Chuck Most

AND no underhood battery. Kinda wish they'd tossed one in with the Fairlane 'Street Machine' reissue, but oh, well.

I'm blaming Autocorrect.

I don't think they were required by law until about 1966 or so in North America, so technically any older vehicle than that could have one or none and still be 'correct'. A '67 should at least have a passenger's side mirror. Then again, Chip Foose never bothers with them, so I suppose you could always Overhaul it...

I bought a reissue of this kit a few years back and had the same problem.It looks like at some point Ertl had trashcanned the original chassis and replaced it with the '66 Coupe kit chassis, or something similar. I ended up robbing a few choice pieces from it and giving away the rest to another local modeler. Shortening the chassis wouldn't be a huge ordeal if you wanted to build the kit. It actually has better body proportions (especially the grille area) than the Monogram kits, but pity its underscale!

I decided to let the fine folks at Telecheck wrestle with that issue.

My pet peeves... a few are builder-based, and many more are kit-based. 1. No blackwash done to the grille. Yes, some grilles have very shallow engraving, but at least give it a try! Paint the openings with a fine brush if you have to. Unless you're going for a dealer promo look, an all-chrome grille just looks terrible. Same goes for engraved trim pieces lacking paint in the 'valleys' when applicable. 2. Blank tire sidewalls, but I'm slowly coming to terms with that as it appears that will be the norm from here on out as far as kit-based tires go. 3. Cylinder heads molded with the intake manifold. I don't know why this bothers me, as once the engine is assembled it's usually hard to tell, but for some reason I just don't like it. 4. Exploded-View Assembly Schematics. RC2 was really in love with these for some reason. When the assembly diagrams are exploded views it is sometimes difficult to tell what goes where, and what the actual sequence of assembly should be- what part goes in first, what part won't fit if another is installed before it, and so on. Exploded views are okay for parts manuals for your lawn mower, but they aren't ideal for guidance in assembly much of the time. 5. Parts designed incorrectly/incorrectly placed. Who's idea was it to make the exhaust manifolds in the AMT '05 Chrysler 300C attach to the block and not the heads? Yeah, I know it isn't obvious once the engine is in place in the car, but still! I'm also not fond of when a kit manufacturer just seems to guess how a part looks or fits (quite a few Trumpeter car kits come to mind here) instead of just poking around a 1:1 and at least making some attempt at making the parts look right. 6. Window trim left in body color. Very rarely do you see this on 1:1. Again, only really works if you are going for a 'dealer promo' look in most cases. And finally... 7. Inconsistent kid design. One example would be the Revell '64 T-Bolt/Farilane. Nice body, nice engine, nice chassis... and then you get to the interior, which is an old-school style tub with really lackadaisical side panel detail. It's almost like they ran out of money or patience after they designed the rest of the kit, and just said "Meh... we'll do a 1964-vintage looking interior to offset the razor-sharp processing on the rest of the kit". There. I'm done.

Art- the paying by check/driver's licence thing reminds me of a story from my retail days. No real reason, just a funny story. At my last employer, it was required to have the person's driver's licence number on the check- the check could not be entered into the system and verified without a valid driver's licence number. Some people have the licence number on the check, some do not, and in that case, it was the cashier's job to ask the customer to see their driver's licence, then write it down on the check. When I got a check and did not see the licence number printed on it, I got into the habit of asking "May I see your driver's licence, please?" One day I was working at the register, and another employee asked if I could ring up the purchase of the customer he had been waiting on. Two men approached, I noticed the man carrying the merchandise, but not his companion. I rang up the order and gave him his total. The man pulled out his checkbook, filled out the check and handed it to me. Now, right about this time it sank in... the man who'd been holding the merchandise had on a white shirt, black pants and suspenders, and a 'chin strap' beard. His companion, who I hadn't really noticed until he'd come closer to the counter, had the same type of beard AND the same clothes, plus a wide-brimmed hat. And before I really took note of this, I asked "May I see your driver...aaaaaaaaaaaaah... never mind". I rang up the sale as cash and thanked the duo for their purchase. Across the top of the check, instead of the customer's driver's licence number, I simply wrote "Amish".

No. Frigging. WAY! Wow- that is amazing. My only gripe with such an animal would be my hands aren't steady enough to pick out details with paint, when the piece is that small and everything is molded to it. Be that as it may, that's an amazing casting.

What's the difference? (And I don't mean that in a sarcastic way... I really want to know! ) Reason I I.D.'d the resin truck as a Brigadier was because a neighbor of mine had a '78 that looked just like it, and it was a Brigadier. It was a '9500', but it did have Brigadier nameplates on the hood sides. Were the MH 9500 and Brigadier 9500 all that different?

That it does. The 18" AMT kit has them too, the decal sheet is basically a blown up version of the smaller PL kit sheet. Yes, I know the AMT kit isn't the greatest, but making it look good seems like a fun challenge to me.

