Wickersham Humble
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Posts posted by Wickersham Humble
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I was a kindergarten teacher for about 30 years, and also an author, USFS Crew Boss (in the '60s), trucker, soldier 1969-70, played bass in a band, built a couple of houses, and restored/resto-modded about 20 complete 1/1 cars, among other things! Still prefer bodywork/paint, but can fabricate, etc. Only 80 now; and if no one else is impressed, I am! Have a 1971 240Z, 1951 Ford Crestliner, 1961 Pontiac Tempest with stock Buick 215 V-8 (pretty rare!), and finishing Dad's '51 Chevy as a resto-mod for my son. The Z is for sale, less than 500 miles on complete rebuild, mechanical and body/interior, and never driven through a puddle yet!
My book is HOW TO RESTORE YOUR DATSUN Z-CAR, (CA Bill's Automotive Handbooks/CarTech, revised edition just out, but in print since 1990. I restored my one-owner 1970 240Z, and later had NISSAN USA buy it back. Have eight fiction books on Kindle, more coming: nostalgia/historical fiction about growing up in a small Western town in the mid-20th century called the A Place On Mars Series, and a long one in two parts about a pioneer aviator and his misadventures from 1905 until 1946, Bird of Ill Omen/Bird of New Hope.
I really need to get busy; in the 'red zone' of life now! Thanks wife of 55 years, for letting me live through all that!
Wick Humble Chico CA
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Lei, thank you; I'll get on it. The rims were FB Marketplace finds, I think; look much like 19' ARE five-spokers to old me.
Wick
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My daughter is putting Mustang 5-spokers (Cobra logo center cap) on her '57 Ford 'shorty' business coupe restomod, and I'm making a kit of it for a surprise*. Already found a pal who will supply a 5.0 V-8 to make it realistic, and need some rims like described; think they from approximately '09 Mustang. I have a lot of very old misc stuff to trade, or whatever works.
*I'm also doing the body/paint on it, and am making progress -- at age 80! The new thing: battleship gray, but maybe pinstriped? My wife of 55 years has finished the seat upholstery, and working on visors, etc. with her walking-foot Singer. The kids are learning this stuff, as they'll inherit all the tools, eveuntally. Thanks!!
Wick
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Jason,
I've been away from the forums for a while; tell me, are we on for the Ford 5.0 in question? I don't even recall if you got my address:
3191 Coronado Rd. Chico, CA 95973
I haven't found the Buick parts yet, but am sure I have them! Any other needs from the oldest stash? Wick
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Good show; nice 'road trip' format! Similar, remember 'Then Came Bronson' or something like, about a young lone-wolf biker (on a Hog, natch) trying to find Americas? Fighting forest fires every summer, and trying to finish my BA, I didn't have much time to watch that era's shows, but wouldn't such a program be interesting now? OC, after 'Easy Rider'... !
Anyone remember 'Straightway' about hot-rodders in the late 'fifties? Neat cars, but got cancelled, I guess. In HS, we were impressed, anyway! Still, one of the premier shows, popular and long-running, was 'Perry Mason'! Gosh besides the elite Caddie ragtops, Linclons, T-Birds and Sting-Rays, there were myriads of '55-58 Chevies, including a '55 Nomad that showed regularly. '57 Fords, Perry's gorgeous flip-top, and '60 Ford ragtop, occasional Edsel, matching '58 Bonnevilles, and much later a Moostang (and Perry's JFK Lincoln) that get stripped by a nefarious LA gang! And an endearing '55 210/Delray or two, absolutely stock and so much eye-candy for one who had one in '61! Website about 'The Cars of Perry Mason' somewhere on web.
