tim boyd

Donations to the museum can be made by personal check to: The International Model Car Builders' Museum and sent to the following address: International Model Car Builder's Museum 10271 South 1300 East PMB 131 Sandy, Utah 84094 Please think about it and send a donation today...even small amounts are helpful. Your hobby will thank you for it! Cheers....TIM

Here is a link to my coverage of the Model Car Builder's Museum, from my trip there six years ago. Our gracious host Mr. Hutchings also published an article in MCM a few years ago based on my visit in 2009. Enjoy....http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/model-car-events-co/international-model/ TIM

What Tom said, x2. Get involved. This museum is our hobby, our legacy. If we don't support it, no one will It's up to us - the people reading this board. Please support the museum with your generous contributions and make it a bucket list priority to visit the museum in person. It's an experience will never, ever forget. Thanks...TIM

Harry....I'm sort of channeling my interest in Classics through your builds of the large scale kits (as many know, I limit my builds to 1/24th and 1/25th scale). Between your projects shown on this board, and the coverage of your classics in the Dr. Cranky IHOP Volume II, I am pretty amazed at your building talent with kits of the Classic genre. . I too would love to see you tackle that Entex 1/16th scale 1930's Packard kit, but until then, take a very big bow for some mighty fine work. Best Regards...TIM

Guys...I can admit when I'm wrong. I never ever in a million years would have picked a Hudson as a 1/25th scale kit topic, nor would I have predicted that the Moebius Hudson kits would have enjoyed the success that they have seen since the first release. Certainly the appeal of the topic is in part due to a ground-breaking kit design (including the approach with the instruction sheet) from the Moebius team), but even still.... Just goes to shown that few of us have a 100% lock on "what sells vs. what doesn't sell", even those of us with in-depth knowledge of the behind the scenes goings on at the model companies. TIM

Thanks Bill....what a fun way to blow 90 minutes....the "Drag Racer" film wouldn't have kept girlfriends on a movie date very involved, but probably 75% of the footage is real drag racing action (shot at Lions, Long Beach, and Orange County), and fans of this era (circa 1972 or so) will see many real drag cars they'd recognize from the drags and magazine coverage of the same back then. The brunette is pretty sharp, too! TIM

Apparently, several distributors got an April/May/June release sheet from Revell today showing the ship date as June 29...and the last day for dealer orders as June 10....for what it's worth. Those of you that still like the kit had best place your reservations soon, if you haven't done so already! TB

You guys amaze me! The kit is still several months away, and it's being critiqued already! Anyway, after seeing these posts, I pulled out the pictures of the test shot I built a year ago March and compared it to the picture of the real grille shell directly above, along with the '28/'29 Grille shells past from AMT, MPC, Revell and Monogram kits. Turns out that every one of these kit grilles is slightly different in details, but all are reasonably close to the picture. I agree that the grille shown in the parts tree picture above looks a little egg shaped, but the test shot sample is not egg-shaped at all. In fact, it looks as close or closer to the full size image above than any of the other grilles, including the "dip" in the center of the upper grille opening. Mind you, I was told that Revell has made changes and refinements to the kit since I did the test shot project for them, so it is certainly possible that the grille shell may have changed from what I saw. Bottom line? I realize that critiquing future kit releases is a very popular subject on this Form and that it generates a lot of interest and web traffic. Go ahead and continue to comment and speculate at will...but you (and I, for that matter) may be embarrassed (or not) when you actually get your hands on the real kit in a couple of months. . TIM

Steve, you did a great buildup of this kit that really conveys the subject matter in a positive manner. I've not seen this one in person yet, but from the pictures of your build, it sure looks to me to be a fine model kit on the way. TIM PS - will be looking forward to the Coulter/Goldman article on this one. TB

