Mark

It's surprising how close all of the Corvette kits (MPC and AMT annuals, AMT/Ertl and recent Revell kits) are in terms of parts and decal fit. Nothing is an exact fit from one to another, but it's surprising how close they all are when you realize they were done by competing companies, with half of them done thirty years after the others. The AMT annual kits start going off the rails after '72 (MPC was doing the promotional models, leaving AMT on the outside looking in) but other than that, they're all pretty close to one another.

The AMT kit is AMT's, and first appeared in 1965. Had Frog (or any European or Japanese) company made that kit, it would be 1/24 scale like the others.

The motorized version was issued separately. The box art was pretty much the same, but the box was bigger for the motorized kit. There was a motorization fad in the early Sixties; Monogram, and also Revell, issued motorized versions of a number of their kits. Ideal (ITC) motorized their car kits ('40 Mercury, '50 Ford, etc) but theirs were sold only that way and not as non-powered shelf models. I think Strombecker and Lindberg did a lot of motorized stuff at that time too. Revell also offered the motor and related parts (battery box, switch, etc) as a separate pack. I don't know offhand what size batteries were used.

The steering setup was there because this is actually a pretty early kit, and the manufacturers were still figuring out if kids wanted to build their model and then play with it, or just set it on the shelf. Later, there was a motorized version. Being able to set the steering would make the motorized model go in circles. As simple as this one is, it does actually look like the subject matter...

The tuner issue is interesting; it has decals for the stock emblems. It would take a bunch of work to change this kit back to stock, but as I understand it most of these cars are now modified, stock ones aren't often seen. I'll probably stick the tuner together out of the box, maybe smoothing in the front fender flares that are molded in place but represent add-ons to the stock fenders. This is one of those kits that I didn't give a second look to in the past, but it seems to be very well done...

As I understand it, the 2014 issue was an SSP item; one production run, will not be restocked, and has already been dropped. I don't have the 1996 BRE issue (sold mine a while back) but as I remember, it had the two-piece tires from the original issue, but molded in a softer vinyl. The 2014 issue has one-piece tires, probably the same ones as were in the "tuner" issue I have now. In any event, if you want this kit and have access to them at a price you think reasonable...get them. No doubt it will surface again in the future, but who knows when, and at what price...

Back then, that particular chassis was used in a few other AMT kits like their '69 Cougar (not the '68 that Model King reissued, which was an MPC kit), the Funny Hugger '69 Camaro (again not the one reissued by Model King, that was the Funny Hugger II with a different chassis), and a longer version was used in the AMT Gas Ronda longnose '69 Mustang. MPC was a competitor to AMT back then, and Jo-Han sold a few kits through AMT but none of their kits were combinations of the two company's parts or tooling. No recently reissued kits have that exact same chassis. I'd wait until getting the built model in my hands before looking for parts; you may be able to save most of what you have. If you need to snag another kit for parts, I'd say get either a Polar Lights funny, or one of the recent MPC reissues like the Beswick GTO or Model King '68 Cougar, and either adapt the whole chassis or take only the needed parts from it. The engine from one of the AMT '33 Willys kits might be good to have around, too.

Maybe the twelfth ball was earmarked for the kickers...it might be tougher to kick an underinflated ball, at least for distance. The persistent stench of cheating puts an asterisk next to anything they have accomplished. Not that I care too much...haven't watched the "big game" in over twenty years. The playoffs up to this point are where the better games are anyway...

Controversy and talent have become interchangeable...

Check out the artwork: Boss 429 with the distributor at the back, and the Chevy with it at the front (the parts inside the boxes were correct, though)...

A couple of years ago, a guy set up at the local IPMS show with an entire table of nothing but NASCAR kits. $2 each. A lot of car guys come to that show. At the end of the day, he still took a bunch of them home. I've got a few of the AMT Eighties/Nineties kits (they do have a lot of good parts). Never paid more than $3 for any of them. The truck chassis are a bit longer, and look like they would be a good fit under larger Sixties car bodies for a pro-touring sort of thing. A while back, I picked up a couple of the earliest Monogram NASCAR kits. That series of kits was a long and successful one for Monogram, and a landmark of sorts. I got one of the first two Buick Regals, sealed, for $3. That's the original early Eighties issue, not a later repop. I've got one of the earlier Monte Carlos that I think I paid $5 for.

