Wickersham Humble

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

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!

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?

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

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

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

I liked the one-off Harry Miller V-8 roadster in "Charley Chan Goes to London' (1936?) because the incredible car was later destroyed, and it was equal to any Bugatti or Rolls -- only faster! The Miller books say it was a very loud car, and in the movie scene, the engine is noisy! "I got one-hundred-twenty out of her" was a line that Ray Milland delivers, and that bomb was probably good for more. It was apparently a studio car, when it turned out so rasty that the original financier/customer rejected it, and eventually was modified in some silly way (Eddie Paul's grandpa, probably) and later junked! I'm making two 'Miller roadsters' from R-R and Cad kits, neither are really this one because I'm doing V-12's, one from the old HAWK M-B G.P. car engine, and another from a resin-copy pulled from it. Also, a 'NOVI-1953 Studebaker V-12 coupe with full belly-pan, fastback, etc. Love those DOHC V-12's! Wick

Pretty sure I have the portholes; I was hoping to find one stick so I could make eight, four per, ala Roadmaster! Let me look in the box! Wick

Jason; Well, that could happen... let me make sure I have a pair.. In '62, I was a mad Kustomizer, and tried to put Revell '56 Ford tail-lites on the body, but later realized how off the wall that was, and went back to stock. Send my your address, and if I can I will. Mine is 3191 Coronado Rd., Chico, CA 95973 Wick Humble

That's the one, if you can spare it! Paradoxically, I do have those lights, but they're for a Buick I began in '62, and am now finishing as a nail-head powered 2-door sedan delivery. Anything else? Wick

Thanks! I'm not very familiar with that particular engine, but it has a longish scroll-like intake (silver aluminum) that rises over the intake manifold. Not vital, oc, but be nice to have if available. Let me know what trade stuff you might be looking for, tho. Wick

Pete; yeah, and there is very little cure to that tonneau cover thing; I couldn't get much with styrene sheet, not using heat, etc. Sure was a disappointment when it occurred; took it to show anyway just as historical curiousity. I have a stash shoe-box of my old, old Mono rods kit bits, and along with some Evergreen rectangular tube frame, it is just an almalgam of those parts. Like I say, the Torq-Thrusts from the Sizzler kit were not introduced, they say, until 1963, so would be a bit newish for that style roadster comp car; crazy straight exhaust stacks, etc. Oh well... Wick

Pat Buttram as the horrible, surreal con-man, Mr. Haney! That was a pretty good show, and often very off-beat, to the point of theater of the absurd level. I mean, when Oliver Wendell Douglas was the only sane character... they say that if you're the only sane one, and the rest of the world is crazy, it means you're the nut!! I think Buttram was on some Roy Rogers movies, or his radio show to which I listened faithfully (sponsored by Dodge Royal Lancer, source of some very steal-able hub-caps!) but he also had a character named Pat Brady, who drove the famous Jeep 'Nellybelle' which had a plywood windshield. Petticoat Junction, and ?? Mrs. Ziffel, Barbara Pepper, was originally a Goldwyn Girl (where she became friends with Lucille Ball) and a reasonable facimile of Jean Harlow in her prime -- which was obviously long before Green Acres. Wikipedia says health problems forced her to leave before the show expired, and she died in 1969. I always assumed that the teen actress Cynthia Pepper was her daughter, but not so. I began to lose interest in GA when they featured the cute piglet Arnold too much! Wick

Billy Gray on Father Knows Best had two rides, one the Model A tub with the 'genuine wool carpet uphostery; wears like iron, Dad!' and later a (I think) '48 Ford ragtop. In one episode, he falls for a local rich gal (who has a heart of gold, as it turns out!) with a black Jaguar 120 (or 150?) roadster. The A-bone was 'hand painted' with flames, which I am still going to try to emulate (c. 2025 -- long term project!) but I cut out some 'Persian' rugs from an old Architectural Digest' mag for the seats; white glue and paper towel backing, etc. Here's Lumpy's 'forty and axle. My son was five years old when we watched a re-run of that show, and I thought we'd have to give him CPR, he laughed so hard and long! OC, that (or the later 'American Graffiti' chain scene) would break a driver's neck, like as not! Wick

