Art Anderson

When I owned my hobby shop, every fall, going into Christmas, I had at least 200 layaways on shelves in the back room. It was, and still is, a great business builder for those retailers who still offer it, but it is both space and labor intensive, which is why a lot of stores phased out this feature. It may sound harsh, but I always required a 20% deposit, non-refundable after 10 days (hey, if the buyer was gonna stiff me, I felt I deserved to not absorb the lost sale(s) that might have resulted from the item being laid back and then given up on). All layaways were due out by December 22 (unless specifically agreed on differently), in order that we not be standing around at 5pm, on the 24th, waiting and wondering. Two or three times in the 10yrs I had The Modelmaker, a single mom, having laid back say, a train set, or some model kits because she had no credit cards, and a bit tight on money, came to me or called me on the 24th, with regrets that she couldn't pick it up in time for Christmas, no spare money for that last payment. Each one of these, my then-wife and I gift wrapped, and personally delivered that particular Christmas Eve, with a note saying that it would be OK if the customer came in after the holiday and settled up. Believe it or not, everyone of those did just that. And, the look on their faces, and that of their child were, and still are, priceless. And, in doing that, I went away feeling pretty danged good myself--I'd gone just a little bit out there to help a kid have a happy Christmas, and his mom as well. Such is the way with a mom & pop store, we could do a few things like that, without "giving away the store", something that Walmart truly can't do, and likely wouldn't if they could. Oh, and down the road since then (I closed out Modelmaker Hobby Shop in August of 1984)? One of those youngsters, an 11yr old when this Santa's helper knocked on their door, with the train set his mom had laid away, but couldn't quite pay for on time? Well, I am the Godfather of every one of his 4 kids, and I really love seeing their faces when they spot me on the street. Good feelings do go beyond the moment, truthfully! With the economic times as they are, I wonder if such won't be happening again, on occasion, this Christmas, somewhere across this great land. I, for one, hope so. Art

You've nailed the differences, those were all. For '32, Ford farmed out the modifications of Tudor sedans to LeBaron, the famed coachbuilding arm of Murray Body Company in Detroit, as the expected sales volume just didn't justify their doing them in-house. (only a couple of hundred or so were produced) The bodies were standard '32 Ford Tudor sedans, with a rear door (built like a Model A Ford sedan delivery, the rear quarter windows filled in with sheet metal where the glass would have been (recessed just as the glass would have been) and leaded in around the edges. The floor was the standard sheet metal floor, I believe, which would have been nearly flat, the Deuce not having the high arched rear crossmember and spring of the Model A. Used the same front seats, but those were upholstered in artificial leather (a Ford product as well), and the side doors had artificial leather inner panels. The inside of the rear was either bare sheet metal and structure, or it may have been covered in heavy cardboard stock, with a painted surface. Art

