RSchnell

I will put it on my schedule. I'm sure it blows away the infamous Southland show, which moved to a new location for this year. That should be interesting!

Is this show worth a 6 hr drive? Been thinking about going this year.

I use good sable hair or taklon brushes and Tamiya acrylics, AK 3rd generation acrylics, occasionally Humbrol & Testors enamels. I brush paint 90% of chassis components & interior and usually only airbrush or spray bomb bodies or other big surfaces. Sometimes I'll brush paint a body after all that's how I was taught all those years ago by my Grandfather who was a master modeler by every definition of the term.

My TV s*** the bed. From what I've been able to troubleshoot it's the backlighting part of the TV. In this disposable society we're in it's cheaper to just go buy another TV. Or maybe I won't.

I've been a fan of them for 30+ years. The Dead is certainly one of those bands you either love or hate. Like Jerry Garcia said- And to get this back on topic! '55-56 Mercs. Always been more into the 55-56 Ford camp, but I've found myself somewhat seriously looking at a couple of '56 Mercurys for sale that are somewhat reasonably close to me. one of these I've looked at the ad twice. Not a good sign.

This thread reminded me of an event, one that I had forgotten until all the right neurons connected. I used to sell parts at the now defunct swap meet/auction that used to be held in Zephyrhills, FL. A group of us would setup together and make a weekend of it, selling car parts, BS'ing around, go hit the bars at the end of the day, sleep in the back of your car etc. Where else could a Ford guy, a Corvette guy, a Porsche guy, a Pontiac guy all hang out for 4 days and not get on each other's nerves? LOL We had a pair of walkie talkies so if one of us wanted to go walking around the others would watch their spot and if any questions arose one could get an answer. I'm watching Porsche guy's spot when he gets on the walkie "hey you build model cars, did you see this guy on row 3 with about 1000 kits?" I replied that I hadn't and as soon as he got back I'd go check it out. Well Pontiac guy sees me salivating like a blind dog in the smokehouse, tells me he'll watch my stuff if I want to go see what the dude has. I find the magic booth is short order and there was at least 700 or so kits. The vendor tells me "all kits are $5 each". Nothing earth shattering, mostly newer stuff but there were a few 60s & 70s AMT kits in the mix. I notice they're all sealed. I start making a pile. I grab all the 60s & 70s AMT kits, There's 5 of the Revell '48 Ford Woody add those. This went on for about 30 minutes when I thought I could flip a lot of these for $10-15(still had 3 days of the swap meet to go), keep what I wanted for my collection and the stuff I kept would be free in the long run. I ended up buying 325 kits, sold 250 of them minus a 10 or so I gave away to kids who showed a sincere interest. Went back Sunday afternoon and bought the last 25 he had for $2 each since he didn't want to take them home. I found out that this was all his father's collection and he had neither the interest or room to keep anything, that's why the blowout prices. Only problem was now I had a bunch of kits with no room in my '55 Ford to haul them home. Luckily Corvette man lived in the same town as me and offered to haul them in his truck. Things went great when I got home until the wife saw Corvette guy backing his truck in the driveway. She went in third orbit when we started stacking kits in the garage. I still have some of the kits both built & unbuilt. No longer have the wife! One thing that I've thought about since this happened in 2005 and I'm sure some of y'all have to. Like Porsche guy said "it makes you wonder how many of those kits are going to get bought, never built, resold, never get built and it's like an endless cycle. I'd venture to say 35% of the kits produced ever get built." He was a numbers guy so he thought about stuff like that. But he does have a point!

Just remember there are outliers. I've spent a good portion of my life hunting down rare & NOS parts for 1:1 stuff and the same rule applies to that as the vintage kits. You just never know where you'll find something! As an example: Pair of NOS 1932 Ford rear fenders for $100 at a steam engine show swap meet, Rough but complete down to the spare tire '61 Ford Starliner that was an original 390/401HP 4 spd car bought for what was scrap price at the time $250(1998). This only came about because the guy who owned the car saw my '62 Galaxie Convert sitting in front of the local breakfast joint where I dined often. Also bought a '54 Hudson Jet from him for $100. My Dad bought a '41 Lincoln Continental for $75 out of a garage in Georgia back in the early 80's, but that's another story LOL

I've gotten lucky at 1:1 car show swap meets. In fact I just passed on a bunch of 50's acetate promos last month cheap because I didn't want to deal with the shrinkage issue. Should've at least gotten a few pics but I'd been walking all day and was ready to retreat to the heated seats of my car. I bought a mint '60 Galaxie convertible built up for $5 at a vintage tractor show a few years back. "Antique malls" and I use that term loosely as there's usually very little antiques and more chalk paint furniture and live laugh love signs. I've found several kits at these at good prices, but not all followed me home. I left the Jo-Han Mopar stuff behind as I'm not a Mopar guy. General swap meets are another good source. I tend to go to the swaps catering more towards antiques as I collect Ford Memorabilia also. I've seen vintage built-ups for as little as $5 but then again I don't buy everything I see. Stating the obvious, I've gotten some great deals on vintage built ups at model swaps/shows. Thankfully not everyone is into the same thing so you can score big if you're timing is right. One man gathers what another man spills. To quote the Grateful Dead "You just gotta poke around"

I always thought this was a well done commercial. That same year I bought a J30- couldn't afford a new one so I bought one that was hit hard in the rear and put another rear clip on it. My first foray into collision work. 1997! It doesn't seem that long ago. LOL

That's interesting and does make sense. Back when I ran the roads Flying J was my preferred stop. Love's wasn't really a thing back then. Now that Pilot & Flying J merged & took out the restaurants, I seldom stop there. Flying J never sold kits, but they had good coffee and plenty of parking.

