Atmobil

I have quite a few of the Esci kits, the Mercedes 190E, 190E 2.3-16 aswell as the crystal version (in my eyes that is just stupid as the rest of the parts are not clear) and a dutch police version of the 190E (only differnce to the ordinary 190E is decals and a blue light for the roof). The 190E was also re-released in the same period by Revell Germany as a Kamei X1 kit, with extra bodystyling bits. I also have the Mercedes 450 SLC (W107), Mercedes G-wagen (also re-released by Italeri and Revell later), 1984 Ford Transit (have gotten rare and expensive to find), Land Rover series III 109" (also rereleased by Italeri a few years ago) early two door Range Rover (rereleased by Italeri a few years ago in a Paris Dakar version), Toyota Land cruiser (was very expensive a few years ago, saw one on Ebay go for 236$, but has been rereleased by Italeri and can be foudn quite cheap I think), Renault 5 Alpine (planning on using bits from the new Renault 4 two make a standard looking R5) and a 1:32 Volvo F12 truck that is a snap kit but still quite well detailed. Common to all these kits are that they are quite well detailed but not up to modern kit standards. The Meredes 190E, SLC and Renault 5 has engines and I think you can get fairly nice detail out of them with research and work. The SUVs (G-wagen, Ranger Rover, Land Rover, Land Cruiser) and the Transit have no engines but are still very nice kits. Well detailed chassis and and suspensions. I built the G-wagen and the Land Rover and as I remember they went togheter without much problems. A mate of mine built the CJ7 and he claims it to maybe be the best CJ7 kit out there even if it has no engine. Here is a couple of pics of the 1:32 Volvo F12. Not painted and without headlightlences, only put togheter. And here is a few of the Land Rover, never got pictures of it finished as it was going in to a diorama that I never really got around to. And here is the 230G I also saw pictures of the BMW M1 some time ago and it looked nice. I think that one can possibly compare the Esci kits to the MPC kits of the late 80s. Not quite Tamiya in quality but still not bad. They also had some interesting subjects in their lineup.

Thanks for the tips there. Do you know who sells the resin wheels? I'm a fan of 4x4 pickups, started work in 2012 on the Revell 64 Chevy and modified it to a K10, making the axles and suspension from parts from the partsbox. I cast my own resin wheels also from putting together bits from the partsbox. Still a work in progress, building it as a US Forest Service truck and have also scratchbuilt rowboat and trailer to go begind it: Would be great to complement it with a 67-72 as I also have several of the MPC, Revell and Monogram kits of the 73-87 generation. BTW, I love these kit historythreads, really cool to read the history of the kits

This looks really cool. I am also looking forward to the new Model T kits. I got the 38 Opel Admiral from ICM and it looks like a great kit.

Interesting this thing with the cars that suck, they can be great modellingsubjects some times. To me it seems that most cars from the early 80s suck. I think that as a global fenomenon. cars started to suck somewhere in the 70s and in many ways they still have not stopped sucking. Ofcoursce there are many great cars aswell but things like the Cadillac Cimmaron, wich to us in Europe is a lot better known as the Opel Ascona or Vauxhall Cavalier in the UK. The first two generations of the Ascona was RWD, not spectacular cars but quite good looking and was relatively succesfull in rallying. In manyways a bit like the first two generations of the Ford Escort (the european Escort that is). The third generation Ascona was based on the GM J body. I don't know much about the cars you got in the states on that platform but as Ascona it was never a bad car. They worked and did run well. You could even get go-faster versions like 2.0i or if you did not care for speed but wanted your car to be noisy and slow you could have a 1.6 Diesel. But as a car, it is so boring and ugly. Looking at it, you get depressed and want to kill your self. They all where hearingaidbeige with rusty spots around the wheelwells. Like this 81 for sale right now: http://www.finn.no/finn/car/used/object?finnkode=54137427 When I was 18, these cars where the norm for 18 year olds to buy. Several of my friends had Ascona C, or Kadett E or other 80s Opels or Fords and quite a lot of Volvos. The Volvo is possibly the only car from that time that I don't think of as a car that suck so much but ofcourse, the 240 is 40 years old this year and was based on the 140 that was launched in 1967...well before the global-car-sucking started. In the older times, cars where great and designed in a way that showed the world what a spectacular thing this was but I think that at some point cars stopped being a great thing and ended up being throwaway appliances that are almost excusing themself for being here. You see it clearly in the car adverts, I remember seeing car adverts from the 60s (like for the first Mustang) and it made you want the car but today the adverts are showing cars as something that is just there and sometimes they try and claim that you have to buy it because it will save the world or something like that. Having said this, I like models of sucky cars. I could easily buy the Cititation if I come over it at a good price. I got quite a lot of sucky car kits, even the 2010 Prius from Fujimi. So ugly you need to wear weldinggoggles to look at it.

I have just finished building this kit, very good kit indeed. Interesting that on the partstrees there are full chrome front bumper, full chrome mirrors and datsun emblem (these are marked out as not to be used in the instructions). I belive that we may see different versions of this kit later on. Hopefully even a conversion to a B110 estate like this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Sunny#mediaviewer/File:Datsun-SunnyvanB110.JPG

I'm thinking of making 4x4 out of the 72 chevy pickup I got, I have two of the blazers and I think that I can maybe use the frame (need to be stretched) and axles from the blazer under the chevy. I noticed that the chevy molded-in frame is wider than the blazers and that the engine bay is different. Maybe taking the front of the blazerbody and move it over to the pickup cab to make it better. Any thoughts? Anyone done such a conversion before? I'm also thinking that I can maybe take the wide steelies from the blazer kit (the front ones with 6 lugs) and narrow it down abit to make more acurate steelrim for it. Maybe I can drill out the center 4x4 hub and replace it with a bit of styren and make a better looking rear wheel aswell. Would ofcourse cast them in resin so that I don't have to steel parts from to many kits.

Special looks on these. What was the cooling like on the truck on the top picture without a grille?

Well, I guess I chose a bad time to join the forum a few days ago So, I had to reregister and I'm writing a bit about myself again. I'm Gaute, 30 years old. Live with my wife and our 2 year old son in a small place called Ler some 25km south of Trondheim in Norway. I build cars and trucks, mostly 1:24/25 but also other scales. I have some boats and planes in my modelcollection aswell. I am just finishing of building the Nissan Sunny pickup from Hasegawa (will post some pics of it when I get the proper light to photograph it).