My daughter (and here 'get'r done' hubby, Thane) are building up a '57 Ford business coupe for her, and have swapped in a Ford 5.0 eight and A/T from a possibly a Mustang/Cougar with the distinctive fuel injection ram manifold that arches over the valve covers, etc. I have a couple of the kits, and since the final bodywork and paint* are going to be done by old me, want to build a replica for as a surprise gift. If anyone knows the engine I mean (not photos) and can spare an example, I have a lot of VERY OLD parts to swap?! Thanks very much! Wick *It's a new era: they are doing it in Summit 'Battleship Gray', like their Toyota 4x4 in the new color fads! Easy to shoot, anyhow!

Forgot to mention, tho everyone probably knows this: apparently, she was an employee at a company owned by Brit actor Reginald Denny which (as I recall) was begun by his father, an early expert in R/C model airplanes. Brought to LA area to work for US aircraft suppliers, and eventually the technology integrated into target drones -- like the Culver Cadet, etc. -- but that's just what I gleaned... The studio shot, dark hair and all, was done posing with a wooden prop, probably from on of those McCulloch-opposed-4 target drones both Army/Navy used. I have a brand-new condition example that I bought in about 1955; for about eight bucks (long time to save with a fifteen-cent a week allowance; must've gotten a five-dollar birthday gift!?) out of the treasure-laden back pages of POP SCI or POP MECH mags. I have an ad from one in about '51 or so where you can buy low-timed Allison 1710-V-16's for around a grand each, right hand or left hand spin, FOB New Orleans LA. I'm trying to get a car buddy to donate a McCulloch 2-stroke bangers to our local Chico Air Museum; I'd detail it, and donate my nice prop for a display. My bro-in-law was a USN Aviation Machinists Mate in the late-sixties (eventually on the USS Hornet) and he was trained in servicing those drones. They were also featured in an article in 'National Geographic' magazine, on the CIvil Air Patrol, c. 1957 -- as I recall; still have it somewhere! Ole' Wick Always liked Reginald Denny: 'Algy' in Bulldog Drummond, later perfect in 'Cat Ballou"!

Neat work! I suppose you have the poster art of her posing with an F-84 in Korea? I have an uncredited photo from an article in Air Trails or some other monthly aviation pulp that shows Norma Jean posed 'bedding down' in a sleeper airliner. Still brunette, but undoubtedly her! Sorry they're rotated! Wick

Nope; the interior of the kit body suffered the same result, and it was vintage painted styrene; the hinged cover was just Evergreen flat stock! I'm trying to get up ambition (to divert time from current in-progress builds) to strip the foil and attempt a re-do. I hadn't realized how old the BMF was, I guess; it was the natural aluminum finish and because I had almost a full sheet, I suppose it seemed 'fresh'. Definitely gave the wrong look -- fooey! I did a rebuild of an ancient 'Double Dragster' frame and 'body' using model rail-road rivets under the BMF (same sheet) that turned out barely acceptable. It was the base Dragmaster chassis and two-piece enclosure from the 1962 (?) AMT kit -- which we kids welcomed with open arms; so many options (like the Sizzler kit). I put a blown flathead in it, whitewalls, etc. to resemble a late-'fifties rail, featuring of course the bare-aluminum look panels with rivet lines. It's expensive, but from that experience, I've kept BMF on hand that is dated/fresh; just in case age was the factor. I can always use out-of-date foil, I guess, for fancy masking. A couple of early 'sixties annuals on which I had to rebuild the roofs (damaged when I packed my collection in a big carton when I got my draft notice in 1967 (after becoming 1-A upon getting my B.A.!) and someone set a heavy object on it in our attic. Covering the cabin glass on the hardtops with BMF protected the elderly clear styrene from damage while I reconstructed the 'bubble-top' roof pillars with brass, epoxy and Bondo! I peeled it off successfully and believe I used isopropryl alcohol to polish any residual adhesive away, then Meguiar's plastic polish. (I think old fashioned finishing compound is just as good, however) and it seemed to work okay. I still have a backlog (at almost eighty) of ancient kits to build, and only have ventured a few resin repros. Thanks for the suggestion, though; 'and, it's a mystery. Think about it.' Back in the day, I knew the noticeable difference between 1/25 and 1/24, but never really noted the out-of-scale stuff as much as sixty-five years later. Things have improved so much in that time!! I usually don't put any figurines in my kits, but the driver figure in the re-pop "Slingshot" kit looked pretty natural for that era. I did a lot of massaging of the body parts to get a different look (a short-wheelbase digger has a 'different look' built in -- especially when the hemi is stacked with a 6-71 blower, U-fab multicarb manifold, etc.!) especially the driver's compartment coaming at the rear. I regret not being able to create my own decals (yet) and using a ultra-fine-point Sharpie pen to attempt the graphics. I do think that there was an important digger named 'Top Banana' back when. Thanks for the informed comments, Peteski! Wick

