tim boyd

Ron....I don't know for sure. I hear that B&N was really hurt by the Covid-19 shutdown; I am sure that they are being very careful about buying new inventory. My previous book was only stocked in the top 300 B&N stores; I personally saw it only in one store in the Metro area I live in. I have also noticed that B&N has downsized their automotive category and moved it to the rear of some of their stores. Bottom line, I wouldn't expect to see the book in B&N any time soon; if anybody does see it I would like to know. Best....TIM

30-year project just completed Conclusion to “Building a high-tech Smoothie” column in Street Rodder/Modeler’s Corner, April 1990 · See 1990 magazine reprint for photos of body conversion details (compare to stock bodied and mildly kitbashed 1932 Ford Roadster previously built from the same kit) o Hood and grille shell glued to body and molded flush o Grille shell angled rearward at top o Hood beading extended into grille shell o Door openings recut to match angle grille shell o Hood recut with integral extension over cowl and top of grille shell o All character lines and beading removed from rear quarter panels and trunk area o Panel below grille shell reshaped o Rear fenders bobbed and wheel wells given minor tubs · Three-tone paint using Testors Enamels (Platinum Metallic, Candy Purple over Silver, Gloss Clear, and purple stripes from model airplane Monocote (buried in clear). · Boss 302 engine with “Cross Boss” intake and carb (from Monogram 1970 Boss 302) · Modified/accurized frame rails, reshaped and relocated transmission crossmember, Corvette IRS (from Monogram Beach Boys 1932 Ford Three Window Coupe Kit) · Wheels/tires from Monogram 427 Cobra Roadster kit · Photoeched instrument panel and printed gauges · Ride height lowered all around · Custom inner cowl under hood extension As you are looking, please keep in mind that this was built to the standards of 30 years ago, so the body panel gaps, ever so slightly yellowed gloss clear, and so forth, represent a somewhat different era of model car building. Still, really overjoyed to add to the "finished" status a project that was started so long ago. Lots more pictures below, and thanks for looking.....TIM

Jim...good luck with your project and I'd love to see it when you are finished....TIM

AHH....I get it (sorry, I'm a little slow on the uptake these days....). Here's a shot of the completed project, and a link to a more pictures and a list of the mods done to the project.....TIM

Richard: Huh???? Are you kidding? (About both the number of suitable projects and the name of the build)? !!! At last count (10/13, just after I retired) I had about 65 unfinished projects, and although a few of those have since been completed, even more unfinished ones have been added. Where to turn next, where to turn.... Best....TB PS - will post today or tomorrow....TIM

Tasty Baste! This is a great example of the best possible type of model car replicating a '29A/'32 rails highboy roadster back then. At that time, any such model was a major scratchbuilding project and Bill did a great job of combining that with the best of the existing parts from kits available then. Congrats Bill! TIM

Richard....finished up Friday morning in time for a brief debut at the Hoosier Model Car Association 40th Contest and Show just south of Indy on Saturday morning. Took pictures on Friday after completion, but have not yet downloaded to the Under Glass section....will do so in the next couple of days. So you can mark mine "Gotter Done" on your next status update......TIM

Thanks again to all who have commented on this project. It was certainly one of those "lifetime" model projects for me, but I guess I didn't realize there were so many other modelers interested in this subject! Glad to hear otherwise! Best Regards....Tim

Jeffrey....thanks for the note. Glad to hear you are interesetd in early smog era muscle cars as they are also a real interest area for me. Between the E58 Mopar Wedge, the 1971/72 Pontiac 455 HO, and the 1971 Boss 351/1972 351 Cleveland Hi-Po 4 barrels, there were several killer/un-sung smog-era engines that performed incredibly well. Unfortunately, many of the mags back then, and since then, were uninformed and/or editorially deficient in their coverage of same. I can't believe the number of otherwise reputable magazines and writers who blew their coverage of the E58 Wedge....often calling it nothing more than the Mopar C-Body 360 2-barrel with a wimpy 4 barrel added. NOT. I had included an entire page (sidebar) on the upgraded contents of the E58 Wedge in my book "Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits", but sadly I had to cut it as I was way over my word count max. (Maybe it will appear in print some day). And the 455 HO was an incredible performer that totally went under the radar screen both then, and even to some degree today. And these days people have finally figured out that the Boss 3521 Mustang was probably the fastest first gen (1964/5 through 1973) Mustang of all, if not tied with the original 1968.5 428 Cobra Jet.... Of course, I am gathering that you are well aware of the above (as well as several others - you know who you are!), but perhaps this will be "new news" to the rest that are reading this thread....TIM