Some thoughts on the passing of Bob Paeth: Sometimes, when I think of this hobby (and to a lesser extent, other areas of plastic scale model building), I get struck with the idea that while certainly there were model car builders before injection-molded plastic kits, it wasn't until the first kids, the leading edge of us who were "War Babies" began to reach 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall, with allowances, even paper-route or lawn-mowing money to spend pretty much as we saw fit, that this hobby began to take off. We kids born in the first half of the 1940's, supplanted and surpassed in numbers by the legenday Baby Boom Generation (01/01/46-12/31/64), took up a hobby, almost to a cause, the likes of which really had never been seen before (Relatively few, if any of our Dads build models, and even rarer was the Dad back then who had built a model car as a kid himself). Truly, I believe, our's is a hobby born in the right place, the right time, and with the "right real-world, real-car fanaticsm to inspire us yet-to-be-old-enough-to-get-a-driver's-license youngsters. We could dream, and boy-oh-boy could we! I suspect that many of us came to think of model car building back then, in the 50's, and at least into the early 60's as a "kid thing", something we did that grownups did not. Sure, there were adult builders, but we kids could have cared less. We were the younger generation, and this hobby was something I think we truly saw as "ours". And, on the flip side of this 45rpm record, in a very real way, the plastic model kit industry saw us then-young kids as "their's. It was almost as though the hymn really read "Praise (fill in your favorite name here), from whom all good things come" (not meant irreverently, OK), and the adults in the choir singing (Thanks Lord, for all these kids!). I doubt (I know I fall into this category) that any of us considered that it took adults to supply the model car kits we gobbled up as if they were the tastiest candy bars on the drugstore shelves. Oh sure, we all knew (and liked or disliked to varying degrees) the hobby, toy, and variety store owners, managers and clerks who tolerated our browsing until we finally decided what to get with those quarters, perhaps a dollar bill, and occasionally, maybe even TWO WHOLE DOLLARS (heady money for a preteenager back then, most places!) Little did we know that it took a small army of grownups to concieve, create, and manufacture those kits, at least not until such magazines as Car Modeler, Model Car Science, and the amazing Rod & Custom Models showed us the inside looks of say, AMT, Revell, or Monogram, complete with pics of design teams, perhaps a pattern-maker laboring away on the body mockup of the latest kit announced. Even more, we probably didn't even stop to think how young some of those grownups were, young enough to live into the 1990's and today, so that we might have the chance to even meet some of them. It's surely true, that it was the then-unsung product developers, such as Bob Paeth, who made millions of kids' dreams of that particularly awesome car come true, in model kit form, and at a price that in the context of the day, was attainable by hard work, be that doing odd jobs, passing papers at 5:30am, mowing lawns in the neighborhood, running errands, or that most strenous of exercises, "persuading" Dad's hand to reach back to pull out his wallet, and lay a week's allowance across a smaller, outstretched palm. While sympathetic parents, patient newspaper agents, equally patient homeowners with grass needing to be cut played a huge, and pivotal role in our achieving automotive dreams in miniature, it was the likes of Bob Paeth and Budd Anderson, along with the John Muellers, Jim Keelers, and older folks with the capital such as the Glasers, and the Jack Bessers and John Hanle's who really played the pivotal role. Without these truly wonderful people, or others like them, none of this hobby we still love would ever have come to be. In later years, after their careers in the plastic model business were over, some came back to the hobby, came back to commune, breaking the styrene, dissolving it with glue, creating their own masterpieces right along with us Boomers, ourselves now grown, a lot taller, many of us at least a tad heavier, our hair grayer (and thinner) with voices deepened by both maturity and at least some wisdom--and those formerly unsung heroes who worked their magic behind the scenes became part of us (but in reality, they were part of "us" from the beginning!) It's sad, terribly sad, when the time comes when we must bid adieu to anyone who helped nurture the model kit products which delighted us at an age when we really could enjoy such with almost careless abandon. We all remember the little stories we've had the privilege to read, or hear related in first-person. Bob Paeth was one of the best, in my considered opinion. His anecdotes of how some of those great 60's Revell kits came to be, of how some of the gorgeous box art happened, are a huge part of the legends of this hobby. Bob brought his long-tested building techniques not only to us, those of us who formed Revell's customer base 45yrs ago, but to succeeding generations as well. Along the way, he kept all of us enthralled with his stories, became our friend, no matter whether he'd met us personally, or just here online. Bob Paeth, thanks for the memories, thanks for the friendship, and THANKS for all your hard work "back in the day", your being one of those then-unsung, almost unknown toilers behind the scenes, making our (and mine!) model car dreams come true. May God bless you, keep you, and may Heaven have an unlimited supply of plastic, glue, paint, oh, and hot tools for welding styrene in your own inimitable fashion. Thanks for all the great times at NNL-West's, and GSL's! Arthur Anderson

Not that I know of. I modeled, and cast the side mount fender for the AMT/Ertl '50 Chevy pickup starting in 1994, as part of a '54 Chevy pickup transkit. I did as much research on that as I could in those pre-PC days, have never seen any reference to a right side well fender and mount for those trucks from the factory. Art

Now all you gotta do, is come up with a '32 Lincoln K V12, for that year's Pace Car! Art

Some more progress! I think my method of making rivet detail speaks for itself. Here's the wooden frame which cradles the tank body on the chassis. Some carving here, in order to relieve the crossbearers to accept the tank. Also, the wooden catwalks on either side of the tank have been added: Here's the tank itself, set on the framing. This pic shows the rivet details pretty well. Art

Brookfield Collectibles also did that Aurora Pace Car promo in diecast--I have both the diecast and the plastic versions. In addition, they also did the IRL Pace Car that was used at all the other races on the circuit that year. Art