Sooo, how about some photos of more TV Series model replicas? A Wick-Walk Challenge! Very Old Wick (80)
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Noel; think that's why that Billy Gray told me his Model A tub on FKB was flamed in gray; studio didn't need any hassle with colors for B&W! Only show that possibly didn't suffer much from B&W cars was Broderick Crawford's 'Highway Patrol.' Loved those old Buick and Dodges, and learning to say '10-4' on the 2-way radio. MAD Magazine did a whole Mort Drucker feature on 'HP' and Crawfords mumbling radio-call codes in the day! I had the Revell (1/20th?) kit of the '56 Buick ragtop ( I think) but tried to 'kustomize' it at age eleven. Multi-piece body build up; too many parts and too much Duco Cement! I still have some of that decal set, tho. Wick
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Tim: Lancers and Valiants with Exner's 'European' styling: but beware Moostangers; he had the modern long-hood/short deck look nailed before Ford's guys co-opted it. '62 Ply/Dodge also. Didn't last long when Engel replaced him. In 1960, I used my meagre earnings from pumping gas at the local airport on weekends to buy car mags as well as 3-in-1 kits, and fell in love with his Plymouth XNR sports car; wish I could have found a kit of that to 'kustomize' back then. Very meagre areo, compromised for 'The Forward Look', but rakish and very dramatic in red! If I found a g-b for sale that was salvageable, I'd buy it -- except for all the dozen 65-year-old kits from my misspent teen years I'm still trying to finish up! Wick, at 80...
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Trad automotive lacquer, up until discontinued in the mid-90s by the majors, was shipped 'double-thick' oc, because to spray it it had to be cut 50-50 with lacquer thinner to be a paintable consistency. Two gallons for the price of one! Sorta. Of course, lacquer of any type was meant to be applied in numerous coats, with block-sanding between every third coat, say; until the thickness was built up sufficiently. Lacquer dries in 10-15 minutes in a proper coat thickness, but the droplets inevitably form an unwanted texture that has to be levelled. Lacquer also demanded a proper substrate; some kind of primer-sealer, even in the pre-war days.
Then one often applied (tho not mandatory) a half-dozen coats of clear lacquer -- sometimes with colored toner added, for more pop -- that were sanded, but very carefully, as the last go-round had to support the eventual gloss! We've all read about old skool lacquer jobs being thirty coats, cleared, and 'cut and buffed' to show perfection. Simply amazing, but time consuming, complex, and expensive!! No reason a wooden object can't have that process. Lacquer, it is said, originally came from the Far East, a product of excretions of the 'lac bug', and was used on wood and other craft surfaces: 'Japanese lacquer bowls', etc.
Besides doing our '51 Chevy in PPG lacquer, I keep a quart or so of Dupli-color black around to do quick jobs, like some dash-board parts, or whatever, especially where it doesn't have to have lots of strength v.s chips, ets. It' dries before I get the gun cleaned! However, that being said, if it were my bass body, I'd get a good, catalyzed acrylic-urethane black basecoat and proper clear-coat material, and get it done in two steps, about three coats each, and the left-overs will do a lot of model kits. Bass bodies sometimes take an awful beating -- some saloons are worse than others!
BTW, I've entered a number of kits in IPMS shows, and objectively think that dark and subdued colors just 'disappear' on the display tables; but some kits demand the color, like my recent '61 Lincoln Sports Roadster with POTUS stickers, siren and red lights in the grille (from a Styline kit I bought in high school) that wouldn't look like the "Hyannis Port Hot-Rod" that I intended -- for JFK! Be patient, I'll eventually finish 'em!
Wick
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Green Acres: a classic, but also because it was an inverted reality! The only 'sane' character was Oliver Wendell Douglas, a real WASP and conservative, but everyone else is crazy! And when that happens, it means 'you're the crazy one' in literature! Society, upside down! Think that was it's 'hook' even today! Closest thing was perhaps Rocky and Bullwinkle... ? Wick
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Mark, I think there are still a number of lacquer-type wood finishes on the shelves; Deft comes to mind. EX to work with on wood, and meant to be waxed for final finish.
