Ron Hamilton

Replicas and Miniatures Co. of MD is in my opinion one of the best resin manufacturers in the world. And yes he is still in business.

It broke my heart when Dodge discontinued the Magnum. I understand the reason why they did it, as I was working at a Dodge dealership when the last ones came in. They sat for a long time with no interest. I think it was because they were the SXT model. If they were at least a R/T, SRT or an all wheel drive, they may have sold faster, as those models sold well. I still have 2 of the kits in my stash. One is going to be built as a Police Version, and the other as a SRT.

That car takes me back. A friend of my Dad had a '72 Montego MX 2-door hardtop in Dark IVY Green, with a white top. A lot of our family members had Ford products in that era in that color. I really like the green on yours.

My best friend had a '72 Toronado Promo that was given to him by a family friend. After we grew up, his mom would let the neighborhood kids visit, and of course they played with it. It was rather beat up, but she would not throw it away. Instead, she gave it to me. While the Modelhaus was in business, I was able to get new chrome bumpers and wheels. I disassembled it, cleaned and polished it, bare metal detailed it, added washes to the grilles and wheelcovers, and gave it to my friend as a present in a glass case. He was blown away.

Beautiful car.

I think that you did an admirable job with what was a sub par piece of resin.

This is what I am going to suggest. a 1972 BMW 3.0 CS Coupe. I think this is one of the most beautiful cars ever done, and I have never seen one in scale as a replica stock car.

The market is going to decide the fate of everything mentioned here. Over the years I have done a lot of business with The Modelhaus,with the intent of building the kits, and using everything else to repair old builds that I have bought over the years. Unfortunately, I will have to sell off some things, as there is no way that I can build them in my lifetime. I would not have bought items just for speculation of future sales, but some folks have, and the prices are being driven up because some folks can afford to pay a higher price than some of us. I have been trying to get a particular model or parts of itfor the past three months on EBay and other places, but every one of them, even glue bombs have been bid high, and it is not particularly accurate in the first place. I say do a few castings of the project, and let the market decide. I may buy one if I can afford it.

I happen to like most of Mobieus's offerings, and have bought most of them, some in multiples. Sure, they are not perfect in some details, but a lot of the subject matter, and detail of the build brought me to them. I will be on board for their stock future offerings if I like them as much as their previous offerings I have. Now I have to get some paint on the 55 300, Hudson Hornet, and 65 Plymouths and Cyclone. I have pre-built them, and l should be happy with them when I am done.

Nice model. Unfortunately it is not a Vega, but a 1978 Monza.When they were new, the Vega name was so bad that Chevrolet got rid of the alloy engine, restyled the front end of the hatchback and wagon, and folded them into the Monza lineup. The hatchbacks did not sell well, and the wagons faired just a little better, with the availability of a V6. I won a lucrative dealership contest by selling the most Monza wagons in a particular time period.

I am good for the 6 banger. I have a deep parts box. Thanks for the offer.

Beautiful! We miss you at the meetings.

I really like that one.

I would be scared of that car in the street.

Very nice. I love the colors.

absolutely gorgeous!

It really works. I would slip a set of spyders or Baby moons on it. I have a 55 mocked up, but unpainted. I may do it Black.

I am not the conscience of this board, nor do I profess to be. From our private conversation, I do not think that what you want to do is unethical. Copying and re-casting a currently available product from some other company is a problem to me, but something that will probably be not available again is another story. That being said, there are people trying to capitalize on the imminent closing of The Modelhaus, by copying their products. Well, The Modelhaus is not done yet, and as far as I am concerned, and copying any of their exclusive products without their consent is just plain wrong. What happens if someone else were to acquire the business, and continue to offer quality product at a reasonable price? I would be very angry if I made the investment, only to have copies of product out there. Especially if it is substandard. For example, there is a fellow who is selling poorly executed copies of a Motor City Resin's product, as well as other casters, on the premise that he is improving the original castings. From looking at the photos of that stuff, it looks terrible, and he will not get a penny of my money. I know that there are some modelers who are so hungry for unique product will buy form him, and that is their prerogative. I love unique pieces, but I do not want the subject matter that bad.

And that is the Resin Business.

You know AMT did a '68 Chevelle SS 396 as an annual.

It's a slippery slope. If you took a crappy piece of Resin and made it nice, I do no think the market would care. In fact I, for one, would appreciate it. I have a couple of bad pieces in my collection, and I have to do a ton of work to them to make an acceptable model out of it. The better casting would get the business. Some resin kits are unbuildable out of the box, and some are sheer perfection needing just paint. Show us what you are proposing to do, and let the market decide.

I recently bought a resin kit, that I have to make a bunch of changes to correct it to my satisfaction. I am not going to recast it for the masses, but I may ask the original caster if they would want it for their line. I feel that they did the heavy lifting on the project. If not, then that is a different story.

if you are doing it for yourself, no problem, but if you are passing someone's work off as yours with "improvements" for recasting and sale, there will be problems. We have seen this before.

The Replicas and Miniatures engine will work with the Falcon, and I plan to put one in a Maverick or Comet rebuildable I have. and the Mobieus engine will work on big cars and trucks of the era. I have both, and they are very nice.

I just picked up a '64 Plymouth Savoy Station Wagon, which is a resin kit designed to be a transkit for the Lindberg 1964 Belvidere Hardtop. It is not of Modelhaus quality to be sure, but it is workable. I find that a lot of resin wagons out here need work to be absolutely right. I noticed that Paul Hettick is going to market transkits of station wagons. From what I have seen, his work is exquisite, and if I can afford some of them, I am on board.