Bainford

By the time I was 10 or 11 I had built a lot of cars, and thought they were pretty darn good (well, my mom said they were), but none of my buddies built so I had nothing to compare to. Then a young fellow moved in up the street, and he was a builder, mostly trucks and planes. We became friends and built together, and it was a humbling experience. He was a year younger than me, and building these complex truck models, and his work was considerably tidier than mine. I learned a lot from that. I was also quite intrigued by the truck kits. It wouldn't be until I was 16 before I attempted my first truck, the AMT Louisville race car hauler (Budweiser edition with the Mustang funny car). I was excited to finally build a truck kit. I painted and built the chassis and engine, which went well. Then I cut the doors out of the cab (for hinging later) and painted it candy blue and candy red, along with a '79 Mustang Pro/Stock to match, but hated to the look. This was long before I learned about paint strippers. Unhappy with the way things were going, I moved on to other projects and the truck was never finished, its bits still swishing around in my parts box. To date, this is the only truck I have attempted, but I have fifteen or so in the stash, and still looking forward to the day I build and finish one. The truck building I see on this forum is truly inspiring.

That's an interesting list of applications for the Ford Charcoal Briquets "Fuel of a hundred uses".

I am so looking forward to seeing this built. Is there a separate build thread?

It's coming along well despite the troubles. Kudos for the efforts to get it right. I haven't built this kit yet, but I have read of people struggling to mate the body with the chassis during final assembly. Apparently, it's quite a bear. Hopefully someone with actual experience will chime in with details.

Nice, tidy work. This is going to be one cool machine.

Very impressive model. Very nicely done, Robert. It's cool to see these old kits built and posted.

I am sure that, to some degree, this varies from one type of wheel to another. On my 1:1 Lotus, the 13" wheels measure 14 1/32" in total diameter. In scale, a straight-up 14" would be close enough for my purposes, and I'm pretty fussy. I think the sizes stated above are pretty close. If we are to nit-pick scale accuracy too vehemently, then one would have to physically measure the outer diameter of each wheel he intends to produce and size them accordingly. I think even the meanest among us won't require that level of scale diligence. Not to mention, bespoke tire sizes. Frankly, if we are to err, I would personally prefer to be slightly undersize than slightly oversize.

Very glad to hear this. The old school Radial T/As is another awesome choice. Cheers.

Good looking Triumph, Nigel. Great period colours. Cool little car.

Welcome to the forum, Michael. Some good looking models there. You'll fit right in. Enjoy.

Welcome aboard, Scott. This is a great place to get your plastic on. Enjoy.

Interesting subject, and nice rendition. Looks cool all taped up and ready for test & trials. Nicely done.

The Monogram '59 Caddys have very nice hub caps.

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.