tim boyd

Thanks a bunch! Really appreciate the efforts to improve the legibility....TIM

The most recent additions to my collection of Model A Five Window Coupe hot rod models were both built from the 2021 reissue of the Revell '30 Model A Five Window Coupe hot rod kit. I built it both ways - Highboy and Channeled - straight from box with just paint detailing added. While I still think this kit is among the finest hot rod model kits ever, there were a few issues that surfaced during the restoration of the damaged kit tool that, in my opinion, make the original issue kit from five years ago worth choosing if they are both sitting on the shelf at the same price, and also providing that you prefer the original kit's SBC (uugghh) over the way cooler Nailhead V8 in the reissue. For those who are interested, there is a very detailed review of the reissued kit - along with a number of issues to look out for - posted at the following link (but I believe that you do need to be a subscriber to FineScale magazine to get past the firewall to view the images and text): https://finescale.com/product-info/kit-reviews/2022/02/workbench-review-revell-1-25-scale-30-ford-model-a-coupe-2n-1-plastic-model-kit-expanded Anyway, here are some images of the completed models along with a few "in process" images. Thanks for looking. TIM

The whole story now revealed....would you believe...a 1915 Chevrolet Royal Mail Roadster Trophy Series kit c. late 1966? Check it out...

The following is not a joke. During a recent visit with long-time and world famous model car author and kit historian Dennis Doty, he revealed a most incredible piece of model car kit history that, until now, virtually no one other than Dennis, and a few 1960's AMT Corporation employees and executives, were ever aware of. Feast your eyes below on the kit development concept blueprint proposal for an AMT Trophy Series kit of the 1915 Chevy Royal Mail Roadster. The blueprint, arranged in the typical AMT Corporation kit proposal fashion, was prepared by AMT's Dave Wilder, and is dated 12-17-66. This was to be a very ambitious kit. Not only did it include a full detail factory stock body, interior, chassis, suspension, engine and driveline, but it was to include multiple other building versions including a very highly detailed street rod layout with alternative body options and a 327 Chevy V8 to go along with a full hot rod chassis and suspension. Had it been produced, this kit would have been a goldmine of period perfect hot rod and drag racing model car parts, one that would still be a relevant source of these components even today. Dennis was unsure of why the kit proposal was not pursued beyond this status, but we both agreed that the relative obscurity of the 1/1 scale subject, along with the fact that AMT was entering what would be a very difficult period of their corporate legacy, were both likely explanations. In retrospect, though the kit would have been exceptionally cool for us hot rod modelers and those who love antique-era kit subjects, it would have probably struggled in the marketplace from the word go. It was the right corporate decision to call "pass" on this one. For those that do not recognize the name, Dave Wilder was a key AMT resource, involved in kit development and engineering, overseeing box art layout and text, and kit instructions development throughout the 1960's to the late 1970's, and he was highly respected both inside AMT and by outsiders like Dennis and I. Dave eventually became a very good friend of Dennis, and when at some point after he left AMT, he passed along to Dennis several of the kit development blueprints he had created during his career there. Of those, this blueprint is the "gold mine"....an incredible piece of heretofore unknown AMT corporate history. Mega-thanks to Dennis Doty, and belated thanks to the late Dave Wilder, for this exceptional nugget from AMT's rich history of model car kit development!!!! TIM PS - apologies in advance for the non-studio photography quality. We did the best we could under the circumstances! TB Picture above is the title block from the AMT kit proposal for a 1915 Chevrolet Royal Mail Roadster Trophy Series kit. Note the date in the lower center of the image. To any one who has ever done commissioned outside development work the original AMT Corporation, the overall layout of this blueprint is a very familiar sight. Pictured just above is the overall kit development proposal blueprint. The factory showroom stock version is detailed at the right and upper center portion of the photo, while the alternative body options and hot rod version content comprises the left portion of the kit proposal blueprint. Delineated above you can see some of the kit contents and building alternatives. In addition to the factory stock roadster body, the kit was to have included C-Cab, Panel Delivery , and Pickup build options. It appears that the kit would have allowed any of the four body options to have been combined with both the hot rod and factory stock running gear, and the hot rod option would have included both fendered and fenderless versions. On a bright and sunny spring 2022 day, Dennis Doty and I celebrated nearly 50 years of our modeling friendship and we caught up after many years since our last visit. The images of the stillborn AMT kit development proposal shown in this album were among the many highlights of our visit. Thanks a very big bunch, Dennis, for sharing this incredible nugget of AMT kit development history with us! TB

Bob...from the review of this kit at FineScale.com: "Note that while the kit instructions show two possible driveshafts (parts 137 and 210), only one driveshaft is provided (Part 106). You’ll need to trim off about 1/32 inch of the nose of the differential front cover (Part 41) to get the correct fit with the driveshaft." Hope that helps and good luck building the kit. I thought it was great fun, overall. Really like that color, too! TIM