Thanks Dave. Apparently this was a past known issue at Round 2, but John G. had previously followed up and thought the issue was resolved in the latest reissue. He's assured me it will be handled with the next reissue, both the lack of white backing on the outer stripes as well as the incorrect registration on the white backing where it was already provided on the hood stripes. You could almost hear the "sigh" in his response. The challenges of today's global supply base, of course, offset by the affordable and (often) better results from the same when everything goes as it should.... Really liking yours....I need to photograph my '71 MPC RR in the Sassy Grass/Green-Go color with black stripes and and an added mid-year canopy (1/2) vinyl roof....it would make a nice comparo with yours... And thanks again for your headlamp painting tip several years ago...glad I finally got a chance to try it out. Best...TIM

Steven, for what it's worth, I agree 100% with your plan on this subject. Can't wait to see how you apply your magic to this building subject....TIM

....who is the subject of a two-page feature column in the new Hemmings Classic Car November 2020 issue. For any who do not recognize his name, Rick chaired the "Custom Rodding in MIniature" column in Custom Rodder magazine for a long time; he was also a regular contributor to the other magazine in its "Enthusiast" years, and an occasional contributor in recent years under the new Editors there. Rick was also a regular winner in the old MPC Customizing Championship from 1969-79, and in recent years was the new product ideas manager for the Danbury Mints line of automotive diecast replicas. Beyond being one of the hobby's most creative and imaginative model builders, Rick is also a great guy and friend. Congrats on your appearance in Classic Cars, Rick, and for yet another positive exposure to our hobby in the mainstream auto magazines....TIM

Tom....while this style of hot rod is not my cup of tea, I SALUTE you on 1) your creativity 2) your continued persistence to move the project forward 3) your weathering and "patina" skills, and 4) your presentation above along with the step by step photos you took. This is a totally inspiring post and I think the resulting model is terrific. I also really appreciate the photos at the end with the comparisons of factory stock pickups. I'd have to say this is probably my favorite model you've ever built to this date. Congrats my friend!!! TIM

Lee....no worries....always feel free to hijack away anything that I post. The showroom stock version of this kit is arguably among the finest pre-WW II Ford model kits ever, and your model does full and complete justice to the AMT-Ertl effort. And I echo what others have said; I'm a hot rod builder to the core but it is very refreshing to see a "restored" model in scale. Congrats on a very cool model project! TIM

I agree with Mark. I''ve got some cans of Pactra Pealustre enamel, only produced in 1962-63, that still work. Amazing, especially when one sees the seals breaking on less that ten year old cans of Testors One Coat and Muscle Car Lacquer cans....TB

Richard....if all goes to plan, should be done by a week from now.....thx....TB

Richard.....great idea! The 56 pages of responses suggested you really hit the nail on the head with this one. Here's mine.... This one began as a "how-to" project showing how easy it was to redesign and restyle a 1932 Ford street rod body in 1/24th scale styrene, vs. doing the same thing in 1/1 scale metal or fiberglass. My recollection is that this one has appeared twice in print - a long-ago,detailed step-by-step on the body mods, and then a very brief appearance many years later in an article on an unrelated subject. Anybody wanna guess when and where these appeared??? And anyone wanna try to take a stab at listing some of the body mods (some of which admittedly can't be seen in this image, and others which are very subtle unless you have an original body nearby to compare to)? I've spent the last several weeks working on taking it from its most recent state as a painted body and a bunch of parts in a box that presumably could be used to complete the model, to the state pictured below where the model is now reading for final assembly, only three plus decades after first carving some styrene. Thanks for looking! TIM

