Mr. Metallic

And after witnessing your excellent and informative buildup I accumulated all the parts to build my own. Haven't carved plastic yet, so i may return all the parts sourced from other kits and go with this new kit, depending on what is actually in the box.

I've witnessed this myself. I try not to let it bother me, but it does. Yes, it's Capitalism in action, and people have every right to do it. I've already noticed a spike in these kits showing up on eBay. It just takes these kits out of the hands of real builders, or even kids. But, it's a free market.

I have two stores, both about the same distance from my house. The first one I started this post about obviously had the clearance, but the other one when i stopped in yesterday, did not have the clearance. Either someone is slacking, or the clearance is at the store managers discretion.

Hmm, I wonder if the store manager just clearanced them when Hobbico went under? Once restocks came through earlier this year both of my local HL's have had them since (until yesterday)

I seem to recall seeing something recently on Facebook about the owner mother falling ill, and she was an integral part of the business. So they're trying to recover from that? Can someone else chime in to confirm?

My local Hobby Lobby put a bunch of models on clearance this week. Mostly AMT stuff. This is good news for a couple reasons. Obviously, cheap kits (most are $7.49). But also, clears room for new releases. At least at my HL seems like new Round2 and Revell releases havn't shown up in months. Anyway, here's the list. Your store may vary. Round 2 (AMT/MPC/Lindberg) 23 Ford Delivery Coca Cola 57 Chrysler 57 Chevy Pepper Shaker 58 edsel 62 Catalina Polyglas 65 El Camino Gear Hustler 66 Lincoln 66 Fairlane 66 Mercury 70 Monte Carlo 75 Datsun pickup 86 El Camino Plymouth Prowler IH Scout SSII Jeep Commando Mount n Goat 1/16 Honda Super Hawk Revell: 1/32 Mack Fire Truck 66 Chevy Suburban- I can't confirm this, didn't see it with my own eyes. I was told by another club member. My HL didn't have any left

We, as in the "lunatic fringe" probably don't but it's probably not meant for us either. Round2 will sell a bunch of these simply for the great looking box art and the fact that it's a Camaro. The general public will buy it for the name alone, without actually knowing what's in the box.

It's great that these are available, but of course this is after i just spent the last couple years trying to find affordable restoration pieces for this body style (especially the full length roof). And now that I have all the parts I need, these builds are going to start popping up all over the place. Again, it's great that these are coming out. I may have to buy one myself. The other stuff i have purchased from them has all been excellent.

Wow, that is one way to take the uniquely stylized Dan Fink cr and make it your own. I especially like the hidden cowl and the way you handled the x member on the chassis. Very nicely done. That long hood begs for a v-12 under it, but the Hemi is well done.

No, this is the only kit they have been available in, to my knowledge. The fronts would prove especially useful to most hot rodders, so you may want to offer them separately from the rears

I have to disagree with that 99% assertion that we should just assume that we will have to do a bunch of work to make stuff fit. Back at the turn of the century ( ), there were really only a handful of firms that had resin bodies that were "drop on" conversions. Drop on to me means you may have to trim webbing out of the windows and engine bay(although the true top shelf guys do that for you), and perform minor mold line/pinhole cleanup. Replicas and Miniatures of Maryland, Modelhaus, F+F Resin Casting are the ones I can think of(not a slight to anyone I didn't name that produced great stuff), while pretty much everyone else was supplying bodies that required a bunch of work to fit their donor kit, or even worse were just bad quality in general. Today, we are blessed with a bunch of top level casters whose work is truly drop on. Rep+Min is still there, but now you have Morgan Automotive Detail, Missing Link and the other Detroit guys, Drag City Casting, Harold Bradford, Air-Trax, Altered States, Fireball Modelworks, Futurattraction, and many more. (again, not a slight to anyone I didn't mention, these are just ones I have personal experience with) There are lots of casters out there right now of varying quality, but really need to step up to the level of these guys. It takes solid master work, dedication, and good equipment, but these guys show, it can be done. There are enough casters out there doing true drop on stuff right now that we should raise our standard for what is acceptable anymore, and ask all casters to reach that level.

Pardon my ignorance on old farm equipment, but was this 1:1 tractor available in the US? I'm assuming it was a Europe only offering, but figured I'd ask. It does seem pretty neat, and there's lots of positive feedback about it. If it ever shows up at my HL I just might grab one.

When looking at Flinstone products, it all depends on when the masters were made and the bodies produced. He has made strides over the last 10 years or so to keep the thickness of the bodies down. But, he deals in volume to keep his prices lower, so concessions are made to enable him to pop out bodies very quickly. The best way to buy his stuff is in person, so you can see exactly what quality you are buying.

You didn't say what you used to remove the chrome. I've always had good results, even with the lacquer underlayer, with Castrol Super Clean.

Well, I may have to see if my LHS can still get some for me before it's gone, especially the magnesium.

Perhaps the distributor the hobby shop deals with is not carrying the line anymore and it's just a miscommunication (game of telephone?) I would think we would have heard something. If anything, I want them to expand their lacquer line. Tamiya continues to add paints the theirs.

Soooo, can I stick it in the Moebius 65 Comet when i steal the 427 SOHC out of it? Or is this the smaller Falcon/Mustang six?

Love first gen Falcons, and really like Aaron's build, so you've got my attention.

I agree. I've purchased the MCG sets, which are really nice. But i usually only end up using the grille anymore.

Jimmy Flinstone has been around for 20+ years, and his quality has increased quite a bit over that time. Since the beginning, his bodies were priced well below his contemporaries, so there are a lot of them floating out there. His prices are lower because he deals in volume. And prior to about 7-8 years ago, the quality was representative of bodies that were designed to be produced very quickly. Most casting were quite thick, and required work to be able to be used with kit donor chassis and interiors. More recently though his bodies have been much better with regards to thickness and window/hood openings. One thing I have noticed in this time though it a very stubborn release agent that can be present and must be thoroughly dealt with before painting. So, his bodies are best purchased in person so you can evaluate exactly what you're getting. Here's an Edsel wagon i built from one of his bodies. This body was almost a drop on, quality wise.

Apparent;y, it's just not that simple when dealing with the Chinese government. You can't just "move the tooling somewhere else". I speak from experience. The company I work for has gone through similar scenarios, with injection molded and cast metal parts. They have had to cut new tooling for parts formerly sourced from China to have the parts produced in the US.

Thanks for the response Mike. I was hoping it would work in one of the full size cars. I do have a 69 galaxie floating around the stash. Hmm

Thank you. I knew the AMT kits were LWB. But I was hoping the front suspensions would be the same. Oh well.

Kitbashing ideas? Can this frame be used under the AMT 61-63 pickups? What other uses are there for the 6 in this kit? What years was it used in trucks. Any crossover to passenger car applications?

Very creative concept, well executed. Thanks for taking us along for the ride. I especially like the clean bodywork