tim boyd

Like you John, I would vote for the '67 to 72 Chevy/GMC pickups to be Moebius' next truck kit project. Specifically, starting with the '67/'68 with its unique hood design which is really popular in the 1/1 scale hot rod and restoration marketplace, and is essentially unavailable to us modelers due to the costs of AMT 1967 and MPC 1968 annual kits these days. I don't speak for Moebius here, but unlike many kit requests that are voiced on this board, I think this specific subject actually has a decent chance of eventually materializing in kit form, whether from Moebius, Revell, Round 2, or someone else. TB

The Moebius Nova and Chevy II sedan Gasser kits were not based on a digitally scanned 1/1 car to my understanding, which was the primary discussion taking part above in this thread. During the model kit project development, an early version of the data set (not derived from 1/1 scale digital scanning) was 3D printed, again to my understanding, which was the prototype shown several years ago. Also, as has been discussed at length on other threads here, my research led me to the conclusion that the Chevy II Gasser two door sedan roof was not chopped. It appeared as chopped because there was an exaggerated height to a molding along top of the door and quarter panels, which visually served to reduce the DLO (daylight opening above the sill and below the roof). When Moebius made adjustments to the tooling to address this issue, the concerns about the roof appearing chopped seemed to me to largely disappear in the model car hobby. Having said that, I again acknowledge that some others (including yourself) see this differently. I also do agree with some of your other critiques of the final roof design, although to my eye they are minor enough that they do not impact me personally enough to keep me from building the kit again a second time. The question you pose on costs of digitally scanning 1/1 scale cars vs. having to redo tooling to address proportion issues is one that I too have questioned for a long time. Even fifteen years ago, the costs to digitally scan a 1/1 were only in the mid 4-dgit range (at least to 1/1 scale automotive manufacturers), and certainly would have gone down in cost since then. As alluded to in Steve's post above, the real cost hit was in the personnel and hours to take the resulting digital data, process it, and adapt it for a scale model kit tool. At the time, Revell was not willing to take that step, but in more recent years (including the kits you referenced, as well as the Starsky and Hutch car (I am told)) have proven (I hope) to Revell that the investment in 1/1 scale digital scanning is worth it in the long run. How those economics affect a smaller volume manufacturer like Moebius (where much of the kit development is largely done by one person to my understanding), I could not say. I hope the economics evolve to the point where 1/1 scale digital scanning becomes more of a given in pretty much all kit development, as I share the belief of many here that it does lead to a more authentic scale replica. Best...TB

I'm almost certain that I have previously posted pictures of my 1969 Charger El-Camino style pickup that i built back in 1969/1970. What I have not done, I am also pretty certain, is show the entirety of that entire project, that also included a 1970 Charger funny car with a scratchbuilt tubular frame and interior paneling and a matching, mostly scratchbuilt Charger-themed towing trailer with a number of operating features. Yesterday I posted new photos of the entire three-car set, along with a very detailed explanation of how the project came about and its results, in the Drag Racing section of the forum at this link. If the subject interests you further, you might want to take a look there, and if you do so, I want to thank you for your interest. Best to you all....TIM

Yesterday I posted a long story with many pictures on a three-car model project that included a 1970 Charger funny car with a scratchbuilt tubular chassis and interior, a 1969 Charger converted to an El-Camino style pickup, and a mostly scratchbuilt tow trailer of my own design with several operating features the Charger funny car that also included 1969 Charger design themes. If you are interested in reading more about the trailer and the accompanying vehicles, you can see the whole story here....thanks for looking. TIM

