Atmobil

Well written Charlie If Mattel has LIDAR to scan prototypes, I'm guessing they may have used that on the Barbie Fiat 500. Maybe it is about time they scanned a woman an started making Barbie dolls that acctually look like what they are supposed to be because when it comes to Barbie dolls we can really talk about gross errors in shape. Now this is going very much off topic and I apologize for that but I think that fixing that would actually be of importants to the world. I have a sister that has struggled with an eatingdisorder since she was in her early teens and I'm not going to say that it because of the shape of Barbie dolls but she did play with them when she was a kid and I don't think it helps anyone to have kids play with dolls that are shaped like freaks.

I wish they would do a reissue of the Vauxhal Victor estate, the prices on those are extreme. Here is two that are on Ebay now: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RARE-AIRFIX-VICTOR-2000-ESTATE-1-32-NOS-Unmade-/351330949407?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item51ccf4d91f http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Airfix-Victor-2000-Estate-/111618354545?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item19fcf8ed71

I have gotten stuck in to German cars as all the cars I have so far owned have been either VW or Mercedes. My first car is this 1969 1300 beetle, still got it but it is now a project. Then a bought a 1962 Mercedes 190Diesel, very rusty but running. I still got it (sort of) but it is now in molecules. The body was sandblasted and primed and that has now been sitting like that for many years. I also drove two 1993 VW Passat, the first one I owned for ten months but was hit by another driver and then bought another wich I owned for only 7 months and sold it because I was tired of it breaking down all the time. In 2007 I bought a 1974 Mercedes 240Diesel. It looked really nice when I bought it but the rust quikly came and in 2011 I scrapped this and got another: A matt black 1975 220D wich got the 240D engine from the beige 74 aswell as the red interior from it. In 2008 I rescued this one from the scrappers: A 1965 190 with petrol engine. Stil got this, planning on getting it back on the road but things take time In 2009 I bought the car that is currently our daily driver, this 1985 W123 230TE: And in 2012 I bought another W123, this time a 1985 300TDT with only 456 000 km on the clock This one is still in need of some rust repairs but I'm planning on finishing the work soon (just don't ask me to give a date ) And then to the worst car I have ever owned, this 1989/90 VW Golf 1,8CL Sport that I bought in 2011. Owned it for 14 months an spent a fortune on it in parts. Replaced the engine, clutch, grearbox, drivshafts with CV joints, wheelbearings, brakes, shockabsorbers, springs, clutchwire, speedometerwire, radiator, startermotor, timingbelt, dynamo, ECU, fuelpump, Lambda sond and tires aswell as a huge amount of other small jobs. Not all on the same time but after a while I discovered that I could fix something and we never drove it for more than 7 days before something else broke so I had to get more parts and spend more time working on it. As an example, the gearbox/differntial was leaking oil trough the flange where the driveshafts are attached. This led to the oil washing out the grease in the inner CV join leeding to it failing (exploding) and rendering the car totally imobile. I had a spare gearbox but also had to replace the driveshafts as the flange at the inner CV joint had a different boltpattern. Another thing that was very common was that I had to readjust the gearchange mechanism once every two weeks. Luckily I got the Revell mkII Golf GTI kit and that one has an 1,8litre 8 valve engine just like my Golf had (mine the Monopoint injection so I have to change the incjetion system) and since it is also a 3 door hatcback just like mine I plan to build a model of it. But not just a straight model, I want to build a diorama of. I want to build a diorama of it where it is sitting in my garage, with the front lifted up and on axlestands, the engine on the floor and i figure of me working on it. As an extra addond I will put a mp3 player in the base with sounds of me working with tools and swearing over this POS car

Wouldn't moving Top Gear to another network give them less viewers? I do also think that there would probably be some public apology from Jeremy and that the show will go on but I do understand BBC as he has on so many ocations said and done things that he should have not.

Would the rules for mirrors be different depending on what state you are in? Here in Europe the it has depended a lot on what country you are in. Here in Norway a driverside mirror was mandatory in the 60s (not sure what year) but a passengerside mirror was only mandatory after 1973 or 74 but in Sweden they where mandatory some years earlier and in Germany a passengerside mirror was apparently not mandatory untill sometime in the 80s as I have seen a German advert for the mk1 Ford Scorpio witout a passengerside mirror and that car was launched in 1985. I do agree that a inside rearview mirror should be included in the kit.

Yes it looks like it will be a clear bellypan. I have never really like any clearbody kits but I think that if it is done correctly it will make a cool model (a bit like that 30s Ford that was done in plexiglass).

