Mark

The sedan and phaeton kits are to a large extent based on the Victoria; same chrome tree, chassis, and fenders. AMT tooled the phaeton body in the late Sixties and utilized the existing custom sedan body a few years later. It's strange they didn't do the Victoria based sedan when they instead did the phaeton. It was in the 1968-69 period that the Willys/sedan double kit was converted to a single car (Willys) with the pickup option added. The sedan body would have been sitting unused then, and AMT itself floated the idea of using it on the Victoria kit earlier. They would only have needed an interior, as opposed to a body, interior, and top for the phaeton.

I'm thinking this particular tire is molded from a softer material. Using the same material as other tires may have made the molded tire tough to remove from the mold during production. I don't believe Round 2 has used this tire in any of their kits. That could be due to not having BF Goodrich licensing, but could be for other reasons.

It only stands to reason that, when you have ten gears instead of four or five, and the two transmissions are roughly the same size and weight relative to one another, everything inside the ten-speed's case is going to be smaller, thinner, and weaker.

Another solution would be to use resin wheel halves, inside and outside.

Costly research if you haven't got the magazine, but there's an issue of Rodders' Journal with a center spread of a beautifully chopped '37 Chevy coupe in bare metal (or "baremetal"; RJ always printed that as one word).

Pure luck. Earlier this year, I spotted damage on the wheels of a '72 GTO I had built in the early Eighties using those tires. The kit inner wheels, and the outers ("honeycomb" wheels from a mid-Seventies MPC Chevy Monza) were all painted on their outer surfaces (outers were stripped of plating). Still got the gumball effect. Took it apart, edges of outers and inners were softened. Sanded all of that off, repainted the wheel edges, and reassembled. Tires used this time were AMT hollow Goodyear Polyglas with molded-in lettering, same as I used on a '71 Trans-Am rebuild I did around the same time as the Goat. No problems noted with the Trans-Am.

I'd almost bet it is from the Revell Tommy Ivo "Showboat" four-engine dragster kit.

Bingo. They might have a bunch of paperwork to fill out right now, probably don't want to get involved with that, so the listing was changed. If/when something changes, the listing can be revised again. They probably have the listing repeating every thirty days or so, and don't want to pull it while the tariff thing shakes out.

I believe he's "making a statement". I bought some Tamiya enamel paints from him awhile back; prices and shipping were quite reasonable then. I spotted the same massive shipping increase when I went back thinking I'd get some more. Needless to say, I'm holding off for now. The Tamiya enamels are quite good, hopefully they will be offered here at some point.

If the chassis is attached with metal rivets (screws without slots in the head, for lack of a better description) they are original promos. If the "rivets" are silver plastic pins, they're X-EL repops which are probably worth more than any but the best condition originals (because of the non-warping materials used). The X-EL repro promos were very well done finish-wise. Some of them lack interiors (in spite of X-EL's propaganda saying the originals didn’t have them either), most have the no-detail plastic chassis plate with provisions for a friction "motor" that isn't there, and at least one had some jury-rigged assembly like a taxi sign propping up the interior bucket). But would many of us like the chance to buy another...you bet!

The wheels on the Leal Duster look like they are the ones that came in the kit. MPC used similar wheels in other kits in that time frame: the Switchers T and Deuce, the '67 Streaker 'Vette, to name a couple.

What year(s)? The original Jo-Han promos were all acetate through the 1963 model year. They did reproduce '56, '57, and '58 promos through their X-EL division in the Seventies and Eighties. Those are molded in ABS which does not warp and has a nice shine also.

Not so much different size, but rather different interpretations of the same item decades apart, by different people, using different methods to get from A to B. That happens in the aircraft and armor modeling realms also; you have the Fifties kits designed in a hurry to be the first one on store shelves, scaled from aerial photos with measurements determined according to the size of the concrete slabs around the hangar, versus more modern kits designed with measurements taken from now-obsolete units in museum settings. I used to be bothered by things like that, now it's part of the fascination with the heritage of the hobby. For example it's interesting to see multiple interpretations of the same subject, like AMT, MPC, old and new Revell C2 Corvettes, or all of the different '57 Chevies now out there.

Notice the backwards leaning lettering on the Barracuda. MPC made the lettering for both sides exactly the same, meaning it is wrong for one side. The Missile project involved a few ex-Ramchargers personnel; like their cars, the Missile lettering should lean forward at the top on both sides!

