Brett Barrow

And would anyone care to know the last time I sold one of those "awesome" new-fangled $50+ armor kits to someone under the age of 30? I don't know, maybe never. But I'll sell 6-12 Revell orAMT car kits every Saturday just to modelers my own age or younger, probably about half of which are school-age kids. I get a at least a couple car modelers in every Saturday who are buying their first kit, or they're getting back into the hobby after a long period of inactivity. Age and the "discerning enthusiast" factor are not shifting American car modeling they way they are other genres, they're still loads of younger, casual modelers buying American car models (and sci-fi models). Your clubs may be aging, the show attendees may be aging, the population of these message boards maybe aging, but the demographic buying American car models at retail is not fading or aging nearly as fast as the military genres are. American car modeling is not dying anytime soon.

It's become one of my favorite sayings, but it holds true - As long as humans are involved in the process of making models kits for profit, there will be mistakes, omissions, and concessions...

I work in wholesale distribution of hobby products, with a part time gig in a large hobby shop on Saturdays (and I've been in the business for over a decade). So I sell all kits, both at wholesale and retail - cars, tanks, planes, ships, paints, glues, etc... I have a pretty good idea as to who buys what. I'd rather not say who I work for, since I'm not here as a representative of the company, but as a hobbyist myself. If the company gives me a title or a job responsibility were PR is part of my job, I'll start identifiying myself as such. I use my real name, so it's no big secret, I just don't want what I say to be taken as a statement from my employer. What I say here is 100% me. And the Barrow Boys are distant relatives, so the family claims. When my grandfather was drafted during WWII they just had to make him a BAR gunner! My older brother's name is Clinton, so of course he got the cool "Clyde" nickname growing up...

What you see at model car shows, club meetings, and internet message boards is NOT the main demographic of automotive modeling. Hate to burst anyone's bubble, but casual modelers (1 or 2 kits a year bought @ retail prices) pay the freight in this business. But what do I know, I just do it for a living...

See - even the leftover sprues have potential...

Little gates that close off certain areas of the sprue. Shoot the first color, open the gates for the second color, shoot it, open the gates for the third... til you're done, then they take the sprue out, close the gates and start over again on the next one. You see where the gates are on the sprue where the colors meet, they're little square sections. Bandai has a patent on it (for colored parts), but Trumpeter uses the same process to mold grey, black, and clear plastic on one sprue for their little 1/350 scale aircraft line.

They'll be in the upcoming re-release due out at the end of this month. There's supposed to be decals for a panel fade style scheme as well. edit: only pic I can find of the other scheme. It's a scan out of the paper catalog. It's tiny...

Read through this thread and you'll get a pretty good idea why... http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=33697

If it's based on the 1/6 one, it'll be a bone-stock post war middle series (59A) . It'll be 1/4 scale, the thread title has it wrong. I wouldn't get my hopes up too much, this thing has been on the books for a long time. But it hasn't been cancelled, while a lot of other J. Lloyd/Lindberg/Hawk announcements have been, so who knows?

Bob Downie's "How To Use An Airbrush"

If it ever sees the light of day it'll be new. Been in development a loooooooong time, at least as long as it's been since J. Lloyd bought the rights to the Hawk brand from Testors, was supposed to come out around the same time as the Testors 1/4 scale Visible Hemi and 1/2 scale visible Harley V-twin.

Speaking of which what are the colors, especially the dark plum (or is it black and I'm just seeing things?). Got a buddy who's looking for a dark plum/purple.

Review? It's there. I see it. It's just really tiiiiny...

I've got a couple in the stash, I'll try to snap a few pics tonight if I can. It's decent for its day, has a few cool speed parts, like a really cool Offenhauser finned valve cover. Here's the instruction sheet page if it helps - http://public.fotki.com/drasticplasticsmcc/instruction_sheetsh/instruction_sheets/amt/amt_1937_chevrolet/1937_chev_amt.html Never has, even first issues, and it's gotten worse...

Probably for the same reason they haven't done a 56 Bel Air yet, either. They'd be getting rid of an older, cheaper model that's still a good seller, and most importantly, the tooling was paid for years ago!

