SteveG

If your planing to detail this kit out, Keith Marks has a great looking Charger Super Bee SRT8 decal sheet and lots of refefence photos like the samples belows. Click on the link for a look at his decals and more photos Decals and photos from Keith Marks -Steve

Bob, The O.D. of the wheels are .905 and the I.D. of the tires are about .866 so I would say they are pretty close to scale 20's. The tires are definately lower profile then the R/T version and don't have that heavy edge tread either. No release date on the Police Version but I was assured they are still coming. I'm going to try to beg, borrow or steal a test shot of one as soon as they run them. -Steve

This just arrived at my door step. Here's a quick look at some of the kit contents....... For more photos check out the link below. More Charger Super Bee SRT8 photos -Steve

Thanks for your nice report on the show, one addition to the Lindberg list. They are bringing back the 1/12th scale Fiat Hot Rod kit. I can promise there will be no more "Flower Power" decals in this version. -Steve

I this the one ? -Steve

I had a great time in Chicago. I'm still digesting all the info that I got from Lindberg and Revell. It looks like most of the new items have been posted here already. Anyways, I uploaded the photos I took at the Revell and Lindberg booths and posted them to a Fotki Album. Here's a few highlights. Click on the link for more. -Steve I-Hobby Expo photos

... these were both recently on my workbench and should be on display now at the Hawk - Lindberg booth. I was suposed to have an advanced copy of the new items brouchure by today but it never showed. I'll be at the show tomorrow and hopefully I can confirm the latest news from Lindberg along with others like Revell. Look for an update when I get home late Sat. -Steve

Jairus, Unless it's a subject matter you build every day where you have it down to a science, I would have to say it would be a time and material job. What's the going labor rate for a professional artist these days? Are you using Hobby grade paint products or Automotive grade. Go into a PPG jobber (my favorite brand) and price out a quart of high grade primer, a pint of color, a urethane clear coat kit, and the necessary thinners and see what the bill comes too. If I had to ball-park this I'm going to say 8-12 hours for prep, paint and clear and another 4 hours for decals. I would go with at least $200 plus materials. Unless you feel your evening and weekend hours are only worth minimum wage. Personally I think giving up your free time is worth a lot more than that. Which brings me to the big question of what's a professional model builder worth? Do I want to turn a hobby, something I usually do for fun into a paying job which is usually not fun. This something I have been debating for several years. To date, I have refused to sell my work or should I say artwork? All my box art models were only loaned to the "client" with an agreement to be returned undamaged. The only compensation has been sample products and the satisfaction of seeing my work on the shelf in my local hobby shop. Lately I've been spending way more time working on box art, test shots samples, and trade show display models then I have on my own projects and it's starting to feel a lot like a job. I've already got one of those and it's not that fun. Is it time to ask for another paycheck or should I go back to just building my own projects? -Steve

Nicely done Chris, I don't know why I haven't built one of those straight out of the box yet. It's such a nice kit especially considering how old it is. Boy I wish Jo-han was still in business bringing us more subject matter like that. They could have converted the '77 or '78 Deville promo kit into the last of the MM Cadillac Ambulances which I think was called the Lifeliner or something like that. It was much nicer looking then the Superior versions in late 70's -Steve

I just got the word that Lindberg has started shipping out the Raminator and Rammuntion kits. I should have a couple of samples early next week. I see some listed on ebay now and they should be availble at your favorite Hobby Retailer very soon if they don't already have them. -Steve

Here's a close up shot of the front interior. The interior is molded in black plastic. I masked off the floor pan and gave all the interior parts a few coats of Modelmaster Insignia Blue Acryl. It's a flat military color, a good match for dark blue interiors. The divider was painted Steel Metalizer with the padding painted flat black. I then picked out some button details on the equipment console using a toothpick and some red and white paint. I spent the most time on the dash, there is a decal for the gauges. The vents, radio and control areas are all painted flat black. I used some dark brown to simulate the fake wood trim strip across the dash. Last, the CHMSL or "third brake light" got a coat of clear red over a steel base. All the interior detailing took just a few hours. I could easily add some more equipment but I wanted to show what can be done with just the kit parts. -Steve

