tim boyd

Claude, your creativity just amazes me. If you were competing in the old MPC customizing championship series, you would have been winning the "Best Originality" awards right and left. Having said that, this is one of your best projects yet! Great job. I wouldn't change a single thing. TIM

Thanks Daniel...this is the info I was looking for. But I also found your explanation of how you did the body panel joins to be very instructive and clever. Thanks for taking the time to explain that and the paint approach! Cheers...TIM

To further the point on Revell....the '29A/'30A tooling was substantially damaged shortly after the ''30A first went into production in mid 2015. It took a major effort (manpower, tooling resources, and funding) to redo the missing tooling for the reintroduction of those kits several years back. While it took way too long (from my perspective as a hot rod kit builder) for the kits to return, the new Revell Germany team (and its US support arm) deserve major kudos for actually making it happen. Likewise, the new Boss 351 kit is in my personal judgement clearly the best muscle car kit ever produced in 1/24th-1/25th scale. Personally, I'd rather see fewer kits introduced from Revell, done really well, than a litany of new kits produced to a lower standard. As I think about it in broader terms, we as model car/truck builders are in a really good position right now. We have Revell's new approach with the '71 Mustang and C8 Corvettes, we have Round 2 reintroducing old kit topics with simplified build processes and outstanding fit/finish refinements, we have Moebius producing long wished for topics from the first generation of muscle cars/missing 1960s era pickup and light duty trucks/and the golden age of 1960's-early 1970s drag racing, and finally have Atlantis reissuing ancient Revell/Monogram kit topics that sell for 1/5th of the price of the originals on the auction sites. And not to mention (but to mention(!) the existing and relatively new overseas kitmakers producing JDM and international automotive/racing-rallying/exotics topics. And further, the yet to be determined output of the new Ohio/Atomic group owners of the Jo-Han trademark. Yes, I'm an optimist, and perhaps overenthusiastic cheerleader for our hobby and its kitmakers, but this is my POV FWIW...TIM

Guys....the team at Round 2 are well aware of the interest in the modeling community for "clones" of the '71 and '72 Road Runner. My past experience is that in these types of cases, the model companies add such a topic to their ongoing list of potential projects. Each year (or budget cycle), the companies go through their potential projects list and re-rank the ideas from top to bottom. Rankings often change each year given how the kit market is developing. Then a budget is placed against the list, along with other considerations like the cost of the project, the timing sequence, coverage of key subsegments (pickups, hot rods, drag kits, etc as well as non-auto topics like sci-fi) and the availability of engineering/tooling resources to support the projects. Then the final list of projects to be produced that year is decided. Topics that miss the list that year go onto the list for next year. Each company has their own approach to this process, but the general description above is broadly representative of what occurs. All of which is to say, again, Round 2 knows very well of the interest on this subject. But when and how they react is subject to a whole number of considerations beyond just the feedback on the subject from the public and this forum. My own uneducated guess is that this kit topic has a fairly good chance of eventually occurring, but as to when and how, your guess is as good as mine. Finally, as you've heard me say before, chances for this sort of kit topic increase notably if the current "clone" kits on the market sell really well. Speaking of which, have you all purchased the '68 R/T convertible kit, and placed your advanced orders (when the order banks open) for the '68 R/T hardtop? Hopefully supprotive....TIM

Mark is 100% correct. The '65 to '69 tool was the same one (albeit with year to year updates), and with a new body added in 1967. The tool switched from AMT to MPC branding for the 1968 model year and continued there for 1969. The 1969 kit just reissued by Round 2 still uses a few parts dating back to the original 1965 AMT annual kit.

Mark is 100% correct. The '65 to '69 tool was the same one (albeit with year to year updates), and with a new body added in 1967. The tool switched from AMT to MPC branding for the 1968 model year and continued there for 1969. The 1969 kit just reissued by Round 2 still uses some parts dating back to the original 1965 annual kit.

Dan....my profound kudos on your project.. I have long thought that the modern-day nostalgia front engine rail dragsters would make a great subject for a model project, but yours is the first one i recall seeing executed to this level of precision and realism. And your quality of workmanship is superb! Finally, how did you do the panel inserts on the body? You have every reason to be immensely proud of your accomplishment here! TIM

Very, very cool! Thanks for sharing, and congrats on completing this "refresher" project....TIM

Ron...here you go....TB Best...TB

Thanks all for your comments....very much appreciated, and glad you enjoyed looking at it...TB

Thanks Bill...appreciated your vote of confidence! In some ways I wish I had taken the time to fix some of the issues....the incorrect dropped front axle....lack of a scattershield....the grille shell mounted too low....a wish to use the early Airheart discs up front...the not completely perfect paint, and some other items as noted in the build thread on this model. But on the other hand it is finished (and I got to it to Tim K. for the article at the agreed time). I pretty much always struggle with the tradeoff between perfect but never finished projects vs. Imperfect but finished model projects. I tend to go the latter route, but with some regrets. Thx for the comments...TB

Obviously, I missed this one first time around...thanks for pulling it forward. What a great model! Big congrats Daniel! TB

Ron I took a picture yesterday....takes a while to get it downloaded, organized and posted. Give me a couple more days...TB