Model King is Dave Burkett out of New Jersey. He has private runs done, and does his own box art and decal art. He's run this kit at least 3 times now that I can think of in the last 10 years. Most of the time they're straight reissues of however the last issue from the manufacturer was, in this case this kit still has very 90's looking billet wheels. He generally takes on kits that deserve to be reissued, but the manufacturers are somewhat hesitant about bringing back. Since he assumes all the risk of the entire production run, they'll make it without having to worry about selling it.

I'd rather see a 2-door post or lower-level wagon tri-five Chevy with a true gasser alternate building option out-of-the-box. Or a junior stocker, at least (Jere Stahl's 57 150!?!?) There's several tri-fives that need to be done, and anyone who says it's easy to make a 57 Bel Air convertible out of a hardtop doesn't know their tri-fives very well. Convertible interiors are much different than the hardtops, which were also much different than the post sedans and lower-level 210s, 210 Delrays, and 150's. Also we need good, modern 55 and 57 Nomads, and I'd like to see at least one year's lower level Handyman wagon, preferably 57 (losta potential gasser and junior stocker material there). I'd like to see a BOP, and I'm sure a lot of rep-stock builders would, too, but I don't see them having the staying power or broader appeal needed to sell in this current climate as a long-run styrene kit. I think they'd make good resin subjects, though, especially if done in simpler promo-style curbside form for somewhere in the $30-$40 range.

Very nice... Now get off Clint's lawn...

You know what, I'm wrong, they didn't change them on the 31, just the 29 pickup. Sorry! I could have sworn the one box top model had whitewalls with the mags, but looking at it again it's got the small radials up front. The front mags in the 31 are quite a bit smaller than the rears, looks like they'd fall right through the whitewalls. Maybe with 2 pairs of rears you could make something work. Sorry again, I was wrong.

It's hard to see and nobody but me would ever notice. I've just been burying myself in research for when I do mine, it's always been a favorite of mine (My grandad once owned a 57 base model no frills Custom), and I love these low-end 2-door-post cars Revell's been giving us lately. One will be a supercharged F-code once the Nascar version with the rest of the supercharger parts shows up. The one I have now will be a gasser. Still very early and on the back burner, but I have grafted a T-bolt teardrop hood bulge onto it.

Here's a couple two-tone Customs showing the paint break lines. Note that on the Tudor the paint break is the line between the fender and the door. On the Fordor it's the back of the trim.

No the '29 has the same rather blah 5 spoke Americans it's always had. They make decent fronts for gassers, very little offset. They look decent stripped and painted like unpolished mags. They've got a few sink marks and waviness in them that show up pretty bad in chrome. I think the Modelhaus offers a copy of original issue wheels that don't suffer from the waves and sink marks. I think they call them 0 offset 5-spokes in their catalog. I think all the recent '31's have had those mags, but not all will work with the newer tooling big and little white-wall "rat-rod" tire set. At least one issue had a different front tire to use with the mags. I think they had to modify the front wheels' diameter a little and modify the wheel backs. They did something to them, now they're a straight drop-fit, other issues you had to do a little grinding and modifying to get them to work with the rat rod issue tires.

A-ha, the Studes are bolt on! I'd say they are the Stude/Halibrand wheels without the knock offs, then - given that the time-frame of the release of the kit and the wheels are pretty much right around the same time (early 60's).

Just wondering. I work for a US distributor. I don't think Revell has a single sole-source Candadian distributor/importer, I think they have several smaller ones. It wouldn't surprise me if there were licensing issues, it does cost money for both parties, the liscensee and licensor, so working out a deal for the US and a separate deal for Canada might have been more than they were willing to take on. But there's nothing to stop it from being sold at retail in Canada, but there might be something to stop it from being sold wholesale in Canada. Wouldn't surprise me either way, if it were true, or it was just that particular dist covering thier *** as to why they didn't buy the kit. Nothing in this business surprises me anymore...

They do look a lot like the Halibrands made for Studebaker ca.62-63, but those had knock-offs, the kit wheels are regular bolt-ons. I think the Stude wheels had functional knock-offs, but i could be wrong about that. I've also seen some references made to the kit's wheels as Raders, but I can't find any Raders (or Radirs) that look anything like that. The only 1:1 wheel I know of they look anything like would be those Studebaker wheels.