Earlier today, while putting away the lawnmower, I spotted a neighborhood cat taking a squirrel to lunch (not as his guest). The cat seemed to be proudly strutting down the sidewalk carrying his meal. I'd have liked to see him making the actual catch, much as I like watching the neighborhood squirrels.

NNL Buffalo haul! I was set up there, didn't sell much but then again I didn't have much to sell. Parts include a few sets of glass (two Falcon funny car, '58 Impala, '62 Bel Air among others), couple of engines, Modelhaus '70 Chevy pickup grille/bumper, and some suspension parts. MPC 1/20 Altered is complete. Monogram Rolls is missing some small stuff but it is a first issue and the shiny black body parts are mint. I have another later one to rob the needed parts from. I don't know who did the resin Dart but it's quite nice. I figure one of the chrome paints will take care of the bumpers and grille. Sandkat is missing the engine but the chassis is all there. '66 Nova is missing tires/wheels and decal sheet. Mustang II is missing one front wheel. I was going to get some pro stock decals for it, but might actually go with an out-of-the-box build. Cyclone is missing traction bars, JJ Vega is missing tires and decals but the chassis/engine are intact. Not a bad day.

I'd lay odds that someone will offer a resin no-scoop hood shortly after the '64 kits first appear.

I would NOT disassemble that model. I'd instead build another one with the new kit and aftermarket decals.

Yes, original '66 Fury kits (even rebuilders) are that difficult to find. The original Jo-Han company was, size-wise, a pimple on the backside of AMT, MPC, Revell, or Monogram back in the day. They just didn't have the same distribution and weren't available in as many places. Plus, the subject matter wasn't as desirable back then. So an all-new injection molded kit of a '66 Fury would not be a smart business proposition. It wouldn't have been even in 1966. The only reason it appeared then was that much of its development cost was borne by Chrysler Corporation because they wanted promos. But apparently enough people still want one to justify a resin kit. Whether enough of those people are willing to lay out 100 times the original kit's retail price for a kit with no plated parts has yet to be proven, pro or con.

There's enough of us out there who couldn't care less about F&F type cars, and consider polycap wheel attachment more suitable to Hot Wheels than to model kits. Not that we don’t want that market to be served, but it's just not anything we will ever have any interest in. Then again, the parties currently locking horns over the Jo-Han brand name are niche/boutique manufacturers at best. One in fact hasn't manufactured anything in a bunch of years. The other is a resin caster, dress that up however anyone will. Neither will ever get up to a level where they will have products on store shelves anywhere but in their own store. There's simply no comparison between them and any company selling typical injection molded plastic model kits.

The Impala has been out awhile, the T-Bird is relatively new in the current issue. HL gets the price per kit they do because they buy in large quantities. So they might have a particular kit long after other sources have sold out of it. One store in my area had the Dodge Warlock pickup kit, sold out of it, and restocked with the '78 long bed pickup which predates the Warlock issue.

MPC did those pro stock kits in stages. The ('72) first ones had stock interior buckets, stock chassis, and a few special parts like hoods with scoops molded in. The '73 kits got gutted interior buckets but the Landy Challenger used the Barracuda piece which is way too narrow in the Challenger. The '73 kits still had stock chassis, the Jenkins Vega having the stock exhaust detail as well as the Challenger and Barracuda. The '74 kits got rid of the molded-in exhaust detail except the Duster which still had the sections on either side of the driveshaft. The last ('75) kits all had gutted interiors and chassis, pretty much because most of the equivalent annual kits had separate parts in those areas. The kits were often a year behind the 1:1 cars. The '72 cars included a Jenkins Camaro but he was running the Vega that year. The Mopar Missile Duster was released in '74 but by then it was only being used for testing and not in competition. The Vanke Duster was not a pro stock kit, just a sheet of decals added to the stock '72 annual kit. MPC threw Motown Missile decals into the '72 Challenger annual kit, but they were for the '71 car.

You don't want sheet styrene for windows unless they are flat or very nearly so. Any kind of bending will stress the clear styrene turning it a whitish shade in the stress areas. I'm not sure what happens when you vacuform clear styrene, but I would suspect the same result.

Only the Sox & Martin, and Mopar Missile Duster kits had the gutted interior bucket. The ('72) California Flash kit has a stock interior bucket with console and stock rear seat.

This kit, and the existing '71, are both correct in not having a console. The console was only available with the automatic transmission. The annual kits had the console and automatic transmission but a four-speed transmission (a common issue with annual kits). The Volare kits had engine block halves with the automatic, and those will interchange with the annual Duster, Demon, and Dart Sport kit parts.