Mark

The large flat boxes take up more space on store shelves when stood on one side. Shelf space is a big deal with the big box stores, sometimes diecast cars are an odd scale in order to fit into a certain size box and take less shelf space.

Too, whatever part or body you get needs to be stored on a flat surface. With bodies, I like to get them to fit the donor chassis, and store them with chassis and interior installed.

Different in that they cannot be cemented with plastic cement...super glue or epoxy must be used. When sanding (especially when grinding), breathing protection is an absolute must. You don't want to breathe in that dust in any amount. Most resins cut and sand about the same as plastic, maybe a little bit easier. It's usually easier to scribe panel lines into (but then again, it's easy to scribe too deep also). When joining resin to resin, or resin to plastic, I don't want to prime or paint directly over the seam, no matter how smooth it seems to be. I rout out that area and apply epoxy putty, so on the surface the transition becomes: plastic, putty, resin. Clean all resin parts before doing any sanding, cutting, or grinding. Many casters use a mold release product to prolong the useful life of the mold. If you don't get rid of that, you'll be embedding it into the resin which will cause you grief later on. The caster should suggest a suitable cleaning agent for their parts because they know what they used when making them.

Never heard of a 344, it might be a combination created by boring and/or stroking a smaller one. When that car was first built, all Olds V8 engines were the "early" style. Cad looks somewhat similar, but Olds engines are available in Revell Anglia, Thames, and original (opening doors) '41 Willys kits. Willys has the supercharger setup, Anglia/Thames has the valve covers.

The vast majority of speed equipment for Cadillac engines, especially items like intake manifolds, was geared to the early, rear-distributor engines. There were items for the '63-'67 or so engines, not as much because fewer drag racers were using Cadillacs by then. The Chrysler engine had taken over in the dragster classes especially when fuel classes returned, and with better drag slicks they were encroaching into the Gas classes as well. For the '68 or so and later engines (472/500), all I have ever seen or heard about with intake manifolds is adapting units from other engines, mainly the Ford 429/460 series. All of the decent Cadillac engines in kits are the early, rear-distributor units. The only front-distributor engine is the one in Jo-Han DeVille annual kits, and it's not very well done. The engine in their Eldorado annuals is an Oldsmobile unit with the distributor at the rear.

Not sure when the distributor started appearing at the front of Cadillac engines, but the Revell parts pack version was tooled in 1962. It is definitely an early engine that is correct in having it located at the rear.

As I understand, Barris' shop did the original fenders and nose piece. Those were redone elsewhere after the car won the AMBR trophy, the rework made everything closer to the original design.

I'm thinking the shallow panel lines on newer kits are designed in, to prolong the life of tooling made from steel that isn't as hard as that used for older kits. On the surface of the tooling, the panel line is raised as opposed to the recessed line in the molded part. The older tooling was probably made from harder/tougher steel in order to produce many times more units: promotionals, toy store friction cars, kit bodies, and sometimes slot car bodies. Newer kits aren't produced in anywhere near those numbers, so the manufacturers are probably using "softer" steel that can be cut more easily.

Now that I think of it, it was the more customized one. Not connected to the TV show. TV and movies sure got a lot of mileage out of those CHP Camaros, considering how few of them actually existed. I remember an article in HOT ROD on them back in the day.

Did Revell issue two CHiPS Camaro kits? I parted out one years ago, that I had bought at a junk store for near nothing. I kept the decal sheet and wheels, offed the rest at the next show I set up at. I remember it having rubber tires, and the body was more customized as I recall, so it wouldn't have been based on the snap kit being discussed here.

Not all plastic tires are terrible. Tread areas aren't the best due to mold design considerations, but sidewall detail is sometimes better than typical vinyl or rubber tires. I saw the decal sheet for this Camaro kit the other day...no decals for tire lettering that I could see. Decals for everything else, just nothing for the tires.

Still amazing that, after so many years, that is the earliest style Beetle available in 1/24 scale plastic. No split window...