The biggest reason is, that from time immemorial, model kits of Indy cars have just never sold all that well, mostly because, I think, that by the time a model kit can be designed, mastered and put to steel tooling for a styrene kit, the subject matter is from last year's race--generally not all that much interest in the subject by then. That's from nearly 45 years of watching and building Indy car models. Art

If we aren't supposed to eat meat, how's come cattle are made of steak? Art

And, all this time I thought model car grilles were molded closed to keep bugs out of the radiators? Art

Neat, but will the knife and fork stand up to a set of really BIG meats?????? And, where are the cruiser skirts for that pieplate body? Hmmmmm? Oh, and will I need a fart can afterwards????? Art

Bill, My friend, Bob Pierce, of Griffith IN, used brass tubing rather than plastic tubing to make the steering box itself--he said (I've not tried this) that once he had the tubing (come to think of it, I believe he used a piece of rectangular brass tube to hold the sector gear) filed to the correct spacing, he had no problems with the gears maintaining their mesh. Bob did all this before having a miniature lathe or mill as well. Art

I've seen working steering gear done using the winding/setting stem and gears from a wristwatch (the setting stem of a watch uses a worm gear setup!) encased in a housing made from brass tubing) done on a 25th scale antique race car model years ago--very convincing indeed! Art

Yes, this is a Wankel Rotary in an early ('65) Mustang Fastback, but it's not a Ford engine. Rather, the engine was built and installed by the late Curtiss Wright Corporation (the folks that brought you all those "Hawk" US Navy and US Army fighters in the 20's, 30's and for WW-II -- the P-40's -- along with the long-running series of radial aircraft engines, the Wright Cyclones). Here's the car: And the sign on the side of it: Found in the NATMUS, Auburn IN, Saturday August 31, 2008. Art

The bands are made from Evergreen .010" X .188" styrene strips. Art

Now this one is intriguing! Warning, it may not be what you think it is! Anyone? Art

Rad, Right make, wrong year and model though. The engine is a Duesenberg, but not the Model X--rather, it's the prototype Model Y, which was conceived before E L Cord and Fred Duesenberg decided on going all out on the awesome (for the day) Model J. Model Y was built in 1927-28 (X was produced in 1927, J production began in 1929. The engine carries forward the single overhead cam of the Model A and X Duesenbergs, carrying over the vertical shaft/bevel gears cam drive of the A and X. The ACD Museum acquired the car a couple of years ago, and put it in this year's Parade of Classics at Auburn this past Saturday. Art

I've never had much luck with that--though I know others like it, particularly the armor modelers. Art

That was true in years past. However, a little more than a year ago, Revell-Monogram was bought up by Hobbico, better known to hobby shops as Great Planes Distributors, and RC hobbyists as Tower Hobbies. Their stated policy now is that for wholesale discounts, orders must be placed with Great Planes, not directly with Revell. And, Great Planes has always restricted their sales to storefront hobby shops only, upon presentation of qualifying information. But yes, I am sure that the cutthroat nature of swap meet dealing in new kits drove the price down to the point that it was simply trading dollars, with very little profit to the sellers. Art

I understand, except that I tend to not use so much paint as to ensure its filling in even a tiny gap such as might occur around the heads of straight pins. Also, small size is critical--.025" scales out to a 3/4" rivet head, which is probably a bit larger than correct, but that was a choice made on the basis of practicality in assembly--a .020" drill is much more delicate than a .028"--I would hate to stick a busted drill bit in a project and not be able to extract it. Art

I can state definitively that it is not a Hispano-Suiza. Art

Not a 350, nor a J Art

If it is, what model is it????? Hint: the shape of the hood louvers may give you a clue!) Art

Except that pins all have heads that are tapered on their bottom side, meaning that either EACH hole has to be countersunk, or live with the gap underneath each rivet head. Actually though, by far the greatest time was spent in marking the bands, then drilling the holes. It took no longer to install the styrene rod bits than it would to install straight pins, and the trimming, dressing and rounding off the rivet heads takes perhaps 10 minutes per band. Art

Izzy, You are getting rather warm there! Question is, if it's not a Bugatti, what is it? Art