BDSchindler

using the 6 foot rule, yes it does...hold it in your hand and see the issues up close, you'll think twice, especially for the money

MANNY!!!! I thought you were out here. How ya been? Manny has done some work for me in the past on a 1/12th GMP GT-40 and was featured in a couple of my columns in The Car Room Magazine!

OK, as promised, here is the review of the Franklin Mint 1965 Lambandi...this was a part of my column as submitted to the mis-managed The Car Room Magazine, July August 2009: Chirping Crickets One of the things that makes this diecast hobby so exciting is the anticipation of a new release. For many collectors, the announcement of a new diecast release is akin to kids hearing the ice cream man coming down the street. Reading through the literature of a release, you spy the words “new tooling” and “available now” combined with pictures and soon a new world speed record for phone dialing has been logged in the record books! While exaggerated a bit (ok, a lot!), that is pretty much how I felt when the announcement of The Franklin Mint’s 1965 Lambandi Mk II, Signature Edition was made. The pictures were sleek and sexy looking like a combination of several of Europe’s finest automobiles. You also need to understand that the Lambandi is not a real car but a very creative design from Raffi Minasian for The Franklin Mint. However, once I opened up the Lambandi, I found the uniqueness of the creative design to be no less than a “kit car”. Under the ill fitting, custom crafted “fiberglass” body, the chassis, tires, wheels, engine and interior are all from The Franklin Mint 427 Cobra. The Halibrand wheels are painted silver and run on no-name tires. Chassis is the Cobra tube style chassis but the Lambandi uses a silver body pan that wraps around to the rocker panels. Chromed exhaust tips are attached to the underside of the rear. While they look very European from the top, the exhaust system would interfere with the rear suspension if it was an actual car. Attached to the chassis pan is Franklin’s serial number plate that includes Minasian’s smeared signature. The interior is painted beige and the only difference to the Cobra interior is the conventional shifter that sits too far back to be useful (Cobra’s use a reverse mounted shifter because of this). The horn button proudly displays the Lambandi fictional crest. The engine bay has the same nicely detailed 427 “side-oiler” engine but with a few moderate changes. The tech specs (enclosed pamphlet) say this engine is capable of having “580 hp with 520 pounds of torque.” The specs add that the induction system is via a pair of 4-bbl carbs hooked up to a pressurized intake plenum utilizing a “four-gearicol hypersonic injection!” (Queue the crickets now please) OK, we’ll chalk the “four-gearicol hypersonic injection” up to imagination, but even at that, it’s a stretch. The plenum is there, but where are the dual 4-bbls? Maybe a little more imagination is needed here than we originally thought. Don’t go looking for opening doors or a trunk. Only the Cobra hood opens. The Ruby Red painted body is a one piece unit (sans hood). While it isn’t unattractive, it is reminiscent of European automotive manufactures in the same manner as the “Avenger” or “Fiber Fab” kit cars were. It utilizes a coke bottle shape that is wide at the wheel wells and narrow at the doors. The windscreen (with its operable wing windows) is straight from the Cobra parts bin and does not mount correctly to the body. Photo-etched emblems abound including the nearly convincing side vents on the front fenders. The nose uses a large center opening for the grill with 2 smaller openings presumably for brake ventilation. Headlamps are deep set into the fenders with clear covers that are nicely trimmed in chrome. Outback the rear clip hangs too far beyond the rear wheel-wells and the rear tires sit to the rear of the wheel-wells throwing off the balance of the car. The taillight panel is also deep set with license plate, taillights and no backup lights. All in all, it is an interesting concept car based on the Cobra underpinnings and a fabricated body. There is a whole fictitious story that goes with the car and it is enclosed in the paperwork if you have the time to read it. I didn’t. I concentrated on what had a lot of hype and potential but delivered less in person. It is different and attractive and will be an eye catcher in your collection, however.

