Junkman

I think that's quite easy. If you like the tinned kits, you buy them, if not, you leave them. It is my understanding though, that in some of the tinned kits, they include bonus stuff, which they omit from the cartonned counterparts. As always, all you have to do is stay patient until they have clearance sales.

The car gives me the impression he rather masks himself?

Why not put in a running engine and gearbox and banger race it? Let it go off this world in a final blast of glory.

Lucky you, you found it!

That pretty much depends on one's infrastructure. If you are a partial open-air modeller like me, the weather is the most important thing. As a rule of thumb: The weather in England is only good for modelling, when I have to be in the office. The moment I finally manage to allocate time to paint a model car body, it sure will be like you see it in the movies. Nothing is better for a good paint job, than a heat wave.

Yeah, I was thinking already that everyone only mentions the tiny pieces lost in the wormhole. You are the first who brings up the major components being sucked into the black hole. I once lost the windscreen frame of a '53 AMT 'Vette and it never ever resurfaced. On a different note, one of those parallel universes exists in one's trouser turn-ups. Model kit parts happily mingle with the Chinese food that mysteriously vanished on it's way from the bowl to the mouth during the hapless attempts to master chopsticks. Or coins. The latter seriously got me into trouble at an airport security check a few years back. God knows where I would be now if it had been an AMT metal axle, aka an offensive weapon. Might well wear an orange suit somewhere in Cuba.

No, this stuff doesn't yellow. And as I said, I use it for 25 years now.

On a more serious note - would it not be a good idea to rename this post into something like 'hardy survivors with extremely low mileages' and whoever comes across one posts it here? They'd make excellent reference material for replica stock builders, no?

I really envy the Australians. When they drop a part, it's conveniently hanging off the ceiling. Here in Europe, I experience an entirely different phenomenon. Parts leave the workbench floor-wards, but they never arrive there. During their relatively short journey, they are sucked through a gap in the space-time-continuum only to reappear years later, long after you finished that expensive kit by buying yet another even more expensive kit just for this one part, that spent all the time in a parallel universe. Oh man, why did Newton have to invent this gravity thingy? Or was it gravy? Or grafitti?

Yes, it usually does.

Now I'm really glad to have raised the question. I always thought Olds bronze is actually gold and I don't doubt for a second that you chose the correct colour for yours. Too bad I never saw a real one. I mean, I did see two real Olds 442 engines in my life, but they were all grimy and rusty and no trace of any paint was left on them.

Superb job! I also have that resin body and I know exactly mine will never be as good as yours. Which colour did you use for the engine? Am I correct that it should be Oldsmobile Engine Bronze? I couldn't find any proper reference photos and hence have no idea what it is really supposed to look like or what can be used to replicate it.

There is the Hobbycraft/Academy Hughes 500: It just shouts for Island Hoppers decals, can't you hear it (hint, hint)?

I have found a major disadvantage (for me) with white glue and craft glue - one cannot wash one's models when using them. Water will dissolve the glue. Hence only use those when you employ different methods to keep your models clean. I use UHU Plus: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/UHU-Plus-2-Part-Fast-Setting-Epoxy-Adhesive-Super-Glue-/270709867198 It is a fast setting epoxy which dries 100% clear. I've used it for the past 25 years and can vouch that it will stay clear. I also use it to attach chrome trim and bumpers.

Possibly the lowest mileage '57 Belvedere in existence:

Charlie, you should see the Continental I posted. It looks every bit as new as the Pacer, but it has almost 6000 miles on it, undercarriage, shock bolts, everything. I have seen many cars in my life which looked factory fresh despite having a few thousand miles on them. What I do not believe is that a car with only 12 miles on it, that sat for three-and-a-half decades, can just be started and driven without doing anything whatsoever to recommission it. Apart from that it is utterly dangerous to do so. There could even be legionella in the washer bottle.

Not even on metallics? Anyway, the paintwork cracked.

I think the correct spelling is "Flxible". Honestly. Just thought this may be useful for google searches and such stuff. But I'm afraid, the closesst you can get to a Flxible model is this:

Strangely, I actually would believe the story if the car in question was a beetle.

Do you have access to the real car? By the late Sixties, there was already hardly anything stock on a stockcar. They even toyed around with the shape of the bodies. What they did is build the cage on the floorplate, then clad the whole thing with repair panels, but line those up ever so slightly wedged so they just about meet the NASCAR template clearances. With the winged Chargers, I have the impression, that they took 1/2 - 1 inch out of the A-pillars, too. If you study old photos, you will also notice, that they seriously tampered with the side window channels, they were closed off with shaped sheetmetal tapering outboard. The front wheelarches are scientifically cut out and shaped, which makes for a very particular position of the front wheels appearance-wise. The late Sixties were technology hip to the brim, just remember the space race, for example. The sky was by no means considered the limit and NASCAR was no exception. This made for no-holds-barred racing with cars built for ever higher speeds, and safety really took a back seat. The rules were stretched to the limit - and often beyond via clever 'interpretation' (aka 'cheating'). If you compare below two photos, you will notice that the two cars have only a rather passing similarity: - Note for example, how tapered the front fender tops of the race car are, whereas they are nearly horizontal on the standard car. This is repeated where the quarter panes meet the C-pillar. - The A-pillar stainless trim (obviously stock pieces bolted to the cage legs) of the race car reaches above the rain gutter line. On the standard car, it ends a tad below it. This makes me believe that they did pull down the front of the roof an inch or so. - The side window openings are completely different. - I have the impression, that the entire front clip of the race car is 'kicked-up' in the front, i.e. the body appears to be 'sagging' in the cowl area. Needless to say, that from an aerodynamic point of view, all those mods make perfect sense.

X2. Makes one realize how thin plug leads really should be.

You mean even on solid colours? I have never used clear on them. I'm careful with this polishing anyway, since I find often the model turns out being too artificially glossy. This may be nice with a custom, rod, or show car, but 'ordinary' cars really weren't that glossy. Smooth, yes, but not this wet-look gloss.

That's an entirely different story altogether. My mother once bought a new Levi's Pacer (the one with the denim seat covers), which were sold through the Renault dealer network over here. I think few people realize what utter rubbish the cars really were. They looked spiffy and had quite a novelty factor, but build quality was atrocious and how you can tweak so little power from a 4.2 litre six is beyond me. The clearcoat didn't survive the first winter, the car was tricky to drive on snow, since it strangely had rear wheel drive, and after three winters it was so rusty that it didn't pass another test. But be it as it may, any old car in time-warp condition makes me sit up and notice. I restored and owned so many cars in my life, that nowadays I'm more fascinated with the condition of an old car, than with what car it actually is. Last year, I came across a 1982 Talbot Solara of all things, which had less than 6000 miles on it and just looked and smelled new. I passed on it simply because I thought it's just a Solara after all, but now I have this strange feeling that I made a mistake.

Mark me down for a 0.36 inch diff.

Those Tamiya cats are sure drying up now. Nice catch!