Art Anderson

Of course, this can be done from photographs, even correct scaling can be done from a photograph, as long as there is a feature (such as a wheel and tire) clearly visible in a side view--all that takes is a bit of math. However, when a model company that's really into their stuff goes at it--they might take 500 or so photos of the real thing, at all angles, closeups of details, even such a simple thing as photographing the EDGE of an opened door to get a feel for the curvature (tumblehome) of a lower body side. Along with this, dozens of photo's with an ordinary carpenter's rule placed so that the dimension can clearly be seen (I black out every other inch on my carpenter's rules for just exactly this!). In addition, one can never have too much dimensional information, such as wheelbase (duh!), overall length and overall width (over the ends of those wraparound bumpers please!), stuff like that. With the Cobra Daytona GT's however, getting access to one, back in the day when they were raced, and even today given their scarcity and museum exhibit status, it's even harder to get such access. That's where "interpolation" begins, and those little discrepancies sneak in--some fairly obvious ones as well. Art

Having done product development in the field of diecast miniature cars, Luc is right on the money here. While the multi-slide tooling that's used for molding one piece bodies for model cars is pretty much universal, from diecast to styrene, there are limitations with both. Art

Also consider, that probably none of the injection molded kits came from referencing an ACTUAL car, but more than likely photographs. Having done a few models from both methods, and even developed several dozen diecast models from both, it can and often will happen. And even with all the information that can be gotten from measuring and photographing the real car, in the end--so much depends on the person(s) who have to translate that information to 3-dimensions, in scale. It's a far cry from say, using CAD files obtained directly from the automaker or race car shop. Art

Something to bear in mind here: Every styrene Shelby Cobra kit extant today (in "1/24" or 1"25" scale was tooled in the days before CAD--in hosrt, the model companies involved had to contend with measurements of the real car, reams of photographs, and then having to make every tooling mockup part by hand, most in clear white pine or other fine-grained softwood. With that in mind, it wasn't at all unknown for slight errors in measurements on the finished tooling mockups--translating into the same small dimensional inaccuracies being permanently fixed in steel molds. With the difference between models of the same car in each scale being approximately 4%, such "errors" were almost bound to happen--not every model kit patternmaker was as perfectly accurate as we (in this modern digital age) somehow insist that they be. In addition, those model kit development people weren't contending with us adult modelers with our advanced skills and often perhaps far better reference information at our fingertips than those earlier model kit development departments had in their respective reference libraries. So much depended, back even 25 years ago, upon the human eye, and human perception of what was or was not accurate. Art

Pretty much, the problem with TV and Movie cars as model kits has been that they tend to be "one-hit wonders". In the case of the Love Bug plastic kit in this thread--it was actually developed by Dave Metzner, who was the Polar Lights manager for Playing Mantis. I had but just a little bit of involvement in the PL kit--I was in the Johnny Lightning product development part of Playing Mantis 2002 through 2004. I only wish that Tom Lowe hadn't insisted on press-on printed stickers for the graphics on the plastic kit--decals would have looked SO MUCH BETTER! Some interesting bits about "Herbie the Love Bog"--in the films, it's NEVER called anything but "Herbie" or "The Little Car"--to the point that there was NO VW identification on the car, anywhere--even the Wolsburg Crest medallion on the trunk lid was removed. the Movie Herbie was actually bought new in 1962, by Walt Disney, as his daily driver to and from the studios--not many movie cars can claim that sort of heritage. When we at Playing Mantis did the several "Herbie" models (the 1/24 scale plastic kit, and several versions of the 1/64 scale Johnny Lightning diecast, along with a 1/24 scale diecast as well--every one of those wound up being licensed through Disney Studios, who required their to be no VW badging on them. When we went to do standard, stock versions of the Johnny Lightning diecasts---I fielded a lot of nasty communications from Volkswagen's people in Germany responsible for licensing--they had not been amused by Herbie (but they did relent after awhile) Art

Guys, all the angst about this tooling expressed here was totally unjustified. The tooling was damaged, that can happen, but is RARE. Did you all REALLY believe all the false news about it? Really? Art

Yup, reported earlier today by Tom Carter, of Spotlight Hobbies on his message board.

And, rotating, retractable headlights--a feature that was never again repeated by AMT, on subsequent C2's, not even on the '63 Split Window Coupe. Art

Bear in mind that Testors #1146 Silver is nothing more than good, odl-fashioned aluminum paint. As such, it takes, literally months (if not years) to dry completely. It's been my 60 years experience with this stuff, that applying any petroleum-based paint over it (be that lacquer or enamel) can, and often will, cause it to run (if clear, it will dull #1146). Art

Steve, I agree with you, the older AMT body is more accurately done in both of those areas (I replied to your post from work, and didn't have the time to go do the compare myself) Art

Steve, have you compared both to the real car though? Just wondering... Art

On the 1951 version, yes. On a 1950 Crestliner, the second color is just a "sweep panel", like on the model pictured at the top of this thread. In any event, the decal shown here isn't quite correct, as the Crestliner sweep panel was edged in a very thin chrome band. Art

