tim boyd

Phil....OK, thanks for the follow-up note. Very disappointing news. I may bring it up with the Models Brand Editor next time we converse....TIM

Heh Rex....sharp work on that Mystic SVT Cobra.....what did you use for the paint? Cheers....TIM

Misha....that Tall T Coupe looks really interesting.....keep it out there on your desk, just in case you decide to do some more on it! Cheers....TIM

AJ is correct. And there was some other difference I can't recall exactly....maybe that it did not copy the contents to my hard drive meaning that I had to dig out the DVD each time I wanted to use it??? Not entirely clear on the above discussion, but they did produce the 5 year update as I bought a copy for myself. I would be very surprised if it is not available somewhere on the Kalmbach website.....TIM

They did issue a follow-up DVD with the next five years on it. I'm sure you can find it on the Kalmbach website.... TIM

Yes, you are certainly sure where it uncertainly came from (always room for some humor in this hobby, right?) :) TIM

Here are a few images illustrating the suggestion in the post directly above about the radius rod brackets and shock mounts being cut apart from their molded assemblies and mounted to the frame, prior to painting.... And here's the above frame, with the brackets molded in place and painted.....never mind the other frame in the image (anybody know what it is....???) TB

Kit - great tutorial and step by step photography! That Revell '29a Roadster Z'ed Model A frame is a mini-jewel in itself; kudos to you for building awareness with your project and your coverage here. Jumping ahead now: for anyone building the Revelll'29A Roadster Z'ed frame, for added authenticity don't forget to cut away the front shock mounts from the shocks and glue the mounts m to the frame before painting; same with the split radius rod bracket/mounts and gluing them to the frame side rails before painting. Recently took pictures of this (though not to the level of detail Kit shows above); I'll try to find them and post them here. Can't wait to see Kit's - and the others in this thread - as construction continues! TIM

Here are a few pictures of the original MPC Switchers '25T kit, built box stock shortly after it first came out around 1972.....body paint was AMT Silver lacquer, running gear was Tempo 1972/3 Mopar Basin St. Blue, interior was Humbrol German Purple in the paint tin. Decals are from the kit, as referenced in Craig's message immediately above. The only non-kit addition was red flocking to simulate carpet in the interior....Cheers.....TIM

On finescale.com's auto modeling forum, Kalmbach Modeling Content Editor Tim Kidwell has posted a couple of updates on their special "Muscle Cars/Resto-Mods/Pro-Touring" special issue due in April. The updates, in part, do address some of the questions and comments posed earlier in this thread. I'm not copying the entire message here (you can find it yourself if you are interested), but one sentence in particular bears repeating here.... "... there have been some questions floating around about how much of the material is repurposed from old issues of Scale Auto magazine. The answer: None. All of the content is completely new". Again, there's more info in his posts, but the above is the most relevant to the questions posed here earlier. Best....TIM

I agree, hands down! Onward with all these great builds! TIM

Round 2 Press Release, received in my email at 2:42PM, EST, 1 February 2021: ROUND 2 PARTNERS WITH PRIVATE EQUITY GROUP South Bend, IN (Feb 1, 2021) – Round 2, a leading collectibles company that produces model kits, die-cast cars and slot cars announced today that it has partnered with Praesidian Capital. Praesidian Capital is a leading private investment group headquartered in Larchmont, New York and acquired controlling interest (51%) of Round 2. Round 2 President and Founder, Thomas Lowe stated, “I’m thrilled to be partnering with the Praesidian team as they will bring significant resources as we continue to scale the business, both organically and through acquisitions. It’s also really great that there are no staff changes and the headquarters remains here in South Bend, IN. Our customers can be assured that it is business as usual at Round 2, with lots of continued growth to come.” “We are excited to be partnering with Thomas Lowe, founder and CEO of Round 2,” stated Jason Drattell, Praesidian Founder. “Round 2 has emerged as a market leader in the collectibles space and we look forward to supporting the management team as Round 2 continues to expand its product offerings” Glenn Harrison, Praesidian Capital Partner said: “Product design and innovation will always be at the core of Round 2’s growth strategy, but we also believe that there is a significant consolidation opportunity within the highly fragmented collectibles space. We will be working closely with the Round 2 team to continue to build on its already impressive list of brands.” Stay tuned for more continued product updates and news at round2corp.com! # # # ABOUT ROUND 2 CORP., LLC Round 2, LLC is an innovative collectibles and toy company located in South Bend, IN. The creative team at Round 2 is dedicated to producing detailed, high quality collectible and playable items appealing to the young and young at heart. Round 2 brands include Polar Lights®, AMT® and MPC® model kits. Auto World® slot cars, Forever Fun™ seasonal products and the licensed brands Johnny Lightning, Racing Champions, Legends of the Quarter Mile, American Muscle®, Ertl Collectibles® and Vintage Fuel™ die cast. For more details on all the product lines produced by Round 2, visit our website at: www.round2corp.com American Muscle, Johnny Lightning, and Racing Champions are the trademarks of TOMY, registered in the U.S., Canada, and other territories. Ertl Collectibles is the U.S. registered trademark of TOMY.AMT, Polar Lights, MPC, Lindberg, Hawk Round 2 and design are trademarks of Round 2, LLC. ©2021 Round 2, LLC, South Bend, IN 46628. All rights reserved. Media Contacts Round 2 Public Relations

I understand that Round 2 is going to do a press release on the acquisition sometime this coming week. That will probably tell us a lot more about what to expect. TIM

James.....somehow I missed your post in this thread and found it today while looking for one of Alan Barton's threads. Your boat engine is rockin', and the tow vehicle is flat out awesome. Killer paint fog job, too. Please keep us posted on any updates.... Cheers....TIM