You guys are going to convince me to buy a few of these yet, aren't you?

Love them! Gotta get the Crosley body.

Piece of advice... don't ever do it! It isn't terrible 100%, but working in retail made me really long for the burger flipping/paper-hat-wearing days of my earlier jobs.

Man, that is pretty sick, twisted, and diabolical. I like it.

Wait... never mind. That one had the NCC prefix as well. The ISS was in place of the USS. Really off my game today...

That can bite you in some situations, though. Sometimes a customer will see your genuine attempt to be courteous as sarcasm or being condescending. Again, that's one of those instances where you have to try to read the person and react accordingly.

Very nice! Glad I could help you out in some small way with the project.

I don't really have a least favorite Enterprise. Now, some of the other ships I don't really 'do it' for me, aesthetically. The Grissom from Wrath of Khan is one- it just looks weird to me. The Excelsior was the same way, but I liked it after a while. Come to think of it, same holds true for the Enterprise D (as a kid the defelctor dish reminded me of a belly button), but agian, I learned to like it over time. So I guess, at one time the D was the only one I didn't like, but that doesn't apply today. Favorite? I'd have to go with the 1701, no letter after the number ... but with the ISS prefix instead of the NCC.

Ever see those signs that read "If you are grouchy, irratable, or just plain mean, there will be a $10 charge for putting up with you"? Many of the local auto repair shops have that sign over the front desk... and more than a few of the shop owners I've spoken with have told me they've enforced it.

One other thing- that old saw "The customer is always right"? In many instances, nothing could be further from the truth! I know, being a customer of many establishements myself, that I have been wrong on more occasions than I care to recall. So have you. So has E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E. After having worked 13 years in the retail environment (roughly half of that in the auto parts business), I've seen every type of customer. The guy who gets irate because you don't stock glow plugs for a 1985 Escort diesel (or some other obsure part for some other obscure vehicle), the guy who wants to buy brake rotors from you- but wants you to price match units from the shop across town even though their rotors have a 90 day warranty and yours have a two-year warranty, and my favortite... the guy who does not come in himself, but sends his wife/girlfriend/kid/drinking buddy to the store to get the parts, gives that person only the basic information, then gets huffy and puffy when the parts his gopher came back with don't fit his application. Often, a customer will ask if you will install the part they just bought for them. Now, laws and store policies vary, but where I've worked, doing so without being a licenced mechanic is illegal, and can cost you your job. I can't tell you how many customers got angry when I refused to install anything other than a battery or wiper blades (the two items we were allowed to install on customer vehicles- and restirictions applied even there). No, sir, I am not going to install that fan clutch in your Trailblazer for you. Seriously. Do you get mad at the grocery store cashier when they refuse to cook the hamburger meat you just bought? To me it's akin to that. And of course, there are some customers who have this really overinflated sense of self-importance. At my preivious job, we had a shop owner who was angry because he did not quailfy for our top-line commercial discount, which is based upon how much you buy. I tried explaining this to him, and his response was 'I buy from you all the time!'. After I got off the phone with him, I went and checked his account's history- he had purchased a grand total of $87 worth of merchandise from us over the most recent three-month period. There were five or six shops in the area who would spend three times that amount with us every hour. $87 is $87, but somehow, I guess this guy thought his $87 was more valuable than the next guy's $87. But it really isn't awful. I actually did develop a pretty good rapport with a few customers nobody else wanted to deal with. Other guys would duck and cover when these guys walked in the door, but I never had any issues in dealing with them. Getting a feel for people and what they want is important. There was one guy I dealt with who was old-school- he wanted his parts looked up in the paper catalogs, not the computer systems. His theory was the computer was always wrong (even though our computerized catalog system was copied verbatim from the paper catalogs, so if it was wrong in the catalog, it was more than likely wrong in the system... go figure), so whenever he walked in, I was at the ready standing near the catalog rack! Customers like that are in the minority, though, and even the most pleasant people can have their bad days. I won't even get into the customers I actually looked forward to seeing.

It's the AMT kit with the shuttlecraft. The box art refers to Star Trek V, which IIRC was the first movie where the A was used (except for the last few seconds of IV). Yes, I know, some Trekkie I am, and I'm too lazy to Google it.

From now on, I am never, ever putting an alternator bracket on a model ever again. And if the kit comes with one, I'm tossing it over my shoulder. Just for Harry... :P

Jacobus- that resin kit is a Brigadier. Totally different animal from a Top Kick.

I usually go with a recent reissue if possible... not gonna spend two bills on, say, an original issue AMT '66 Mustang when I can get a reissue for ten bucks. Now, if the subject is a kit that was only reissued once, or never at all, obviously I'll go the other route. They're kits- they're meant to be built no matter what 'vintage' they are.

This is how it looked 5 years ago, right after the windshield was shattered (long story). More of the original paint is visible now.