tim boyd

Lee....good to know. Yes, a nationwide photo contest featuring a single base kit sounds like a cool idea. Far more realistic today than back in 1968 when closeup model car photography was a dark art inaccessible to nearly all of us. Best...TB

Michael...yes, it was a Testors Ed Roth Candy Yellow over lateral "stripes" of Testors Silver, Gold, and Copper, repeated several times from front to rear...thanks for the comment! TB

Antimatter Blue is a teriff Ford factory color but never thought of using it on a hot rod build. The paint looks spectacular, and the overall project progress is just singing to me! Bg congrats to you both! Cheers....TB

Lookin' really good so far, Justin! TB

Raoul....so I finally finished going through my back issues of Mopar Muscle and then started on the several-decade pile of Mopar Action mags yesterday. And what do I see??? Another large color pix of the Sport S. in the Richard E. technical advice column, along with a series of questions from you and answers from Richard on your stoker project. Man, you and your SS wag are famous, it seems, in the hardcore Mopar fandom base (of which, I guess, we are both members, too!) Anyway, best wishes for finishing up the powertrain revisions and hope you post the news somewhere in the forum here when it gets done....Best....TIM

Great news Bob! Will be looking forward to seeing both progress through the traps...er...finish line. And thx for the kudos on the book project....very much appreciated. Best...TB

Raoul...been going through my back many issues of Mopar Muscle magazine over the last week and just today ready the blurb on your '70 Sport suburban in that mag. (Noticed they called it a '71 n error...unless you grafted the '71 grille into the '70 bumper). I've admired that image in your MCM Forum signature box for years; it was cool to read the details in that mag's "Penta Stars" column. I presume you still have the car? My dad had a dealer demo '71 Sport Suburban as his business car for a couple of years...360 two barrel with part throttle downshift was a lot more responsive than the 383 2 barrel in his other car, a '69 Town and Country wagon....the '71 had a nicer interior and was a lot quieter, too...fwiw! T B

Bob...if it were me, I'd finish both just as is. The yellowed clear is just a sign of patina....the paint looks great as is. Save yourself the time and effort. This is a rare and seldom seen kit (both unbuilt and assembled) and needs to be seen. Yours already looks great..my view would be finish it as is and display it with pride! TB

Good point Jim. Too easy for us to forget that the annual kits were an offshoot (that is, made possible on lesser selling topics like a Riviera) by the 1/1 scale automakers' orders for dealer promotionals, and the automakers were in the driver's seat regarding the choice and content of promotionals in that era...TB PS - which still leaves us with the question of why the kit reissues were non-vinyl top. Actually, I need to go check and see if the custom version options in the reissues match the 1968 or 1969 content and design...will try do that later today unless someone here beats me to it (and yes, that is a challenge )

Thanks Steve....TB

My recollection of the test shot I received from Moebius back in the mid 2010s was that there were more changes than just the engine between the B/FX vs. A/FX kits. Well worth a complete A vs. B comparison when you guys actually get the final production version...TB

OK. So now you guys have me really going. I went back and found my original issue AMT 1966 and 1967 Riviera annual kits and verified, no viny roofs. I posted above the Rob/Tim Boyd build of the 1968 annual kit, no vinyl roof. I checked my Countdown (1977), 1995ish and 2005 ish reissues and no vinyl roofs. So, what does that leave? The 1969 annual kit as the only possible one with the engraved vinyl roof. I do not have that one in my stash, but I do have the box art. Dug it out and voila - both box art illustrations show a vinyl roof. That's also essentially the same box art as shown in the first/initial post in this thread. Still, that does not make much sense. The reissues are clearly vinyl roof omitted, and AMT in both 1969 and 1977 was struggling financially. I can see them engraving the existing tool for the vinyl roof for the 1969 annual kit run, though I question why they would have gone to that trouble for just one more year of tooling use. Plus, my understanding of tooling back then is that once the viny roof engraving was added, it is impossible to delete it later without great expense. I suppose it is possible they tooled an entirely new top piece (the body was comprised of three different pieces of tooling that come together to form the one-piece body) with the vinyl engraving, then returned to the 1966-68 no-vinyl piece for the reissues, though again that does not seem to make a great deal of sense from my marketing/business POV. Almost all of the AMT personnel that would know the true story are sadly no longer with us. Anyone else have any ideas, and does anyone have a confirmed and pristine AMT-molded 1969 annual kit body with the vinyl roof engraving? TB

Very, very cool, Bill! Great work and thanks for sharing. There is just a certain magic to the earlier generation of 1/1 scale funny cars, and your models do a great job of sharing that magic....TIM hanat w

