Snake45

If my idea would work for newer models and/or foreign tooling in Revell's line, great. Let's hear some suggestions on which ones. Yes, 20 or 30 years from now we'll all be dead. So what? There are still plenty of kits to be sold till then. And Revell and others seem to be bringing out models of interest to the people who actually buy and build them. Round 2 seems to be staying in business pretty well reissuing 50-year-old tooling.

Go check out what car kits fill the shelves at your local Hobby Lobby (and HL wouldn't stock them if they weren't selling them). I'm willing to bet that 50% of them are good old American Muscle. It's not "the alpha and omega" of car modeling, but it is a HUGE part of it.

Revell doesn't have any AMC full kits in their line. I have no objection to Fords or Mopars. '66 Belvedere and Coronet, maybe? What could be done with the Fords in their line? '67-'68 Mustang hardtop?

WWII was 75 years ago, but it remains the single biggest area of interest in Model Airplane World, with at least 50% of the market and possibly a lot more. Musclecars remain a BIG part of Model Car World.

For some reason you just reminded me of my #1 favorite quote from The Godfather: "A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns." Snake's Corollary: A lawyer who gets elected to public office can steal more than a hundred lawyers in private practice.

Are you saying this is such a bad idea that I could be running GM into the toilet? Or such a GOOD idea that I SHOULD be running it instead of whoever's tanking it now?

If I ran Revell, I'd start a new line of 1/25 snappers--actually, a continuation of their current snapper line, but done like their '69 Camaro with separate hoods. These would have accurate bodies, basic but accurate interiors, and 1-piece chassis with wire axles, and would retail for @ $20. Here's the twist: They would be set up so they could be transformed into full-detail kits using an already existing Revell full kit chassis and engine and whatnot. Instructions on how to do this would be included (for the "advanced modeler"). The first two I'd release would be '65 and '67 GTOs set up to fit on the '66 GTO chassis. Next would be a '69 Firebird that could use the guts of their '68 Firebird kit. Then would be a '67 El Camino that used the chassis from the '66 Elky or wagon or '67 Chevelle. How about a '71 or '72 Chevelle using the new '68 Chevelle mechanicals. '68 and/or '69 Impalas for the '65-'66 chassis? Surely something can be done with the '72 Cutlass--maybe a '68 or '70 or '71 4-4-2 coupe. I'm sure there are many other possibilities as well. I think they'd sell a lot of such kits, and they'd also sell a bunch of "donor" kits, too. I know I'd buy 'em. Discuss.

This thread might help: Notice that there are links to other threads in that thead. Take a look at those too.

An even easier way to do this is to use thin (cheap) kitchen foil rather than BMF. You don't have to pry it off the body, and you don't have to soak anything in hot water. Take it right off the body, fill the back with superglue (I use Elmer's wood carpenter's glue for this, too), let it dry, trim, ready to use! Here's a pic showing several copies of the Dean Jeffries Custom badge I made from an original, first-issue Monkeemobile body. They don't show up real well in the pic, but you get the idea.

Just what I need to know! Thanks, Bill! BTW, did you ever get around to looking at that '68 El Camino glue bomb I got from you a while back? I posted it Under Glass a week or so ago. It came out pretty good IMHO, considering what I started with.

Did you see the '70 Revell snapper I posted Under Glass last night?

I'm getting interested in doing a model of Bill Jenkins' '65 Belvedere Black Arrow. Shopping for the kit. Does the California Flash kit have anything special in it I need, or can I start with the stock Belvedere sedan kit if I find that cheaper? Jenkins' car had a Hemi, Torqueflite, and open wheels, if any of that makes any difference.

Very nice! Well done and model on!

Excellent comparo and commentary, thanks! Drive on!