The '83/'84 T-Bird, and (with new interior and other minor changes) '85/'86 T-Birds were a huge favorite of mine. I was working for Ford in Northern (Bay Area) and Southern (LA/OC, et al) California when that car was launched in '83 1/2 and it was a huge hit there. Some LA dealers were selling 80 or 90 of them a month (per dealer). It took much, much longer to catch on throughout the rest of the country. but it was very influential (in my view) in building public acceptance for the aero design language, and that helped make the Taurus a huge hit pretty much everywhere from the word go when it was introduced in 1986. I had a red metallic '83 Heritage 302 company car with the Michelin TRX wheels/tires, then an '84 Turbo Coupe lease car in the pale gold metallic clearcoat (a color placed into production in late 1983, along with the pale blue metallic clearcoat, based in part on my own recommendation to the company). Followed by '85, '87. and '88 Turbo Coupes. But my personal favorite was always the '83/'84 Turbo Coupe. The easiest way to do this conversion would be to base it on the Monogram '87/'88 Turbo Coupe, which has the basic correct suspension, frame, interior bucket (the IP was carried over from the '85/'86 freshening IIRC), and engine block, with the Monogram '84 Thunderbird ProStock front, rear, and roof/trunk behind the B-pillars grafted onto the '87/'88 body. Other minor adjustments necessary (wheels, drop the intercooler, interior upholstery patterns, etc). This would get you a reasonably correct '85/''86 except for the grille insert, which would need to be tweaked to be correct for '85/'86. To make an '84/'84, you'd need to fab an all-new IP (perhaps you could use some of the ProStock kit as a start) and other interior pieces, and come up with the '83/'84 TC Aluminum Wheels. You could also start with the Monogram '84 ProStock kit body and substitute the fenders and wheel lips from the '87/'88 body, but I don't know if the rest of the '87/'88 interior/chassis et al would slip into the Pro-Stock body and fit. Not the easiest conversion by any means, but achievable. BTW...the IRS and revised WB didn't come until the '89 TB which was based on the new MN12 platform, replacing the Fox platform used for '83-'88 (and in an earlier form, '80-82) T-Birds. Finally, there was a resin kit conversion of this offered, IIRC, by one of the premiere resin casters of the day, that was reasonably accurate for the time. Hope that helps...TB

The two sets of frame rails, interior side panels, firewalls, seats (and several other sets of parts yet to be mentioned) are required to support the two different building versions (Highboy w/ '32 frame and Channeled with Model A frame). It really is surprising how many components change based on these two building alternatives. Pretty much anyone who buys this kit is probably going to want to eventually build both versions...and they're also going to have a ton of very cool leftover parts for the parts box after building the kit twice. TB

Thanks for the feedback, Scott, much appreciated. TIM.

By far the best resource is the Directory mentioned by Scott above. I agree that it is not 100% accurate, but I've been keeping track over the years and I would estimate that it IS about 98% accurate. Easy to use and updated frequently. Co-author Bob Shelton is supposed to be at NNL East this weekend and I'm sure he'll have copies on sale there. Highly, highly recommended. TIM

Chris is correct, photo #7 shows the fuel cell - it's not valve coves and intake molded together. Did you also notice the Battery Box on the lower LH corner of Photo #7? Or the fuel block and individual fuel lines to the Hilborn injection option in Photo #4? Bernard...Revell advised me a month or so ago that they changed the Dana rear diff to a Ford 9" rear axle - still not the Halibrand Quick Change, but more correct for a street-driven traditional style hot rod than the Dana. Norm Veber is still working on a transkit for the HQC.... Jim....thanks for the photos. Most Excellent! TIM

Bob...you are correct, any 440 powered Road Runner also wore "GTX" badging in the 1972, '73, and '74 model years. Funny thing, though, I never noticed this on the Silver Frost 440 powered '74 Road Runner at the Plymouth dealer in Ypsilanti, MI, in the fall of '73. Only became aware of this many, many years later. TIM

In the hopes of being helpful here, this is a link to my online review of the AMT/Ertl reissue of the '68 Road Runner last year. It also includes some comparison photos to the original JoHan '69 Road Runner body. http://public.fotki.com/funman1712/first-look-at-all-n/refreshed-amt-round/ I agree with the apparent majority opinion here, that the best combo (short of an all-new tool, which is unlikely in my view), is the AMT/Ertl kit innards, combined with the JoHan original issue body. Of course, JoHan also did a '70 annual kit in 1/25th which could also be combined with the AMT/Ertl kit innards, but the last time I checked, those were priced way up in the stratosphere.... Best regards...TIM

