Dave Darby

You are absolutely correct about the exhaust. It would be sorta correct for a Fairlane or Mustang, but the Falcon had a center dump exhaust manifold on the driver's side that went directly across the engine, just behind the sump of the oil pan. From there the pipe went straigh back, without that crossing over the driveshaft business on the model. Not to mention, the muffler should be on the passenger side, and much larger. The rear bumper is way too tall, and the rear in general is way too flat. The front seats look terrible, and the vee trim on the front sides is a bit too wide. The generator is in scale tho, and they are correct through 1964 for most Fords. (Ford switched to alternators across the board in 1965) Whoever did the build did really nice job, at least, but again, a lot of glaring inaccuracies in the kit.

If you compare the photos from the Spotlight board with the photos you have here of the annual kit, you can see that the windshield on the Trumpeter kit is too flat, with not enough wrap around to it. I pretty much gave my opinion of it there. It looks a tad slab sided to me as well. Of course, a 64 Falcon Sprint was my first car, and I owned it for over 20 years, plus had a few other Falcons as well, so I know them pretty intimately. Hopfully Trumpeter will follow Moebuis's lead, and fix the issues, or they will just be doing another run of shelf orphans. Regardless, I'll probably buy at least one. 1960-65 Falcons & Comets

Tom didn't bring it here. Greg Myer did. He came here and reported that people were being SPAMMED by Tom's board, without providing relevent information regarding the issue. He left it open to interpretation. Noone received any real spam from Tom's board. No spammers emailed Spotlight Hobby board members. The posting field has an option to forward replies to your posts to your email. If a spammer replies to a post, then that message gets forwarded to you. Someone figured that out, and tried it on Tom's board. The solution is as simple as to uncheck the option when you make a post. It will stay unchecked by default unless you clear your cookies. I think it is perfectly within Tom's right to explain his side of the situation whenever and wherever necessary. I have been a member of that board for 11 years and counting, and I like that Tom doesn't leave personal attacks from people up there to fester. I also don't want to lose a good forum, just because of someone shooting bad/incomplete information from the hip. Tom's post was made with nothing but good intentions, and to attack it was needlessly rude. Respect should always rule the day. Flame suit on.

You done good Dave, Real Good. Those Revellogram Fiesta wheel covers and wide whites never looked better, and the flatty is great too. What's the paint on the beautiful Roadster? Dang that thing looks great. Makes me want to pull one out and start gluin'!

Actually, Mark, the Stawag turned Ranchero was a 1957. No relation to the '59 Retractable. Another multi-piece with engine was the '59 Corvette. (Later misslabeled as a 1960, last reissued with a Route 66 Coral Court diorama) Excellent kit.

Anyone notice the odd Photoshop job they did on the radiator shell, and lots of other places? What's with that? Here is the original art from the last reissue, in the early 70's.

And they ran that chassis right up through 1964.

Here's an old Skips Fiesta issue I built about 20 years ago, as a test subject before I built my 57 Conversion. It's painted with some Krylon Coral color, but the salman colored plastic is visible in the interior. The wheels & tires were robbed from the 1970's issue. The original 1959 issue had plastic tires. The Skips issue used Monogram whitewalls with Fiesta spinner caps that were a wee out of scale. I think the new kit combines the stock wheel covers with the Monogram tires. If this thing looks pretty rough, it's because my pshycotic ex girlfriend smashed it about 15 years ago. And it was in my famous orange paint explosion.... Here's a little tidbit that will improve the looks of this kit, and also the Monogram 58 T Bird... get rid of the pinned headlight lenses, drill the holes out, a put reflectors behind the lenses. I made mine from the baby moon hubcaps in the AMT 56 Ford. I had to sand one side flat so they butted together tighter, and fit inside the fenders. That is one visible laying in front of the bumper... Anyway, last year, when I was laid off for a while, I started redoing a bunch of my old builds, but I left them in their original paint for posterity... And out of general laziness and not wanting paint fumes in the house... BTW, to answer a question, these were always one version kits. The optional parts were the figures. So there's my take. A little worse for wear and tear, but back in one piece....

You sure that isn't the real one? Very awesome work!

That is one nicely styled build. If Mark Gustuvson was still doing the Custom Contest in SA, this would be a shoo-in. Well done!

Very Very cool!

Actually Ed, the Wagon/Ranchero is a totally different kit than the Retractable. It's a'57. James - Very nice work!

Well I remember back in 2002 when I gave a review of the AMT new tool Ala Kart and pronounced it a turkey. (And it was.) I even had John Mueller (the designer) come down on me - until I posted photos (He hadn't seen even a test shot.) That said, there is nothing wrong with critique, especially polite and based on facts. So don't shoot the messenger or get all defensive. Is this one perfect? Are any of them? No. But it IS a heck of a lot better than the Ala Kart, and the 58 Plymouth that followed it. It's also better than the Revell chopped 49 Merc with its blocky hood and too high in the back (subjective) roof, better than the Nova and Cutlass as well. My only minor quibbles? Too fat of side trim, and a couple model years newer than I'd prefer (a '51). But, all in all, it's a pretty nice effort, and I'll probably buy at least one. Rock on Dave!

