Force

The exhaust manifolds are the ones used on the "Mystery Engine" MkII Big Block and the air cleaner is a NASCAR unit so it's perfect if you want to do a 1963 Chevy Mystery Engine Impala.

I built this kit several years ago, sometime in the mid 90's. and I don't remeber any big issues with the kit, it's kind of regular AMT old truck kit, the instructions hasn't been a strongpoint for AMT as they can be quite vague. It's not a big surprise that the chassis and drivetrain looks the same, they are the same as the T600 is based on the old W925, the difference may be if your kit has the early torsion bar suspension wich was replaced with the walking beam quite early, otherwise everything is the same...so it's not really correct for the more modern T600. I don't see anything wrong with your model and I think you did a good job on it.

I think the latest regular Peterbilt 352 Pacemaker without the Coke decals came in 2012-13 and the Coca Cola kit came 2017, something has happened with the kit prices the last 5-6 years. Labour and material isn't free even in China and the transportation has gone up and then you have the exchange rate and how it is at the time the kits arrive and what margin the wholesaler has and the LHS will also take out a margin so they can make somekind of profit and stay in business. We have the same problem in Sweden.

The AMT 1960 Ford Galaxie Starliner was developed in the late 90's and issued in 2001 in two versions and was one of the last new tooling kits AMT did together with the 1958 Edsel Pacer, 1970½ Z/28 and Baldwin Motion Camaro's, 1962 Thunderbird Convertible, 1957 Chrysler 300C, 1971 Plymouth Duster and some more, all this was before Racing Champions bought the ERTL company who owned the AMT and MPC brands...so the mid to late 90's and early 00's wasn't bad when it came to new kits, but we haven't got much from them the last 17-18 years. I don't know but the last kits ERTL/AMT did before RC2 could have been done by computer assisted design as it was widely used by then in many industries. We will most likely get used to higher prices on the kits because the labour and materials isn't free even in China, and you have the transportation wich has gone up the last 10 years.

I don't. All this negativity will not help to get anything and this hobby will for sure die sooner than you think if this keeps up...if you don't want any new kits and feel that what we allready got is adequate, well that's fine by me, I allready have kits enough to last me a couple of lifetimes so it doesn't matter. Here I try to be positive and wish for a new kit, give creative suggestions on how it could be done and try to get support from fellow modelers for it but allmost immediately got sabled down, I don't care to try anymore as it seems to be a huge waste of time because not many who wrote in this topic seems to be interested in getting new tooling kits of anything...at least that's what I read between the lines. Haven't you seen what public pressure can do, you only have to look at the 69 Boss 302 Mustang, the AAR 'Cuda and the 69 Pro Modeler Charger kits from Revell and the 61 Impala kit from Lindberg to see what I mean...without it Revell and Lindberg would not have cared as it was a lot cheaper for them not to do anything and leave the kits as they were...the AAR 'Cuda got three attempts and it's not perfect yet but a lot better than the first try and a new body tool was cut for the 69 Charger and 61 Impala.

There is also nothing wrong with trying to get them to change their plan. Yes they can continue reissuing old kits with some small additions for a while but the market for that shrinks even more with time, I don't know if anyone wants to buy the same kits over and over if that's what we have to get used to, new boxart, decals and pad printed tries doesn't make the 50-60 years old kits any better. If they are putting the tooling dollars into the Sci-Fi market may be because they ask for more, if we don't do that too they might think we are satisfied with what they give us and I thought they would have done a few new tooling automotive kits by now 12-14 years after they got control over the old RC2 brands. It also seems like they may have hit the bottom of usable old molds in the tooling bank as they are starting over with some of their earlier reissues and what they have announced lately is not the best they have, for example the 63 and 64 Impalas and the 69 Camaro. Maybe some other manufacturer will step up and do new kits of the 1963-64 Galaxies...there still is a questionmark for Revell but Moebius maybe.

Well if we don't push the manufacturers and ask for things we will never get anything new, that's my opinion.

