Casey

It may also have saved Monogram, according to what Art Anderson said, and maybe a few others. I don't think I ever had anything from the Racing Scenes in my hands until I bought a parts lot on eBay in '99 or so, and Tom's articles definitely made me want more. This was on page two of the SLM article Greg linked to, but had the RS line been more successful, we might've seen these, too: It was somewhere in Michigan, this molding facility? Not sure if I even am remembering correctly or where I read that (here maybe?). That would be wild if it was in MI and was the same place Lindberg molded its kits recently...road trip to eastern Michigan!

There are many ways to paint a car, and to write just about painting would fill a book. This is pretty good info from Tamiya's 'site: http://www.tamiyausa.com/articles/feature.php?article-id=35

Tread carefully with this one... I haven't noticed any change in service to be honest.

They are great, but they do have some shortcomings in a few areas. I think the Racing Scenes kits tend to get a bit overhyped since Aurora is defunct, similar to what's happened to JO-HAN kits, but I don't see the quality of the RC parts ever being equalled. The Tom West article really spelled out why, and I wish he'd write a follow up, adding some more history of his time at Aurora.

I remember opening the Pinto & Custom Painters kit I bought on eBay in '99 or so, and the disappointment shortly thereafter. The locating pins on the windshield were huge, the body had way too much roll at the rockers, and the nose and fenderlines seemed very "square". The figures are great, and the best part of that particular kit IMHO. Bell bottoms, pointy collars, and a 'fro scream early '70s, but the head can interchange with the F/C Drivers' bodies, making them even more versatile. The F/C Chassis (mine was a swap meet glue bomb buy) set had some nice details, but since the chassis is molded in one piece, the tubing is only half round. Good for a quick glance, but not nearly as realistic as the Revell 1/16 F/C and T/F kit chassis. The M&H tires are phenomenal, the 5-spoke American front wheels sensational, and the Donovan 417 is in a league of its own. According to Tom West's History of Drag Racing Models which ran in SAE in '90 or so, they didn't sell well at all.

http://www.ebay.com/csc/Promo-/2592/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=1964+Rambler&LH_Complete=1&rt=nc

I'm not sure it can or will ever be confirmed, and I know Art Anderson has mentioned a similar story to the one Tom West told, so it's reasonable to think the 1/16 Aurora Racing Scenes tooling is gone. Per Jesse's earlier post, as told by Tom West: "Some of the tooling for the 417 Hemi was destroyed when it was used improperly during production and not repaired, he as part of the tooling that made the engine block and it is fragged!" Assuming that's true and it arrived at Morton Grove in '77, and considering how poorly the 1/16 Racing Scenes sold for Aurora, I would think it would've been an easy choice for scrapping.

The rear suspension is molded separately from the chassis, but is molded as one with the exhaust system-- very similar to the circa 1982 Monogram musclecar kits in that regard. The front suspension is molded to the chassis, the interior tub lacks a lot of detail, and as Rob mentioned, the nose looks a bit "flat" and the headlight buckets look too big and are too deeply recessed. It's no monstrosity, but for such a recognizable and popular car, I think an all-new kit would be very welcomed.

Yes. IIRC it's the '71/72 kit backdated to a '70, so yeah, not so good.

Drag City Casting's contact info is listed in the Aftermarket Directory: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=71864

That's an understatement, but it looks like you were up to the challenge and ended up with a really nice model.

This seems to jive with what Jesse said. http://culttvman.com/main/?p=6365 What is the story about the Aurora train wreck? Tom West was the R&D Product Manager for the Aurora Kit line at the end of the run. He says: “The infamous train wreck (somewhere outside Albany, as I got the word) did in fact happen. Evidently it was a derailment which sent the car carrying a load of molds out into a field. Since they were so heavy, the molds were not tied down and pretty well tore up the car when they went through the car. “The loss was actually in the area of 14 1/2 molds officially (or 15 1/2, something like that). The molds were taken to Chicago to the Morton Grove facility, where the insurance company paid on the loss. Obviously, the other 1/2 mold was not particularly functional, but then the insurance company never had to produce parts from the remaining 1/2 mold. “There were some figure kits involved, a couple of aircraft molds, and the Addams family house sounds right, as mentioned on one of the other responses. I know that one of the accessory (black) parts molds for World War I aircraft was in there as well. I believe it was the Albatross CIII and two more kits that were the ones affected. Can’t remember which the others were. “Aurora molds were pretty much dismantled by Monogram beyond the ones lost in the wreck. When they got the molds, they gave their marketing group the list and told them to tell management which tools they would use in a certain period of time, like 3 years or 5 years, or something like that. Everything after that was open to the tooling guys, who, I understand, were given a bonus based on the amount of beryllium steel (cast cavities) that they were able to salvage from those molds. This material can be remelted and recast into new parts. Much of the classic oddball Aurora product was melted down in what sounded like a real feeding frenzy which eliminated the greatest part of the Aurora mold library, especially unwanted figures. Since that time I have talked to various people who would have been involved, and everyone was just following orders and nobody ever made a decision to scrap those molds. Tom Gannon, the Monogram President at the time was the only one who would take credit for the direction that set that in motion, as he felt it was good business to eliminate the stuff from the marketplace to eliminate competition. As if some of that old Aurora stuff was really going to compete with what Monogram was doing. Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.” –Tom West