An innovative idea, but that vinyl looks like the same stuff used to mold the figures in the Raiders' Coach kit...no glue or paint known to man at the time would stick to that stuff...

The Comet passenger cars (coupe, sedan) had the longer wheelbase, but the station wagon did not. It's a Falcon wagon with Comet front sheet metal. After the North American Comet was restyled for 1964, Ford Australia acquired the '60-'63 Comet front end sheet metal dies. They combined the Comet front clip with a locally done restyle of the quarter panels and rear end, to update their Falcons for the '64-'66 period. They never used the North American '64-'65 outer sheet metal on their cars.

The Lindberg '32 pickup (the custom-only one, not the '34) was cribbed heavily from an AMT '32 Ford five-window coupe, and was designed around an electric motor. The Revell '32 chassis is a tight fit (you'll have to trim away a crossmember, the apron between the front fenders, and the molded-in gas tank cover from the Lindberg fender unit) but you can make it work. The engine block has some funky engraving that can be wiped off if you want to keep that engine (so it fits with the modified hood that's in the kit). It's cool, it has the look of an early Sixties East Coast or Miidwest rod. I wouldn't pay anywhere near full price for one, but I got mine as part of another deal so I haven't got much (if anything) in it. I was stumbling over Revell Deuce three-window kits at flea markets and shows for a while (as cheaply as $2 for sealed kits) so I've got a few of those to play with also. I'd probably do the Lindberg '32 to look like a late Fifties/early Sixties build, but with the updated chassis...like one of those rods that stayed in the same region, changed hands a few times, and got updated and used a lot...

The Falcon and Mustang share suspension parts, but not much of the platform itself. The floor pans look way different. The Revell early Mustang kits are 1/24 scale, and have 9" rear axles as well as non-stock exhaust systems. If you have to buy a kit for the underbody parts, you should consider waiting for the Moebius '65 Cyclone. The Comet/Cyclone hardtop wheelbase is slightly longer than the Falcon's, the difference will be behind the front seat. I've heard about people cutting and fitting the Revell Thunderbolt underbody into the '64 Comet, but I haven't tried that one myself. The engine compartment in the Thunderbolt is non-stock (shock towers are altered to fit the big engine) and it has a 9" rear axle. AMT '67 Mustang/Shelby could be used also, but if I remember right, it too has a 9" rear axle. If I were using Mustang parts, I'd probably use the engine compartment and front stub frame, and the rear section, then scratch a more "Falcon looking" floor pan (or use the original kit part with the exhaust and driveshaft detail removed). The Trumpeter '64 Falcon parts look sort of like Falcon parts, but the rear wheel tubs are too wide, other parts are so-so, and they are expensive, especially as parts donors. I'd wait for the Moebius Cyclone, myself.

See if you have a plastics supply/fabrication company in your area. Some of these places build store displays and such in addition to selling material. The one in my area sells the cutoffs (scraps) by the pound: $1.50 per pound, buy five pounds, get five more free. I've come up empty on the last few trips, but have found sheets in the past ranging in thickness from .030" to 1/8". What they call "scrap" dwarfs the prepackaged sheets you can buy at the hobby shop. I buy precut Evergreen strips/rod/tubing/etc but not the sheet material. Companies that do vacuum formed signs and packaging sometimes have thinner stuff that is often thrown away because it was on the margins of a job they did. With that type of scrap material, you'll have to do some cutting to get the good material, and the pieces won't be huge (but they're often pretty big for most of what we're doing).

The availability and selection of dry transfer lettering is way down compared to years past. These were used extensively by architects and draftsmen, and a great selection was as close as the nearest drafting supply store. A lot of that type of work has become computerized, so unfortunately their need for dry transfer lettering has, for lack of better words, dried up.

Looks like the raised top is made up of about four parts (side areas including top irons, rear window area, and top area) while the body looks like several parts (sides, top of turtledeck, probably a separate piece for the top of the cowl). The body looks as though it was broken apart along seams that would exist on the 1:1 body, so it's not as though massive amounts of bodywork will be needed after the sections are joined together.

I need another kit like I need a hole in my head. That said, at the very least, I'll pick up the touring when it appears...

