Chuck Most

Andy- you master that '10 Olds Limited, touring and limousine bodies, and I guarantee I'll buy AND BUILD both. You might not like what I do with them, but I guarantee they'll get built. As far as hoarding kits? Guilty as charged. To me just looking for lost souls to fill the Demon Fleet is half the fun.

You're welcome. Don't come crying to me when you put the passenger's side vent window on in the driver's side opening, and the passenger's side mirror on the driver's side.

It is already shaping up to be one of the few 'Vette models I know I'll like.

And really- who knows how many active model car builders there are? There are 8,000 members on this forum. Even if you subtract inactive accounts, double accounts from the same member, troll accounts, and members who have passed on, I think you'd still be left with a fairly sizable number. And not every modeler is a member of this forum, or even any other forum- I'm the only modeler in my area who is active in model car message boards to any degree. I can think of twenty active modelers in my area, and I'm the only one who frequents any message boards. So, in my area anyway, there is a twenty-to-one ratio of modelers who do not use message boards. Would, say, 7,000 multiplied by 21 give a reliable number as far as people partaking in the model car hobby? Who knows? There's really no 'scientific method' in play with regards to that.

The car itself may be pretty stout,but picture no seatbelts and all the sharp, pokey knobs on the dash.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ezEjae4WyM

Jonathan- General Lee speaking, Danno ALWAYS has nightmares about General Lee threads. (And after Danno reads this I'm going to edit the post so that first GL reads 'Generally' just so he thinks he's losing it. )

Triumph... that was a product of British Leland at that time, right?

Well, it is merely just creeping along at this point. Did knock the dust off the truck and trailer, and dug out a chassis to plop down on the trailer. Not sure if this chassis will end up on the trailer or not, but I'm thinking the trailer load will end up being either an abandoned junker on its way to the shop for restoration or on its way to the junkyard to be scrapped. That, or an 'in progress' hot rod that's basically a stripped frame and a body. I guess we'll see. And I'm thinking of getting started on the proposed camper trailer, as soon as I gather up all the furnishings for the inside. The frame is a '29 Model A Ford front half, spliced to a Z'd '32 Chevy rear half. For the rear axle I used a Dodge Super Bee Dana 60, because that axle is also used in 3/4 and 1 ton truck applications with eight-bolt axles. The wheels are resin copies from the old MPC Dodge 4x4, and the tires are (I think) from an old 1:20 scale MPC Popcorn Wagon kit. Springs are '41 Chevy 1/2 ton truck units.

"If it doesn't stick that tells you there's something wrong with your paint job, not our perfect, godlike decal film."

The few that made it to 60,000 were pretty much guaranteed to be good cars. My uncle had one with well over twice that- he finally got rid of it because the body was shot. He worked for the Olds plant in Lansing from '66 until '96 (it became an engine plant later on, IIRC), but almost all the cars he's ever owned were Buicks. But yeah, his was more the exception than the rule.

Many good points Charlie. I'd love to see them at least provide some deeper interior tubs, when and if at all possible. I'd also be all for seeing a decent rendition of a second-gen AMC V8, and please, get rid of that 22 caliber bullet hole in the block for clearing the monster axle! If it's possible to use thinner, preferably metal, axles, or some kind of 'plug' that fits into the chassis and still has a mounting pin for the wheel/tire assembly, I'd love to see that. Oh- and if the '60 Plymouth wagon kit ever comes back.... inner front fenders, PLEASE!

You mean after I stop chopping them into pieces and build one box stock? (Wow- hurts my head saying 'box' and 'stock' in the same breath.)

Never had any issues with the Lean Burn Mopars myself, but I had family members who LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED their 350 diesels. (And by loved I mean loathed.) My neighbor had a Cutlass Ciera with the V6 diesel and he never had a problem with it, but the 350s seemed like a 50/50 shot as far as dependability went.

Hey, that gives me an idea.... Post-apocalyptic General Lee. I might just build one of those, if for no other reason than to troll Danno!

