Art Anderson

That kit sounds a lot more like the Lindberg larger-scale B-17G kit of the late 1950's--THAT one had just about everything that moved/operated like the real thing. And then there was the Monogram 1/32 scale GrummanF3F biplane figher, which centerline landing gear actually folded--turn the prop one direction, the landing gear extended, turn it the other way, the landing gear retracted. Monogram brought out their 1/48 scale TBF Avenger, with wings that actually folded -- you pulled the wing out a bit from the root, rotated it, and folded it back in the trademark Grumman manner! Renwal's Battleship USS North Carolina had it's guns all moveable--not just rotate, but each of the 16" barrels could be elevated individually, just as on the real ship! Of course, all the movable parts of those models DEPENDED on our 12-yr old hands learning that more glue didn't work better than less glue! Art

JoHan, I believe.

Perhaps yes, perhaps no, Scott. I was just 5yrs old in 1949 (how old were you? ). I would submit this however: The Olds was available in toy and hobby stores well in advance of Christmas 1949 as my 8yrs older brother was at Kleinheim's Toy Store here in Lafayette IN, and bought the Olds for me as a Christmas present from his Indianapolis Star paper route money. That leads me to wonder if the Olds wasn't announced at least a year earlier to the Toy Industry trade. At any rate, it would have been interesting to have been old enough way back then to see and anticipate/understand just how that all came about--oh well! Art

One very important promo should be on this list--as it was the first plastic promotional model car done in 1/25 scale: The Cruver Plastics 1949 Oldsmobile 98 4dr sedan! Art

Product Miniatures Company of Milwaukee WI did a number of 4dr sedan and station wagon promo's in the 1950's as well.

Then the Humbrol bronze color that has already been suggested--that is very close to what Ford used. Art

Bill, yes it does, and I both use, and guard mine jealously. However, for adding fairly long strips of styrene to a relatively flat surface (such as making bead rolled or pressed reinforcing ribs, I found, years ago, that the "liner" paintbush method I described still works better than the very nice and precise pipette from Flexi-File, in that no "puddles" of liquid cement tend to happen with the brush. Art

Absolutely! Also, unless one has been seriously in the resin casting business--it's far more labor-intensive than most people can imagine. Art

And, Ken Kitchen, of Kitchen Table Resins, makes a full set of 1942 Ford trim for the Revell 48's! I have a couple of those sets, ONE is going to go on the upcoming '48 Coupe to do a 1942 "Blackout" car. Art

There are a number of fast-drying liquid cements out there that are similar, if not exactly the same as Tenax 7R--currently I find Flexi-File's liquid cement at Hobby Lobby. For long "runs" of joints, such as making these bead-rolled or stamped ribbing details, I have used what's called a "Liner" paintbrush. Those are brushes with very long bristles, and come in sizes down to 10/0, again at places such as Hobby Lobby & Michaels. I simply hold the strip of styrene (preferably half-round stock) in position, and very quickly brush a "streak" of this type of liquid cement right along the joint, first on one edge,then on the other edge of the strip. This lets the liquid cement flow quickly into the joint (it's so very thin in consistency that it penetrates most any joint between two pieces of Evergreen or Plastruct). Within a few minutes, the strip stock is very strongly attached, and with practice (experience) almost never a trace of anything from the liquid, nor any blobs of melted styrene along the joint. Art

Not really! The Moebius '54 Hudson Hornet Special Club Sedan is a model of the decontented (somewhat stripped down) Hudson Hornet that the company introduced shortly after new model introduction at a lower price--to try and stem the very serious sales slide at Hudson. There was no money in the bank for a serious restyle of the step-down body series by 1953--so a mere facelift was all that could be done to that 1948-vintage body shell. So, wire wheels were an extra-cost option just as they were on the Club Coupe, Hollywood hardtop and the convertible. Art

I just sprayed down a tree of wheels from this very kit with Easy-Off Oven Cleaner (yellow cap on the can--contains sodium hydroxide--a/k/a lye). The plating and the base coating were gone in about 10 minutes. Art

Mark is exactly correct: Hudson, on their own, NEVER produced, nor even considered doing their own V8. Additionally, 1954 was last (and miserably unsuccessful!) model year for the Step-Down Hudson. Hudson's merger with Nash was pushed on them by Chrysler Corporation completely absorbing Briggs Body Company, who had built bodies for Hudson since the 1930's. Had AMC not been willing to merge with Hudson, the latter company would simply have had to shut down--financially, they were in that bad a shape in 1954. With the introduction of the 1955 Nash lineup, a hastily facelifted version of those became the 1955 Hudson, and could have a V8 installed, supplied by Packard. The use of Packard V8's by AMC was a stop-gap measure, until the company could complete the development of their own 327 cid V8 engine, which appeared with the 1957 lineup. Art