DJ, this was over half a century ago, and sorry the thing wasn't exactly Gretsch Country Gentleman level; it had a hilarious scratch plate which I removed (I never used a pick on bass anyway) and though reliable, it was not highly finished, etc. It had a crazy resonance from the flat face and back panels, which only went away when I stuffed the 'box' with scraps of foam rubber to make it simulate a solid body. I pushed two scraps of Naugahyde inside the f-holes and laboriously arranged them over the foam stuffing to keep the dark, shadowy effect of the two openings; thought I was pretty smart at age 20! Model-making leaves one cocky, I guess. But, that Kay worked me to death; nothing subtle about it's play!
In 1969, I bought a used Hagstrom 3/4, solid body that played like lightning, but had lousy electronics. It had a unique transparent face plate of lucite where all the pickups and pots lived, and inletted wood behind, which was covered with vinyl upholstery material, in orchid color. While trying to upgrade the electronics, I replaced the vinyl with more hide-of-Nauga, carefully heated and adhered with contact cement, as original, and painted the plastic face Cal Custon 'Wrinkle Black', like a lot of Harleys were wearing at that time. Sold it, like the Kay, to a C&W bassist.
In '71, I got the bass I still use occasionally: a Hofner 'Committee' Model, very Western (Western Germany, maybe?) in style with lots of mother-of-pearl inlays, and birdseye back with very fancy inlaid binding -- and the famous cantilever neck. The head isn't like McCartney's 500-1 violin-body axe, but the neck is very similar (same age, too, c. 1961-62) and it has a large guitar body with one cutaway, and a crystal scratch plate with 'Hofner' embossed on the obverse. This was broken when I acquired it from an Air Force lifer just back from der Vaterland for $100.00 -- no case, came all the way home wrapped in an Army blanket, thus the damage. It plays very well, and looks pretty much how the Kay wanted to look, I guess; arched front and back, and bound f-holes, etc. An Asian knock-off 500-1 we bought my son 20 years ago is not a bad bass, and makes even my 80-year-old digits still workable, so I borrow it on rare occasions when the old band gets together. I omitted the cantilever neck, though -- without much loss. OC, I venerate Paul for 'setting the rock bass free' from rhythm roles alone, and into counter-melody. Loved the experience when we learned almost every Beatle song up to 'Revolver' and 'Rubber Soul' -- had to be more specific after they started going nuts in the studio!
Thanks for dragging up my 'base emotions' and memories, guys! Wick of 'The humble brothers' band.
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There, fixed that! W.
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Nitrocellulose lacquers 'dried up' decades ago, replaced by acrylic lacquers -- which are about gone nowadays! I've been painting 1/1 cars since the late 'sixties (shadetree only) and car models since the early 'sixties -- and worked my retirement in a PPF paint store. DuPont introduced the n-c lacs as "Duco" finishes back in the early thirties, as I recall, and it took over at GM; Ford, Chrysler, etc. largely went forward with enamel-type paints, but all gun-sprayed. Lacquers hung on for aircraft finishes on fabric, called 'dope', for a lot longer. Duplicolor was selling lacquers as late as five years ago (Pep Boys, and probably Summit also) that was sold in quarts thinned and 'ready to spray.' It was perfectly serviceable paint, but with the typical lac disadvantages like requiring many coats, brittleness, some fragility and vulnerability to UV rays. It is beautiful on a 1/1 car, done right, but has a distinctive look, for sure. Well 'cut and buffed' lac looks miles deep; so cool!
We tend to compare all finishes with the modern acrylic urethanes, either catalyzed or not, or more significantly, clear-coated or not. Art guys (such as myself) can lecture you about the dual-reflectability of base/clear coat finishes and it's being the motivation for automakers almost exclusive use of such. As anyone knows, clear-coats are almost as vulnerable to sun damage as lacquers; witness the big gray patches on old base/clear colors, even factory applied. Lac has it's own look, but must be well-cared for. I did my son's '51 Chevy resto-mod in the original color (green poly eg, metallic) as original with PPG Duracryl I sourced in 1993 for that purpose, as it was Dad's old ride we'd discovered 'in the wild' and rescued. I have about one quart of lacquer for future touch-up, and he'd better take good care of it! I did a resin 2-dr Styline body for him to mimic it, but clear-coated it because the lacaquer didn't really 'pop' on such a small object.
