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Chuck Kourouklis

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Everything posted by Chuck Kourouklis

  1. Chuck Kourouklis
    Tough crowd! Here you go...
  2. Chuck Kourouklis
    You and I were essentially saying the same thing about the yearly updates, Steve - but even if the drip moldings themselves were optional, MPC kits from the era were still too unfinished around the greenhouse for window seals and anything other than smooth, flat A-pillars. This wasn't just true of their Gen 3 F-bodies (and a really obvious on the 1/16 Firebird, especially as compared to Revell's), but their C4 'Vettes, and their Fiero to a somewhat lesser extent. Not that anybody should care so much about a droopy little EXP, but MPC's lack of greenhouse detail was really telling there: and seeing how comprehensively detailed these MPC kits were otherwise, skimming over such visible areas seems a little mystifying.
  3. Chuck Kourouklis
    Besides lower cladding, taillights, and m.y.-appropriate wheels, the earlier MPC '28s also had BFGoodrich tires. The rubber was updated to Gatorbacks when AMT appropriated the tooling in the late '80s. Something that's always annoyed me about these early-'80s-sourced MPC kits is the incomplete look many of them had about the greenhouse, from omitted window seal and drip molding detail. Always thought AMT's own '83 Z-28 - never modified tor a later model year - was superior in that regard, and for being the only bi-scale 3rd-gen Camaro to nail the headlight bucket shape in the front fascia.
  4. Chuck Kourouklis
    You're also more than welcome to add your '70 Charger photos and impressions to the existing thread linked above, if you like...
  5. Chuck Kourouklis
    Revell's predecorated C7 street kits do a lot with their 56 pieces, and this kit gives me very much the same impression - those are 64 pretty intricately molded and cleverly arranged parts. Initial takeaway anyhow, and I'm a parts geek from waay back.
  6. Chuck Kourouklis
    I was going to say that one of the more noteworthy aspects of this tooling is that it revives the practice, last seen in the '90s, of AMT sharing significant amounts of tooling between full-detail and simplified versions, this time perhaps weighting the compromise toward a more complicated snapper than to a simplified glue kit. It's more accurate to characterize the practice as sharing tooling between glue kit tooling and promos, which is how AMT made its bones in the first place - but the snapper seems a bit more complex than your average promotional model. The body mold isn't any too polished either.
  7. Chuck Kourouklis
    muy muy rico, Gents. Well played.
  8. Chuck Kourouklis
    That "empty" look is thanks in no small part to MPC's early '80s practice of omitting any sort of drip molding or window seal details on a number of kits, their F-cars, EXPs, and C4 'Vettes among the more notable examples. Looked iffy on their 1/25 kits and really obvious on their 1/16s of the time. Detail and parts texture would be nice elsewhere, but the bodies had a generally unfinished look. The 1/16 'Vette had an opening hatch, but not this Firebird. It was Revell's 1/16 F-cars that had all the opening panels. Hatch glass was a little humped on those kits and more accurately shaped on the fixed MPC hatch. Trying to recall if the black frit/defroster line detail was even there on the first release of this kit back in '82. Look closely at the model and I believe you'll see a rear seat back piece curling around the side under the edge of the top surface catching all the light - I don't recall that being a hollow seat back. The Revell 1/16s seemed physically just a bit smaller, perhaps a bit more accurately shaped overall, not quite so sharply engraved and a little overly "geometric" in the dirty bits, but they had window seal/gasket detail. I I r c, The one thing the MPC '82 Firebird kits caught that neither Revell nor Monogram did in theirs was that little flaring aero piece just ahead of each front wheel at the rocker level on both sides.
  9. Chuck Kourouklis
    Well, much of the engine is on its own tree and hey - maybe the transmission halves are integrated with the block now 'cause there's a 440/TF combo on the way. Ben and Joe, I think you've hit upon us the second most likely successor to this version - second only because the wedge would require another tree instead of just carrying the Hemi over.
  10. Chuck Kourouklis
    Thanks a lot, Wayne & Scott!
  11. Chuck Kourouklis
    Thanx much!
  12. Chuck Kourouklis
    Like mine well enough (from the reissue above) Still 'n all, really looking forward to taking a crack at the new one...
  13. Chuck Kourouklis
    That was another really great "Mueller/Montgomery"-era kit. I remember it being a honey to build and very clever in the interface between the floor pan, interior side panels and the bed floor somehow (it's been 15 or 16 years since I last had a good look). Sits a little low for purely stock iIrc, but that's easily fixed and not even a problem for many modelers.
  14. Chuck Kourouklis
    Man's got a market for 'em, he should satisfy and exploit that market to the best of his abilities and get well paid. And I'll tellya what - even four figures is pretty cheapskate for that kind of workmanship. I got models well beneath that level of finish that $1500 wouldn't compensate my time for.
  15. Chuck Kourouklis
    Wow. Yup, sure is, by just about double it appears. O t o h, if that's the worst issue we've got... (that wouldn't be an MPC grille insert for the boxcover car, would it?)
  16. Chuck Kourouklis
    A vinyl top is unlikely for the very same reason you can be pretty certain we're not going to see molded-in door scoop covers: expensive changes to the body mold. I'd love to be 100% certain that Revell will provide us those scoops separately - and I am only 5% off that - but considering Revell's not-quite-pristine track record with such things, I have to make a small allowance they might not be included at all.
  17. Chuck Kourouklis
    Yup, made that point myself earlier in the thread, in case you missed it. My 5% accounts for their complete omission.
  18. Chuck Kourouklis
    Awesome! Think I'll go so far as to commit to my prediction now: a Hemi R/T on Rallyes/blank Polyglas tires with the full-width rear trim & pimpin' black "HEMI" hood stripes on the decal sheet. Gut gives me about 85% probability on that. 95% on separate covers for the door scoops.
  19. Chuck Kourouklis
    Tha Abby Normal one.
  20. Chuck Kourouklis
    Maybe there'll be another shifter on the next rear bumper tree to go with the console? Still doesn't address the 4-spd hump issue...
  21. Chuck Kourouklis
    Hmm. The pistol-grip is on what looks like the shared chrome tree, so it's looking apt to carry over...
  22. Chuck Kourouklis
    the TRAINING WHEELIES! I KNEW Revell left something out...
  23. Chuck Kourouklis
    Now THAT's one I'd like to see a fake blower on.
  24. Chuck Kourouklis
    Wow, so those ARE LS's, then. I got one of my own, thought it was the greatest thing since Eva Green's film debut - IN A CHEVROLET. But in a MoPar?? NoSar! Guess the camera doesn't care, 'n they wuz probably cheap crate motors. "The Sweater", I'm cryin' here...
  25. Chuck Kourouklis
    I c'n diggit. Prob'ly snatch it up next time I'm at the pusher.
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