Mark

I used to question "leaving more space" between me and the vehicle in front of me, but did a rethink a few years ago and started doing it myself. It "paid off" in November 2023, when someone rammed the back of my car. Hit hard enough to push one of the rear wheels forward, totalling the car, but didn't push me into the car in front of me. At least I didn't have to deal with a third party. Another thing to watch for, if there's a truck in front of you, is a trailer towing ball on an extension attached to their hitch. They're hanging out there just waiting to poke a hole in the front of your car. Most of them look to be easily removable, yet these numbnuts won't take the thing off and toss it in the bed or tool box.

The Lindberg and Airfix Type K Firebirds are the same kit. An old Scale Auto Enthusiast article shows the Lindberg kit being kitbashed with a Monogram Trans Am to make a full detail Type K.

Yesterday's "haul" from NNL East. Didn't take any "big ticket" items to sell, still did better than I thought I would, and spent a fraction of that. The '48 Ford sedan is only roughed out but the work done so far looks symmetrical. I'll chop out the offensive areas one at a time, for three bucks it's worth messing with. If the fix is successful, I've got a spare '48 coupe to drop this body on. I was surprised those two Moebius kits weren't cleaned out by the time I got to the Model King stand. The Falcon is a convertible, looks rough but is actually quite nice. Nothing sanded off or glued over, no hole in the hood, just needs its paint removed and a good soak to loosen up the windshield glass. If I have to grind it out, it might become a hardtop with the roof from an altered wheelbase '65 body. Another one for the pile. The Cutlass had the engine assembled and the custom parts are gone, but the body and stock chrome are untouched. I was looking for a second one to build a stretched body for a Vista Cruiser conversion, and there it was, cheap. The STS decals are for a '79 Bronco, also a Mopar Mod Top. The AMX body came from the JoHan table, it is damaged but will be cut apart so I can resin cast its perfectly straight A-pillars to save a couple of Javelin and AMX bodies. Not shown is a Monogram Hurst Hairy Olds decal sheet (had a kit missing one) and this year's T-shirt.

The Longnose Mustang sold well enough to have been issued in two different boxes back in the day.

Bottom one is from the newer tool Revell (ex-Monogram) convertible or hardtop '55.

You might consider intentionally routing out the surface just below the emblem, so as to require filling. Fill with a two-part spot putty, apply primer in that area with a brush, sand, repeat until smooth. The ghosting can also be eliminated by brushing liquid cement over the affected area and sanding smooth. It does work for me, I tend to do the same area twice over to make sure.

The '64 covers are as close as you're going to get to '63. '63 kits have eight-lug wheels.

Top one: pre-1970 issues of the AMT '65 Bonneville. Later ones have eight-lug wheels and not the wheel covers Middle one: AMT '64 Bonneville

Those look like the tires from AMT 1/32 scale tractor-trailer snap kits. I've got a couple of sets stashed for 1/25 scale ramp truck projects in progress. Monogram also made 1/32 scale snap semis, but theirs used plastic tires that were open on the back side. The 1/32 scale snap semis can sometimes be found as "bag items" at toy shows or swap meets, cheap because they're built and the mirrors and other small parts are broken off. The whole chassis from those can be cut and shuffled for use under Jimmy Flintstone resin crew cabs and the like. When I see 'em for a buck or two, I'll get them, especially the AMT ones with the vinyl tires. For wheels, I cast some from the Monogram 1/24 scale '91 Ford duallie pickup. I shimmed them on the outside with thin sheet plastic, if you don't then they are a loose fit in the tires. For the phantom resin crew cabs, you could just use the 1/32 scale wheels that came with the tires in the first place.

A couple of people were recently convicted in my area, for scamming elderly people. They were posing as grandchildren claiming they were being detained in a foreign country. My mom used to get a scam call every so often. I answered a couple of them, they'd say they are calling from "your bank". And what bank is that? "Your bank". What, you don't know which bank you work for? What sign was on the building when you got to work today? Mom had a legit excuse when someone asked for bank account or credit card numbers. She knew not to give out that info over the phone, but she'd just tell them she couldn't see well enough to read the numbers off of a statement even if she was dumb enough to do such a thing. They'd try on a couple of occasions, then get a clue and go elsewhere.

Never heard of that brand either. The only way to know 100% would be to compare one of these to its better known equivalent. The Amerang could be a re-box, or a copy. Copy kits are seldom as clean or as refined as the original tooling. They'll have short cuts; fewer parts, no brand name on the tires, things like that.

