Don Sikora II

Wal-Mart in Somers, Wisconsin, had the Round 2 kits last week. I picked up Grumpy's Toy and the Torque Trike.

I've had great results spraying Testors enamel thinned with the Model Master/Testors airbrush thinner in the larger (6 ounce?) metal can.

If your dad built the car in the late '70s, there's and excellent chance it's a Testors color from the small square 1/4-ounce bottles so I'd start looking there. IIRC Model Master wasn't available in the Seventies and was introduced by Testors around 1983 or '84. Other possibilities would be old Pactra (they had a military line too) or Humbrol colors.

Thanks! I'll have to pick one up.

According to the website, one of the two Wal-Marts near me has this in stock. What part of the store do you find it in? Crafts?

The MPC/AMT Hardcastle and McCormick Coyote is MPC's old '67 Ford GT Mk IV under the skin. The Revell/Fujimi Ford GT40 Mk II kits might be a place to start too.

Last year I built a T-Bucket based on the Revell Hot Rod kit from 1986....which itself is a variant of Roth's Tweedy Pie. I've always liked those Canned Heat scoops and modified a pair of them to work with the dual quads I used on the small-block Chevy in my Corona T.

Sometimes it helps if you cut a small section of the sprue (also known as runner, tree, frame) loose before you cut the gate to the part. The sprue is going to end up in the trash 99% of the time, so cut away at it if it helps you get the parts off in one piece!

It has the early front bumper without the engraved bumper guards too. I'd guess it was built from a rare early-production Jo-Han George Follmer Trans Am racer because of the '72 rear bumper/taillight piece. The Follmer kit was available into the 1980s, but almost all I've seen have the '73/'74 body and bumpers.

The Revell Beetle sedan you posted doesn't include interior door panels. The convertible versions from that same tooling include them, but none of the sedans do.

I'd fill the holes with plugs made from sections of the same kit's runners glued in place with Tamiya liquid cement with the orange cap. That cement is thick but dries hard. When you get the plugs filed down and sanded as best as you can, use as little putty as possible to make perfect. Tamiya putty works great in situations like this.

Very cool build! You're right the Mummy Machine and Raider's Coach had great big n' little Cragars....luckily I scored a few of each very cheap last time they were reissued just for the wheels.

The Cragars are in the ProModeler/Revell '70 Torino GT for sure. I don't think they made it into the Cobra but I'm not positive.

I was in a Hobby Lobby a couple days ago that has the new rack layout and I agree it appears that some Testors sprays are still available. This store had the old "PLA" enamel sprays, Extreme Lacquers, and some other Testors sprays. But as expected there was no Model Master. All the bottles of brush paint I saw were the small square 1/4-ounce size. The store I was at didn't have every spot in the rack full, but the stock situation seemed better than it was on my last visit a few weeks ago.

Fujimi and Esci Mercedes 190E kits are definitely different kits. But, I think Revell-Germany actually issued both of them! The Revell-Germany Kamei kit, #7266 is based the Esci kit with added Kamei parts. Revell-Venice #7455 is for sure the Fujimi kit, and I believe that Revell-Germany #7251 and #7258 are too.

I think some earlier 1/24 Hachette diecasts have resurfaced under the WhiteBox brand from Model Car World in Germany.

I wonder what the Schwinn Krates are. The plastic kits are MPC and 1/8 scale, so there's a very good chance these are something else. Someplace I have a die cast Krate squirreled away....that might have been 1/6. Hmm....

About 10 years ago I bought a cheap reissue Piranha kit in the wrong box from the estate of a Milwaukee-area builder. When I got home and looked closer, I discovered it was a RC2-era test shot and it included the plastic sand tires and flag "pole" thing from the Sandcat. Considering the parts were in the mold when RC2 sampled it, I'd guess that the new reissue will include them too.

I don't know it for a fact, but I think the RC2-era '72 body was newly cut steel rather than a revision of the Ertl '70.

If you have the Tamiya liquid cement with the orange cap, I'd use it. It dries very hard and strong, and once dry sands wonderfully. In situations like this I think it's much better than the Tamiya Extra Thin with the green cap.

I'd suggest the Revell SnapTite Max '57 Chevy, kit #85-1529. It's fairly simple, but accurate, and builds easily. This version of the basic kit includes both waterslide decals and peel & stick stickers.

Hmmm. It "looks" AMT or MPC to me. I can rule out MPC Dodge Omni O24/etc and Ford EXP, along with AMT Plymouth Horizon TC3. Have a built Revell Ford EXP, and it should be the same as the Revell Escort. That one appears to be very different than this. Can also rule out Revell VW Golf GTI Mk2 and 1990 Pontiac Grand Prix. Monogram '85 Fiero GT might be a possibility. Color seems wrong, but did you look at a MPC/AMT Chevy Beretta?

Second dash might be MPC Vega. The consoles: #2 is Jo-Han 1964, 1965, and 1966 Rambler Americans. It was also in the USA Oldies reissue of the '66 Marlin. Beautiful engraving on this part. #3, the 4-speed unit, is from the Jo-Han '66 Marlin annual kit. #1 looks familiar, but I'm not sure. I'd check the xXx version of the MPC/AMT '67 GTO kit. It had a different topper for the console base that's molded into the floor, and memory says the shifter location was offset like that. There's at least one reissue from those crazy RC2 days that has the "regular" version build of the '67 GTO on the box but the xXx parts inside.

Great build!

This body should be the same as the current kit. This was originally a MPC kit and MPC made 1977-1978-style Trans Ams from two different molds. The second mold is very similar tot he first, but there are some differences. Any MPC (or AMT branded) 1977 or '78 Trans Am made since about 1979 or 1980 will be from the "new" mold. That said, any MPC '70-'81 Firebird body should fit your chassis.