Art Anderson

I think I can say it now with real confidence! Dave Metzner, whom I have known for nearly 40 years, and Frank at Moebius called on me to come up to Dave's home in Mishawaka in May 2008 to discuss possible model car subjects, and would I come up with a list of 25 possible subjects to consider. The Hudson was perhaps the top car on my list. I gave Dave and Frank my thoughts on each one (and for those who know me, I can be extremely loquacious--talkative!). I sat on the deal for the next 18 months and when Dave told me about the pending announcement a year ago at iHobby, I was blown away! Now, to see the final result (although it, as test shots, requires some tweaks) I am in love with this kit! Guys, if you love 50's cars, this one will be the quintescential kit, along with the '55 Chrysler C300! It is that good, in fact, it rivals the best of those that the vaunted, and often overrated Japanese companies offer--IT IS THAT GOOD! Art

Been groking the Moebius Hudson Hornet kit for the past hour or so, since the mailman dropped it off here! OMIGAWD! I am in love with this one! So much to like, even from test shots! More later, pics will follow as soon as camera batteries charge up! Art

That's no fake jet exhaust out back though! That is the spare tire and wheel. Art

Bluesman Mark hit the nail squarely on the head here: So-called "parts packs" have never worked for the manufacturers, not even most retailers. That was just as true for the Revell, AMT, Aurora and Monogram offerings of the period 1963-65 as it was with Revell's attempts at custom pickup and van parts packs in the late 1970's. In short, nearly all those parts packs which generate so much nostalgia now became "sidewalk sale" fodder within a year or so as hobby shops unloaded dead stock. (I was there, working in a large, well run hobby shop back then, saw it happen, did the markdowns). As late as 1980's, major hobby wholesalers still had 1960's parts packs that were dusty, unsold still. Even though those got bought up by collector/secondary market dealers, nostalgia and collectibility of old stock does not necessarily a market for more of the same. Stuff like that is pretty much best left to the modern day aftermarket to provide. In the case of the Kurtis Midget, outside of a later hood panel with the flared "scuttle" for a shorter windshield, a Bob Peck nose for it (the low, horizontal grille nose that was tooled into the old Monogram 1/24th scale slot car body midget), some pavement tires, either drum or disc brakes, there really is not a lot that even an aftermarket guy is gonna be able to market for these kits in that regard. Perhaps 3-4 engines I can think of, and certainly a ton of decal sheet possibilities, that's about the extent of it. Still, it's a neat kit, neat subject, with enough potential paint schemes and variations to keep roundy-round builders occuppied for quite a while. Art

both Danbury Mint and Crown Premiums have done the 1937 Studebaker Coupe-Express, which was the first passenger-car trimmed pickup in the US. The Danbury model is pricey, but you can get the Crown Premiums version through Vintage Truck Magazine for about $30--and it's excellent. Crown Premiums also produces a '37 Studebaker Woodie Station Wagon with Cantrell bodywork that is a beauty. Art

It is 1:25 scale. Art

Wiring in series multiplies the voltage available by the number of cells, wiring in parallel multiplies the amperage by the number of cells--from my 7th Grade Electrical Shop Class back in 1956. Art

1948 model year was the first year model car produced by AMT Corporation, then known as Aluminum Model Toys. It was a 1948 Ford Tudor Sedan, displayed at dealerships with the slogan "Watch The Fords Go By!". 1973 was the 25th Anniversary of that first product. I do believe, however, that AMT was started in 1947, given that in 1977, they had me build up a set of 30 truck models for their HIAA Trade Show Booth, to honor the 30th Anniversary of the company. Art

One part of the reasons why no large decal makers have stepped into the making of decal sets for 1/24-1/25 scale big trucks is the numbers involved. With HO model railroading, there are many, many times more modelers who will buy them than those of us who build in larger scales. And even at that, Microscale doesn't make all that many decal sets for big rigs--and much of what they do are for older, often defunct truck lines given that with only a few exceptions, most HO scale rigs are from years and decades past--where copyright/trademark issues aren't anything to worry about. Art

It's one of them!!!

