randyc

I think I did this around 20 years ago. I have been running across it lately so thought I'd dust it off literally and staret using it for photos. I saw some other week that were way more spectacular than mine. I think I'll keep working on it again. Needs finishing and needs shoring up after all these years - walls are a bit shaky. The toolbox was the first piece - it's all one unit. Nothing glued down. And I can finally sell the earnhardt car this hood goes on!!!!

A couple shots of the Bird and the Riv for folks looking... with basic paint detailing on wheels and little else.

For a few minutes I did. I edited that. Dang swipe typing on my phone. Is there an app for the forum? Or what is the easiest way to use on phone?

Thanks. But now I can't UNSEE Snake's problem with the top. In that view, it kinda looks like a Fairlane roofline. I did try to angle the shot for most flattering angle. I liked the rally wheels - that would be a typical Day 2 mod and that's as bought - I didn't add them. The whitewalls are hard plastic inserts, best I can tell. How can the diecast companies make such nice stuff for so cheap, yet the plastic mfrs can't seem to get it together? But then again, those mirrors are pretty ugly. the yin and yang I guess. Only things I did to the TA was to detail the wheels and paint the steering wheel spokes and rubber inside the window openings. I must say I am amazed with that piece. Maybe someday, I'll disassemble and work on the interior and engine compartment. And maybe some white letter decals for the tires. But that photo is probably as close as anyone will ever get to the car. I had a 1/18, but it was a plain white version with no stripe, bird, nothing. I never did like it and sold it a little bit ago as part of my 1/18 purge.

And tonight, I found my old garage diorama i started a long time ago

This 57 is a Franklin Mint. Someone somewhere did a comparison of the M2 or Greenlight 57 and the Franklin Mint 57. Seems like the cheaper brand did pretty well. Wish I could find that article. I swear it was online. But haven't hit the right search yet. My 66 GT350 by M2/Castline is pretty nice. No complaints whatsoever. And looks good enough with the 69 Mach 1 by JL. My 57 "keeper" is the Enterprise/Crown Premium convertible. I have a a revell BW built up as well. Gave my stock one to an uncle who was born in 57. And think I have an AMT somewhere to be finished? I can't remember.

I've heard the GSX is pretty nice. May have to pick one up. My plastic one was built as a barn find before that was a term for it. Tarp over it and just little dirty bits sticking out.

Ok, I'll try to swing through there this week and get them. He has a bunch of 1/18s too but nothing all that good. And he's fun to haggle with.

From memory of my two uncles having 65 & 66 Impalas, the shape suits my memory. I just looked at photos on the net - I don't think it's all that bad. The taillights bothered me more than the roof line. Each of us have our nits - lol. I've seen the Olds and it looks funky to me. I hope you get one and post it up - might not mind having that one, too, if it looks better in life than the net photos. Do look at the impala - interior is not bad at all - needs quite a bit of Snake-fu, but looks like it will be pretty nice when complete. The new diecasts are really impressing me. The quality of the panels and such are quite sharp and tight.

OMG, I ended up with a lot of treasures this last week. Friday after work: Riv and TA in another thread. Franklin 69 Camaro RS/SS. Ordered those off ebay. Then, on Gramp's recommendation, a trip to Rite Aid yielded a 65 Impala and a 2005 GTO. Then Saturday, my son & I went to the local Cruise-in downtown and stopped in a couple antique shops to look for cars. See photo. A Boris Cobra with box - I am NOT a fan - wqay too far over the top - this is for sale. 58 Impala conv, 55 chev conv (resale), 57 Chevy coupe (resale). And I ordered a cheap Danbury SSJ off ebay saturday morning before I knew we were going to cruise in. 10 cars. Still not to $200 spent, so not too bad. Will keep the 58 IMp for a while - nice even though is has that rear sloping fender line. The SSJ is going to be a combination of two cars - I have one parts car already that I have started to repaint - that battleship gray is horrible. The other is complete and between them, I'll have enough for a complete car. Will at least be silver and red - or may change the red as well.

Mine was bondoed over nicely thank you. The oil drips - OMG - I had to carry a couple sets of plugs with me at all times to be ready to change in when they oil fouled. That was a stock engine. I also had a GT wagon with a great sleeved motor and horrible body - green doors, faded yellow front clip, less faded yellow body. We called it the POVERTY WAGON. But it was fun. The car was too til I accidentally knocked a hole in the Bondo work. I was young and dumb and didn't know any better. I saw a couple burgundy Monza promos for $20 each over the weekend at a local antique store - may go back for one or both. One to keep and one to sell if they are bringing anything. Randy

I'm sure there was a jump car or something that had a black interior. LOL. That can be your backstory. Nice ride.

I had seen the 65 Imp on Amazon mostly. Red, light met blue, black, I think. It's pretty nice. Rallye wheels. I had bui8lt a plasstic years ago and gave to my uncle. He had a 65 SS with 327 and wire wheel covers (69 or 70 Imp AMT plastic kit). So I got a blue one to keep for me. Solid chrome front end - but can be detailed to look much better.

