Dave Darby

Love this build and thank you for calling out what paint you used. I actually have a can of that. I especially like the Sport Roadster treatment.

We have a Facebook group dedicated to survivors like this. It's called Scale Survivors. I'd love to see more of your oldies.

Hi readers, you may have noticed the absence of my Vintage Workbench column. I recently began treatment for head and neck cancer, with an unknown primary. Without treatment I was given 6 months to live. As you may know, besides writing the Vintage Workbench column for Model Cars magazine I also run the Scale Survivors group on Facebook. We have an 8 year old son, and my job is in South Carolina. However, because all our family is in the Iowa /Illinois area, we put everything we own in storage to get treatment closer to them. Hence not being able to set up models and photos. Our medical and travel expenses are mounting up, and a good friend of ours, Alan Cozby set up a GoFundMe page. If you could share this link out on any social media you have, my family and I would be most grateful. Both prayers and donations are welcomed. I'll be back to the Vintage Workbench as soon as I can. I already have ideas in the making. God bless you, and keep building. Dave Darby Dave Darby Cancer GoFundMe

This one is the MPC tool, which was converted to a Pro Stock. They would have to redo the rear wells and redo the chassis and interior etc. to bring it back to stock.

They were available at Walmart and my local hobby shop into the mid 90s. I painted more than a couple AMT/ Ertl box art cars with it. They had some great colors. Model Master co-existed with them. I built this 50 Ford for myself in 1990, and painted it with 1812 Sandstone Pearl Metallic. The 1814 Clear (enamel) is still available as a regular Testors color, but not real easy to find on store shelves.

Cleanly done, tasteful mods, great paint. Love it!

I'm looking forward to seeing it!

I watched a YouTube video of a ride inside the real Ala Kart, and at one point, the camera focused on the hood/nose interface. It's not a straight interface. The old tool kit is fairly accurate there. Modelhaus Tires has a nice pair of whitewalls based off the rare old AMT "implement" tires that can give you that rake.

Update: The Fotki page with the review was missing several photos, due to a membership glitch, where Fotki deleted some of my photos off of their servers. I just restored all of the missing photos. If you look at the top right of the parts layout in this photo, you will see the tree with the blower parts that Lesney added to the A-Venger. This is where the Ala Kart nose piece and the tonneau cover resided in the tool. That's why those parts have never returned. See my Vintage Workbench column in Model Cars magazine issue #216 for a full review and history of this kit.

What's wrong with the AMT 53 Ford Pickup? It's a well proportioned kit with nice detail. And the only game in town for a stock 53. Those old reissues are like comfort food for some of us. Why the Switchers based kits? They make great parts kits for one thing. While some of the parts are indeed crude, the mag wheels are great. Either way, to each their own.

That box art would make a dandy reissue.

They look great!

I had a bagged version of that I picked off off ebay back in 2015. Somebody was dumping a bunch off cheap. It's a super nice kit, with really good accurate detail.

It's a newly tooled kit. But I do agree about the price point. Revell prices their curbside kits lower than their full glue kits.

You squeezed the Ala Kart interior in quite nicely too. That's a neat rodney!