Serious model car builders are fairly well aware of the killer Jo-Han Mickey Thompson Pinto and Mustang funny car kits that they brought to market around 1972. These two kits shared a common rail-digger type narrow chassis and a Boss 429 engine, along with individual bodies and livery to represent the two cars being campaigned by Mickey Thompson Enterprizes that year. But there was also a third Jo-Han funny car kit, a completely unique kit tool that represented an exact scale replica of the 1970 Challenger "Rambunctious" funny car that was by many accounts the single most successful/winning funny car of the entire 1970 racing season. Jo-Han's Challenger funny car kit was released concurrently with the above-mentioned Mickey Thompson kits, at that point representing a funny car that was already two years out of date in the racing world. The Rambunctious Challenger had a very unique chassis design that was not shared by any other funny car that year, which largely prevented Jo-Han from doing any additional kit variations (although as was typical of the time, Jo-Han produced a run of the same kit with unique box art, instructions, and decals for sale under the AMT brand as the "Hamtown Hemi"; Hamtown presumably referring to Hamtramck, a small village are surrounded by the Detroit City Limits, and the location at the time of one of Mopar's key assembly plants). Later on, Jo-Han slightly revised the decal sheet to read "Ram Rod" instead of Rambunctious, as the licensing for the car's driver migrated to Revell during the following years). I bought the kit when it came out not only because it was a really good kit, but also because I had used the same car's chassis and powertrain layout for my own "Tommy Ivo" 3-car set that won Best of Show at the 1970 Washington DC MPC model car contest. I had to draft the chassis design and then scratchbuild it, using a jig, tubular sheet styrene rod and thin styrene sheets (I'll post images of that model set at some point in the future). I wanted to see how close I got using just magazine phot of the real car, and I did get very close presuming that the Jo-Han kit was exactly correct. The one difference between the two was that the Jo-Han kit used a TorqueFlite tranny, while it was and is well documented that the real car used a slipper clutch/direct drive layout without a tranny. I don't have an explanation for the difference there. Anyway, I built the kit box stock, adding only full engine and chassis plumbing using the then-latest trend of hard steel plumbing lines replacing the rubber-like plumbing that was the 1/1 scale trend until that point. The paint was Candy Red over Gold. Here is some photography of the completed kit for those who are not familiar with it or who have not seen it in an assembled form. Like virtually all the Jo-Han tooling, this one is missing and presumed scrapped, never to return to the hobby store shelves. Thanks for checking it out....TIM

It does. It is yellow and very fine gauge. Perfect and era-correct for 1970's and 1980's street freak and street machine models, too! TB

I have been planning to do a "what's in the box" on this kit, but the relocation of my office from a second floor bedroom to my lowest level rec room has ended up being far more time consuming and complicated than I would have expected, and that means I am not able to download and post photos . Possibly next weekend, if no one is able to get it done before that? TB

Tommy....kudos not only on the trick model but also on your writeup and your knowledge about Gassers as they truly were back in the day. A few months back I visited the Southeast Gassers Association website, looking for some sort of explanation of the rules/quidelines to creating a legal entry in their series. I was not able to get any single clear explanation, so I found your explanation of the rules and special instances to be very educational and helpful. Very cool model and very cool post. Big congrats....TIM

Steve....I've always liked "real-life type" background settings for model car photography. and the first image above is one of the best-ever examples I've seen of this genre. Great model, and great photography. Again, big, big congrats. TIM

Note to all you guys building 1980's themed Model A hot rod pickups as featured in this long-running thread - looks like once again, we as adult model car builders, are LEADING the latest trends in 1/1 scale hot rod building. I say this having observed Dennis' "1980's/very early 1990's" build theme that inspired this entire thread, and now, in the latest development, the GoodGuys organization is using the same theme for their latest giveaway OBS truck project as unveiled in the latest issue of the GoodGuys mag. We're talking white with teal and pink graphics rendered in the very best Brian Bordon/Revell thematic layout, even Boyds billet wheels (that aren't 20's, 22's, or 24's)! And this is not the first time we've led emerging 1/1 scale hot rod themes. Those of you following the model car scene in the1980's/early 1990's know exactly what I'm talking about. So...big kudos to you all. And keep it up! TIM

Thanks Jordan! TIM

Very, very nicely done. One could argue with some justification that the 1/1 of this was the most significant funny car ever. Yours is the first fully correct model project of this car I recall seeing. Just very, very cool, Gerald. TIM

Thanks Gerald, cool images for sure. Just so we are all clear, I am presuming that the lower chassis in the bottom picture is a kitbash of the Dyno Don '66 Comet, as there was never an MPC kit of this specific car. Is that your understanding as well? Again, thx for posting this info...TB