I heard that, too, but I still wonder if some of the original molds exist. I'm not saying Polar Lights (now in the Round2 family) has access to them, and they most likely do not from what I recall hearing when PL first announced the former(?) Aurora Monster kits, but if they don't they sure chose some odd kits to reverse engineer. I was reading/researching the various stories and history of the fabled Aurora molds a few weeks ago, and there was an interesting comment by Tom Graham (I'm 99.9% sure he's the "docplastic" who made the below statement) who stated not all the Aurora molds were sold to Monogram: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ScaleModelingNostalgia/message/3844 "The Aurora molds that are generally conceded to have been damaged beyond repair in the train wreck are: Aero Jet Commander (85) Halberstadt CL II (136) Breguet 14 (141) Albatross C-3 (142) Cessna Skymaster (279) Aurora had destroyed some molds before the sale to Monogram and more were destroyed for their scrap metal value once they arrived at Monogram's plant in Morton Grove. The Seaview is said to be one of those destroyed at that time. All this is in my book "Aurora Model Kits." However, when I interviewed Bob Reder, co-founder of Monogram, for my in-progress book on Monogram, he said that Monogram did not buy all of Aurora's molds. He did not have any detailed recollection beyond that. So this holds out the slim but intriguing possibility that some molds were neither destroyed or sold to Monogram. Could they be in a warehouse somewhere? Slim chance. But we did find an Ivory Bill Woodpecker recently, so who knows.

I was hoping for a Snake & Mongoose reissue of some type, maybe timed to the release of the movie, but who knows. Revell has released two McEwen kits over the last two years.

The key to using the Search function here is to click on the white star thing to the right of the search box, which allows you to do an advanced search and will give you better results. There are many posts asking how to open doors, trunks, etc., and there is some overlap with the pinned hinges topic, so I will go through the posts covering opening/functional body panels and combine them into one topic.

I will warn you about the AMT '53 Vette kit...did you save the receipt?

I have to agree. Mark, what are you planning to use for the American 12-spokes and for matching tires?

I know Harry's got his fingers crossed hoping for this one!: I think the '93 S-10 would be a very welcome kit, even if only as the original issue, sans the lowrider and Waverider parts. Maybe they could reissue the Futurista instead of the Orange Hauler/Predicta/Lil Coffin/Red Baron again?: We'll probably get the Street T and trailer and Cop Out Duster F/C again, though.

...into production after they were announced for reissue at iHobby 2011 is what I should've said, Greg.

Updates? It's going on right now and ends May 15th, so get busy! Post #20 has a link to Revell's site and a list of eligible kits.

It's too bad that kit never made it to production. The SBC in the 1/16 T-based kits is pretty good, including the six carb manifold and two-piece Stromberg(?) carbs, it includes some nice period tires, and the quick-change rearend is very nice. The wheels are funky leftovers from the oddball Pyro versions (The Serpent anyone?), but the fronts seem to scale out to 15", and the kit is loaded with '60s era rod bits from the front suspension to the steering system. Not many other options for a 1/16 T-bucket, either, and while the body isn't perfect, it's about as good a starting point as there is in 1/16 scale. Mark Johnson has a nice 1/16 T-bucket based Altered project going in the drag section, using the Pyro body as the base.

That is incorrect according to what I see on my Profile: Signature setting: Edit Signature Your signature may contain: • Any number images • Images of any size • Any number of URLs • Any number of lines Robert, you need to use a larger image. What size is the image you are using in your signature line?

Lots of suggestions here, Mike: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53377

Will be old news after we see it next weekend at NNL Milwaukee. IIRC, Revell had someone present last year, so hopefully this year someone'll be there again. I'm thinking a Big John Mazmanian version, yes, with a hardtop.

That always seemed like an odd choice given the other body styles they could've started with, and the second version was little more than a 19"/20" wheel and tire upgrade. Still a LOT of potential in the GM A-body series, though, which hopefully includes replacing the 1/24 Monogram '70 Chevelle SS with a modern full detail (i.e., not the SnapTite kit) version in 1/25 scale. Looooong overdue IMHO. Hmmm, I wonder if this will make it more difficult for choosing future '50s subjects, and how's the '57 Ford kit doing in comparison?