Snake45

Bought the new reissue today at Hobby Lobby. First time I've seen it, but I haven't been in there since early December, so who knows when it arrived. So now I have three variations of MPC '32 Ford Switchers: 5-window unchopped, 5- window chopped, and Sedan Delivery. Were there others?

I think two types of tools would be VERY useful in removing this trim: Chisel-point Xacto blades, and riffler files. Without that trim removed, there's not a whole lot of "real estate" on the body sides for a car name, sponsor name, parts decals, etc. That's a problem I'm trying to work around on the one I'm doing at the moment, since I'm not taking the trim off this one.

Spaceballs. Or, a Tesla. Here's one: "Is this a great country, or what?"

MCW has announced a '73 Trans Am kit, which uses the MPC '79 as a donor, so I assume it's 1/25 not 1/24. Kinda strange to see an announcement on Hyperscale (a mainly model airplane site) and not here (not that I could find here, anyway). https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/73-pontiac-firebird-trans-am-resin-kit-by-mcw-t502544.html

I have a vague recollection of having to have some kind of rear spring work done on my Omega at some point. I don't remember exactly what the problem was, but I remember taking it to a spring shop.

The fourth car back in this line looks like the hemi '69 Barracuda in the Sox book. Of course this wasn't NHRA SS/B legal, but they ran it in A/MP and match races.

I'm wanting to do one one in polished orange plastic, so it sounds like that wouldn't work for me. I do appreciate the offer, though.

Yeah, I'm planning to do one as S&M's with '69 sheet metal on it. There's a few photos of it that way in the S&M book. There was a lot of "run whatcha brung" going on in 1969--the "gestation period" of Pro Stock. VERY fascinating era of drag racing I'm hoping to get heavily into soon.

And for the first time in who knows how long (probably decades), the Falcon chassis is back up on wheels! Front axle, radius rods, front wheels and tires and rear wheels pirated from the AMT AWB Mustang (rear slicks from AMT Parts Pack) to replace broken or missing original parts. Notice that even with much smaller front tires, the frame only barely sits level, and might even sit a little nose-high. Interior tub in place to show how I've tapered the tops of the frame rails and the tub floor back-to-front to get try to get the nose down a little. When I built the Monogram Badman, I actually pie-cut a section out of the interior tub to get the nosebleed stance down. Body sit/wheelbase check. These AMT AWBs tend to have too-short wheelbases and the front wheels want to crowd the rear of their openings, instead of the front as would be more proper. It looks like it will be possible to finagle the body mounting so the front wheels will at least be centered in the openings. BTW, the body is REALLY thick in the area of the rear wheel openings. I had to scrape and file about 2/3 of the thickness out to get the body to sit over the tires. Notice that because the windows are out, the body is sitting down over the interior tub and the tub is showing through at the windows—in final assembly, the body will sit a little higher than this in the rear. It looks like at least it won't be sitting nose-high, though, and that's good. Three-quarter front shot. Looking fairly good. You can just see the roof damage from the heavy tube glue OB used on the windows (and possibly from my grinding efforts to remove them.) This will all have to be filled and smoothed but not a big deal. I haven't decided on a color yet, but want to do some kind of painless, no-hassle paint job that won't need much if any polishing. I will be polishing the white side trim and masking that off before paint, then foiling the trim edges. At the moment maybe leaning toward Model Master Nassau Blue with a thin clearcoat and light polish, but other suggestions welcome. I also haven't decided yet whether I'm gonna finish it as a period AWB, a late '60s/'70s bracket racer, or a current-day “tribute” street freak.

Are you saying this is coming back? I'll buy and build one out of pure nostalgia, although the kit isn't the least bit accurate (although parts of the body are actually better than the '90s kit).

IMHO you'd be better off with a Lindberg. Not sure what I'm gonna do with mine yet. (I only wanna build it just so I can say I did.) Was playing with it last night and finally got the front end to where it didn't "bend up," although I now have a gap at the lower edge of the left side. Now I need to unflatten my top. My original plan was to glue the front end on solid, but then I'd have to cut the hood out, so I might leave the front clip as a lift-off piece. I'm thinking of grafting on a front chassis from a Monogram '70 Chevelle, if it's not too wide. Not sure what I'll do about the hood yet, but I won't use that goofy snorkel scoop. Might see what other lumps and bumps and scoops I have laying around.

It's like you read my mind! That was gonna be the next thing I asked you. I don't think that trim would be TOO hard to shave/file off, if you have the right tools, except right up at the front where it comes to the peak, where it could get VERY interesting/dicey. I'm gonna leave it on the glue bomb I'm rebuilding (I'm even gonna polish the white trim strip, and mask that off before painting), but I'd eventually like to build a good Daddy Warbucks.

Was looking at them on ePay the other day. Couldn't believe what they're asking for them now! Ten or fifteen years ago you could hardly give these things away.

Biggest problem I've had with Chinese knock-offs of things is that they don't seem to use the same threading on anything as anyone else does. I can't remember ever screwing a Chinese part into a non-Chinese part, or vice versa, and having it fit.

Sorry to hear that. Having just finished the IMC VW, I'm kinda in the mood to build the Revell one, and I have that very pink kit in the stash...was thinking of starting it soon. Now you've got me re-considering... As to that flip-nose '57 Vette, I gave up on making that thing work over a decade ago and just glued the front end on solid and worked it in. I recently paroled it from the Shelf of Doom and you can see in-progress pics of it in the BOYD Completion Build thread down in the workbench session. Goal is to have it done by the end of March.

Yah, I'd just clean 'em up and leave 'em alone. Maybe do some touchup if you can find matching paints. "They're only original once."

If nothing else, you inspired me to dig out my 40+ year old copy of this kit and take a look at finally finishing the stupid thing.

Some were, some weren't. The Beswick Judge '69 GTO seems to be a stock promo body. The '69 Camaro and '68 Cougar clearly aren't.

Late last year for the BOYD completion build, I dragged an IMC VW Beetle I started nearly 50 years ago across the finish line. The more I worked on it, the more I remembered/realized why I never finished it during the Nixon administration in the first place. What a PITA that backbirth was!

Those are THE WORST!

Are you doing Daddy Warbucks?

I took a look at the MS Skylark last night. The taillights have been replaced with "sheetmetal" covers, which could be painted red as custom lenses. The grille is mainly stock except for the removal of the GS emblem and covering the headlight buckets with more "sheetmetal." Pretty sure I can sili-clone the headlight buckets from a stock unit, grind out the "sheetmetal" and replace the headlights. Vent windows are missing on the body, an annoyance but not a huge deal. The body sides do feel thick, so DM might be right about the molds being ground back, but the basic shape's still there. As I said, biggest headache will be getting that recessed lip around all the wheel openings. Still, I don't think it would take anywhere near 300 hours to get the body back into shape. 30 hours, maybe. A lot less if I decide to forget about that recessed lip and just go with a standard-tip lip like a Chevelle. I'm thinking REAL HARD about getting into this....

The equivalent part on my Badger 350 was just press-fit into place and it would pop out every now and then. About the third time it happened I superglued it back in and haven't had a problem with it since. If you can't get a Paasche part, I wonder if the Badger part would work for you?

Very cool! I have several of these from aircraft kits of the era, but don't think I've ever seen a dedicated car one.

Sounds like a challenge! I can't get it all the way back to a factory stock GS, but I'm pretty sure I can get a Special-bodied street bomber out of it.