Pete J.

Oh, I thought we were discussing the ridiculously high prices people were paying for an in production, still available kit. I haven't seen anything political, sexual, antagonistic or non family friendly on this thread. As long as it stays that way, why would Harry want to shut down a civil discussion about models?

The threat of scarcity is a much greater motivator in the market that actual scarcity itself. The dim bulb who thinks he is going to get a grand for the unpainted Ertl General Lee will be left standing on the platform long after the train roars out of town. I did a search for ones identical to his that had sold and there were several that were in the $250 or best offer that sold for best offer, which to me means less than $250. However this will only last until all the panic buyer are satisfied. Right now there are 100+ 1:18 Ertl General Lee Die cast on Ebay. Probably more than enough to satisfy the demand, so this will die off in a month or less unless something happens to stir it up again. It was interesting to look at the plastic offerings. From April to June 24th there were perhaps 300 General Lee Plastic kits sold in the $18 to $25 range. On June 25th the price doubled and there have been in the range of 200 sold in the last two weeks. Now these are sold listings only. Yes, the panic is on, but I am betting that in three weeks it will be over and there will be a lot of people sitting out there wondering why they paid $50 for a plastic General Lee. Even if the plastic companies dump the flag or the kit, it won't be long before some aftermarket seller has a sheet for $10 or $15. You can always buy a 69 charger kit and a can of Hemi Orange and you are off to the races. The kit may die but I'm betting we will be seeing it on the contest tables for a long, long time.

The way your search is set up I think your getting the wrong impression. Go to the page and in the upper right you will see a button labeled "advanced" click on it and scroll down the options and click on "sold" and that will tell you what people are actually getting. The kits are selling well and at a premium, but not really excessive. You can ask what ever you want, but the real price is what they are actually selling for. Good time to be dumping General lee stuff if you want to get rid of it.

I think a simple analogy applies here. You don't get stronger by going to a gym and watching others. You may gain inspiration, learn technique and form, but to get stronger you actually have to grab ahold of the weights and pump the iron!. This web site is the gym but the real workout happens at the work bench!

I know they are not really popular amongst customizers, I really enjoy jacking with a wagon. My first choice for parts is Tamiya's BTCC series. There is a Volvo 850 Estate touring car which a good base for building oddball wagons. This is my take on a delivery wagon that I did as a gift to S. Tamiya. I started with the Alfa 155 V6TI racing sedan and grafted the Volvo wagon top and rear on. Wagons are so much fun to mess with. You get all kinds of interesting combinations.

I will expand a little on my prior post. The paint on most die cast is what it is to hide the defects in the finishing. The inexpensive die casts are created as fast as possible and thus finish work is kept to a minimum. Clean up is not difficult but the smoother the base the better the finish. Clear coat is a good choice but be sure you use the same brand of clear that you did the base coat to assure that you don't have compatibility issues. Keep the coats as thin as possible. Priming is critical to getting paint that will stay down. A good metal etching primer is the only way to go. Painting with out stripping and repriming is a roll of the dice. You don't know what type of paint is on there and since most are made in China, it could be anything. Also, the extra layer of paint may cause fit problems with opening doors and other parts. Once the body is cleaned, prepped and primed you are down to the same thing you would do on a plastic model. Good painting technique from there on is all you need. Here are three shots of a die cast I did a few years ago to give you an idea of what you may face and how it will look when done. Original finish cleaned up and reprimed Finished with a very thin clear coat.

Frankly, none of this is anything that can't be fixed. Love the fact that Tamiya thought enough of this to create it. I just hope they continue the trend. I would love to see other early sports cars like this. Perhaps a pontoon fendered GTO or a Jaguar XK120. Or maybe even a good MGT#series.

Harry, you got me again. I won't say which way I voted, because that would not be right, but I got it wrong. Thought I spotted something. Well, you never really know what you don't know.

..and the open seat backs that are clearly visible through the rear window and the over use of "chrome". This kit is a great kit as usual from Tamiya but nothing is perfect. That is why we are modelers and not just builders.

Got my two sets of Rudge rims and tires from HRM the other day. Nice pieces of resin! Great people to work with. Great price too. Thanks Harold!

Good luck and enjoy your trip!

I was at Eagle Quest this weekend and there was an interesting announcement. Squadron/MMD who are well know as a distributor and web site for all things Military announced that they will be creating a separate web site, "Route 66", dedicated strictly to all things automotive. I don't know much about it at this point but I have to say, it is about time! They have a great web site if you want tanks and planes and ships, but the automotive end has always been a bit of a "dark corner" type of operation. I hope it will now become a solid place to go to for automotive models. They already have a relation with a lot of the companies such as Tamiya, Hasagawa, Revell and Testors and aftermarket sellers such as Scale Motorsport, KA, Pegasus and others. So getting this up and running as far as stock should not be an issue. I just hope they can expand the line and provide as broad a range of products for automotive subjects as they can for military subjects.

Talent is something we accuse others of having when we don't understand and are not willing to go to the great lengths and long hours they have gone to, to hone their skills to execute what little talent they actually have!