AMT sold unassembled promotional models as early as 1953. I know a guy who recently bought an unassembled '53 Ford convertible Indy Pace Car promo. It's not the Lindberg kit, it's the original promo model with metal chassis and one-piece interior bucket. AMT got involved with Revell apparently because they had connections with the 1:1 auto industry while Revell did not (at that time).

I'm puzzled by the "remotely similar" comment too...this is one of the more authentic Gasser kits. Might be the best, top five for sure. The only thing holding it back over the years has been tires. First-run 1967 kits had two-piece plastic tires and slicks. Apparently buyers were okay with plastic tires in the $1.70 altered wheelbase funny car kits, but weren't so crazy about them in a $2.00 kit. AMT deleted the plastic tires and threw in vinyl ones. The hollow M&H/Goodyear (on opposite sidewalls) were so-so, but the Trophy Series tires used for the front just didn't cut it.

I've got a Jeep kit made by a company called Megow. One is pictured in Dennis Doty's book on building and collecting model cars (later updated and divided into two volumes). The Jeep kit was composed entirely of wood and printed cardboard, and was sold during World War II. Lionel was selling a "train set" made pretty much the same way, as all steel and materials to make electric motors for their normal products were reserved strictly for the war effort.

It doesn't bother me when someone compares a model kit body to the 1:1 item. It does irritate me to see someone declare some aspect of a model kit body wrong after comparing it to ANOTHER KIT. As much as I usually prefer the older stuff, it ain't all perfect. Some of the promo model based car kits are undersize, or resized to fit the box they came in, or resized to look proportionally "right" with tires already tooled. One manufacturer used the same tires on Ford Falcon, Corvette, Imperial, and Lincoln Continental kits in THE SAME YEAR. They might ALL be wrong, but at least two of them are definitely wrong. As for the parts getting lost in the carpet, I can relate. Many years ago, upon receipt of a '63 Cadillac kit bought on eBay, I noticed one fin tip (that overhang the taillight lens) was broken off. Finding it in the box, I then picked it up with tweezers and held it up to the fin to locate it in preparation for gluing it to the body. Tweezers went "snap", part flies across the living room into the carpet. That thing didn't lay in the box for fifty-plus years only for some idiot (me) to lose it. Three hours later...found. Haven't done anything that dumb since (not with a model kit, anyway...)

The 1:1 truck pictured has an early Eighties front clip (similar to the MPC Deserter GMC; note the marker holes on the front fender), and a different wrecker bed (similar to the Revell Midnight Cowboy). One of the Moebius Ford wreckers (either the currently available one, or the next one coming) should also have a wrecker bed like that.

I'd suspect that the convertible sells better, so the hardtop isn't in the catalog as long, or as often.

Safe to say, we can probably rule out a 1/35 scale Jack Russell Terrier...

The extended cab was never used in a full detail kit, only in promos. The stepside bed was used in full detail and promo versions. Ertl did not tool the promo-only variations like the extended cab, so that's part of the story behind the slight mismatch between cabs and beds. The fact that Ertl subcontracted some of the promos means that they didn't have the tooling for them when production ended. That's why Round 2 had to recreate the stock versions of the OBS trucks that they have issued so far. If they decide to do any more variations, those would be new also and would probably interchange with the items they have already done.

Gas class cars could not have altered wheelbase. That would move the car to Altered class.

The white Milliput is the only way to go with that particular brand IMO. The green "standard" variety is on the coarse side, and takes a lot more work to get smooth, and even then doesn't approach the smoothness of the white variety. That, plus I prefer to have everything (plastic and putty) in one color whenever possible, as I try to use a minimum of primer while bodywork is in process.

If you use it to build up the thickness of a part (or on joints between parts), rough up the area where it is to be applied, and make sure those areas are clean (no mold release) before applying the putty.

Aurora's was a '34 five-window coupe. Got any pictures, we should be able to figure out what you have...

Besides routing out panel lines, I like to rout out seams between different parts that are being joined (especially when joining resin to plastic). Ideally, you don't want the seam between those parts right at the surface. You want a thin "stripe" of putty at the seam: plastic, putty, then the adjoining part. The two-part putty is also great for filling those cut lines on the underside of hoods, so they don't appear as ghost lines on the finished and painted panel.

I'm surprised about Ridgid tools having gone downhill. The first time I worked in construction (in the office), they were the go-to for things like pumps for dewatering trenches. I've got one of their submersible sump pumps in my house, I bought it about 25 years ago and it's been great. A while back, I thought about getting another one for backup, but Lowe's and Home Depot don't stock Ridgid in the stores, they're pushing their own in-house brands. Ridgid had nice calendars back in the Eighties though.