StevenGuthmiller

I don't begrudge PB from making a buck, hell, this is America and this is a capitalist system, but to go from zero to $400.00 is completely ridiculous, & with virtually no notice to boot. It shows me just how little they care about the people that they claim to serve. Add to that the fact that the site is virtually unusable because of all of the adds & you have to question why anyone would remain on board. A sub-par product at ten times the price.......sounds like a real bargain, eh? What would have been wrong with starting with a $5.00 or $10.00 a month plan with maybe the possibility of upgrading to a more expensive "add free" plan. Obviously these guys have never heard of the fact that "sales" drive profits. The more paying customers you get, the more revenue you generate. Now their going to have to rely on a few "captive" customers who don't feel that they have options to try to keep their sorry ass venture afloat. Steve

My original thought was that this particular trim configuration was a "Sport Fury" package. But I've seen so many different trim arrangements on the '62 Plymouths that it's hard to really glean any real standards or packages. Some have the wide band on the front fender along with the spears on the tops of the fenders, some have the spears just on the rear fender. Some examples have the "Sport Fury" logo on the front fender, some just the standard "Fury" logo behind the front wheel. There really seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. Steve

Not sure what wheels I will use at the moment Al, but I'm thinking either stock caps or possibly even some after market wheels like Torque Thrusts or Cragars. I guess I'll have plenty of time to decide. Steve

Well, I think I've finally gotten the new shop set up enough to get started on a new project. This one will be a '62 Plymouth convertible. I'm going to dive into this one with some fairly extensive trim modifications. After doing some research I found that a great many of the Furys from this year had added body trim & 6 tail lights so that's what I'm going to try. First of all, it will be built with the up top so the boot snap trim needs to be added as well as some top mods to get the top to fit right, much like the '62 Chrysler that I built recently. Next, there will be fender spears added to the tops of both the front & rear fenders as well as the removal of the heavy front fender spear to be replaced with a thinner one. Then holes will need to be drilled for the positioning of a third tail light on each side. I will also be doing my usual modifications in the engine bay area by removing the screw posts & adding a few more details to the fender edges, radiator brace & firewall. I have yet to decide what engine I will use & what color it will be. It's good to be back in the saddle! Steve

Beautiful! I have a nice one ready to go to the bench in the near future. Best looking of the late 60s full sized Fords IMO. Steve

Looks great! I've always loved copper. Looks great on nearly every car! "Sierra Gold" was the copper color on the '58 Chevy. Looks pretty close to what you used here. Steve

Supposedly you can download them back to your hard drive. I haven't bothered with it myself because I already have all of the same photos saved in my computer & many of them on Fotki. Don't much care what PB does with them. Steve

I think it may have been Modelhaus. I think that I have one of these left. Maybe it's time to get out my casting supplies & give it a shot. Steve

I wouldn't even consider it! After the way they handled this, they don't deserve anyone's trust & I wouldn't use them if they went back to being free! There's nothing worse than an entity like this, who should know better in the first place, coming crawling back pleading for our mercy. I already have no respect for them & would respect them even less if they pulled a stunt like that. It would be a completely transparent attempt to mitigate the damage that they themselves created & an attempt to recover some of the inevitable losses that we can see to be apparent, but somehow they can not? I have absolutely no sympathy for them. I believe it's time for them to reap what they sow & just fade away. Steve

I'll just be happy to sit & watch PB circle the bowl one last time before they bite the big bologna! Steve

Correct. The kits also included a second snorkel. Good luck finding one! Steve

I recycle other peoples builds quite frequently. Possibly half or more of my builds over the past 5 years have been restored built-ups. I do occasionally redo an old built kit of my own, but rarely. Although I have a couple slated for restorations in the future. Usually, I won't mess with rebuilding a kit if it's a modern tool that's easy to find. I'll just start with a fresh kit if that's the case. I will usually only mess with a "recycling" if it's a rare or hard to find kit. At this point, I only have one of my old builds that I've refinished. I bought this X-EL 1959 Plymouth back in the 80s, picked up a Modelhaus interior for it & built it in the color that it came in. I just recently decided that it was a good candidate for a re-do. Unfortunately, I don't believe that I have any "before" pics other that the starting pics for the restoration. This photo was taken after the interior had been stripped & the foil & other body details had already been removed. Steve

I have not used Simple Green, but I used Easy Off for many years. It worked well in most cases, but I gave it up because of the noxious fumes & it's much messier to use than Super Clean. Also, Super Clean is much more economical to use than Easy Off because you can use it over & over. Steve

