tim boyd

Starting with....the Revell '29A Roadster kit, with small block Chevy engines this time, should be at the stores sometime first quarter 2020. No definitive news just yet on the '30A Coupe; keep those cards and letters coming as they say! The Moebius Belvedere A/FX kit is just about reading to go into production, with proofing the decal sheet and the final version of the assembly manual the remaining steps to come and imminent as we speak. Probably Q1 2020 for arrival here.... Three induction options, and and parts/decals for two different versions of the Golden Commando original will be in the kit, along with many extra/unused parts from earlier versions of the kit tool. A peak underneath, courtesy Dave Metzner of Moebius All the parts trees for the upcoming Land Rover 4x4 were on one the three Revell tables..... The resin guys were showing new (at least they are new to me) product as well. These were seen at the Missing Link Replicas booth... More pictures of the new products at all the tables at this link.... Thanks for looking....TIM

Moebius showed their new flatbet trailer. The trailer will allow the builder to construct both an unloaded (with the bed bowed upward at the center) or laden (with load) trailer configuration! The test shots are undergoing fine tuning as we speak. The next two versions of the latest Moebius pickup series are nearing completion of development.... More derivatives of this kit are under consideration....and if they come to pass, they will be very cool and, I predict, very good selling kits. Hope to hear more news on this in the next year or so... TIM PS - more images here....

The 58th Detroit Area Auto Modelers (aka DAAM) Toy and Model Show was held at the Detroit Area Macomb Community College South Campus in Warren Michigan on November 10, 2019. Here is coverage of the model kit debuts and resin aftermarket debuts at the show, along with the models displayed at the accompanying NNL Motor City #15. In all cases where possible, the builder of each model is identified in the photo following the full image of the model itself. This is an extreme 4x4 built by Jeff Newhart. Enjoy the coverage, and thanks for looking! TIM

I dug out my Cady decals a few days ago and it looks to me like they were sized for the Monogram 124th scale bodies....maybe I need to check again! TIM

Don't really want to wade in on this, other than to say what Tom said above about cooperation and support between some of the kitmakers and some of the resin casters is spot-on accurate and true, and yes I have personal knowledge that confirms this, just as Kris Morgan does as well. TIM

Does anyone know of a vendor who is making a corrected side strobe stripe decal for the new Revell 'cuda AAR kit? If so, please post info here or PM me....thanks a bunch....TIM

My experience as well....several times in fact. TIM

For those of you that didn't go to the link, just a heads-up that those flames were actually decals from the original "Scotty's Muffler" Monogram '55 Ford pickup kit circa late 1970's. The paint was straight Testors Gloss Black enamel from the can (no polishing, waxing, or …..), before the formula was changed into today's more problematic product. Thanks for the comments, guys. Best Regards....TIM

The Gasser version intake manifold and dual carbs in the Revell Gasser kits are entirely different than the factory stock intake and dual carbs in the Revell kits. They are exact copies of 1/1 scale name brand aftermarket components (although I do not recall what the brands were). As I recall, the original planning envisioned the Gasser engine as being fuel injected, but as Y-Block experts know, that engine required a very different fuel injection intake manifold configuration (because of the Y-Blocks unusual cylinder head intake spacing), and Revell did not have the time available to track down a 1/1 scale example to use as a basis for the kit parts. The setup actually in the kits was the follow-up plan. I too would guess the car would have run in the B/G to D/G, or most likely, C/G classes back in the day. I also agree that a truly competitive, top end Gasser entry would have probably replaced the Y-Block with an FE Ford V8 in the 1960's.... TIM

Yikes...that is very, very sad. I just had lunch with Barry at this year's NNL East....our first time meeting in person after many emails conversations over the years. Godspeed, Barry. TIM

This is my "swoopy coop" buildup from the pages of Street Rodder magazine's Modeler's Corner nearly 40 years ago. The "404" error is preventing me from copying the text from my Fotki site that explains the features of the model and the story behind it, so I guess you'll need to click on the link below to see the text plus some additional pictures..... More pictures posted here along with build details and the back story behind the model....and thanks for looking....TIM

Wow Mike....great job on putting together the Lancer GT. Looks terrific! **** Mike is also spot on regarding the Mopar Hyper-Pak engine option for the Lancer GT kit. I built up this engine and showed it in an article I did around 2005 or so for the other magazine on "straight six" cylinder engines in kits...it's an excellent replica. The Valiant Signet kit also had optional engine parts, but they were different than the Hyper-Pak parts in the Lancer kit. TIM

Chris....I believe they were from a 1970 MPC Pontiac Grand Prix kit. Those side exhausts may have been carried over to some of the later hosed-up derivatives of this tool...like the SweatHogs machine or some such - don't have the time to double check right now so don't quote me on this latter point.....TIM