Wild Cherries are motormax. That's what my Vega says anyway. I did get the Riv and the TA and must say I am impressed. I took the Rvi and TA to the laBORaTORy. Detailed the grille and lights on the Riv and working on the wheels on the TA. Both have excellent wheels. The Pontiac Rallye IIs are nothing short of amazing. THe Rivs might be a little shallow but paint up well. The shifters are very fine and the TA is actually in PARK. Something the kit makers never seem to do. The panel lines are sharp - not soft like in diecasts of the past. Other than the chassis, they are as nice as one could expect. Very fine tampos. Could use a foiling session - that may be phase 2 of detailing. So I admit I overpaid ebay pricing ($20 each with shipping) on these - the blue TA and gold Riv. Then Gramps suggests running, not walking to Rite Aid. So I did. Dangit, there was the Blue TA and several other RIVS not gold for $10 each. BUT. they also had the 65 Imp and a 2005 GTO. So they came home with me. THe GTO door lines are so tight, you can't get a fingernail in there to open them. Tampos are excellent. Interior nice. No brakes and solid axles. But great overall. 65 Imp was very nice too. A bit undersized, like the Riv. Solid axles. Needed some lab time. It's getting there. Shifter is clunky in it. Interior details are mostly ther- phase 2 detailing. I did mess with improving the taillights - poor tampo registration on one side and one side didn't stick out far enough. I will be sliding thru Rite aid til they stop carrying them. Dispay was to the right of front door - not back in toys. (!). But stuffed animals on one side, diecasts on the other. Was almost out the door when I saw them. Really should be a spotlight over them. lol I'll try to get some pics up when I finish the wheels on the TA. they are a bit tedious. Thanks for all the input.

I have one of those to list soon. But not at 4.99 - you got a heckuva deal! I did let a couple get off cheap recently - started them at 99 cents and one went for 99cents (Viper) and an 84 vette for 2.75 or something ridiculous. But they are gone from my house, which is part of my goal. But i won't do that again... Congrats on the score.

ok, nice! Been a while since I used foil vinyls - looks much more pliable than the old skool stuff I used to get.

Argggh - that will leave us with only Walgreens in town. They bought CVS and now Rite Aid. So that's all we'll have other than one local store that they will likely buy as well. They recently bought another local out just to shut him down. I know him and that's why they did it. Told him they would give him a job at their local store, then when the deal was done and ink was dry, they tried to send him to some far off store. Thanks for the tip though.

Thanks - you have a great looking collection and display cabinet. I have an internet trading buddy that also has same recommendation for the GMP cars.

Wow! What material are you using? Looks like it's conforming nicely. And OMG keeping that fingerprint free is going to be tough when finished. No touch, eh?

I think I'm going to buy a "mint" good humor truck that needs repair and sell my 1/18 HoJo Ice cream truck. I'm trying to sell off my 1/18s so I can disply my 1/24 & 1/25 scale builtups and diecasts - more cars in same space. I did buy a lot of 6 cars a while back that had one car I wanted. Bought lot for $61 + shipping. Made about a $50 profit by just cleaning and even kept one car from that bunch Bought another lot of 6 for $75 incl shipping and repaired and sold some - sold enough to pay for lot and kept about half of them. I love "littler box" cars - look like they were displayed in a littler box. If complete, they have all cleaned up to a sellable state. But I have bought cars for resale and the wife decides she wants to keep them for our collection - she's a good un. And it works for me. Can usually buy for less than cost of kit and paints. And lets me still have some model bench time.

Shoot our drug stores don't have anything like that. I'm too lazy to do flea markets but may have to start just to save a few bucks and see what they have. I went ahead and ordered the T/A and 65 Buick - I looked at the JL, but I really like Pontiac Rallye II wheels. I have 1/24 and 1/25 in cases, all stacked. No one but me notices the differences. So a 1/26 isn't going to make much difference. Around top of living room, I have 1/64, 1/43, 1/24 and 1/25, 1/18, 1/12 motorcycles, and the 1/12 Tamiya porsche. Around 150 cars on shelves around the room. I keep most of the "mint" cars in the family room. 15 arranged on coffee table top. Others on lower shelf there. So the scale thing isn't going to matter to my family - they won't know the difference or care. Nor do I - I just like having nice examples of the cars. I'll paint detail them to make them better. My wife asked what car I would like for our upcoming anniversary so the GMP T Type may come live with us. I've never owned a GMP - had a few pass through my hands when I owned a hobby shop and was always impressed with the quality.

look for the Wix set - much cheaper usually than the single GMP/Danbury piece. At least what I found over the last couple weeks when I was looking. Around $50 for the set was what I was finding. And they only put Wix on the license plate and underside. no big door decals like Crown Premiums have most of the time on their pieces. I can buy a lot of old mint cars for the price of the one Automodello. Patience being the key there of course. And being tolerant of making a few repairs and not minding the absence of a box/papers much of the time.

Yes the chassis is bad. Save it for when you need a simple project. Put a nice paint job on body and build as best you can with what is there. Makes a reasonable shelf replica. Body not all that bad. Or do like so many of us do - start it and put it up for a while. Then get it out once in a while and add something to it till you can finish. Took me a while to finally finish mine. But I do look back at the kits from that era and they really look pretty good on the shelf. Bodies are fairly nice. And the chassis can be painted black and left like that. Easy to build. Heck, I'm not sure where mine is. In a box somewhere - I saw it a couple years ago. And thought it still llooked pretty good. Like a pale yellow, fairly plain. Kinda like you said you want to do with yours. Good luck figuring it out.

Those do look good, Geno. I'm only now getting into the 1/24 diecasts. So I'm getting quite a few nice deals on these things. But I've also about reached the end of the "cheap" cars from a few years back. And the new diecasts/resins are quite high [to me].