybe there's something to it

The 1/32 1915 Ford is one of Pyro's Vintage Brass kits, and those were very nice. They put a few larger scale kits to shame.

The Monogram Mercedes came out in 1963, at least three years before the Jo-Han kit.

I'm pretty sure Monogram's Packard didn't come out until the mid 70s. I certainly haven't seen any release earlier than 1975. In any case, they never let Monogram's classic Mercedes stop them from releasing their own version.

I certainly wouldn't turn up my nose at either one. The '35 is a beautiful car, and if there's any car worth putting in the effort to bring the Lindberg kit up to snuff, that is it. I'd certainly like to see a better version, and I've always wondered why nobody else took that on over the years. The Auburn Speedster is certainly not any obscure classic, at least not in North America. At least two companies thought there was enough demand to sell full sized versions, and thanks to these replicas, just about every film set in the 1930s will have an Auburn Speedster in it somewhere. You'd think the market would support another kit, especially if it was halfway decent.

The wheels and tires from AMT's '32 Ford kits should do the trick as wheel. Their wire wheels are sized to fit the standard AMT stock tires.

Easy to assemble? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.....no. This is a kit from the dark ages of model kits, and subjected to much abuse over the years. It could be considered "easy to build" when it first came out, in the sense that it was easier than carving an Auburn Speedster out of a piece of balsa wood, but not by any modern meaning of the word. Yes, if you have some experience building models, and are prepared to do some sanding, puttying, part swapping, and a little scratchbuilding, you may be able to turn it into a halfway decent replica , and people have done it. However, if by "easy" you mean a little bit of effort will reward you with something that looks like what's on the box, then prepare for a journey into madness.

I can. Remember the ex-Aurora Jag E-type and Ferrari GTO? The Renwal kits were masterpieces compared to those.

It would be a magnificent thing, to be sure. I'd discovered the book about the time I'd discovered the Jo-Han classic kits, and since they'd never been all tht common in my area, I figured I'd missed it somehow, so the Jo-Han Packard was one of my grail kits for the longest time, until I found out it was in the same category as actual grails. I checked back on the Johan Resurrected mailing list, and in the conversation I had about this in 2006, what he actually said was that the designer who worked on the kit said that engineering drawings and a master for the body were still around when he took inventory, but that they had disappearred by the time the trucked arrived to pick up everything. Apparently Hanley abandoned the project because of poor sales of the other classic kits.

In "The Catalogue of Model Cars of the World" which came out in 1967, one of the products it listed for Jo-Han was a 1934 Packard. Apparently, it was never produced, though Okey Spaulding did claim to have some of the moulds at one point.

I bought both the large scale Mercedes and Ferrari back when I was young and foolish.. I figured, her, the price is pretty good, how bad could they be? Suffice to say, I found out.

I like it! What's he source for the quad headlights?