Erik Smith

Nice work, James. There are all levels of builders on this forum, so don't worry about it being "up to par". I like the work on the interior and as long as you have a rearview mirror, your good! Well, at certain times in history, pretty sure you'd get a ticket in Washington for it now...

Bureau of Land Management wildland firefighter. Foreman on a 10 person crew.

That is really cool. I am impressed ICM is trying out the 1/24 market. It looks like a complicated kit - that's not bad - but, man, all those seperate body parts…and the thin chrome strip/hood hinge…I could see myself snapping that in half just getting it off the sprue! What? No up top? All the door handles - inside and out - are separate. That's a great touch. Two part steering wheel is cool and looks delicate and in scale. Cool straight six with, it looks like, a lot of tiny separate parts. If I see one, I'll probably be forced to buy one...

Found this: Here: http://www.hobidas.com/blog/j-tipo/desktop/

Welcome...an it's not "the other", the other is. I am 102 miles east of you. Drive through ML a lot and try not to stop We have club in Spokane if you're interested!

Welcome

Welcome. Just spent a weekend eating my way through Portland. No time for the hobby shops!

Welcome. I hate Oregon. Not really.

AMT did a modem tool 1962 Bel Air and convertible - based on the same kit. They were state of the art in the 90s and are still great kits. The Revell is an Impala - and improves on the AMT kit - nice, crisp molding, better dog dish caps, better engine detail - an even better kit than AMT's. Why? Because the 1:1 cars are immensely popular. They will sell more to the general public than other cars of the era. Plain and simple.

I absolutely hate - well, dislike strongly - the newer Revell wheels. It's a pain to jam those style wheels into the tires. I like the look of the wheels, but they won't fit other tires without work. Does anybody actually like that system? The other parts look cool...

I think licensing for college teams is worse than then the pros. They make millions of dollars on that stuff and they do it by charging people a lot to use the logos. I don't think the hobby market would be able to overcome those fees.

Why didn't the skeleton go to the dance? He had no-body to dance with!!!

Instructions? Oh, yeah…As far as text and such goes, Moebius. Their kits are also top notch. "The Best" is hard to ascertain, really. There are a lot of really nice models out there. The most recent Revell offerings are nice - albiet with some accuracy issues - the '57 Ford and '50 Olds are beautiful kits. The 90s AMT kits (the kits tooled up in the 90s) are still some of the best models, IMHO. Later releases see a bit more flash, but they are still great kits. Tamiya is perennially one of the best manufacturers - very tight engineering and excellent fit - did I say tight? In recent years, Aoshima has been producing some outstanding model kits - and is probably the one kit maker that has improved the most - but if you don't have interest in Japanese style of modeling, they probably won't be of interest. You can always search the reviews section here, too, to get a good idea of what's included in a kit and how it looks.

You don't need a large selection of glues. I use and like: Tamiya Thin when I need to hold parts together and apply glue. It wicks into all the nooks and crannies. CA glue - Insta Cure +. This is a gap filling CA glue that is a not too thin, not too thick. I can't use thin CA glue very well, it makes too big a mess. Testor's window glue - I use this for windows, exterior bits, and other parts I need a little time to affix and don't want to worry if a little gets on the paint. It wipes off easily while wet but bonds well. I also use epoxy - 5 minute - for hard to align parts, but not very often. I have had the same bottles for years and they are only down about 10% from new. I use CA accelerator a lot - you can glue, hit it with accelerator, and start sanding in seconds.

That's what I end up doing too! I have painted noncompatble paints over each other with great success!

It irks me that the "irks" thread contiues to grow while the "positive" one kind of got lost and is filled with mostly sarcastic comments. C'mon people, nothing to be grateful for and so much to complain about? I just got back from a work trip and I was overjoyed to see my wife and kids (and dogs), to come home to, well, a home. My heat is working, which is nice…Fall colors are beautiful right now…I have a relatively open weekend - model time!!! If you look for "irks", you know what? You find them!!

You can't judge a model from its box, but you sure can sell one. I saw that box and thought that was pretty cool - kind of lost my interest on seeing the contents. Would love to see it built up, though, and be proved wrong... It is a bit confusing where they are going with this - Revell Snaps are relatively cheap...

Excellent work, Al. Very precise BMF application and great looking paint job. Sharp, crisp, clean.

Very cool model. I like the combo - too bad the chrome gets lost on paint colors like that. Only thing I can think of is the color insert on the sidetrim might be cool - white or ???. Minor. I like it and great work.

I started collecting a few of the early 60s fords (62 Galaxie, 62 and 63 Fairlane) that haven't been re-issued, but then wondered why and sold them.

Are you trying to figure out how much to sell it for? Insure it? Just want to know? This question gets thrown around a lot - and, to be honest, there is no way anybody can say "that kit's value is X dollars". If you want to sell and don't know how much to ask, put it on eBay, start the bidding at 99 cents, and see where it goes. That will give you the value on that given day. Yesterday it could have sold for twice as much and tomorrow could be half - you never know with OOP kits. The Doyusha kits are, generally, more in the collectors market than the builders as they are rather crude, motorized, and very toylike. I have sold some of the Dotusha kits for next to nothing and others went for more than I paid. I have no experience with your paticular kit, though.

I am not doubting anyone's numbers, Art. I just don't have a clue how much any of this costs or how many kits even get sold. I do know I still see kits that were "limited" or "only 3000" still on the shelves from 2 or more years ago, so those kits aren't selling too many per year. If it takes a lot more than 35,000 - is that more like 100,000? Just to break even on the tooling? No advertisements or sales reps or?... Are model companies non-profit?

They look cool. Good deal? That's relative. Those old promos (pre 62 for most) are made of acetate and warp - and I don't think there is a way to fix it. AMT did a 1961 Monterey convertible, might have done a HT too.

Something doesn't add up. Maybe I'm way off estimating how much they make per kit, but it can't be more than $10 if Hobby Lobby can sell them for $15 (40 off coupon, and I don't think Hobby Lobby is giving them away even with the coupon).

So, if it costs $350,000, how many units does Revell need to sell? If they profit $5.00 on a kit, that's 70,000 units?!?!? To break even?!?! I can't see that happening. What is the wholesale cost? How much do they make on each kit? The math doesn't seem to add up. Even if they make $10 per kit - PROFIT - they would need to sell 35,000 units? Wow.