Pat W: My first car was almost a Morris Minor ragtop, black with white top, sitting in the bone-yard of the dealership (Pont/Buick/GMC) where I worked on and off. It had something wrong with the engine (probably some local tried to drive the Western highways like we did our US cars; fast and long, and fried the itty thing!) which we never figured out. I even priced a replacement in the JC Whitney catalog at about $125 plus shipping, but no guarantees -- so I filed it as a neat idea that fizzled, and kept looking. Now that I look back on 1961, I can see that I'd have taken a lot of razzing by my crowd for driving a Brit skate. Only our teachers ventured to drive V-W's in our rural N CA town, plus on 356 Porsche and a MGA. Oddly, only one or two pickup trucks were in the HS student parking lot, a '55 Chevy and natch, a '56 Ford F-100; cool in thier own way, but considered mostly work vehicles in a ranching/lumbering area, and not good rod material -- nor ideal for 'parking' at the submarine races. My eventual first, the jazzy '55 Chevy was far, far to well-known locally, and the fuzz could always spot it anywhere; they particularly didn't like the lakes pipes!! Wick

Here's my 'Sling Shot' and comparison to very old Model A tub rod. Tub BMF-aluninum was old, I guess, wrinkled badly after a few months! Turquoise candy is Testors or Pactra done in 1962 or so, rest of the kit is Mono parts box and etc. Blower is from AMT 1/25 kit; all sizes over the years!! If these don't load, don't be surprised... Wick

Bill, Yep; the first gen hemi (I can't bring myself to capitalize the 'h', because Chrysler didn't invent the design, by fifty years or so) made an enviable place for itself in competition history, unmatched by any other in it's day. Well, Mickey Thompson won the '63 Winternationals in a Pontiac 'hemi' that used some MoPar valve gear components, but... As a child of the 'fifties, it still amazes me how very few hemis of any family (Dodge, DeSoto, and Chizler) were actually seen in cars back then; the various Dodges were super-scarce (I worked in a Texaco station, and at the local Pontiac/Buick/GMC +Rambler dealer, back then), DeSoto's were becoming low-sellers leading to their demise in '61 powered by B-blocks, and in N CA Chryslers/Imperials weren't plentiful anyway. They were expensive to hop-up, nothing like a Chebbie at all, and besides were closed out by 1959 until the 2nd Gen came out in '64. Finding a hemi even in a junk-yard hulk was a notable event. One of my college roomies in '65 was a MoPar fanatic (he loved math, too!) and almost bought a '56 DeSoto 2-dr HT with (no kidding) a hemi and stick-shift! Almost; he found a cherry '59 Dodge at a better price -- the first guy I knew who ever ran radial tires, no less. Was sideswiped by a flat-bed trailer truck, but the truck lines repaired it. I was a A-block car, not fast at all, but rakish -- he loved it! We were given a Chrysler Industrial 354 in a swap with the local Ford dealer, but after investigating the cost of speed goodies for it, flipped it for a B-block 361. Cool valve covers, said 'Chrysler Industrial' stamped right in 'em! The little '54 Dodge was smooth as a turbine, and a great lugger for being only a skosh larger than a Chevy six! Still, I could build two 283's for the price of a hemi engine kit and machine work, so... I saved my Dodge Red Ram from the Ala Kart kit I bought in '62 (?) for years, as it was so unique; still have it in a Model A rod kit. Early hemis I still have were also gratefully accepted in the AMT Double Dragster kit, and the Buick Spl station wagon - the latter I'm just now finishing as a panel delivery two-door, with naturally a nailhead! (Boy, don't get me started!) Wick

