Chuck Most

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.

That's a given. In fact, it might even end up being re-restored somewhere down the line- the paint needs a little polishing, and I'd like to add some actual Mopar wheels and detail it under the hood a bit.

I really wish Round 2 would reissue that Force 440- I've heard the tooling still exists.

Nice. As for what to do next....'32 pickup?

I've only built a few of these, but here are the majority of the ones I've built. Pro Street version on a Super Bee Chassis My 'Custom Beater' And my favorite of the bunch- A restoration of a built up Force 440. And there's a story there- turns out, one of the other MCM members, Steve (spkgibson) actually helped his uncle build the original model back when it was new! Before- And after-

Not sure- I subscribed to Scale Auto from 2006 until just recently, and in that time, they never had a Kit of the Year or Most Wanted New Release article.

If MCM's publisher wants to give this ago, I volunteer to be editor!

I've actually been kicking around that idea- a Batmobile combined not with a Mach 5 but with another famous hero car. (No, not a General Lee! )

Batmobile- if push came to shove, the Caped Crusader could use the Batmobile's greater mass to pummel the Mach 5 into oblivion!

Bottom half of the trailer shell and chassis is pretty much done. I used diamond plate for the bottom panels. I'm going for a rat rod look with the camper- like somebody chopped, channeled, and sectioned an old Nomad camper, or built something up from spare metal and camper pieces. Now that the basic platform is done I can start on the interior junk! Speaking of an old Nomad camper- I'll be loosely basing the layout on the Nomad I used to have- dining room area up front, kitchen/storage in the middle, two sofa beds, and the bathroom at the tail end. At least that's the plan for now!

Wow. Goes without saying, but this is gonna be cool!

Good point on the war years- hadn't considered that. I know there are a couple of 1:35 scale Military kits that could cover GM trucks during the WWII duration now that you mention it, so that opens up a few more doors. Casey- absolutely right on the diecasts, but I did exclude those because (for some reason) there seems to be a lot of apathy and outright animosity towards diecast kits. Most diecast kits are crude, but some are pretty good, and are sadly overlooked simply because the body is made of 'the wrong material', or sometimes because they're in an odd scale, like many of Maisto's kits.

I have to admit I wasn't sure about the Deuce grille shell when I first saw it, but it did grow on me. Now It's one of my favorite elements to the car.

Sorry- copied this off Word and the print came out pretty small- just blew up the font for easier reading.