The danger of lacquer of any kind is the thinner; it's terribly 'hot' and can work as paint stripper in worst case scenarios. As noted, the real crux is the substrate; a correct primer-sealer is required, and sanded to at least a 400# smoothness, as lac won't cover flaws or sand-scratches at all -- makes them stand out, if anything. Polystyrene usually is only a bit resistant to hot solvents, so beware, and test. I use real 2K primer-sealer, fairly thin to preserve details (except on 'lead sled' type customs) but very judiciously, and then wet-sanded, oc. Lacquer over old finishes is a krap-shoot, and you usually lose those!
Modern acrylic-urethanes, cleared or not, work well with styrene kits, but the plastic should be sealed. I no longer trust rat-can materials, and oc have a huge stock of Deltron-like paints that were returns or mis-matched from the PPG shop where I worked, and that's what I rely on. OC, I test them each, first! PPF 660 Clear works fine on kits (catalyzed) and literally never yellows, like the old enamel clears. Other brands also, I suspect. Judges get testy about thick clear coats, and by the second go-round, it begins to be obvious, if that worries us.
I painted my first bass in 1965, a Supro 3/4 scale solid body I bought disassembled from the local band, 'The Cool Ones' with rat-can black, and after sanding it down (and then off) three times, gave up and passed (now a collector's item) to another sucker, buying a homely Kay that was reliable, at least. But that's another tale...
Don't be shy about asking your local auto paint jobber for the mis-mix colors; usually they're less than half price, and often free -- and the colors!!! Ole' Wick
Site made me change to 'krap' from 'c--p'. The latter comes from, supposedly, Arcadians playing dice and yelling 'Jean Crapaud' to help the odds. Sir Thomas Crapper, GB, apparently invented the flush toilet -- but you knew all that!?
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Mike, thx! What are your needs for a swap? My stuff is mostly early 'sixties, but ask...
Wick
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I'm old (yep, still!) and those Kurtis roadsters take me back to my kidhood in the early 'fifties. No, didn't have those models, but lots of d/c toys that resembled them, including as I recall, the Maserati Indy winner from prewar. To my small mind, they were the essence of cool and race -- and insane bravery, too! There are a few good open-wheel racing movies still out there, but not enough!!
I have the remains of a very similar Mono roadster, but it had sat in direct sun, and ruined all the wheels/tires (damn!) and the hood. To salvage it, I morphed it into a Bonneville Special with twin Cad V-16 engines on a brass frame, but using the Cad wire wheels and tires. I tried to find some real scale-size Firestone Speed Sport style tires, but everything seems small on a 1/24 based kit. I have my original-purchase Strombecker Scarab 1/24 (also a car that could have been battery powered) that I hope to build into a reasonable scale model -- after saving it so long! -- but I've lost the kit rubber tall-profile tires, and one of the excellent Halibrands has a broken outer rim. I tried resin copying (using surface casting; I'm a novice) with unacceptable results. I have one Comet 'Fireball' (?) or maybe 'Panther' racer rubber tire and slot-type rim in my junk box... Gees, what could I have done with those cars?? Knowing I was getting caught in the draft in '68, I packed all my car kits, built and unbuilt, in a big carton, and stored them in the attic, but somehow someone set something heavy on it, and broke a lot of them. OC, I let my younger bros destroy all the ships, tanks, and a/c with fireworks, so... Wick
