Art Anderson

I believe metallic gold was the color of the 7X Twin H-Power engine. Standard Hudson 308 cid engine had a cast-iron cylinder head, could be had with either a single carburetor, or the dual carb setup known as Twin H-Power. The 7X engine was equipped with a high-compression aluminum head, had high lift valves, a stronger crankshaft and high-compression pistons; all parts listed as severe service and as export parts. The 7X is the engine used in Nascar, where it performed stupendously. I've seen both red and gold Hudson 6's of this period; all engines in the lower-line Wasp were red I believe, as was the Wasp engine used in the new-for-1953 Hudson Jet compact car. Both the Wasp and the Jet could also be had with Twin H-Power but not with the 7X package, as they had a smaller displacement 6. Art

True tungsten carbide cutters in a Dremel are completely unaffected by Zamak in my experience. Zamak is an alloy of zinc, tin, copper and aluminum, and as such is far softer than a carbide cutting tool. I've cut up numerous diecasts over the years, and am still using my original Dremel carbide cutters. Art

Actually, Turn signals became mandatory in all the then 48 states in the US as of 1/1/55, by means of an interstate compact (sorta like a treaty between states in the US,--Government Class 101). USDOT didn't even come into being until the late 1960's. Art

International Motors is correct.

Antique stores and second-hand stores can also be a place to turn up bargains. More than once I've snagged what would otherwise have been a very pricey model kit for peanuts. Don't overlook garage sales either, particularly ones put on by older people whose kids have grown up and moved away. About 20 years ago, I bought several MIB AMT and MPC kits from the 1960's, for the price shown on the original hobby shop price tags (most of which I actually stuck on the model kits when they arrived at the hobby shop here in town where I worked my way through college (imagine, in 1992, buying an MPC 1966 GTO Hardtop for the original $2.00 price tag!!! Oh yeah!!!). Art

