Erik Smith

Jeez, can’t believe I had to crawl back 5 pages to find this model again. This thing should be pinned to the front as an example of craftsmanship. Really. I hadn’t realized how rare this kit is, also, and found this on eBay...empty box sold for $138.50!!! Again, fantastic work on this model, Steve. Worth visiting again.

Late 90s Corvettes. Cheap and have LS engines. There are quite a few kits that include enough great stuff they’re worth buying just for parts. Rob (Jantrix) has a whole thread about the best kits to do so...if I can find it I’ll link it up. Here again:

LS9 into a 66 Riviera. No issues at all. Engines are more or less similar in size. Transmission is 6 speed auto from 2010 Camaro. LS9 is from Revell Corvette ZR1.

Yeah, that’s true. It’s weird how cheap you can get some of the old T-bird annuals. I love seeing great examples of these old kits. I can’t imagine how some of them have made it 50-60 years unbuilt, complete, and in good condition.

That’s cool. I’ve never seen the show or any of these, YouTube time I guess. If you need any engine tidbits let me know - I have a project and have three extra parts AMT kits - I think I remember the Revell kit doesn’t have the coils on the back of the heads. Easy to scratch but the AMT kit has them if you need them, I’m only using one (each kit has two, one with six, one with four leads).

Great work. That engine looks awesome tucked in there.

This will be, more a less, a “topsider” model, and I’m not going to spend a great deal on the chassis, but the single exhaust won’t work with my plans. I didn’t want it to look super cheesy with an LS engine and silly single pipe, so I cut out the molded in junk and I’ll fill in with sheets then add my own exhaust. The body repair continues as well. The old plastic works well, but is brittle. Somebody thought side pipes looked cool, so now I have to remove their glue...

Cool long board in there. Thanks for posting.

The piece that snapped off the rear below the window broke in a most convenient way - it snuggled right back into place. I think I’ll reinforce the joint after the glue dries, but so far it looks like minimal clean up. The plastic seems to like Tamiya cement quite a bit.

I learned about the ‘62 Fury convertible from Scott’s post and lo and behold, what pops up on eBay for a very reasonable price...very gently glued together. I managed to pop the top off and lost only the very corners of the soft top and a tiny nick on the front edge. I’ve been wanting to do a convertible for a bit just to play with the interior more.

The parts spent some quality time at purple pond over the last few days. I was very happy the old gator skin hadn’t etched into the plastic and, for the most part, it lifted off fairly easily. The black stuff on the interior didn’t really want to budge, but oh well. Also, whoever was the last builder of this kit installed, what I have now learned, was a twin stick shifter - I had to look it up because I had no idea why there were two shifters.

In Washington we can get any and all alcohol at the grocery store. We can also buy marijuana at marijuana stores, so the alcohol thing doesn’t seem so big... No drive throughs though.

Probably an LS of some sort.

And here is what I’ve been working on the last two days. Not non stop, but a fair amount of time: The “Glass” There was a nice glue splotch on the windshield and the rear had a tire burn. 12 grits of polishing fabric and three of paste followed by some wax and voila!

This one:

A taillight and the rear bumper were missing. Fortunately, there is an awesome online community of modelers and one of them, named Chris, aka Von Zipper, sent me a rear bumper! I will either carve a new taillight from the red styrene panel of a 1971 Plymouth or cast and mold something... Here is the grill(s) and bumpers. I am glad the old 64-65 kits had molded open headlights. Somewhere along the lines the later 66+ had a different grill with headlights molded in.

First was disassembly. Most of it came apart pretty easy, but the old plastic is brittle and I managed to break a piece off between the trunk and rear window. Darn. The trunk was glued in and I tried to snap it out. It snapped out. With the piece of body attached.

I purchased this Jo-Han Rambler American for $10 because: 1) I think it’s a cool/cute little car 2) It was $10 and I felt bad for it As you can see, the old paint has dried and looks like an alligator. My plan is to strip it down and rebuild it best I can. Initial thoughts are a white car with black steelies, but color will depend on how that gator skin comes off. Here are the as-received photos:

Very cool kit and looks like it’s in great condition. Anybody know if the blower set up is based on an actual intake? Or just a made up looks fine type of thing?

Great looking model. I really like the paint color and finish.

I’ve had success polishing overspray and such from a finished paint job - just with Tamiya polishing compound. I guess it depends on how much paint dripped on your hood and what type of paint. Start with the least intrusive method first and get more aggressive as needed. I don’t know about sanding all the way and repriming and trying to blend - very difficult to get that to match. Is the hood a separate part? If yes, easy to repaint. If not, you can mask off along panel lines and respray. One of the joys of modeling is fixing mistakes. Kind of.

Looks like typical Modelhaus stuff - beautiful even unbuilt. I like how they even retained the ejector pin marks on the interior tub...

It is a lot of work. I bought an old collection of about 600 kits once and thought it would be an easy way to make some extra money. Every weekend for about 6 months I was listing and/or shipping models. I probably made $4 per hour if I actually did the math. The post office regularly changes policies too - last time I was selling off some kits they changed the box dimension rule and I didn’t realize it. An inch taller box went from about $14 to $50.

As a seller, I’m like you - I’ve always used 7 day auction. I start all of mine at 99 cents. I don’t think I’ve ever “given” a rare kit away in an auction. I think timing plays into auctions - times when people have money and when people are looking at eBay. The stimulus money might be coming around soon, and while a lot will be spending on essentials, it also means more disposal income for many. Tax return time is another. Holidays when people have free time, etc. Ending on weekends also seems to be best. As a buyer, I do both. Like many, I scan the newly listed stuff for deals on buy it now items. For other things that I want, I go to auctions. I spend a lot more per kit on auctions because they are usually kits I feel I need...

That’s really cool. Great work. Cool photo, too - at first I couldn’t figure out why that lady was in the car. Nice!