tim boyd

Hah! I thought it was actually pretty cool..... Anyway, good to have this one back after so many years....TIM

I got the package from Atlantis last night and took a look.....they did a really nice job with this project. Each unplated parts tree is individually sealed, chrome looks excellent (eons better than the original kit), parts appear to be in good condition and not negatively affected by the tool being out of production/in storage for....let's see.....1963 to 2021....58 years????? The all-new drag slicks are excellent; the material they used avoids the "shiny rubber look" seen in many older kits and the width is to my eye :"just right" for an early-mid 1960's drag racing project. The instruction sheet is a rebop of the original Revell Double Kit (without the second car info), and the diminutive decal sheet is similar to the small sheet in the original kit. Lots and lots...err....a bonanza of period-correct extra parts, as noted by others above. One minor drawback is that the outer rims of the wheels still each have the three styrene feed points aka knockout pins (as the original kits did), although these appear minimized to a good degree vs. the original kit, and probably most builders will leave them as is rather than file them flush and refinish the wheels in a non-plated form. Also, on the engine parts tree, the width of the tubing of the headers appears a little on the narrow side; given the simple configuration of the MoonEyes dragster's real parts, more husky headers could easily be constructed from aluminum or styrene tubing for those that are bothered. And as noted above, the tranny would not be seen in a real rail dragster application - again easily remedied by a reasonably complete parts box substitute. In all....I think it's an excellent effort from Atlantis and a very promising lead-in for the other kits that will follow as noted in the various posts from the IPMS nationals a couple of months ago....and it becomes an invaluable source of period-correct parts for anyone who is building/kitbashing a 1960's style drag racing project or traditional hot rod themed model....TIM

HI Alan. Peter V. is going to send me a kit (I presume this is because I assisted him with a very small behind the scenes request in bringing the kit to market, and have offered him some thoughts in response to several general questions about the hobby kit market that he has directed my way). Of course, I also intend on buying a couple when they show up at my favorite local hobby store (Model Cave in Ypsi, MI) and/or at Spotlight Hobbies and Model Roundup. I do have another project underway that would prevent me from doing a timely full buildup on this kit. Having said that, it appears to me that several others on this board and elsewhere are very well equipped to do just as you suggest. I can attempt to answer any questions that might still be unanswered after those efforts are complete. Thanks for the vote of confidence and thinking of my for your request, Alan. Very, very much appreciated. TIM

Lee....you really, really nailed it! Congrats on a killer model. TIM

Some of what is in this parts pack found its way to the Revell Miss Deal kit. Not sure if that meant this tooling was revamped to deliver those parts, or just that Revell used their wood masters to pantagraph new parts. Don't have access to a Miss Deal kit right now to look at the sprue layout... Anyway, check your Miss Deal kits for the headers (I think....?), dropped front axle, radius rods, Moon tank, etc. TIM

Word I heard was that the '28A Sedan was being investigated as a possible reissue, but it sounded as though it would require quite a bit of new work to make it a salable kit again. That put the project into the list of other "retooling" projects and apparently there were other projects that were judged to have a broader market appeal (and thus a better return on the tooling investment). Some of what I just wrote here is speculation on my part, but I haven't hear a word now on this project in several years so it sounds as though it will be a long time (if ever) until we see this one again....TIM

Guys....whoever dreamed that in a million years we would be able to buy newly molded parts of the original Revell Parts Pack suspension and chassis parts???? Not this guy, that is for sure. What a great moment for the hobby. Thanks to Peter V. and the entire Atlantis team!!! TIM

The Ramchargers Dune Buggy chassis was the MPC Logghe funny car frame, just shortened. May have been the same length/parts (side rails) as in the MPC Cougar kits....TIM PS - also note that the headers (complete with miss-aligned to Mopar 426 Wedge exhaust ports) were from the Logghe MPC funny car kits....TB

Michael, this image is from my earlier, in depth review of the new Round 2 Cutlass Convertible kit, but the instrument panel decal is the same one in the 442 kit you are asking about.... Hope that helps....TIM

Yeah Buddy!!!!! TIM

More on the Ford Super Duty family including the 534 V8 in the AMT kit.... Another Forgotten Ford Big Block: The Giant 534 SD V8 | Mac's Motor City Garage (macsmotorcitygarage.com) TIM

Thanks guys for the comments. Part of me wants to dig back into that bad boy, but I have something like 70+ other unfinished projects that are also begging for some type of progress, and most of them are much farther along than this one. Still.....appreciate the encouragement and I will never say never....Best to you all....TIM

Rodney,....thanks for the heads-up on this one; missed the buildup and final presentation. Great idea on adapting the SuperBug to this type of drag application. Also noticed your attention to detail throughout the project. Just a cool model car project from beginning to end. Sure gonna have to watch your drag racing builds from this point on! Cheers....TIM

Rodney....had no idea you built great drag models, too. Love that interior paneling you scratched together, and the paint scheme....so creative! Got two '53 Stude Boyd drag projects to share too. These were both started in the very late 1960's when Car Model magazine sent a letter to the winners of the Dodge/Car Model/MPC funny car contest asking them (us) to consider writing articles for the mag. Of course, this then-14 year old modeler had no way to take pictures of these "how-to" builds, but... This one was the AMT '53 Stude body, chopped, combined with the Revell Miss Deal chassis. Lotsa "lightening holes" drilled in the frame with a Dremel Moto Tool without a speed control (fun, that!). Circa summer, 1969 (ish).... Anyway, after decades in a box at 25% completion, I went ahead and finished it (without redoing work already done) around 2012 or so. It was later a feature article in Model Cars mag.... The other model, started at the same time back in '69, was the Revell Miss Deal body over a scratchbuilt frame with the AMT Double Dragster side-by-side dual engine setup under the rear window. It was to have used two Studebaker V8 's i/l/o the SBC's. This one still sits in a box, at about 20% completion. Maybe someday? Anyway, will be watching yours cross the timing lights in full glory with the laundry unfolding! Great enthusiasm on display in your project (and the ones shown by others in this tread, too!) TIM