Well put, Chuck! To this I might add that While many post up on message boards/forums, send emails (or stamped and sealed snail mail letters) to manufacturers and even "buttonhole" model company reps at shows, bombarding them with requests for this or that. Time was, about 30 years ago, when that other model car magazine instituted an annual "Most Requested Kit Survey" that one or two subjects stood out, head and shoulders above the crowd--witness the almost immediate response from AMT/Ertl when in 1987, they introduced their '66 Chevy Nova SS hardtop. The results of the MRKS that sparked that product clearly pointed to a car subject long wanted, and long ignored; and the sales of that kit proved to confirm that. Today, however, I see our hobby and the modelers inhabiting it to be quite fragmented. I dare say that if one were to gather, completely at random, 100 model car builders in a single large room, ask that each one write down their one most desired (but not yet ever produced) model car subject, there would likely be no real consensus pointing to one single subject--we've become, as a group much too large, much too varied for that to happen more than very occasionally. Not that it's a bad thing, no it isn't; but I think it does point out the dilemma often faced by people whose job it is to come up with new products. I would submit that a good many, if not most, product planning in a model company, happens around what is happening in the world of real, 1:1 scale cars (or trucks). It gets said a lot that "art mirrors life", and if one thinks about it, model kits mirror the real thing, not only as scale depictions of real cars, but also reflect the interest (and sometimes the lack thereof) in the real world. If a real car turns heads en-mass, it's quite likely that a scale model (kit or diecast) will do the same thing among those who are scale model enthusiasts; if not, often then not also can rule. A model kit of "Doc Hudson" would have generated sales, but only for as long as the Pixar cartoon car lasted on the silver screen; but a stock '53 Hudson Hornet goes a lot farther (longer legs) by being first and foremost a scale model of a real car, that can be produced in multiple variants, and as a bonus, brings a smile to faces when people hark back to the blockbuster cartoon movie--"Hey, there it is! Doc Hudson"! (even though the model lacks the smiling grille, and pupils in the headlight "eyes"). A very good example of this association was the white 1964 or thereabouts VW Beetle introduced by Matchbox about 1966. Painted white, with a black racing number on the doors, and Monte Carlo Rally logo's front and rear--young kids saw "Herbie" the Love Bug, the significance of the Monte Carlo Rally being totally lost on them (at least in the US), and several million of them were sold worldwide during that diecast toy's production life. (It wasn't until 2003 that Johnny Lightning produced the first accurately decorated VW Beetle as Herbie). A sort of "Success By Association" thing I think. Licensing is a fact of life in model car kits, along with just about any toy that is a representation of an actual vehicle--and for good reason (like it or not!). I submit that most modelers are very much unaware as to how much input carmakers provide. For example, Ford Motor Company maintains a vast historical archive of not only photographs of their entire history of car making, but also drawings, CAD files from the time those came into use, technical information, which they do share with model companies working up model kits of Ford products. They are generally quite insistent that model kits of Ford products being developed be accurate representations of those cars or trucks. I remember being involved in the development of a series of 65-66 Mustangs at Johnny Lightning in 2002, shortly after I joined that company. Ford's licensing guy was insisting on the correct number of horizontal bars in the '66 grille insert, and had to be persuaded that once painted twice (first with the body color, then silver to represent chrome) exact scale grille bars would simply have disappeared--it took the company attorney to persuade the guy that such a result would have been a far poorer representation of that grille (and by association, the entire 1/64 scale model) than a lower number of more prominent grille bars--in this case, creating the illusion of realism won out over numerical scale accuracy (and who was going to count the grille bars to determine if they were the right number anyway?). Similarly, there are times when the exact turn of a sheet metal stamping on the real car simply cannot be reduced to scale in a one-piece plastic body shell, if the model company expects to have the body shell release from the tooling in production (the forward ends of say, the long, tall fins of a '57 Chrysler. But in the end, the assistance of the licensor in the development of any new model kit adds immeasurably to the accuracy and appearance of the final product that you and I buy at the hobby shop. All that costs money, and licensing helps to offset those costs. In addition, product liability enters into the picture. Have a child get injured by a model kit or a part from one, and in all likelihood a personal injury attorney will be knocking on the automaker's door, seeking compensation, along with naming the model kit manufacturer as a defendant as well. Defending such, and maintaining product liability insurance coverage, for the automaker is also an expense--licensing helps to pay for that as well. Licensing fees and royalties are, as I have said, a fact of life in the scale model kit industry; but they add only a small part of the total costs of manufacture, even though they are big enough to be noticed. But if you or I were stockholders of say, Ford (fill in the name of any automaker here!) we'd have a vested interest in seeing to it that costs get covered, unless they are related to say, advertising or promotion. It's when licensors are in conflict with one another, something which happens quite often with secondary sponsor logo's on race cars, that it gets really troublesome. Nascar, for example, mandates a certain package of secondary sponsor logo's to be displayed on the sides of race cars--any participating team is required to carry that standard package. Nascar prefers that model kits of their stock cars have that very same package of secondary sponsor decals--but there have been, still are, and likely will always be companies that try to refuse the use of their logo's on a model car IF "so-and-so's" logo is also to be displayed. Just because they all appear to be "in bed together" on the Superspeedway does not translate into true love where model kits are concerned. I could go on further, but what I have said here does illustrate the point pretty well. Art

Bear in mind, the gasoline automobile truly had its start in Europe, primarily in Germany then France, before the dawn of the 20th Century. I know that, have never ignored, nor denigrated that fact. Art

