Dave Van

I have met and worked at some level with all the folks in control at model companies today. ALL of them are doing their best to walk that line between wants and what will sell. ALL of them put 100% into the hobby. I don't always agree with them myself......but they are playing with their own money so they make the call.....don't like it??? Take a large fortune, a year or two, LOTS of work ( a few trips to China or where ever) and produce a kit......prove them wrong!

My answers would echo pretty much whats been posted already......I'll ad a few notes. 1. Mass market like vinyl and it's easier to mold and manufacture. 2. Try and run a small business, real job, family life, cut the grass etc etc. Not enough minutes in a day. 3. As stated been tried....didn't work. BUT I too love tractors and construction equipment. I found a R/C off road Quarry dump truck. It's 1/25 scale (still BIG) decent detail and weathered.....makes a nice model! I also have a few of the die cast models. One is a dual engined CAT scraper...another huge model....and one reason we don't have many kits. There are shovels and bulldozers, backhoes etc made......many in 1.25 but lots of other scales too. Lindberg did 3 kits in smaller scales....the scraper is cool....don't have the others.....for as rare as the kits are....not expensive. And then there's always toys you can convert............

The AM McLaren kit is a great little kit. It got somewhat slammed when it came out due to the vinyl braided lines. I build a number of the kits for AM. I was living in Charlotte and knew most of the folks there....so they had me build a few kits for hobby shows and some went to the UK for McLaren home office. You can see on this build the fuel injector lines are missing....as they were on all my builds. The engine cover interfered with them if you used them. It's too bad the kit will never be seen again....although id you really want one you can still find them. This kit was the first kit in a planned series of roadracers......but the only one made. From what I understand the tooling was scrapped after AM went under so a short lived kit for sure. The 'new' AM located in Concord had a box of parts bags, enough to make 3-4 complete kits....they were tossing them so I grabbed them. But still burnt out on all those I built before. NICE to see someone do a great job on one......

When did BP buy Castrol??? Or has it always been this way??? I use Valvoline but Castrol is 2nd choice. Dad worked for Valvoline for 25 years that helps but they do have a good product.

I always thought the Thunderbird was the worst of the 3 but I did not know the Mercury had the incorrect front end!! Great work!

I am neither pro or anti WM......but they seem a little......dumb for better term. At the store closet to me....no plastic kits at all. Only big store in 2000 square miles....busy place. At the store 1.5 hours away in bigger city......models at WM. The store is across the street from Hobby Lobby and there is a hobby shop in town. So where there is no competition, they could own 100% of sales, no models. Where they have a number of other sellers...models. I don't get it.

WOW!!! Cool work! I remember those kits....never picked them up...other than the 77 T-Bird. Call me odd but I'd buy that kit or a cloned 1/25 version today!

Thanks Harry for re-posting my info. I knew it was an old thread....but it kept popping up in the 'My content' and I felt the need to reply for some reason. Again thanks

Well.....it's a matter of point of view. Accurate about the info.......maybe at the time. I do know Accurate Miniatures had many planned kits in the pipeline. They had some fantastic people on staff. If you own a B-25 kit from the Concord era of AM I packed it. I got to help out time to time because my brother in law was a primary staff member of AM at the time, in fact two of my brother in laws, my kids, my nephew all put in time there. AM had one of the all time best kit designers. Many of you know who I am talking about. He had already designed a 1/18 die cast Cobra Daytona so he had the info on hand and it just needed to be modified to a design for a 1/24 scale plastic kit. All was roiling along well........ Then my brother in law passed very unexpectedly. He was only 49 and in very good health. He got sick and dies 3 days later. This was a huge blow to the AM team. It caused, in my opinion, everyone at AM to look at themselves and their life. The kit designer left and moved back to his home state, and doing well today BTW. This pretty much caused the remaining AM staff to split up and go separate ways....and all the planned 'stuff' just went away. As you know Revell bought the leftover GS Vette kits, reboxed them and sold out quick. The rest of the kits went to MRC as the guy there was a ex Revell guy and knew the AM guys. The tooling....not 100% sure but I bet we never see the cars, Vette and NASCAR Taurus again. So the info was correct at the time.....but as the saying goes.....'Life happens'. Thought maybe enough time had passed I could tell what I know anyway. Thanks

As soon as I saw the kits you were using......I said 'why didn't I think of that!!!!'.....cool

The 53 Chevy looks OK.....but I bet a Monogram 1/24 scale kit was used as reference! It has the exact same look.....just a percent or two off!

Scale??? Unless it's 1/24-5 I'll pass.....how do you guys keep more than a few 1/18???

Very nice work! I was allowed to help out on this project......an d the Flock's were a neighbor in Charlotte.....so I am happy to see such a neat and clean build!

Saw a promo on Speed the other day for the 'Hooters Girls hooters contest'.....how the mighty have fallen.....

Vote for Solvaset here. To add to Art's good post.......... Walter's was the first to offer decal setting fluid. They were also one of the very first decal manufactures for the hobby industry. Walther's has been in business since 1932 and has always served the hobby field with major support of model railroading. They started their decal business in the late 1930's! So they have some experience with decals and in fact it's how I learned to apply decals from the instructions in their decal catalog. (they had so many decals it had it's own catalog) Sadly today Walthers no longer has a decal catalog and only has what's left of NOS. But using the method they taught me back in the 1960's I stick with what works. More decal history than you ever wanted..... PS....you can mail order it direct or most hobby shops with trains carry it.

Keep hearing rumors it will be re-popped someday......

Real or not......COOL!!!!

Gotta love an AMC!!! Nice work.

If they only knew.........

Mainly because once you squeeze into the seat...no room for window winder handles!!!!

Very nice work!!! Are we the only two with sealed 69 Ambassador kits!?!?!? I have yet to get the guts to open mine. I am an AMC guy but paid $9 for my kit.....thought I'd flip it....but can't let it go. Thanks for the build....at least I know what the kit looks like!!!

My brother in law had a Europa John Player SPL black and gold. He put gold mini-lites on it. GREAT looking car, fantastic to drive...a bit quirky.....the cars were hand built and when you worked on them you could see hand welds and hammer marks on the chassis!! Bodies were hand laid glass. Not a car I'd want to get in a crash with....the wishbone chassis had almost ZERO side protection for passengers. That and the car ATE power window motors!!

And with the kit coming back....I may build it or something like it.

Owning 2 AMC's now and having owned MANY others......I am happy. True....a early model would be good....but in talking with R2 it may happen if we buy this one....like other 70's era kits sitting in the vault. AMC was on the verge of breaking out......they had a mini van in the design stage that might mean we would have AMC today and NOT Chrysler !!!! And what they did with no cash and using parts bin design is amazing! (Javelin used the same glass and door skins from 68 to 74 but you can't really tell!!!)