yep...they are all pre-production samples. The white one was done to copy the Elvis Presley Spinout Cobra has the Elvis Box Art. Since Icons didn't get the rights to sell it as the Spinout car, they were forced to change the box art. There are only 6 of the Elvis cars in an Elvis box...the cars are exactly the same. When the "Never had a serious idea of his own" designer contracted by Franklin Mint (Not George Bojacuik) found out about Icons doing the Elvis car, he was quick to get FM to contact the power that be that granted the Elvis rights/licesnses and get the rights to do the car. It was rumored that they paid considerably more than the Icons contract would ultimately be worth to secure the rights...kind of a middle finger salute to Icons for doing a rival cobra that was close to what FM's Cobra was. This is FM's Spinout Cobra. What bothers me is they advertized celebrity cars like this as an autographed version of the car. Here is that Autograph... it is not a true autograph as the King had been dead for what 40 years? I explained this to the head of the Diecast Division that this sort of thing does not add value to a diecast unless it is a true signature not a tampo'd on replica of a signature. They did this with Steve McQueen on the Bullit Mustang and others. Unless FM got in bed with Disney and figured a way to bring back the dead for a signing session...leave it off the car! Remember the FM Designer I mentioned earlier that never had an idea of his own (NOT George Bojacuik)? Raffi Miniasian took the FM Cobra, removed the body and came up with this mess calling it a "Lambandi"...a fictitious car from someone's brain. Which is fine...I am not knocking creative designs...what appalled me was that FM actually liked this enough to build it and charge $150+ for it. The car has more "issues" than the average 2 year old modeler building a skill level 3 Revell model! I'll do a separate post with my review as it was written in 2010 on this.

I have reviewed both the Franklin Mint and Wix models for The Car Room Magazine and Toy Cars and Models Magazine. The WIX model is actually designed and manufactured by Icons Incorporated, a small firm out of Charlotte, North Carolina at the Executive Offices in Lowes Motor Speedway. Icons was commissioned by Wix Oil Filters to manufacture cars for their annual program. One that was previously done by ERTL, Brooklin and others. Icons actually manufactured a GT-40 based on the Holman Moody car currently raced by Lee Holman in Historic races. Icons made 3 versions of the Cobra...Dark Blue, Silver and White. The white was to replicate the car that Elvis drove in spinout but the licensing could never be secured. The Cobra's were actually part of a sales counter promotion or "Impulse Buy" for around $20-30 and only sold via the NAPA Auto Parts Store. The Icons Cobra is very good, especially for the money, over the Franklin Mint model. Well, let me clarify that one also...FM has taken the Cobra image originally designed by George Bojacuik and over produced the snot out of it until the new owners raised the white flag on producing diecast. None of the FM cobras were as good as the original one (aluminum bodied #98 Racer Car) The biggest issue with the FM car was that Ford never granted licensing but since the actual car was built by Shelby, FM already had that license. if you look at the FM #98 car, you will not see the "Powered by FORD" on it. The did a reasonable facsimile or the fender emblem but did not include Ford on it. Icons did take certain liberties with their model and seriously did a very nice image for the less than $35 price point. As compared to the FM model at $130 retail price, most collectors gave the nod to Icons. Icons also did the aforementioned GT-40, Richard Petty's Torino Talladega and a 67 GTO based off a 67 GTO owned by Walt Hollifield in Mint Hil NC that has only 14 miles on it. Yes 14 miles, not 14,000...14...1 more than 13 miles and less than 15 miles...14! Walt is known for his outstanding collection of GTO...he has one of each model from each year including the first and last 64 Pontiac Tempest that had the GTO package on it. Icons targeted Danbury Mint's 67 GTO and claimed it to be better. It wasn't.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback. A couple of things I forgot to mention regarding the correlation between The Car Room Magazine and Broken Dreams. The Motto of the magazine was always "For Collectors, BY Collectors" The Magazine was always referred to as "TCRM" in forums...an acronym for The Car Rom Magazine it just so happened that when I created and applied the fictitious name of the refuse company that SUDDENLY some similarities came surging forward perhaps in a Freudian manner See anything similar?

