Wickersham Humble

JoHan redux: One of my 'grail' builds was to combine the '61 Dodge front clip (fenders, hood, bumper/grille) with the '61 Plymouth, and a MCM traded gifted me both kits for the experiment! (See below) I never could get to like, even for pure funkiness, the '61 Plymouth grille treatment; it was even more bizarre than the '59 Chevy 'butterfly' rear end! Likewise the Dodge rear 'reverse fin' design; either the low ones on the Dart/Pheonix, or the extravagant ones with the big tail-lite on the Polaras; neither looked good and were so far outside the mainstream to seem freaky! So, I decided to create a 'Plodge' mashup, which I think showed that the Exner style could be tasty, if not mis-mated! However, we discovered that the '61 body was actually a modified '60 -- fins cut off, and more-or-less bizarre Exner front grille fabbed -- that needed a lot of work; almost a complete rebuild! OC, the Dodge front group mated up perfectly, and made a very decent result. I had to fake/fab the entire interior, however, but had a JoHan generic frame to convert for an engine, which was a simulated 'B'-block. I had a JoHan promo/curbside Dodge kit back in '61, and liked the front style very much (also =, as seen on Leave It To Beaver!) but it was brush painted and disappeared in the dark past. Seemed like the F-86 'Sabre Jet' snout to me! The Dodge body and Plymouth front end weren't wasted; a talented 15-year-old at the 2023 IPMS Yuba City show accepted it as a challenge build! Also, still have a radical custom JoHan '60 Plymouth that was inspired (front treatment, mostly) by the early experimental turbine test car of that era; first built by 15-year old me; much repaired over the last 60 years or so, but... Wick [Modeling since 1953]

All the JoHan I have is stuff I bought for 88-cents, as noted, and among the first I 'restored' after taking all my kits out of storage after the Army in 1970. Unique, if rather fra-geel-ay, in my opinion. And those generic chassis, with the funny 'torsion bars' and fat axles! True promo roots! Wick, at 80

Looks like they're 17's. Hope these help! Wick

I never knew SMP to make wheels/axles like these, but I think Hubley did. Yes, having bought four in the fall of '59, I knew they weren't customizing kits. I never saw an SMP 3-in-1 kit of the 'Vair. I still have the '62 (?) AMT version, Monza. I have a few parts from one of the '60s; headlites, etc. Durn four-doors, anyway. Wick

Summer is slow time for me with models, but I'm finishing a '53 Ford ragtop kit as a mild-custom '54: '57 312/od trans, Carson top, ebony black PPG acrylic, off-white interiour, and an opened trunk full of stolen hub caps, TV's, etc. Old JoHan Olds Fiesta flipper wheel covers, but however-appropriate, probably not fender skirts. It's a CA late-fifites hood's car, from the 'pink and black days' no less! As a ninth-grader in those days, I recall those cats -- with a dash of fear! Black Chinos, windbreakers with the collars turned up, and pink shirts! And the silly Derby or plug-hats; 'Clockwork Orange' didn't originate that little fillip! Guess the Eastern hoods wore pork-pies? I forgot to make hinge points for open hood and trunk, so I'm taking a short-cut: rather than tubing and bent aluminum jewelry wire, I'm just doing retrofit tubing pockets and soft solder. I don't often open-shut hoods and trunks, and the bendable solder will let me have the option of posing them open, and not losing them constantly -- I hope. A time saver, and easy to align both open and shut, which can be fussy work. What you think? Wick

