papajohn97

Just saw this “coming soon” notice on my local hobby shop website (Burbank House of Hobbies): What surprised me when I saw this notice is that it describes the kit as “including authentic A/FX 427 SOHC engine”. I thought all the Bill Stroppe B/FX Comets utilized 289 small block engines with a single Holly four barrel or the Webber four carb set-up (as used on Cobras). I believe these B/FX’s also retained the stock Comet front shock towers (vs. modified widened engine bay on the A/FX’s). Unless I’m missing something, this new kit look’s like this is just the existing Moebius Comet A/FX kit with B/FX decals??? Hoping that this description is incorrect or also includes the 289 engine and stock engine bay shock towers, otherwise an accurate B/FX build will likely require kit-bashing with a stock Moebius Comet kit for these corrects. Anyone else here have any insight as to what’s actually included in this kit??? Despite these questions, thank you Moebius for continuing to pump out great auto kits!

This one’s really nice Mike. I love that you took a relatively rare ($) kit, did some ingenious kit & parts bashing and came out with yet another beautiful build of a rarely seen funny car. I also love that you built a Hayden Proffitt car, one of my childhood drag racing heros. Cool that he switched to racing “Ramblers” (sorry, that’s what we all called them back then!) along with Drag-On-Lady Shirley Shahan. Car Model Mag should run an article someday on your 430 car collection with lots of photos, it would be an awesome sight!

I’ve been ordering a number of AFV kits/ accessories recently from China (yes I also like to build tanks, planes & ships along with cars) and wanted to pass on an observation/ tip to my fellow modelers here. I have ordered from Chinese sellers on eBay recently because they sometimes have kits that are out of production, unavailable from domestic dealers and eBay sellers and are reasonably priced. While the shipping can also be cheap (and sometimes even free!), the trade-off is that it can take 1 to 4 months or even longer to receive the item(s). One of my concerns since January was that I might also be charged an additional tariff fee to get a few of my pending orders delivered but thankfully the US gov’t extended the “de minimus provision” for shipments under $800 USD in early February. I believe/ hope that the $800 tariff exclusion will still apply even with the Chinese tariffs being increased from 10% to 20% for any of us placing small orders from China. Interestingly, the last few kits I ordered from Chinese eBay suppliers were shipped and received within 1-2 weeks (!)….maybe my Chinese eBay sellers have been expediting shipping (airfreight vs. shipping container?) to avoid tariff paperwork/ delays???? My thought: The majority of model kits are molded/ kitted in China these days. If there are any kits that you want from a US dealer, order them immediately! US hobby dealers likely place orders from the manufacturers greater than $800 so expect a 20% on model kits sold in the US by hobby dealers soon. This will also likely crank-up prices on eBay from everyone/ everywhere (even directly from China on eBay) due to market forces. I guess the silver-lining is that my stash will finally stop growing and I’ll have more cash to pay for those eggs! 😁

Thank you Erik/ Team Moebius for reviving these wonderful kits and re-releasing them at a reasonable cost. I hope these kits help grow Moebius’s revenue stream and provide $ to tool additional future new kits of neglected American ‘40’s - ‘50’s classics (Cadillacs/ Packards/ Studebakers/ Kaisers/ Buicks/ Pontiacs….)

Very cool build Mike! Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these ‘65 Chevy II Nova Fastback fast-back A/FX cars posted here before, nice job!

Really impressive looking kit of a beautiful car. $187 seemed high to me as well until I looked at the video, amazing number of resin and 3D printed parts, PE, decals, high quantity instructions, everything looks top-notch quality. If you compare this kit with small volume production Model Factory Hiro 1/24 auto kits, it’s about half the price. Looking forward to seeing this one built and posted on here.

Wow, that vinyl roof is amazing! Looking forward to reading your “how to” article and giving this a try on a future build. I learned to drive using my mom’s ‘66 Malibu coupe in the late 60’s. It was Artesian Turquoise over black, a 283 Powerglide and although not an SS, still a peppy ride for a new teenager driver. I may just have to grab one of these Lindberg kits and build a tribute model in memory of my dear wonderful mom.

