randyc

Looks great! I still love my green one. Er, that's a factory custom order color. lol Goes well with the wife's AMT 66 stock coupe on our mantel. I would love this one if it had the white stripes. Just me. As for polishes, I have Turtle Wax metal polish, scratch remover and plastic headlight lens polish. One of them usually does the trick, or a combination. The metal polish does have a heavier grit to it than the others. Great car!

That's gonna be even cooler when finished. As is, looks like something that someone with proper connections to the teams could really have built. Or maybe a fictional Sunoco/Martini race car.

This was like the second Mint car I bought. I got it for like $10 or something fairly ridiculous. Top was missing, but I've decided I like it better as a convertible anyway. Windshield was gone, no box or fuzzy dice. I made a windshield from a parts box windshield that came out of a similar kit with a V-shaped windshield. I like the clear windshield better than the dark tint. I figure someday I might try to get more fuzzy dice. And I have the hirohata merc and the HW legends coupe in purple with flames. I am good on cars with tops. Had the top been deeper at the C pillar I might have wanted it more. And if I run across a Carson top that will fit, I might put it on. But the interior looks good enough to go topless. In theory, you could snap those caps out and replace them with something different if you found a set that fit. These are the same as on the 59 Caddy from DM I believe. The red one. And you'd really only need 2. The rears don't show at all. Love this car and glad to see yours posted. Looking forward to the 36 as well. I watch for that one when I see a cheap one.

I would say that JL, GL, AW try harder to maintain scale. HW and MB try to make the car to fit the standard sizing (3"?) I have an MB Datsun 510 and a HW 55 Chevy on my desk The 510 is slightly shorter in length but way taller than the 55. And compared with an M2 1958 Apache.

Looks good!

I do have a 1996 in Todd's collection. I think it is labeled Philly Mint, but made by Greenlight and is a numbered edition. I'll try to get a photo of it. And it can be yours. LOL

My displays are going this way as well. Nicer cars replacing the HWs and such.

IDK if the cheaper brands did one, but the Mint versions can be had reasonably if ya keep looking. They weren't especially good models, imo. There is a yellow one that is pretty dang awful. Seems like there is a blue one that goes fairly cheap too. Or it should. I had one last year and it was pretty bad.

Dang, that is nice to see. I keep looking at the gangster cars when they come up and watchh them for price usually.

Cool Dodge collection. That is one of the great things about 1/64 - they do a lot of colors and take up little space.

This seller has some really good prices on a couple diecasts. $7.50 for the Wix 53 Vette, which is a really nice piece if you need it. I feel this is better than the FM car. Haven't help a DM to compare. I wouldn't sell the one I have for that and it doesn't have a box or papers. Some other diecasts in 1/43 on there too. https://www.ebay.com/sch/oldbikes_nstuff/m.html?item=223868956851&hash=item341fa130b3%3Ag%3AvwEAAOSwhvpeHx3y&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

Got this one yesterday. This is one of the ebay listing photos. I've been wanting this one for a while due to it's overabundance of 50's coloring. SHOULDA bought it last year when they were cheaper. The DM version really is nicer than the FM version. I have had several FMs I have bought for $10 or so, clean them up, sell for $30. Running out of affordable cars to acquire. When warm weather hits again, I'll have to do some diecast repaints and go back to building plastics. And oddly, not looking all that forward to the plastics anymore. I sold the Power Wagon above to a lady here at work. She fell in love with it so away it went. We also ordered her the Auto World 69 Camaro. It came in yesterday just as we were leaving work and she took it home without removing it from box. I really wanted to see it out of box. I'm guessing it is a JL rebox. But it looked good in orange with white hockey stripe.

I have the Elvis 55 Cadillac in blue with a black top. Nice little car. Nothing against them, just not a lot of availablity locally (til Hobby Lobby opens here in 2021). I have a couple of 1/24s in my buddy's collection I'm selling off. Nice pieces too.

I was thinking exactly what Gramps said.