Test, test, test, and test again when using products from different companies, or even from one manufacturer but different paint systems. Sometimes you'll get lucky in a test, but on the "good" item you don't wait as long before clearcoating, apply the clear more heavily than during the test session, or introduce some other variable. That said, you probably have wiped out the clear on the hood. If everything else is to your satisfaction, strip and repaint the hood using the same technique and time between coats as was done on the other parts.

If it's 1/24 scale, it's probably the Gunze Sangyo oval window. It was issued first as a "High Tech" kit with some photoetch and cast metal parts, and later as a more affordable kit without those extras. I believe both versions have seats and interior door panels molded in black vinyl along with the tires.

More often than not, it is the hosting venue that causes the cancellation of events. They don't have/can't get insurance that will cover potential liability that arises from people getting (or claiming to have gotten) Covid at an event staged in their facilities. And you can bet people will start suing over it, and the bus-bench advertising, ambulance chasing, low-end attorneys will have their office doors open waiting for them.

To add one thing, the two front springs in the Atlantis (ex-Revell) parts pack are not identical, they are arched differently. No big deal, though...if you can find a use for one of these packs, you'll probably find uses for two or more. So get two...you will then have two of each spring. Problem solved.

The Revell '37 sedan and cabriolet are ex-Monogram, and 1/24 scale. Chassis may, or may not, interchange with a 1/25 scale kit, you would need to try it for yourself. 1:1 frame is the same for the most part under 1935-40 cars and light trucks, plus '41 light trucks which are pretty much the same as '40. The front crossmember differs in some ways over that stretch (moot point because the '37 sedan frame has a custom one). Body mounts that were part of the frame differ year to year also.

'58 Oldsmobile. There was no kit, but Jo-Han did a promo, though it was a four-door hardtop. X-EL, a division of Jo-Han, reproduced the '58 promo in non-warping plastic.

The instruction sheet in early issues of that kit do mention that some trimming is necessary to fit the 409 engine. One inner rear wheel well (inner fender) on the chassis is wider than the other, also.

Slixx hasn't printed NASCAR decals in many years. I believe NASCAR wanted licensing for itself, on top of Slixx having to pay royalties and/or get permission from individual teams, sponsors, and/or drivers.

That Porsche kit is fantastic...90% of a Fujimi Enthusiast Series kit for a fraction of the price. Engine is simplified compared to Fujimi's, but once it's in the car what's the difference? Tires aren't quite as good, but on balance the Revell version is an excellent buy. Already having both the coupe and cabriolet versions, though, I'll be waiting on that 4-4-2. It's been reported here that HL will also have the Revell ex-Badman '55 Chevy.

The five-minute stuff tends to crystallize over time, at least it did for me. I quit using the stuff. A good super glue should do the job. I don't use "gap filling" version, just the regular Loctite product. I'd pay careful attention to minimizing, and making uniform, gaps between adjoining parts (especially where different materials are being joined). After the parts are joined, I rout out the seam slightly on the back side and fill in with epoxy putty. I suppose the back side could be reinforced with something like fiberglass cloth and epoxy also, but I haven't done that except on a couple of cracked hard plastic interior parts for 1:1 cars. After routing and filling the back side, I do the front also. On the finished join or repair, nowhere is there a visible join between two parts. The surface transitions into putty between the two parts being joined.

Those stands with the mounting pins are the most useful, as you can set a partially assembled engine/transmission into those, even ones without those mounting provisions. Most of the other stands require either some glue, or extremely good balance, to hold the engine and not let it fall off every time you turn around.

"...but all components were either modified, or of completely new design..." The block is extremely different: longer "skirt" at the bottom, and the oil pan is flatter and shallower. Blocks look nothing like one another. Get one of each, put them side by side, and the differences jump out at you.

That V-shaped stand in the foreground is a '49 Merc piece. The style that came in the '34 pickup also came in the '40 Ford kits. The delivery is pretty much the coupe with a different body and interior bucket, so of course both have the same one. I believe the sedan has one too, in the same style. Right now I'm drawing a blank on the Deuce coupe and roadster. The Victoria, phaeton, and one-shot stock sedan have the style pictured, the two behind the '49 Merc stand. I'm drawing a blank on the '36 Ford too, but I don't think it has one.