Chuck Kourouklis

Tree arrangement, guessing. Hood is on the same sprue as the dash, steering wheel & column. And since they're red, prob'ly a little strange for the rest of the interior to be black.

I think I can get a fair amount of it together without anything permanent.

Don't wanna trash the kit, but I was toying with a suspension mockup anyway.

Don't know bang-off, but I'll put a dash close-up on the menu for a bit later.

Kool, and thanks!

So Dave - don't suppose you might know what the color and code is for the paint? Bein' lazy 'fore I google...

On the sched. Close-ups 'round 8-9 PDT tonight. As fer "strobe", yup, that's what I meant by leaving it to those who really know.

Yes! Don't know anything about whether or not they're fixed in the 1:1, but they're there as separate parts. Think their placement will be pretty important to the way the DLO comes across.

Think we got a winner. Beats that crow, huh?

Just realized you wanted front 3/4 too - will handle that later tonight.

Yeah, I think this block has that timing cover casting that's a visual tell for the Cleveland. 351C just seems like the sexier, more obvious mill anyway. Gonna stop a bit short of a declaration right now, though. Might try zooming in later.

Yup, Scott, only the one set-up for now: dual carb 351, hiked rear end, big 'n little slot mags. Revell's worked over some previous tooling pretty good to make for stock versions, though, and 'cept for the grille, all the chrome hop-up bits do seem to be grouped to one side of the tree. I'm betting Tamiya primer should seal it okay. Model Master Acryl primer shoots pretty nice when thinned right, and since it's water-based, I'd guess it shouldn't leach too much pigment from the plastic. It seems to dry tough enough to accept some relatively caustic top coats (but I'd mess around on plastic spoons first).

LUGS, heh. Biggest lug around here is me - I didn't even catch that till you pointed it out, Casey. Yeah, 56 is rear, 54 is front, Lee. Man, all the rakes I'm stepping on 'round here, I might not live up to my image of having to be right all the time - maybe I'll keep my next oversight on the d/l. Hate to make a right jackass out of anybody about that. Yoooooo DAVE! I lied. Fair amount of adaptation there for different m y bumpers, it seems. Also points up the trough to accept the rear of the floor pan in just such a way: Those lateral extensions plug the rear chassis in pretty securely, but they also prevent you feeding that area from the rear wheel arches to the back as you can with more conventional chassis plates. The front frame mounts: But now I really don't have access to the kit till around 8pm Pacific tonight. Anybody wanna see anything else, just ask and don't worry about whatever "history" you might have with me - thinking about it on the way to work, I decided I should hit the strobe and radio next for the service cognoscenti, by way of f'rinstance.

'Round 11 or so your time tonight, Dave...

Well, we did make it to post 30, Lee, but yeah, it's anybody's guess. A closer look at wheels and valve covers: And nope, the covers aren't stock. Intake is dual-carb, and you can see those and the air cleaner housing here as well. Angle change on wheels to try for a better look at how they're dished, see if plating affects perception any. Shot's muddy, but tires are definitely the Streaks as seen in your most recent Revell Deuce reissue, Case. Get your requests in if you'd like to see more, but I'll need till later tonight to get to that. Ebayed a JoHan '72 Torino stock car for just such an experiment and dumba$$ me has lost track of where I put. Model King stock car reissue shows a wheelbase shorter by about 2-3mm (scale inches), fwiw. Anybody who wants to re-post photos from the closed thread is welcome, to the point of me asking "pretty please." And like most, I'm not too worried about the whys as long as Revell's coffers get fattened on this one. Geiger's explanation sounds about on point to me.

And with a subject from a 40-year-old tv show? Got me, JC. Just the one plastic plate frame for the rear, Rob. Left on your own for the front.

Well there are modern tells - the sliding molds to get you the dash top detail and the axle pin bosses for the front and rear suspensions - but yeah, there's a distinctly retro flavor going on here. We may see this sort of thing again if those '80s Cutlass kits ever surface as we saw in those plans a while back...

