Chuck Most

Hey, Jairus- did Jeff Koch weep when he saw that Impala SS rendering? (That '70's Sketchpad is one of the few Hot Rod sketchpad articles I remember, and remember well.)

Were those manufacturers doing kits as part of a series at that time? I know Revell does it today (Goodguys, Early Iron, Car Show, etc.) but was anybody but AMT doing series runs back then?

A bit too spendy for me, not to mention it's in a scale that's inconsistent with much of my collection. If it had halfway decent interior detail I might spring, but I've never seen one of these up close. Sure looks nice in the box art photo, though.

What Dave says. As long as this kit has been reissued since the late '80's, it's always had the same big and little tires used in the '37 Ford kits and similar to the newer Revell Deuce kits. Would be cool if they threw in a set of tires with separate whitewalls, though.

I'd have to echo the 'AMT Trophy Series' sentiment. Where would the hobby be today without them? Would there even be an auto modeling hobby today without them? A close second (for me anyway) would be Revell's Deuces. Maybe not as historically significant as the Trophy Series, but still a great series. I will say that AMT Ertl's 'Prestige Series' does NOT belong on any 'best of' list of kits and are best left forgotten in the sands of time.

I'm building a four-banger powered Deuce as well (mine's a five window, though), so I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this one.

Oh, I'm saving those Lincoln rollers for a special project. No idea what its going to be just yet, though!

Still need to finish up the details on the car hauler trailer, I think I'll wrap that up before I do much on the camper.

Future reference- the wheels from the Revell Lincoln MkVII kit are very cool- still kind of a billet style, but styled to resemble a wide-5 wheel. They even have the old-school V8 emblem engraved on the hubs. Since the Lincoln kit used the same tires as the Chevelle they fit those tires like a glove.

I spy some Revell pro street Malibu wheels in the mockup.

Microsoft Paint + boredom + wishful thinking =

Sweet. Love the 'forgotten Road Runners'.

I actually asked about the Challenger promo a few years back at the local Dodge dealer. Don't remember what it cost, but it was the price that put me off. I ended up buying the AMT kit at the hobby shop half a mile away. Still haven't built the thing.

Yep, diecasts, 1:1, and the other hobbies... don't even want to think how much I've got tied up in my 'recreational' activities! As far as spending big bucks, well, over time, yeah- I think everybody amasses a small fortune over time. It's not like I buy 100 kits at a time. Would I if I could? Probably not, but I can easily see myself buying a dozen or so at a time.

So you have a big, ten-carb log manifold with 2-foot tall slash-cut stacks. Or maybe dual quads on a mile-high tunnel ram. Or a big honkin' Roots supercharger. Maybe you somehow stacked all three of those intakes atop one another. At any rate, now you'll need to do something about that hood, which won't fit over your wicked intake setup? What to do? You could leave the hood off- works great, and has a difficulty level of -11. You could cut a big, jagged hole in the engine's general vicinity (optional- cover up the hole with a comically oversized scoop). Or, you could quickly and easlily map out the cut so you will have a correctly-sized hole, in the proper location. You will need to have your engine built, and have the chassis/interior/and body at least close enough to complete to mock them up together. You'll also need to have the position of the engine finalized, if it differs any from stock. This will help ensure the hole that was in the perfect location during the test fits doesn't magically migrate 1/8" to the rear sometime between the last mockup and final assembly. Here is our mocked up project- in this case a '53 Studebaker with an AMT Parts pack Pontiac 421. Set the engine in place, but DON'T GLUE IT just yet. You'll need to remove the engine later. Take masking tape and lay it across the fenders, and across the cowl/radiator wall as shown, leaving a bit of space along the sides and back of the intake (a blower in this case). You want a little bit of space to compensate for the hood's arc of motion as it opens (unless you plan on a lift off hood), and to account for the engine's movement on its mounts. Once that is done, cut away the tape around the engine compartment, along the edges of the fenders, cowl, etc.. Leave the remaining pieces of tape in place as shown, but remove the tape that was over the engine bay, as well as the engine , for the next step. Lay the hood in place, and using the left over tape on the fenders and cowl as a guide, lay more tape across the hood. The exposed rectangular area is to be marked and cut open. And there you have it- a neat, properly-sized hole in the right location.

Anyone remember that TV show Family Matters, where the father and son rebuilt an old Monaco cop car into a street machine? I think that will be my next Monaco project.

And why single out the Dukes Monaco kit? Most all of the AMT/MPC kits from that era have similar issues. Some are even worse- there's no solid locator for the rear of the chassis on the '73 Cougar kit.

Never built a Pocher (it's on my 'one of these days' list) but I've heard they're pretty lousy. But in the case of a Pocher, just how impressive the thing looks when built might override the kit's not-so-goodness.

Even Tamiya has at least one turd- the 1:24 Jeep Wrangler. The body and interior look okay, but it looks more or less like they guessed their way through the development on the chassis and drivetrain. That and there's the questionable choices of molding the flares and running boards to the body, and those nasty gold 'snowflake' wheels. I'll be the last guy to claim any kit manufacturer as being faultless, but whenever somebody goes on about how all Tamiya kits are great, that's the one kit I think of first. (The '66 Beetle is pretty good, though. )

"How to sell your 1:1 quickly enough to have cash to buy that stash of old kits at this weekend's estate auction."

The only model kit of a car I've owned is the Monogram '87 Ford T-Bird Turbo Coupe, and I still haven't built a model of that car yet! Trucks are another matter- Revell's Ram GTS could easily be reworked to represent my '95 1500, and I've got a replica of my current F-250 in the works- I've found an appropriate steering wheel ('91 Up Taurus kit), and the kit (AMT '92 F-150 long bed), I'm only short a decent set of in-scale 8 bolt wheels to pull that one off.

I'd have to go with Revell's '29 Model A pickup and '31 Tudor. Very accurate and highly detailed- and they were tooled, what, five decades ago?

Forgot those, but their lack of finesse makes them PERFECT as starters for Volksrods, Dune Buggies,and the like.

Never heard of this particular Austin Healy before. Swoopy looking, and the colors look great on it.

Still haven't managed to finish a '48 Lincoln, but I do have to say the Revell '56 F-100 and the AMT '73 Mercury Cougar are pretty awful experiences, even if you manage to make them look good at the end.