Justin Porter

The goal was something much more "local car show driver" than something with twenty-plus inch wheels and airbags and so forth so I'm fairly happy with the kit supplied wheels. Coincidentally, the truck is all buttoned up and in Under Glass now.

Quite happily, I've finally wrapped up this Revell Fleetside! The kit, frankly, decided it wanted to fight at every turn. There are still about a dozen little things that irritate me about the finished build BUT I'm happy to have it wrapped up. The engine was grabbed from a Revell 2002 Camaro SS 35th Anniversary kit and dressed up with an air filter and headers from Iceman. The paint is Gunze GX Mr Metallic under Tamiya clear. There are definitely some things I'm fairly pleased with when it comes to the finished build like that I do genuinely love how the tailgate lettering turned out and feel like the Mr Color Wine Red interior really works for the build. On the whole, happy to have it off the bench and in the case alongside its Chevelle counterpart.

I'd be happiest if Belkits decided to tool up a Capri as a companion to their excellent Escort, leaving the Lotus Cortina as the biggest blank spot in classic Ford touring cars in 1/24th scale.

My apologies on getting the year wrong. And yes, it would require an entirely new tool. We should expect nothing less.

It would be a true "jump for joy" moment if Revell were to tool a '69 Super Stock Hemi 'Cuda as a companion to their Dart kit. The MPC kit is one that doesn't wear its age well.

In my mind the route to an acceptable '68 GTO runs through an MPC '69 Olds 442 chassis and a Revell '68 Firebird 400 engine/transmission/engine bay accessories as the bare minimum. I think the interior probably could be made to work. I'd also probably have to see whether it would be better to source things like the AC Compressor and PS pump from an AMT '66 Olds 442.

It's hard not to buy one of the AMT reissues of the MPC '69 Olds 442 for less than $20 on Ebay or at shows and that has an admittedly fantastic chassis.

For fans of funny cars, Atlantis has just posted images that should be VERY interesting with the following text. "Going through these mold conversions is a lot of detective work. Lots of cool finds!" I may be way off base, but I believe these to be the ex-Monogram Tempo and Firebird funnies.

The work is absolutely continuing on the '64 Fleetside. I'm at a bit of a standstill as I've had to track down some headers and an appropriate air filter/intake pipe to attach to the throttle body. On the plus side, the window trim is done and the interior has successfully been test fitted. I also have most of the underhood details in place which is certainly bringing that to life.

Very cool to see this livery AND to see the famously frustrating Revell 911GT1 Evo turned into a nice model.

MiniRetro Scale Models, best known for their full kit of an Austin A35, have stepped up to deliver this all-new transkit. The transkit corrects the Gunze Sangyo's incorrect frame and includes a complete front chassis, full engine bay, and complete engine. He's taking pre-orders now at $50 AUS + postage and if you love Little British Cars it's genuinely going to be a must have.

That's precisely my point. If the market actually existed for classic American car kits of that quality in that price range, logically they would exist. However, the builders of American classic cars seem content to take what they're given with a smile so long as they can buy it on sale.

And if there is indeed an as yet unseen market for builders of American classic cars who are willing to pay $30+ for a kit with an ostensibly accurate body and interior, and then an additional $30+ for a full engine plus engine bay and chassis improvements, then why isn't there a market then for $40-$50 American classic car kits on the same detail and engineering level as Ebbro's Citroen DS or Tamiya's Mercedes 300SL? Occam's Razor is a heck of a thing...

Thank you. That's exactly the sort of thing I was referencing. I also recall reading that there was a huge amount of unexpected difficulty in creating the full bumper Camaro from the Mueller era 70 1/2 split bumper tooling.

Have to agree with the others. It's cost prohibitive given that it appears that many of the Ertl generation kits weren't designed with modular use in mind. Unlike Revell which has this sort of "plug and play" design which gives us multiple kits from a single bank of tooling. AMT under Ertl appears to have tooled whole kits as singular entities. It's a shame because those Ertl kits really do represent a high water mark for American classics in model kit form but unfortunately it seems they will remain an aberration in the AMT line.

