Dave Darby

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!

Looks great on the Roadster as well.

Subject, execution, and color, all top notch. Absolutely beautiful build, Steve!

That's one sweet Bird!

Ha, I just saw this after 4(!) years. Giving it a well deserved bump.

Comet tool is likely gone. The 63 Tempest was modified to an AWB car.

The headlights on the 56 do not have the chrome reflectors behind the lenses. The lenses have pins that go into holes in the body. I drilled mine out on both my 56 and my 57. The 57 got reflectors from a 56 Victoria, while my custom 56 T-bird got the Lucas Flamethrower headlamps from the 55 Nomad. I think chassis wise, the 56 would make a very good donor for the 57.

The 56 wasn't really quite up to those standards. The engine is rather dodgy, and missing fuel pump detail. It suffered from being designed post - Mueller era. I built a very customized one for my wife, and sourced a lot of parts from the old 57, including the not so chunky windshield frame. It's not a bad kit. It just could have been better. It's certainly a lot better than the 58 Plymouth.

Exactly how somebody needs to do a Deuce frame. Then we'd finally get some accurate rails!

Looking good so far! I drilled my headlights out, and added the reflectors from the 56 Ford kit, with lenses from the 50 Ford Convertible. Good call spacing out the taillights. Way more realistic. Here's my review of the current version of the kit. https://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/187750-round2-57-thunderbird-amt-139712-2023-complete-detailed-review/

In most areas, I find the Monogram 56 better than the AMT 56. Proportionally however, I think the AMT 57 beats both of them.

The roof by Drag City Casting is based off of the Craftsman kit version, which is much better than the glue kit version that was added to the second issue in 1966. It's really nice. Both of these roofs are from Drag City Casting.

According to what I've read, and According to the instruction sheet pictured, the 57 kit from 1962 was derived from the promo tool. In fact, if you compare, most of the promo parts will interchange with the glue kit. There were actually more than one 57 Tbird promo tool cut. That may be what the Craftsman version was derived from.

Looking good! Definitely following this build.

Next time you're at Hobby Lobby, pick up an AMT 63 Impala. It has a whole set of those American Daisy mags.

The rear piece is from the AMT 1961 Falcon Ranchero Styline kit.

The engine in these kits is closer to an FE engine, so the closest bet is the Y block from the one issue only Revell stock 56 F100. Following that, there's any number of Y blocks, from the Revell 57 Fords, and the AMT 56 and Fords. But they will need the exhaust manifolds with the front crossover pipe added or made. When dual exhausts were added, they'd either run a pipe off the front left manifold, use headers, or the rare 57-64 C Series cabover Rams horn manifolds. Regular LH passenger car manifolds dumped into the steering box.

I'll second that they are some fantastic builds. As far as Atlantis having the tools, at least as far as the 1/24th stuff, that isn't too likely. Revell Monogram just reissued the 32 Roadster a couple of years ago, and I think both the T and A (last seen as the Blue Bandito) are still with Revell/Monogram as well. Maybe they can be convinced to run some retooled parts, although the Boss A Bone, being a Tom Daniel design is likely out of the question.

I'm in the Midlands (Columbia). What city are you in?