tim boyd

Scott...looking really good. I have had trouble with the Tamiya Maroon color but looks like you really nailed it. Please keep us in the loop as you finished this project, and great to know you were inspired by my earlier project. Thx for the update, too. TB

Been watchin' & groovin' on Quiet Eric's Street Freak GTO recently posted here Those who know me know that I love scale comparos - that is, looking at two different models that interpret the same theme in their own way - in this case, that theme is Street Freaks, and specifically, 1967 GTO Street Freaks. In that vein, a few pix of my own '67 GTO Street Freak. It was done as a how-to after a suggestion for same from the other magazine's then- publisher (Terry Thompson) who remembered Street Freaks from his younger years. Being a magazine how-to, I was somewhat limited in scope in terms of how much kitbashing was involved and how many different kits could contribute parts. I recall using the chassis/suspension from the MPC 1957 Chevy Street Machine kit along with parts of the Pontiac engine from the Revell 1968 Firebird kit and other sources and adding a faded paint with lace underlay paint scheme. That being said, I was fairly happy with how it came out. But 'what I super-cool to me about Eric's car is that he went ahead and actually did some of the things I considered for my project - including the flip front and sourcing the underbody gubbins from the Monogram 1966 Malibu street machine kit. So with a very big nod of the hat to Quiet Eric, a few images of my '67 GTO Street Freak from about 15-20 years ago or so.. Thanks for looking, and let's see some more Street Freaks in scale...either old builds or new projects....TB

Eric...really well done. Love the flip front, too! Way to go...TIM

What a project to finish all three of these, and to such a standard as well. Way to go Kari! Cheers...TIM

Claude NAILZ it yet again! Great choice to use the Chezoom chassis, too. Way to go, Claude! TB

And for all this time, I thought #3 was 1970 'cuda kits! TB

I don't have the original Jo-Han '66 kit, but a trait shared across a number of the original Jo-Han's mopar annual kits was that they featured the "mainstreamer" (e.g, Fury III, Polara, et al) exteriors - lifted from their promo tooling - paired with the "heavy metal' (sport subseries like the Sort Fury and Polara 500) bucket seat interiors tooled for the assembly kits only. Apparently, they thought that the bucket seat interiors - even when incorrectly paired with the promo-based mainstreamer exteriors - would have greater appeal in the then-1960s marketplace, and my view is that they were probably correct. Thus, if the new kit has the Fury III exterior and the Sport Fury bucket seat interior, it is probably a straight rebop of the original annual kit offering. I'm sure someone will correct me if my guestimate is incorrect....TB

CatPack68 hit the "like" button on this one yesterday, roughly eight years (!) after this thread on 1940 Fords was started, whikch showed up in my notifications just now. I had long ago forgot about my posts here so did a breeze through this entire thread again...some really cool stuff from you all here, including some new builds posted just in the last few days. \ Well worth a revisit, for sure! TB

Chris...in all my decades of modeling, this is the first I've ever heard of an AMT 1969 Mark III project. Yes, Tom Gannon reportedly killed the Porsche 911 project (I later saw the 1/10th scale Porsche 911 wood master in the AMT Engineering Dept. in the mid 1970s) but a Mark III? I don't really think that would have fit AMT's MO at the time, but again, who knows for sure. I was told the 911 cancellation was to help generate funds for the Peterbilt Conventional/Cabover project, FWIW. TB

Bob is correct here. Further contributing factors were AMT's extension into being a parts supplier for 1/1 scale automakers, the entire 1/1 scale "Piranha" and 1/1 scale AMT Speed and Custom (located in Phoenix) adventure, and the general problems that are typical of small enterprises that experienced phenomenal growth in their early years in an industry that is faddish and just as likely to contract as to grow in successive years. And by the very late 1970s, some unrealistic demands and a strike by the UAW represented work force, and some very questionable business decisions by the "Office of the President" with its (IIRC) three leaders. Factors which helped AMT stick around during some very difficult years included the loyalty and creativity of much their staff, particularly in the product development area, the 1968-ish hiring of Tom Gannon as President, who took a no-nonsense businessmen's view of the industry and AMT's role in it, and the entire Class 8 product range as Bob mentioned. TB

Big, big congrats on bringing this one home. Era correct mods, creative kitbashing parts and sourcing, super-clean assembly, added detail without getting carried away on months-long modifications, and a really sharp result? This is exactly the type of modeling project that I so enjoy reading about and looking at, and that I try to encourage others to try. Judging from the followers on Dennis' work thread elsewhere on this forum, many others also share that view. If I was still writing the old Modeler's Corner in the now-moribund Street Rodder magazine, this is exactly the type of project that would have justified a coverage in a full-featured, standalone column. Thanks, Dennis, for the inspiration and for sharing with us...TIM

Ahh...the stories I could tell. And in the model kit world, I already have, to some degree, in some of the 80 or so (to date) bi-monthly "Classic Kits" columns that have appeared in the other model car magazine/general hobby magazine for the last dozen years or so... But in the auto industry particularly, I have too many friends and associates that might be concerned about some of those stories. And I suppose there are certain confidentiality considerations as well. Oh well....on the plus side, most of it was really good. Like the story I heard about how a certain 1/1 scale Design Studio "chopped" Oscar (the mannequin used for assessing passenger occupancy) to make it appear the rear seat headroom was OK in a certain future car's fastback roofline....smile...TB

Steve...I don't have the two kits handy right now to compare, and I do not have a specific memory about this, but I do believe thinker there may have been a degree of difference between the interior shell of the Tudor and the Phaeton kits. Guess we will be able to confirm one way or the other shortly....TB

The original '32 Sedan Street Rod was a one-time only release in 1975 or thereabouts. It combined the '32 Ford Tudor body from the 1963 Trophy Series '40 Willys/'32 Custom Sedan Double kit with the rest of the original '32 Ford Vicky kit contents. Until now, it was never reissued in that 1975 kit configuration. Interesting story, about 20 years ago (yikes) Roger Harney, VP of kit development at Revell-Monogram, asked to borrow the interior from my AMT '32 Tudor kit (the 1975 release) so they could use it as a reference in developing their own '32 Tudor Sedan kit which came out several years later. Sometime later Roger returned my parts, and when the kit came out, sent me one of the first ones off the line with a message of thanks on the box art. Oh the story this hobby can tell...TB

While some of the original NNLs have ceased after long and outstanding runs, new ones are taking their place. For instance, in Ohio where the NNL Nationals, the one that started it all, concluded after the 2019 show, two successors of sorts have launched - the NNL Undercover near Akron several years ago, and just yesterday, the first ever NNL Gem City in Dayton, both located less than two hours beyond the original NNL Nats in Toledo... And Tom Geiger and the NNL East leadership have always had succession planning on their minds as they organize each year's shows....TB