tim boyd

Gil...thanks for posting your final assessment of the kit. It exactly mirrors my own. Excellent result, too, using the Vallejo product. And the final model looks terrific, too. Best...TIM

Thank you Dave for posting this info. I noticed this issue (inability to go to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and so forth pages on a given thread) starting about 3 or 4 days ago and was concerned it was an issue with my desktop computer using Windows 10 and Chrome. I have not experienced it on my laptop using Windows 11 and Edge. I was concerned that my desktop operating system had been somehow affected by a problematic issue on my end, not yours. Thus, it is very reassuring to hear that the issue is not mine alone and that you all are working on a solution. Best....TIM

Dan...confirmed today, they're from the AMT 1964 Mercury Marauder annual kit and the Buyer's Choice reissue of same....you can see them illustrated (in a vertical position) on a rear 3/4 view of the custom version on the box side.......TB

Congrats Steve, John, Tom, and the entire Round 2 team on a great choice for the model car (err...pickup) kit hobby....TIM i

Jim...congrats on your project and on finishing it too! Particularly impressed with your interior work and scratch built portions. Big Congrats from this corner....TIM

Hi Dennis.... Once again, not sure how I missed this one but will be watching and cheering from the sidelines from this point forward. Just as you mentioned up front, over the years I can't even recall the number of my model projects (but it's a big number) that began with the discovery of a killer wheel/tire combo, and the subsequent need to come up with a model project to showcase them. Glad you went back to the wires, too, somehow wires and woodies just live together. Got any color/livery schemes in mine yet...? And thanks for the really clear, step by step photos and explanations. Excellent. And for what it's worth I too struggle with being happy with the front shock mounts on my rod projects. You've already gone to much more effort than I typically do there, so kudos on that. But I often wish for some sore of scale representation of the classic 1950 Ford F-1 tubular shock mounts. Particularly for our febderless traditional rod projects. Looking forward to updates as you can share them....Best....TIM

AGREE!!!! TB

Luc....sorry, I don't have any insider knowledge on this one....TB

Moebius has been working for quite some time now on a number of several all-new and derivative subjects. Some of them have seen vague rumors in the modeling world, others not so much. Nevertheless, I was more than a little surprised to see a public display of some their future kit plans at that Vegas hobby show. Accordingly, I checked with my contacts at Moebius, and they confirmed that the Vegas display of future plans was legit. I have long lobbied (behind the scenes) for a 1967/68 C-10 to be the first announcement from that project, as the unique front end treatment has in the past only been available in scale via the original AMT/MPC annual kit tool, which in unbuilt form is essentially non-acquirable for any price that most modelers can swing. Plus, it is highly popular in the 1/1 scale builder/collector world. So, I am particularly pleased to see public confirmation of this kit to come. As has been the case in the past with their kit development strategy, it is reasonable, I think, to conclude the Maverick and C-10 tools will provide the basis for additional future products over time. Even if these first product announcements don't exactly target your interests, hopefully one of the follow-on releases will. Finally, just to reinforce some of the comments above, while planning has been underway for quite some time on both of these projects, they are still relatively early in the actual kit development process. And I have been advised that Moebius' leadership is targeting getting these kits as close to 100% correct as a replica can be, even if it means a slower debut of the final product. My guess would be that the first of these kits are at the very least a year away from being in our hot modeling hands. Nevertheless, something for all of us to very much be looking forward to. Best...TB

Been going through my collection of early 1960s Car Craft mags (before they went 100% on the drags around 1965). It is striking to me just how clumsy some of those Model A and Deuce Channeled Roadsters looked back then. In particular several have the same "too far forward" grille shell placement that appeared on the Revell 1929 Hot Rod Roadster kit. Also, seems many omitted the slight forward rake we all prefer now, instead reflecting the "parallet to the ground" or even an ever so slightly raised front end stance as seen in the Revell kits. Revell's Roger Harney was totally clued in the hot rod world back then and makes me wonder whether he directed John M. and the team to include this "feature" in the Revell kit all these years later. Strikes me that our vision of what constitutes the "right" look for "era correct" hot rods back in the day has perhaps changed a bit over all the ensuing years. Still, I'd much prefer the adjusted Grille Shell position and forward rake as in the above model, over what might possibly be the more "era correct" treatment in the Revell kit. If any of you guys have access to Car Craft mags from late 1959 through 1964, would be interested to hear if you have any similar thoughts....Best...TB

