
LUKE'57
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Everything posted by LUKE'57
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Thanks for adding the extra info. I was familiar with the aluminum Ford and there was some multipiece bodies from Revell in the mid-fifties in other scales of then current cars. I mostly pegged '58 as when I started building models and it was planes so I missed those first AMT cars (my first car kit was the Trophy Series AMT '40 Ford sedan around '61 or so.
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After readin a "bash" of ERTL (AMT) kits on another board I had to come to "my" company's defense. They were really comparing hamburger with T-bone and it got me to thinking about how many of today's modelers really don't know the whole story behind those "laughably simple" kits that turn up in rerelease from time to time. So, here goes. Not a rant but a little history lesson for the newcomers. ---------------------------------------------- Here's a little insight from someone who's been in it almost since the beginning, having built my first kit around 1958, about why those AMT kits, some of which are from tools that are over 40 years old, are the way they are and why your comparison is very unfair. The newer kits are tooled for an entirely different purpose than the older kits were. In fact, the older kits didn't start out as kits at all. When the new cars came out, the auto manufacturers would contract with companies like AMT to produce what were reffered to as "promos", short for promotional models, that were used in showcases in the dealership to let the prospective buyer see what the cars looked like in the different colors offered without having to stock all of them in the full sized cars at all times. Sometimes the dealer would give out these cars to his better customers, especially those with young boys, as a sales premium or appreciation or even to help "seal the deal". The dealers needed models that were ready to hand out and not kits so the manufacturers, after getting all the info on the new models, would make a simplified replica with as few parts as possible to produce an accurate miniature of the full size car for the car maker's dealer showrooms. That's why the interior consisted only of a one piece "tub" with all the seats molded in, a dash and a steering wheel to complete the interior and a one piece chassis so that the "kits" could be built by AMT and others in a very short time so as to get the new little cars in the showrooms when the real one hit. The full size car makers pretty much paid for the tooling and the buildups and the model companies made a modest profit. Along about '58 it got really interesting as far as us modelers were concerned. AMT started doing the promos, and with the orders from the car makers there were hardtops, convertibles, station wagons, four doors and pickup trucks, and after the orders for the dealers were fullfilled they added some tooling for a few custom parts, printed some decals, put it all, unassembled, in a box and our auto modeling hobby was born from these humble beginnings. At first there were no engines because a promo's hood didn't open but later the kit makers added engines with stands and later opened the hoods in the retooling process after the promos were finished. That's why there were so many different body styles kitted back then and why they weren't as detailed as the kits made thirty or forty years later. Before you go condemning a kit for its lack of detail stop and think how long ago and for what purpose the tooling was cut. Would you rather have a simplified kit of a vintage vehicle or no kit at all of that subject because there isn't enough of a customer base now to support a new modern tool? And another thing about those simple little kits that today's "sophisticated" modeler convienitely overlooks is that those kits GOT BUILT and didn't linger in a closet or workbench for months or even years! And not only by the "master modelers" that gripe about the vintage kits today, but also by the kid brothers of those "kit assemblers" because they wanted to be like big brother and that grew a whole 'nother generation of buyers that made the next batch of kits possible and profitable. And the most important thing about those simple kits was that when you got it built, it looked like the vehicle you were modeling because the shape of the body and the overall "look" was built into it to please the people that built the real car. Beginners built them out of the box on their way to becoming modelers and modelers used them as the basis for building their "visions", from customs to racers to whatever their imagination could concieve. And that. my friends, is what modeling is supposed to be about.
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As promised, here's a somewhat simplified version of what it takes to add another dimension to your modeling by using composited photos to allow you to share your models in a novel way. In all fairness, it's like the guitar courses that tell you to put the finders of your left hand here, here, and here while you strike the strings with your right hand and the next thing you know there's music coming out. In both cases practice makes the difference and you'll be playing........er.......posting mind blowing model photos in no time.
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Just like "Thunder Road"..........