The link below is a very (probably way too much so) comprehensive series of images and captions on how I rebuilt my mostly destroyed 4th Nationwide winner from the 1968 Dodge/MPC/Car Model Magazine funny car contest. When first posted six years ago, someone posted a very snarky comment about how unrealistic it was (engine behind the rear axle), and of course, he was right. But yes, even as a fourteen-year-old, and having studied the Car Model Magazine coverage of their prior two funny car contests, I realized that only something very radical (and as a result, probably unrealistic in 1/1 scale) was going to register with the contest judges. MIssion accomplished, so to speak. Anyway, way too much detail in this album link for almost everyone, and consider yourself forewarned, but for those who still want to take the leap, here's the link. And best wishes to LDO/Lee as he constructs his own version of the first place Jim Keeler "Dodge Fever" here at the MCM Forum...TIM

Lee....several reactions.... 1. Super-ambitious project you have going here. Fascinating to see how you are adapting the basics of Jim's approach to a build project 55 (!!!) years later. Will be following your progress for sure. 2. Amazed that so many others watching and following this thread remember the car and the Car Model Magazines that covered it so long ago... 3. A photo from the final GSL in 2023 where the 1968 Dodge/MPC/Car Model funny car contest winners of first, second, and fourth place were lined up together for the first time ever on a display at the event. And yes, #4 was mine. Best wishes on your progress and your posting of further updates....TIM

The original AMT 1968 Riviera annual kit does not have a vinyl roof. Here's one my brother Robert started in 1968 and I finished sometime in the early 1970s (note the cracks in the old AMT lacquer paint job).....There was a seperate add-on vintyl roof and trunk area piece in the kit...perhaps that is what you remember. (More on this below the picture...) I don't have the original 1969 Riviera annual kit, but I do have several reissues including the first reissue (I think), the 1977-ish"Countdown" series boxing. None of those have an engraved vinyl roof either. Here's a shot with the optional add-on vinyl roof/trunk piece mentioned above. Hope this definitively closes the inquiry on this ( )...TB

The original Revell Malibu Grand Prix combo kit (pictured above) was a personal favorite here. In the earliest days of what became the NNL Nationals, we would include a visit to the 1/1 scale Malibu Grand Prix tracks as part of our NNLs, which were really entire weekend events with the model event as the center attraction, but other events like attending the Oakland and Portland Roadster shows and Detroit Cobo Autorama, visits to the famous old Ford Fiberglas parrs replica company in Oregon whose name escapes me, and yes, 1/1 scale "runoffs" at the lMalibu Grand Prix. I recall us doing this at the Malibu tracks in Redwood City, CA (south of SFO) and Columbus, Ohio. Just another tidbit of NNL lore that probably no one cares about today (laugh...smile)....TB

Jon,,,that is one really sharp piece of model car building. So many cool details. Way to go! TIM

Heh Alan..big thanks for that! Cheers....TB

Just a reminder that the newly reissued (for the first time since it was originally introduced in 1998) AMT 1968 El Camino Street Machine has fully 25% of its parts count unique to the street machine kit vs. the factory showroom stock version from the same basic tool. The kit includes unique engine induction components, realistically lowered front and rear ride height, mildly tubbed pickup bed and sidewalls, electric (instead of fan belt driven) radiator fans, and more. Now I'm not going to claim that the street machine engine parts and wheels/tires/brakes are fully 2025 state of the art (because they aren't!) but with a bit of kitbashing or aftermarket substitutions in those areas, this kit goes a fair way toward the pro-touring or (more accurately) restomod genres than most kit buyerswould expect. Especially considering it was originally introduced 27 years ago. Food for thought, anyway. TB PS - when I finally get around to it I will be posting pix of my recently completed build of this kit with the above suggested modifications...

AMEN, brother! TB

Thanks Justin....I'd be curious to hear an update after the kits go on sale at your store, if you get a chance or see any definitive reaction. Best...TIM

Hi Justin....just a little curious...wondering if any of your customers have had any reaction to the Round 2 reissue of the little-known street machine version of the AMT-Ert 1968 El Camino Street Machine kit? As I am sure you well know, it does not have a full Pro Touring suspension, but it does include modified suspension parts that deliver a realistic lowered ride height. And well some of the Street Machine parts are arguably out of date for today's taste (engine induction and valve covers, wheels and tires, etc.) it does have about 25% f the kit parts changes from the Replica Stock kit to be a more accurate street machine. Sort of "pro touring lite", I suppose. And thse outdated parts are easily swapped for more current alternatives. Fiurther, while the kit engineering is innovative and IMHO very well done, there are some final assembly issues and the knockout pins (aka ejector pins) are not at all well handled. But still, I think it is a bit of a sleeper kit that deserves a closer look by those who like models that tilt toward the 1/1 scale aftermarket trends. But that is just me....has anyone else noticed? Or am I off in the ether on this one? Always fun and insightful to hear your views on new kit releases! Best...TIM

Charles....yes and I still feel that way, too....thanks for your comments...TB

Thanks Scott...TB