In the category of "you just can't make this stuff up"..... So I''ve been going through my old Street Rodder magazine collection dating from the early 1970's right through the end of 2010 when those (unflattering words) at the publishing/video house shut down the magazine just two issues before their 50th anniversary. Doing so for entertainment purposes, but also to partly to refresh my memory on the 203 "modeler's corner" columns I wrote for the mag between 1978 and 1995. So today I'm reading the column from the April 1991 issue, and the topic for that month's column was "Shrinking the Salt Flats". It featured photos of Bonneville Salt Flats models that I had taken at various model events, along with some photos sent by readers of the column. The I get to a photo of a killer Belly Tanker sent in by long time Modeler's Corner reader/contributor Jim Sonter of Sydney, Australia. In part, the photo caption reads "Built in '89, the body was hand-formed by 1/1 street rodder and modeler Allan Barton". Yes, our Alan (note the corrected spelling) Barton. Alan, you rock. Amazing to think we've both been at this so long. Didn't recall that know you knew Jim....what is he up to these days? And for those that don't already know, Alan now does the "Modeler;s Corner" equivalent in Australia's #1 rod magazine.... TIM

From what I'm hearing, the gang inside Round 2 is very excited about the future potential here. Look, I'm as skeptical as anybody about investment funds buying into successful independent business firms, but in my view this one has the potential for a far more favorable outcome, both short and long term, than that other investment firm purchase of a long-fabled modeling enterprise three years ago. So let's try to keep an open mind about this one....as usual, only time will tell us the actual outcome. Best....TIM

FYI, they will be changing the wording and removing the word "contest" as we all know NNL's are not contests. TB

A certain well-known model car builder and resin parts caster organized what he called a "Virtual Mini NNL" several weeks ago with four other model car builders. Very interesting experience. In the format he used, probably a max of about 5 people is about the limit for the "show and tell/question and answer" format. In some ways it reminded me of the first-ever NNL in Tom Woodruff's garage with six participants, although there was no way for participants to consume Karen Woodruff's awesome "NNL Bars" while they checked out each others' projects... I can see this variations of this idea becoming a much more common occurrence among model car builders in the future....TIM

https://public.fotki.com/funman1712/first-look-at-all-n/round-2-amt-1963-no/round-2-amt-1963-no/ Not sure if this was what Casey is referring to, but it addresses Mike's question.... Mike, in particular, see images #29 to #37, along with the captions for each image, as posted at the link above... Cheers...TIM

That's it. Still looks the same today....TIM

For anyone wondering about the Jim Jacobs '29A Closed Cab pickup referenced above, the February 2021 issue of the GoodGuys Gazette arrived today, and on page 25, there is a picture of the subject, photographed a few months ago at the GoodGuys Phoenix finale. Looks just as it did in the 1978 Street Rodder magazine feature. Even better, the Pete and Jakes bed rails are back on the truck! Talk about timeless. Just wow...TIM PS - you can now buy the Gazette at magazine outlets, including Barnes and Noble....TB

Alan...it was actually a mid-late 1960's build. I'm not entirely clear on whether Jim's lime gold pickup was a descendant of the shingled house truck, but the lime gold pickup with the P&J side rails debuted in 1978, and was covered shortly thereafter in one of the six or so issues of Street Rodder where Steve Coonan was the editor. At one point I was doing a replica for the Modeler's Corner column and SRM's then-Editor (probably Geoff Carter) sent me a bunch of negs and proof sheets from the photo shoot the help with the build. he build got as far as a modified body and exterior paint but then got set aside for other priorities. I contacted Jim directly and he gave me the exact colors he used for the truck (going from memory here) a basecoat of 1977 Trans Am yellow and a 1972 Chevelle Lime Gold metallic topcoat. I have the exact paint codes somewhere. I also think I did a column in the mag covering the progress so far. Got set aside for other projects and never finished. Still revisit it from time to time and think about pushing it across the finish line. If I did so, I would probably substitute a Ford small block for the SBC Jim used, as my objection to the SBC mafia is well known these days! Otherwise, the finishing would be a breeze with the parts now coming from the Revell hot rod kits that were not available back then. Hope that helps....TIM

Thx for the heads-up on this one, Claude. This model finely exhibits the sort of creativity that used to be mandatory if you wanted to win or place in the old MPC National Customizing Contest series that ran from 1969-79. Way, way cool. Not only finely crafted, but really well conceived, even to the hidden "Charger" emblems that reveal when the rear deck is opened. Super, super tasty! Congrats Claude....TIM

Hi Claude....good reminder. I don't know of any others offhand. BTW I should probably be the one calling you "Sir" based on your outstanding models and 1/1 auto projects! TIM

From what I understand, the basic concept Round 2 plans to follow is to take a kit that once existed, scan it and develop tooling from that scan, engineer in a few quality improvements (like clear headlamp lenses) and enhancements, then produce the new kit. This avoids much of the investment in developing an all-new kit of a given subject. That being the case, personally I would expect to see newly tooled kits based on old, existing models, rather than new, never produced topics. As a theoretical example (and recognizing the many requests voiced in this forum), using this approach Round 2 would be more likely to do a newly tooled 1968 Coronet R/T based on the original MPC annual kit, than a 1966 Coronet 500 Hemi (which has never been produced in scale.). We'll have to see....but based on the way the '63 Nova wagon has apparently sold so far, I think we stand a much better chance of seeing this type of kit development approach continue to develop at Round 2, than I would have guessed say six months ago. TIM