Thanks everyone...comments and questions are appreciated. As most of you know, I posted three different channeled '29 Model A Roadster builds over the last week. Interesting to me to compare the relative number of views of this vs. the early-mid 1960s and the mid-late 1960s themed builds. Dave, I vaguely recall the use of the AMT Willys Gasser interior parts did require some slicing and dicing to then live in this application....but thx and...hmmm... maybe I need to try this again on another build myself. Best to yothu all....TB

Dan....I will have to do some investigation, but if forced to guess I'd say the AMT Buyer's Choice reissue of the 1964 Mercury ParkLane....can anyone else confirm? Best...TB

Beautifully conceived and executed. Big congrats!!! TIM

I know I've posted images of this one before, but possibly not on this website (and a google search didn't suggest it appeared here), so here goes.... This was a model I first built back around 1974-5, making it just about 50 years old. It was updated twice in the ensuing decades, most recently probably about thirteen years ago. Read on for the story... *************************************************************************************************** The basic model was inspired by a 1/1 scale channeled 1932 Ford Roadster in one of the early-mid 1970s Hot Rod or Rod Action Street Rod yearbooks. My model was kitbashed with these basic components: Body/windshield/interior from the 1973 reissue of the AMT 1932 Ford Roadster kit, the better detailed frame from the AMT 1932 Ford Vicky kit, the entire front suspension and rear radius rods from the the MPC nee AMT Wild Dream show car, wheels and tires from (I think) the then-new MPC Switchers Series kits, a Halibrand Quick Change, a 406 FE from the Revell Roth Mysterion kit with the AMT Vicky headers/sewing thread spark plug leads/fuel lines/carb linkage with return springs, front and rear brake lines, a custom rolled rear pan with molded license plate recess, rear fenders from (IIRC) the original 1963 issue of the Vicky kit, a hand-painted wood firewall (yes, some actually did use wood firewalls on their 1/1s back then), a mix of Testors Candy Red and Candy Blue paints yielding a dark maroon/black cherry result, and Pactra Pearlustre Pink on the interior. Also note the sunken radio antennas from the AMT 1936 Ford kit. I don't recall how I did the front cycle fenders, but I do remember them being a lot of work. Below is the '32 lowboy in its original build version, circa 1975. In this poorly lit and barely focused picture, also circa 1975, note the horizontal bar grille, the totally out-of-place wiremag wheels and skinny/superwide tires, and those skinny front cycle fenders. In this form the model would have been about 90% correct as an early 1960's custom hot rod, but the wheel tire combo and possibly the grille were jarring inaccuracies. **************************************************************************************************** Two years later, around 1977, I redid the model, dropping the horizontal grille bar, the front cycle fenders, and the funky wheel and tire combo (discarded parts shown in front of the model in this picture, taken in the first week of June, 2010 just before the third version updates ). Unfortunately, the replacement wheel and tire treatment, shown here, was just as odd for the build style of the car - mid 1970's skinny and deep Centerline wheels from a mid-1970s AMT Funny Car kit. Also, though front cycle fenders were very out of style for street rods back then, the model was very visually unbalanced with the fenders remaining in the rear. I can't recall for sure, but this may have been entered and been a regional trophy winner sometime during the 1977-79 MPC Customizing Contest series. *********************************************************************************** Finally. some 35 years after the completion of the original model, on June 5, 2010, I once again updated the vehicle to represent what it should have been since the very start - a mid 1960's hot rod that could have come straight from the pages of Car Craft magazine. Here you can see the parts discarded during both rebuilds. I kept the regular (sectioned) Deuce grill shell from the first rebuild, added back the front cycle fenders from the first build, and equipped the model with a set of shallow and deep original mid 1960's Rader five spoke ribbed mags, probably from the AMT Munsters Coach kit if I am recalling correctly. Some cleaning of the paint and chrome, and a host of repairs from damage when I removed the second-generation parts, and here is the model, FINALLY, the way it should have been built originally back in 1975..... Though I did not know it at the time, the car in that aforementioned mid-1970s Street Rod yearbook was already ten years out of date....no one was building new channeled '32 Fords back in the day of 1970s era Resto Rods! Finally, with the third version of the model it found its real roots as a replica of an early-mid 1960s hot rod project. Here are some other pictures of the most recent update... Thanks for checking this out, and my apologies in advance if you've seen it posted previously before here or elsewhere....Best TB

