Brian Austin

Wow...I love it!

Again, these aren't mine. I'm just fascinated by film/TV special effects. For a scene in Men In Black involving a New York City tunnel several Monogram 1/8 scale car kits were used, along with some others that were mastered by the special effects crew. Note the custom-cast SUVs and several Chevy Caprice taxis mixed in with the more familiar Monogram Firebirds, Corvettes and a Jaguar or two. http://www.moon-city-garbage.agency/meninblack/ Here a nicely detailed Ford station wagon was scratchbuilt and cast in fiberglass for the film "Mom & Dad Save The World". Another body was pulled from the mold and that model was used in the production of "Terminator 2". http://jim-logiudice.tumblr.com/page/7

For what it's worth, heavy truck lines shared cabs with their pickup siblings. I've always been fascinated by the '60s Ford N-Series, so pickup kits do offer some truck kitbashing potential. http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/storage-yard-classic-1963-65-ford-n-series-super-duty/ Would make a cool car hauler

In model railroading scales can vary due to different issues. Even HO and 0 Scales have their variations. Sometimes there's just the convenience of a round number, such as American 0 Scale's easy 1/4th inch-to-the-foot 1:48 vs. British 7mm-to-the-foot 1:43 or Eurpopean 1:45.). On other occasions a scale is fudged in order to fit the then-available motors and axle drives inside the model body shells. British N scale is oversize due to this issue. Japanese models tend to be overscale too, but because their trains (excepting for the standard-gauge bullet trains) run on narrow-gauge track. The British H0/00 thing was mentioned earlier. This was also due to space considerations, to allow the dainty British locos to run on H0 gauge track the scale increased a bit, and as major manufacturers jumped in the compromise stuck. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OO_gauge. I should point out that at the very start, when German toy manufacturer Marklin instituted a range of gauges in the early 1900s or so, they cataloged each gauge with a number, #0-5, ranging smaller-to-larger like artists' paintbrushes. 0 then should be read as the number zero, not a letter. H0 is literally half of 0, and was introduced many years later. Gauge #1 was the next largest after 0 in Marklin's lineup, and in later decades became the foundation of the garden railroad mess..."i.e. G Gauge". It should be noted that actual scale for toy trains was never a consideration at the start, these were just toys. I happen to have a clockwork 0 Marklin set from around 1902 or so, and it even came with an original paper catalog, which must be fairly rare these days. Proportions are "cute" rather than "correct" to say the least! Scale accuracy didn't begin to matter until the '20s or '30s or so. By then gauge standards were forming, with new ones arriving. New scales wound up with letter designations due to marketing forces, straying away from Marklin's old neat and tidy cataloging system.

A somewhat arbitrary decision that became a standard. You can blame Tamiya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1:35_scale The scale sometimes is used with promo diecast vehicles. I have a '90s Mercedes sedan diecast in this scale, which is not far off the 1:36 diecast toy scale.

There were some lovely large scale promo models made of the "Step Down" Hudsons, and apparently they were manufactured by the auto manufacturer themselves, then the tooling was sold to Louis Marx toy co. to be made as toys. Some variations can be seen at the collection of Hudson automobiles in Shepshewana, Indiana. In the picture you can see the red and the green Marx toys along with the older promos with their front clips removed.

Thanks for looking!

What's your beef with 1/4 scale? It's a common size for engine models. You can even get fully-operational fuel-fired model engines in that scale, made of cast or machine metal . There's been a cottage industry for around 7 to 8 decades of offering raw castings, leaving the machining to final spec to the builder. Regarding smaller engine scales, there's also the old Parma engine kits, produced in lovely 1:10 scale to match their line of R/C toys. And what's wrong with 1:6 scale engines? They'll look fine in the 1:6 scale Barbie/GI Joe or radio control toys. :-)

Hubley's Duesenberg kits were 1:18, while their Packards were 1:22 and their Chevys and Fords were 1:20, all according to the flyer that came with my Ford kit. Oddly enough, there was someone complaining on a "G Gauge" model railroad message board some time back that there were few appropriate kits in 1:20 scale to match his trains, and that kit manufacturers are missing a big market (by his estimation) and should tool up some new kits in that scale. There was a line of "craftsman"-type kit (wood with some metal parts) produced in 1:20 scale by North East Narrow Gauge catering to this market. It included their Tin Lizzy line of Model Ts along with a selection of horse-drawn wagons, in addition to their "Maine 2-footer" locomotive and rolling stock kits. Sadly they went out of business several years ago. (Dead catalog page archived at archive.org linked here for reference to show the Tin Lizzy line of products.) https://web.archive.org/web/20121006000833/http://www.nemodel.com:80/shop/agora.cgi?product=tlc

Now that's a horse of a different color! With those tentacles he's a little "off-centaur". :-D .

