styromaniac

The post-War era and the late fifties/early sixties are the only auto era I'm really interested in...although I respect a good muscle car or Rally/NASCAR build as much as the next guy. I'm sure there's a hard core element of 50's - 60's Custom / Lead Sled / Gasser types lurking around here. If you're not able to connect with'em..have you heard of a website known as The H.A.M.B ?( Hokey Ass Message Board ) It's a real car forum dedicated to the Hop-Up styles of the 30's / 40's up to about 1964...the Gospel of Hot Rod Hooligans...and they have a good model builder's group there. I know at least one guy here who posts there from time to time. The search feature is awesome..it's a great place to learn about everything in the 1:1 world...from getting a rusty old flathead working again to the paint colors on particular makes & models. Don't let the purist attitude scare you off...as long as you are on topic time period - wise....you can feel at home.

I've only used the Squadron White because it was relatively cheap & easily obtainable...and have had no disasters because I laid it on in thin layers and gave it adequate time to dry between sandings..time consuming yes but I usually had more than one project going on at one time so I could multi-task, and truthfully none of my putty applications were radical body mods necessitating gobs of the stuff..more like fill ins of scratches , sink holes, etc. I've tried looking for the Tamiya stuff but as Mr.Obsessive suggested it must really be unobtainium now. I've heard about the Evercoat and other catalyzing two part putties from the articles in model magazines...but have yet to try 'em...given the glowing reviews here I'll have to give'm a shot next time I drive by an auto parts stroe.

I have been buying vintage 60's model car kits & related memorabilia for several years now & I can honestly say the vast majority of my Ebay purchasing experiences have been pleasant ones...items quickly shipped , nicely packaged & as advertised. I can only think of two cases where the seller failed to come through...once when I won a vintage late 50's tube of Revell Type "S" styrene glue ( still soft in the tube..ahhh , the childhood memories ! ) The seller couldn't ship it..said his daughter used it to glue something back together.The other case was when I won an original Ed Roth "Road Agent" kit in near mint condition..the seller informed me that he couldn't locate it in his inventory...I suspect he didn't like my winning bid & it got "lost" somehow. But what can you do? Forgive, forget, move on. It's a hobby after all..not life or death.

Sounds about right for Ebay...for the ORIGINAL Revell items...$14.00 to $20.00 not including shipping. The re-releases can usually be had cheaper...but I don't think the Revell Buick Nail-Head was re-released w/ the Chevy283, the 427 Ford or the Caddy.

That's a nice survivor..but it's actually not a Monogram kit..it's one of the Aurora 1/32nd scale kits...I know...I had "one back in the day"...and you're right...they were quite affordable...you could get one for less than a dollar and still have money left for a tube of glue or Testors bottle enamel. These Aurora kits were kind of toy like...they all had plastic tires and a reasonable facsimile of a Chevy 409 in them...but the box art was really cool, mostly depicting the vehicle in front of soda shops, high school / college campuses, movie theaters, or at other period correct dating or drag racing scenes. Other cars in the product line were the Shiftin' Drifter, Ram Rod, Sad Sack, Scat Cat, Moody Monster, High Stepper. Pyro also had a more refined series of 1/32nd scale cars in their "Tabletop" series..also inexpensively priced but quite realistic in scale. As for the Worlds Fair..I remember reading about the one in New York City in '64 in Life magazine..seemed really cool...futuristic car themes galore. Where was I in '62? I was a nine / ten year old back then, getting high on styrene and glue fumes...dreaming about hot rods...but hardly ever seeing one except on TV. It wasn't until many years later I actually got to go to a rod & custom show...at the DC Armory..saw the Batmobile,the Munster Koach, Roth's Surfite, Carl Casper's Ghost. I also saw Bud the Kat Anderson of AMT officiating at a slot car race/exhibit.Cool stuff back then.

That is SWEET!!! Your Fotki album provides many images of NNL East 2011 that others did not, thank you...I feel like I was there. It looks like you have many big name car model guys as your Fotki "friends" as well. Nice that you could go and be a part of it all.

Art - Pretty spot on rendition of what the hobby was like "back in the day"..when us baby boomers were taking our cues from the real life 1:1 customizers & drag racers we could only read about in a few publications found at the drugstore or maybe the library if you couldn't afford the subscription. One thing we had going for us was the car craze was so widespread back then you could pick up kits just about anywhere...not just a hobby shop but five & dimes, hardware stores, you name it. Merchandizers everywhere were getting in on the act. The tough part was as you so eloquently described...the "tools of the trade". There just wasn't many ! Any of you old timers remember the AutoWorld Auto Cutter? ( aka Ungar Woodburner? ) About the only way to section bodies and chop tops. Like cutting butter...yeah. I like to call those days in the early 60's "The Golden Age of Car Modeling"..due primarily to the widespread popularity of the hobby with the big nationwide contests sponsored by Revell/Pactra & then Revell/Testors.( pack up your model car in popcorn..not styrofoam mind you..it didn't exist! I mean real popcorn! But hold the butter please!) I thought I'd revisit those "Golden Days" and I found & purchased a few old Car Model/ Car Model Science magazines and refreshed my memory. It occurs to me that while there may have been some wildly original ideas here & there and a few nice paint jobs..realistically ...90% of the builds back then were just plain ######. They don't hold up to today's standards...which given the plethora of kits, tools,and shared knowledge on the internet..might be called "The Platinum Age" of car modeling.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS!!!! ( Hey..I can dream, can't I ? )

Awesome mills! Yours are especially well made Mr.Obsessive..I know..I've seen'em close up. Your D-Jag is one of my all time favorites.