But, the original 241 Red Ram hemi was smaller than the Chrysler/Imperial-DeSoto block, in 1/1. Drove a '54 with overdrive stick for a while, really nice mill! Ole' Wick

Pete; the other reason was decisive, my skills at almost eighty -- can't see, or use a one-hair brush well enough to do a credible job. And I know how critical I invariably am of figures in dioramas at shows... almost to the detriment of really enjoying the plane, tank, or car shown. As I 've often said: people who don't get old never have old people's problems! Wick

It's always a bit shocking (if that's apt) when major and trusted firms slip out-of-scale parts in, or like was reported in one the mags, use the molds for an SBC for a MoPar truck motor. (Of course, the old B-block looked a lot like a big Chevy, in fact!) I bought/built the Mono 'Sling Shot' dragster last year, supposedly at 1.24 (yes?) and posed it next to one of the Model A phaeton kits I made into a drag car sixty years ago -- so like eras -- and they are not comparable, to my eye. Is it true that some Mono kits were 1/20 scale? Funny: I wanted to but a GMC huffer under the six 97's on the dragster kit, and got one from my parts box that looks exactly right -- and it's AMT! I used the ARE five-spokers from the old Sizzler kit, and they're good to go. Don't notice that they are too recent ('63 intro) for a late-fifties digger! Being iffy scale is one reason I don't attempt to do figures for my kits, even the dioramas. Maybe I'll find someone who'll do some as a paid service (giving credit at shows. OC!) as nowadays I can't see well enough to do face detail, etc. Oh well... Wick

Pretty good tale! Old MoPars ran a long time; we came to CA in 1951 in our 'new' 1948 Plymouth two-door sedan, dark navy blue (looked like a big V-W, but cute) as Dad had bought it with his War Bond savings at about $1,700. I learned to drive in it, out on the old Devil's Garden USAAF emergency strip north of town, later an air tanker base, and then a Corrections Camp. When banished to KS in summer of '62 (my white Chevy up on blocks until August,) I worked on a ranch for my Uncle. As I fixed all the equipment of his that I broke, he offered my their old 1946 Dodge 4-door sedan for free to drive back home. I was jazzed until I found out they'd parked it in favor of a '56 Plymouth because the casting on the steering-column three-speed linkage had cracked away; pot metal that couldn't be welded. I wasn't making much money, and ended up spending quite a bit of it for a ride home on the 'Hound (Greyhound Bus Lines), what with meals and all. The Dodge was only 15 years old, and might have made it, even over the Rockies; we drive cars 50-60 years old now and think little of it! Repeat with me: "I wish I had that Chevy back!" Can't afford one anymore! Had over twenty, over the years... Lots of my HS friends drove flathead-6 MoPars, and were happy enough. We have Dad's old '51 Chevy now, found in a town of 100 folks thirty years after he sold it, but it's my sons, and restomodded (injected 350, 5-speed, discs, PS, and all the other good stuff, though it looks almost stock except for ARE Torq-Thrust mags and radials. The old 216 and little drum brakes really are inadequate for modern driving. My '51 Ford is strong enough to keep up, but the stopping power -- oh my! After looking at the photos of my cobbled-up model, I was ashamed of it, esp the tail-lites! Wick