Brett Barrow

I guess you missed the part where I said "American car modeling". Besides, Tamiya is pretty much the Revell of Japan, their kits aren't really high-priced exotics in their domestic market.

The '40 Ford was part of the Pro-Modeler line. The Convertible. I forget the exact progression as to which came first, but there were the Standard Coupe, Street Rod Convertible, and Street Rod Coupe kits in non-Pro-Modeler boxings. And there are few subjects as Iconic as the 69 Charger and that tooling hasn't left the catalog since its introduction, and neither has the 48 Ford in one form or another. The only one that was a bit odd was the 70 Torino. But the reason I brought up Pro Modeler is the idea that there's enough of a market out there willing to pay a little bit more for a little bit better quality kit. And it's never panned out for anyone who's ever tried it. Anybody who's ever run a resin business can tell you how many "commitments" they get when they're working on a new item, but how those same people tend to get short arms and deep pockets when they actually cast and release the items. That was the mentality in the '90's and during the rise of the internet and message boards - that modelers were getting more and more demanding and would actually pony up the cash to buy better quality kits. But it turns out that message boards are a really poor indicator of the modeling public. They're not a representative sample of the group as a whole. They - "we" I should say - don't really indicate what the larger group is about. 10 guys on a message board who say they want something don't factor out to mean 10,000 in the rest of the modeling community. In the end it's just 10 guys on a message board. That was a lesson that had to be learned the hard way, not just in car modeling, but the other genres as well. We on these boards tend to think that if there's 3 guys on here complaining about something, there must be 3,000 out there who don't post on boards who have the same complaints, and there's not. There's just those 3 guys on a board, complaining.

Yeah, they goofed on the I-beam, and I said so about 10 pages back. To me it's the one glaring inaccuracy in an otherwise well-done kit. They made a mistake - but if they had caught it (and who knows, maybe they did), would it have been worth the time and money to go back and fix it? Probably not in the long run. If it were up to me to design an all-new deuce roadster, I'd just shrink the Big Deuce down to 25th and be done with it... There is a car culture at Revell, Ed's definitely a car guy, but he likes stuff like road-racers. He's definitely not a traditional hot rod kinda guy, probably not that into 32 Fords, but he's a car guy. But he doesn't base Revell's product line on his personal interests, he's trying to appeal to a broad market, and I think they've done a really good job of it since the Hobbico takeover. They've come back from the brink in a big way. Not knowing the difference between an I-beam axle and a tube axle isn't going to throw Revell into a financial tailspin. I don't think the long-term success of Revell lies in getting the "Stacey David Rat Roaster" 100% correct. In 2 years this thing will be forgotten and the tooling will have been transformed into something else. Maybe there will be an I-beam axle in that one...

I've said it before, probably a thousand times - the all time best selling model car kit is the MPC General Lee. The only company I can think of that ever set out to make perfect model kits was Accurate Miniatures. They made 2 car models and went out of business. Twice. Discuss the importance of accuracy on model kit sales...

Ummm, I hate to do this to you, and sorry I missed it earlier in the build, but the two-tone color break is the lip formed by the trunk lid, it should include the panel under the trunk with the license plate recess. Hey, you said good or bad!

Sorry, I've got my businessman's hat on right now and not my modeler's hat... Revell's A's remain good sellers despite their age, especially when they threw in the new-tool "rat rod" wheels and tires. And they're certainly not a kit I would recommend to a beginner. Plus there's nowhere to go with them regarding future variations. None of AMT A's are in current production. Revell and AMT aren't making any money off eBay or swap meet sales. So, from a purely business perspective, a new-tool Model A series would be a wise choice.

Yeah, but Revell's A's are 50+ years old, fiddly, and pretty much slap worn-out. It's high time for a modern A...

From what I understand, and this is by no means direct from the source - Hornby only owns the rights to the name. They did not buy the molds, nor did they hire any designers or people who worked for the old company. They will not be bringing back any of the old kits. Everything going forward will be new. It's 1/8 scale and will be called "Pocher". That's is all you can assume about what the kits will be like. Don't base any judgments on what Pocher did in the past.

That car works so much better with that paint job and the dulled-down engine parts. I like it! Got me thinkin'... Thinkin', thinkin', thinkin'...