It's not any sort of chemical reaction--rather it's the result of excessive PVC Monomer (that's the stuff that makes PVC soft & flexible, as PVC normally is a hard plastic--think PVC pipe for example). This used to be a serious problem, but not nearly so much if the proper PVC feed stock is used in molding model kit tires. (Along these lines I once packaged some plated resin chrome parts with clear plastic cling-wrap--generic Saran Wrap if you will--and while the stuff didn't damage the resin itself, it sure did ruin the plating in a day or so, lesson learned!). In short, the PVC Monomer softening agent can penetrate a paint job, and certainly scar the surface of unprotected polystyrene. So, what to do? any metal, regardless of how thin, will stop the offending plasticiser, simply because it's impenetrable, so a simply wrapping of the circumference of a styrene wheel with Bare Metal Foil before mounting the tires will protect the styrene wheel from this. So will a thin wipe of epoxy glue (let it set up before mounting the tires. Even a thin layer of CA glue (hardened up with one of the sprayable CA setting agents will work as well. I've done all three when I've been concerned about a particular set of PVC tires. Art

yeah, but eBay will NEVER have that last-minute paint or other materials you need, nor that last minute pkg of Xacto blaes--and NO LHS can survive if that's all they get to sell--speaking from almost 30 years DIRECTLY involved in retail hobby sales.

When I was doing product development for the Johnny Lightning Division of the former Playing Mantis Inc. (2002 through 2004) I got frequent assignments to disassemble and strip various diecast models (1/64 to 1/24 scale) and repaint them in different colors. I never had to use anything stronger than industrial brushes (my favorite was then, still is, industrial style "toothbrushes), and never needed to use anything other than cheap lacquer thinner to wash down the now-paint-free diecast surfaces, before priming and repainting. One caveat here though: For surface cleanup after stripping, and brushing away all the little flecks of softened paint, I simply washed those bodies with a strong detergent solution, rinsed thoroughy, blue them dry with compressed air, and painted, When painting diecasts, use "self-etching" primer, as most paints do not adhere well to Zamak. Art

Hmmm, I wonder what aircraft restorers who are re-covering a vintage, historic fabric covered airplane use in California? Last I looked, good old-fashioned "dope" is a preferred material for shrinking linen, even nylon or rayon covering--and that stuff is thinned with--you guessed it,ACETONE based dope thinner! Art

Call me stingy, call me old-fashioned, call me penurious, but I tend to use probably 98% of each sheet of BMF that I buy. It's not rocket science, but a bit of planning with such a material goes a long, long way. Art

Not any more! Tom Lowe, owner of Round2 (and founder of the former Playing Mantis, maker of Johnny Lightning toy cars from 1992-2004) bought back the entire line of Johnny Lightning 1/64 scale diecast tooling from TOMY in early fall, there are now JL cars back in stores! (JL cars were also produced by RC-2/Learning Curve for several years before they were bought out by TOMY as well) Art

"Aircraft" paint stripper should be very easy to find! Around here, nearly every autoparts store carries it. (if nothing else, look for the phrase "non-ferrous metal" on the label. Art

If anyone video'd it, I was unaware of it. Art

Eric approached me, a couple of months ago, in a message exchange here, about joining him in a talk at the Gilmore Classic Car Museum in Hickory Corners MI, about the "History Of The Model Car Hobby". I agreed, figuring that "OK, there will be about 10 or 15 people, from who knows what background or interest." but MAN was I surprised (as I suspect Eric was as well!). There must have been perhaps 70 people in attendance this past Sunday! Eric gave the first part, an overview of the history of our hobby (and the industry which feeds us our model kits), to a rapt audience, and then I was asked to fill in some of the details, and answer some rather technical details about model kits, how they come about. 3 or 4 other attendees brought historic model car kits to help illustrate, as did Eric, with numerous builtups, some very old, some newer and more current, all of which helped to illustrate the evolution of out hobby, the model kits themselves, and of course, us all as model car builders. The event was scheduled to be an hour long, but stretched into two hours, even a bit longer--the museum staff was getting a bit antsy to go home for supper, but they were very supportive to the end. Thanks, Eric, for the invitation, and for orchestrating one very cool event--who knows, we might have rekindled the flame among some of those who came, and certainly you did capture the interest of the entire audience! Art Anderson

Delivery bodies such as that were made in cities and towns all over the country--Ford sold Model T's as driveaway chassis for that purpose. Who knows what shop (or where?) produced the body that AMT modeled? I have no idea myself. Art

Yesterday, at Eric's invitation, I participated with him in a talk about the "History"of the model car hobby (lots of story possibilities there!) at the Gilmore Classic Car Museum at Hickory Corners Michigan. What an experience! We had some 70-75 attendees there, and what rapt attention, and serious questions, from model car builders (almost all whom I had never before met) and a few others who came out just to hear it. Thanks Eric, for a wonderful Sunday afternoon, and the opportunity to participate! Art Anderson