Art Anderson

1950 was perhaps the beginning of the transition from traditional wool fabrics (cord, broadcloth) for car interiors. The colors tended to be subdued, almost drab, due to a lot of dusty roads, not to mention sun-fading. 1950 was, of course, the year that GM introduced the pillarless "Hardtop Convertibles" (GM never advertised those as hardtops, sticking to the term "Sport Coupe" for nearly the full era of the classic pillarless hardtop however!). With those bodies, GM began adding brighter colors to their interiors, often color matching upholstery to the exterior colors of the car. But with sedans and traditional coupes, they still stuck with more conservative colors. This was very much in keeping with the demographics of new car buyers in 1950--people in their middle 20's to their 70's (a 70 year old in 1950 was born in 1880, for example, and even a 25-yr old was born in 1925. Also, consider that an Oldsmobile 88 Coupe, 2- or 4-door sedan was very much a conservative car in 1950, not unlike the fairly conservative adult market they were aimed at. Those people had, for the most part, not yet adopted 1950's fashions in areas such as home furnishings, or their houses themselves. They had been seriously influenced not only by colors and styles of such things, as well as their automobiles, by their experiences from not only the "teen years" of the 20th Century, but also the 1920's and certainly the years of the Great Depression. In short, many people were still influenced by those experiences, and tended to be slow in adopting the "flash and dash" for which the 50's became famous. However, by 1953-54, those tastes did begin to change, as younger, more affluent buyers hit the new car showrooms, and more brightly colored interiors began appearing in new cars--either color-matching the exterior, or keyed as complimenting color schemes. From a couple of rather bad photo's I found online, the upholstery colors were as Revell called them out, light grey with a medium-dark grey. However, the interior sheetmetal was painted, based on those pics, a light metallic grey, with the "inset" part of the instrument panel in a darker, almost metallic charcoal grey. So, those were the colors I chose for this one. Art

There are already resin bodies done for that conversion! MCW, Jimmy Flintstone and Tom Coolidge have all done this body conversion for you! I have the MCW body shell, very nice! Art

When I did my CJ-2A, reference pics showed the engine as black. I don't know about the M38 Military version, but WW-II MB Jeeps had olive drab engines. Art

I often find "research" to be an ongoing thing while a model is in progress. Sure, I do what I can going in, but I generally see something or another along the way that needs more thinking, so out come the books, magazines, and of course Google image searches. With respect to the latter, reference pics tend to come and go a bit, so frequent rechecking the web and saving the pics gets to be an ongoing thing. Art Art

Another "Ghost Model" was the 1/25 scale model of the 1928 Miller '91' driven by Louis Meyer (later of Meyer-Drake Offenhauser engines). That was shown at the Hobby Industry Trade Association Trade Show at the Sherman House Hotel in downtown Chicago in January 1966. Apparently, it died due to a lack of interest on the part of wholesalers and retail hobby shop owners. Art

Sorry, AMT never even tooled the Garbage Truck. I was given the commission to do the packer body on the C-600 straight frame chassis in October 1977, but the reaction to the proposal, even with the builtup at the HIAA Trade Show in Houston TX was very poor (bear in mind, at trade shows, items are pitched to buyers for the companies which order and distribute hobby products, NOT individual modelers). The last I saw of the AMT Garbage Truck display model was at LaGrange Hobby Shop in LaGrange IL, in July 1982. Art

The D501 used left-over 354 Chrysler Hemi engines from 1956. Art

Most all injection molds are highly polished, but it's my understanding that it depends on the grade/blend of styrene used as to whether or not the plastic parts come out shiny or not. Art

If you open Google, search the car you want info on, in this case, the '65 Lincoln Continental, and then click on the "Images" link, you will find more pics of those than you can shake a stick on! I just did, and in about 2 minutes, I found this pic of a '65 Lincoln Continental engine, which is shown as all black: http://www.cars-on-line.com/photo/63800/65linc63888-8.jpg Art

I could have posted up the original picture files, but they come out REALLY large. Art

From my research, yes. 1950 was still the era of rather dull wool flannel and broadcloth interiors for closed cars, vinyl and synthetic brighter colors not yet coming into use in automobile interiors. I worked from pics of an actual "survivor" '50 Olds 88 that I found online. Art