FWIW, Amazon announced just this week that they are now collecting and remitting sales taxes, based on the state where the customer is receiving the merchandise. Art

"Good Looking" is pretty much "In the eye of the beholder", or it seems to me that it is. Time was when top-level race cars (open wheel here) were designed as much for looks as performance--there being no real aerodynamic data to alter that. Years ago in May 1972, I sat in on a garage session here in Lafayette IN, in the garage of racing photographer and midget car owner Ed Hitze Sr. Others enjoying a few beers that Friday afternoon included 1930's driver Ira Vail, legendary creator of the concept of an Indy Roadster, Frank Kurtis, and of course my friend Ed Hitze. Ira Vail commented that the then-current 1972 Indy cars (prominently the McLaren M-24B, and the then-new Gurney Eagle Model 6) "looked like something Hitler would have sent over England"--considering the relative lack of any bodywork behind the driver's cockpit and "seat tank"; Vail, who drove in the era of exposed rail frames and tall skinny wire wheels, Kurtis, whose pioneering roadster(s) had a streamlined "cigar" shape with artistically drawn lines and curves, but still with all 4 wheels fully exposed (although Kurtis had been asked to design a new rear engine car by USAC, which drawings he showed us. Hitze pretty much pined about how beautiful the late 1940's/early 1950's dual purpose dirt track championship cars looked, tall and upright, beautifully streamlined (but of course with fully exposed wheels). I only dared mention my liking of rear engine cars, particularly those with wings and early aerodynamic features--but then I was the 27 year old, and a fanatic about scale modeling Indy cars of all eras. Isn't the art and science of designing Indy cars, indeed F1 cars very much a matter of "form follows function"? Yes it is--and once aerodynamics entered as a prime consideration in race car design--then aesthetics for the sake of aesthetics simply had to take a back seat (in a parallel way, a P-51 Mustang is a gorgeous airplane from any angle--while a modern supersonic jet fighter interceptor often lacks, in the eyes of a lot of us older folks, any pretense of beauty--but that stark (and to some UGLY) jet interceptor does it's job far better than the old P-51 would, given that the potential enemy is possessed of similarly "ugly" but hot-performing jet fighters. I can appreciate just about any race car that is a successful design, even though my 73 year old eyes are much more drawn to any 1950's-early 60's roadster, with 40's and 50's upright dirt track cars coming in a very close second--and certainly any 1920's or 30's Indianapolis car grabs my attention. Food for thought? Art

No disagreement here!

If I didn't say it before here, that Lindberg/Life-Like/Pyro Auburn 851 Speedster is a very good example of just how primitive model car kits (and the design/tooling process that brought them to market) was in 1954 when that kit was designed and tooled up (first introduced in 1055). Art

I've done it both ways, with absolute confidence in Tom.

The only problem with that is that on the Nova HT, the roofline is almost 2 scale inches lower than that of a sedan body--with the windshield having a much more "vertical" angle to it; and then there's the rear of the roof, which on the sedans is much more "boxy looking". Art