This is my most ambitious and detailed model car project ever. It was constructed over two-year period during my sophomore to senior years in high school, to compete in the 1972 Washington DC MPC Regional Model Car Customizing Championship and the concurrent MPC National Grand Finale the same weekend. Yes, the three models you are looking at were all completed 50 1/2 years ago as this is written.Having competed successfully at the regional level in the MPC series for three years at that point, I knew that something well out of the ordinary would be required to compete at the national level, particularly in the funny car genre. I thought that if I put together a funny car, tow trailer, and tow car all featuring the second-generation Dodge Charger design themes and with a matching color scheme across the three, that might be enough to do the trick. The funny frame was 100% scratchbuilt, designed by me and inspired by magazine photos of the first iteration of Gene Snow's 1970 Challenger "Rambunctious" with its direct drive (no tranny) layout. (Note: the chassis construction took place about two years before Jo-Han's kit of this car came out, and that kit iteration included a Torquefilte tranny in lieu of the direct drive layout of my car). Primary materials were styrene tubing (with the metal rods removed) and .015" sheet styrene (for the interior). The entire front suspension was functional, using scratchbuilt, working coil over shocks and working four-bar radius rods. The steering was also functional and turning the tires right or left moved the corresponding two-piece drag link (with frame mounted mid-length bracket) and drag link. The suspension and steering parts were mostly brass rod fabrications. I included other build features not found in most other MPC contest entries of the time, including a full onboard fire extinguisher setup, underframe contacts for to connect the auxiliary battery for the engine, and frame to header braces. Full chassis wiring was also designed in, routed through frame brackets along the interior compartment. The engine, of course, was a 426 Hemi, using the best available parts from my kit stash. The induction system was the Crower "8-Holer" as shown in a c.1970 Car Craft magazine rail dragster feature article. The engine included all applicable c. 1970-72 wiring and hoses, using Jim Keeler's "Unraveling the Snake Pit" series in Car Model Magazine as the primary reference. I even included two tiny scratchbuilt supercharger blowoff valve fittings in the front edge if the intake manifold - a first in 1/25th scale models at the time. Both the induction tubes and the exhaust headers were stylized with vertical extensions (to add a bit of creativity to the funny car genre); the exhaust extensions were removable to fit into a compartment in the trailer prior to the car being loaded there. The funny car body was from an MPC 1970 Charger annual kit, heavily modified including being narrowed, the roof being dropped downward at the A-pillars, a working escape hatch added to the roofline, the rocker panels partially sectioned away, and the front and rear ends being filled along with added spoilers at both locations. The yellow tinted windows included backlight vents with a stylized "TV" vent design, tying to the livery added after paint. The trailer was my own design, mostly scratcjbuilt but using extended side panels from an MPC 1969 Charger annual kit. The bulkhead area was built from sheet styrene, as was most of the interior. Four interior side panel inserts were hinged with working latches and opened to reveal tool sets cut down from two MPC kits of the era (perhaps the MPC J-Car?). The ramps and trailer storage areas were cut from the MPC Clear Display trailer kit pieces. The tailgate worked, and the dual axle setup was again based on the MPC Trailer kit. The trailer rear gate - widened from the Charger kit taillight panel area - lowered down to allow loading of the funny car with the ramps attached. The tow vehicle was my design of a 1969 Charger pickup, a body style that was rumored to be introduced that model year in one of the "next year news" articles of the day that I had read at the local drug store magazine counter. (In one of those "you can't make this up" instances, I recently found the actual subject article while going through the magazine collection of my now-deceased modeling buddy Chuck Helppie). The engine was a 426 Hemi and featured full wring, down to the smallest electrical lines, along with a clear hood with yellow acetate insert to match the funny car windows. The interior was updated to 1970 Charger specs (bucket seats, steering wheel, et al) using leftovers from the annual kit that sourced the funny car body. The pickup used a set of American 200 S "Daisy" wheels, to match those on the trailer, all sourced from two MPC 1970 Challenger annual kits. The tow vehicle/pickup was painted in Testors Competition Orange with Clear, just as the base coat of the funny car and trailer. For paint on the funny car and trailer, I designed a square-based side panel graphic, using Testors Gold with a Testors Silver overlay of squares, then overcoated with Testors Transparent Red. The horizontal surfaces of the funny car, and the trailer canopy area, were treated to an insert base of Testors Gold, then a Grecian-Key design was hand painted on the surfaces. Pactra Candy Gold was then applied over the design. The Charger body C-pillars and the sides of the trailer canopy wore an inset of c. 1962 Pactra "Pearlustre" Pink, with white cobwebbing (per Hank Borger's procedure as described in Car Model) added to the center areas, followed by a clear overcoat. All painting (other than the Grecian Design) was done with aerosol cans - I did not own an airbrush at the time. The livery was originally planned to be decals from the MPC 1970 Don Garlits front engine rail kit, but as the project dragged on, I used those on an interim project. The final graphics came from two boxes of the first version of the AMT Tommy Ivo rear engine dragster kit. My family drove to the Washington DC MPC event in April, 1972, and the funny car won "Best of Show" at the MPC regional event there, but did not place in the top 3 at the MPC National Finals. (One judge suggested to me it would have won 4th nationwide had they been awarding that prize). But what happened to the trailer and tow car, I asked, incredulous that they were nowhere to be seen. I was then told that because the funny car would not fit in the trailer, the trailer and tow car were disqualified. WHAT??? Turns out that the judges had failed to read the instructions and did not remove the header extensions before placing the car on the trailer. GGGRRRR!!!! Further, I was told that my blower induction system was not realistic; again, they had failed to read the explanation that it was in fact inspired by the real 1/1 scale Crower 8-Holer system. Would the entire three-car set had been strong enough to displace the eventual third nationwide winner? We will never know; perhaps not. But to be sure, this left a very bad taste in my mouth and given a somewhat similar situation that occurred at the 1979 MPC Finals in Omaha (Judges who did not read the instructions and made incorrect assumptions about the 1/1 scale accuracy of my entry), helped lead to a decision to never again enter a model car contest. And I haven't, either, personally finding much more enjoyment instead from participating in the NNL-style non-competitive model events. Well, thanks for wading through my account of my most ambitious and detailed model car project ever. Enjoy the photos, most taken earlier this month (additional photos can be seen here). And please forgive me for some less than pristine repairs to the drag link/pitman arm setup, which finally failed five decades after its initial completion.Best to you all....TIM