My favorite 'heritage' model company was, by a tic, AMT/SMP; because when they released their promo-based one-piece body kits, I was at the point of giving up planes, armor, ships and so forth because of the seeming limitation to my Jr. Hi. 'creativity' and I'd discovered Kustom Cars and Hot Rods. The Revell and other kits I'd had were multipiece build-up types, and just too frustrating for a kid who was used to instant-gratification builds of one day, or even one sitting! However, these products got me fueled into a new genre, and I'm still doing that type 65 years later! OC, I went back in the 'eighties and did a number of Revell and other build-ups, when my patience had gotten a bit longer. Second choice would probably be Monogram, for their variety of rods and racers; a bit basic at first, then well detailed as newer kits evolved; a good company with a lot of commitment to we young car modelers. As I get ancient, their 1/24 scale seems a tad easier to handle, and I enjoyed a build of a repop 'Slingshot' dragster last year. I'd love to have a (re)buildable 'Sizzler' kit now; I nearly wore mine out in '61-63 stacking the many optional parts on and trying to decide how to finish it; thing is, I don't now recall how I built it, or what happened; I have a number of bits in my spares box, unexplicably! I'm rebuilding my 'Green Hornet' from the day, and finished a Model A tub Mod Roadster using the body from the one I built in '62, still with the turquoise Candy paint and decals. Third, Revell; they try so hard! The '56 Ford and Buick built-up kits basically defeated the 11-year old me, back when, but I still have some bits and decals! The '62 MoPar promo-style kits were fun, but engines, etc. were underscale and rims/chassis kinda strange. The original F100 kit was terribly warped, and the '55 Chevy hardtop too; doors glued shut! JoHan follows, mostly because we saw so few here on the left coast, and when AMT/SMP went to opened hoods with reasonably scaled engines, etc. in '61, they took longer to follow suit. Their wheels were wonky, back then, but had cool wheel covers included. My little section of 1960-61 MoPars make great subjects for engine transplants, but their styrene was sooo brittle! Nice an thin, though. Our 88-cent Store here in Chico had JoHans for that price, much lower than the $1.39+ of AMT. Lindberg, Srombecker, Palmer, ITC, and others; I tried them all. Auroroa cars were never seen in our stores. One last mention: Hubley; often pretty neat promo-style bodies of neat subjects. I ordered four '60 Corvair kits by them with Nabisco box-tops and fifty-cents; their fate is unremembered. Well, that's my take on it. What do you think? Wick

well, no luck. I'll repeat my request, if anyone sees this; holding up finishing kit replica until I can approximate the Mustang (Cobra center) 5-spokers, about 18-inch on 1`/1 car, I believe. Help? Wick

The 1/24 scale Monogram 'Sizzler' dragster from 1961; I keep finding parts of mine in my miscellaneous box, and recently have realized how much fun I had with that kit back in the day! I'd love to have another one, but really can't afford the tab for the NOS sealed ones for sale on eBay right now. Even an incomplete one, if mostly there might get'r done. I don't have a huge stash of kits, but would trade favorably to get a Sizzler, especially if it still had the Banam coupe body. Or, possibly a 'Long John' that is rebuildable, or both. I bought a new-issue 'Sling-Shot' rail kit two years ago, and had mucho fun building it as a slightly more probable A/Gas dragster, using a few 'Sizzler' parts in the mix. The slightly larger size of the 1/24 scale parts helps when your small-motor finesse begins to fade! Any help in MCM land? Wick

Steve, The first edition of my book had some rust repair illustrated that was just catastrophic; but with some other stuff I omitted it from the new revision because a Z with that much damage -- at today's commercial body shop rates -- would put the owner upside down in a tic. I took out the 'paint your own resto' section too, because that isn't done much anymore, but both can be seen in the old copies. As I point out, the Z wasn't the only collectible that had body cancer proclivities; the '55 Chevy was vulnerable in some areas, especially over the headlites, and lower front fenders. And the Nomads: the trick hardtop bodies, behind the front doors to the wheel wells had virtually no 'scuppers' to drain moisture -- or dust buildups -- and needed lots of surgery to be saved; I began my driving career with a '55 when it was only six years old (1961) and had about twenty, including all but the ragtop -- and let's not talk about them! My second car was a '51 Ford 'Special' from MI, and it had no floors, which made ditching beer cans easy, anyhow...

Oh, should I live so long, I'm going to build my big-scale Tamiya Fairlady ZG into a replica of my 1970 car, with standard front bumper/lights, and left-hand drive! Yes, I know Z's rusted, but so do all other cars: even Corvette frames suffer from the tin worm. I recall auto guru Mike Lamm's DeTomaso Pantera, the one owned by Dean Martin, with a rust hole in the body side you could have reached through with your hand!