Ricky,.....excellent question and I will admit 43 years later that I don't have any remembrance of what or where that "intake box" came from. But I suspect that you have a pretty good guess right there.....thanks for your inquiry.....TIM

1976 MPC Modeling Championship - 2nd Nationwide Winner This is the car that won 2nd Nationwide in the 1976 MPC National Model Car Customizing Contest. The yearly contest series ran from 1969 through 1979 and took place in about 20 of the largest ISCA hot rod shows around the country each year. Winning "Best of Show" at one of those regional contests qualified you for the annual National Championship, conducted at the ISCA Omaha (Nebraska) show back then. This model won "Best of Show" at the 1976 Cincinnati ISCA show, going on to win 2nd Nationwide in the finals. At the time you were allowed to improve or change your "Best of Show" winner for the National Championship, so I built a 2nd body, same as the first one other than adding opening doors and taking extra precautions to avoid sinking putty, and placed it atop the chassis/engine/interior of the Cincy car. In the photos below with two cars, the 2nd black car is the original body (later placed atop a more basic chassis/engine). As you can see, I used the same paint scheme on the national winner, but reversed the masking for the flames. By the way, the paint on the national winner was all Testors and Pactra enamels; no automotive paint was used. Also, per MPC Contest rules at the time, no resin body casting and less than 10% brass (in this case, used to reinforce the door frames) was used in the construction of the model. The interior incorporated a wraparound instrument panel and four bucket seats, with the front passenger seat turned rearward like the old 1966 Imperial "Business Director" production seating option. The "carpeting" was real pink turkey feathers, salvaged from the basement of the original Rider's Hobby store in downtown Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Yeah, I know what you're thinking....you can't make this stuff up; it must be true, and it was!) The engine was conceived as a very strong poke in the eye of the automotive emissions legislative environment back then, via a front-supercharged 426 Hemi with precision fuel metering intended to pass all emissions tests while setting new levels of street-driven horsepower. Note that we were still using black thread pulled through beeswax for ignition wiring at the time! The model had been built with an interior floorboard configuration intended to accommodate a Lotus-like central backbone chassis, but I ran out of time (I was a full time college student and working 30 hours a week at the time). The MPC National judges noted the discrepancy between the chassis frame and the floorboard in their judging, and correctly so. (Tom Woodruff was able to finesse and bring my central backbone chassis idea to reality with his Pearl White chopped Merc model a year later, It also became a top 5 MPC National Championship winner in 1977. Those of you at the NNL Nats #40 and Reunion may have seen Tom's display where he showed the letters we had to each other with drawings of this and other ideas for Chopped Merc models). This is the first time that details of this car have been shown in color. Look closely at all the details, and enjoy! Thanks for looking...TIM 17 additional detail and overall photos here..... Thanks for looking.....TIM

Heh Tim....was great to see you again too. And you brought some really killer projects to the show, too. Lots to look at and like! Best....TIM

Ed now works part time as a consultant to Revell....this includes evaluating potential new projects as assigned by Revell, and also representing Revell at major auto modeling events such as the NNL #40 mentioned by Len above....TIM

These MPC trike models are actually pretty good stuff. The Honda four is very well detailed, for instance. Also, for those that did not know this, several of the MPC trike models shown in the MPC flier posted by Steve above were originally conceived and built by Dennis (Denny) Johnson for the early years of the MPC National Customizing Championships. Denny had those originals on display at this year's NNL Nats #40 a couple of weeks ago.... TIM

I spoke to my contacts at Round 2 about the original first-issue Ertl CO-4070A kit when I did my article on all the 40+ "Ertl before AMT-Ertl" kits in the other model car magazine a couple of years ago. My takeaway is that the "Eagle" cabover will be reissued eventually, while the original 4070A is not a reissue candidate. Reason being, if you compare the two kits side by side, there were extensive changes and additions for the Eagle kit that are not evident upon just a cursory review of the kits, and personally I don't see Round 2 going to the expense and effort of reverting the tool to the prior status, given all the other projects that they have on their plate at the moment. The feedback from Round 2 seemed to reinforce this view. Then again, as we've seen many times now from Round 2, things we thought we'd never see again have eventually resurfaced. Bottom line, not likely, at all but not impossible, either. TIM

That's an interesting idea! TIM

Double post....please delete. TB

Wow! That will sure visually jump off the hobby store shelves.....kudos to the Moebius/Model King teams....TIM

Yes...that's the article. Pretty cool info in it, too, IIRC. TIM

This looks like a page from the magazine that Dodge sent to their car and truck owners on a fairly regular basis. My Dad was a Dodge guy, so he got the mag. I saved a very interesting article from the mag back in the day that fully documented MPC's promo business, and I used some of the info from that article in my recent book "Collecting Muscle Car Model Kits" (CarTech Publishing, 2018). TIM