Great news & kudos to Erik & Moebius for their efforts in acquiring the molds and bringing these kits back to us. I built and gifted the Aerosedan to my brother David (who introduced me to modeling about 65 yrs ago!) and have wanted to buy & build another one for myself. I failed to get the ride height correct on my brother’s build and hope I can do a better job on my next attempt. Put me down for another Aerosedan and coupe!

‘33 Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow:

Sharp builds Mike! Particularly like that AWB sedan (both front & rear wheel re-positioning matches old photo’s of Landy’s wheelbase mods). I have the new Moebius AWB ‘65 Dodge hardtop in my queue to do Landy’s A/FX, just waiting for warm enough weather to spray lacquer again (been building acrylic painted military models all winter). Love all your drag cars - keep ‘em coming!

Very nice job Bill on one of my favorite drag car subjects (early 60’s door slammers). I built and posted my attempt at this exact H-P car a while back with an incorrect red interior, I like your correct blue interior version much better as well as the effort you put into incorporating the correct front bench seat. The seat decals really make it pop. I use to mask and airbrush all the stainless trim on model cars using Alclad Chrome lacquer over gloss black enamel or lacquer but have gone with BMF for the last few years. The Alclad method was incredibly labor (and tape) intensive and way too fragile and easy to rub off with even moderate handling. BMF adhesive was troublesome for a few years but it is currently much improved and easier to work with. The two keys I have found is 1) make sure the surface of the frames you’re going to cover are super smooth (you can sand the paint down on just the frames if you’re careful) and 2) to use a brand-new extra sharp #11 X-acto blade with very light pressure (weight of the knife handle is usually enough). If you’re not happy with the BMF job, just peel it off and try again. In most cases, you can apply the BMF at the end of the build including after bonding the clear glass to the body. Molotow pens can also help on touch-up if required. Don’t give up on BMF, with some practice it can actually be fun and fairly quick.

Very cool Willys, that unusual two-tone brown over gold look’s good and accentuates the beautiful simple lines of this iconic car. Wishing you a much happier 2025 and hoping a new dog or two is in your future. Nothing better than a canine best-friend buddy to smooth out the bumps in life. Keep building & posting!

That Plymouth gasser is a magnificent build. The injected flathead, red steelies with whitewalls, grey primer paint, hand painted numbers on the door, perfect period correct gasser stance,….all these little details make this one just about perfect. I would love to have this one in my collection of early sixties drag cars, may just have to copy you on this someday!

Nice! I’ve been wanting to build this car with the Slixx decal set but was at a loss as the what kit I could use. So is this the Z-28 kit that you just added a BBC? Any other significant mods required other than the engine/ wheels/ tires? Great job as always Mike!

Those 3D printed wheels really boost this kit into another a whole other level, nice!

What a terrific project Michael! I’ve thought about trying this one after seeing the decals on eBay (“CoCo’s Slotcar Decal Store”?) but was intimidated by the amount of scratch building and improvising required for the under-the-hood details and accuracy. This Faubel car epitomizes to me the hyper-creative technological progression of these mid-60’s door slammers, mostly built by dudes with weekday jobs (Faubel was a car salesman I believe). This period is much more interesting for me to model than the corporate-controlled homogenized boring churn of drag racing of more recent years. I’ve never had any luck bending thicker copper rod or tubing for car model projects such as headers. I’ve had much better luck using 2 mm OD solder, readily available on Amazon or eBay. Please keep going on this one Michael! I need you to figure this one out so I can copy you some day! 😁