Fury3, Your are certainly welcome to be in this forum. I will try to contact you off the board to explain my comments and I would be happy to assist you with posting a review on that kit. Steve

Phil, I don't know how you missed it, but all the AMT "Foose" kits were canceled earlier this year shortly after the AMT line was put up for sale. That includes the 70 Cuda. A "Foose" Camaro, and Mustang were also canceled along with the '07 Challenger. Now I have seen a post elsewhere claiming that Revell's revised 70 AAR Cuda is out but I've yet to see that confirmed by anyone. Sorry, no other info on the 71 kit. Steve

I think the folks at Lindberg would be the first to admit that some compromises were made on those kits. If you want to share your opinion here's their customer service email address, feel free to use it. Lindberg Customer Service For what it's worth, they have more versions coming. You can safely bet on a traditional black and white version. And I have been pushing for some updates as well. Here's a couple of photos of my GSP build up in progress. I added some detailing to it. I'll post the completed photos first chance I get. -Steve

You might think I went crazy painting a bunch of old Lindberg Crown Vic kits but these were already painted. These are the latest series of State Patrol kits recently released from Hawk/Lindberg. You can pick from 6 states, Illinois, California, Tennessee, North Carolina, Alabmama and Georgia or get them all as I did. More states are rumored to come. There is also a 7th kit, an "Unmarked" verision which is painted white shown below. Each kit includes the Code 3 MX7000 pre-colored light bar as shown on the box. The State cars all have an appropriate decal sheet. The front door molding is intact unlike the box art photo. As far a I can tell that's only an issue for the CHP car. I've always enjoyed the prepainted models as a quick diversion from bigger projects. I'm plan to build a couple of these the first chance I get. -Steve

There's going to be another issue of the L700 without the trailer later on. I'm 99% sure Tim built that one too. Ernie Petit over at Hawk/Lindberg is following Model King's lead and is giving the builder's credit for there work on the box. -Steve

My source at Lindberg says that they are currently in production. Hopefully I will have a sample to post some photos of in a few weeks if all goes well. -Steve

The bottom of the box has a better picture of the stock '40 Ford that comes with the kit. The "rust bucket" version on the trailer was built by Richard Mellio who is very skilled at weathering. It is shown as inspiration as what could be done with the kit. Other than the decals, it's the same '40 Ford kit as shown in the photo below. -Steve

The Dodge L700 trucks are currently in stock at Hawk/Lindberg and are probably being shipped now. I already have my sample of L-700 combo with Trailer which also includes the '40 Ford kit. You can also get the L-700 kit seperately. I can post a photo and give more details when I get home. -Steve

My source at Hawk Lindberg says they are currently in production (along with some other goodies). Look for them as soon as next month. -Steve

Another great find by Model King ....... well done Dave !!!!

If your talking about the 72 Challenger reissue I'm hoping to see it with the 3rd Qtr releases which should be real soon. Next time I talk to my contact at Hawk/Lindberg I'll see if he knows for sure. Steve

I've been working on these two pre-production kits since early May. I had to wait on the decal sheets to be produced so I could finish them up. A big thanks goes out to James "Moparbuilder" Tester for helping with the paint work on this Monster size project. For more photos and info check out the link below -Steve "Click me!"Sneak peek ....... Lindberg's Dodge Raminator

.... these are now in production and should be available next month. I showed you the test shot last time, well here's the finished kits. I just got the OK today from Ernie to post these. They will be molded in white and clear plastic. Not my usual build but I still had a lot fun putting them together. A big thanks goes out to James "Moparbuilder" Tester for helping with the paint work on this Monster size project. For more photos check out the link below.... -Steve Raminator - Rammunition

Paul, I went back through my reference photos taken at the Hall Bros. shop and compared it to the kit part. I also looked at the Lenco website and some others that sell racing safety gear. It looks to me like the part probably represents a Lenco 2 speed with reverse that is wrapped in a transmission safety blanket. The details for the blanket and straps are visible on the kit part. I supose they could have added some top detail where the linkage would attach at the top which my reference photo shows but it's pretty much hidden by the floor. Other then that it looks pretty acurate to what's in the truck. -Steve