What John said above, plus one other big oops. The front grille insert for the 1969 update of this kit does not do a very good job of replicating the 1/1 scale car appearance. I know this because I just completed a buildup up the kit and did my best to work around the problem. Result was better, but not great. TB

This one was built about 15 or so years ago. It used the AMT 1929 Model A body, an extended tubular frame derived from the Revell Henry J/Austin/'43 Willys Pickup gasser kits tooling, an interior with parts sourced from the AMT 1940 Willys Gasser kit, the tri-carb Nailhead Buick from the original AMT 1932 Ford Custom/1940 Willys Gasser double kit, headers from the Revell Nailhead Buick Engine Parts Pack, suicide front and transverse leaf rear suspension (IIRC) from the Monogram Little T/follow-up reissues, Halibrand Quick Change rear from an I-don't-remember kit source, 1958 Chevy Bel Air tailamps and bezels, and IIRC not quite period correct Buick Riviera wheel covers on skinny tall/n/taller aftermarket sourced dual sided whitewalls. The trunk was cut out and hinged and filled with 1960s car show type display content. The paint is MCW Automotive Finishes 1959 Buick Lido Lavendar Metallic. Thanks for checking it out...TIM Finally, a comparison shot or two of this project alongside a box stock build of the later Revell Hot Rod Channeled Model A Roadster....

Here are some photos of one of my earlier kitbashes of the Revell Channeled Model A Roadster. This one has an AMT/Ertl Ford FE V8, chopped windshield, chopped Deuce grille shell with photo-etched grille from The Model Car Garage, parts box instrument panel gauges, polished aluminum firewall, lowered front suspension, Halibrand Quick Change diff, and MCW Automotive Finishes 1957 Lincoln code 17 Bermuda Coral paint, and wheels/tires from the Revell Miss Deal Stude kit. (This one would have really benefitted from the rear wheel well revisions seen in my latest red 1929 Channeled Roadster posted elsewhere in this forum folder.) Thanks for looking.....TIM Update - found some historical info on this project. The tri-carb FE 352 cubic inch (the 390, 406, and 427 would look the same) engine came from the AMT/Ertl 1960 Ford Starliner kit. Mods include the 390 Interceptor valve covers from two of the AMT Hull Raiser Ski/Drag Boat (or its 3 reissues) wherein the chrome tree retains one of the valve covers from the previous AMT Rayson Craft Trophy Series kits - you need two of to the Hull Raiser kits to get a complete set of the valve covers for one engine, a plated oil pan from the FE 390 engine option in the AMT 1934 Ford Pickup, and the air cleaner from the Caddy engine option in the AMT 1949 Ford Coupe....the prewired distributor came from Morgan Automotive Details. The fuel lines and fuel block assembly is found in the AMT/Ertl kit; it is well detailed even if a bit out of scale. All the white styrene bits visible here must have come from sloppy cleanliness on my modeling desk!

Skip....thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts and insight here. FWIW, I agree 100% that a Halibrand QC, transverse leaf spring, and Model A crossmember would have been far more period-typical, and had i had the time that would have been the next change to add to the build. (I think I mentioned this in one of the photo captions posted at my Fotki site; if I didn't, I should have). Although a Ford diff and coil overs would not have been technically impossible at that point in time, they certainly were not typical and to your point, not seen in any degree of regularity. Another area I was not completely happy with was the inclination of the intake manifold (and as a result) the carbs. Having been sourced from the AMT-Ertl replica of the 1966 Riviera, the manifold was designed to be rougly parallel with the ground, but sinnce the engine in that application was tilted downward to the rear, the intake's car mounting surfaces were angled to be lower at the front. Plop that manifold into the Revell Z'ed chassis, added to the slight forward rake I added, and the manifold/carbs tilt downward to the front. Not too realistic. When I did my post-completion mods to change the wheels and tires, I also tweaked the engine mounts and filed the manifold surfaces to make the carbs sit a little more parallel to the ground. See before/after pix below. The effect is pretty subtle (possibly not even noticeable), but at least I know I made an attempt to fix it. As for the grille shell, I previously built another Revell '29A Channeled roadster with many of the same changes, only that one did include the Deuce shell. So, this time I went with the Model A shell. As mounted, it sits a little lower than I might like. I prefer grille shells to be aligned with the leading edge of the cowl, such that if a hood was used, it would sit at the right angle. On this model, I would need to raise the grille shell perhaps 1/16" to achieve that. Oh well.... Finally, got to get rid of that shifter knob (about four times too big) and (while it is too late to do anything about it now), if I ever build another Revell channeled Roadster, I will route the steering column through a hole drilled in the dashboard, as it sits way too low/too close to the sea as built from the kit and mounted to the kit's column drop. Skip...sounds like you grew up in a wonderful environment and really cool to have you share your thoughts and memories with us on the forum. Thanks again...TIM Before... After....

