Junkman

Give me an Indian Scout 101. A Brough Superior. An Ariel Square Four. A Moto Guzzi Falcone. A BMW R69S. However, I'd already be over the moon if Revell would follow the lead of Heller and MPC. But alas.

Not only see them reissued, I'd BUY them all. With MONEY. Also the other 1/8 scale chod Revell made. They did some whacky stuff.

The recent Heller 1/8 motorcycle reissues are flying off the shelves and will be followed up by already announced further reissues. I call this a resurgence. So will be the MPC reissues, wanna bet? So would be the Revell ones, alas, Revell.

I've built one in the past and used large O-rings inside the tyres.

Yes, the police versions are a tad cheaper, but they don't contain the wonderful tailpipes, saddle, and cases. Tyres are an issue indeed. Maybe some from the Testors kits would fit?

You can still get them cheaply (as I just proved), but once they make it onto the radar of the mainstream collectors, prices will skyrocket. My tip is to buy one soon. The longer you wait, the more $$$$$s you'll have to shell out. Unless Revell wakes up to the resurgence of the 1/8 bike kits from Heller and MPC, that is. What did I just write? Revell and wakes up in one sentence? Nah, not Revell. And even if they did, they'll charge 50 Dollars for the reissue.

I'm not past that point and never will be. If the model railway industry was able to agree to ISO standards for their wheelsets and couplings, why can't the model car industry do it for their wheel attachments? I quite like that you can easily swap wheels on Japanese kits without any fuss. Yes, we can adapt them, and even tutor the youngsters how to do it, but who would have a disadvantage if they did get standardised? I would especially appreciate it in the diecast field, where one's homemade solutions often aren't sturdy enough to support the rather hefty models, or one loses the steerability of the front wheels. Bolt circle nonwithstanding, but the method with which a wheel is attached is pretty standardised on real cars, too.

Pretty much everything from Jo-Han, with the exception of the classics and the Turbine car. What a pile of utter rubbish, but I love them.

Electra Glide came out in 1965, one year after the ServiCar got it's electric starter motor, but still with Panhead. In '66, they switched to Shovelhead, which the model depicts, but the paint scheme is definitely later than that.

Although the kit dates back to 1969, this is the 1981 reissue. The box art is the same. The kit was reissued again somewhen in the 90s by the AG, with a photo of a built blue model on the box and it was moulded in blue. You get oodles of chrome: Some red (sigh) and clear plastic: Tyres and way too thick piping: Somebody else's opinion: And a decal sheet I didn't even bother to photograph. It's the size of a stamp and all you get is two badly printed HD emblems, two badly printed EG scripts in silver and a badly printed speedometer face. That's it. Although the tooling clearly shows its age, I bet a very nice model can be made from this kit.

Thanks guys! The kit came out in 1969 (mine is a 1981 reissue, though). I've read somewhere, that it's allegedly a 1966 FL (first year for the Shovelhead), but I doubt it, because all '66/'67s I ever saw had a different paint scheme. Thus my educated guess is that it's a '68/'69. Although I bet we have enough Harley anoraks around here that can leave me stand corrected. I will do a review in the review section shortly.

An R60/5 cafe racer with a 1000cc engine, a model of which could be built from the impeding Heller reissue, got me into the Ton Up Club in 1984, of which I'm subsequently a member to this day. To become a member of this semi-covert society, you have to ride from the Ace Cafe in North London to the Madeira Cafe on the Brighton sea front, averaging over 100 mph. The proprietors of the Ace Cafe make a phone call to the Madeira Cafe and from that moment, the clock is ticking. It's 70 miles, first through pretty much the entire city of London, then on rural roads through southern England, with not a yard of motorway. Under normal circumstances, it's a 1 1/2 hour journey. To get into the Ton Up Club (the 'ton' is 100 mph), you have to do it in less than 40 minutes. I then proceeded with the bike to the Isle of Man TT, to participate in the Battle Of The Twins. Unfortunately, I ran out of petrol on the first lap. Someone had syphoned my tank the night before. Later that year I took the bike to the Assen TT in Holland, where its top speed was clocked at 141.25 mph. Not too shabby for an amateur effort I essentially did in my appartment on the fifth floor, no? Yes, my fellow Americans, this is hot rodding Euro-Style.

The website hasn't been updated since 2014. The model kit industry is delightfully last century. Their capital is Laidback, Idleho.

No problem to obtain those on this side of the pond. How did you replicate the sunroof?

Are there any external differences between a 1966 and a 1967 Charger?

I looked at Revell's new '55 and thought I'll never look back. Now I look back with a tear in my eye and want the old one back, if only for nostalgic reasons.

+1 "Structural integrity" would be even less of a problem in a girder structure for a race car and plastic is a lot easier to work with. In critical areas, plastic tubing can be reinforced by inserting piano wire/coat hanger wire/aluminium tubing. Brass and copper have their advantages too, though. It is all about 'feel' and 'heft' and being worshipped on online forums.

Those 1/10 scale RC wheels work surprisingly well with 1/12 scale. Must rummage through the stock at my local RC shop these days.

I just wrote to MCG and asked whether they would consider doing at least some PE emblems and script plates for 1/18s.

I'm not sure whether this handful of overpriced drag racing related wheelsets from GMP/ACME constitutes an aftermarket industry, but tend to think not. Seeing how popular collecting and modifying 1/18 scale became, I'm puzzled as to why there isn't an ambundance of cottage industry products. Compare it with what is on offer for the meanwhile much less popular 1/24-5 scale. For example, how difficult can it be for the likes of MCG to "blow up" their existing PE sets to 1/18 scale for those where a corresponding diecast exists?

1075 is not a Mirage. It's a GT40 MKI with a 289 engine. Ford ended its involvement at Le Mans after 1967, but other teams continued to field GT40s. Ford’s domination with the big 427 engined MKIVs provided a break for the smaller 289. The big engines regularly pushed cars past 200 miles per hour on the Le Mans circuit and French officials, fearing a catastrophic accident on a track designed for slower speeds, imposed a 305-cubic inch limit for 1968. The Mark I’s 289 cubic inches suddenly didn’t seem too few. John Wyer Automotive Engineering dominated the next two racing seasons with Mark I cars, including chassis 1075. It's a MKI with flared wheelarches and the Fujimi kit is a very faithful representation. Mexican Pedro Rodriguez and Belgian Lucien Bianchi drove 1075 to its first Le Mans win in 1968. It was the third win in a row for a Ford car, but the first for the original Mark I design. Car 1075 came back to Le Mans in 1969, this time with Belgian Jacky Ickx and Brit Jackie Oliver at the wheel. Car 1075 traded the lead with a Porsche 908 constantly during the last 2½ hours. On the last lap, the Mark I crossed the finish line a mere 100 yards ahead of the Porsche – in a race of more than 3,100 miles. With that second win, car 1075 earned its place in history. This is a photo of the very car as it was exhibited at the Henry Ford Museum:

Very nicely done. I have a complete Kitmaster collection and a few built ones. Please let me know if you are interested to display them at SMW.

Do you realise that this kit dates back to ca. 1980? OK, that doesn't make it less rubbish, but just to put it into perspective. Could you please explain your technique of marbeling?

Now they announced to reissue the Norton.