Good discussion here...as many of you know, both Bill Coulter and I owned new, factory ordered '74 Road Runners, his black with white stripes and the (standard) dual exhaust version of the 318, mine black with red stripes and the new for '74 "E58" hipo 360. First some photos...then some additional info on the kits you really want to track down... For those building a '74...you want either the original MPC annual kit, the Daisy Dukes reissue, or the metal box edition. Only those have the correct dual exhausts and '71-'74 interior instrument panel. The Daisy Dukes version adds the correct bodyside/roof/hood stripes (which were not in the original annual kit) in the factory correct shades of white, black, and what I call "Mopar Tomato Red", but these are missing the Road Runner bird decals on the stripe and the decal sheet also omits the "bird" for the right rear deck. The metal tin edition uses essentially the same decal sheet, but with the correct bird decals added to each of the side stripes (all three colors) and with four stand alone bird decals for the trunk (and extras). Bottom line, the metal tin edition is the one to get, with the added bonus of not paying the "Dukes" premium, offset to a degree by the metal tin edition carrying a higher MSRP when the kit was issued. Hope that helps...TB

Bill and Harry's new book is incredibly well done and highly recommeded. Over 200 full color pages of models and kits? Amazing! TB

Larry....that Lotus is super sharp! Congrats on your build....TIM

Thanks Pete....TIM

top line impressions.... * a beautiful piece of work (as expected), such things as nearly invisible parting lines on the body, and much more accurate side vents, reflect the progress you'd expect vs. the old AMT . Al;so, the center body tucks way under which is not the case (and would have been difficult to accomplish with a one piece body given mid 1960's kit tooling technology). * if your frame of 300 SL model car reference is the AMT 1/25th scale kit (as is mine), your first reaction may be "boy this thing is big" (from looking at the body, and the tube framing assemblies). And after pulling out the AMT to compare, yes it (the Tamiya) really IS big, much moreso than I would have expected between 1/24th and 1/25th scale. (Maybe that AMT kit was a tad smaller than 1/25th??? (without breaking out the ruler to check)). I certainly won't be swapping the AMT Rudge wheels (as I had hoped) onto this Tamiya SL, that's for sure. * there aren't as many trees of parts as I would have expected after having looked over the instructions preview (thanks again for posting that above), but everything looks orderly and well laid out. * there are a couple of parts where two adjacent components are molded together (old Monogram style) rather than separately as I'd prefer, but that's about the only thing I could cite that falls short of expectations. * finally, the kits were securely packaged and arrived perfectly, but the kits themselves were not sealed. Is that normal procedure (e.g. because of customs) for kits mailed overseas? I don't have time right now to do an online preview of the kit, I'm sure some of you who are more familiar with Tamiya kits can do it better justice than I. If I get some time later, though, I may do a "retro" posting of the AMT kit innards. A little busy right now, but best case maybe I can start working on it next week. It's been quite some time since I've done a major Tamiya kit build...should be fun. TB

Just got a package here from HLJ after getting a shipping confirmation ttwo days ago. Ya think it could be? It has to be. The package will be opened momentarily. I'm really excited. TB

The '37 Chevy tool was mostly cleaned up (which it badly needed) with the Model King release mid-last-decade. The only part that seems to have suffered further in the newest issue is the steering wheel for the street rod version, which is now about unusable. The stock seat and other restored parts are well done. When you count the new larger decal sheet, the tires (four pad printed wide whitewalls are a first for this kit), and the overall relatively good condition of the tool, other than that steering wheel, this is probably as close to the original 1967 kit issue as you can get without spending the $60-$80 to actually acquire the original. TB

Had a nice chat with Gary today on an unrelated subject....he reported that the '48 Chev Coupes are in full production in Korea as we speak....so it should only be a few months now until they are here ready for sale. Like many of you....can't wait. TB

Wow...that is one sharp truck. and a way cool kitbash to boot! Congrats....TIM