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Very pretty; impressive factory hot-rod! I first imaged on the Comet 1 of my youth; the cursed airliner that was also beautiful! I hadn't built an a/c kit since the late 'fifties, and bec the IPMS shows are so a/c loaded, decided to try my hand again. Two Brewster Bullaloes, one RAF SEAsia (doomed, of course, vs. Zero!) and one an interpretation of the unbuilt Buff racer from 1938. Then I did the two conversions from prop-pusher to jet: Kyushu Shinden and Curtiss Ascender; both swept-wing fighters evolving in parallel by Japan and US. I made them into a diorama, just to make things extra-complicated (&/or complex) but I'm almost eighty, and a lot of tech and goodies have passed me by since 1958; the IPMS a/c builders aren't assailable, I find! But it was fun, and when I get it repaired (accident in packing box coming home in the Camry's trunk -- vibration, I guess) and the landing gear axles repaired, I'll take some pics and post them. I can't see so well, nor hang on to small parts -- even with a loup and tweezers, man -- and it's not perfect. However, I put in some historical kinks that made it interesting. However, I think I'm really done with a/c for the above reasons and more: the tiny, fiddley parts -- especially those cockpits, even with PE stuff! -- defeat me. And a/c judges look for open cockpits, too. Kustom Kars and drag machines continue to be my comfort zone; also 'thirties phantom cars like dual Cad V-16 Bonneville racers and Harry Miller street roadsters! Wick
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Glen, my dad was a depression-kid, dust-bowl in W KS, and when his dad was killed in a construction accident when he was 14, he inherited most of his responsibilities and the family 1914 Model T touring. When I was a kid, he'd just gone from Principal in his old (tiny) high school in KS to Asst Co Supt in N CA, and didn't have enough time for a car (and airplane) famished kid, but decided that we'd hunt up a T Ford to restore together! Well, sadly, he passed away (coronary*) when I was 12, and we never got to do that experience, but I was set upon the 'right road' toward being a hot rod/sports car guy, and enthusiastic modeler! I don't know why I didn't inspire my kids or grandkids to do modeling (my son says it was because 'they could never do it as well as Grandpa' which is sad!) but I have a nephew who does fantastic models (cars, truck, even RR) and I'll leave my stash to him, I guess!
I like your upbeat comments; good on yer! Good choice of kits, too! Wick, almost 80, retired Kinder teacher, Vet, lunatic...
*Dad was drafted in WWII at age 29, a HS English teacher, and fought as a T-7 (SFC, now) in the Battle of Okinawa; he started smoking Luckies then, and 13 years later they made him a belated casualty. I'm thankful I had a Dad like him until seventh grade, anyhow, but have sure missed him for many, many years!
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Those Trophy Kits were a treat! I learned some car stuff along the way, too, as there were no (well, one)* street rods in our little N CA burg! I still have all my Trophy kits, and some not even built yet from 1960; mostly '40 Fords. Long before I had a motor tool, I was trying to sand the dumb exhaust manifolds from the flathead blocks so I could cobble together some kind of headers -- or scrape them away with Pal Injector single-edged blades! Carving that old skool styrene was like working in ivory; it was so thick! Very forgiving for a 14-year-old using Duro Plastic Aluminum for filler! After 1960, my model stash competed with my saving for a 1/1 car, which I got at the first of school my Junior year: '55 Chevy Delray 2-door 'post' with all the goodies, including red wheels/big moons and lakes pipes! On about $50 per month, I paid a $26 dollar loan payment, gas (at 32-cents a gallon), insurance and registration, numerous u-joints (!), and model kits. Oh, and some corsages when absolutely necessary...
