Mr. Metallic

This build is stunning. Stance, paint color and wheel/tire choice are spot on. Well done!

this is looking very cool. Since you mentioned the frame/integrated bed idea I'll show you one I was working on awhile back. I cut my own frame from thick styrene sheet so it had the exact drop I wanted in the rear, while maintaining the swoopy feel of a stock 32 frame. if you notice the front of the frame loos like a 32, but is actual slightly longer and more arced to provide a heavy drop up front. So, out back you can see how i essentially made the rear frame rails taller to act as bed sides. And here you can see how I intended to finish out the bed. The gas tank is set on rails, to almost simulate a bed floor. Just for fun, here's the final mockup I did on this project. Can't believe it's been almost 2 years since I touched it.

That may be your best approach for that. Maybe someone else will have an idea

I assume you mean Molotow? if so, that is actually an ink, and is very thin, so sadly it doesn't surprise me that it leeched under the tape. Since you're stripping it again, when you get it out take a little time to go around the trim with the reverse side of an x-acto blade. Scribe a shallow notch around the trim so after paint there is something to guide the blade when you do BMF. Another method for BMF is to apply masking tape next to the trim and use that as the guide for your blade. once you make your cut in the BMF peel up the tape and it should take the extra BMF with it.

Since this kit is very imminently hitting the shelves I thought I'd bump the thread. Also, anyone out there get them in their hands yet (like industry insiders) that can confirm some of the details, like which second engine did they include, and what the new tooled tires look like? No conjecture, just actual box contents please.

Went there yesterday for the first time in months. Not much has changed. There are a few items on the shelf I would like to get eventually with the discount, just don't have the scratch at the moment. They are "would like to have at the right price" kits, not must haves. '86 Olds C6R Ford GT

There is no re-patriation possible. They take the tooling hostage. If you want to keep producing your product you must either produce it there (China) with that tooling, or create your tooling from scratch again. With the added caveat that if you decide to recreate that tooling you jeopardize future production of other things they have the tooling for as well. When you're dealing with the government of the country with one of the largest economies in the world that has been put in the position to have a vast majority of the entire worlds production in their tentacles, then they set the rules, legalities be damned. Companies are learning their lesson the hard way that even though once China gleamed as a beacon of cheap labor and cost, the Chinese got tired of being exploited and decided to fight back. They essentially hold everyone hostage with their blatant disregard for copyright, intellectual property and basic law of other countries. No matter how generally accepted those laws are by the rest of the world.

In case you missed it, this is part of a set of models I built based on the 4 classic Monogram Hot Rod kits from the early 60's portraying phantom plastic colors not offered by Monogram for these kits. This particular one is the Little T: Black Tuxedo, based on the Little T kit. This one was based on the 80's release of this tooling, molded in black with "gold" plated parts. I also used the Little T specific parts from a couple trashed out Little T builtups. The most difficult part for this build was finding a usable interior. While the interior from newer issues is similar, there are details that many would notice instantly. In order to keep up the ruse that this was a true survivor I HAD to use an original issue interior. The two builtups I had, the interior was hopelessly glued into the body. After searching for some time I decided to sacrifice the original issue body in order to get the original issue interior tub out of it. To do this I cut away the body, just below the lip of the interior. This made the lip very thin and fragile. To make matters worse, the top had been glued to the interior, resulting in damage to the upper surface of the lip. So, after severing and grinding away the remains of the body I then mixed up some "sprue glue" as a filler. For those not familiar, this filler is created by dissolving plastic in liquid cement to create a paste. I went with this method because I wanted to retain the appearance of bare plastic, so normal fillers wouldn't work. As a side benefit this goo, once cured, actually made the lip stronger. After some careful sanding, I had rescued that sad interior. Then it was off to restoring the other parts. For some reason, the axles are always the first thing to break on any of these Monogram hot rods. In order to use the original issue brake backing plates (which disappeared with the 70's Street T version) with a modern replacement axle I had to modify the new axle to allow the tabs on the brake to slide over them. I also had to fix the damaged lower edge of the uptop. To do this I took the opportunity chop the top a bit but removing about 2 scale inches from the lower edge. I also had to come up with a molded in white telephone, which was a prominent and quirky feature of the Little T. To the rescue came an old AMT kit from which I liberated the earpiece. After polishing all the black plastic parts it was pretty straightforward assembly, with minor details called out with flat black paint or my Molotow pen. To borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics and details follow the link, and thanks for looking. https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/little-t-black-tuxe/ And here's a link to the previous build in this series that I shared

I don't believe the stock parts ever left these kits ( Monogram 30 Coupe, Cabriolet).The last reissue of the coupe was ONLY stock parts. I don't believe the Cabriolet has been released since the 70's, but that last issue was all stock as well. Someone would simply have to look at the box for the cabriolet to see where it was molded. Since the Coupe was last done about 20 years ago (I think) as part of the R/M SSP limited release series there's a chance it was produced in the US, and could now be in Atlantis hands. But that's just conjecture Last release of the Coupe (that I can recall) Last release of the cabriolet I can recall

