Mark

With Sixties tooled kits, the Classic cars will be better. They've got more detail, as they sold at a higher price. The guys who worked on the original kits put more effort into them, as opposed to the annual kits which were always done under a deadline. And the Classics didn't sell as well, so the tooling didn't get worn out. And they seldom got reworked into other things to wring more uses out of the tooling.

The Shelby chili mix kit changed hands a few times. Kraft had it for a while. I did try it once, but I prefer the more familiar style myself. One of the two bigger grocery store chains around here carries the Shelby product.

Anyone else remember when Carroll Shelby was riding high with his original Cobras and GT350s, and was selling other stuff like shirts, jackets, and beer glasses? He had a deodorant too...called "Pit Stop"...

No kits. Jo-Han made all of the American kits that were ever offered, all had full wheel covers.

There's no IKEA in my area; as I understand the nearest one is a couple hundred miles away in Pittsburgh. Years ago, I bought a curio cabinet figuring that, when I owned a house, I'd eventually use it as a curio cabinet. It's still in the spare room, along with the 7' long store cabinet that I had the glass cut for. Many years ago, at someone else's house I spotted a Timex watch store display case with a few model cars in it, and that stuck with me. Ever since then, I swore I was going to find one of those for myself. A few years ago I picked up a couple of them, and found a third one last summer. No two of them are alike, but that's what makes those interesting. They're plastic, as long as they aren't cracked or deeply scratched they clean up pretty nicely with some Novus plastic polish. I've also got a display case that my dad made for me when I was about ten. He passed away a year or so later, as I remember that might have been the last project like that, that he did. Don't bother with Plexiglas or acrylic shelves; they'll sag. Glass ones can be had for about the same cost, maybe a bit more. You'll only need to spend the money once, so may as well get glass.

Too, the old Motor Racing Replica News magazine did a pretty extensive article on correcting the AMT Watson kit, and the changes needed to build replicas of other Watson cars. I understand that someone was selling a CD with all 41 issues on it, you might look into finding either that or the actual issues. I'd try to get the CD if possible...well worth the effort.

I don't know if the "kit" played a part, but I do remember one T roadster with the Watson style nose. A guy named Chauvin Emmons owned it (he was an upholsterer, as I recall). I think it had an injected Olds V8 that resembled the setup in the AMT '40 Ford sedan kit, and I'm pretty sure the car made the cover of Hot Rod in the early/mid-Sixties. Watson seemed to be the dominant roadster builder in the early Sixties, the end of that era. Frank Kurtis absolutely dominated Indy in the Fifties, he was so busy that he let a couple other guys build copies of his design. I remember reading that he got burned out on Indy cars in the early Sixties when he went there one year and noticed that half of the guys he ran into in the pits still owed him money for cars already built. There's a late Sixties Rod & Custom article about him and his later activities, he was building vehicles with starters for jet engines for the military. They paid on time...

All of those cars differ in seemingly minor ways from year to year, and definitely from car to car. The AMT Watson was modeled on the 1963 winning car, but reviews I have read mention that it wasn't 100% accurate to even that car as the model was finalized before the real one was. Depending on which car you want to build, figure on changing the nose section, possibly the hood, maybe the tail section and the exhaust, and probably the wheels.

And, by the way, those cabinets look extremely nice. If I needed another cabinet, I'd be looking for one of those.

Not many '70 Mustang funny cars in 1970, as the Maverick was the "new baby" that year. I'd bet some of the 1969 Mustang bodies were reworked to look like 1970s by those teams that were trying to run the previous year's car again, or those who bought someone else's "last year's" car. For '71, a lot of new Mustang bodied cars got built. A few Pintos, but more Mustangs it seems.

I would try a glass shop first. These shelves are on the small side compared to the work they do most of the time, they may have a damaged larger piece of glass that can be cut into pieces to make your shelves. I did that years ago for a much larger cabinet; I knew a retired glazier. He still had some big storefront windows laying around his shop, and cut a couple of them and ground the edges to make my shelves. IF you do get regular plate glass shelves, put them on the lower levels of your cabinets and install the shelves that came with them in the upper levels. And put the heavier items like diecasts on the original shelves.