Heh guys....thanks for the feedback and comments. This was my third build of the Revell Channeled '29A Roadster, and finally this time I think I got most of the desired changes (but maybe not quite all) covered this time around. Glad that the changes to the rear wheel wells were noticed and approved. That was the very first comment I made to Revell when they asked me to do a comprehensive review of the first round test shots, but at that point it was already too late to make the major retooling needed to replicate a factory stock wheel well treatment. This change is not too difficult IMHO, and as noted in the build thread link posted elsewhere in this forum under, I vaguely recall the basic approach was proposed in this very forum, sometime back when the kit first came out in 2015, by one of our forum participants. I found his proposed approach to have worked really well. (If anyone remembers who suggested it, please respond here so we can acknowledge his contribution by name! Thanks again and best to you all....TIM

Thanks for the comments and feedback, Dave. I was specifically aiming for a 1962-1964 time frame, so a 1964 HR mag feature would have been very time-line correct and sounds like that targeting came through loud and clear for you. I kinda feel the 9" Ford diff and coil overs are a little too contemporary for that era, though they would have been technically feasible then, but ran out of time to make a swap to a Halibrand QC et al. I have another period-specific project I just completed, targeted to represent a project that would have been completed in December 1966 or January 1967. Hopefully the build will be featured in MCM, sooner rather than later. We shall see....

All...thanks very much for your feedback on this post. I am really happy to hear that some of you found value in the "fixing the rear quarter panel" tutorial posted at my Fotki site; I often wonder whether it is worth it to go to the trouble of doing this type of work to document how to do these changes. It is especially helpful to know that you do see value in this. Best to you all....TIM

Bill...thanks for adding your comments. I look to you (as I am sure many others do) as a "godfather of sorts" on the topic of hot rod design and accuracy, and glad to know you approve of grille changes. Halfway expected you to tatoo me a bit on the unrealistic forward inclination of the intake manifold/carbs of the completed model as seen above. I did do some after the fact fine tuning and was able to somewhat improve the appearance as seen in the updated image below. Still, as always, some things I would do differently next time if I ever do this type of build again. Thx again for the feedback...TB

Bob...here's my notes on the wheel tire combo per your request... * Front wheels - Holthaus #W-120(?) Chrome Reverse Wheels (with tweaks for fit) * Front tires - Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland #T-50 Firestone 5:50-16 * Rear wheels - AMT 1965 Falcon Funny Car (A/FX kit) * Rear tires - Revell Rat Roaster and just reissued (modified w/o Rat Roaster parts) 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster Additional notes - - Both front and rear wheels were chrome plated as received - My notes on the front wheels and tires are a bit sketchy; please confirm before ordering - The Holthaus wheels were ordered back when Don and Carol were running the business; I do not know if they were or are among the wheel/tire products that remained available after they closed the business - The Revell '51 Anglia and '53 Stude "Miss Deal" tires could be a more widely available substitute for the R&M parts I used.... As regards those spark plug covers, I know of no kit or aftermarket source for those other than the original AMT '32 Ford Custom/'40 Willys Double Kit. Seems that would be a no-brainer for the aftermarket to replicate. Thanks for your questions and hope this helps, at least a bit....TB

Thanks Paul for that bit of info; did not know about that. You are correct about the folks at the model companies dropping hints like that back in the day. In fact, according to a now retired AMT Executive I interviewed for the "Collecting Drag Racing Model Kits" book, one AMT engineer actually had the entire model (box art theme, imagery and decal livery) named after an event involving him one evening back in the day. Out of respect (and because the specific person has not confirmed the story to me), I'm not going to reveal the supposed details. But if true, does yet again confirm something I've (and you've) observed over the years: these model company guys work hard, and yet know how to have fun too! TB

I've posted additional pictures of the completed model, including a different set of wheels and tires and some other fine tuning, at the "Under Glass" section of this forum. You can go directly there with this link....TIM