I've finally had the opportunity to do an assessment of the performance of these two products for paint stripping. Not because I wanted to, but out of necessity. My local auto parts store does not carry Super Clean, but did have Purple Power so I picked up a gallon to try out on my next project, a Johan 1962 Plymouth Fury convertible. I have to say that I was quite disappointed. The Plymouth was painted many years ago with basically one coat of enamel paint with no primer, but after soaking for 24 hours, while it was mostly clean, it was no where near as spotless as my experience has been with Super Clean. Other similar paint jobs that I have stripped with Super Clean in the past, and there have been many, were generally spotless in as little as a couple of hours. So, I will be expanding my search into the Fargo Moorhead area for some Super Clean. I thought that some of you might find this information useful. Steve

I believe he was, but it all kind of goes hand in hand. A little sanding & re-priming should take care of all of it. Steve

I can tell by the photos that you have a bit of "crazing" going on there. That is a phenomenon that can happen if your paint or primer are too "hot", ie, not designed for use on styrene plastic. I'm guessing that you used some sort of lacquer primer, which is ok, but there are a few things you need to be aware of. If using a hot primer or paint, you need to start with very light coats. If sprayed on too heavily it will begin to "etch" the plastic, thus crazing. I would not worry too much with what you have there. Just sand the body lightly & spray it with a couple more light coats of primer. That should remedy the problem. Steve

Just as an added note, you'd either have to have a death wish or really gigantic cojones to ride something like that! From the look of it, the bike would be the one in control! Steve

As I started scrolling through the photos, I thought to myself, ok, let's see the pics of the model! Although I'm not a big bike guy, especially drag bikes, There's no denying that this is one of the most realistic models I've seen in a long time! There's no way that anyone would suspect that this is a model from viewing the photos. Amazing work John!!! Steve

Very nice! Great color combo! I've been contemplating using a similar combo on a '68 Coronet R/T. Steve

Yes, & I'll say it again, what are our options if we have no local hobby shops? Obviously, some of us are spoiled by having options. For many of us our options are limited to either buying online or giving up building altogether. I spent a lot of money & time in my LHS in Rochester MN until they went belly up more than 15 or 20 years ago. After they went away, there were zero options short of driving 80+ miles to the Minneapolis area. Rochester is a city of over 120,000 people & there are no hobby shops. What does that tell you about our fellow builders who live in rural areas where the nearest shop could be 100 or more miles away, if one exists at all. So, please don't pass judgement on those of us who may not have much in the way of choices when it comes to where they can purchase kits & supplies. I believe that you are preaching to the choir, for the most part, when it comes to where we would prefer to purchase, but it's not always possible & becoming less & less possible every day. Steve

Actually, I built this one a few years ago when I was cranking them out pretty quickly, especially the curbside builds. On average, I was finishing one every 3 to 4 weeks. recently I've started building more kits with much more engine & other detailing & that time has stretched out to more like one every 3 to 4 months! This is another advantage to building curbside. The finish line it's much closer! Steve

Possibly. I've been a little out of practice for the past couple of months. You'll have to pardon me. Steve

Uh.....ok, if that's your attitude, you need to stop doing nearly everything you do. If you knew how much environmentally "unfriendly" materials just went into building a home, you would crawl into a hole......which is probably good, because that's where you would be living. Sounds like you made a wrong turn somewhere if you thought that you were going to come onto a modeling forum and convince anyone that they should give up modeling because it doesn't feed a child. Steve

If you don't want to mess with the engines, by all means, forget about them. I usually will do the engine in a model if it originally came with one, but I build plenty of curbside kits that never had an engine & I don't add them. Even if you're entering a contest, you can still do well, even without an engine. I did quite well this spring at the NNL North show with a curbside '60 Dodge! Steve

That's easy to say if you are lucky enough to have any local hobby shops. I've recently moved from Rochester Minnesota to the Fargo North Dakota area & I'm under the impression that there are a LHS or 2 in this area, although I have yet to find them & check them out. But in Rochester, there hasn't been a hobby shop of any substance for at least a couple of decades. That kind of leaves you at the mercy of either the big stores or online vendors. I will gladly spend my dollars at a LHS if they are worth a darn! The remaining one in Rochester, called "Everything Hobby" should be forced to change it's name to "Everything Hobby, as Long as it's Radio Controlled". Steve