Andy: The use of the tooling is limited for all car kits as there are only a few versions that can be done from them without spending too much, and also a few that will sell as a model kit. The chassis and driveline is basically the same from 1960 to 1964 so with these same basic things you can do at least a couple versions of each year if you want to. We already have the 1960 Starliner and two versions of that, but for the 1961-64 Galaxies you can do at least four versions each, a factory stock, a NASCAR race car as the 1963½ Fastback roofline was developed specially for that, a Stock/Super Stock Light Weight Drag Race car as they also were popular there, a convertible and the 1963 was also available with a box top HT until it was replaced with the Fastback roofline and the box top was also used in NASCAR and Drag Racing, it's also possible to do the 500XL and the cheaper 500 versions if you tool up and change the interior and so on...you have to see the possibillities. Dave: Well they wouldn't have done new tooling of these kits if they didn't think they would sell wouldn't they. It would probably had been better if the old tooling was scrapped back then, in that case we would maybe have had new kits of these cars already. AMT did both a Convertible, a Box Top hard top and the Fastback hard top from this tool and these were made 1963-64...so this tooling are as old as I am, and the fastback is the only one left of the three, they did the same with the 1964 but it got a worse fate as it ended up as a modified stocker where most of the tooling was almost destroyed, the other 1964 kit is basically an unassembled promo and doesn't make anyone happy...at least not me anyway. The missing speaker grille in the middle of the backrest of the back seat is for the convertible only in 1963, the coupe doesn't have it as the speaker was in the middle of the package tray behind the seat if you had one, the 1964 XL had a speaker grille in the middle of the backrest both on the HT and Convertible, the interior rear side panels are more difficult to fix as they and the back seat are left over from the convertible kit...at least it IS a XL interior, they could have done a regular 500 with bench front seat if they wanted to as it has less detail. So I think new kits of these cars would sell a lot better than the old ones if they were more accurate and detailed...because I'm not satisfied with what's available now. I can wish can't I. I can't believe I'm sitting here arguing about new possible kits with fellow modelbuilders, I can understand if manufacturers have arguments for this and that but not model builders..I belive all of you as well as I want new kits now and then. I'm a realist and not a dreamer and here I see a possibillity to do "new" and better kits for less money than what a new tooling kit costs, yes it's expensive to do but it's a suggestion for someone at Round2 if they see it, and all I want is to get some support from my fellow modelers to get more leverage, and all I get is arguments against...one can give up for less. *sigh*

Not much I don't allready have, I've got the Stevens International version of the Ford LNT-8000 Snow Plow from 2008, maybe the GMC could be a candidate for buying. The Italeri tooling kits doesn't catch my interest that much as they are more to the generic side and not allways that accurate.

A great replica. I saw this car at the California Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield last year.

Well it may differ from mine but only doing mostly the same re-issues over and over isn't that fun for us who has been in the hobby for a long time, that started long before Round2 in this case as RC2 was doing the same thing with the difference that they didn't go that deep into the tooling bank, didn't fix up anything, had bad boxart and questionable quality. I thought if Round2 used the 1960 Starliner tooling they could base new 1963 and 1964 Galaxie kits on that with a smaller budget since the chassis, floorpan, engine and driveline can be used from the 1960 Starliner tooling, so they don't have to do a completely new kit. As for not worth tooling up new kits for 40-50-60 year old cars...well that's the car kits that sells and if you take a look at what new American car kits has been done over the last 20 years from the different makers most of them are from that era, the classic car business is huge right now and not many new cars have the same attraction for people whatever age. The Chevys are well covered and there are newer tooling kits available for mostly all classic years, the Tri-Five's and 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67 Impalas and lots of muscle cars has been done in the last 20-25 years from Revell, AMT and Lindberg. It's a lot worse for Fords where there are only a few new tooling kits made lately and most of them are from the 30's and 40's, a couple from the late 50's and a few from the 60's, no Galaxies at all from any manufacturer except for the AMT 1960 Starliner wich is a great kit IMHO. So most of the Galaxie kit tooling has 50 or more years on them with all that comes with it. ?