On the mirrors: was the 1:1 cars sold as standard with mirrors? On the decals and emblems: The box says that it is a retouched photo of model. Maybe the builder of the boxart car was not given any emblems or decals and they where added later to the boxart photos?

I feel that I want to add a little more to my last post. Now, I don't personally know how the modelkitindustry works but I'm guessing it works the same way as many other industries. When the company wants to make a new kit they assemble a team to work on the project. A timeline of how long the project will take is set and a buget is given on a caluclation of how much sales the product will give and the amount of time the development team needs. The team will do their best to achive the highest product quality they can but if there are errors that are small or that are discovered to late in the process then they will probably have to let it go so that they will not miss the deadline or exeed the developmentbudget. Sometimes errors may be so gross that they will have to redo a lot of the project, in such a case the management may pull the plug on the project if they think that the costs will exeed possible profits from sales. In the end, I don't think that the people that are developing new kits are doing a bad job because they don't care (I think they do care) and that they are trying to make the best product possible within the cost and timeframes given.

I was working in a company manufacturing tarpaulins and similar items. Me, being a modelbuilder, is used to doing things to very accurate measurments. I tried to do this in my job aswell but ended up using to much time on projects and consequently lost my job. So, it could be that the people that are making the modelkits are not slacking of but do try to do a correct job but becuase of the economy have to let things go. In the end you do the job to the quality requirements set by the managment and hope that they don't fire you for spending to much of their profits.

Yeah, a clearbody version would be cool. I remember they did that with the Ferrari F50 kit.

Thank you. If you want to build one for yourself, here is the link to the page that I used: http://ana-white.com/2011/06/wood-folding-sling-chair-deck-chair-or-beach-chair-adult-size

This one has been built by a fellow VW club member. He has talked about wanting to build a model of it aswell.

In 2007 I came a cross this one at a open day on the farm of a tractor enthusiast. Unmodified at the rear but with a Mercedes grille and modified hood. Not sure if it was homemade or made by some company back in the day.

Not really a kitcar as such, more of a modification but the Bandai 1:20 VW 1303S Super Beetle comes with a extra bonnet/hood with a Rolls Royce grille. The rest of the kit is however standard.

Yes, in many way the Excalibur is a factorybuilt kitcar since it is a lot like many kitcars a hodgepodge of different parts from many sources put together to look like something else. On the Firberfab GT40 clone: I'm not sure but I think that maybe the Swedish kitcarproducer RPB may have been inspired by the Fiberfab as I think it looks a bit like the Piraya they produced: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_Plast_Burtr%C3%A4sk

Interesting topic, one of my planned projects are a Cobra with a VW floorpan, engine and drivetrain. But for information, the Excalibur was never a kitcar. It was built from various parts sources but never sold as a kit. A friend of mine has a early SS roadster and that has Studebaker frame, Corvette engine, GM masterbrakecylinder and Dunlop discbrakes from a Jaguar XK140. Another kitcar in kit form is the Tamiya Lotus Super Seven: And the Tamiya 1:12 Caterham Super Seven

My 2 year old son has a combine harvester that looks like it could about 1:24ish scale. I think that is also made by Dickie Toys but not 100% sure about it, think I will take a closer look at it. It is however getting rather trashed as he got it used from the neighbours and their son has been using it for some years.

Thank you so much for the nice comments

To put it simple, they are among the best. I got some of the resinkits they got aswell as parts and the casting is incredibly nice.

Really sad, I guess I have to order what I can before that date then.

Fantastic!!! Love this project

Interesting project. I have looked at the Moonscope thing at my LHS but did not buy it.

It should be 1:24 and you can possibly find them in toystores. They are made by DickieToys. Around here every toystore has some of the productline but ToysR'Us have prettymuch all of it. http://www.dickietoys.de/en/home/ Last year I got a couple of bananacases from another modeller of old projects and builtups that he had done 20-30 years ago. In among that collection was a Italeri Scania T142 with a flatbedtrailer with Airfix 1:24 Spitfire on the back. He had built the plane like it was a project under transport with the engine mounted in a special frame and the wings put up in another set of specialframes besides the fuselage. Quite a cool build but sadly all painted with a brush and it has been sitting on a shelf for many years so it is full of dust and some parts had come of.

A very nice collection of 49s there. I also like the black coupe, where does the roof come from?

Very nice one, I really dig the wagons of that era and you have done a great job. Gives me an urge to buy a fullscale one