Just like an expertly crafted and accurate model is a work of art, taking a model and transforming it into a convincing junker/wrecked vehicle is every bit the work of art. When I wrote for The Car Room Magazine, the then owner of West Coast Precision Diecast, Brian Dunning, sent me a couple of his diecast that had been returned for issues. Rather than destroy those returned cars, Dunning took those lemons and turned them into sweet lemonade but sending the cars to Manny Solano in NJ. Mike, your work is no less stellar! Manny has a talent with diecast in particular where he turns pristine diecast from companies like Danbury Mint, Franklin Mint, GMP, WCPD and others into the perfect resemblance of rusting and rotting corpses that were laid to rest in Junkyards across the country. A transformation that makes diehard diecast collectors cring when thinking about taking a high end diecast that may be worth $300+ into an undetermined worth as a junker. Here's a few examples of Manny's work in 1/24th scale. The GT-40 is originally from GMP by way of Manny's workshop. It was one from my personal collection that had issues of it's own. It was given to me by the General Manager at GMP about 10 years ago and is 1/12th scale,

Actually, no...I get more of a satisfied chuckle every time I look at it!

Check this out

Thanks guys, once upon a time many years ago, I was fortunate to land an intern spot in the model shop for the Transportation and American History Smithsonian Museums. My parents were friends with one of the heads of the Shop when I was 16 (now 57). The cars are actually 144th scale diecast cars that were manufactured by Racing Champions, the company that bought out the ERTL Toy Company and subsequently ran the itself into the ground by overproducing the snot out all scales in diecast market just like they did the NASCAR diecast market. The GMP and Franklin Mint boxes are photo reduced to 1/12th copies of real boxes that both companies packaged their products in. Assorted bottles and cans were purchased from Hobby Lobby over int he Doll House accessories dept. Dogs and Rat were vinyl animals also found in Hobby Lobby...the trick was to heat and bend the Dalmatian's leg that is taking a leak on the stack of magazines without scorching it. The magazines are photo reduced to 1/12th the original size of the covers and spread throughout. There are nearly 500 of the magazine covers in there. The dumpster was made after photographing and measuring an actual dumpster. Made from sheet polystyrene and various shapes were glued then things were heated and "beat up" to look like so many of the modern day dumpsters. Once complete, primed and painted Krylon Green and added the rust details. Some of the rust was actually a metalizing powder that you heat to give an appearance of metal...I just never heated it. After that just dirtied it all up. The decals were stock photos readily available on the innerwebs printed onto white Testors decal paper with a thin coat of fixative applied...once applied, Micro-sol decal setting solution was used to soften and let the decals actually melt to a degree on the dumpster. The fun part was the fictional newspaper that is also on the right hand side entitled "Hookers-R-Us" a Hobbiest Newspaper to Adult Entertainment. Only the fictitious front page was done with headlines like "Tiger's "Woodie" - Is It Stiffer Than his Putter?" and "How To" articles like "Stilettos for the Street!". This idea stemmed from rumors of the magazine reps attending a car show in Monterey and some after hours hi-jinks that took place (I wasn't there, fortunately!). It was great therapy for me as it took a while to shake all of the garbage that took place after I quit the Magazine. So much mud slinging that if one person just simply did the right thing rahter than try to profit from lying and orchestrating more drama than all of the daytime soap operas combined.