I'll back you up on this. No way, no how, will this kit be out in February. I'll eat my hat if it's out by May. I'd be downright shocked if it's out by mid-summer. I'd put my money on late-summer or fall. Need I remind y'all that there are folks on this board who do this for a living? Not saying I'm in the loop or anything, but this ain't my first rodeo...

I've heard that the red-lines were lettered that way. The tread's a little overdone, but proportionally I think they make a decent muscle-era tire.

I'm pretty sure they're the infamous "upside-down" Firestones from the 90's era of new tooling. I think they're what's always been in this kit. Good tire for red-lines or thin white walls. Not sure what the Shelby would have had from the factory. I know Shelby had a close relationship to Goodyear, but by 67 Shelbys were pretty much a Ford factory production, and Ford had long ties with Firestone... Edit - the Shelbys used Goodyear Speedway 350 E70/15's. Only the "Goodyear " would have been RWL. So they could have changed the printing on the new Goodyears and used those (if they fit the wheels)

Sorry, but all I have is a grainy cell-phone snap of the little illustration off the bottom of the box. But it might be enough to tell if it's just a straight reprint of decals from earlier releases. I doubt it is, most of the Round 2 repops have had expanded decal sheets... I'll try to see if I can get a better version of the decal art sometime today.

Noticed that. The tab is still there, but no master cylinder. Probably interfered with the new exhaust routing?

Hornby products (well, Airfix at least, as that's all I have first hand knowledge of dealing with) tend to be very competitively priced in the US, there's not a lot of difference between UK pricing and US pricing. For example, the current issue of their big Bentley goes for an MSRP of 100 GBP ($158 at current exchange rate) while US MSRP is - what do you know - $159.95. I would expect that whatever Hornby says is MSRP in the UK will be what they go for in the US, if normal Hornby channels are used to distribute them here. I'm still waiting for more info from Hornby, they were not allowed to talk about anything regarding Pocher before Nurnberg.

About 9HP. Never seen any claims made on torque. More info here: http://www.conleyprecision.com/609.htm The guy's been working on these for years, trying to make a commercially-viable ready-to-run miniature V-8, or at least one that doesn't require a machine shop to assemble like most miniature engine kits, which are usually just rough castings that still need a lot of machine work.

#1 -and I'm sure it would have been a major factor in those days - the Goldenrod wouldn't have been able to fit inside the standard model car kit box used at the time.

Even the small air press I used to use to press in ball bearings at an old job had a two-hand switch. You had to press a button on each side of the machine, and at exactly the same time. Even if you tried to coordinate with another person to press the other button (a couple of us got bored one day and decided to try it), it was hard to sync up (maybe once for every 10 tries) due to different reaction times. Most big presses like the ones shown have foot safety switches, too, you have to be standing on the foot pads when you press the buttons.

Tried it on the 5-window. Needs the side locators trimmed off, but the top locator lines it up right. The other hoods will need some trimming to work with the firewall, as the RR hood is very thin on the back edge.

It's unique, I'll give it that! Looks pretty cool. BTW, here's a couple more recent pics of Billy Gibbons' 32 Roadster. It now has a top and a hood, which he had added after he bought the car from builder Rudy Rodriguez.

Part of this longer 20+ minute film. http://youtu.be/VvAH-Yskyio

Pretty sure that's a Chevy, 2 door sedan.

Exactamundo. There is a lot to be excited by in this kit. It's the first Revell deuce with an unfilled grille shell and grill with a starter crank hole. First with a stock firewall. The wheels and tires (BTW, Coker offers those same cheater slicks with wide whitewalls. Just sayin...) The Buick portholes - love 'em or hate 'em on the real car, a lot of guys (and gals?) are going to be grafting them onto all sorts of things. The modern Tremec transmission. Chopped windsheild A blown SBC that will fit under a hood. (ok, so it's not a 4-71, but it's a start) The headers - I think they'd look even better on a T Nice new exhaust with well molded glass packs (not those formless worms from the older deuces) Is it the McMullen deuce? No - but neither is the real car. Like I said before, my only real disappointment is the lack of an I-beam axle up front.

The tabs that attach it to the frame

I hope that's sarcasm. And on a brighter note: the front axle, even though it's still a tube axle, has been modified to lower the front end a couple scale inches. So, it's got that going for it...