By stating that Japan has very little in the way of an automotive heritage prior to the 1960's, I think I am right. To be sure, there were cars and trucks being built in Japan prior to say, 1960, but they were very few in number, most never seen today by even people in that country. Bear in mind here, a Century ago, Japan was still an agrarian (farm oriented) society, only barely an open society. The Japanese Navy that defeated the Imperial Russian Fleet at the Battle of Toshiba Strait in 1905 was virtually ENTIRELY built in British shipyards, indeed several older battleships that the US Navy faced in the Second World War were built either by Vickers in England, or were direct copies thereof. Japanese automobiles were few in number as well. Keep in mind that when speaking of Japan, we are looking at a country whose main asset was, and still is, a very industrious society, but a country pretty much devoid of what we consider to be "natural resources". Japan has virtually no iron ore, nor any other mineral deposits of the likes found in the Western Hemisphere, Europe or Scandinavia. Japan has very little in the way of coal, and certainly almost no oil underground--all things necessary for the manufacture of things such as automobiles. During the 1930's, Japan was marching toward conquest--Manchuria in 1932 was to become their source for fuel (coal) and also iron ore for making steel. Japan looked to our country for those resources as well, including oil in crude form as well as gasoline--and bought huge quantities of scrap metals from the US. Even His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Hirohito, rode in a limousine built in Germany, by Daimler, a Mercedes (I believe he rode in that car to meet with General of the Army Douglas McArthur who was appointed the US Military Governor of Japan in September 1945, to tender his respects to McArthur). This is NOT to denigrate anyone in Japan--but the history books do detail all of what I am saying here. When Tokyo was devastated by a massive earthquake in the early 1920's (which Japan responded to US aid by sending hundreds of Cherry Tree seedlings to Washington DC, which was the impetus for the annual Cherry Tree Festival in our Nation's capital city nowadays), Tokyo turned to US manufacturers, most notably Ahrens-Fox, for modern firefighting equipment (and during the Second World War, those Cincinatti-built piston pumpers performed yeoman duty!). Yes, the likes of Toyota and Nissan existed, but as very small producers, mostly of light commercial vehicles, and with the coming of war to Japan in the 1930's, military vehicles. Mitsubishi was primarily involved in shipbuilding and of course, military aircraft through to the end of hostilities on September 1, 1945. At war's end in 1945, heavy industry as we know it today in Japan was virtually non-existant--several years of B-29 bombing raids, along with US Navy carrier aircraft saw to that during a very intense and tragic war; and Japan was forced to rebuild all of that, generate enough foreign exchange to be able to buy the resources necessary to support such as an auto industry. Bear in mind that Honda, today a major power in the world Auto Industry, started out making motorized bicycles in the late 1940's (as did Peugeot in France, and several iconic but now gone US carmakers, BTW). Subaru didn't get started until the 1960's for all intents and purposes. Kawasaki began by making aircraft and ships for the Japanese army and navy, only coming into the civilian market in the postwar era--on and on. So when I say that Japan has very little in the way of an automotive heritage prior to say, 1960, I believe I am pretty much right; they didn't have the resources, nor really much of a market at home prior to that, for all the reasons I have sketched out here. Yes, there were a smattering of Japanese vehicles, but they were few and far between, until the economic miracles those of us in our 60's and beyond in this country have witnessed. In short, Japan has experienced the Industrial Revolution in less than half the time that it took for Western Europe, even this country to go from a rather primitive, agrarian/shopkeeper economy to being an industrial superpower. And in that, I do respect Japan, and the Japanese people for all they have accomplished. 'Nuff said? I think so. Art Anderson

By stating that Japan has very little in the way of an automotive heritage prior to the 1960's, I think I am right. To be sure, there were cars and trucks being built in Japan prior to say, 1960, but they were very few in number, most never seen today by even people in that country. Bear in mind here, a Century ago, Japan was still an agrarian (farm oriented) society, only barely an open society. The Japanese Navy that defeated the Imperial Russian Fleet at the Battle of Toshiba Strait in 1905 was virtually ENTIRELY built in British shipyards, indeed several older battleships that the US Navy faced in the Second World War were built either by Vickers in England, or were direct copies thereof. Japanese automobiles were few in number as well. Keep in mind that when speaking of Japan, we are looking at a country whose main asset was, and still is, a very industrious society, but a country pretty much devoid of what we consider to be "natural resources". Japan has virtually no iron ore, nor any other mineral deposits of the likes found in the Western Hemisphere, Europe or Scandinavia. Japan has very little in the way of coal, and certainly almost no oil underground--all things necessary for the manufacture of things such as automobiles. During the 1930's, Japan was marching toward conquest--Manchuria in 1932 was to become their source for fuel (coal) and also iron ore for making steel. Japan looked to our country for those resources as well, including oil in crude form as well as gasoline--and bought huge quantities of scrap metals from the US. Even His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Hirohito, rode in a limousine built in Germany, by Daimler, a Mercedes (I believe he rode in that car to meet with General of the Army Douglas McArthur who was appointed the US Military Governor of Japan in September 1945, to tender his respects to McArthur). This is NOT to denigrate anyone in Japan--but the history books do detail all of what I am saying here. When Tokyo was devastated by a massive earthquake in the early 1920's (which Japan responded to US aid by sending hundreds of Cherry Tree seedlings to Washington DC, which was the impetus for the annual Cherry Tree Festival in our Nation's capital city nowadays), Tokyo turned to US manufacturers, most notably Ahrens-Fox, for modern firefighting equipment (and during the Second World War, those Cincinatti-built piston pumpers performed yeoman duty!). Yes, the likes of Toyota and Nissan existed, but as very small producers, mostly of light commercial vehicles, and with the coming of war to Japan in the 1930's, military vehicles. Mitsubishi was primarily involved in shipbuilding and of course, military aircraft through to the end of hostilities on September 1, 1945. At war's end in 1945, heavy industry as we know it today in Japan was virtually non-existant--several years of B-29 bombing raids, along with US Navy carrier aircraft saw to that during a very intense and tragic war; and Japan was forced to rebuild all of that, generate enough foreign exchange to be able to buy the resources necessary to support such as an auto industry. Bear in mind that Honda, today a major power in the world Auto Industry, started out making motorized bicycles in the late 1940's (as did Peugeot in France, and several iconic but now gone US carmakers, BTW). Subaru didn't get started until the 1960's for all intents and purposes. Kawasaki began by making aircraft and ships for the Japanese army and navy, only coming into the civilian market in the postwar era--on and on. So when I say that Japan has very little in the way of an automotive heritage prior to say, 1960, I believe I am pretty much right; they didn't have the resources, nor really much of a market at home prior to that, for all the reasons I have sketched out here. Yes, there were a smattering of Japanese vehicles, but they were few and far between, until the economic miracles those of us in our 60's and beyond in this country have witnessed. In short, Japan has experienced the Industrial Revolution in less than half the time that it took for Western Europe, even this country to go from a rather primitive, agrarian/shopkeeper economy to being an industrial superpower. And in that, I do respect Japan, and the Japanese people for all they have accomplished. 'Nuff said? I think so. Art Anderson