I am going to start this off with a takeoff on the old Carnegie hall joke but this one happens to be true. A friend of my dad's during WWII was a metal of honor winner and happened to loose the metal when he was transferred from Florida to Washington DC. He decided that it would be a good thing to get a replacement but didn't know how. As it happens he worked on far from the War Department so one day on his lunch break he walked in and asked the receptionist how he could go about getting a metal of honor. The dumfounded receptionist blinked a couple of time and when she recovered sufficiently said, "Well you could start by bailing out over Tokyo!" The point of this story is that when it comes to modeling you have to "bail out over Tokyo" before anything will happened. Pick up a model and lop off anything that doesn't look like what you want it to look like and start adding stuff until it does. Your going to make mistakes, but correct them, don't start over. You will learn how to prevent mistakes that way. Get a 5 gallon bucket of Super Clean and grab your airbrush and start painting. If it don't look right, into the Super Clean and try again until it does look right. Bare metal foil looks like you threw a roll of Reynolds wrap at it? A little scraping and some alcohol and ....... well, you get the picture. Persistence is the name of this game. Keep doing it. If you quit every time you get frustrated, you will wind up with a box full of incomplete models. Stay after it until you are happy with the out come. Never give up, never surrender!

Probably trying to get all of the rest of our orders out who have bombarded him in the last couple of days.

Brookhurst is open Friday and Saturday nights until midnight!

Yes, you call him directly. Remember, he is in Maryland so time it accordingly. Also, you have to mail him a check. He is a bit old fashion and doesn't do PayPal or credit card. But his craftsmanship is superb and worth the extra effort.

You have to love Harold at Historic Racing Miniatures. I just got off the phone with him. Spent about 30 minutes with him and he is great to chat with. The man knows his stuff! Ordered two sets. Should have them soon. Thanks Harold

I hate to throw a wrench into the works but some paint "compatibility" also has to do with technique. How long between coats? How heavy or how light a coat? How much thinner? What thinner? All of these come into play when we talk about compatibility. By compatibility we are talking about common problems such as top coat getting spider cracks or pulling up getting an alligator skin look. It can also have to do with the final look of a color. Here are some basic rules that I use: 1. Always use the same type of paint from the same manufacture. The paint company formulates it's paints to work together. Each company formulates their paints a little differently. 2. Use the thinner from the same company as the paint was made. All thinners are a cocktail of ingredients and slight variation can cause problems. 3. Always use the same type of paint. Don't mix lacquers, acrylics and enamels even if they are from the same company. You are asking for trouble. If you must, lacquers on the bottom, then enamels and the waterborn paints. This is not a guarantee but the thinners in the top coat should not dissolve the paint below. 4. Record your results. Get a notebook and keep track of what you did and be precise. "Thin to the consistency of milk" drives me nuts. I measure everything and it is not hard. Get a mix bottle and lay a ruler down the side and make some marks on the bottle. 5 parts paint, one part thinner isn't hard or tedious to do that way. If it works then do it that way every time. 5. Last, none of these are "the Code". They are guidelines. You can break the rules once you understand them. I use different types of paint all the time and for good reasons. I may want to highlight something and use an alcohol base acrylic over solvent based lacquer to do so, knowing that if I make a mistake a swipe of alcohol will erase the acrylic without touching the lacquer, but you have to know the rules first. You said you didn't want a science experiment. Sorry, but you are working with a wide variety of chemicals and it is all a science experiment. Even with paint and thinner from the same company things can go wrong and it doesn't always happen right away. I once did a model for a Tamiya advertisement(Toyota 020) and painted it up with their paints. They were very happy with the result and shot the ad. Two weeks later the clear coat cracked. I didn't let the base coats sit long enough and sprayed the clear just a bit too thick. I learned and never had a problem again, but painting is all about what you learn as you go. There are no mistakes! Only lessons, and the lessons will continue until they are learned!

One last thought on your visit to the LA area. Be prepared to be overwhelmed. There is a ton of stuff to do and see and probably 100 must do's. You are on the right track in asking the locals but make a list before you come and prioritize it. You can wind up driving all over and seeing much less than you would like. Get a good GPS app for your smart phone that give you traffic. Sitting on the 405 going 3 mph is not fun nor is it uncommon. Oh, and don't forget the beach's. Got to put your feet in the Pacific ocean just out of general principle.

Oh, yes, Coast Air Brush. Why didn't I think of that. Everything in the world related to custom paint. Probably 200 airbrushes on display, tons of paints and paint supplies but if you go there, ignore all that. Their biggest asset is their people. They are all airbrush artists and know this stuff up one side and down the other. Any question you can think of related to airbrushes they can answer and if you don't have an airbrush, they will take the time to ask a lot of questions and get you the exact right one for you. Great people. Location? Just to the east of Disneyland! One of my clubs meets just down the street from Coast and we know when it is time to close up shop because the fireworks at Disneyland interrupts the meeting!

Oh Yea, In-N-Out burger. The quintessential SoCal burger experience. They keep the menu simple. Burgers and cheese burgers only. All veggies, meat and buns are fresh. The potatoes are cut just before they go in the fryer. The usual cast of sodas and milkshakes and that is it. Oh, there is as secret menu that you should Google before you go. You can get up to 5 meat patties by ordering a 5 by 5. There was a 100 by 100 created once and it is documented on the web, but they won't let you do that anymore. My personal favorite is a double double animal style with catsup and mustard instead of sauce, but you have to figure that out for you self. If would just be sad if you came all the way from Finland and didn't go there at least once. They are all over the place. There are ten of them within three miles of the drag strip.

One other must see if you are into older cars is the Nethercutt collection. It is about an hours drive away but worth the trip. It is a real Wow of a museum. http://www.nethercuttcollection.org/Home.aspx

One more to add but it is a bit of a drive is Brookhurst hobbies, 12188 Brookhurst St, Garden Grove, CA 92840 They have a good selection of models but more than that a great selection of "stuff". Decals, tools, paints and other junk you can't live without.