I am relatively new to this site and just recently found the Dioramas section here. So I thought I'd share something I built a few years back. First, let me give you a little background on me, I am a former modeler that way back when I was 17, hung up the tools for the sake of a real car and girls. For the last 15 years, I have been an avid diecast collector working within the hobby for several companies such as Lanes Automotive, GMP, Highway 61, Icons, Franklin Mint Danbury Mint and West Coast Precision Diecast. I have also written for Toy Cars and Models Magazine in a standing monthly column "A 1:24 hour Hobby". After that magazine folded, I wrote for the poorly managed The Car Room Magazine. The Car Room Magazine (aka T.C.R.M.) was a great magazine in the beginning. It was owned by a guy that more involved with himself than anything else. I know Joe Kelly for over 10 years and not once did I ever doubt him. After 2 years of "we're not turning enough of a profit to be able to pay you", I quit and took him to court for the money owed (had a contract). When I quit writing and the court case was over with me as the winner of a decent settlement, I started to think about the Diecast collecting hobby and I had a premonition. The following dumpster is filled with representative of manufactures that all ended up with Broken Dreams by going out of business. Diecast cars to represent ERTL 1/18th scale diecast, boxes representative of GMP and Franklin Mint and hundreds of copies of The Car Room Magazine. It was in part therapy as well as a middle finger salute to someone I trusted more than my own brother at times. The dumpster is scratch built in 1/12th scale and the display case is one used to house Basketballs. Enjoy the photos and ask any questions you want...

Not anymore, I may do another one at some point. The tables (4 of them 4' X 6.5') were repurposed for storage shelves that among other items like the 9 totes of race track and household stuff, now have the boxes from the Diecast samples sent to me by manufactures to review for magazines (about 300 that I kept, the rest were given away or donated). That gave me room for the desk, paint booth and various power tools.

duly noted...makes sense too. Currently, I keep all of the brushes in a long plastic airtight box like a pencil box. I just got them out to demo for the photo. Thanks to everyone. Now if I can just get this room setup the way I want it, I can get back to doing what I want to do. This is my former "Racing Room" that for 10 years housed a 1/32nd scale slot car track that was fully landscaped and lit. it was 120' of Carrera Racing surface that for many years, brought a lot of fun to my son and I. Over the last 4 years, I can count on one hand how many times we've used it. It got to the point that more things were being placed on top than anything else. We needed some extra storage space and since my son is now a freshman in college and rarely home, well it was time to take it down. Part of this room was also used as a photo booth for pictures of higher end diecast cars and assorted vehicles from when I wrote for Toy Cars and Models Magazine as well as the poorly managed The Car Room Magazine (yes, those are diecast on the wall). Honestly, I think I had more fun detailing the track than racing on it (note: that is real dirt for the shoulders mixed with a heavy amount of thinned out elmer's and spooned along the sides of the track. it took nearly 2 weeks to fully dry.

That was exactly what I thought. I found one that was great. Modular but huge with a huge price to match it's size. By all means, copy away! Thanks for the help on the pictures, JC. Not sure what happened there...I've posted pictures on other boards with no issues. Pretty simple really, would have been easier with a drill press. Wood is 1X3 pine (cheap), 1/4" Plywood for the backing, 3/8" hole bore and a 3/8" countersink.

yeah, i know...working on it...ok, i give up...first attempt at posting pictures here. setup a picture and it just clocks time... http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661731/large.jpg http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661740/large.jpg http://www.pbase.com/124parkdrive/image/161661735/large.jpg

So when returning to the hobby 6 months ago after nearly 30 years away from it, I apparently didn't remember the avalanche of hand tools that get used and the chronic searching for tools on a cluttered unorganized workbench or searching through bottles of paint that used to drive me nuts (of which, my wife says is a short drive for me). I looked at all of the commercially available workbench organizers, tool racks, shelving systems, yadda, yadda, yadda (apologies to Seinfeld) but the cost was...well, it was just sad. So I went into the garage and grabbed some of the surplus/scrap lumber collecting dust, a healthy handful of drywall screws, palm sander, trim saw and power drill. With a plan in mind as opposed to paper, set to work...the end result is a wall mount or bench-top 32" wide paint rack that will hold lots of paint and a 32" long tool rack that will hold 100 hand tools (Paint Brushes, knives, files) as well as a section for Glue or whatever. I only did some light sanding and then some Krylon spray paint since this is for me. I have 3 friends that have asked me to build one for them. Total cost...well the lumber was scrap, screws were surplus but seriously...less than $20 total for both including paint plus a couple of hours of labor. hosed up the pictures...see second post in this thread

I was over at Harold's (HRM) just this past Saturday and I have to say the Dragonsnake cobra is gorgeous. I saw some mention of the 68 Shelby Mustang from HRM also. it is well done as is all of HRM's items. My personal pick is the FIA Cobra with the "Trunk Bumps"...then there is the Z06 Corvette and the...oh hell...they're all great!