LUKE'57 replied to LUKE'57's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
I do it in a two step process using an older version of Microsoft PictureIt and Jasco PaintShop Pro5. The major cutting and pasting is done with PictureIt 98 to add me and whatever other elements like lettering, dust and guard rails the picture needs. I like this program because the different elements of the pic can be seen as it is being resized so there is no guessing percentages to get the proportions right. I then take the image to PaintShop Pro5 to fine tune the edges of the added images to make the lines dissappear and the contrast a better match. I'll try to do an "in Progress" pic later that will show the basic steps to try and make it a little clearer. Thanks for the comments on the pics. Glad you like them. -
Watching LeMans last night on TMC and
LUKE'57 replied to Ken's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
I've got a pretty good copy of Thunder in Carolina that I can transfer to DVD. It's the video release from about '79 called Hard Drivin' with a new title spliced into the opening. I'd trade a copy for a copy of LeMans. I got there late at the drive in back in '69 or so and have never seen the whole thing. Missed the opening crash sequence. Any body want to trade? Recorded off cable will be ok. -
Flying the Friendly (Racer's) Skies this Thanksgiving Weekend. While I can't remember the very first Darkside racer I built (It was either Tiny Lund's Daytona 500 winner or Joe Weatherly's last championship winng '63 Mercury), unless it was the AMT Lorenzen '65 Galaxie. But that was a current ride when it came out so I don't count it. But I do remember the first so-called "downsized" (I consider the Fairlanes the first) racer I built. It was one of the Southern Stocker kits that were done a lot like the real cars were. MPC hacked up a full sized chassis and skinned it with new sheetmetal and called it progress. At Daytona that year when they spun around and took off amont the most repeatable things they called'em was sailplanes. But aerodynamic issues aside, some of them were pretty good looking race cars, like prettiest of them all, the new Wood Brothers Thunderbird. Since I had one of the MPC kits just sitting around so I thought I'd try my hand at replicating Ricky Rudd's new ride and, after finishing up the hand lettering at about three in the morning, here's what I got.
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Ford really wasn't "in" racing in '59 so when some '59 T-birds left out the back door, in pieces at scrap prices, headed for the Douglas Municipal airport in Charlotte NC some guys in Dearborn had to make themselves mighty scarce around the watercooler for a while until the dust settled. Holman Moody built some turnkey racers out of them and former GM driver Cotton Owens wound up with one of the potent 430 cubic inch Lincoln powered cars that looked sorta like this. Cotton made both the Grand National and Convertible Division races in his "Thunderchick" but didn't get GN points for the races he ran in without a rear window to make the removable top easier to deal with.
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A most famous bird for Turkey Day.
LUKE'57 replied to LUKE'57's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Thank you sir, glad you liked it. Still, it's hard for a true Dyed in the Wool FoMoCo guy to have to admit building a Mopar and then put it right out in front of everybody. -
Gary, I've got it saved on a disc somewhere and can't remember the date of the mag but they have them archived on their site. Unfortunately they don't have an index yet so it'll be "hunt and peck" until you find it. I'm pretty sure it should be here somewhere. UPDATE=Found the disc and the date of the article is Sept 2002. http://www.internetmodeler.com/2008/november/archives.php
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.........although that build of it is really nice, I just like to remind people that Nascar didn't start when Jeffy came on board. There's a rich and varied heritage back in those dark ages. How about one of the King's record setting Plymouths? 27 wins in '67 with 10 in a row makes this little "Mayflower" somewhat of a history maker and I just wanted to share it with ya'll.
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Now I KNOW I had to double up on the decals on this one to get rid of all the grey lettering. Just the normal characteristic of the offset printed decals in the kits. The silk screened ones have spoiled us. I can remember the first time I used a set of Fred Cady decals with white number and lettering on a black car and couldn't believe they stayed white! In all fairness to the model makers, I payed almost as much for those decals as I did for the kit I used them on.
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Box stock build of an ASA Camaro
LUKE'57 replied to LUKE'57's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Thanks, glad you liked it. Check out the Waltrip car from the same photo session. -
Box stock build of an ASA Camaro
LUKE'57 posted a topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Was shooting some new pics of some old builds and this Bob Senneker Camaro sort of jumped out at me when I was dowloading the pics. There's nothing like bright sunshine to make a model look like the real deal. -
Chrysler to be sold in pieces?
