Brian Austin

Oddly enough Google wasn't helping me come up with specific examples.

IIRC there was a fad of painting one's car in corporate logos, such as McDonald's. Big ugly wheels complete the look.

One other issue is they often supplied wrong-year chassis in their kits. The '60s Olds kits carried over their '59-'60 chassis for example. Oddly enough some Olds promos had a more accurate chassis, though simplified.

As good as thier bodies can be, they left out an important detail from their '61 Olds. The fender-top crease should continue through the doors creating a neat trough effect that JoHan seems to have missed. Easily enough fixed by the modeler.

I always heard it in the context of recording a folk music album. Along with, "It'll be a million seller. There will be a million units in your cellar you will be stuck with."

Okey isn't keeping the JoHan name alive?

Example of the background vehicles used: https://propstoreauction.com/lot-details/index/catalog/442/lot/160103/31-Four-Cars-and-One-Truck-THOMAS-FRIENDS-TV-SERIES-1984-2008?url=%2Fauctions%2Fcatalog%2Fid%2F442%3Fpage%3D2

https://propstoreauction.com/auctions/catalog/id/442 Several pages of listings. Most auctions are over at this point. From what I could see, the prices were going sky high. Several familiar train models, along with a bunch of vehicles among other things. The vehicles seem to be around 1:32-1:24, and some were larger, depending on the episode series.

I've seen plaster styling mdels in museums such as the Henry Ford with the 2-door/4-door arrangement. Since you can't see both sides at once it .makes sense.

Well, I wasn't even aware there was progress on the Powell kit. Interesting to note. And, yes, we have a few unrelated entities bearing the JoHan name, leading to confusion. Someone should revive the Palmer trademark. 😄

Technically that's a truck camper. 🙂

There are AA diecast trucks with those wheels. Also, I recently got a bunch of old O Scale train parts that happened to randomly include a pair of black plastic truck wheels of that type that are awfully close to 1:25 or 1:24. I have no idea where they may have come from. They look and feel old.

Are these still in production? Is a four-door available?

I started this a few years ago, and I just got back to it. Recent reissue of the Edsel, with the canopy, surround and the interior from Revell's Lincoln Futura. This was initially supposed to be an alternative Batmobile, but I found the canopy from the Futura kit fit the Edsel body better than the one from the excellent Polar Lights '66 Batmobile. The balance of the body and chassis will be stock

I've known the term to be beavertail.

Watermark your pictures. FB is like any public space. Most of my Groups are drama free. On the other hand my former model club meetings were a lot like the negative aspects of FB at times. I'm not a sure FB is any worse than dealing with people in real life.

I thought being unique and not following the herd were good things.

Bring it up and restore it to running condition. 😄

Back in the previous century, they used to be termed "personalized", which would reinforce that these were built to suit their owner's tastes. Just like our own custom model project, I think.

I am reminded of the Dykes Automobile & Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia I inherited from my late grandfather, along with a small number of WWII aircraft maintenance manuals. Fun stuff!

There are tons of 100+ year old automotive (and truck!) texts scanned by Google and others available online. I've posted some from time to time, but the era seems too early for most people here to be of much interest. One of my favorite books growing up was Automerica by the wacky Ant Farm collective. There's a chapter describing the genesis and construction of "Cadillac Ranch" among other creative endeavors. Fascinating look into the 1970s automotive counterculture. One of the more well-known members of Ant Farm was Philip Garner (now known as Pippa) who has had numerous cartoons in the big automotive magazines over the years.

I modified a LIONEL "Thomas The Tank Engine and Friends" Clarabel coach to be a little more realistic. The chassis Lionel chose for this model actually came from their old "Bobber" caboose. The wheelbase is a bit short for this car, so I cut it in half and moved the ends out. The body was too wide, so I cut the body in half at the ends and removed some material. New end panel overlays were made from styrene, along with a new underframe. I reshaped the lower sides of the body to better reflect the graceful curve of the prototype. The toy was just too square. Buffers were made from ordinary plastic pushpins, slightly modified. British O Scale is 7mm to the foot, or 1:43. Wheels therefore were relatively large, and so I had to pull them off a "parts-car" F unit diesel loco made by Roco in Austria for Atlas in the 1970s. (These were known for their axle drive gears cracking and splitting.) The interior will need partition walls for the four compartments, along with longitudinal bench seats. So far I don't have much reference for detailing the interior. I was working on an automotive model project when this project just called to me and fell together. I'm just glad to be building something. It comes and goes for me.

Super obscure is the Mad Magazine TV Special of 1974. The first segment spearing the US auto industry of the era is fun.

The Look Mum No Computer channel on YouTube has a bit of everything for everyone. There are videos on vintage computers, old electronic musical instruments (and one authentic ex-church pipe organ rescued from a house) and a smattering of old cars. Many of these things are being prepared for the museum he has been building in the UK. Here he recently purchased a 1929 Austin 7 and takes us for a spin. Seeing the townscape surrounding his museum is fun. Cute li'l thing, isn't it?