tim boyd

UPDATE 4-21-23: Today, after finishing a couple of magazine contributions, finishing 2023 taxes, etc, etc, finally sat down and took to that orange peel with a brand new 2400 grit (yes, the really serious stuff) Micro Mesh sanding pad and soapy water. Took a couple of hours, and avoided sanding through except the very top of the tailgate which was an easy fix. Just shot the Mr. Super Clear Gloss about an hour ago (8:10pm 4-21-23), appeared to go on without sags for flaws (except one small one on the hood that should rub out OK). Last checked it was drying nicely. Next step will depend on how much the paint shrinks as it dries. Would love to straight to polishinng compounds, but that may be too much of a stretch. Best...TB

Regrettably I will be missing the NNL East this year. But I think that there is a good chance that there will be at least one "bombshell" new model truck kit announcement at the NNL East this weekend. For the benefit of those of us who do not use Facebook or other social media, can those of you who are attending post any applicable new kit announcements (with photos if possible) here the MCM forum? Thanks in advance and have a great time at the show....TIM (PS -at times in the I've been proven wrong on these predictions - so don't take this guess as being gospel....just sayin'....TB)

Regrettably I will be missing the NNL East this year. But I think that there is a good chance that there will be at least one (and possibly more???) "bombshell" new model car kit announcement(s) at the NNL East this weekend. For the benefit of those of us who do not use Facebook or other social media, can those of you who are attending post any applicable new kit announcements (with photos if possible) here the MCM forum? Thanks in advance and have a great time at the show....TIM (PS -at times in the I've been proven wrong on these predictions - so don't take this guess as being gospel....just sayin'....TB)

Indeed, I also hear from Tim K. that much of the MCM team will be at the GSL 23 event. Great opportunity for us Forum participants and the magazine's brain trust to chat with each other, and nothing but good will come out of this for the future of the hobby. TB

Very, very cool progress! TB

Some mighty fine work underway there, Russell! TB

Bruce....thanks. The color is actually 1993 Ford Bright Calypso Green Metalllic (it was a special color for 1/1 scale Escort GT's IIRC), and this is the Testors Lacquer spray bomb version (yes, I still had one can left that had not leaked out all its contents along the bottom can seal). It went on a little rough....don't know if that had anything to do with the extreme orange peel reaction from the TS-13 Clear months later... No further progress at this point, sadly. Had another project to finish up for a magazine article, and seem to be awful busy on non-modeling toics these days for a retited person. Gotta get that one back in balance somehow! Best...TB

Heh Jim and Charlie...either of those outcomes would be a big, big win for me personally, and a reissue/cloning project would be a win for ALL of us in the hobby in my personal opinion. Given the way Round 2 is working these days, my takeaway is that as long as we keep buying their new cloning kits in big enough volumes, anything is conceivable over the long run!

Greg...ain't that the truth! I guess I'd been really lucky over time, but recently it seems that vendetta has been catching up with me! Thx for the comments! TB

Hi Alan....thanks.....and that's my plan....TB

I'm pretty sure I commented on this earlier in this thread, but if not, my take is that the two MPC Pinto pro-stocks were by a fair margin the most overall accurate Pro-Stock replicas of MPC's entire 1970's Pro-Stock lineup. I have advocated for a reissue of one or both of these kits for well over 10 years now with my friends at Round 2. For a number of reasons, though, I don't expect to see this happen in the near to mid future, if at all. Hope I'm wrong on this, though! Also, a very big caution on scalemates.com. I have found that while much of their kit history info is largely or completely correct, other info can be completely off the mark. As such, I always recommend double-checking any kit info there with other trusted sources.. TB

Steve Perry at Calnaga.com has done some very involved work in developing super-accurate 427 SOHC components in 1/25th scale. May want to check those out...TB

Lookin' really, really good! Excellent work on the cowl mount steering gear and linkage, too! TB

Heh Bill...thanks for posting this. Finally had some time yesterday to watch it. Very entertaining! Best....TB

Heh everyone, great progress all. Keep plugging away, I say! TB

My understanding is that this kit, and a second one yet to be announced that shares the tooling, will be at stores before years end....TB

