Casey

$35, $32, $26, are the last three '74 DoH RR completed sale prices I see. One in the tin sold for $79.99, but all the others are between $49 and $26, $26 being less than what they sold for when first reissued. No sale on the $15 and $30 RC2 era kits. Where are you seeing these ridiculous prices?

Perhaps you should reconsider your friendship.

Why not start with the Revell '48 Police Coupe kit's body and make/swap/change things to however you prefer?

Anyone who has been can relate to this statement. I got there late this year, so no parts bag goodies for me, but I did find a few things there...: ...and this at a resale shop in Thorp, WI Friday:

Strip the chrome plating and the clear undercoat with Easy Off oven cleaner in the yellow can, then apply Krylon 1403 Dull Aluminum...the best for cast look aluminum IMHO. Seriously, yes, in the big spray can.

Looking at the box art model, it appears to me there will be no chrome plated parts, like most (but not all, the Pink Poison issue being the exception) previous releases. I see Alclad or similar on the bumpers, grille, and wheels, not chrome plating:

I would almost guarantee it won't. The Arctic Cat snowmobile and the companion Chevy Scottsdale 4x4 (well, FUAXx4) have never been reissued, while the Revell 2WD Chevy Stepside has been reissued many, many times over the last three decades, virtually unchanged. I think the kit was permanently altered to the 2WD version, hence the reason we've never seen the snowmobile since 1980(?). Now, perhaps the inserts survived, or maybe this new kit will include the parts based on a recreation of the originals...we will see in a few months, but after looking at the instruction sheet images, the parts appear to look just like the original parts-- same number of bogey wheels, same track halves, etc. Even the windshield appears to have the same shape. Keep in mind the Revell Jeep Honcho kit has only 71 parts total, so it's not exactly killing it in the parts count department. There's plenty of room inside the standard box to add something extra, just like Revell did with the snowplow they added to the (also low-ish parts count) GMC 4x4 kit a few years ago. Honestly, the Jeep kit is pretty disappointing, but it's the only game in town when it comes to a J-series Jeep, so there is always demand for it. It will sell out quickly.

I honestly can't blame PB for making significant changes. I had a free account for six years, then upgraded to the Plus20 account @$39.99/year two years ago. I have over 10GB of stored images there and use the 3rd party hosting feature heavily, so I've really only paid $80 for eight years of hosting many, many images, so I can't really complain. Now, I don't care for the way they abruptly made changes, but I'm sure they ran the numbers and made a decision which was in their best interest. They are in business to make money, and considering how many of us used their service for free for many years, I'm surprised it took this long to happen. Still awaiting a response from Sebastian, my "personal account manager".

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Looks like Round2 is Coke-ing all the trucks it can re-reissue.

You can copy the image address from facebook and post it here, too. Works fine as sort of a default (and very basic, very public) image hosting service.

I received it, too, and the previous e-mail stating PB would support existing Plus accounts in good standing until December '18...will see what the reply is regarding the 30 day notice. Needless to say it's time to download all vital images to COYA.

Thanks, Bill, perfect. Yeah, the decal sheet is going to sell a few kits on its own. Really not much new in the rest of the parts, but that was expected, and really, fine.

The Chevy Caprice kit was updated each(?) year, and the '75-'76 "nose" of the car is more squared off compared to the '71-'74 model years, if that makes sense. If you want to minimize the amount of work, seek out an original MPC '74 kit, as the '76 is all that remains of those annual updates. Here's the most recently reissued version of the MPC 1/25 '76 Chevy Caprice kit: For the truck, you're probably looking for something like this, at least as far as the color scheme and side panel area are concerned?: There were no kits made with the long eight-foot Fleetside bed, only the shorter (6.5'?) Fleetside bed, which comes in the Revell/Monogram 1/24 scale GMC kit. No kits had the trim which divides the panel area from the rest of the body, though, so that would need to be carefully added with some styrene strip. Again, not sure how deep you want to get into this, so maybe re-painting a die-cast model would be an option, too?

1968 Mercury Cougar XR-7 is AMT kit #5328, so it looks like the bottom parts are from the AMT '69 Cougar annual kit based on this pic from the Cougar review topic: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/97142-125-amt-69-cougar-eliminator/?page=1 You can see the baby moon hubcaps were still an option in the kit looking at the side wall of the box:

Start with the Revell '69 Nova SS Special Edition kit-- much better than the AMT kit. The kit has the "SS" molded to the grille, so removing that will be a challenge, or just paint the center black and call it good. MPC released a kit of the '74 Chevy Caprice, but they are long out of production and getting pricey: The (most recent version in the line) MPC '76 Caprice is still semi-easy to find and cheaper, but the nose looks different, so that may make even more work for you. The 1/25 MPC '78 Chevy Stepside pickup is probably your best starting point as it was the only 2WD kit (all the rest were 4WD), but was your parents' truck a Fleetside?

If so, Round2 should release something soon while they have the Petty licensing rights. Here's the '95 release you mentioned, pictured in the October issue of SAE:

Everything. Pics of the decal sheet would be appreciated, and the tires, too, though I am pretty sure Mike W confirmed they are the same ol' Goodyear GT Radials. I'm curious how the chrome plating is on the snowflake wheels, too.

I wouldn't toot the horn too loudly for the IH Scout kits. While the subject matter was most welcome, the execution leaves a lot to be desired: http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2015/04/08/AMTErtl-International-Scout-II-Review Now, I still hope Round2 reissues a few of the Ertl kits within the next few years, but with "over 53 pieces"(!!!), the Scout kit hardly seems on par with their heavy truck kits.

Did anybody buy and open one of these up, yet?

No, they are not all gone. Click here on the pinned tutorial post: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/3561-making-door-hood-hinges/

There is no chrome anything on the real car, so I think they plated the wheels (and side view mirror faces, too:?) as the best replicate aluminum for an out of the box build. Remembering back to '92 or so when I built the kit (my first Tamiya kit, too), I think painting the black fret around the "glass" was easier than I expected, due to the slightly roughened texture area which are to be painted black. Not a big surprise for a well engineered kit such as this, and pretty typical of Tamiya factory stock automotive subjects from the early '90s...their Porsche 959 "feels" almost identical, and also build up nicely. Here's some good reference, too: http://practicalenthusiast.kinja.com/nissan-300zx-twin-turbo-the-actual-cost-of-buying-an-o-1793065851