I second that emotion. I've puchased many of his nostalgic hot rod / flathead speed equipment parts through the years and he's quite simply the best there is. If you can attend a MAMA meeting or see him at one of the shows he attends by all means stock up...he might even give you a little discount.

I've always thought the box art for those early 60's Revell Tri-Five Chevy kits was great...the drag racing '55's & '57 Bel Air as well as the mild custom '56. The beach scene w/ the flame painted Nomad is inspirational too ( although its a slightly doctored photo of a real car , not bona fide "artwork".) I always loved the original Revell "Big Daddy" Roth box art as well...the auto show room with two guys going Ga-Ga over the "Outlaw", the spooky haunted house w/ the "Mysterion" , the wanted poster w/ the "Road Agent". Come to think of it..a lot of that early Revell stuff like the '29 Model A hot rodded pick up, the '31 Woody/Sedan surf scene & Mickey Thompson's "Attempt 1" were just plain cool...too bad some of those kits didn't go together as nice as the pictures. But when it comes to getting your imagination fueled up nothing can beat those ancient Aurora 1/32nd scale hot rods...the ones with the funny scenes like the guy's date getting rained on sitting in the "Moody Monster"...the teenagers gawking at the "Wolf Wagon", or the "Shiftin'Drifter" parked outside the soda shop.In this case the box art far exceeded the contents..no way those simple toy like kits could do justice to the artwork.

Didn't Model Car Garage used to have a resin track style nose w/ a photo etch grille inlay?

Where you been hiding yourself Bill ?

The 4 banger in the Revell '31 Woody/Sedan kit is basically the same as the one in the Revell '29 Model A Pickup kit...if memory serves. I think the Revell '31 Woody had a somewhat rudimentary looking Riley set up in it, maybe not totally accurate but usable. The AMT 4 Bangers weren't as refined in detail as the Revell counterparts, in my opinion. As far as speed/after market parts...you may have to look over Replicas & Miniatures of Maryland's pretty cool line of flathead stuff to see if anything is adaptable. Norm Veber & Rik Hoving put together a nice selection of vintage stuff for flatheads under that line.

I remember that. I also remember a Drew Carey episode in which he was going off the deep end after a break-up and his buddies were trying to coax him out of his place where he had been holed up for days building model airplanes. The funniest was an episode of Law&Order where Vincent D'onofrio found a tiny chrome rear view mirror off a model car in some carpet and linked the murder of an old man to his demented son who obsessed on exotic sports cars and had a hangar full of 1:1 domestic & foreign cars hidden away. According to Hollywood grown men who build Models are mental cases.

Back in the early 60's while living overseas my twin brother and I must've built a million of those Airfix 1/72nd WWI&II airplane kits. Monster movies were big back then but we couldn't access those Aurora Frankenstein/Dracula/Wolfman kits. It wasn't until we rode the big boat back to the states we built our first bona-fide car kit...an AMT '57 Ford 3 in 1...by the time we put down roots again in the Chicago/Palatine area the Hot Rod - Custom Car craze was in full swing...couldn't get enough of those Monogram Lil Coffin/Little T/Predicta and Revell Roth Rat Fink / Hawk Wierd-Oh kits. We entered a local hobby shop contest w/ a Little T kit that we mildly modified...shortened pick up bed, lime gold paint set off by the bright white interior & bucket seats & white walls. A clean build for a couple of nine year olds. We were shocked when we found out from friends at school the next week we had won Junior division...the trophy was a neat little gold fat fendered '34 Ford on a wood pedestal.Cool stuff for a 4th grader.

Wow! Cushenberry's "Cotton Candy" version....nice!

Another masterful job. You and Ken Hamilton are my favorite practitioners of the craft.

I thought I saw a Revell 1/25th scale BSA bike on ebay a few days ago. The only 1/25th scale mini-bike I recall is the one from the Monogram Vandal custom van kit. AMT had a cool 1/25th Go-Kart w/ a Bonneville streamliner racing shell included w/ one of their 60's era pick-up truck kits ..whenever one of those pops up on ebay it usually goes for big bucks.

The Chevy 283,the Pontiac 421,the Ford 427 & the Cadillac 354 are the re-releases I have from the mid-90's. Back in the day (the 60's)I believe Revell also had an injected Buick ,a blown Chrysler & the Dream Car Turbine engine. Its funny to see those .69 and .70 prices on the old boxes...the 60's ones usually go for close to $ 20.00 each now.

Think there will ever be an "Uncertain T" released ? Based on some of the comments I've read at another website it sounds like the history of that particular car is muddled in complex issues...including personalities. Wonder what happened to the molds of that one.

An Aurora 1/32nd "Beatnik Bandit"kit? I doubt it- me thinks you meant the "Beatnik Box"..that little companion pick up to the "Wolf Wagon", the "Scat Cat" and those other 1/32nd Table Top hot rods.

Speaking of Law & Order..I seem to recall an episode in which Vincent D'Onofrio is investigating a crime scene and sees something shiny in the carpet..he holds it up to the light and its a car model part..a chrome side mirror.It leads to a plot in which the deceased person's son was obsessed with model cars and had somehow bilked people out of money to the point in which he was able to fill a small hangar with expensive full size cars. Then there's that movie "Butterfly Effect" where one of the disturbed kids just sits in his room and builds models. Then there's a Drew Carey episode where Drew is depressed cuz he broke up w/ his girlfriend & friends were trying to get him to come out of his apartment where all he did was build model airplanes all day. It was about this time that I thought all Hollywood had to say about guys who liked scale models was that they were deeply disturbed.

ME LIKE TOO ! I LOVE THE TRI-FIVE CHEVIES !