As for school busses, you are pretty much on your own, except for the resin bodies noted (which are actually 1/32 scale short bodies, based on a Japanese kit, adapted to 1/25 scale truck front clips). A real school bus is a pretty large chunk of rolling real estate, and they can be scratchbuilt--in fact a couple of modelers have done them over the years. Art

You make a very good point! It helps to think of valuing and selling one's old or surplus kits in "business terms", frankly. In the business world, there are two ways of placing a value on any assets (assets are those items which can be sold for cash): Their "book value" and their "quick sale" value. A vendor at a swap meet almost always is working on the "book value" (what he thinks the item is worth, based perhaps on what he has in it, what comparable kits are selling for), while a seller on eBay is working on the "quick sale" value. At the swap meet, the vendor most likely is willing to hold out for a certain price (even if he negotiates) while on eBay (just as with a live auction--household, farm, business liquidation) the item is up for competitive bidding, and it will be sold at some point at that event, whatever the price (unless there is a reserve which must be met). Both are good for establishing at least approximate values of model kits, and their are a few price guides which are updated regularly which can help to give one an idea as to the approximate value of truly collectible model kits. Notice I keep coming back to "idea", approximate. Guide books are just that, guidelines, they are not cast in concrete; the price ultimately paid by the buyer to the seller can vary, vary a lot; and as others have stated, auction results can be all over the map. Art

As others have alluded, there just isn't a pat, easy answer. Early on, when soft tires were included in a model car kit, they were rubber--most generally neoprene (the same stuff used for rubber fuel lines), but even that has a limited life. Strombecker, before they introduced slot racing sets, produced a line of 1/24 scale model car kits which were motorized, steerable front ends, and used neoprene rubber tires. Monogram's earliest model car kits having "soft" tires also used neoprene rubber tires, which for them came from a source outside the company--a toy mfr who had the equipment and the knowledge to work with neoprene, and were already producing prodigious quantities of rubber tires and components for the toy industry. PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) has been around for more than a century, and in the 1930's, chemists learned how to formulate the stuff so it had flexibility, softess. However, that came at a price, as the early, soft flexible PVC had some "plasticizers" which when placed in contact with hard plastics such as "Tenite" (DuPont's acetate plastic) and the subsequent styrene and polystyrene plastics with which we model car builders are acquainted, those plasticizers attacked the hard plastics, softening their surfaces (tire burns) and would even attack most enamels and lacquers--especially decal sheets, which are produced with lacquers. Early AMT promotional models used a very hard PVC compound for their tires, and never experienced any problems, but with the beginnings of plastic model kits of cars, they went to the softer, plasticized PVC, and there the problems cropped up; and Revell kits had that very problem, in spades as well. By the late 60's however, it became possible to produce soft PVC tires which didn't leach out those plasticizers, at least not enough so as to just simply melt down a styrene wheel overnight before your very eyes, and with the fairly brief "PVC Monomer Gas" scare of aabout 1975-77, the problem became less and less an issue for manufacturers and hobbyists alike. But why not Neoprene? Neoprene has to be vulcanized, just as with natural latex, but it's still problematical as to how long those tires will last once on the model--Neoprene, like most other moldable rubber compounds, oxidizes readily in the open air--exposure to light, natural sunlight or artificial accelerates the problem, Add to this unsatisfactory characteristic the simple matter of cost: Molding and vulcanizing neoprene takes a lot more time per cycle of the molding machine that the production cycle of an injection molder shooting PVC into steel dies. Of course, the Japanese kits are produced with far less concern about their ultimate pricepoint unlike us in the US (or countries where model kits are made for the US Market), but domestic/offshored model kits are much more cost-sensitive than those made in Japan for their domestic market. Oh well, I've gone on a bit long here. Art

