Chuck Most

They changed the front end to the '78 style, but if I remember they didn't re-do the taillights. Maybe they did at some point but yours appears to have the '78 style grille but lacks the wraparound tail lights that the later 1:1 cars had. So if it comes back as a reissue it'll basically be the kit you have.

Very nice. It's amazing what a simple wheel/tire swap will do for this kit!

Forgot about that! Sometimes those guide pins will shear, but sometimes they'll put some serious dings in the tool.

I love it- and I also love the fact you kept it all Johan. I think this is the first one in years I've seen that didn't have an AMT '68 chassis under it. As nice as the full detail jobs can be it's also cool to see a nice example of how they started.

Yep- I work in the injection molding industry (not model kits, though ) and 50,000 units from one mold is actually pretty tame. Yes, molds do wear out from use, and not just from friction- when that press closes those mold halves are under anywhere from five to three hundred tons of clamping pressure, depending on size of the mold, size of the molded part, viscosity of the compound being used, etc. . I'm guessing that a part just molding plastic would be less susceptible to damage than a rubber part which requires a metal insert, like what I deal with at work. If one of those inserts is misaligned it can damage the mold. You'd never know from looking at it, but a .030" thick pressed-steel insert can dent a solid steel mold when you're dealing with those kinds of clamping pressures. A good die setter can fix that, but still not something you want to happen to a quarter-million-dollar chunk of steel! I've learned that the injection molding process is almost equal parts science and art. Sometimes the machine/mold/compound combination just doesn't want to cooperate, and it takes a little skill with making adjustments to get everything humming along in harmony.

Last time I was at Dean's he had the crew cab 4x4 in stock- the one with the factory wheels and tires.

Thanks guys. Now if only there were a kit of the '99-'02 style.

I toyed with the idea of doing an external cage with spare tire carriers and a roof rack but ended up scrapping the idea. It looked rather clunky, and I wanted those pointy Cadillac quarter panels to remain fully visible.

Thanks for the idea Those seem to be a "readily available but rarely-seen-built" kind of kit. This one's still front-drive. Always expect the unexpected. I also like THAT idea. While this potential caster was at it, some of the kit's many shortcomings could be taken care of.

I'll get some pics of a 4BT when I get a decent looking one built. This one is essentially a Chevy Stovebolt with some stuff stuck to the top and sides to make it look like a 4BT. I more or less used another model as a pattern... http://www.modeltruckbuilder.com/index.php?/gallery/album/11-cummins-powered-50-chevy/ Mine's not quite as thorough a conversion as his.

Not too shabby for a first attempt. Well... I guess shabby is the point when you're weathering. You know what I mean.

Love it, love it, love it. Good thing you can't outrun a radio. I'm wondering when Round 2 will reissue these- they've been on a roll lately with the long-lost late '70's and early '80's MPC releases!

I get what you're saying. You might like the first one I did a bit better. If I ever find another one of these I might try some of the custom parts on it. Like you said, there won't be another '70 Eldorado kit, so I'm going to enjoy 'em.

I'd normally agree with you, but in the case of this particular kit... if this one was representative of all of these kits the fact that it will never come back might be a good thing. Half of the parts to the (Oldsmobile) engine were short shot, the chassis was warped into a frowny-face, there was so much excess plastic on the bottom of the firewall it looked like an old open-mold resin casting, and the chrome plating was thick and blotchy (though that last problem may have been due to age). The decals are awful, though that's true of almost every Johan kit I've ever had. The first one I built was the same, minus the short shot engine parts. All things considered, this one can stay dead. I'd gladly take the Toronado though, even if it shares the same maladies as the Eldo.

So... here's the idea. An abandoned old custom Merc project revived with a Cummins 4BT engine and 3/4 ton running gear. To that end, I cobbled up a 4BT by starting with the block from a Revell '41 Chevy pickup, and 8-bolt wheels from Scenes Unlimited fitted with SATCO Dunlop tires. The stock Mercury suspension is still there underneath but it's the look that matters this time. Other than some cutting and repositioning to house the engine and the fender-exit exhaust, the basic Revell kit was just built out of the box.

I have (well, had) a couple of incomplete Johan '70 Eldorado kits laying around. I built one as a junked-out stocker, and disposed of the other one by doing it as a Wasteland Weekend cruiser. I lifted the suspension and used wheels and tires from a Revell '77 GMC, lights and a few other doodads from an Italeri truck accessories kit, and a resin skull to decorate the hood. The other items were modified from kit parts or made from scratch.

I bought this Revell Cougar some time ago as a parts donor, and decided to use the rest as a junker. To that end, body damage was added, a mismatched set of wheels was fitted, and the entire car was hosed off in a dull backyard blue paint job. It's a decent companion to the Rotten Pumpkin '73 Cougar I built a few years back.

Yes, yes, and yes... though that last one may be a bit iffy because Fred retired about a decade ago. The sheet came with graphics for both SC/Rambler color schemes, several scripts, air cleaner graphics, and things like that. I had a pic of the sheet at one point but I can't seem to find it. I nabbed that sheet off ebay for about ten bucks a few years back.

That's not a model, it's a family artifact. FYI- The latest reissue of the NASCAR Coke stock car has the stock grille, as well as many of the stock engine parts. That's the one with the model photoshopped onto a race track on the box, the earlier one with the plain grey background does not contain the unused stock parts.

Yeah- this kit is garbage. But you wrung a pretty nice model out of it. I had one I had grand plans for- Fred Cady decals, some nice aftermarket red line tires, the works. I ended up starting to make it into a drag car because I realized I'd never be happy with the results.

I had so much fun building the Pinto 4x4 wagon, I decided to try another one. The MPC body was cut down into a pickup body style, and perched on top of a Revell Bronco chassis. The Bronco 302 was retained but the EFI setup from a '92 Mercury Cougar was added. The plow is from the '77 GMC, and the '77 Arctic Cat El Tigre 6000 is from the Ice Patrol Jeep pickup.

They toned it down somewhat. That's actually refreshing for a change. It's still a bit "in your face", it's a Ram and that's kind of the point, but it's already less eyesore-inducing than the previous gen. I just don't want to know the MSRP...

I've got a few sets of the old solid AMT Firestones to use instead

So, it's the Texaco version with new decals and retouched box art? Sigh... I'm a tad let down but I think I'll probably still get one.

Yes and no, kinda. The chassis, axles, inner wheels, and a few other doodads are shared, but most everything else is unique to each version. The Daisy Duke Jeep is closer to a '55-'69 CJ-5 with the F-Head "Hurricane" engine. I think at one point that kit did contain parts to build it as a military M38, some of them might still be lurking around as spares in the Daisy Duke version.