True...that. And perhaps that oddity might have been part of the reason the original annual kit included a B-pillar extension among the various custom parts that did not make the new release (including IIRC rear fins, roof and hood scoops and a third custom version grille inspired by the 1955 DeSoto?) TB

John...gotta say, those fadeaways really look sharp on the fully trimmed convertible body. Caddy grille too. Also congrats on the very conservative and tasteful color scheme. Thanks for sharing! TIM

Tim...doesn't look like i ever responded to your questions above. Sorry 'but that! Yes, it was the aerosol version of the Mr. Color Super Clear. I do like it. It seems to combine some of the better traits of a combo of the Tamiya TS-13 Clear and Testors Welt Look Clear, without some of the drawbacks (ie. the TS-13 can draw basecoat paint away from cutlines, while the We tLook Clear seems to stay a little soft a little too long. As for the primer coats I used, it's been a long time but as I planned to use the Testors and Tamiya lacquers, it was probably Tamiya Fine Pigment Gray primer. I do suppose that part of the problem may have been that the prior seller had used some sort of paint remover, and my experience has been that some of these do weaken the styrene underneath (tending to make it more brittle), and maybe that same effect caused the styrene to wrinkle when the new paint was applied. Oh well... Hearing good things about the Createx, too! May have to give that a try. Thanks for sharing on this. Hope all is well and that you are keeping warm up in Vermont! Best...TB '

JIm....take a bow on the first bet....second one, not so much. But a fun thought, anyway! Thanks...TB

Buddy....any updates on your project that you can share here? Thanks...TB

Update 2-14-24: Well now I can divulge in more detail that just two months after making some major progress on the project I started back in 2021 (so, about February or March of 2023) I got confirmation that Round was going ahead with a "clone" of the original kit (which you can now review in the new truck kits section of this forum). That, along with the trouble with the paint as detailed above, kind of put a hold on the project. Nevertheless, over the last few months I put together a new chassis based on a shortened version of the Moebius LWB Bumpside series kits. While this is not 1/1 scale correct as the Moebius kit, of course, includes the Twin I=Beam suspension that did not appear on the 1/1 until the 1965 model year, it was envisioned as a way to get a detailed chassis vs. the one-piece promo style unit in the AMT kit. (In retrospect, it may have been better (i.e. more feasible/correct to the 1/1) to use the Moebius chassis in combination with the front leaf spring suspension in the Revell '56 F100, but that ship (i.e. my build) has long since passed that decision.) As seems so common when looking at a conversion like this, what looks simple turns out to be more than a little complex, especially fitting the chassis with the Twin I-Beam to the front underbody of the AMT kit. But now the chassis is done, along with a slightly dropped stance to the front and rear suspension. The interior has been modified to use the Moebius kit floorboard, but still needs to be painted and finished. Still planning to use the FE engine from the Revell Foose F100 kit. Had also planned to use the wheels and tires from that Foose kit but am waiting to get my hands on a second new AMT F100 kit and may use the steelies in that instead. Finally, I noticed not long ago that the rear window of the kit I used (remember, it was a rescue I bought on Ebay) is missing a small corner at the lower passenger side corner. I was thinking of installing it anyway and tryring to bridge the gap with Testors Clear Window Cement or MicroScale equivalent, but then I thought I'll just wait for the new kit and use that window. Turns out the new kit window fits differently in the backlight (and to my thoughts, perhaps not quite as well), so we'll see on that one. Anyway, that's the update. Hope to have this one done sometime in the first half of this year....thanks for your ongoing interest in the project...TB

I think this may have been posted previously, but it is certainly possible this camper shell was an AMT Art/Engineering Department freelance one-off design. Much of the staff there at the time was comprised of automotive enthusiasts, along with (so I hear) some moonlighting big 3 design department employees. Not to mention that deer hunting in Michigan became highly popular during the 1960s. I can just imagine AMT's product development personnel riding along in their camping trips up I-75 from Troy to northern Michigan, watching all those ugly campers and shells on rag tag pickups, and sayiing "we can sure do better than that!". And at least in my book, they did. Of course, this is all conjecture on my part..... Personally,, I find this to be a very handsome design and in the new kit, it literally falls together in a few minutes (though watch out for trimming those sprue feeds which need some love and attention for a good result). But I also think the basic parts lend themselves to modifications along the line of the comments above. And I am looking forward to viewing the first build that includes the rooftop observation deck option. TB

Thanks Mike....that matches what i recall from when I did the research and the building of the review model...TB

Dan...very very sharp. Great stance and also like the colors you chose. Thx for sharing...TB

Mike...thanks for your input on this. Not too surprisingly, I suppose, this conflicts directly with the sources I referenced that said the primary interior color on 1963 F-Series pickups specifically was gray. Your info certainly suggests that my info above is a far from settled topic and that more research is needed before we can come up with a definitive answer. Thanks again for the info and update...much appreciated. TB

David, nicely done and full of character! Thx for sharing. I welcome anyone else posting their own '46-'48 Ford builds in this thread, or elsewhere here in the MCM on the "Under Glass Cars" folder....TB

That looks really sharp in orange, too! Thx for posting, Mario, and congrats...TIM