Best I recall they were full retail. Next time I'm out towards the local Love's I'll pop in & see if they have them too.

It takes very little to convert an ICM kit to a stateside Model A, I doubt most people would know the difference. I've been messing with Model A's for 40 yrs and have restored a few dozen for customers so what stands out to me might not to the average person. The kits certainly have a lot going for them, I hope they continue to add body styles. Given their location this is probably easier said than done.

The fenders are the same between American & Russian Fords as they were stamped from the same dies. The running boards aren't correct for a passenger car but this is easily fixed.

Pretty much. That's why the radiator shell is twice as thick as the old Monogram or Revell Kits. Gaz A's used the 4 row AA truck radiator & rad shell. Passenger cars were 3 row and the rad shells don't interchange between the two. If they retool the fenders they can do a lot more with this kit. As it stands now, the only other body styles that the rear fenders interchange with is all Sedans, Victoria & A-400.

Big Lots and Party City LOL. I was in my local Ollie's yesterday and they didn't have anything. It was pretty well cleaned out I reckon thanks to Christmas.

The manager has no say in what's carried. Their business model doesn't work like that. If they haven't done any deals for kits, they can't sell what they don't have. Ollie's is a clearinghouse for inventory that has either been bought from defunct businesses or special deals like the Round 2 stuff that was common the past few years.

That museum & the entire Gilmore complex are on my list to visit next year. They're in the middle of an expansion which will allow more cars to be display. I've got some duplicates of original Model A Literature that I'm considering donating.

Since I had this laying on my desk already, thought I'd post the color schemes available for the 1930-31 Standard Phaeton for those interested. The Standards is a thick compendium that tells you anything you want to know about Model A & AA's.

ICM released their 2025 catalog and it has 2 new versions of this tremendous kit. The GAZ in German service kit looks like it will allow you to build a stock Russian GAZ A Phaeton. Ford sent multitudes of Model A tooling to Russia in the 30's & rumor has it that a lot of it is still in existence. I already have 8 kits of the original version and will probably be buying 3-4 of these new kits. Without a doubt the best Model A kit on the market despite a couple of shortcomings- commercial running boards, the truck 4 speed transmission and the interior side of the gas tank has the stamping as concave instead of convex, but this is easily fixed. This proved my suspicion that ICM documented a GAZ instead of a regular Model A Ford when they tooled up this kit. Note the GAZ A used the AA truck radiator & rad shell. The headlights buckets should be painted black too as they were carbon steel like used on commercial vehicles opposed to Rustless Steel used on passenger cars. The GAZ pic I posted is pretty close to a stock GAZ with the exception they used black artificial leather on the interior. The top isn't cut like an original but they were black originally.

They sure have the dream license out on the price for that '32.

I stopped at a Love's Truck Stop for a double round of gas. (Gas for the car and a sammich from Arby's) While waiting for the fuel desk line to die down I wandered around the store a bit. In one of the little glass cases next to some CB's were two AMT kits- the Bulldozer and 359 Pete. Didn't get a pic as I left my phone in the car. I thought that pretty unusual and was certainly not expecting to see kits for sale in a truck stop. Then again Love's sells all kinds of random stuff as they had knight armor & swords for sale years back.

Looks like y'all better bring a jacket in addition to an empty bag for the sale! I'm looking forward to this show.

The two walmarts by me never have any kits, but if they did it's a good chance I already have it or don't want it. LOL I'm really surprised Ollie's didn't have any kits for the Christmas season. I never even saw any of the Atlantis stuff in my local Ollie's aside from the few kits that have been growing roots.

What year are you looking for? 1932 used 18" wheels 1933 & 1934 used 17" wheels. These are the only decent '32 wheels I know of. I've got a few sets and they look good. They also carry the '33-34 style. https://www.3dscaleparts.com/product-page/1-25-stock-32-ford-18-wire-wheel-on-skinny-white-walls

I parted out a rough as a cob '56 Merc Montclair that had the automatic chassis lubricator on it. You hit a button on the dash & it shot grease into the suspension from a central point where a can of grease was screwed into a manifold. I sold that setup in the primitive days of ebay for what I thought was an ungodly amount. While not quite related to the car, Ford sold Charcoal & small Charcoal grills. I've been looking for one of these for my collection for a while! I have the brochure, but not the box of charcoal or grill. Ford also sold Portland Cement, Fertilizer, Potassium Nitrate, all available at your local Ford dealer's Parts Counter.