Arrrrrrrrrrghhhh! Danno got in before I could post "Wait for it.... wait...for...it...."

For some reason I thought it was an E-type Jag, but now that it's been positively ID'd as a Vette it's so obvious!

SC Rambler, if the tooling is as bad as last go round. That's about it for me.

Simple fact is, not everybody is going to buy five or ten of the same kit. BUT, and this is an extreme case- one guy might buy 20 of one kit, then that would compensate for the guys who bought one or none of the kit. I've done that (though never all 20 at once), and I know a guy who literally has a 4 x 8 storage shed crammed floor to ceiling, wall to wall with nothing but Kenworth truck kits. I do think many of us (if not all of us) are guilty of buying multiples, but the thing is, not everybody is going to buy a kit of a 1956 Whachamacallit no matter how nice that kit may be, because it simply isn't their thing.

Weird this came up- I was just thinking of making a trailer load for the '65 Chevy dually I've had on the back burner earlier today, so I can finally call that 'quick project' a done deal!

I think what really killed SATCO's product line was that the LHD versions they did sell had the poorly done resin parts. Add to that the fact that SATCO never was very good at following through on new product, and I think those aspects created the lack of interest in their subjects. And if interest was lukewarm to begin with... well, there you have it.

LeBaron? Maybe. I'd prefer an earlier, RWD model, but I know some would be falling all over themselves for the K-Car convertible version. Bustleback Seville? Not for me, but that's not to say nobody would buy one. Plodge Granfifthlomat? Sign me up for any of them. I'm sure the cop car guys would love a Dippy sedan. How many movies made between about 1978 and 1992 did NOT have a fleet of these things as cop cars? AMC Eagle? I'd be in for one, but I think that one might be a bit too hip for the room, even now. The last Hurst Olds? If you ask me, any good kit of a G-body GM coupe would sell well. I'm convinced the only reason these haven't sold well in the past is because the existing kits are a- unfortunate products of the era which produced them (MPC Monte Carlo... and it could be argued that one is the 'wrong year' by many anyway) or b- pure junk (Trumpeter '78 Monte Carlo). Now, the later Monogram Montes did fare pretty well, but they were better kits than the MPC. I'm still a little miffed at Revell for never releasing that '87 Cutlass from a few years back- the tooling for that could have made a pretty cool little Hurst/Olds replica.

Ford never worked out the bugs with the EEC III engine management setup, from what I'm told. When I bought my '81 Lincoln Town Car in the late 1990's, my auto shop teacher (who had been a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury tech at the time) was mortified. He told me the system was no good when the cars were new, and he doubted that 18 years and 74,000 miles had done much good for it. Mine also had issues with the electronic dashboard. Sure, much of that could be attributed to a nearly twenty year old car simply showing its age, but he told me that when people asked him about buying a new Lincoln (or any other FoMoCo product of the era), he specifically told them to avoid ANYTHING with the digital dash. GM seemed to stick with junk (or at least questionable) electronics well into the '80's. Anybody remember Vic? You know, the 'Visual Information Center' used in certain models of the Olds Toronado? Just about all the magazine reviews of the era on that car reviewed the car itself favorably, but reccomended you steer clear of any equipped with VIC if you were interested in buying one. And don't get me started on the talking Chryslers...

A bit off topic, but I wonder- the tires on the Monogram Black Widow reissue are very nice, but a bit too large for most applications, diameter wise. I'd love to see them tool up a set of tires like that in a size more close to what's used on the existing Deuce kits.

I goofed on the year- mine's a '70 as well. Must have been thinking of the Revell kit. Mine's molded in white, but has the barcode. I think that came in the late '80's, a few years before Seville took over.

Guess I hadn't considered the retail cost- I was just kind of assuming an MSRP of around twenty bucks or so. Kind of scares me, the idea of Trumpeter selling 5,000 of any of its car kits. Moebius? Hoping they sell 15,000 each of their current and upcoming auto kits.