Regardless of the ownership of the Johan IP that is the design of their kit, you would still have to contract with Stellantis for licensing permission to produce material in the likeness of one of their designs, in this case the AMC Javelin. Properly modified from the original, that is to say with new surface detailing and re-engineered to accept separate wipers, door handles, and so forth, you could likely make the legal case that the resulting work - that is to say the new CAD design for the re-imagined body - is inherently transformative and therefore constitutes new intellectual property and thus does not require payment of licensure to the holders of the Johan IP for use of their original work (that is, their 1970's design for a 1/25th scale model in the likeness of an AMC Javelin AMX and the resulting physical model body) BUT you would need to enter into that project with a copyright lawyer already on retainer in the event the current holder of the Johan IP decided to get litigious. And given that Okey Spaulding is desperately trying to reinforce the idea that he is Johan and that Johan is in some way still a viable enterprise, I wouldn't be shocked at all if he jumped at the chance to wring a couple thousand out of anyone who tried this method. Ultimately, it would be far smarter and safer to just ignore the Johan kit and tool new.

Moebius has been able to make business cases for newly tooled Plymouth Belvederes and Hudson Hornets. Revell has been able to make business cases for newly tooled '71 Mustangs and Jaguar E-Types. Salvinos JR was able to make a business case for a newly tooled Whelen Tour Modified. Round 2 themselves have made the business cases for modern Ford Broncos and Dodge Chargers. That's before getting into the surfeit of tooling represented by companies outside of the US like Belkits, NuNu, DM Modelkits, ICM, Tamiya, Aoshima, Hasegawa, and Ebbro. I do understand entirely why the Craftsman Plus kits exist. They're a relatively inexpensive way for Round 2 to generate fresh product for customers who are asking specifically for reissues of classic kits. It's filling a very specific niche that Round 2 is particularly suited to filling. These kits genuinely have achieved something successful in the marketplace and I am not at all opposed to their existence OR to the customers who want them. It's the wailing for skirting potential copyright law to generate a kit based on a kit that isn't at all a piece of Round 2's history to generate a specific kit that I simply cannot understand. At the end of all that hoop jumping, in an age when globally there is so much brand new tooling on the shelves of such high quality, why go through all this trouble to revive something that wasn't that good in the first place?

The question isn't one of subject matter, and frankly you seem to ignore that the very first kit I mentioned was the upcoming Revell '71 Mustang and the last kit I mentioned was the Moebius AFX Dodge. The question is why are builders of classic American cars so willing to settle for poor kits just because "it's something" when it can be ably demonstrated that the technology and the industry exists to NOT produce kits of that nature. Heck, AMT's own excellent 2021 Dodge Charger kit is evidence that AMT THEMSELVES could tool a well detailed and accurate kit to modern levels of engraving and detail. I love the 1968 AMX. I feel it's a genuinely handsome car and I would love to build a genuinely nice model of one. I can't get into the headspace where I would be asking a current company to - instead of tooling a 100% modern kit - deliberately ape tooling that predates cable television.

I'm sorry, but as much as I appreciate what Round 2 is doing in order to bring back their own IP's, I can't fathom - in this our year of Lemmy 2023 - looking at kits as gorgeous as the Revell '71 Mustang or the ICM Benz Patent-Motorwagen or the Ebbro Citroen DS or the Tamiya McLaren Senna or the Moebius AFX Dodges and saying "I want an AMC AMX kit where the seats are molded to the floor and there's a 1/4 inch hole in the block for a plastic axle." It beggars belief.

I do stock them as often as I can at my shop, enough so that NuNu actually sent me a countertop calendar as a thank you for being a NuNu retailer. In particular their Porsche 935's are a consistent mover for me.

Next bit of progress was fairly simple and straight forward. Painted and assembled the interior. I haven't quite yet picked out the steering wheel I'll be using as I'm still digging through my parts stash for just the right piece. The color is Mr Color C100 Wine Red. I left the dashboard glossy and sprayed Mr Super Clear Flat over the floor, seat, and side panels.

Strange as it may sound, as a retailer I think I'm actually most excited for the return of the Revell 427/SC Cobra to the standard domestic range. That's a kit with a lot of casual builder appeal and knowing this time around it will likely have little quality-of-life upgrades like gauge and emblem decals will make it a good routine seller.

A lot of potential big sellers for certain. The return of the MPC Demon is undoubtedly going to make a lot of builders happy.

This really does look like it's coming together. I'm still shaking my head at that windshield fit though. That's just an absurd gap!

Super happy with how the paint is turning out for the Fleetside. Used Mr Metallic Color GX214 Ice Silver and GX202 Metallic Red and Mr Color C43 Wood for the bed. The LS1 also looks quite suited to its new home in the engine bay. I'm particularly pleased with how the tailgate lettering turned out. I used Abteilung 502 Liquid Mask for that.