Thanks Steve for taking the time to explain the steps required to scan and data-ize 1/1 scale cars, and also the process for the Round 2 "cloning" process to Forum members. One other issue, not mentioned so far, is that 1/1 scale owners are not always willing to hand over their cars for scanning. Unless the process has changed recently, digital scans require "dusting" a car with a white powder that is then "read" by the scanning equipment. It of course can be cleaned off readily enough, but some owners, particularly those with the really correct high quality restorations that are the best source of scan data for model kits, are leery of the process. Don't know if Round 2 has encountered this, but apparently Revell has in the past. TB

Also, the interior seat sew style of the Jo-Han '73 Cutlass promo is wrong. I had stockpiled two of those, intending to do a full detail model (with the Revell '72 442 455 engine and the Revell Snap-Tite '77 Monte Carlo chassis) but after starting research and looking the brochure and real cars, noticed the model was wrong. Probably was a late breaking change just before production of the 1/1, given that Jo-Han promos back then were pretty accurate overall. TB

Steve....I bet the guy that you are thinking of is Steve Perry. Not only an excellent photographer, but a top-drawer model builder (with multiple magazine articles to his credit) and the proprietor of Calnaga Castings, an aftermarket model car parts resin casting business specializing in Drag Racing topics. Sorry I missed the spring show, would have loved to seey your R/T in person....TIM

Cool! Thanks for posting, James. TB

Mr. Metzner may choose to reply here, but unless/until then, I believe I recall hearing that they had just received back the second-round test shots with all the improvements from analyzing the first-round test shots. Progress, in any case. TB

....and here are mine....box stock except for my own aerosol shade-faded paint schemes and "Rambunctious" (from Slixx) liveries....TB

Man....that looks really close to 1/1 scale reality. Keep us up to date on your plans, Bill. And let me know if you want some advice on possible factory color schemes, too! Best....TIM

If all goes according to plan (at least as I last heard it to be) you will soon be seeing a Boyd hot rod period theme build that shares a number of similar approaches to Dennis' roadster pickup shown here....hope you like it when the time comes....TIM

First, check out Al Rich's The Race of Gentlemen inspired '32 Ford Roadster in this section of the forum. If you are inspired by that one to consider a TROG themed model build, then you should take a stroll through this album of all of the TROG themed models that showed up for the NNL 38 Cult Theme display. Peruse 92 images of them at this link, and thanks, Al. for bringing this build idea back in front of us hobbyists....here's just a taste of what is awaiting your views....TIM

Al...glad to hear that article provided some inspiration. Gotta say, 98% of all TROG race cars would show the "as used" appearance of yours vs. the probably unrealistic pristine finish of my project! Way to go and thanks for sharing.... Tom....that image is so sad. Hope they have the financial resources to cover losses and show up again next year....TIM

Thomas....that is one sharp build and really shows the potential of this AMT kit. Great photos and background, too! TIM

Thanks Jordan. This looks just so cool!!!! While a real standalone engine would have been the icing on the cake, this is still a great kit subject (the 1/1 is still among the most in demand, fastest selling products in the domestic auto industry), the execution looks spot-on, and the ability to incorporate future alternatives into the kit tooling should assure its longevity in the Round 2 product range. As I believe I have mentioned in the past, this was a key future kit topic at Round 2 for quite some time; it is really exciting that it has now made its way to the top of the future products tooling list. I sure hope it sells well enough to justify the investment Round 2 has made in it, and also that it goes a way to attracting younger people into the model car building hobby. TB

As I wrote somewhere else on the forum a couple of weeks ago, I had 1985, 1990, and 1992 LSCs (the 1992 was a Special Edition). They were magnificent cars. The perfect combo of outrageous (for the time) luxury accommodations combined with the burble of a 5.0L HO and (especially in the early years) an avant-garde design theme that helped to rewrite the book on luxury automobile styling. The 1990, with its factory BBS wheels and ice blue over dark blue livery, remains among my 2 or 3 most favorite cars ever. Needless to say, I would love to see a full detail kit, but do not expect that to ever happen. tb

Short of someone having the old AAM resin kit, the technically correct approach (i.e., how the 1/1 was developed) would be to base the conversion on the Monogram 1/24th scale 1987 Thunderbird Turbo Coupe kit. Same basic body structure/platform, driveline, suspension (except for coils instead of air bags, etc.), along with a 5.0LHO from a 1987 or later Fox body Mustang kit...

What Joathan said. TB

David....that's great to hear. And "thanks" for your thanks....TIM

Luc, not 100% sure but more than likely that in the future I will not be involved in doing kit previews like we did with the Nova Gasser. I've concluded that doing so has the potential to create too much controversy for a hobby and a on forum site that are supposed to be about fun instead. Best...TB

Looking forward to seeing it! TB

Now THAT is good question.....TB

Just be aware, as mentioned in my drag facing kits book, that the body is seriously flawed in this kit. The front wheel wells are to the rear of where they should be, and this sets up a very unrealistic body appearance that is not replicative of the real car. Cool driveline, though. TB