Started this one about five years ago, painted it with Tamiya Aluminum, cleared with Future. Future didn't work out, stripped it off with ammonia, re-cleared with Tamiya. In polishing it out, I burned through in a couple places so stripped it to bare plastic and started all over. Tamiya Aluminum, Tamiya Clear, polish out, looked good. Lost interest at the point of applying the stripes and gave it a time-out on the Shelf of Doom. Got it out this spring to drag it across the finish line. Cazart, the Tamiya Clear had cracked! There was a sort of “alligator-skin” finish all over the thing, worst on the roof, trunk and hood. Didn't feel like stripping and painting it again, so I tried to polish it out. Got almost all of it off the sides, and most of it off the roof etc, but if you look carefully, especially under magnification, you can still see it. But for some reason, this really shows up in the photos, and it looks kind of “mottled” in the pictures. But it doesn't actually look like this in 3D. On to the stripes. Was going to use them from the AMT '70 Chevelle (this Revell snapper has stickers) but in measuring them, turns out they're too fat in width and too short in length. So I got a second set of them (I think I got them from Socal76—thanks buddy!). Then I got the factory stripe layout schematics on the internet, laid out the outline of the stripes with razor-cut masking tape strips on the hood and trunk, then split the stripe decals lengthwise. I laid down the inner sections first, and when they were dry, I laid down the outer sections, just letting them overlap as necessary. Then I had to go back and do the same thing at the ends to make the length. The decal job took me the better part of two days, but it looks pretty good. At least they're the right size and shape. I normally do chrome trim with a Silver Sharpie, but that didn't provide enough contrast with the silver paint, so I went out and bought a Molotow pen just to do the trim on this model. It was worth the money (and I've used it on other things since then, too). Wheels and tires are from the AMT '70 Chevelle. This snapper was the electric blue issue with the goofy UFO-looking wheels, and they had to go. When it came time for final assembly, I found that the rear pan (under the bumper) was MIA. It'll turn up sooner or later, most likely when I'm looking for something else. Worse comes to worst, I can always steal that from the AMT kit, too. So it's not perfect, but it goes in the DONE column for 2018. I have another copy of this kit molded in green, with stock SS wheels, and I'll do better on that one, I promise. And here it is with the AMT '72 I built a while back. The humble Revell snapper really shows how bad the sides of the AMT body are. As always, comments welcome.

If anybody here can make it work, it's you!

That kit's biggest problem is that it's a scale point or two undersized, and its second biggest problem is its front valence pan is too shallow (which can be fixed). It has some other glitches here and there but its whole front end is STILL more accurate than the corrected Revell. (And yes, that's the ancient MPC kit.) I just might have to dig one of these out and Snake-slap it around a little to show y'all what can be done with it. It'll still be too small, but it'll look good.

Are you talking about the old MPC annual, sometimes reissued in an AMT box? Because the original AMT annual is by far the best of the three.

Shiny!

Nice work! What kit is the '63 Vette? Some of it looks AMT and some of it looks Revell.

Thanks! There's no reason to swap the '68 grilles, but if Revell does a '69, maybe its grille could be used to do a '69 El Camino.

The old AMT annual had a great custom grille--no lights, just fine bars. You're giving me an idea, here.

Great idea building these two together! I bet you'll have fun. Will be interesting to hear which kit you think is best overall when you're done. (Both look like EXCELLENT kits to me.) Good luck and drive on!

Bare Metal Foil and Molotow pens are both good chrome solutions, but both require practice/skill and can be hard to find and expensive. For about a decade now I've been using Silver Sharpies for most chrome trim, especially window trim. They are VERY easy to use, dry almost instantly, look good, and mistakes can be removed with common rubbing alcohol. I get them at Walmart; a 2-pack costs less than $4 and each one will do a half dozen model or more. I love them so much that if they ever stop making them, I'll have to give up car modeling and go back to airplanes.

Fisher-Price My First Taco Truck. Took me about 90 minutes to build, including "decal" application, using only the Phillips screwdriver on my trusty Genuine Victorinox Adventurer Swiss Army Knife. (Ask for it by name.) No, I did not polish all the pretty colored plastic, as is my usual custom. I refused to put the batteries in it, as I'm sure it would have made annoying noises. I presume they did that after I left. This was my son's Christmas present to his nephew, my daughter's 1-YO son. She said (laughingly) that it was the most racist present she'd ever seen. Her husband is Latino. So is The Lovely Mrs. Snake, which means my daughter is half Latino herself, as is my son, who also got one of these for HIS 1-YO son. When I was small, I got a toy B-52 Ball Turret for Christmas, and also a Flying Fox airliner "cockpit." So maybe we are setting the bar a little lower for our kids, in a way. Now I feel old. Sigh.