Junkman

Interestingly, this confirms what I keep saying: Where is the progress in the past 40 years of automotive engineering?

I second that. Although the style is not to my taste, this is modelling at it's finest!

Hey, thanks! I just love to mess around with them. Here is another one. From this: to this:

I just love Italian coachbuilt one-offs. Provided your consent, I suggest to extend this thread and start collecting them here. This could probabaly end up being the only thread in the world on the subject. I take the liberty to add one of my favourites, the Corvette Rondine by Pinin Farina: Please feel free to delete this post if you don't like my idea.

Got this the other day: Since Sunday afternoon, it looks like this:

Got this from the boot sale today:

How many people in this forum were already building models in the Sixties? The only thing I really remember from the Sixties is the moon landing. I was a toddler and I only remember it, because my parents bought the first telly for the occasion. It was a b+w of course. I got my first kit in the early 70s iirc. The first one I sort of successfully built, was the Monogram 540K, when it was molded in silver.

If you do an open, worldwide search for 'Bandai' on Ebay, you get 43,000 results. 11 (eleven) of them are cars. The decision not to reissue any is correct from a business point of view. I only wonder where all these unbuilt/half-built car kits are. I hauled a stack of them from an attic recently, where they have been sitting for the better part of three decades.

Bandai is well aware of this, but they feel their kits will fall short compared with Tamiya and they are right. The Bandai kits weren't really that good. They looked convincing in teh box, but once put together they often lacked finesse. Bear in mind that Bandai did a lot more than 1/12 scale.

Trust me, I asked them, I begged them, I beseeched them. They kept shaking their heads horizontally.

Do you also know the colours these cars were painted?

Otaki also made a 1/12 C3, later reissued by Doyusha. None of the Bandai car kit molds have been destroyed. I have seen them with my very eyes when I visited the factory three years ago. They are carefully stored and fully intact. But the owners of Bandai cannot be convinced that it would be feasible to reissue the car kits. People of Japan have a completely different concept of nostalgia than we have. They fear, the kits would be inadequate for today's market.

The car inside the trailer of #4 is the Mercury XM Turnpike Cruiser show car.

I'm not a collector. I just keep buying kits because I forget that I have them already...

A 1959 Cadillac has no woodgrain. Reference pics of 59 Caddy interiors are honestly almost as commonplace on the web as nude women.

The curtains I have found in most American hearses I came across were made out of some kind of bourette silk. They clearly have the silk 'scroop' when you rub them between thumb and forefinger next to your ear. A hearse for me is black or dark blue, as Art has mentioned already. If black, I prefer a dark red interior, if dark blue, a blue or grey interior. Anyway, there is a plethora of hearse websites out there on the web for inspirations.

I have yet to use acrylics for detail painting and use Humbrol or Revell enamels exclusively and and apply them with paint brushes. I have never ever encountered any issue with enamels. All I can say is, they must be stirred thoroughly before use. I stir them for at least a cigarette length, which is > 5 Minutes for all non-smokers.

Because we can.

Without a doubt. If not, it'll be bailed out courtesy of your and my money.

Given the cost involved, sponsoring model contests shouldn't hurt the model companies. But it is a little like when a railway company advertises its services inside a railway station - the clientele is already buying what is on offer. I haven't seen an advertisement of a model company in ages. So yes, I do think that the lack of it is at least part of what is causing their business to decline.

Why don't you call Chip and ask him? You might be surprised.

Word!

I would like to have this Reliant Scimitar designed by Tom Karen of Ogle Design: A prototype incorporating a few of Mr Karen's ideas was actaully built and is still with us today:

I strongly do agree. Looking at, or even driving modern cars, I think they should be fired on a general principle. Then again, the 1968-70 Charger was nowhere near the epitome of engineering even in its day.