To set the record straight here: Ertl did the 1/25 scale diecast of the 1949 Oldsmobile 88 Business Coupe in 1998, for the celebration of Nascar's 50th Anniversary. It is very well done, albeit having a coin slot in the decklid for use as a bank. The 1951 Studebaker "Bulletnose" Commander Starlight coupe was done at Johnny Lightning in 2004, in response to a program set forth by that company's upper management. I happened to get the assignment to do this one--upstairs they strongly suggested a 1939-40 Champion, but given the budget for the project, no prewar Champion could be located in the short time-frame allotted, so I suggested the bulletnose, and it was accepted. I've said this before, and I will say it again: At the 1999 RCHTA show at the Rosemont IL Convention Center, AMT/Ertl showed box art for these same two subjects. Those were, according to Tom Walsh--then head of product development for AMT/Ertl, last minute proposals to the hobby industry. Walsh told me straight up at that show that it did not look promising for either subject, as Walmart and the other "big box" retailers (who pretty much controlled what new model car kit subjects would see the light of day back then) had rejected them for their 2000 store "resets", and it was hoped that local hobby shop owners and hobby wholesalers would bite on them. They did not, at least not in numbers sufficient to warrant their development into plastic kits, so the idea died on the vine so-to-speak, at that time. In short, is was NOT AMT/Ertl deciding on their own to "tease us" and then leave us hanging--model companies have seldom ever done that--it's not in their interest to do so, never has been, never will be. Such would be simply a waste of time and a waste of scarce capital. IF anyone wants to find someone to blame--well look no farther than Bentonville, Arkansas, the Detroit headquarters of KMart, or zero in on Minneapolis, where Target has their home offices--it was the buyers for companies such as those who nixed the idea--pure and simple. There was a book written some years ago titled "Wamart: The High Cost of Low Price" which purports to detail just how that retailing juggernaut has dragged manufacturer after manufacturer into the dirt just so they could get the product(s) they want at the price they want. Walmart and their colleagues have been the driving force behind the off-shoring of countless consumer products by being able to clamp a lid on prices, regardless of the effect on American companies, and the American workers who made those products. Think about that the next time you walk through the doors of stores like that: By buying the stuff they sell at the prices they sell them at--are YOU really helping your neighbor, the guy down the street, a worker in a factory in the next town? Maybe yes, likely no. But back to the Olds and the Studebaker: If you guys must blame somebody for the fact that those didn't see the light of day back in 2000, blame the real culprits: The people with their MBA's on their cubicle walls, arrogant as all get out that THEY know the answers. It was people like that who made the decisions that forced AMT/Ertl to make the decisions they had little choice but to make. Now, I am gonna get off this soapbox--there's too many model car kits in this apartment that beg my attention! Art Anderson designer and developer of the Johnny Lightning '51 Studebaker Commander Starlight in 1/24 scale diecast.