The Datsun 240Z. I bought a new one (HLS3547) in July of 1970, drove it with a huge smile on my face for twenty four years, and restored it as the subject of my book HOW TO RESTORE YOUR DATSUN Z-CAR, (CA Bill's Automotive Handbooks, 1990) and sold it back to NISSAN USA in 1995. BTW, the book was never out of print for 35 years, but is now in a new revised edition distributed by Car Tech Books, easily found on Amazon, etc. I have a '71 Resto-mod Z now, a conservative personal build with about a hundred 'improvement' features. Sadly, I'm 80, and need to sell it with less than 500 miles on the complete job, 'frame-up' (no frame, oc) and never having been driven through a puddle. The Z was built to a price, and not in contention with any of your exotic hand-built GT's, but was (is) hugely popular and brought more driving pleasure to more folks world-wide than many other sports cars since the beginning. And, it was always affordable: my first Z cost me $3660 in '70, when the 911S was heading for $6K. They don't cost much more than a Mustang to rebuild (if you can find one nowadays) and are cheap to run. And beautiful! I'd love to have a Scarab, or maybe a J-2 Allard, or one of the Harry Miller street machine roadsters, but the Z is/was accessible, and a lovely thing! My only regret was that is wasn't built in the USA; John DeLorean's Pontiac OCH Banshee would have been my choice, if produced. Wick Humble

I always make notes, usually on a strip of buff manila (from old file folders) just to save space -- and the heavier card is durable. It's rare I build OOB, as I'm a child of the 'Customizing' era, and began doing 3-in-1 kits because I thought I was going to be a car stylist in Detroit, and at age 13 couldn't afford a real car, much less modify it! Later, of course... ! I like to draw, and besides listing tghe proposed changes on any kit, make sketches and tracings to confirm the feasibility of each one; often that is enough to change the script right there. Also, I list the parts I need to source (usually adding them, if available from my meagre stash, in little Ziplocs) and hit the forum Wanted for help, usually forthcoming -- thank you all sincerely. Right now I have about 20 kits abuilding, a dozen or so very close to paint, or even sprayed, waiting finishing up; but I work mostly in the colder months. 'Holy Grail's' included, it's still a lot of work and time!!! I'm not as adroit as I once was -- seniors take note -- nor can I see details as well, at 80. The more ambitious the project -- and more stimulating -- the more time and 'notes' it takes for me. My two apochryphal Harry A. Miller street roadsters are a case in point; tons of detail work and mods to Caddie and Rolls base kits. Also, my B'Ville 2XV-16 LSR car from 1934... In the aftermath, it's interesting to see how far the real kit strays from the concept I penned; or not! Wick

Boxed the frame for a Monogram "BIG T" gloo-bomb kit I bought at last years Dragonlady IPMS show. I want to rebuild it as a hauler for my Mono customizing V-8 kit that I bought in '62 and saved. I never could afford the monster-scale kits back then, but then they're hard to display being so big. I used epoxy to soldily attach the boxing plastic, and included some high-tensile steel wire inside the rails for some extra stiffness. Then, since I was priming the door on my daughters 1/1 '57 Ford business coupe project, I shot it with epoxy primer. The original builder used so much adhesive to put the rear leaf spring into the spring X-member I had to leave it in place, and will possibly sand the leaves smoother and shoot them with Molotow when it's ready. The rims are getting the bling treatment, too. A few light-weight bits are damaged, and some real nuts/bolts hardware may come into play as I finish it. Wonder where one can source such stuff for this scale? Wick

I was an enthusiastic Scout; got to 2nd Class in BSA, but our Scout Master's dry cleaning business went belly up, and he emigrated to a new locale to try again. A badly crippled 20-year-old Eagle Scout tried to keep old Troop 32 together (Alturas, CA) but it was about 1959, and it just dried up. I was troop bugler. We had Buffalo Patrol; leader was Robert Hight, the uncle and namesake of Force Funnycar driver, Robert Hight. He had the fastest car in our little burg (Pop. 3000) with his '62 Plymouth Sport Fury; my '55 Chevy could hold him in first gear, but I was giving away 100 cu-in. and it wasn't any race. Funny Hight's dad, his little bro, raced me in his mom's '61 Imperial 413 (well, I had hopes...) and lost that too. He got a '64 Max Wegde; family was rich. Still in touch with Robert the uncle. Yeah, Scouting, five seasons of USFS fire-fighting, and then the Army... I got an MA in Art/Education, then taught Kindergarten. Wick

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.

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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...

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

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

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.