Car bodies having severe undercuts at the ends often get tooled with front and/or rear panels as separate parts, purely for tooling (read that cost) considerations. Keep in mind that styrene model kits are molded in steel dies, and neither steel nor styrene will stretch, steel tooling isn't flexible;styrene can flex, but not enough to over come a deep undercut say as with a rear or front pan. I've had pretty good luck over the years attaching front and rear panels with deeply undercut pans into the body shell before painting, as I've found that most chassis will flex enough to allow slipping them into fully assembled body shells. Art

Been using the Testors/Xuron sprue nippers for years now, worn out several pairs--highly recommend them! Art

Hmm!!! Now with that '46-48 Olds grille, I might just have to consider a '47 Oldsmobile 76 fastback sedan, starting with the Galaxie Chevy Aerosedan! Art

Some of us, myself included, copyright every pic we take that is put up on Fotki. For someone to just grab a copyrighted photograph to share all over the place is wrong, and it is a violation of copyright law. "Fair Use" refers to your making a copy for your own purposes (reference or whatever), not publishing the work of others all over the place. Art

OK. For starters, the 1958 Chevrolet Delray Sedan Delivery was the same body shell as the 2dr Delray Yeoman station wagon. The doors are the same length, same doorskins (except for trim hole location) as any other 1958 Chevy 2dr sedan, station wagon, Bel Air or Impala HT or convertible. Impala trim will fit the Sedel body with no problem at all--the bodies are the same length throughout the Chevrolet lineup for '58. On the model, it might actually be easiest to tackle this one of three ways (take your pick!): 1) You could take an AMT Impala, cut the body sides apart so that you have the side chrome spears as separate sections of plastic. You can thin those down to just where the surrounding plastic that represents the sheet metal of the actual car is tissue paper thin, which will give you separate side spears. This can be done by using a fresh sheet of 400-grit Wet-or-Dry sandpaper (get 3M brand, it's the only brand to use here), laid grit side up on a smooth, flat surface (a piece of tempered plate glass works, as will a formica countertop or closet shelf section--even a "sink cutout", dirt cheap at home improvement stores will suffice). To keep the sandpaper from wanting to slide or move around, sprinkle some water on the flat surface first, when you put the paper side to that, with the grit facing up, the sandpaper won't budge. Now, flood the grit with water, put the plastic sections having the chrome trim on them, trim side up, and sand away, by simply moving the plastic sections back and forth on the sandpaper, until you get it thinned down as I described. Once you've got that done, simply trim away the very thin excess plastic, and attach the chrome spears to the side of your Sedel body with CA glue. I've done this, and it works! 2) Those spears can be foil-cast, but a couple of problems--epoxy glue used to fill the foil mold is nowhere near as strong as styrene, so be prepared to break the molded epoxy, start all over again. 3) you can replicate chrome spears in strip styrene on the body, but with the 58 Impala trim, that's going to be a very laborious and tedious process. I like the first option the best framkly. As for taillights, '58 Chevy station wagons used a single round red taillight, which was EXACTLY the same unit, bezel and lens, as used on the '58 Impala. The "jet exhaust" style dual lens tailight as used on Delray, Biscayne and Bel Air sedans and the lower line Bel Air hardtop won't fit the station wagon's "cove", they are too wide. I owned a '58 Chevy sedan delivery for 9 years, pretty well acquainted with them. Art

In the trailers they both rode in the Bentley several times Art

Jonathan Steed and Emma Peel's Bentley (The Avengers), from the Heller Blower Bentley kit Art

Frankly Harry, that's a pretty cynical stand, something I wouldn't have figured from you. Yeah, NNL's have given awards, virtually from the get-go, and still do. Yeah, people do cheat sometimes (gee, and I thought our hobby was about realism?) Favoritism on the part of a contest judge? Yes, that does happen on occasion, but truthfully, that isn't a standard characteristic of the vast majority of model car contests. Incompetent judges? Again, "art mirrors life" does it not, when this sort of thing crops up? Dad building a model, son or daughter entering it as their own work? Shades of Cub Scouts and the Pinewood Derby! But if, as it's alleged, you never go to contests or NNL's, the only thing you have to report on such as above is merely hearsay, is it not? Hmmmmm.... Art

