mikemodeler

Nice paint job, dated a girl who had one of those, lots of great memories!

Greg, if I lived near you I would gladly lend a hand and take my pay in resin stuff but I am 1,800 miles away! I appreciate your dedication to the hobby and the products you have brought to market. I still have those 67 Camaro convertible kits, hope to get one of them done yet this year!

The one-two punch of losing Harry P and Golden Bell Press hit Gregg hard and he has yet to recover. His ongoing health issues only add to problem. I am not excusing what has happened, just shedding some light on the situation for those that may not have been here as long. Hopefully this forum continues as it is such a useful resource.

Nice story and build. Which took longer, the build or writing the story?

From the sounds of things, GT Kustom Khrome might be the better of the two as Dale has made it clear that he is not prepared to work long hours at his age, which I don't blame him for. And if I remember correctly, George at GT has already retired from one of the automakers so one has to wonder how long into his "golden years" he plans to work? Much like The Modelhaus, once one of our beloved suppliers decides to retire, we have to learn to live without their services or hope someone else can fill the void. I am guessing Bob at Chrome Tech saw what happened to Don and Carol and decided to go off into the sunset without the last minute rush of orders to delay his retirement.

As was suggested, read through the different sections here and you will learn a lot about what has happened since you last built a kit not to mention the wealth of information available here. And as always, don't be afraid to ask questions, we are a helpful bunch. Welcome Back!

I have to delete my email from my cell phone- Michael's sends me daily emails with coupons and for the second time in a couple of weeks I have used their coupon to score a model for $10. This time it was a Revell Nova that will get used for parts or possibly actually get built!

Despite not really needing anything, I went into my local Michael's today with a 60% off coupon and found a Revell Nova sitting on the shelf. After taxes it was $10.73 and if I use it for parts or do some swapping with other kits, I don't have a ton invested in it. Trying to break the habit of buying kits I don't really need, but for $10 I figure what the heck!

Would the tires from a 1/32 kit be the right scale? Maybe something in the toy aisle at Wal-Mart or a dollar store?

I like it! I would assemble the other model and display them as is.

I am thinning out the stash again, gonna go to a swap meet next Saturday and try to sell off some more kits. While I vow to not buy more, I can't resist buying some kits of interest that either haven't been out before or haven't been issued for some time. My recent purchases include the Moebius F100 4x4, the Revell 68 Chevelle and AMT Toyota Pickup snap kit. I did also get the 60 Chevy pickup despite having 2, but that dang go cart !

FWIW, I have some tires from Al at Ma's Resin and would be happy to measure them, although with him likely out of business, not sure that does much good. They are nicely cast and I remember it took some pestering of Al to get my order shipped, wish he had been able to continue his work, he had some other tires he was working on. Forum George53, George Hernandez is his cousin and maybe if someone has George's contact information can find out what happened and if Al will be back.

Having been in the auto parts business for 35 years at different types of companies - OEM & aftermarket manufacturers and distributors- this has been the hardest part to deal with. I have wasted more time in meetings listening to reasons why something can't be done when in fact most of the time it's because no one will take ownership of a project or process. Like I said in an earlier post related to this topic: If I ran Revell, I would be exploring how to implement 3D printing into the kit development process and selling 3D kits and parts.

Amen Bill! And to add to your comments, most of what is in the magazines is old news by the time we get it. Yes, there are some great How-To articles that may or may not be here on the forum, but for the most part a lot of what we get in a magazine has already been on the internet for awhile. I agree that Gregg deserves a lot of credit for giving us this forum and I would go so far to say that if he would to start charging for it, I don't have a problem with him doing so. This place has introduced me to many things in the hobby that a stack of magazines could only hope to do. I have a decent sized box of MCM and SA magazines that I will be taking to the next swap meet because after I have read them, I rarely refer back to them. If I have a question on something, the answer can be found here much easier than fumbling through stacks of magazines!

To add to Snake's comments, imagine creating your model kit and sending it off to be printed (like Shapeways) and pick it up at the store later? We do that now with printed materials on paper, so why not model kits or other items? Architects could use this same technology if they aren't already. And ordering a model like Snake mentions above (using an option sheet) gives you the creative freedom without buying multiple kits or forgoing a build because of the cost of three kits to get the same result. If I was running Revell, I would be studying this technology and try to incorporate it into a business plan soon.

I would hope that the model industry would see scanning as a money saving option as pointed out by Tim above. Too many times companies seem to be short sighted on things like new technology but always have time to do the job over several times "the old way" instead of admitting their error. If the scans could literally be transformed from a computer file into a 3D mock up in a couple of days versus what must take weeks or months to do the "old way", not to mention accuracy beyond compare, I would think a smart project manager would see the cost savings.

I will have to look at doing this, have an unbuilt kit as well as an older build that I could scavenge parts from. Question for you: are either one of the upper control arms usable for both sides or will one have to create new UCAs?

Hope to see you Bob, the ACME bunch are a nice group!

Which is what drove most mechanics crazy when they got a comeback after doing one of these jobs. Tended to happen more when it was a warranty job versus customer paid job.

Are these the ones where you end up removing the right front fender to get at them?

Hopefully you don't develop any mystery squeaks and rattles now that everything was torn apart.

Some of their molds were picked up by Jeff Ballard, he might have that one, not sure. His forum name is JeffB here, do a search and send him a message. I know he just moved his shop so it might be a bit before he let you know.

I have started a support group for those of us addicted to Fireball Modelworks excellent products! I think I spent close to $300 last year, maybe more, and his stuff is worth every penny of it!

What he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Maybe Fireball, he recently did a bunch of 67-69 Chevy Camaro wheelcovers