Top two are from one of the various versions of the Lindberg T.

The Tom McEwen '57 Chevy funny car that Atlantis issued is a wholly different kit from the Monogram '57 funny car. Monogram's kit did use the chassis from the Duster and 'Cuda bodied funnies.

That T is very slightly undersize compared to AMT's. Why, who knows. The '34 pickup plated tree was put into that one issue, probably just to add some optional parts to it on the cheap. The instruction sheet should show some of those parts.

Roundup is on the high side on their out-of-production stuff. Model Empire was higher still. The Pacer is one of those reissues that were pretty much scarfed up by those wanting one. I don't recall any great clamor over it, but apparently Round 2 managed to make enough of them to satisfy the demand and not have any wind up in closeout stores at the end. Keep an eye open, one will turn up.

Free eBay listing's bring out the nutty asking prices. Asking isn't getting, but when you can list over and over at no cost, that's what happens.

Funny car kits with bodies tooled specifically for them were the exception, not the rule, back then. This was true into the early/mid Seventies. AMT usually used their stock bodies after they were no longer needed for stock annual kits, while MPC used theirs to wring one more use out of each years' annual body (promo, stock annual kit, funny car kit). Jo-Han often made the funny car an alternate version in an annual kit from 1968 through 1970. For '71 and '72, some kits got two issues: stock/pro stock, and funny car only (using the stock body).

I'm thinking eBay operates with the same mentality that supermarkets use when, every year or so, they move some items from one aisle to another. The thinking seems to be, the longer you are in the store, the more you are likely to buy.

eBay Motors. "Over 100 million parts, ALL of which will fit EVERY car you attempt to do a search on!"

It would have been easy for them to throw in the towel after the krap storm that got thrown their way four years ago. A whole print run destroyed in transit because of a distributor. Other operations have shut down over much less. I took the gamble on a lifetime subscription five years ago. It again would have been easy for them to reorganize with a slight change in name, and use that technicality to void all of those subs. But they didn't do that. My issue arrived Monday. I've read it cover to cover except for one article, and I'll get to that today or tomorrow. Then, I'll be waiting for the next issue...

Well, Atlantis IS announcing coming availability of more items to be produced from the stockpile of tooling that they acquired. It's one thing to buy tooling, another to actually get items produced from it into warehouses and onto store shelves (cough, Jo-Han, cough...)

The Grand Prix lettering falls through the cracks, as MCG has not done a photoetch set for any GP. Pontiac used that style lettering for quite a while, but only one GP kit ('65) pops up every few years. And that one doesn't have "Grand Prix" spelled out in that lettering style, unfortunately.

The promos and snap kits had molded-in plated headlamp detail. The full detail kits have clear lenses.

The roof ribs on the van aren't a big deal...a few measurements, some Evergreen strip stock...done. The drip rail circling the roof is another area needing attention...same deal. Use liquid styrene cement on that. I think I started at the end of the track for the passenger side cargo door and worked forward and around the roof...tack the end down with CA glue, apply solvent cement to the rest. The solvent cement will let the strip stock flex a bit at the corners. It does take more than one piece to go all the way around, make the join in a straight area near a corner. The new decals for the boat sound great, but I need another one of those Chevy vans like a hole in the head! After putting a full interior in the Dirty Donny version (among other things) it's going to be awhile before I tackle another one.

Strange thing...even AFTER some of the new kits are released AND are pretty widely known, there are still people out there willing to pay decent money for an original or an earlier version. Nova station wagons, '60-'63 Ford pickups, you name it. I didn't cut loose any of my Ford pickups or Novas, as they are already paid for, and I did gather up some needed Modelhaus small parts and kept an eye open for parts trees and other things over the years.