Beautiful work!!! I'm just returning to this hobby after a 30 or so year hiatus this is one of those projects that makes guys like me go... "Ah, forget it! Check please...we're done over here!"

My 1:1 is a white 2012 Audi Q5 Prestige with the S-line packages on it. The S-line packages take the chrome trim and replaces it with black trim. They kept the chromed Audi rings and the rest of badging chrome. After taping all of the chromed badges off, I used black Plasti-dip spray to cover them. Works well for this situation as it avoids paint chips since it is rubberized. It's been in place for 3 years now and no chips or significant signs of wear through Washington DC heat to cold seasonal temperature variances and hand or car washes. It does spray on somewhat thick but depending on the material being covered, it may take a light coat or 2...at least it did over chromed plastic 1:1 car emblems In so far as a covering for modeling (I don't refer to this as a paint since it really isn't), I could see it used on radiator or heater hoses since it is a flat rubber and has the right patina to pull that off. I could possibly be used for interiors for a leather/vinyl look but you need to mask off finer details as it will be thicker than paint. It might be a great base for flocking floor boards since it will peel right off like dried liquid latex. So if you screw it up, mistakes are easily fixed. For tires, I don't know as the materials used in vinyl kit tires tends to leach and might cause a real mess. While I have never seen kit tires leach, tires used on Diecast like Danbury mint, Franklin Mint and the like have properties that can leach out and destroy table top finishes. These are made from the same material as kit tires, or so I'm told. Additionally, apparently you can thin it down for spraying since there are those out there that have bought it by the gallon and used it to spray entire cars (1:1's) via body shop style paint equipment. How and what to use? No clue. Google it or search it out on YouTube. Lowes carries the brush and spray version in a couple of colors...black, white , red and yellow...maybe others.

Cool Project, reminds me of one that a friend of mine, Rick Hanmore did in 1/24th diecast for the Danbury Mint...57 "Phantom" El Camino. Rick both a street version and Hot Rod

ahhhh...Summit Point WV...Love that track! Driven it many times...racing, solo one. been a while but you never forget your first one!

Funny, I never really thought much about Hot Rod in scale until I started reviewing Rick Hanmore's designs for the Danbury Mint. It was these 2 cars that did it for me... LDC Kookies Kar I am working on a Danbury 40 Ford Coupe. I'll get some pics later

Tim...I am another one who just re-entered the hobby after some 40+ years out of it. When married life turned to being a husband and father, I hung up the tools and turned to diecast to keep the automotive fires burning. I also wrote for Toy Cars and Models Magazine as well as the utterly mismanaged, now out-of-business, The Car Room Magazine. I have met a lot of good friends in the diecast business who worked for The Danbury Mint and Franklin Mint that are master modelers as well as former diecast designers. Detail like this is rarely seen in diecast and certainly hits the upper 5% of anything I have ever seen. In fact, your builds come very close to what is produced by Marshall Buck from CMA Models!!!! I saw the feature article in Model Cars Magazine that landed in my mailbox yesterday and when I saw the pictures of just the rear end...I suddenly realized I needed to throw my shorts in the trash (again! ). Outstanding work! Brian Schindler

OK...let me clarify... CV Boot rack and pinion boots I think the sprew/Dremel idea may be the best one for what I am looking for...thanks guys for the help

Looking for either a commercial product or fabrication to replicate/simulate rubber boots used on suspension and drive trains (such as on a rack and pinion or cv boots) in 1/24th scale. Anybody have any thoughts?