As of 5pm today, (Friday, 9-22-10) Amazon.com when accessed here in the States, shows 8 copies left for delivery between September 21 and 24, and unlimited amount available for delivery from October 7-23, which will be at least their third reorder so far from the publisher. Not sure how that plays or if it is even relevant to those of you in Canada, but wanted to pass along nonetheless. For a couple of times in the last several days it has shown at Amazon as the "#1 New Release in Automotive History", ahead of new books on the 1/1 scale C8 Corvette, the cars of the Bond movies, and so forth. A victory for model car enthusiasts and a profound "NOPE" to those who insist our hobby is dying....just imagine.....a book on models that is outselling a book on the new Corvette C8! Still, my Publisher tells me that these Amazon rankings are a bit of a mystery from their point of view, and Amazon says the rankings change hourly, so take it all with a very big grain of salt for what it's worth.... Book is also available directly from the publisher, CarTechBooks.com, from AutoWorld.com, from Model Roundup, from ModelCave in Ypsi, Michigan, and from Pasteiner's in Birmingham, Michigan. Most of these have the book in stock now for immediate delivery. Thanks guys for all your support and interest....and hope that those of you who buy it find it to be entertaining and a good reference for your kit collecting efforts. Best Regards....TIM .

Thanks Bill....TIM

For anyone who missed my earlier post in the subject....my preview of the kit with 34 photos and comments is at this link.........TIM

Adam....sharp buildup of an undersung car in real life. Looked at your WordPress presentation, and really liked that last combo picture with the T-Bird Turbo Coupe and the SVO Mustang. Can't recall if I've commented before, but that Dark Sage paint color on your SVO was super-rare in real life. I recall looking that up when I worked at Ford back in 1986 and seeing that we built only 6 SVO's (or something close to that) in the Dark Sage color. So your model replicates a real collectible car in real life. Best Regards....TIM

All.....really, really pleased to hear your interest in 1/25th scale boat and drag models. Try as I might, I could never get the former Editor of the other model car mag to even consider running a 1/25th scale ski/drag boat project, but Gregg and Harry not only indulged me in running my ski/drag boat kit history article (around 2007 or so) but also ran several how-to articles on some of the boat projects shown above. If you are considering building an actual model of these, and you have a Model Cars mag back issue collection, may be worth looking up those old articles for some ideas and inspiration. In the meantime, you can see 175 images of my entire 1/25th scale ski and drag boat collection of completed models here....both overall and detail shots, and some in-progress shots of several of the projects like the Turbine boat and the Allison V12 boat (and yes, not only was there a real one, but it was a winner at the Salton Sea 500 races in SoCal... Thanks again for your comments and thoughts on this....TIM

David...very cool to hear you were inspired to build this one. Really liking the matching paint layouts, and the matching Chevy Rallye wheels on the trailer, too. Your boat engine looks like a Chevy Rat Motor, yes? And the Jet Drive, was that Steve Perry's Calnaga Castings version or something else? Anyway, really well done! Cheers...TIM

Eddie....there's a story there....(yeah, I know, there's always a story with my model projects, right? ). Anyway, the kit box shown was a one-time AMT release back in 1968. The Firebird was actually a "guess" by AMT as to what the 1968 Firebird would look like, because MPC had scooped up the Firebird promo contract and AMT was denied the design information from GM that year. The kit was itself was adapted from AMT''s prior 1967 Camaro annual kit, and yes it contained those hidden headlights, but other than that the kit was a real zero. In addition to the regular annual kit release, AMT paired the same kit with their newly retooled "Hull Raiser" drag/ski boat kit , which itself was a major revision of their c. 1963 Rayson Craft Trophy Series kits (the lavender metallic and candy blue boats in the pictures at the beginning of the thread). While that's the story on the kit box, the model car pictured was actually the Revell 1968 Firebird 400 Ram Air kit introduced around 2000, built showroom stock other than the wheels and tires, and painted MCW Automotive Finishes 1967 1/2 & 1968 Pontiac Verdero Greeen Metallic. The boat was the Hull Raiser kit (actually, the same kit but sourced from the c. 2005 Model King 1970 Pontiac Bonneville Convertible/Ski Boat combo kit). It too was built largely box stock, but with a Pontiac 421 Parts Pack engine (can't recall if it was the AMT or Revell Parts Pack version) replacing the boat kit's 427 SOHC Ford, to better match up with the tow vehicle. Yep, way too much info, but since you asked.....and thx for the comments on the models! TIM

Tom....I've bought several of the Dumas 1/24th scale boats over the years..... building up one of those would be a major project and one requiring a whole new set of modeling skills....still.....the boat topics they've chosen are so, so cool. I could see you building the original 1960 AMT Trophy Series Chris Craft kit....lotsa potential for adding character to that kit and a pretty easy (read quick!) project too....TIM