Mark

Last time I was in there (Christmas shopping last year) I spotted a couple of Polar Lights Ecto-1 kits on the shelves with the diecast stuff. About fifteen years ago, they had aisle displays of kits at Christmas time, but they haven't had kits in a "normal" place on the shelves in nearly twenty years. I remember when they cleared out the remaining kits back then, I bought a bunch of AMT Pro Shop '57 Chevies, $3.33 apiece. They had the pro street and "basic" (no photoetch) versions, but I snagged the Pro Shop kits and resold them over the next year or two and fairly well with them. I might still have one or two of them stashed from that deal.

Looks like you've got '62 wheel covers also.

That's in great shape, and you even have the box that goes with it. I'd leave it alone. Ironic that the return address for Ford was in Plymouth, Michigan. I was in Plymouth a few years back, I wonder where Ford may have been there.

HL is probably buying in enough volume that they can deal with Revell directly, where a local, one-location shop has to go through a wholesaler.

The Thunderbolts had notched shock towers, to fit the FE-series wedge engine. I've got a stock '62 Fairlane (same basic body '62-'65), the towers are bulged out (inward) at the bottom making the engine compartment narrower in that area. The T-bolt conversions were farmed out to Dearborn Steel Tubing for the conversion work.

They will also have the MPC (stock) Datsun pickup, AMT '57 Ford ('57 Fords must do pretty well for them), and Polar Lights Tom McEwen funny car...that pretty much evens up the Revell-Monogram/Round 2 balance.

I'd bet they will do it eventually...they'll wait until sales slow down for the first two versions before crowding the market with a third one.

That auction price probably isn't out of line with what some mail-order sellers and show vendors would ask for a '61 Plymouth kit. I can't remember what I paid for my unbuilt one, but at the time it might have been high (though nowhere near that high). I think it's starting to sink in with most folks that Jo-Han isn't going to be staging any great comeback. I sold a couple of "extra" Jo-Han items at NNL East...probably the last Jo-Han stuff I'll let go of. I'm not in any sort of "acquisition mode", but if something turns up at the right price I'll jump on it, whether to keep or resell...

PMD (Pontiac Motor Division). '69 Bonneville.

It could be the resin: mold release still on the part, part not clean enough, or something else. I've never used Tamiya putty on resin, but thin swipes of it on plastic have always dried overnight for me. I use Tamiya mostly for filling recessed ejector pin marks...for anything bigger than that I usually go to a two-part product.

I still think Jo-Han's early Logghe chassis is the best one of that style. The Revell Hawaiian has a decent one, but I think it's a later/narrower version. The Jo-Han ones are still great because all of them share a lot of parts (axles, radius rods, roll cage). There are several sets of chassis side rails (AMX, Javelin/Hornet, Rebel, Olds 442, Mopar, Maverick/Comet) with different lengths, and engine mounting setups for AMC, Olds, late Hemi, and Boss 429. Parts from one can be used to replace missing parts any of the others. MPC was limited with their Pro Stock kits by being tied to stock bodies. They couldn't get too crazy with cleaning them up (getting rid of windshield wipers, etc) because they'd have to issue a promo model and stock kit the following year. AMT was even more limited because their drag versions were usually part of an annual kit that had a bone stock version also. The only full-on Pro Stock kit they did was a '75 Nova, which nobody ran in 1:1.

Anyone wanting to build a model of it: '57 Ford rear half, '61-'62 Chrysler front fenders...hey, you're halfway there!

Palmer is Palmer...junk. The "better Palmer" kits were branded "PSM", and the full line consisted of only those different versions of the Challenger, Mustang, and Corvette.

They're acetate...in addition to the warpage, there's also shrinkage. There is no permanent fix, don't waste your time with them.

The PSM '70 Mustang Boss 302 (with a 428 engine!) is cribbed from various sources. The chassis looks like an AMT '69 annual kit unit (molded-in exhaust unlike the oft-reissued MPC '69), as does most of the engine. Palmer did create some parts though, like the trim ring/black stripe hubcap wheels that weren't in any other '70 Mustang kit.

Palmer knocked off a few 1/32 sports car kits in the mid-Sixties, from various manufacturers' slot car bodies. Later they copied a few Pyro kits, and a couple of MPC annual kits (Challenger and Corvette) and the AMT '40 Ford coupe. Palmer never released the '40, but Lindberg did issue it many years later. I've got a Palmer 1/32 scale '40 Ford sedan kit. It's copied from AMT's All-Stars kit, except the body sides are separated from the hood/cowl/windshield/roof like a Pyro kit so they wouldn't have to construct a tool with slides in it. Other than the three-piece body/hood, it's a dead ringer for the AMT kit, right down to the wheel/tire attachment. And it's noticeably larger than the Pyro '40 Fords also. That LEE company copied the Arii '58 Cadillac kits also. There are the Hasegawa '65/'66 American car kits, with bodies originally cribbed from AMT, MPC, and Jo-Han kits in the mid-Sixties for use as slot car bodies. One of the Cadillac-bodied slot cars turned up on eBay a few years ago. Jo-Han sold a couple of bodies specifically for slot car use back in the day, even they didn't bother with a Cadillac. Then there's the parts copying: compare the Moebius Ford pickup engine/chassis with the AMT '78 pickup, and the '61 Pontiac chassis with AMT's '62. Lindberg's '61 Impala chassis and engine look a lot like AMT's '62 parts also.

In the early Eighties, I picked up a '60 Mercury convertible promotional model, molded in acetate. This thing was really mint, nice and straight. Not long after I got it, I was awakened in the middle of the night by what sounded like little pieces of plastic falling to the floor. This thing had warped enough to "spring" one fender ornament and both taillight lenses. As of now, I have two acetate promos, both Continental Mark IIs. They're sitting in a box in the basement. I had thought about cutting the bodies apart and piecing them together to make a straight one long enough to pull a mold off of it. Then I got a "mint" diecast Mark II for Christmas one year, and put that in the display case and never looked back.

I wouldn't mess with combining acetate with styrene or resin. Depending on storage/display conditions among other things, the acetate can still start warping at any time. I'd hate to put a bunch of work into a conversion only to have it go wonky on me. Too, the acetate often reacts with other plastics...ever see the fogged/cracked windows or plated parts on many of those old promos? I'd either look for the needed piece in styrene, or make a mold and cast it in resin.

The original MPC '56/'57 kit has two sets of headlight rims if I remember right...plated and unplated. All issues, including the original, have slightly radiused rear wheel openings.

Thanks a lot. What has been seen, cannot be unseen...

Looks like the Russian equivalent to one of those kits that you stick on a Nineties Thunderbird, to make it look like a shoebox Ford...

Pretty sure Ertl tooled a new convertible body for the late Eighties issues...tops don't readily interchange between annual convertible kits and the later body.

MPC used to do that, never saw that in a Revell or Monogram kit. The decal sheet pictured has "6.6 Litre" lettering for the shaker...isn't that the designation for the Olds 403 engine? The T/As with real Pontiac power should have "T/A 6.6"...

Does Georgia use a front plate?

Ford did sell a "base" version without the stripes...not sure if it had the portholes or not.