Hereya go: You can always count on Revell for a good decal sheet these days. Hood hinge design (which actually does look like it'd work for a die cast):

Sure thing! One bit I'd have to note is that a feature the die casts always seemed to have was the engine bay molded with the interior floor, where this one is more like a straight reversion back to '80s design practice with the engine bay molded to the body. The chassis/body interface would also have to have been radically different, 'cause you really need to flex those rear quarters out to get the rear floor pan in place, thanks to the way it locks in under the rear bumper fill panel. Stranger things have happened, though...

How 'bout now? Just hammered them in thru the source code, 'cause I can't get the more straightforward linking feature to work.

Well, this is "what-you-got-today" and not the review section over here, I obviously haven't built the thing yet, and Revell does have this nifty little device called a website where they list the parts count (88, and correct). But hey, since you asked so nicely...

Normally I'm not so ahead of the curve on picking up new releases, but it looks like my local RPP pusher got 'em in early this time: And what I find most fascinating about this is the distinctly retro-Monogram flavor about the design, straight down to the colored parts: So we're back to molded stanchions instead of coil springs for the front and rear suspensions, upper radiator hose only, engine bay/battery/partial firewall molded to the body shell, distributor molded to the intake manifold, two-piece wheels (with the old Goodyear Speedway tires first developed for a variant of Monogram's 427 Cobra and more recently shorn of their license-bilkable logos), that sort of thing. Two key characteristics of current Revell kits still retained are separate interior door panels and metal pin axles. The strobe light is part of the transparent red parts tree. The empty space in the top-most red tree is for the hood, which has huge hinge shanks settling into oversized cowl slots, but fits pretty nicely. 21-piece 351 looks fair; one-piece oil pan is separate. Mocking up the interior shows very positive location between it, the body, and the chassis, although the way the rear of the chassis inserts is so tricky and tight, you might be advised to leave the foil off the lower rear-quarter moldings till you get it in place. Chassis needs tweaking to settle in fully (as always), but the locating surfaces front and rear are generous and well-defined. Proportions and details like the exhaust system and wheels are exactly as you've seen in previews, and I'm going to stop my commentary right there, until I've had more of a chance to research and compare. Parts count is 88 as the website and box cover describe, and the decal sheet is comprehensive down to the front marker lights, dash gauges and woodgrain, steering wheel spoke graphics, under hood markings, all body scripts (also in raised detail on the body shell), and of course, those iconic stripes. Q & A, if you like...

Is there supposed to be something else?

Oh wow, so I'm the first to report on this? The ghost of Monogram vintage design rises, as if they dusted off plans from the early '80s and updated them a bit with separate interior door panels and Revell's current pin axle m o. Yes, that's red plastic you see, with a tiny hint of the black chassis visible under the front left corner (and for those who haven't worked out priming/sealing against red pigment, recall the white plastic in the '29 A and don't worry too much about this becoming standard Revell practice just yet). Proportions look dead unchanged from the preview shots you've seen. Finally scored the nice little RoG BMW i8 and the pre-finished C7 'Vette. The latter is solid red clear-coated or lacquer-washed instead of the metallic look in previews, with complete tempo detailing for scripts, vents, and the rear fascia. The window piece from the snap kit seems superior enough for a transplant, but otherwise, this version presents surprisingly well for such a drastic cut-down in separate parts. The rear suspension is molded in, but the exhaust is separate and the power train has gotten some attention, and I think Revell would be well-advised to give this kit the same white plastic/decals treatment they're doing with the ZL-1… *cough* OR MAYBE JUST PRODUCE A FULL-DETAIL Z06.

Well, just did some more digging on the Round 2 Batmobile, and I gotta stand corrected - despite the initial insistence of several Batmobile fans in the know, Jamie Hood from Round 2 has gone on record saying they did not in fact lease the Mattel scans (even though the P/L body shell breaks down in just about the same way). They managed to get that one with photo reference, through the language and cultural barriers, etc. Still looks really good, except for the beacon. That said, of course, there's still the matter of Mattel's 1/18 die cast that looks just like the 1:1 it was scanned from. And one might also be curious about exactly what Ford has done to "fudge" these into looking "right" in scale: 3d.ford.com.