*My wife's cousin (married in '72) had a '34 Ford coupe (rear fenders, but cobbled cycle-fenders in front) and what he endlessly touted as a very healthy flatmotor: 'It'll blow the doors off that Chevy, soon as I get it tuned up right!" It usually wasn't running, which made tuning academic, I thought. And the Chevy, which could cut a quarter in about 16-seconds at 88-mph, would have had it for breakfast, in reality! Our country was so cold that old skool street rods just weren't popular -- or practical. Wick
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If anyone has and can spare the stock hood, grilles, head-lites and front/rear bumpers for the AMT '65 'Grand Slam' Pontiac kit, I could put them to good use saving this unbuilt kit. Availabe are some of the 'custom' parts, or other thing to swap. Thank you! Wick
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Bill, Tim, et al, I hope you sourced an unbuilt example of your first kit, and exorcised your demons with an accomplished build! I did two multi-piece kits in the 'nineties from the past, both Revell: the '60 Corvette kit (two, actually), and the '57 Ranchero (with the '59 front bumper, no less!) and both were still aggravating inasmuch as the interiors were molded integral with the body center section, etc. The AMT '59 ragtop kit got renovated before I presented (back) to my brother, but all I have of the '60 Edsel is the chrome tail-lites, somehow. Did anybody ever make the Hubley '60 Corvair sedan kits that could be ordered with fifty-cents and a cereal box-top? Found an instruction sheet the other day! They weren't at all bad, and I bought four of them before I was exhausted by the U.S.-V.W., and got the AMT Monza coupe version. Still have some headlights from them in my junk drawers. But, what happened to the models I have no recollection. Four-doors don't feature much in my 'collection' since then!
This proves I can write a short comment, huh? Once upon a time, I got paid 'by the word' for car articles... Wick
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The 1/24 Mono kits were great; i didn't have the Black Widow, because it seemed to similar to the Green Hornet kit, but had Sizler, Model A Phaeton, and several other -- not Long John or Slingshot, the latter I bought at the IPMS Dragonlady show last year, and built finally. The Mono instruction sheets were good, one exploded drawing and the rest photos. Those big tires were great, mostly natural rubber, right? My Strombecker Scarab is 1/24, and had similar meats; now lost. I have one from the Comet Panther kit, with slot rim --why only one who knows?
I tried the Outlaw, along with the Orange Crate, and while Revell got the fine detail very nicely, they were so fiddley and fragile -- and I was always in too much of a hurry! Wish we'd had CA glue with accelerator back then! Though, I suppose I would have gone to school with multiple fingers glued tightly together! Wick
Have some Bandit and Ala Kart bits left, if anyone needs them; not the little Dodge hemi, tho!
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I stand newly-informed! I recall the movie "Iron Giant" where the kid hero, Hogarth Hughes (?) was fantasizing about being a soldier and the artists gave him a Desert Storm, etc., style helmet; not appropriate for the mid-fifties --my kid era. Thx for the correction! Very nice model; and not a bad subject! Wick
SP/ Did you google the poster that came out a few years ago with MM standing next to an F-84 on that tour?
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Figures like this deter me from even trying them! Q: if MM was wearing combat boots in that year, wouldn't they have been black? Army never saw those sand-colored suede-looking boots until at least the late 'seventies, or I don't think so. Most of the grunts in 'Nam eventually got the looser tropical fatigues and OD/black jungle boots with the steel instep and nylon fabric panels, but I don't think they ever were issued camo uniforms, unless it was the Green Beanies, or maybe right at the bitter end. That's an outstanding figurine, by any standards. Wick
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I built my first model kit in 1953 (yep, 'fifty-three) and it was an Aurora 'Famous Fighters' Curtis P-40 Warhawk. That's when I met Duco Cement, much to the despair of a lot of styrene! Followed quickly by the Spitfire, Me.109 and Zero kits from that source. I imagine I specialized in glue-fingerprints on clear canopy plastic! I built kits from ITC, Palmer, Hawk, Revell, Renwal, and other sources, and slowly improved. Testors and Pactra paints, and one set of Aurora colors which brushed nicely.