The market will for sure shrink even more if all we're going to get in the future is 40-50-60 years old kits reissued over and over and nothing new to tease us with...a new kit now and then doesn't hurt, just choose the right subject and it will sell. I think Round2 could do it with the great 1960 Starliner they have as a base for new 1963 and 1964 Galaxie kits...but they are probably more interested in doing new boxart, decals different colored glass and pad printed tires for old outdated kits and thinks that that's enough to keep the interest up, than putting out good model kits on the market. I don't think the issues are easy fixes, it involves lots of work to be able to do an accurate replica from this kit with all the flaws it has, so much that it's not worth it IMHO. As I own one it would have been nice to be able to do an accurate replica model of my car...but I'm sorry to say this kit doesn't make the cut.

Absolutely beautiful.

Yes it is. I' will probably buy both too even though I have two each of the original issues.

Nice model.

The AMT 1960 Starliner chassis works fine under both the 1963½ and 1964 Galaxies with some slight modifications, so it's not a huge problem to do that upgrade. But...this old kit has lots to desire, as I said, I own a real 1963½ Galaxie 500XL and there are much on the kit wich need attention. The interior for example is a XL with bucket seats and console...but the interior in the kit is from a convertible and is definately not right for a Fastback Coupe as the back seat is too narrow and the rear side panels are wrong, it's not exactly right for a convertible either as the speaker grille in the middle of the back seat is missing, the body in the kit has nice proportions but the details are crude and the GALAXIE letters are missing from the trunklid, the tail light bezels are way too thick, the tail lights themselves are wrong as the backup lights are missing and it should have a four pointed slim chromed star on the lens with the backup light in the middle, not the strange three pointed crude one without the backup lights you are supposed to use in the kit, the grille has the headlight lenses molded in and so on. So I think it's about time we get new kit of both the 1963½ and 1964 Galaxies and let the old ones leave the scene.

I have that body and it have the old style split front wings, i bit strange as nobody use that configuration anymore.

It looks nice with the corrections you have made ?, the kits itself is far from it as you know.

Very nice Rickard, I'm looking forward to more updates.

It's a huge missunderstanding that all Ford engines should be blue, I see it all the time on both model cars and real cars...yes they were blue for a long time but as said before in this thread they started painting the engines blue for the 1966 model year so late 1965, between 1959 and 1965 the engines were black with different colored valve covers and air cleaners depending on engine version, gold, yellow, blue, red, chrome etc, before 1959 the engines were different colors like gray, green, red, copper/bronze, yellow, blue so that's a bit more difficult as you have to know wich specific engine and year it is from.

If they do the kits this way the prices on the original issues will for sure stay up.

I don't know but I think it's about time to do a new 1963½ Galaxie Fastback model kit, I own a real 1963½ 500XL Fastback and this old kit has much to desire as it has many flaws and incorrect things. This old kit is promo based, has a boring one piece chassis, interior from a convertible and crude details. Round2 could easily base a new kit on the 1960 Galaxie Starliner kit, use the chassis and driveline from that as those parts are excellent and do a new correct interior, body, glass and chrome....while they're at it the could do the same with a 1964 Galaxie as the kits we have now are not up to todays standard.

I believe the engine in the Elite "Mustang" is the same GM 500 as in Jeg's and Erica's cars, the Ford and Mopar engines haven't been competitive since they introduced the fuel injection and rev limiter. I write "Mustang" because it doesn't look even close to a street driven Mustang. And why they took away the scoop when they introduced the FI system I don't understand...a hood scoop make the car look racier and many street cars have added scoops so the car would look more like a race car...the lack of hood scoop doesn't make the car look any more like the street car when all proportions of the body are wrong...strange decision by NHRA.

Yes they could, but it still need some Bandag and Detroit Diesel scripts to be correct...and the Bandag Bandit was called Bandag Bandit even then .

Yes, and some engine parts.