From what I've learned from those who were in the business back then, convertible kits never sold as well as hardtops. Reasons for that are somewhat unclear. Probably would have been even worse except those convertible annual kits often the market before the hardtop versions, meaning those "who had to have" the very latest 1/1 scale replicas bought the convertibles even when they would have preferred the hardtops had they both been available at the same time. By the mid 1960's, as Mark notes, the trend was so pronounced the kitmakers started paring down the kit choices accordingly. TB

Sharing/copying my post from the other thread discussing the new Coronet R/T kit, I commented: ...if the design brief had been to do an entirely new 1968 Coronet R/T kit engineered to current model car kit standards, the kit topic would have never made it out of the first Round 2 future kit projects review. There would have not been sufficient sales volume of that particular kit subject to justify the time and expense of doing an all-new kit to 2022 kit design expectations. Conversely, topics like the current Dodge Charger, and especially the new Bronco, offer much greater domestic and international market sales potential vs. the Coronet R/T and also enable expedited kit development time and expense (due to the availability of factory CAD data - at least in the case of the Bronco) thus justifying the decision to do all-new kit tooling. Thus, by applying the appropriate approach to each kit topic, a profitable business case for each can be developed and approved. Bottom line - the "cloning plus minor improvements" approach Round 2 is taking with the Coronet R/T is enabling a market offering that would have not been available at all if subject to the typical way kits are developed. I understand and to a degree sympathize with the concerned sentiments expressed in these several threads about the approach taken with the Coronet R/T, but I also hasten to remind everyone that (sorry, here it goes again) the world of kit development and sales is a business above all else, and as such it depends on successful and profitable sales of new kits to operate and to continue to bring additional new kits to market. Personally, I'm very happy with the Coronet R/T kit and the additional variants that will come later, and like many of you I plan to be in line to buy the first ones off the ship from overseas. As always, to each his own...TB

To further build on James' analysis here, if the design brief had been to do an entirely new 1968 Coronet R/T kit engineered to current model car kit standards, the kit topic would have never made it out of the first Round 2 future kit projects review. There would have not been sufficient sales volume of that particular kit subject to justify the time and expense of doing an all-new kit to 2022 kit design expectations. Conversely, topics like the current Dodge Charger, and especially the new Bronco, offer much greater domestic and international market sales potential vs. the Coronet R/T and also enable expedited kit development time and expense (due to the availability of factory CAD data - at least in the case of the Bronco) thus justifying the decision to do all-new kit tooling. Thus, by applying the appropriate approach to each kit topic, a profitable business case for each can be developed and approved. Bottom line - the "cloning plus minor improvements" approach Round 2 is taking with the Coronet R/T is enabling a market offering that would have not been available at all if subject to the typical way kits are developed. I understand and to a degree sympathize with the concerned sentiments expressed in these several threads about the approach taken with the Coronet R/T, but I also hasten to remind everyone that (sorry, here it goes again) the world of kit development and sales is a business above all else, and as such it depends on successful and profitable sales of new kits to operate and to continue to bring additional new kits to market. Personally, I'm very happy with the Coronet R/T kit and the additional variants that will come later, and like many of you I plan to be in line to buy the first ones off the ship from overseas. As always, to each his own...TB

Lookin' really, really good. A+ on the track nose tweaks! TB

Yes....Rodney has it....this and the '25T Bucket (red box art illustration and similar kit box graphics) were the two original versions of this tool, first released in 1972. And yes, this tool (or its many derivatives) is most likely the source of he front axle....TB

Yes....Rodney has it....this and the '25T Bucket (red box art illustration and similar kit box graphics) were the two original versions of this tool, first released in 1972. And yes, this tool (or its many derivatives) is most likely the source of he front axle....TB

Raoul....your Coronet R/T convert build ipictured above s superb! Big congrats....TIM

Totally agree. TB

James called it right. As I understand it it will be more of a curbside configuration. From what I was told a few months ago, apparently detailed CAD data of the complete underhood configuration from Ford was not available in a configuration that could be used in developing the kit. Would not have been my first choice but still super-happy to have a newly tooled kit from Round 2 with this 1/1 as its subject. (Now should Round 2 at some point consider doing a next gen Mustang (he 1/1 is supposedly due out about a year from now), not having an engine would be a job-stopper for me personally. But you guys already know how I feel about that subject, so no need to discuss it any further here.) TB

Note elsewhere on this forum (Car Kit News) images of all-new tooling of the 2022 Bronco 2-door. Great companion to the '78 kit....TB

And some of you all thought Round 2 wasn't listening....but in reality they were, and had been doing so for several years. Success with the "cloning" process used with the '63 Chevy II wagon and the '64 Olds Cutlass also helped make this one a reality. I'm happy they went with the convert first, and also cool they included the "Haul It" trailer that was in the original annual kit. Sure hope the kit sales live up to the amount of prior model car builder feedback on this topic.... TB