Art Anderson

The headlights are two-piece, clear lens with plated reflector behind them--just don't yet have the detail engraving done.

1/24 scale

Don, my first full time job was working in a large hobby shop here, starting in the summer of 1964. I do not remember seeing any Aiifix kits in Airfix boxes having any reference to a US manufacturer until the late 1960's. Those earlier Airfix kits came in through Polk Brothers in New York, IIRC. Art

Actually, I think the sharing of stuff back and forth between Airfix in the UK, and MPC in Michigan was more a shipping of "bagged shots" back and forth. Back in those days, it was lots cheaper to ship unboxed model kits into the US due to a much lower tariff on uncompleted product than completely finished, boxed model kits. But then, what do I know? Art

One question: When do we see your superdetailed model of your new ride? Huh?

And, FIAT itself is an amalgamation of several fledgling Italian automakers, and bought up such as Ferrari and Maserati. The same thing happened in Germany when Auto Union was formed by the merger of four formerly independent companies. And in the UK--need I mention British Motors Corporation, The Rootes Group, or British Leyland? Mergers and consolidations happen all the time, and have been going on in all areas of industry since the dawn of the industrial revolution. And just as true is the disappearance of once-iconic brands all over the place. Art

Given that the front spindles are on round pegs, inserted into round holes in the A-arms, it was a natural for me to pose the wheels into a slight turn. Art

I've been anticipating this model since I first heard about it last spring, and my two kits arrived a couple of days ago. Here are the parts sprues: This kit is everything I expected from ICM, although it's not nearly as complex as their first 1/24 scale offering, the Opel Admiral--but then, the hallmark of Model T was its simplicity--there just aren't nearly as many parts to a T as in a large 1930's car! At first glance, I was taken aback a bit by the frame rails being molded as part of the floorboard/fender/running board unit, which to me seemed a throwback to some of the simplified model car kits of 60 years ago, but on closer examination--I like that, as it eliminates the possibilty of a twisted frame or floorboard unit and at any rate, the two crossmembers are well detailed, having their respective transverse springs molded as part of them, the front crossmember also having a nicely done T front axle molded into it. In addition, this construction concept should make adding the extra details such as parking brake rods, etc. The plated parts look great, and are coated in a clear yellow, but still far too light in shade for my tastes, but nothing that an airbrushing of Tamiya Clear Yellow won't cure. I especially like the wood wheels--they are as light and spindly as the early 30X3 1/2 wheels used by Ford at that time. The tires come in for special comment as well: The first white soft PVC tires I have ever seen in a model kit. in 1913, all car tires were made with vulcanized natural latex rubber, which when finished, had a light buff color to them. In period photographs, due to the primitive elmusion used, along with primitive lenses, those tires show up in black & white pics as very starkly white--which is why modern restorers and collectors demanded that the likes of Coker Tire Company make tires for brass era cars in white synthetic rubber. I'm not sure if I can successfully color these tires in a more realistic buff color, but there's sufficient sprue there on which to try. I think the engine will satisfy most all modelers, it's done to ICM's usual crisp detail standards, but they did miss the exposed cylinder barrel surfaces on the left side--again, something I think I can correct with bits of Evergreen styrene tube stock. For those wanting to be more realistic, it should be easy to replace the plastic floor sections and the dashboard (in industry parlance, the firewall was termed the "dashboard" for decades--acknowledging that panel's purpose on horse-drawn buggies and carriages--it was there to stop the horse's hooves from dashing mud, dirt and "you-know-what-comes-out-of-the-back-end-of-a-horse" into the driver's face (and onto his companion as well!) with thin wood, stained an appropriate color. Besides, it makes more sense to call that a dash than a firewall--somehow a wooden firewall seems an oxymoron! The clear parts call for special mention--they are as optically nice as the glass in my Opel kit--just a quick polish with Novus and a shot of Meguiar's Carnuba Wax, they should be perfect! Now, I gotta get going on this one--it should be FUN! Art

Of course, a lot can be said about the three marques you mention--how they ceased, over time, to have any uniqueness. GM pretty much ceased to be an "umbrella" under which each of the divsions was expected to operate as if they were independent companies, competing not only against the likes of Ford and Chrysler, but competing against each other. The long, slow slide into this had its beginnings in 1930, when Harley Earl, backed up by then GM President Alfred Sloan, introduced the A-B-C body concept, wherein Fisher Body Division would produce all bodies, which could then be shared between divsions, Chevrolet and Pontiac sharing A-bodies, Oldsmobile (which for a time shared the A-body used by Chevy and Pontiac) sharing B-bodies with Buick, and Buick sharing the large C-body with Cadillac. That extended into mechanical parts, transmissions significantly. Ultimately, in the mid-1960's, in order to make itself hard for the courts to order GM broken up under the various anti-trust laws, the General took manufacturing out of the hands of the respective divisions, melding all the assembly lines into the new General Motors Assembly Division--leaving the various divisions control only over marketing and input into styling. That made the homogenizing of GM cars even more desireable and that's what pretty much happened. At Chrysler, had Walter Chrysler known he'd be buying out Dodge Brothers, his company likely would never have created DeSoto as a brand slotted between Chryslers and the then newly introduced Plymouth--DeSoto remained a stepchild within Chrysler Corporation until sales dwindled to unsustainability. Plymouth also slipped away in much the same manner--having shared body shells, drivetrains, frames and later unibody platforms with Dodge (and after about 1960 engines with both Dodge and Chrysler. In all of that, after 1951, Chrysler played an ever smaller part in the US auto industry, falling well behind both Ford and GM. Something was bound to change all of that--and that something was the craze, brought about by the 1957-58 recession, for those so-called newly discovered European subcompact cars, lead by the Volkswagen Beetle. It's also wise to bear in mind that over the history of the automobile in the US over 1,500 different makes of cars have been produced here as American companies (slightly over 500 of those having been founded/produced in my home state of Indiana. GM alone started by the buyout/merger of over 40 automakers, ultimately to be bought out by that upstart Chevrolet Motor Company in 1917 Franklin Roosevelt has been quoted as saying (words to the effect) that in the post war US, he would not stand for the domination of the auto industry by just 2 or 3 companies, but that is what happened: After WW-II the likes of Willys, Kaiser/Frazer, Tucker, Crosley, Hudson, Nash, and Studebaker (once the #3 US auto producer, BTW) all faded away, or were consolidated into companies that did fall by the wayside. If there is one thing we Americans seem to prize, it's our ability to buy whatever we want, from wherever we want (even though we complain about imports of all kinds!), and automobiles are no exception. There's never been a peacetime year since the first Duryea automobile rolled out onto the streets of Springfield MA in 1895 that there hasn't been an automobile imported into the US from some other country (the UK and Europe for starters, now from the Pacific Rim). In short, in the US, like it or not, the consumer is king, and pretty much always has been--it's the result of a free-market economy. We Americans seem to prefer the widest choice of products possible, and cars have seldom ever been an exception. In short, we Americans need only look in the mirror to see who caused all of this--as the comic strip character Pogo once observed: "We has met the enemy, and they is us!" But, survival in the automobile business has been an illustration of Charles Darwin at his best--survival of the fittest. Art