Idk, I think I'm glad they did the prototype instead of the production car. I'd love to see them compared side by side. Especially the underside. The prototype is pretty fascinating in it's own right. Based on an Olds frame, I think it was. And the body on the tin goose was hand made by the best "panel beaters" that Tucker could find. The Tucker movie gets some of it right and some if it takes "artistic license" to make good film. But I have spent hours reading about Tucker and the history of the company after the movie. I have read a couple books on the design and history as well as Internet articles. The Tucker club has most of the real cars documented as to where they are and what happened to them. Coincidentally, they did get reverse to work in the prototype. Problem was, they had to shut the car down completely to shift it to reverse. I think they eventually were using NOS Cord FWD transmissions mostly as they tried to develop their own. Another interesting fact is that when they debuted the prototype, it had wooden bumpers carved and painted to look as chrome-like as possible. I'm not sure there are any photos of the car like that. Most of the photos on the net are recreations fo the moment where they debuted the car. And these show a very chrome looking bumper. The restoration has chromed steel bumpers. I might have to look into one of these to go with my FM version. Thanks for posting this. Greatly appreciated.

And like some of the others, I have a pretty large stash of ModelMaster paints that I would be willing to share. PM me and I'll see if I have it. We'll strike some sort of deal. Not looking to get rich, but if you can use it, that would be great.

Not sure I'd go as far as Snake, but there are some inaccuracies. I built a couple of them in the past. They came out ok. When I compare photos of the kit and the real car, the inaccuracies don't seem too bad to my modeling eyes. I could probably live with it. Would be cool to use the Revell kit for chassis and details I think. here's a thread on correcting hte body. I'm not as familiar as Snake with the inaccuracies, so he may be right. He is correct in that the Revell is a much better overall kit for a first gen Bird. All really depends on how familiar you are with the real car and what you can live with in a kit build project. I could probably live with it if I were to build it again. If you rule out building a kit because of inaccuracies, you'll never get anything finished. Even the high end diecast cars, i.e. Franklin and Danbury Mint make many mistakes in accuracy. build it nicely and post it up. I'd like to see one completed using modern skills and detail materials.

I have a Jouef 1/18 that looks very similar. I detailed on it, replaced the stacks with aluminum tubes. Had to make side windows (!seriously??!!!) Nice find. Solido did some nice cars.

Good job finding the original. And thanks for NOT posting pics of that thing in it's current state. No one needs to see that. I have a couple Sunnyside Vettes Todd used for parts for nicer cars (not a really good idea either). I refuse to even try to sell them. I think they are going to Goodwill or somewhere. Someone can enjoy them and they aren't cluttering up my ebay listings for $4. I already have enough stuff that isn't selling... lol

Nice! This is one my buddy wanted but could never find. It's a beautiful model. Wish it fit my collection, but it would just be lonely as the other kids on the shelf talked about it and pointed at it.

Do they all have turbine wheels except the red FM?

I think what happened was my buddy Todd tried to remove something from the doors and swirled the paint work the solvent. Or he painted over it with mismatched paint. He admitted he had no modeling skills. It was in my possession to (basically) snake Fu it for his wife. She didn't want it back so it went to you. I can't wait to see what you make of it.

Great idea! Looks good.

I like reading the things we all post on here, especially when can help each other and those that come later looking for answers. Thank you for the articles you do as well.

I agree with you completely. And if you have modeling skills to add a little Snake Fu, then the gap really narrows. You can really make the M2 shine with a little effort. It all comes down to price. I feel like I got lucky on this FM. It is missing the radio antenna, but the M2 doesn't have one at all. But it was cheap enough and now I have done a direct comparison. To me, a tightwad cheapskate, the M2 has been a fine car to have in my collection. And as we have seen on that other site we (Geno and I) visit, M2 really does make a nicer 69 Camaro. (I'm not sure I can mention their name here) And there are way better 69 Chevelle's than the mint offers. I have Johnny lightning mustangs beside my mint mustangs and I'm the only one that we been knows the difference in my house and circles.