The kit is slated for release here in the US THIS August. Do not confuse this Revell kit with the disappointment of 13yrs ago, when AMT/Ertl proposed the very same subject at RHCTA, only to see it fail due to a severe lack of preorders from wholesalers and retailers (that's why they never did do the kit--sorry all you conspiracy theoritsts!--but times obviously have changed!). Art

Ya know, it was FUN seeing to it that John Dezan got to build the first test shot Great Dane! I asked for a set of the test shots from Dave Metzner, he sent them--I reboxed them and sent them to John. John pulled out all the stops, built and finished that trailer in less than 2 days--told me he was turned into a "rock star" at Granby, Quebec, and he certainly was accorded that at NNL East (particularly in the lobby of the Ramada after Cheeseburgers! For those coming in late: I also supplied John with my sample production kit of the Lonestar, which he proceeded to use to entertain all the truck modelers here on MCM a year ago. Together with the Great Dane 53' trailer, the whole rig is not only HUGE, it's impressive as H*LL! Art

Frankly, if you work on your spray painting techniques a bit, you should get a finish right from the can, or preferably the airbrush, that will allow you to skip all the way to 4800-grit or even finer. That's been my experience over the past 35yrs of using Micro-Mesh polishing kits. Art

He was: "64/65 Shelby Daytona--only one style of those in the 60's. Art

Pretty hard to beat the Micromesh polishing kits which have been, and still are, sold by a number of different outlets. Art

I think it was more than just a change of faces in the product development area, Harry. 1965 was the beginning of the end of the "slot car bubble", and given that AMT, along with Revell, Monogram, K&B/Aurora had invested heavily in slot car kit development, all of them suffered pretty badly. Even hobby wholesalers suffered (Chicago was, at that time, the epicenter of the modeling hobby distribution industry). Case in point: United Model Distributors (UMD) moved from their original warehouse in the historic "Water Tower" district on North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, to a new facility in the then-almost rural suburb of Wheeling IL, about 15 miles or so north of O'Hare International Airport in the spring of 1967. During that move, UMD hired a tugboat and barge to haul their unsalable inventory of slot car parts and accessories out into Lake Michigan, where the stuff was unceremoniously dumped into the lake--such was the collapse of 1:32/1:24 scale slot racing. The manufacturers were hit every bit as hard: Revell had to retrench for a couple of years (very little in the way of new product announcements), AMT began dumbing down new releases, Monogram was sold to Mattel in this time period. Strombecker began their slow slide into oblivion. Back in those days, parts count translated into tooling cost more directly than it does today, and that showed up across the board at AMT. Coupled with this was a demographic switch: The 10-15yr old customer base of 1961-62 was reaching the age of discovering girls and real cars--the older kids were facing either State University or "Rice Paddy College" (Vietnam). Some of my classmates from West Lafayette HS Class of 1962 were already married, looking at starting families--all of this began taking modelers away from the hobby. In addition, the younger kids coming up were caught up in newer, seemingly more exciting stuff (This was about the time that skateboarding really took hold, for instance--"sidewalk surfing" was everywhere--just one of many competing activities which were vying for kids' spending money and time. The "decline" which had its start by late 1965 was gradual--it took another 13-14 years for diminished sales, lack of internal capital among model companies to have its effect but it surely did: "What goes up must come down" played out all-too-perfectly" As an employee of Weber's Hobby Shop here in Lafayette (back in the 60's, Weber's was probably the largest hobby shop in the Great Lakes region outside of Chicago-nearly 5000 sq. feet of retail space), so I was in the middle of all of it; saw it, experienced it. Art

Gee Rob! 15yrs ago, some of the "luminaries" of this hobby were predicting it's complete demise by Y2K--guess what? That didn't happen. Stick around, this hobby is gonna be on the block for a lotta years yet. Art

The AMT '27 T touring kit has a Frontenac DOHC head with intake and exhaust. The Fronty DOHC made the 22hp Model T engine into a stormer of some 140hp, good enough that one of them finished in the top ten at Indianapolis in 1924! Fronty T's dominated early sprint car racing as well. It's actually quite well detailed in the bargain! Art