Steve, is it just me, or do those wheel flares look just a little heavy and crude?

In focus or not, it sure looks great!

I agree. If they really wanted to do a "one in one" version, they should have used the new tool '57. The old tool 57 is so worn out (and inaccurate) that about all it's good for is the spare parts. Ooooohhh those sweet extra goodies. One heck of a nice pair of Chrome reversed wheels, the 409, Vette grille, and a nice set of Keystone Klassics for starters. If I were in charge, I'd be opening every gate on that thing, and hunting up the old box art. I do have to give Mike W. props for making that old war horse look as good as it does on the new box. When I built it in 1995 for the Chevrolet Classics set, it was kind of a PITA to build.

Not positive, but I think that was supposed to be a putty applicator. The original had a front end extension that for some reason is still MIA. They opened some gates on the chrome tree portion of the tool, but evidently neglected the other part. Or, it could be that that area needed too much work. When I did the box art for the 1994 issue of the 65 Galaxie, the body had a lot of little nubs on it from rust pits in the tool. I had to sand all of those down before painting. Could be what happened here.

That is just gorgeous. Stance, color, wheels, and detailing. Simple, yet elegant. I like it.

I started to build one of those about 15 years ago, and finally gave up on it. Yours is just gorgeous. Do tell me the details on that roof tho!

Over on that OTHER board, the guys have an end of the year tradition called the Amnesty build. This is where you take a languishing unfinished project (or broken/tired older build, and finish it up before the holidays end. This is the story of one such build. It's an MPC Flip nose 57 Chevy that I built 20 years ago. I swapped out the rear wheel wells from an AMT 57 so it would have stock wheel wells, and I dropped it in the weeds. I painted it with some sort of houseold spray that was a satin finish, and cleared it for gloss. After the famous orange paint explosion (happened when I was building a box art model for AMT back in 93) and getting dropped a few times, it went in a box, and only occasionally poked its little nose out. I wanted to restore it, but just never got around to it. Here is what I started with... Anyway, I got tired of that look, and decided what I really wanted was a Gasser! I decided to leave the paint as is, because I really like patina, and just build a new chassis for it from the 53 Ford flip nose pickup that shares the frame. As you can see, I had to make some new spring perches to get the front end sitting as I wanted it. Anyway, here is the finished product, in all of its still faded glory.... Under that nose you'll find an aluminum firewall, the complete engine, including headers from the AMT/MPC 57 Vette Gasser, with a vertex magneto from the old tool 57 Chevy and a homemade straight axle (aluminum tubing) and springs from the AMT 33 Willys. It's rude, and crude, and everything mother warned you about, but at last it's back out of the box, and on the shelf. I still need to mount the Moon tank, and throw ona couple decals, but for now, it's pau. Thanks for looking, and more photos of the build can be seen here at the link... 57 Chevy Gasser Amnesty Build

Looking good! Having built a few of those (including the box art for the Chevrolet Classics 3 car set back in '95), I know that kit is a challenge to build. You did it proud.

The reason for the headlight lense issue is that somewhere between Lesney's ownership of AMT, and Ertl's purchase, the clear tool came up missing. (I think it also did for the 25 T and the 40 Willys as well, which now has some very crude engraving on the lenses), anyway, they tooled up some new glass, but dropped the ball on the engraving (or lack thereof.) The older issues have that engraved detail. Anyway, that is a beautiful build.

I'm gonna have to disagree with you, Bill. Whatever minor problems the wheelwells may pose pale next to the side trim of the old tool '57, which at least 2 scale inches too high on the side of the body. Once you notice it, it stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. Here is a real 57... And the old tool 57. Look at how the side trim and louvers line up with the angle on the headlight bezel, and compare them to the real car. And then, at the door, instead of following the beltline like the real car does, it heads straight back. It's as if somebody tried to pick up the car by the side trim, and it slipped. Look at the door handle and lock cylinder. On top of that, you have a worn out tool with parts that don't fit, and a lumpy steering wheel. Of course it is still better than the Monogram 57, but I digress. Now here is the new tool 57. Looks alot closer to me. I think the worst issue it really has is the dinky tires they gave it, and it sits up a bit high for my taste. It isn't perfect, but it's a lot closer. Anyway, not to offend, and that silver build is gorgeous, but if I wanted to make a show model, I'd be using the new tool 57, or grafting the hardtop roof and beltline to the new Revell kit, which looks fantastic. The best part of the old tool kit is all those cool optional parts that used to be in there.

Hey Bob, is that my old 58 Ford you got from me? I'm glad she's in a good home.

Another alternative would be the 58 Edsel chassis and floor pan. I have a feeling that one would be a better fit.