A big problem with this kit (and the subsequent 1968 Lotus 56 Turbine & '68 Gurney Eagles, was the hollow tires. Back in the day, it wasn't unheard of to have at least one badly misshapen tire in each and every kit--I know, because my then-employer, Weber's Hobby Shop in Lafayette IN, kept getting hammered by buyers of those kits, complaining about tires that were warped beyond saving. MPC's people were of little help, simply refusing to replace those defective tires as well. One thing that I found sadly interesting back in those days: While Indy car model kits were highly popular here in Indiana (I wonder why? ), apparently once one got out of say, a 500 mile radius of Indianapolis, the popularity of those kits apparently dropped dramatically (which was pretty much the same with NASCAR kits in those years before flag-to-flag network TV coverage). Interest in Indy car model kits (back then) began to come alive about the 1st of May, and by the end of June, pretty much evaporated. I can say this, because Weber's (just 65 miles NW of the Speedway) sponsored an annual "Month of May" Indianapolis 500-mile race model race car window display, which at its peak in the late 1970's annually had more that 200 1/24-1/25 models of Indy cars, from 1911 to the then-previous-year's race field. That display grew in importance to the point that the guest registers that Weber's maintained each May reads like a "who's who at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, indeed having signatures of people from all over the World, in Indiana for the race. Six different modelers (myself included) participated in this annual "Month of May" exhibit (Weber's show window had a single pane of plate glass 16-feet wide, the "floor" of the display window being that long, and 4' deep. We had a 10' long plywood platform, on which we glued down red brick-pattern "siding paper" from the Wm K. Walthersc company, in O-scale, which gave a brick pattern very close to 1/25 scale, to represent the original bare paving brick front stretch, with a representation of the original pit all, painted in concrete, with the dividing lines between each pit, and car numbers & sponsor names on it, just as with the original pit wall through 1956. Behind that stood an exact 1/25 scale model of the original "Pagoda" timing and scoring tower, as well as a full set of starters flags, that had been used in the 1950's at Indianapolis by the late Pat Vidan. In addition, our local Firestone and Goodyear tire dealers provided us with Indy car wheels with current race tires mounted on them. For a couple of years, the late Bob Higman (legendary USAC Midget owner and Offy engine builder, loaned us a 110cid Offenhauser Midget engine (with no crank, rods or pistons to cut down the weight) for display (Hey, it looked very much like a 255-cid Offy Champ Car engine!). It was back then that a short young kid would press his nose against that plate glass, every year, and drool--his name? Chris Etzel, the creator, a quarter-century later, of the fantastic "Etzel's Speed Classics" series of Indianapolis 500 winning cars (Chris grew up here, just south of the city of Lafayette). I was an enthusiastic Indy car model builder in those years (1966 to the last display in May 1984), doing Indianapolis cars almost exclusively. Another builder, the late Alan Bingaman of Lafayette, accurately modeled such cars as the 1911 Marmon Wasp, the 1912 National, along with several Indy cars from the 'teens, through the 1940's. Mark Wick, who was a contributor in the Carl Hungness Indianapolis 500 Yearbooks (successor to the now valuable Floyd Clymer 500 Mile Race Yearbooks) built a number of 1970's winners for those displays--Art DeCamp, son of the Late John DeCamp, long-time statistician for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, built a number of the winning cars from the late 60's through to about 1976 or so. But, back to the model kits: When I was doing my opening buys for my then-new hobby shop here in Lafayette IN in June 1984, upon visiting Trost Modelcraft & Hobbies (where the late Bill Lastovich of Monogram fame worked before joining that model kit manufacturer), Michael Trost (the very first hobby wholesaler in the US--staring in the late winter of 1932!) who showed me a stack of case-lots of the MPC Indy car kits, 1967-68, and even several cases of the original AMT "flat box" 1963 Agajanian Willard Battery Spl's, and AMT's flat box kit of he 1963-64 Indy Lotus kits. I bought 6 cases of each, at their ORIGINAL net price, sold them in my store at $5 a pop!. I have one of the MPC '67 "Silent Sam" Turbine kits, and have managed to fill out a full set of perfectly round tires for it--one of these days, it will get built, and correctly painted in Krylon Rocket Red Dayglo (STP teams, for years, had 33-gallon drums of that paint in Gasoline Alley, repainting those Dayglo Red cars almost every evening after a day of practice runs on the Speedway. In 1975, I was invited by AMT Corporation to review their test shots of the 1974 McLaren M-16C and Gurney Eagle Model 6 Indy car kis, but it was too late for them to correct some significant inaccuracies in both kits.

I believe Jimmy Flintstone still casts this body style, from an excellent master done by the late Mike Watgen a good 25 years ago or so. Art

Even in 1/16th scale, the wire would be too small for any fabric "texture" to show, if indeed it ever showed on the real plug leads! FWiW, those fabric-covered plug leads had a pretty healthy coat of varnish on them, which served as the barrier to stray oil or gasoline which would destroy the natural latex rubber insulation, so no knap or fuzz such as would be the case with using ordinary thread would be at all correct. Art

Bill has it correct, folks! Short of using a lathe or a vertical mill with a rotary table that can rotate the wheel, about the only way to remove material from a wheel "boss" below the level of the inner side of the rim would be to use a drill bit as large as the outside diameter of said wheel boss--laborious by hand, but just about the only option out there. Art

Of course, as built by Ford, the 8N was powered by an inline flathead 4-cyl. Engine. Flathead V8 conversions were available as aftermarket. Art

Model kits are almost always produced in set quantities, as the manufacturing process can turn them out at the rate of about one every 2-3 minutes. As such, the factories that mold them don't have a molding machine assigned to each tool, but rather the tooling is changed out from run-to-run. They base the size of a production run on the expected sales of any kit on projected sales over say, a 3-6 month timeframe. If a certain kit, be that a truck or a car really takes off in the marketplace, it will be reordered from the factory again (and possibly again, and again, and again), if not, then not. Art

Microballoons are NOT water-soluble whatsoever. There are two types of them: If they are "white", they are micro-sized GLASS balloons, if a yellowish color, the same thing but made from Phenolic resin. They came into hobby use in the very late 1970's when R/C aircraft builders discovered their extremely light weight, and their ability to add bulk (and sandability) to common ordinary epoxy glue. Mix a sufficient amount of microballoons with epoxy (and with all due respect to Bill Engwer), 5-minute epoxy works quite well in this application) to a paste-like consistency, the resulting "putty" can be spread easily with any tool used as a spatula--used to do that very thing back years ago. As I wrote above, it's also quite possible to lay up complete body shells with this material, mixed in epoxy as I mentioned, AND the added bulk of the microballoons to even the cheapest of 5-minute epoxy pretty much negates any shrinkage of that epoxy, at least when taken down to the sizes and scales that most modelers work in. Art