Bainford

The 1/24 scale kits are from old Monogram tools. Much more recently Revell tooled up some 1/25 scale 70 Cudas. It is available in Hemi, AAR, and Sox & Martin versions, and maybe others. It is reportedly a nice kit, though I haven't built one yet. I have the Hemi version, the entire guts of which will one day find its way under an MPC '74.

The Revell '70 Cuda AAR has a 340 six pack, might be worth a look. Haven't seen it in person myself.

Thanks Alex. Lots of very nice looking tire & wheel sets on your site. Thanks for producing wheels in a proper 15" size. I see a lot of nice old-school wheels & tires on ebay and whatnot, but very often in 17" sizes or larger, which won't work for me. Do you do custom orders? I am thinking specifically with regard to the tire brand on the sidewall. It is difficult to find late-60s and 70s period correct bias-ply muscle car tires, such as Tiger Paw or Uniroyal Road Huggers, or my personal favourite, the Tornado 60 and Tornado 70 white letter tires which were on almost every hot muscle car around here in the 70s. Your Goodyear Polyglas tires would be excellent candidates for sidewalls branded as Tornados or Tiger Paws.

Impressive work so far. Nice work on the printed assemblies.

Paint work looks good. Love the colour.

Very creative project, and very tidy work. Super cool.

Do the wheels scale out to 15"? Or perhaps a better question; what is the exact diameter of the 1/24 scale wheel?

When it comes to 'buying-for-building', these are all great choices. The Caddy can be had cheaper, as noted, but the funny cars are very reasonably priced. The funny cars, in building, have a bit of an AMTish feel, and were the nicest 1/25 scale funny cars you could get until Revell's state-of-the-art funny car kits of the mid-70s, and IMHO are every bit as nice as the Revell funnys in terms of authenticity, detail, and overall looks. They are easier to build than the Revell kits, too. The Challenger is a Logge chassis with Hemi power and the Mustang is a digger with a Boss 429, so very different kits but equally well done. Slixx has Micky Thompson decals for the Mustang and the Gene Snow decals for the Challenger. For a builder looking to experience some vintage plastic, I highly recommend them.

Mine, too! I have a Europa in the garage that is an absolute blast to drive. Never drove an Esprit, but would like to. I have a couple of Esprit projects on the go myself, one just finishing up, and another in the 'planning and parts-gathering stage'. Pics will be posted when ready.

Another one I am glad to see back on the bench. Always to get a dose of Lotus on the forum.

Cool build, Billy.

Something that has not been mentioned in this thread; if you stick with this hobby for a long enough, age is on your side. Many of the stash hoarding builders or collectors are triple your age, and as these people time-out, many of these stashes of vintage kits are going to come on the market. At the same time, the demographic that buys vintage kits will be shrinking significantly. In the world of 'supply & demand', this should translate into a glut of vintage kits available at bargain prices. Just give it twenty-thirty years. Perhaps the glory of scoring cool vintage kits grows dull at a time when you are one of the few left who cares. And, maybe this is scenario is too unpleasant to think about, but it is inevitable. To me, the most unpleasant aspect of this scenario is thinking of how many thousands of cool, rare kits will simply be disposed of by family members left behind with the burden of a basement full of old kits. Dumpsters overflowing, and hardly a soul who will care.

I have the same thing happen with Tamiya primer when the can gets nearly empty. Beats the bottom of the can up pretty good. Never seen that happen anywhere else.

I have one in the planning stages. I've scored the (Revell) kit and gathered up some parts. It's just waiting its turn on the bench, but that won't be tomorrow. I built the MPC Milner's Coupe in the late 70s. There was a lot about that kit that I wasn't happy with. I swapped out the tires and wheels for a much better set as the MPC stuff was garbage. Those same wheels and rear tires from the JoHan '64 Dodge Super Stock are still swishing around the parts box, and will be going on my new Milner build.

Very interesting reaction. Out of curiosity, what brand and grade of brake fluid did you use?

This is shaping up to be a fine looking Fairlane.

Nice work, Dan. That's looking fantastic. Can't wait to see it in clear. Looking forward to building one myself, I'm getting some tips from your project. I've got two winging their way over from Japan right now.

That's looking real nice, Greg. With the body shined up, the roof sheen looks good, not too shiny. Nice foil work.

BMF, lots of magnification, and patience.

I only built one of these, back when I was a kid in the mid-70s, and it only lasted less than half an hour. After completion I was not terribly happy with it, but brought it up from my bench in the basement and placed it on the kitchen table to show off. Shortly afterwards I sassed my mother about something, and out came the wooden spoon (disciplinary device of choice in our house). I evaded the swing, but the spoon made direct contact with the Nomad, breaking the roof in two places and generally smashing it to bits. Mom was very sorry and attempted to replace it, but couldn't find another '57 Nomad, so she bought me the AMT '55 Nomad kit. I wasn't happy about that at first, but soon realised that the AMT '55 was a much better build, and has since become one of my favourite kits of all time.

I think it looks infinitely better with the chrome steelies.

That's a real stunner, Simo. A beautiful Bug, and very cleanly built. Looks great in the winter light. Very well done.

I would have a look at the Revell '70 Cuda chassis. It's a recently tooled kit in 1/25 scale with good detail. It is also available in two versions; one with a Hemi engine and one with a small block (AAR 340 six-pack), both nicely done. There are a couple complications, though. If I recall, Challengers are on a longer wheelbase than the Cudas, and if this is evident in the kits, then the Cuda chassis will need to be lengthened by a small amount. That's more than some builders will want to do, though with some planning there is really not that much to it. If the difference is quite small, then the wheelbase may possibly be corrected by simply relocating the rear suspension back a bit. This may require adjustments of the driveshaft and exhaust as well. The bigger issue may be the fact that the AMT Challenger has a tub type interior while the Revell Cuda interior builds up off the floor. This may require some re-engineering to get things to fit, though there is a possibility the Challenger interior tub will still fit with the Cuda chassis, with some modification. It will require some playing around with the bits to see what will fit and how much work will be involved (unless someone has done this conversion and chimes in), but the Revell Cuda is the nicest E Body chassis available in 1/25 scale.

Welcome aboard, Vince.