This was a project started for the 1973 MPC National Model Car Contest Series. But after my three-car Charger funny car set was misjudged by the MPC Judges at the 1972 Washington DC contest (they didn't read the instructions and incorrectly disqualified the matching trailer and tow car), I was so disgusted that I stopped working on this.The body was based on one of those ultra-rare MPC 1971 Demon 340 kits (no one knew back then...). The body was narrowed into a wedge shape (when viewed from above), with a much larger rear window, roof dropped at the A-pillars, and the hood replaced with a sheet styrene panel that was shaped to look like the revised 1973 Duster front end. among many other body mods.The engine was going to repeat my trophy winning (1st Place Senior, 1969 Flint; Best Detail. 1970 Detroit; Best in Show, 1970 Indy) MPC contest feature where rotating the rear tires caused the engine blower drive to rotate as well, except this time depressing a working clutch would have stopped the blower drive rotation.The frame shown here was partially scratchbuilt from styrene tubing. Had I finished it, it would have been a contender in the MPC series. Instead, I started building a series of street rod models for myself rather than building models for the then-judges who didn't read judging sheets (smile, sort of). Thanks for looking....TIM PS - no intentions of finishing this one....TB

For anyone reading this thread who might have missed my earlier "here's what's in the box" post on the AMT 1964 442 Hardtop, here's the link to the info/skinny.....TIM

Steven....I've read in reliable sources that the factory undercoating was also sprayed along the transmission tunnel/driveshaft area, and under the rear axle/differential area. I've replicated that on most of my own Mopar factory replica builds. But there does not seem to be evidence this was done on all the cars, whereas the fender area applications, as shown in your original post, do seem to be on most all of the undercoated cars....TIM PS - just a note to confirm John's info on blackout paint applications, too. The outward facing portion of the radiator support walls on Mopars, for instance, was always painted black. Sometimes from underneath, sometimes through the then-open grille area, but always messy and seldom a complete 100% coverage of the area...TB

Carl's right on both points....TB

"Odds & Ends the story of the fiddly bits & small details that most will never see... -KK" ....and the sometimes countless hours it takes to do these fiddly bits correctly. No one will ever know the work you went to in getting it right.....but you will! (Or in this case, Kit will and so will everyone following this thread!) TB

According to my contact at Round 2, the Salt Shaker parts were retooled for this new release. And yes, there was a dropped axle in the original kit; presumably in this one too, especially after looking at Casey's screen shot directly above. TIM

Here's what the engine in the Turbosonic kit looks like built up....

Two highly respected contributors to this forum were mentioned in 1/1 scale mags recently.... * Fred Farrand's new 1/1 scale '36 Ford w/Y-Block power rod is is pictured in the GoodGuys Nats (Columbus, OH) coverage in the new issue of GoodGuys mag...he won a "Top Ten" award at the event. * Dennis Lacy's work as a 1/1 scale hot rod builder was cited in Issue #7 of Speed and Kulture mag for his work on a transmission in a newly built early traditional style 1932 Ford highboy featured in that issue. Congrats to both of them for their work both as modelers and as 1/1 scale hot rodders! TIM

Great progress by all...exciting to see these come through the development/build process. And belated congrats to this thread's "Father", Dennis, on his call-out in issue #7 of Speed and Kulture magazine as the builder of the tranny in a very traditional early style 1/1 scale 1932 Ford Highboy Roadster....way to go, guy! TIM

Team...at this point I am going to wrap up my involvement in this thread. I think everyone's mind about the body is pretty made up and there isn't much left that will change a person's view one way or the other on that subject. I would hope we could generally agree that the rest of the kit is really well done, except for the blower top hat, but even that may be a bit presumptuous on my part. I was really excited to share a preview of this kit with the model car hobby as I thought (and still do) it was one of, if not the finest, 1960's style gasser kit ever to come on the market. The last thing I ever dreamed was that this thread would become a spirited debate focused mostly about the accuracy of the body. I also tried to share what I learned from 11 years working alongside some of the best automotive design executives in the industry about how photography and minor changes to design elements such as DLO's can make a big change in the perception of a car's appearance. Maybe that was too much or inappropriate for a thread on model cars. If the opportunity ever presents itself in the future for me to do another test shot preview like this one, I will discuss with the Forum moderators beforehand and see if we can come up with a better way to go forward in presenting the information and responding to questions without the antagonism that seems to have surfaced this time. Thanks for your attention, over and out. TIM

Roger, please look again. The exact measurement between the top of the door panel/bottom of the DLO to the top of the DLO was exactly 8/16" for both models, if you measure taking into account my plan to remove the incorrect trim engraved on top of the Moebius door panel. The ruler didn't line up exactly the same between both models in the picture showing both, so you have to use the 1/2 mark on top and bottom of the Moebius, but the same net total measurement is 8/16" for both models after the adjustment I am proposing. I do not have a set of digital calipers, so that measurement will have to await someone else's efforts when the kit is finally released.