And black vinyl for the most part looks like...black vinyl. :-)

What is the wheelbase of the Renwall chassis? To me it looks a bit on the short side, once you figure where the driver's seat is supposed to go. And if it was reissued there'd be someone whining there's no body in the kit to put on it...

Well someone scratchbuilt a large Dodge A100 body out of wood for radio-control application. He's built other large-scale R/C trucks bodies in this material as well, so an Econoline should be do-able. http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=59675 And then again someone else kitbashed an old large plastic Teenage Mutant Turtles toy A100 to make an R/C van. Body could be reworked into an Econoline. http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43741&page=2

They could mold them in black styrene. :-P

On our way to the midwest on our summer vacation, my father and I stopped at Roadside America, the legendary model railroad/tourist trap. It's been at this location since the '40s or so, and the display hasn't changed much since the '60s. Collectors will appreciate the old toys and promo models, along with tinplate and modern LIONEL trains. Buildings are scratchbuilt in 1:32 scale (by one person!) vehicles and figures bizarrely range from 1:50 to 1:24. This would be the perfect place for all those 1:28-1:27 off-scale diecasts everybody hates. :-) Please click on the image below to visit my album. First two images in the album are from a 1987 visit.

Nice build. My family had more than one Citation (4-dr hatches) in the family, and my father's recollection was that they were decidedly "average". Not as terrible as some want to say, but not spectacular either. How wonderful were their competition's offerings at the time? :-) I learned to drive on a Citation sedan, and don't recall too much trouble with it. My first car of my own was a hand-me-down '88 Plymouth Reliant, and my recollection was that one was pretty 'average" as well. :-) I've always liked the later X-11s, and have wanted to convert the Monogram coupe body to the hatch style

Bugatti Fan, it appears to be a Jeep Wrangler body on a heavy truck chassis, possibly International.

I don't know guys. Why do you do the things you do? :-) Just because he has some money doesn't mean he can't do something creative with it. That giant-replica Power Wagon would look great at Burning Man.

I just now found this thread. Dunbar was another popcorn wagon builder. http://www.dunbarpopcorn.com/-model-3200-dunbar-popcorn-wagon-on-ford-model-ts-with-smith-form-a-truck-conversions-1916-1918.html

But there have been some nifty colors out there including some oranges/bronzes in the past few years. And then there's Ferrari. So far of recent offerings I've seen either red or charcoal locally. What have you seen? Generally, a lot of thought goes into the color choice for products/fashions, trying to divine the "hot" colors for the period of time in the future the product is supposed to launch.

...and then there's this one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4MkrQl93o

Hey, Art, here's a project for ya:

IMHO both those kits have their pluses and minuses, and have similar proportion problems with the body. The chassis both have problems, but if you paint them black it won't matter. :-) IMHO the PL plastic felt a little cheaper than the old off-while AMT stuff, and generally IMHO the engineering of the AMT kit seemed better. Sadly, most parts won't interchange well between the two without a bit of work. The rear bumper of the PL kit is close to stock, but not well executed IMHO, The PL kit has wheels that are closer to stock. I wouldn't mind seeing another reissue of the AMT kit. Charlie, I posted this video on another message board, and I think you'd get a kick out of it. Here's someone's '59 Miller-Meteor project car: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ucAOWaMp3g (More can be found here, Note that along with the M-M is a Superior project car https://www.youtube.com/user/DrCaron1959/videos?sort=dd&view=0&shelf_id=1)

(That's not art deco)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Chevrolet-Bel-Air-150-210-Bel-Air-/162142018610?forcerrptr=true&hash=item25c06adc32:g:3OwAAOSwIgNXjsD-&item=162142018610 Several dozen reference shots, including chassis.