LUKE'57 replied to Harry P.'s topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Chrysler to be sold in pieces? Nothing new there. Johan did it for years. Chryslers, Plymouths, Dodges, Ramblers.......... -
.........Smokey, Banjo, Ralph or Cotton. You just never know what he's liable to pull up in the yard with on your birthday or Christmas. Here's the latest in a very long line of model race cars that has rolled out of Jackie Sims Race Car Models little shop. It's the ancient original opening everything Revell '56 Chevy kit. He does great work and I really appreciate the cars he builds for me and the fact that through all those years he still hasn't disowned me.
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"Rumblin' Ragtops" Part 3-"The Other Shoe (a Saddle Oxford)" You've heard the expression, "Waiting for the other shoe to fall."? I imagine that poor ol' Ralph Moody was woefully well aquainted with it, having both Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly as his drivers. Here's Joe's 1960 Rebel 300 winner ready to do battle at the old peanut field in Darlington. There were times that those two would run most of the race not only outrunning but also knocking the competition out of the way and when they were through with the rest of the field they would start on each other. Poor long suffering Moody spent a lot of time explaining to visiting Ford brass in the pits just why he hired those two monkeys and just what kind of tree they had swung down from to drive their cars. But while they were legendary in the party department, they were no slouches when it came to wheeling those fast HM Fords. I guess if publicity was why Ford was in racing then they would be hard pressed to find two more "ink generating monkeys" this side of King Kong. I wonder just how much smaller Ralph's ulcer got when those two went to the Woods and Bud Moore in '61? Somehow I think their replacement, race winning, non skirt chasing, early to bed and early to rise tee totaler Fred Lorenzen, had to be a relief for ol' Ralph.
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"Rumblin' Ragtops" part 2 "The Handsome Half" In the late fifties and early sixties there was a scourge of the tracks and the party venues refered to as the "Gold Dust Twins". While Joe Weatherly was every bit the racer (and party animal) that his friend Curtis Turner was, it just seemed that ol' Pops overshadowed him most of the time. Winner of well over 350 stock car races, and countless highway contests with the local and federal officials while plying his "delivery" trade, Curtis became a Southern legend both on and off the track. Here's my build of his ride in the first 100% "Hacksaw Rebel 300". While the "zippertop" cars had done double duty in both the Convertible and Grand National divisions in the preceding seasons, 1960 marked the first year that cutting the roof off a GN car for Darlington's Spring event would be the rule and not the exception. Darlington promotor Bob Colvin loved the "ragtops" and kept his Spring race a convertible event long after Nascar dropped the cars as a seperate division. Only someone as well liked as Colvin could have persuaded the racers to go to that much trouble for as long (3 years) as he did but finally the increased speeds and extra cost brought an end to the unique nature of one of racing's most colorful and zany events. BTW I built the car from an old SMP that was a hardtop with some pronounced warpage, most of which straightened out when I cut the top off. I also built the shop pretty much from scratch and spread the gravel for the parking area. I'm not sure if I planted any of the real trees in the background but could have since I "claimed" this piece of ground when I was about six years old and it was covered only in broomstraw (over 50 years ago) and several years before my Grandparents gave it to me.
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"Rumblin' Ragtops" Part 1
LUKE'57 replied to LUKE'57's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Well at least there's no doubt that you're hetero. LOL -
CALLING ALL CONVERTIBLE FANS!
LUKE'57 replied to LUKE'57's topic in General Automotive Talk (Trucks and Cars)
Since these ARE my builds and you're seeing them.....what's your point? -
"Six Pack" Kenny Rogers little pit crew.
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"Rumblin' Ragtops" Part 1 What better way to start out a convertible series than with the Ol' Pro, Curtis Turner, the first stock car racer to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated. When Ford pulled out of racing early in the '57 season, John Holman talked Ralph Moody into taking out a loan on his airplane to take Ford up on the bargain basement price on all their racing assets. He did and from that little private plane grew a racing giant that conquered Daytona, Indy, LeMans and most everything else in the racing world- Holman Moody. Here's what they built for Curtis to beat the competition over the helmet with for '57. While, due to HM pulling their cars out of competition to regroup after the factory pullout, they missed the title for the year but the time was well spent as HM became the "go to" guys for racing parts for the next fifteen years. Wonder how differently stock car history would have played out if Ralph had decided to keep a clear title on that plane?