Dave Van

Nice work on one of my favorite models!!! Anyone remember these kits were announced as Monogram 1/24 kits but ended up as Revell 1/25 after the merger??

hmmmmm....where's that vintage Revell 250 GTO I have.....

Owning a 1/1 Matador I can say you nailed it!!!! And an FYI this odd duck is a really great car. Mine has huge sway bars front and rear and the AMC V-8 and big disk brakes makes it fun to drive over some other cars of the era......COOL

Returning to the classics Ira!!!! The first article that I really followed in the old model magazines was CM Moonscope 1 conversion. That started me on a trend with me to today...... Funny

From producing NASCAR kits??? It was a vastly different time. No real numbers are out there....but rumor has it Monogram kit #2900 DE Sr Monte Carlo SS sold over 500,000 kits alone. I know for a fact at our retail store we ordered 5-6 cases of that kit alone every Monday....for YEARS. So that one kit pretty much paid for the tooling. Today if a kit is a success when the first run of 10,000 sells out in 6 months. Basic economics. Hobby wise what happened in 1983 is no longer valid today. Remember those private issue limited edition NASCAR kits that only 25,000 were made?!?!?!?! Today 3,000 is considered limited and some of those do not sell out.....believe me I know!

If there was money to be made....we'd have a current NASCAR kit. It's that easy. I lived in Charlotte NC for over 30 years......I was involved in NASCAR licensing and hobby manufacturing during the mega boom. I'd buy kits of current NASCAR racers......but the licensing fees are not the number one reason for no kits.....NASCAR wants a new kit....so do many others.....but the bean counters do not see a profit in the kit....and there is a chance the car will be 100% different the day the kit hits the shelves....killing your investment. Another reason no kit.....look at current new kits.....most of the new tooling have 3-4 version built in.....some have as many as 12 possible versions built in. (Moebius Hudson 52 stock, 52 racer, 53 stock, 53 racer, and????!) A NASCAR kit has one option....Ford, Chevy and Toyota nose and hood.....but the kit as a whole doesn't have multiple years and models in it......manufactures need to spread the cost of a new tool across many kits. The money is just not there in a current NASCAR kit....that may change at any time....but not this week.

My Ford motor.....rest of the project is stalled......

Nice work...I have a resin Hornet Pro Stock to build..... V-8 in a Hornet would have been a 304 ....decent little motor.... I had a 77 Hornet AMX with 304 3 spd auto.

Here is mine I built in 2010. The old Revell worn out kit. Need to build again with a modern kit......

I like the thinking at least.......do something different.....no one takes any risks....

My hobby trade show story........... I was attending a trade show. This was in the 1990's so a while back....when the trade shows were important! We would spend two days at the show. We would stop and talk to many for the reps from companies we dealt with or bought from. We stopped at one booth....a vendor we bought a lot of stuff from. It was busy but our rep was expecting us. After all the walking....we needed to sit down. Short one chair I saw a stack 10 feet away...same chairs in the booth. When I touched a chair in the stack a guy came running up yelling I can't do that. The show floor was a union show as they say.....and this guy had to select a chair and carry it for me the 10 feet. I said thanks....and sat down. The guy hung around for a while.....but finally walked off.....I was told later he was waiting for a tip!!! Frank Winspur is a smart man. If he feels that money is better spent at an event like Toledo (they were there in 13) then he knows what he is talking about. Trade shows are about done for the hobby market....the cost to benefit ratio is not there considering how much it costs to do the same on the net.......

I can see some 'flying' Ashland Oil decals on it.......Dad had one job after college with Ashland.....I have a few builds that would be another cool one! NICE work!

Very cool........I have a 66 Mustang 2+2 but I'd almost rather have a nice Maverick. In HS my now wife drove a Maverick bodied Comet......not as good looking....but I'd still have it too!

If it's only happening to one or two out of a large collection it's a bad batch of metal. In the model train hobby a few years ago whoever was supplying the metal to the train manufacture provided some tainted material. On a set of passenger cars one set of wheels would crumble and break while the other set was fine on the same car! Traced back to a bad batch of metal......manufacture had to replace them all. Nothing you can do now....

Very nice work!!! Whos resin kit???

I can't say right now.......the brand is on the center cap....but I am drawing a blank right now.....and I ain't going out to the barn tonight to find out!!! But I will.....Thx

Funny how many of us share history.......... Late 1962 Dad took delivery of a brand new Lark wagon with the retracting roof. Dad bartered it from Andy Granatelli of STP......Dad was racing director of Valvoline at the time....Andy was getting Studebaker cars in place of stock dividends....he used many....sold or traded the others. Loved that car......rode from CA to WV twice in it.....I was in charge of the swamp cooler!!!! We went to Holley House drive in to eat 3-4 times a month......I remember the cup 'holders' on the glove box door!!!

Here in West Virginia we have classic car tags. They are good for 10 years. You can run them on your car or just carry them in it. You can then use a WV tag from the year your car was made. I have a 73 WV tag for my Javelin. Classic cars do not require inspections but have some limits on the amount you drive them. But they are not real tough on the limits......they just don't want to see you driving your Classic tagged car everyday all year.....which I wouldn't anyway!

Well....well....worth the wait.........

Biz has been good of late per my wholesale hobby buddy......looking up I'd say.

I do not understand the infatuation with corn produced ethanol......It is not environmentally friendly, cost efficient, it's not good for cars or people. But it has allowed artificially high prices for corn and thus an excuse for a increase in anything that might cross paths with corn.....food, transportation etc etc. At some place and time we will look back at this like we do the traveling medicine man. IF, and I say IF......ethanol is the solution (not saying it is) look to Brazil and their use of sugar cane and grasses to make it.

Nice build!!!! I have the kit....weather I'll ever get around to it?????

Just cool!

I do a lot of test fitting while I can. If there is an issue I can't find or fix I remove the mounting pin or whatever, set the model on a flat surface and epoxy the one wheel one so all touch the ground.

IIRC.....these are the Revell parts pack Pontiac's.......They have a great effort at being detailed...but they are so old....they come off OK. Odd parts break down. I stripped most of the chrome. Just OK.... Note that the headers do not line up with exhaust....but being a showrod.....would not be the first time!!!