Bear in mind that while not often seen today, Hubley's 1930 Model A Ford kits are not exactly scarce or rare. The 1930 Model A Ford kits (coupe, 4dr Town Sedan, pickup and Station Wagon) were first introduced in 1959-60 by Hubley (then the largest maker of diecast Zamak toys, known for their "action" WW-II fighter planes and myriad cap pistol toys) and were produced virtually every year from then until about 1980 by Hubley. After the demise of Hubley, Gabriel Industries picked up the tooling and reissued them for several years in the 1980's, after which Joseph L. Ertl III bought the tooling, moved to Dyersville IA, and reissued several of hte old Hubley screwdriver-assembly diecast model car kits will into the 1990's under the JLE Scale Models brand. Of all the Hubley metal kits, the Model A Fords are the most crude (several other Hubley metal car kits are actually reasonably nice). Art

Uh, OK...the chassis (before bodywork was installed, but complete: Art

Here it is, at last! Art

More than likely it did. Red oxide primer was pretty much standard across the auto industry back then, grey primer just creeping in here and there. Art

While I too tend to do most of my research before delving into a project, I view research as an ongoing thing--I'll constantly keep looking for more information all along the way. Art

Finally, the chassis is done, ready for interior and body installation. Added are complete hydraulic brake lines, coiumn gearshift linkage, fuel line, and emergency brake actuator cables with their appropriate armor sections. Under the hood, all wiring is now complete, except for a pair of generator leads, which have to wait until the body is installed. Chassis: Engine bay: (the battery is a scratchbuilt item, could not find a satisfactory 6V battery in any kit I have) Art

Satco offered just one whitewall tires, and that was their late 50's Firestone with 3" whitewall inserts.

Roger Sill was a manager at AMT/Ertl in the 1980's, left there in the late 80's, forming his own company, American SatCo. Also, at the time (and it may still be so) virtually every Japanese model company making model car kits had their neoprene rubber tires produced by small independent contractors in Shuzoka City Japan, the city which had more model companies than any other place on earth (Tamiya, Hasegawa, Aoshima, Gunze--and virtually every other Japanese model company was located there). Sill was able, with his knowledge of the model side of the hobby industry, to tap into that source, and thus began marketing those tires as separate sets in the US. About 1990 or so, he had a Chinese injection molding company tool up a late-50's Firestone 7:00-15 tire in PVC, with a separate white sidewall insert, which in many ways set a standard for the US model car manufacturers, as this was one of the very first accurately tooled 50's or 60's bias ply tires done in 1/25 scale. Roger also imported Aoshima kits for several years, and yes, he did contract with a couple of resin casters to make left hand drive dashboards for them to insert in the kits. However, it appears that Satco was not as profitable as Sills would have liked, as he pretty much was out of the game by 2002 or thereabouts. I last saw him when I was at Racing Champions/Ertl at Dyersville IA in July 2004, when I was working for RC2 after they bought out Playing Mantis, the original maker of Johnny Lightning diecast miniature cars (where I did product development from 2002-2005) to attend a product line announcement meeting from the various divisions. During a 2 hour break from one day's seminars, I walked across the building to their outlet store to check out what they might have to interest me, and ran into Roger Sills, who was then into 54mm military figures, buying a supply of Britains Ltd miniature soldiers. He didn't say much about what happened to Satco, and I didn't ask either. Art

Tamiya water-borne acrylics airbrush very nicely as well. They take a bit of getting used to, but they give a hard, smooth and shiny finish (their flats work quite well also). Art

Never done in plastic. However, Danbury Mint made an excellent one in 1/24 scale, 1946 model year. Keep your eyes open, as those do show up at model car shows and flea markets, often for not a lot of money. Art

For gluing resin, two types of glue: Epoxy of course will work. However, CA glue works far better, does a better bond between resin and styrene (just be sure the part is where you want it to be, 'cause it's gonna be stuck there for a long time. Art

No, urethane resins, once cured, do not attack styrene. Art

I've had the very same thing happen a time or two over the years. A little background here: If you look at a sheet of decals, you should see at least a bit of a clear "surround" around every decal (older decal sheets had a clear film all over the sheet), on top of which the graphics are printed. If that clear film, printed first before the graphics went on) is missing, and you cannot detect any clear film whatsoever, clear coat your decal sheet before you use it! The printed graphics aren't anywhere near thick enough to withstand any sort of handling without disintegrating. I've always solved that situation by spraying a light coat of clear lacquer (Modelmaster, indeed even the Wet Look both work) right over the decals, graphics and all. Once dry, cut out the decals, apply as usual. It's worked every time for me. Art

Correction: The standard Eldorado's (Seville Hardtop and Biarritz Convertible) for 57-58 were production line assembled, mass-production cars. It was the Eldorado Brougham which was hand-built, special chassis (shorter than the standard Cadillac) and completely unique bodywork done by Ghia in Italy. The Eldorado Brougham is the car that Revell first produced in 1957, and reissued some years ago in their SSP program. Art