mikemodeler

Maybe an email to their offices will reveal whether or not they will carry Tamiya or Revell (or someone else) paint?

If you haven't studied the history of the model companies, I suggest you do a little research and see their storied past. Several have come and gone while others have survived. Many private equity firms buy companies for various reasons, some to salvage what can be bought at a bargain, some because they see value and profit potential. Comparing brick and mortar retail operations to a plastic model making company is about as far off as one can get. As I said before, why speculate and claim the end is near when you can wait for the official company announcement later this week? Maybe you will hear positive news or you will hear negative news, but at least it will come from the company itself and not a bunch of internet opinions from various forum members.

Because speculating on things you have no knowledge of feeds the rumor mill and creates endless speculation. You alluded to there being financial issues with Round2 and yet have no evidence, which leads others to think they will go out of business. THAT does a huge disservice to all of the hard work the staff at Round2, Tom Lowe included, have done to bring us all kinds of new tools and re-issues we thought we might not ever see.

I had that kit and IIRC the body lines of the MPC Snap Blazer seemed to be more accurate, especially the front fenders and hood. The Revell snow plow is 1/24 scale, the MPC Blazer is 1/25, so the GMC Deserter pickup would be a better candidate for a donor.

Gee Tim, that almost sounds like we should wait and hear what the company has to say about this, doesn't it?!?!?!?!?!? Hey, we can all speculate what it going on with Round2, but why not wait for them to comment?

That the pickins are slim is an understatement.

The Blazer body is very nicely proportioned and looks good when finished. It would be nice to see this come out again, with a bit of work and some different tires, this builds nice and fills a void for Blazers of this era.

With the push for a $15 federal minimum wage, the price of kits would surely go up, so I don't see that as a likely scenario. Most manufacturing would take a hit and the price of goods and services would reflect that increase.

Given the popularity and longevity of the Star Trek and Star Wars brand and products, it's pretty evident why this investment firm did what they did. Tom Lowe seems to know how to run the company, give him some money to make some new stuff that will grow sales and they get their ROI.

Not sure if anyone has noticed, but more people are buying online and creating more work/shipments for all parcel delivery services (FedEx, UPS, USPS) so delays are to be expected. Add in the fact that the Postal Service has been chronically understaffed and they are going to have problems.

Please share with us where these LHS are at that sell kits comparable to Hobby Lobby with the discount, because I haven't seen any. I bought the recent Revell 76 Chevy stepside pickup at Hobby Lobby for $16 with the 40% off sale. I would gladly support a small owned business if it exists and try to when shopping online or in person.

Stopped in the HL in Indian Land SC today and they have kits @ 40% off this week.

yes it should. The double axle was just for the racers wedge body, the camper is standard single axle wheelbase.

Thanks for posting Casey, I ordered one of these last night. The wedge bed will likely end up on a different truck, not sure yet.

Glad you have been able to get back to building, that looks fantastic! Great details and accurate suspension.

To be fair, the magazine title is FINE SCALE MODELER, so to see figures, automotive and military models in it is what I would expect. It's my hope that they add more automotive coverage to it and I know they are working on it, but I don't expect to see them have endless pages of features any time soon.

That is nice, looks great with the container on it!

The OP is the maker of the resin body, he mentions it in the first post. He is working with some others to bring these to market.

Modelroundup has Tamiya sprays at what seem to be reasonable prices. I did not see the TS-84, but they had TS-83 for $19.99. Sounds like the paint is used on smaller pieces and parts and not a whole body, so hopefully it will last longer.

That looks killer and the black wheels & stance make it look MEAN. Nice work so far!

The easiest way is to use the 84 GMC pickup kit Deserter as the chassis donor. Here's a picture of a Burban sitting on the chassis, sorry for the bad lighting, but the wheel base matches up. The beauty of the donor kit is that you can build it stock height with regular tires and wheels or you can jack it up and use the big wheels and tires from the kit.

Which means they will be marked up and on eBay before you know it.

Incredible work, attention to detail is outstanding and this will be a beauty when done. Your skills are enviable!

From what has been written, they aren't accepting orders and have refunded previous orders. Not sure what is going on with them, I do know from talking with other resin casters that they have been swamped with orders and with most of them being small operations, many just a one person business, it can get overwhelming. We have seen some go out of business as a result of the demand of time required to run these businesses. A lot of work goes into making molds and casting parts, much more than any article in a magazine lets on!

I'd think that there is a big difference in featuring your build on the cover and having a few sentences about it inside the magazine versus researching and writing an actual article for the magazine. From what I have been told, the monetary pay varies and depends on the article length and complexity. Some of the people I know who have written articles over the years for various types of publications say it's a nice way to earn some extra bucks but by no means is their sole form of income. With the decline in the number of printed magazines, I suspect that the pay hasn't increased and may have actually decreased, not sure.