Ever since I traveled the "thumb" area of Michigan (anyone remember the Ubly Dragstrip of the 1960's???) as the Ford Sales Zone Rep during 1979-81, I've been fascinated with the 1961-63 Ford Unibody F100 pickup. So much so that I spent $40 (in 1980 Money, the equivalent of $146 today. the most I've ever spent on a model kit) on a pristine unbuilt AMT 1963 F100 customizing kit at the old Herb Jackson/Bill Enders store in Farmington Hills, MI. I actually planned to build it but it never happened. Probably around 20 years ago I bought a second kit -the reboxed 1964 release - in a partially built form with some body damage and the like. Sometime in 2021 I set out to actually build the second kit. I'll save the envisioned build details for later, but the bottom line is this one has been a struggle almost from day one. I spent months fixing the damage, and more profoundly, fixing all the imperfections (sink marks, crooked side body molding, et al.) of the original AMT body shell. Then the paint...including multiple mishaps that again I will explain later, most recently a severe case of orange peel from an application of Tamiya TS Clear over well dried Testors Coat Lacquer. I do still work on it from time to time, but guys this one has been discouragement city! Anyway, shot a couple pix of it today in its current state. Thanks for looking and listening to the summary of my sad, sad story on this one! Cheers...TIM PS - and yes, there is a reason (to be revealed later, but hopefully not too far in the future) why I am showing this one at this time ..TB

Marc....really great to see you back at the scale bench. I am pretty certain I remember several of your entries for GSL from back in the day (and I think I photographed a couple for my magazine event coverage, too), but in any case, I think you were well in the thick of it all three times you were there. Looks like a very fun build and I also agree with you about the Mickey Thompson I4. Best wishes for bringing this one home...TB

This one dates from late 1968 or early 1969. After I won 4th place nationwide in the 1968 Dodge/MPC/Car Model Magazine Funny Car Contest, the CM Editor sent a form letter asking me to write some stories for the mag. I came up with four or five different projects, but of course had no way to photograph them, and was soon distracted (for the next 11 years) by competing in the MPC National Customizing Contest series. Of the four, one was finally completed in the late 1980s, another in 2012 (and featured in Model Cars magazine), a third in 2021 (my replica of the first gen Prock and Howell '33 Willys) but this one still sits in a box after... what...54 years???? It was to be a rear engined (two Avanit R4 V8's, side by side) drag or speed exhibition car using the Revell Miss Deal '53 Stude funny car (really, AWB) body and some of the engine mounting hardware from the rail dragster in the AMT Double Dragster kit. The frame was built from aluminum tubing and sheet styrene, and a few leftover pieces from the aforementioned Dodge Funny Car winner that were originally in the AMT '53 Stude funny car kit. I don't beleive I did any more work on this past probably middle 1969 or so....

OK guys, I'm game. This one was started back around late 1976 or early 1977 with the intent of being one of a series of models to be entered in the 1978 or 1979 MPC Model Car Customizing Contest Championship. It was an outgrowth of a commission from then-AMT to build up three models for their upcoming annual sales rep meeting of what were to be the followup series of AMT Ford Van Custom kits. I had to scratchbuild the new parts (from AMT engineering Dept. blueprints) and then complete the models. My own model was to be an extension of some ofthe design themes from those three custom van kits, but done with (what at the time I considered to be) more good taste than the AMT kits. I worked on it for a few months, (note the old AMT body putty), sketeched out a possible paint theme, and then in the box it went, where it has remained for the last 46 years.... OH....just thought of one even older...will post that one next...TB

Whoa Bill...that bad boy is SHARP! TB

One of these was a Scale Auto Enthusiast cover story from the late 1980's....and very much inspired by an Ivory colored '32 Woody built by Boyd Coddington. It had a way-ahead-of-the-curve paint color - a way old can of Krylon early 1960's style aqua turquoise. had originally planned to paint it with a can of Mercury 1978 Medium Jade touch-up paint but that disappeared in my move from Michigan to East Cobb Georgia c. 1987, and the Krylon was the backup. The rest of the kit was largely stock from the (originally MPC) AMT/Ertl reissue, but to get that stance was a major league headache and I recall that making up much of the story in SAE. Of course, as usual, once I did this one I couldn't help but do a second one, that was far more traditional in flavor. Both these used real wood for the woody area insets and the first one, just as Boyd C did on his car, had much of the internal bracing cut away. Then, still couldn't let up the inspiration so i did a third one based on the Monogram '30 A Woody kit, but using the "Sedan Delivery" style panels included in that kit. Here's how that one came out... These two ended up in a follow-up article either in Scale Auo Enthusiast or Car Modeler magazines. Of course, while these were pretty well turned out for the late 1980's , they do not begin to approach the level of detail and quality seen in Dennis' latest project in the WIP part of the forum . But I still like ''em for what they are. (You can see Dennis' Woody project here... Lots more pix here if you want to see more on my three Model A woodies above....and three other Boyd woodies along with a scale surfboard collection....and thanks for looking...TIM

Dennis....fascinating progress and agree with everyone....lookin' really good. Best of luck bringing this one forward and over the finish line. Will be especially interested to see where you go with the color palette, too. Best....Tim

Kit...bravo my man! Please keep me posted on your progress on these....TB