Donn, well put! What today's younger crowd may well never grasp is: When we 60-somethings were 18, what cars did we build a lot of? Hmmm, I sure seem to recall a lot of Model T's, '32 and '40 Fords. Why, in the 60's, we built an awful lot of '57 and '58 Chevies too (all that in addition to the then-current new cars). Model companies are going to produce kits of cars they see the broader market as wanting--and from the looks of things, they are hitting things pretty much right from their business perspective. Sure, the modern exotics seem all to come from Japanese or European manufacturers, but then consider that Japan hasn't got much in the way of any automotive heritage prior to the 1970's, and while europeans were buying some pretty neat daily driver stuff prior to the 60's, a lot of that heritage was lost forever in the horrible years 1939-45. Another thing to consider is that model kits of the cool exotic cars just do not sell well in the US, outside of major metropolitan areas (that was my experience as a hobby shop owner in Lafayette IN 1984-1992). Most of the hinterlands of the USA are still Ford-GM and Chrysler country, believe it or not, at least as it comes to model cars. Oh well, as you say, younger adult modelers will have their day, but right now, the excitement is in nostalgia for the 1950's and 1960's. But that will change soon enough I suspect. Art

Methinks Fred may have sold his remaining stocks to the likes of Model Empire, and Spotlight Hobbies (Tom Carter had a ton of them on his website a couple of months back. But give Fred a try at any rate, after he shut down, he was still selling remaining stock of decals directly while supplies lasted. Art

In my experience (going back 50 years of airbrushing, coupled with a combined 30 years working in hobby shops--including my own store) and selling/servicing airbrushes, if an airbrush refuses to spray paint at all, that's one of three things: Pressure too low for the consistency of the paint being used, clogged up someplace, or paint just plain too thick in consistency period. For "spitting", the first place to look is the tip of the needle (which all airbrushes use for shaping the spray fan as well as for controlling the volume of paint flow). The needle must be in perfect condition, smooth and sharp--even the tiniest "burr" on the end of the needle will collect wet paint in a droplet when when it gets large enough, will be blown off and onto your paint job. The same is true of the hollow tip (generally a cone-shaped affair through which the needle extends. Those can split or crack, which again allows wet paint to collect into a droplet, which when big enough, gets blown off into your paintjob, just as with a burr on the tip of the needle. Needles can sometimes be fixed, if the bur isn't very large (usually just the very tip bent over--reason #1 to NEVER drop an airbrush!), by gently sanding it smooth again. However, split hollow tips cannot be repaired, replace that if it's split or cracked. Art

