Mark

Whenever you try mixing materials from multiple sources...painting, resin casting, whatever...TEST FIRST before risking something you have a lot of time and/or money invested in. Particularly true when painting a 1:1 car...just one look at the cost of the materials should convince anyone...

Strange that Exner didn't try a '66 Cord. But truth is stranger than fiction; if you think about it, GM did just that...the Olds Toronado. And the Packard...only eight years earlier there still was a Packard, basically an upmarket Studebaker. The best Studebaker they were building at that time, but as a Packard it was...a Studebaker.

Revell probably got them (IF they still existed) when they bought out Renwal in the late Seventies. Big "if", though, as those kits were sales duds when they were available. Someone no longer here once remarked that one of the bigger wholesalers had cartons of unsold kits well into the Eighties. Renwal could well have scrapped those tools to get them "off the books" at some point.

Every so often, someone here or elsewhere discovers an enamel primer, when they try to shoot lacquer on top of it. The cheap store brand primers, and the basic Rust-Oleum (non-automotive) primers are enamel.

Next time you are at a paint store, check out all of the spray can primers...you're bound to find enamel. Testors used to sell a Model Master primer which was enamel. Pactra had a very dark gray called Hot Rod Primer. I have three or four unused cans that are getting the occasional vigorous several minute shake, and I'll be trying one out as soon as I come up with a worthy project. That primer might get a dull clear coat over it, but not paint.

There definitely are enamel primers.

I've never had luck with enamel over lacquer primer. No matter how much prep I'd put into getting it ready for paint (wet sanding the primer), the lacquer primer would seem to let the enamel top coat soak in, leaving it dull. My solution was to use lacquer with lacquer, enamel with enamel.

Question...has anyone wet sanded or polished the Duplicolor 1K clear? I put some down yesterday, got a small sag on one fender. If it is possible to wet sand and reshoot, I know I can get rid of the sag. Rest of it looks great, I am looking forward to using this clear again..

One of the two shops I consider "local" does a lot of online sales including, but not limited to, eBay. So marking items up above retail seems to me to be "let's see what the market will bear". If that works for the seller, fine. But I'm going to check prices too, and not just blindly "buy local". I'm not trying to wring the last nickel out of everyone, but when there is a noticeable difference in price I will go with the lower one.

I'd prefer to shop "local", but "local" has to meet me halfway. Marking a kit up five bucks over retail ain't the way to go about it. When I can get a single kit dropped at my doorstep cheaper than buying "local" (both examples including sales tax), "local" isn't doing all they can...

It's surprising to see someone putting together a new car lot (new business or location). Around here, existing dealers are going to smaller lots and eliminating satellite storage areas for cars. They are simply stocking way fewer cars. And they will continue to do so in the future. As I understand, they will have fewer vehicles available for test drives, if you need a new vehicle NOW you will likely pay a bit more than those willing to place an order and wait. The lots around here are still sparse compared to three years ago, though not as bad as when they were at their lowest point.

One bore/stroke combination Bill Jenkins used in the early Seventies worked out to just over 429. He called it a 430, but it was in fact closer to 429.

That material warps AND shrinks. Most people who collect the early promos just accept that and leave them alone. Not that all of them have any great worth, but in most cases promos are worth more when left alone. Damage like broken pillars would be the exception. The shrinkage makes the promos mostly worthless as sources of parts for restoration of kits. The bumpers are often styrene, but contact with the acetate body usually leave the bumpers extremely dull.

Round 2 has reissued the Deora only once, with original style box art. The reissue includes the clear bed cover that had not been in the kit since the early Seventies, but does not have the 13" wheels that the first couple of issues had.

The drag version Deora was a DIY project in a box. Besides lopping off the roof, you had to whack away the molded-in engine cover in the bed, to fit the AMT Hot Rod Shop (parts pack) 392 Hemi. The Alexander's Dragtime version included that pack (unplated) along with the drag strip accessories pack which included a TV camera. Don Emmons was a consultant to AMT back then, he is alleged to have designed some (or all) of the Deora variant kits because the original didn't sell as well as planned. I heard that Mike Alexander hated those other variation kits, the drag version being at the top of the list.

The problem isn't where the item is made. Most manufacturing countries are capable of making something that is as good as the same item made anywhere else. But what happens is, the people selling the item go to the manufacturer and say: we want X number of these, and we want to pay this much per item. Good, fast, cheap. Choose any two.

Different grades of stainless steel, obviously. I have seen so-called stainless steel with rust on it...

If that movie were being made NOW, they'd probably use that same car...only in flat black. They could even use those "wire basket" wheels, the way they are sold now...in black powder coat, without the baskets!

Didn't the movie version have Firestones with huge white letters? Product placement, most likely. IF that's the same car, and it was on the car show circuit with the BFGs, again product placement. I recall reading about someone finding and buying the movie car years later. The fins were literally Bondoed on, he knocked those off and put a stock front clip on it and ended up with a pretty decent car. The windshield and top were chopped years earlier, supposedly very well, and the car had been a finished piece long before the movie people got their hands on it. The Barris one could be a copy, though, he was doing a lot of "possible second cars" long after the movies were made.

The kits with clear bodies would have had the body and other clear parts bagged separately from other unplated parts also.

Chrome parts weren't bagged back then in MPC kits. The unplated parts (body and everything else) were bagged together, probably around 1968. The only kits with bodies separated from other parts would be the prepainted kits, 1971-73.

You can't fix stupid, but in some cases duct tape can be used to muffle the sound...

The first new Monogram car kit in 1/25 scale was the '59 Cadillac convertible, in 1993. As I understand, it was started as a 1/24 scale kit, but management switched horses midstream and tooled it in 1/25. That begs the question, what was the last all-new car kit prior to that one? Or, did they tool any all-new NASCAR kits after that? They stayed with 1/24 for those, to remain consistent with those already produced.

In short, if you want to speculate or dream about whether or not Atlantis has a particular kit tool, take a look at recent issues of the same kit. Made in USA = there's a chance Atlantis has it. Made in China = nope.

Probably doesn't match any particular maker exactly. I think Daniel got the inspiration from a CAR MODEL magazine two-part article from a couple of years earlier. Phil Jensen scratchbuilt a drag version school bus using a balsa wood body and the frame from an Aurora 1/32 scale fire truck kit. Jensen's bus had the four Pontiac engine setup from a Revell Mickey Thompson Challenger I kit. As for the S'cool Bus front clip...while at GM (for a short time) in their styling studio, a young designer came up with a facelift idea for the '62 Chevy trucks. The '62 hood was cleaner and also a lot cheaper to make than the '60-'61 hood. After a short time with GM, Tom Daniel left Detroit for California, where he'd been while in the Navy.