Chuck Most

Any of the three would make them happy- a few of them wouldn't mind a Nissan Titan. And you did touch on one BIG stumbling block for a truck kit (you did leave out two or four wheel drive, though ). But even then- a crew cab shortbed kit could share a chassis and quite a few parts with a reg cab long bed. Since most ot today's 'hot selling' kits these days are modified retools of other kits, why not create a platform that you can dip back into for future issues? Revell has proven themselves quite adept at that the last few years, I'm sure the other manufacturers could follow suit. But to answer your question- the easiest thing to do would be to produce a crew cab short bed variant. That seems to be the most common type of pickup on the road today,and the hardcore guys can cut down the cab to create an extended or regular cab and use the old cab section to lenthen the bed. And even if only one body style pr make was kitted, it wouldn't take more than a few months for the resin guys to offer up variants. And I'd be happy seeing more curbside style kits- since when has it been chiseled into rock that a kit MUST HAVE full engine and chassis detail? Everybody seems to hem and haw over the latest Tamiya or Fujimi whatchamacallit, and they are good kits, but the majority of them are curbsides. If somebody kitted, say, an F-250 Harley Edition and it was a curbside with sealed hood and coster chassis, you'd hear no complaints at all from me about it.

Maybe you could grind material off the frame rails. This would enable you to move the axle ahead, and you could modify the suspension so the axle doesn't fit to the frame, if you're one of the guys who's put off by that aspect of the kit. Not sure how you'd solve the axle yoke issue- you might be able to trim it a bit, or deepen the rear of the drivetrain hump with a file to gain clearance. I have a Hornet I plan to lower, and I'm thinking of cutting off the top of the trans tunnel and replacing it with a thinner piece of plastic in order to gain some extra driveshaft clearance.

Well, just because someone's an accountant doesn't mean they're capable of providing sound advice for a business (cough, cough, Government Motors).

I've heard that as well.It was mentioned that the Rambler, Cutlass, and snap Turbine are being reissued first because the tooling is in good shape (and they even managed to provide some Olds Rallys for the Cutlass). Being that there is talk of refreshing/replacing molds if demand arises, I'm just hoping they keep molding quality in mind.

At least he builds something other than Asian econo-boxes. EDIT: Forgot

I'd still have to say there'd be much more demand for a contemporary pickup than, say, a '50 Olds or a base-model '57 Ford (and yes, I do intend on buying those kits when/if Revell puts them out). When the kit manufacturers milk the last drop out of their tooling dollars and don't have anything left, I'm sure they'll wish they'd diversified their selections just a tad.

Just plain love it.

That's probably a good thing- I had one of the Seville-era reissues, and every part that wasn't warped or short-shot was plauged with thick flash. And the sad part was Seville actually was said to have 'cleaned up' the tooling before that run. Basically the cleanup amounted to softening the script detail and losing the door sill engraving altogether, as far as I could see. That reminds me- IMC? Please don't bother with reissuing the kit if the tooling is truly shot. I'd love to see the SC Rambler make a comeback, but if it's as nighmarish as the last reissue was molding quality-wise, I'll pass.

Respecfully disagree with you on that one. But I'll subsitute your '53 Hudson' with '72 Olds Cutlass convertible. I mean, really, I don't recall seeing that one on anybody's most wanted list, and look at both releases of it fly off the shelf. (And I'm one of the guys who never saw it coming, never really wanted one in kit form, and still bought five of them.)

Say huh? EVERY Deuce kit I've ever built came with fenders.

Sorry- EVERYBODY I know wants more light truck kits. That's 100% of whatever demographic I'm in. And judging from what I've read here and other forums, it isn't just a 'Central Michigan' thing. As far as the model company's research teams not seeing the numbers- likely the cause of that is they're too busy thinking of ways to tart up their existing '57 Chevy,'32 Ford, '69 Nova and first-gen Camaro kits to see the forest past the trees.

Personally, if there were never another new kit introduced of a Formula 1 car, '57 Chevy, Corvette, or Ferrari, I couldn't care less. I know those are all hot sellers, but you won't find any on my workbench, unless they're being used as parts donors. I would also like to see more modern cars- the thing is, which ones do you kit? Seems like 40 years ago, kitting a compact (Pinto, Vega, Gremlin, etc.) was fairly popular, but for some reason I can't see a kit of a modern-day Kia Rio or Chevy Cobalt selling nearly as well. The luxury and performance cars would be a safe bet- but all three of the American Ponycars are available in kit form (or will be once the Revell Camaro comes out) and just about every variaton of the Corvette has been kitted. And I'm only reffering to American manufacurers here to simplify things. There's a huge untapped market for CURRENT light truck kits that isn't being filled, and I'm personally not buying the 'not enough demand' thing. If there is demand for oddball stuff like a base model Chevy sedan with no backseat, there's a market for 1/2 ton pickups.

I didn't overtly mention that, but that was one of what I consider to be one of the side-effects of the mainstream retailers dropping hobby kits. The 'hardcore' guys have been embracing it for years, and I know of quite a few guys who started going to hobby shops and online sources for kits and supplies after the big box stores dropped them and discovered model car aftermarket parts there. There is more resin, photoetch, and aftermarket details out now than any other time in history. That is another aspect of the hobby that has grown and improved as the hobby has become, shall we say, more 'specialized'. Even if you discount new styrene kits, there is a huge array of kits and subjects available from the aftermarket concerns.

Gorgeous! Man, I've got to stop raiding these kits for parts and build one some day!

Made a finned cylinder head for a 308 six- the engine may well end up sprouting a Paxton blower or twin turbos in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future.

Oh, I did get a couple of kits today, but I'm sworn to secrecy on that. You'll find out shortly what it was I got, though!

The thought of filling the tank is what sends shivers up my spine! Mostly because it would need topped off every five minutes.

I stumbled across a website a couple years ago that was filled with all kinds of abandoned Trabants. Evidently, after communism fell apart, a lot of Trabant owners simply abandoned the cars wherever they pleased. Seems a little odd to just abandon a car you waited ten years to get, even it it was a total junker!

Yeah... I'm talking as far as 'Revell kits of said go'....

Christian, not to completely disregard everything else you said in your post (which I really enjoyed reading, by the way), but I think that last paragraph there absolutely nailed it as far as the current situation with the model car hobby goes. The market has changed. That has already happened in the world of Military, aircraft, and shipping modeling, and guess what happened? Those three genres are much more diverse, and the quality of the models built even to out of box standards, are leaps and bounds above what they were when those kits were geared to 'kids'. It just seemed it took longer for that shift to happen in the auto modeling arena than in other areas of scale modeling. Someone mentioned the big box stores turning their backs, for the most part, on model car kits being a factor. I agree with that- while I won't argue that a great many of us purchased kits at Mallwart and other such locations, we always went to the hobby shops because they had the GOOD stuff. Now the hobby shops do the lions share of the sales, and the lunatics are running the asylum. Yeah, prices have increased, but quality and selection is better than ever, and improving all the time. Everyone refers to the late '80's/early '90's period as 'The Second Golden Age of Modeling'. I think we're well poised to see the beginning of the third.

I'd have to second the motion on the new tool Revell Willys kits- both the drag and street rod versions. They assemble so easily its almost like they assemble themselves, and you're just kind of guiding things along. The old AMT kits with the one-piece undercarriage and metal axles fore and aft have never given me any fits, either.

Doug- have you ever checked out Dean's Hobby Stop? When he gets them in, the sealed ones sell for 35-40.

I think the Buick will be the first one I start working on