But, I left all that for car kits when I got my first 3-in-1 promo-based 1/25 scale auto in 1958. Actually, I'd struggled with two Revell kits, the '56 Ford and Buick, but the curse they carried was the multi-piece bodies; the AMT/SMP kits avoided that hurdle; it was harder to mess them up! First AMT kits were '59 Ford ragtop (which my bro still has; artfully 'kustomized' and a '60 Edsel ditto, which I had so much fun modifying that it basically 'died under the knife'. I was saving for a 1/1 car, but kits (at $1.39) kept eating into my bank account. In 1961, I discovered Auto World, and ordered batch of 1960 kits because they were reasonable and I could get hard-top bodies, which the local 'five & dime' stores never carried: '60 Chevy, Ford, Pontiac, and T-Bird. The Poncho is the only one that survived, as I got Dave Shuklis' instructions for converting the Birdy into a Ranchero, which I botched sawing the deck away with a hack-saw blade! I still have the dasboard, front and rear bumpers, etc., if anyone needs them desperately.
Our '88-Cent Store' always sold JoHan 'curbside' kits for their advertised price, mostly MoPars, of which I still have three, OC with opening hoods and engines, now. Also, Revell ut out a lot of MoPars in '62, which I bought and gave to my younger sibs as Xmas presents -- I'm soooo generous: offering to do the builds for free; my sisters probably loved that! Two of those I still retain, rebuilt with better engines, the box mills being 'way to small for B-blocks! I tried to build the Revell '56 F100 truck, but the body warping feature of that era almost won the match; still have it, in parts. Lots more Pontiacs, because I really like them. Vettes too.
Of course, I bought the Monogram 1/24 race-car kits, which were really fun; I took the 'Sizzler' kit apart so many times it finally succumbed, but still have components! And all the 'hot rod' and dragster kits from AMT: Double-Dragster, etc, plus all the old Ford numbers: '27 T, Deuce coupe and roadster, '36 coupe, all the '40 permutations (some still in-progress!) and more. I thought I was brilliant when I experimented with not painting the '32 Coupe, built as a full-fendered hemi-rod, and used a liquid shoe-polish that I had (for my black penny-loafers, de riguer wear for young bucks in the pre-hippie 'sixties (check out Wally Cleaver and Bud Anderson on TV) which is still holding up!
What was your first build? And which one is more ancient than my McCarthy/Korean War-era attempt?
I'll post a pic of our Cub Scout Den with a diorama of oil exploration that was supplied by Standard Oil about 1955 soon as I find it. Mom was the Den Mother, and we five nerds look very proud. Wick Humble
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I'm not only building three of the kits (on a resin of our two-door sedan) but am finishing >ta-da< our '51 Styline 1/1 for my son; was grandpa's car. Lost from 1957 to 1980, we located and bought it back; finally got it's complete restoration, or should I say 'restomod'. 350, 5-speed, 4-wheel discs, all the stuff; plus down to metal refinish with PPB Duracryl Lacquer that I bought in 1993! I gave up on finding a Mustang II front suspension; faked it on the sedan kit, which is near completion; likewise a T-5 trans, etc.
You, of course, are right about the cowl/hood interface, and even the shape of the windshield; looks wonky, compared to the 1/1 real deal. I used the '51 BelAir hardtop body that sacrificed it's running gear for the sedan to make a 'Drag Week' street freak, with Arias BBC-hemi, etc. I'll post photos of all eventually! Wick
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A diorama from the past; 1955 and Cub Scouts
in Dioramas
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This is a 'kit diorama' supplied by Standard Oil for our Cub Scout Den; mom Ida Grace Humble was the job forewoman! I'm the geek on the right, top row. Why is the F4U bombing the site? The Cessna I was building went GB on me (age ten) and mom insisted that some survey aircraft be depicted, per the instructions, so it was available.
Were those the days?
Wicky, seventy years later... L to R: accountant, Forest Ranger, hippie, teacher, and Secret Service Agent (at Reagan's near-assignation) later. Mom teacher, also.