HotRodaSaurus

Hi Goll, soryy I'm not Manchester way but am a UK modeller,or rather was. I still live here but have not built a model for years because of personel reasons. I have a few ideas started but not finished, when they get done is anyones guess, the model I want to build is an original JoHan 1959 Cadillac that my girlfriend bought me for a present one year. I know of one club that is associated with the Surry Street Rodders but thats about it, there used to be a great model show at Doncaster Custom Car show, I dont know if other big shows have them anymore. I imagine that the Belle Vue show had a model show but dont know for sure, most car shows had them back then. Fact is I got a bit carried away with model collecting so am now getting rid of a lot of rare old kits, they are the ideal places to sell them rather than eBay etc. Maybe catch youon the chat line some time, cheers, John

I had a problem with the glass area of a 1/8 corvettte kit,Revell Germany just passed it back , told me to contact Revell USA but they never wrote back. I ended up fabricating the glass areas fron clear sheet and accetate. Came out ok though John

Hi, great build, what rear end(chrome) did you use? I built a hearse from this kit by pannelling in the rear sections. I did use a Monogram Cadillac front end, but fabricated the rear bellow the swing door. The kit grill from is ok for an ambulance as it has the cutouts for the emergency lights in the grill, but for a hearse the Monogram grill is better though a very tiny bit wider, probbly 1mm or less. In retrospect this could be made to fit better by detatching the head lamp cluster and removing material from the edges of the grill, then re attaching the light pods. I think the JoHan grill(available from the Modelhause), is slightly narrower so would require more work to be made to fit. John

Hi, and thanks for showing this. It's nice to see a model of this era VW, as many VW enthusiasts seem to 'Brush it under the carpet' as we sometimes say in England, being slightly ashamed because of the Hitler connection. I have seen a couple of pre war and wartime Beetles, a version appears at the War & Piece show(held in July in the UK, check the website, there was a pic there) and another in a German private collection. Having travelled in the real thing, I often wonder how this awfull looking noisy contraption became the most successful car ever made. I also owned a van(bus) and found it all but usless as a van due to the engine placement, a camper ok but a van!!!! John

Thanks Harry, not so obvious then haha John

In the under glass topic section what do the letters PAU stand for? obviously the mean completed, and I bet they will be obvious once someone tells me. John

4 door kits I would like to see. 1960s Mercedes Benz 600 1960 Cadillac 6 window sedan(flat top) Chevrolet Corvair 700(i think this was done as a promo in the 60s) Ford Zodiac Mk2 lowline Ford Zodiac Mk3 Estate Jaguar Mk 10 1960 Vauxhall Cresta Cadillac(all 1950s model years) John

Am I odd, I actually would like to see more 4 doors! Only Jo-Han seemed to make them in the past and as for rag tops, afraid I prefur hardtops as well. A dream kit would be a 1960 Cadillac 6 window sedan. John

I built the late 90s re-issue and noticed the gear change rod was missing from the parts count. If you study an original 1969 instruction sheet it is there, the later sheet, check out the same page and you will see this part is ommited. I am afraid that I dont have the sheets to hand at present so cant scan it. John

Tamiya did re-release one of the the JPS Lotus's a few years back J

Hi James, the bigger Charger is Monograms 1/32 1969 version. The smaller car is I believe an Eldon 1968, painted to resemble the car from Bullitt that I raced with my son together with a Mustang(for obvious reasons). Cheers, John.

Sure did, but thats why my son always bagged this car just to stop me passing on the bends. It was ok on the straight though unless under hard throttle. John.

Hi all, this is my first post of models I have built so here goes. Most of these conversions were built for fun rather than accuracy but any comments are welcome, any build details required please ask. Hope you like them, we played with these for years, till my son discovered girls Cheers, John

Check also the box construction, if it is fairly stiff it is probably original. Does the box base have the corners joined with brown tape? The re-issue box is similar to the original but slightly larger and also made from thin card similar to most current kits. Sometimes the big givaway can be an official Ford, GM or Chrysler authorisation though this is usually followed by the re-issue date as well, as originals had a similar official marking. John

Just bought the real thing, a 2005 UK model. I got fed up with bits falling off my BSA A65, I just like to give it a quick once over before riding, not a full pre-flight inspection everytime Have seen the Tamiya kit but no completed models, does anyone have pics of a built up kit? John

Back in 84 I was the 'Flying Tomato' I had a 1974 Mustang that was tomato red, as it only had a V6 it wasnt very fast so I thought I would make it sound fast. After that I changed it to Banana Man as I liked bananas, except everyone kept asking if I was 'bent' Still got the old legal UK set but have not used it since around 1987 Fun days eh Oh yes, and I remember that song 'Teddy Bear' Johnny the Flying Tomato

Thanks guys, both ways worked, just had a trial run through though no posting yet. John

Plain and simple question here. How do you post pics in the gallery? Are they chosen by the admin? or can anyone post. I just can see a link or button that says 'Upload photo's to gallery' or 'add pics' etc I have some pics of finished models, not all mine that may be of interest to members. John

Plain and simple question here. How do you post pics in the gallery? Are they chosen by the admin? or can anyone post. I just can see a link or button that says 'Upload photo's to gallery' or 'add pics' etc I have some pics of finished models, not all mine that may be of interest to members. John

Plain and simple question here. How do you post pics in the gallery? Are they chosen by the admin? or can anyone post. I just can see a link or button that says 'Upload photo's to gallery' or 'add pics' etc I have some pics of finished models, not all mine that may be of interest to members.

My all time favourite hot rod model, nice to see a box stock build. John

Just to add to this,and please correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the whole roof section was the same across the whole 1959 GM range except for the series 75 models of course. The glass from a 59 Cadillac would also fit a 1960 model also. This looks the same for previous models of Cadillac, certainly the windshield glass from 1957 through to the early 1960s. Not sure if the main body shells were the same though. John

I always wanted to build this kit as a kid in the 1960s but Revell kits were not always that easy to obtain even though they were made over here as well. When I bought an original with the intension of building it I just loved the artwork on the box. I just ever got around to building it. So when the re-release came out I had to build it. Bought a couple but only built 1, yes it was very hard to get right but I like to think I built it well. One thing I did add were the fender vents not included in the Revell model. I used the same item from the Gunz Sango Eldorado kit. Ok they were 1/32 but looked ok. My oinion? nice kit to me but as said in nearly every post, needs lots of care and attention to look decent. Compared to some other kits, ie Jo-Hans Cadillac models, accuracy never seemed important back then John

Anyone into buses should take a look at this! Based on the Citroen U55 truck chassis this bus ferried tourists around Paris in the 1950s and 60s. I spotted it watching a French Film titled 'Zazie Dans le Metro', a great film for spotting european cars busses and trucks, also quite a few old 1950s American cars are featured as well. With all that glass, could anyone visualise this as a scratch built project? John The pic is a still from the film taken from the net

First time I have entered this I'm going to go, MODEL. Only because it reminds me of something by Manuel Olive or Gerald Wingrove. Its a baeuty, the only really fantastic design Lambo made, and they chucked it off a cliff in The Italian Job! John