The original issue of this kit had the hollow Goodyear Stock Car Special tires (tooled in the late Sixties, last seen as rear tires in the Meyers Manx kit) with plastic sidewall caps (similar to those included in a number of mid-Sixties AMT kits) with Firestone lettering.

Collectible Automobile peppers you with those renewal notices...years ago, they were all the same: "it's a good time to renew your subscription to Collectible Automobile". Good time for them, that is, because you've still got nearly a year to go on the current subscription! I've dropped a few magazines lately, even the cheap ones. Rod & Custom bit the dust, the replacement (Street Rodder) is worthless. Thankfully I only got three or four issues after R&C went away. Right now, I get two model car magazines, Rodders' Journal, Collectible Automobile, and Hemmings Classic Car. HCC doesn't measure up to Special Interest Autos (which it replaced); so it might be the next one to get the bullet...

I'm surprised the Aussie promo has "1960" license plate detail...weren't cars sold there by model designation and not model year?

The Wilhelm's Wonder and King T weren't reissued after the individual MPC issues. I'm surprised MPC didn't update the Wilhelm kit to replicate the 1968 version that shared the AMBR trophy that year. The chassis in those two kits formed the root stock for a mess of MPC show car/street rod kits. The box art on AMT's mid-Sixties kits was usually great, but they did have a few clinkers like the MPC-produced kits, and my "favorite", the '27 T/XR-6 double kit, with its linoleum-gray box and bland fonts...

MPC was founded by several ex-AMT employees. The first few kits ('28 Ford sedan, Dream Rod, '65 Coronet) were sold in AMT boxes; apparently the people running the two companies remained on good terms at first. MPC kit #1 ('64 Corvette) was sold in MPC packaging because AMT already had '64 Corvette kits of their own, based on their promotional model work. If you look at the promotional model side of the business, the creation of new/separate companies seems to make sense. AMT started with mainly Ford work. To get more of the GM work (specifically Chevrolet, which would seem to have been the biggest prize out there) SMP was created. SMP then took most of the Chevy business from PMC. SMP was bought and folded into AMT once it became apparent to everyone interested that the two were pretty much one anyway, and having both Ford and Chevrolet promo business didn't seem to cause any conflicts of interest. MPC was founded in 1963, with the first kits appearing in '64. Their first promo contract (for '65) was Dodge, swiped from Jo-Han. Maybe Chrysler didn't want to put their promo model business into the hands of a company that already had Ford and the bulk of GM, maybe a few people at AMT figured that out and struck out on their own with the idea of getting that business? It's just a thought; the principal people involved are all gone now so we'll never know for certain. Chrysler had thrown SMP a couple of bones in those years (Imperial, Valiant) but stayed with Jo-Han for Dodge through '64, and some of Plymouth through '70. The first few MPC kits were marketed by AMT because the latter had distribution and contacts that were far superior to anything a new company (MPC) would have had, never mind that the new company was being run by old hands who knew what they were doing. Maybe MPC didn't have marketing people at that stage, so they would then have concentrated their efforts on product instead, leaving a little profit "on the table" by selling through AMT in order to work around the lack of depth in the marketing area. Actual tooling going back and forth did happen once in a while, but not often. The early AMT-boxed MPC kits ('28 Ford, etc) were manufactured by MPC. All of the AMT-boxed Jo-Han kits (Olds Toronados and 4-4-2s, two-seater AMXs, etc) were produced by Jo-Han. One instance of actual tooling going from one company to another might be the Plymouth Barracuda and Chevy Fleetside pickup (AMT for '67, MPC for '68). AMT had a Fleetside again for '69, but that one was different (though very similar). The Cougar funny car is probably just a case of two companies doing the same subject matter with similar looking results. Back then the funny car bodies had to stay pretty close to stock in terms of dimensions, so it's not inconceivable that two competing companies would measure a '67 Cougar and come up with bodies that were pretty close.

I've picked up kits there from time to time (especially with the 50% off deal), the selection is not the greatest but they do carry a lot of "basic" stuff that is worth getting. There's lots of other stuff to pick over: X-Acto knives and blades, paint brushes, paint, flocking and embossing powder, adhesives, airbrush paint bottles, display cases, wire, small tools...most times, you can find something there that you didn't know that you needed...