Chuck Most

That's another thing I've never seen a specific figure about- how many sales means it's a hit? How many is the break-even point? How low do sales have to be for a kit to be considered an epic fail? And who really knows how many active modelers there really are. I don't recall seeing 'model car building' on any census form I've ever looked at.

You do know that faulty Cadillac engine came out in 1981, right? 1981 isn't the '70's. Not that it matters too much, but I don't think the '80's were much better than the '70's as far as automotive quality, yet those vehicles don't get heaped with the same amount of scorn for whatever reason.

Hey, if you already have the Turbine and Cutlass kits on your pile, I'll gladly take 'em off your hands. I have neither of those in my stash, they'll be tossed on my pile as soon as they're available.

And, just coming from the viewpoint of a guy who was born three years after the '70's ended, let me just say this- I've only heard hear-say about how terrible cars of that era were. But you know what? Cars of the earlier decades really weren't that much better from a quality standpoint. Mile-wide panel gaps, ill fitting body panels, mismatched paint with dirt flecks in it, questionable engineering... none of this stuff began (or ended) in the '70's.

x3 Can't say my heart is aflutter for a '71 Riv, but a Connie Mk III I can totally get behind. And again- I'd be happy to see reissues of existing kits. Wasn't there a Volare Road Runner at one point, and a late '70's Pontiac Lemans? Heck, what ever happened to the Pontiac Ventura based on the AMT '69 Nova tool? As far as as 'safe' subject goes, I do see the logic there, but still there will come a point when every possible first-gen Camaro, tri-five Chevy, Mustang, Corvette, and Deuce that can be kitted, will be kitted. Where do you go from there? Now, as far as I'm concerned, subjects like the '50 Olds are fantastic choices. I really think that kit will do well, and if it's sucessful it could open the door to all sorts of other possible early '50's GM products based on that kits tooling. Then again, it might just mean a few variations on the '50 Olds kit. There's certainly room on my self for several variants of a '50 Olds, that I can tell you. Moebius could spin quite a few late '50's kits off their upcoming Chrysler tool, given that kit does well. I think it will. At the other end of the spectrum, you have a kit like the Hudson Hornet by Moebius. Using that tooling means you can only make more Hudson variants (which Moebius is already set up to do with the upcoming Tim Flock '52 stock car and the convetible version of the '53). I'm still not as convinced as some that selecting a Hornet as a kit subject was as bold and brash as some think. For a newcomer to the car kit industry, perhaps, but the fact is the Hornet has been on the most wanted lists of a lot of modelers for a long time. So I guess I see the good and the bad. I'm glad to see that the kit manufacurers are taking a few chances. I'm glad to see that the new tool stuff coming out isn't all muscle cars, and the rest isn't barely-rehashed reissues. But I do hope the manufacurers don't stay stuck in a pre''73 world forever. There's still quite a bit of earlier stuff that would do well in kit form, but ignoring entire genres and generations of vehicles because those subjects haven't done well in the past does not seem like a great idea to me.

Cool- that works too! I'm thinking of doing one chopped with slanted b-posts and custom side trim. If I get really ambitious I might section one. Not sure how workable that would be on a 1:1 Hudson being a unibody, but in scale I figure why not give it a go?

The more of these I see built up only guarantees that I'll be buying several of these kits!

No, sorry- its been years since I've looked at an Orange Crate kit. Thats the one Deuce kit I don't have an abundant supply of on hand. That's another thing the good old days did have over today- I get that tire markings are a thorny subject, but could we at least get something that kinda/sorta looks realistic? Pleeeeze?

Nice save. The paint scheme, the side pipes, the wheels- just looks perfect on that body.

Why???? Don't they AT LEAST have something close already in the tooling banks?

I do have to give Revell a little credit for at least trying- the last couple of Deuce kits were a bit closer to being traditional, at least as far as looks go. They're still modern street rods under the skin, but Revell does seem to know how to make them look good.

If you need some people to storm their office building, sign me up!

Somebody at a model company has actually considered kitting a coupe express????

Wait... WHAT?

It will go bad after a while- how long that is depends on conditions. Most of the stuff I've bought says it is best kept in a cool, dry place. I know humidity will kill it pretty fast- learned that the fun way.

That's a killer chop. What are your plans with the b-pillars- vertical or slanted?

Wow! That's NOT the one I saw in SAE. Keeping my fingers crossed it's resin.

Al Gore is the root of all problems online. He invented it all, if you recall. :P :P

Depends on how bad you want a Scout SSII I guess. Last I knew it was still available. In fact, my orange one is still up on their gallery page.

Orange one actually is a resin transkit by Time Machine Resins- body, interior tub/chassis (its molded as one piece on this kit), seats, and grille. Even using a transkit, it pretty much fell together.

Yep.

An in-scale ashtray, filled with scale cig butts and ash. I must say, that's the first time I've seen THAT.

I actually plan to backdate the Revell street rods to a more late '50's early '60's style, when/if I locate a few.

LOVE the bobtail Scout II pickup. Forgot I had an El Camino, too...

AND- for the price of one of these, I could have bought three or four hypothetical Coupe Express kits. And then chopped, hacked, and kitbashed to my little heart's content.