I would not denigrate Plastruct's STYRENE in a heartbeat. Other than the fact that it's not as readily available in stores many places as Evergreen, they do have some sizes and shapes that Evergreen never thought of. Art

The Lincoln Continental Mk VI LSC body as done for the Revell Matt & Debbie Hayes Tbird chassis is too short. The actual Mk VI physically longer in two areas: Behind the B-post, in the rear seat area, giving more legroom in the Lincoln over the Tbird/Cougar, and also in the trunk area. Art

To take a pic from Tim's EXCELLENT album (Don't hit me, Tim!!!) here's a side view of his very nice build: Since I am "borrowing" pics for this one, I found this side view of the real thing via Google Image Search: If anything, the rear section of the Revell '87 Bird might be a tad long, but that's hard to compare, given the angle at which the pic of the real car was taken, but the front clip sure looks to be pretty danged accurately done to my eyes. Note also, that another area of contention, the wheel arches (openings) of the Revell kit (done by Monogram's design and development team of course) appear to be right on the money. If anything, the tires on the Revell '87 TBird may be a bit skimpy, due to their insistence (for cost reasons I think) on using existing tire tooling. Dimensions (which are key to unwinding this thing): 1983-86 Aerobird: Wheelbase 104", Overall length 197.6" 1987-88 Thunderbird: Wheelbase 104.2", Overall length 202.1" Given that the only body modifications done to the basic 1983 shell were those done to alter the rear of the roofline, and a considerable facelift up front, the added 4.5" length is in the nose. 1/5th of an inch longer in wheelbase would hardly even show up on a model kit, .180" in the scale model sure would, and does. Also confusing things is that much more Vee'd front end. The "beak" shape makes it very hard to judge the overall length unless one is looking at a virtually direct side-on view of the front half of the car, and then digging out the dimensional references. My source for the dimensional data here is "TBird, 45 Years Of Thunder", from Krause Publications, who also published the Standard Catalog series of reference works. Art

For just about any body panel or part one wants, there are pretty much three sources: Another kit which might supply at least a basic part that can be modified as needed; a resin part from the aftermarket IF someone else has already done the hard stuff so you don't have to; or make the part(s)/conversion yourself, which is of course, your question. For a hood, given its thin material cross-section, and compound curves, might best be modified from an existing kit hood, using sheet and/or strip styrene to create the basic shapes of the modifications, and putty (suggest using catalyzed autobody spot & glaze putty here), along with whatever carving, filing and sanding needed to achieve the desired results. There are two major sources for sheet and strip styrene out there in hobby shops (of course, those preprinted plastic signs one finds in hardware or home improvement sections of mass retailers, or even dedicated stores of that type, can be used, but they are rather thick, and may not give you the basic materials you might need), Evergreen Scale Models, and Plastruct. Evergreen is pretty much the original source for styrene sheet, strips, rod, tubing and structural shapes, having been around since the very late 1970's. Plastruct started about the same time, but their first line of product was ABS plastic, which doesn't work nearly as well for modifying styrene plastic model car kits, as ABS plastic is very difficult to glue securely to styrene, due to the dissimilarity between the two kinds of plastic. Plastruct did, however, in the late 1990's, begin their own line of real styrene sheets, strips and shapes, many of their styrene shapes being either sizes or types that Evergreen didn't and still doesn't produce. Plastruct, however, isn't as readily available as Evergreen, due to being still kinda the "new kid on the block", but check any local hobby shop you can get to, in their construction supplies section for one or the other brand. It's pretty hard to address questions of a general nature with regard to scratchbuilding or modifying a model car kit or body, as sometimes the answer that works for you will need pretty specific question asked. A pic or two (or even 3 or 4) of what one wants advice on how to make in model form, but of the real car can go a long, long way to helping others give you suggestions, in addition to being pretty good references for your use as well--so consider that when asking this kind of question. Hope this helps!!!!! Art