I think my auto scale model subjects are related to my personal childhood memories and nostalgia. I love and build American classics from the ‘30’s through the 60’s, early/ mid 60’s super stock and gasser drag cars, classic European sports cars (love M-B 300SL gullwings and XKE’s), ‘50’s -‘70’s road race cars, 60’s -70’s F1 cars. I’m pretty much interested in everything from my “good old days” (early to mid 20th century). Current autos, sports cars, hypercars and race cars , while all being much higher performance and more technologically advanced, are all very boring to me. It must be a nostalgia thing I think. I also love building 1/32 biplanes (WNW), 1/72-1/148-1/32 WWII warbirds, 1/35 scale AFV’s and 1/350 ships (dreadnoughts to WWII carriers). I find building a variety of scale model subjects and scales has helped me to improve my skills and has allowed me to apply them across different genres. If you can build-PE bend-mask-paint-and rig a 1/350 ship, you can pretty much build anything!

According to draglist.com (reference here) it ran with a four speed for both the initial carburetor version as well as the fuel injected version. Sox was able to outrun the TorqueFlite A/FX Hemi cars on most runs which was a real testament to his shifting skills.

Very nice job and really cool to see a kit that my brother built nearly 60 yrs ago! I feel your pain on the tweezer lost part projectiles, I spent a good 40 min sweeping the floor of my man cave today as well as picking through my dirty garbage can in search of two lost parts. I’m getting good at reproducing lost parts! 😁

Hi David, Thank’s for reaching out! I’m planning on including this model in a “display only model collection” at my local club show next September ‘25 so I want to hang onto it until then. I would build another one for your wife but this one was a giant project for me and not one I’d relish repeating anytime soon. Another modeler on this forum (M W Elky) has built a beautiful version of both the ‘64/‘65 and the ‘66 Seaton Chevelle match race cars and may be another source you. His posting is here. If not, reach out again to me after next Sept. and I might be willing to let go of this model. cheers, John

Fabulous build Tom! Those Fireball resin rims are a big improvement over the kit wheels and the engine bay detail is impressive (especially the wiring on the firewall). Neat clean meticulous paint, decal and foil work makes this an all around winner to me. Bravo!

Oooohhh! That’s sweet. The white, the gangster wide whites, the red steelies with stock caps & beauty rings, classy-curvy-sexy….I think I’m in love! So nice I wanna copy it! ps: fabulous paint work and all-around meticulous craftsmanship. A+!

No source, just a WAG! I guess my guess was wrong! Model on! ps: I’d love to give a listen to that old LP, let us know if there’s a link to a digital copy of it that’s accessible without a paywall.

The only memory I have of DoT is Nicole Kidman. She was at her absolute peak of babe-ness IIRC….and the only redeeming aspect of that really stupid movie. Most racing movies are bad. Grand Prix and Le Mans had mediocre to terrible scripts but made up for it with amazing racing footage. Ford v Ferrari was better but no where near as good as the Blaine book it was based on (“Go Like Hell”). Ferrari bombed but I thought it actually pretty well done script/ acting/ editing/ directing and accuracy-wise. I’d love to see Hollywood make a movie based on IMO the best racing book of all-time “Black Noon” about the tragic ‘64 Indy race but it would probably not appeal to audiences not interested in racing history. PS- oops! Totally forgot Rush. I thought it was so-so but I have a personal fetish for 70’s F1 cars so it’s one of my favorites because of all of the tall air boxes!

Thank you Bart for the detailed description of your wood painting technique. I was surprised to read that you use acrylic dark brown paint for brush streaking the wood grain. For me the use of dark brown (burnt umber) oil paint thinned with mineral spirits and using a coarse brush works really nicely when applied over the tan acrylic base. The thinned oil paint is very forgiving and has the advantage over acrylic paint in that you can keep repeating the brush streaking until you’re happy with the appearance (it takes 1-2 days to dry). Once the oil paint streak coat is dry, I then airbrush a thinned down application of the transparent acrylic orange or yellow. Here’s a pic of a WWI aircraft prop I did using this oil paint wood grain technique: On your next wood paint project, you might want to try this thinned dark brown oil paint technique and compare it to the results you get with the dark brown acrylic streaking.