From the late 1930's onward, there were 4 basic types of automotive brightwork: Chromium plated steel (most commonly bumpers, some hubcaps, even side spears on luxury cars such as Cadillac and Packard--these through the start of hostilities in Korea and the beginning of the Cold War); diecast "Zamak" (the same stuff that Hot Wheels are cast from!), rolled stainless steel, and rolled aluminum (used primarily for side trim, windshield and back window moldings) rolled aluminum being used on some cars (58 Impala and 1959-60 Chevrolet side spears come to mind here). These all weather completely differently though! Stainless Steel (Ford advertised this as "Rustless Steel" with their introduction of the material for radiator shells and door handles on the 1930 Model A's) carrying it forward into side trim for 1937-later, retaining chromium plating on bumpers and diecast trim (starting with the 1937 grilles and of course 1932-later door handles). Ford hubcaps from 1930 onward were stainless steel. Chrome-plated Ford bumpers would pit and rust as minute gaps in the plating (even though they used "triple plating" which was a first plating of copper, followed by a plating of nickel, followed by chromium). This plating rusted in small spots, which if left uncared for, gradually peeled the plating away into larger and larger rusty areas. The stainless steel trim simply dulled, and took on a very slight "brownish" shade, due to the nickel content of the alloy With the start of the war in Korea in June 1950, and the subsequent realization that the US was in a "Cold War" with the former Soviet Union, military buildups placed limits on all metals, most notably chromium, which was in great demand for turbojet engine turbine blades, and as an imported metal ore (none exists in the continental US in mining quantities) became a strategic metal (was also used for plating the bores of military small arms, even machine guns!). Copper also became a strategic metal, so its use was severely rationed on the civilian market just as with chromium. This left nickel as the only base plating for bumpers and diecast, but nickel does not adhere anywhere nearly as firmly as did copper, so peeling and flaking of the chrome trim on bumpers was greatly accelerated. The same was more true with diecast parts, particularly grillework, with peeling of the plating happening often within 3-4 years, leaving large areas of grillework as exposed Zamak, which discolored quickly to a very slight brownish-yellow in color, and dull-looking. High wear parts, such as door handles were still allowed to be triple plated, and as such, exhibited none of this (also for safety, as a peeling layer of chromium is as sharp as the finest surgical scalpels. But, no rust in those parts, due to their being Zamak, not iron or steel. With the coming of fine-mesh grilles, such as 1955-56 Chevies, 1955-56 Fords and Chryslers, stainless steel made up the grille mesh, rolled, stamped and put together in tab & slot methods, with diecast chrome-plated surrounds, but copper became more plentiful, so those parts didn't pit or peel nearly as badly as had their 1952-53 counterparts. The stainless steel side trims as applied back then did not rust, but they dulled out, due to abrasion by careless washing and the use of rather abrasive chome polishes then in use, and dulled out considerably over time, while taking on the brownish hue associated with old stainless steel. Beginning about 1957, anodized aluminum entered the automotive trim forays, first as grille mesh (it could be stamped and the holes punched out, eliminating the assembly of such grilles from individual bars. In 1958, Chevrolet introduced rolled aluminum side spears, again anodized. Now, aluminum can be highly polished, but needs constant attention if exposed to the elements, which on a car means road dirt, and salt. So anodizing was used to protect against that. Anodizing aluminum protects the surface from corrosion, but also dulls the metal, which when new meant that the sheen was much softer, less reflective, but still bright in silver color. Over time however, the anodized surface dulled to more whitish in character, and absorbed stains from the surrounding surfaces, notably rust (for which 50's cars were notorious!), so such staining and oxidation should be considered in weathering. Hubcaps were all over the place: Where Ford standardized on stainless steel for hubcaps from 1930 onward, GM, Chrysler and the others retained chrome plated hubcaps though at least 1949 or so, changing to stainless steel at the onset of the Cold War and its subsequent military buildup (which rivaled, BTW, the crisis buildup of defenses which began in 1941 lasting through the middle of 1945). So, now what about weathering? Chrome bumpers did rust, of course, and that's easily replicated. Stainless steel trim, while not rust-prone, dulled, and in the case of body side trim, got dinged and dented, so one might consider that as an option. Incidently, Bare Metal Foil, as it ages, tends to take on the hue commonly associated with stainless trim, in my experience. Aluminum side trim, even grilles, dented and bent very easily, and was readily crushed flat if one scraped a fender into the side of the garage door opening--and that happened a lot back in the day of smaller garages built for the narrower cars of the 20's though the 40's; turned dull and whitish, taking on readily rust stains from the spring steel trim clips which held the spears on the body. But, the heavily plated diecast door handles retained their finish for years, even decades. Of course, aftermarket side mirrors and spotlights, even aftermarket radio antenna bases pitted badly over time, their pitting resulting in small raised blisters, which are grey in color. Art

Toothbrush,. scrubbed on a used sliver of DIal Soap works very well for cleaning up resin bodies (personal experience!) and on styrene body shells as well. Be careful about dishwashing liquids though! Some of those that promise "Clean Down To The Shine" actually have silicones in them to make your glassware and silver shine--and silicones are the deadly enemy of model car paint jobs--they are the chief cause of fisheye. Art

I have a couple of those lightweight aluminum toolboxes in which I have carried models to shows on airliners. Scanners use magnetometers, not Xrays to scan carry-on and checked baggage, so that penetrates the aluminum casing, shows whatever is inside. I had a TSA agent comment to me at Indianapolis International back in 2007, as I was going through the securty checkpoint that he'd seen several model cars go through that day (I was on my way to GSL). As for a 14" long, 7" wide model, there are very sturdy "mailer boxes" available, the white ones you fold up with tab & slot assembly--those work great, can be carried either loose, or packed into luggage, your choice. I used a pair of 550-count sports card collectors' boxes to carry my '53 Hudson and Kurtis Midget to NNL-East this past weekend, just packed the models lightly with "T-shirt knit cotton scraps" (sold in a lot of big box stores as cleaning/dust cloths, BTW) , laid the boxes in the bottom of my back pack (same UnderArmor back pack I wear when going to work by bike), along with an extra jacket and a book to read, and they traveled beautifully, outbound and return trip (even accidently dropped the backpack, with NO damage to either model--so I know that can be done, and will continue to do it in the future. Art

Fred Cady did, perhaps 25 years ago. Sadly though, Fred retired from decal making about 10 years ago. Art