It's not just a story, it's a fact. I work for a company with some parts production in China. Once your tooling is there, it's there FOREVER. Hence my companies investment in insourcing plastic molding over the last 5-7 years, and a shift to more domestic sourcing of other parts Yes Luc, countries can bring production back to their own countries, but would have to recreate all existing tooling if it is within China's borders

I do if you need them. But the hood won't match your plastic color if that matters

duplicate post

Like others have said, i usually use mine about 1 1/2 years before i feel the need to change it out. But, you're not wrong, over time (or volume) it does lose it's strength. But the reason it does is if you don't remove the contaminates (paint/chrome/undercoat/etc) the formula continues to attack that stuff. If you strain it after each session it should last much longer. I have used a painters filter in the past (the kind automotive painters strain paint through before painting) The mesh is very fine and should catch most of your solids.

I believe that is by Anthony Hazelaar (corrected spelling, sorry Anthony)

You are correct that the LINDBERG versions of this kit did not include dual rear wheels. However, a couple of the AMT versions did actual have a dual wheel setup. @Dave Darby can probably fill in the details

Sadly, Atlantis has said that the Bantam can not be released because the tooling was destroyed ? This is speculation on my part, but perhaps if the others sell well enough they could invest in recreating the Bantam tooling if it makes financial sense.

Sorry, apparently there's two different threads with the same question

That orange is a great color. Nice build

I received this a couple months ago but kept forgetting to snap pics. It a very nice set. As you can see, very smooth, blemish free castings that maintain scale fidelity. Comes with chrome plated parts and red tinted taillights. I did not expect the shortened frame to be included, so even less work to do.

I believe it's AMT. The paint that was used on it badly etched all surfaces. It's taking a lot of sanding to get back to even usable condition. At least the chrome was present since Modelhaus is no longer an option ☹️

Here's another glue bomb rescue. For full details follow the link Before: (sorry, no assembled pic, but these parts were all together at one time) After:

For those of you interested in the buildup's of these flights of fancy i have started posting them in the finished section. here's the first, the Red Beetle. More to come in the weeks to follow

In case you missed it, this is part of a set of models I built based on the 4 classic Monogram Hot Rod kits from the early 60's portraying phantom plastic colors not offered by Monogram for these kits. This particular one is the Red Beetle, based on the Blue Beetle kit. Many people would think that I would have cut corners and used the more widely available recreation Revell/Monogram released a few years ago of this kit , the Blue Bandito. That's not the case. To many collectors chagrin I sacrificed not only an actual Blue Beetle builtup, but also TWO rare Boss-A-Bone's to get all the red plastic parts. Oh, the horror. Over the last couple years I added two Boss-A-Bone builtups to my group of restoration candidates. One complete one, and one mostly complete one I didn't grab pics of the partial one before I took it apart, but he can see the post-deconstruction pic below. You can also see the first mockup of the Red Beetle. Both of these builtups suffered from several issues, so I had to triage the best parts to use for this because I always intended to build it in bare plastic. The second builtup seen here was also disassembled to harvest the best set of red plastic parts. Sadly, both cabs exhibited severe glue rash where the builders had used copious amounts of glue to install the interior. So much so that the 2nd cab now sits in several pieces on my bench because it imploded. (Thankfully my friend Les Gibbons has come to my aid with a replacement BAB for a future restoration) The eventual winning cab has stress marks that could be hidden by strategic placement of the kits multiple aquatic themed accessories. So, I set about the restoration of parts to make them solid and presentable. First up was the axle. It had the ends broken off at some point. So, I needed to create secure mounting points for the brake/wheel assemblies. I simply drilled a hole and inserted a brass pin in place. A similar procedure was used to secure the seats to the floor pan. I also took the opportunity at this time to lower the rear suspension slightly by hollowing out the rear crossmember for the spring to slide into. After the repairs were completed I then moved on to polishing the red kit plastic and then straight into assembly. The great thing about this series of kits is that the assemble so easily. I added minimal flat black paint accents, and a bit of Molotow chrome ink along the way. To borrow a phrase from a popular Marvel TV show and comic series, What If... Monogram had released a third version of this kit before they changed the tooling? This is what it could have looked like. For more pics, follow the link, and thanks for looking https://public.fotki.com/crstan/finished_models_by_me/survivors/life-cereal-faux-vi/

I can see all the pics.

I guess i forgot to update this thread like I did the other posts I made around social media. The story is a figment of my imagination. it was just meant as a little bit of fun, hopefully it was received that way. I'll be sharing each of this individual builds over the next few weeks for those of you interested in the construction of these faux-vivors