Yup, nice huh?

Simple! Keep on building!

We thank you for your support! Art

It is an awesome kit! In fact, it challenges any model car kit ever made, IMO, the nicest model kit of any American car ever done!

OK, a teaser here! I busted both wiper blades, so they don't appear on this build of the test shot of the Satellite, but I think you can get the idea that this is a model kit to be reckoned with! Art

Bill, I hear you! 2 scale inches in 1/25 scale is 80-thousandths of an inch--to see how much that is, just take a look at a piece of Evergreen .080" stock. Of course, to most eyes, especially those not used to studying the real thing, that probably would not be very noticeable. As for the AMT/Ertl '34 Ford coupe, the top of the hood and cowling is far too square, especially given that the kit was drawn up by none other than the legendary John Mueller (who owns a real '34 Ford street rod, BTW!), but with the very likely proviso that it had to be a modified reissue of the unarguably badly done AMT Ertl '33-40 Ford Tudor sedan done back in 1985-86 (that thing looks like an English Ford Model Y on steriods!), so it all had to work with the existing tooling for cost reasons. Too bad it is that the excellent Monogram '34 Ford Coupe/Cabriolet done in 1/24th scale back about 1964 or 1965 has been so badly butchered up over the years! That is still, to me, the ideal model kit of a '34 Ford Model 40! Art

Probably not. It was virtually impossible, and still is, to simply "modify" hardened steel mold slides to do such a considerable restyling as was done on Cougar for 1969. Now, IF the original '67-'68 Cougar body and chrome tree tooling still exists (and likely it has survived), Round2 should eventually uncover it. Art

Again, comparing the parts of a model car kit that was tooled up over 50 years ago to any kit done nowadays is a bit disingenuous. AMT's '37 Chevy was done to a standard deemed essential for the then-young kids who were the staple of this hobby and the marketplace. In short, evolution of the plastic model car kit has been going on now for almost 60 years--most of the AMT and MPC kits that Round2 is repopping have roots older than today's average car modeler. Art

Well, if nothing else, there is almost a 50-year time span between the tooling of both of those kits! Any comparison would be like sizing up an old 60's RCA Color TV with a modern flat panel IMHO. Art

VW can be notoriously difficult to deal with, RE licensing. They seem to be very insistent on making sure that the only VW models and diecasts are exactly to German spec (went through that several times while working up Johnny Lightning 1/64 scale diecasts. They were sorely PO'd that the JL 1/18 Herbie (you know, the Disney Love Bug) we did had no VW badges--well guess what Wolfsburg! The movie car had all it's VW scripts and badges stripped off (in the script, it's referred to as either "The Little Car" or "Herbie"--true to the original children's book. We licensed our diecasts (and the 1/24 scale Polar Lights snapper) directly through Disney Studios and VW couldn't really do much about it, but they sure let us know their unhappiness when we wanted to do those larger scale models in VW markings and colors. It was the same with the JL 1/64 scale Type 2 Samba's, and the 1/64 scale Karmann Ghia--along with the beetles, we wanted to do them as US Spec, but the "goose-stepping" folks at Wolfsburg would have none of that. Oh well, another saga in the story of licensing! (Ask me about Hispano-Suiza sometime!) Art

Michael's is also a great source for those micro-pens that come in all colors, INCLUDING metallic silver and gold--needle point tips down to .3mm! Art

Both kits were engineered from Navistar CAD files and information, both are prototypically correct for wheelbase. Keep in mind, there are a few choices for wheelbase in 1:1 scale. Art

Luc, OH YEAH!

I too have known Dean for years--we first met when I joined Lake Michigan Model Car Club in 1981. I've seen most of his builds--his conversions were done mostly before much in the way of materials that we see today were available--and that makes them all just that much more artwork. I was at the pre-RCHTA party at Dean's Museum in 2004--what a Friday night gathering of modelers THAT was! His museum, while not sustainable in the long run, was a real look back into the history of our hobby--and the list of model car personalities spotted with a few real celebrities was an EVENT! Art

I have perhaps 25 Franklin Mint cars (most bought when new, a few on the secondary market) and none of mine were produced in Korea. They were always produced in China AFIK. Art

ARM acquired the mastering for all those cars from Chris Etzel right at a year ago. I remember watching Chris develop those kits--a master craftsman! Art