Junkman

OK, I'm going to do it. I'm challenging the weirdness of the Amoeba kit. Not sure whether I succeed, but I'll give it a run for its money. Have the infamous Chuka Cannon. That's it. That's the weirdest kit I have.

Found this today at a local hobby shop for 12 quid:

1960 Buick LeSabre convertible with the 364 1bbl. And no, I do NOT wish I'd kept it.

I want a model car museum, too!

OK, for you ugly lot and lordairgtar.

Thanks Chris! So I could also use the wheels from the Revell Skyliner?

That AMT thing doesn't remotely resemble a '68 Plymouth. Looks more like a Trabant on steroids. Man, am I glad that I have the Jo-Han '69.

Everyone will be considered. I'm not a greedy man. I'll post the pattern when it's finished and you ugly lot can print it on decal paper.

Ah, Daft And Spurious! Count me out.

Which kit is it based on? Would it be possible to scan the decals?

Then I got this: All from a charity shop down the street for the exorbitant sum of £10

I CAN HAZ 60 TBIRD GLUBOMB Does anyone know whether these wheel covers are original? The seller was kind enough to include a matching one to replace the oddball out one:

Hey, thanks jb! This one is probably a tad unweird, but would be ace for being painted in Island Hoppers livery:

Pushbike kits not weird enough for you? OK...

Thanks Deano! A kit of a slime blob is simply irresistible. Meanwhile in my dungeon: Just to give you a faint idea of how stoned they were back then, behold the plastic colours:

I think most people know what my weirdest kit is. I see it being outclassed by the amoeba though, so I must search for that one now. Some other weird stuff from the stash (sorry if some a reposts):

I don't stack US style boxes more than four high. Japanese and European style boxes I stack up to 7 high.

No, because no kits are available of the cars I like a lot.

Next would be this Sankyo Mokei Datsun Cedric.

I kick this off with this Dennis Priddle dragster, that was obviously targeted to the UK market. This is the only example I ever saw and I didn't know it existed.

These are just a few examples of available Helanca combinations:

Teaser: The pattern is still too repetitive. It is on the real cars, but not to this extent. It also comes out too dense in scale right now: The idea is to reduce it to the pattern itself in the end, once we have it right. Then you can print it in the desired colour onto clear decal sheet and overlay it onto your seats after they were painted with the base colour. Does this make sense? We'll make them 1:24 and 1:18 scale.

I bet you anything they wouldn't have been slow sellers in Europe. The problem was, they weren't really marketed here, so only a few hardcore guys knew about them and had them sent from US dealers (another 'issue' I can see with them is that their rather naff box art probably did nothing for sales to the general public, look at Moebius to spot the difference). I don't know why American kits suddenly disappeared from our hobby shop shelves during the 90s never to return, but export is something the US kit industry should seriously look into. Dave Metzner, are you reading this? Back to the DS. A friend of mine is one of those there graphic artisterist types and I asked him to make some artwork for decals to replicate the "Helanca" seat patterns. When they are finished, I'm going to post them here, so you can print them onto decal sheet and use them. The same goes for French number plates and national sign (the letter 'F' in a white oval), would anyone be interested in these? In its home market, the DS was often fitted with a split number plate up front. I will do some plates used on certain movie cars.

Oh, so I'm not the only one having this overall shape issue? I find a lot of the newly tooled ones 'feel' strangely soulless and artificial. A lot of the old annuals have some nice 'feel' to their shape, even if it might not be entirely accurate from a strictly technical perspective. One of my favourite comparisons in this respect is the '60 Galaxie. The annual has soul, it lives, it screams '60 Ford. The new one is oddly sterile. Same with the '63 - '64 Chevies. The old AMT ones are certainly pure, unadulterated rubbish from a 21st century point of view, but compared with their more modern Revell counterparts, which are certainly a lot better and more accurate, the old ones ooze character. Or just look at that '66 Mercury here. It is so charming. I'm not so much interested in replicating brake pipes or vacuum advance diaphragms on carburetters, at least not in 1/25 scale, for me, it's shape, colour and stance that counts. And for this, those old annuals are superb raw material. I think of the new toolers, Moebius has found a nice way to combine this 'feel' and adequate accuracy and detailing. Their models still have soul. I hope the above makes any sense...