JerryK

Gary... I'm trying to get some historical data on the Canadian hybrids of the '50s and was wondering if you could recommend any sources or contacts you might know of? Could you contact me at the Realm? resinrealm@yahoo.com or give me a yell at 402-387-2882 Thanks much!!! Jerry

Hi, All...our little town of Ainsworth, Nebraska population 1800 is in 7th place in the Readers Digest "We hear you America" contest and we sure could use some help with votes for our zip code, 69210 at their site. You can vote 10 times a day for every day left in the contest by clicking HERE and logging in. If you have more than one e-mail address, you can vote 10 times for every e-mail address you have just by logging off and re-logging in with a different address. While they do ask for personal information, at the bottom of the sign in screen are a couple of radio buttons that let you opt out of any junk mail. For those of you that have already been helping us, thank you and please keep on voting until the contest ends. We're the smallest of the towns in the running and the prize will help us get an addition to our library and repair our community youth area and pool. Once again thanks to any of you who can help us out. Jerry

Since I both sold and owned a couple of these puppies when they were brand new I thought I'd offer some data you might find useful about this kit... First thing: the car on the cover and the car in the box are different models. The car on the cover is an F-85 Holiday Coupe, model 3617. The kit car in the box is a Cutlass Holiday Coupe, model 3817. Both equipped with either 4-4-2 performance option L69 which came with 3-2bbl carburetors or option L78 which included the more common Quadrajet 4bbl carburetor. Both of these packages included the red line tires shown on the box along with heavy duty wheels. A no cost white wall exchange option was also available. Getting back to the box art, it was definitely Photoshopped. The tell-tail clue is the two-tone/vinyl top chrome separator between the windshield and the side windows that they forgot to remove when they were making the changes. From my experience, average buyers bought 4-4-2's with a vinyl top. Boy racers skipped the vinyl top but equipped theirs with heavy duty items for weekend fun at the strip. some of them ran at U.S. 30 Dragway in Indiana where I raced GT 350H Mustangs courtesy of Hertz. Just in case you're interested, the following interior colors were appropriate for both the coupe and convertible versions of this kit. Parchment Pearl (Opalescent) white with matching headliner and black carpet, black with Ivory headliner and black carpet, red with Parchment Pearl headliner and dark maroon carpeting and blue (matches 66 Olds color code D Lucerne Mist) with matching headliner and dark blue carpeting. Vinyl tops came in Black and Beige (actually an off white) Convertible tops came in beige (Khaki comes real close), black, blue (a bit darker then the interior blue and white. I'll be posting the actual paint chips and swatches of everything at the Resin Realm after the first of the year. The pic is of two of the pages from the Olds Dealer binder. Hope this has been helpful to you. Jerry http://resinrealm.net

Hendrix kits are sold by STAR Models (http://resinrealm.net/Star/STARModels.html) and The Resin Realm (http://www.resinrealm.net/). The Resin Realm versions come cleaned up with all flash and mold release removed and include glue, sanding sticks, a sheet of chrome vinyl and in some instances, even paint. You can contact the Realm at resinrealm@yahoo.com or reach them anytime (well almost :-) at 402-387-2882 STAR Models can be contacted at stevekohler@cox.net or call him after 9pm central standard time at 402-896-4379

Since I started prepping my kits before they go out the door I can tell you what works every time. First I clean off all the extraneous flash followed by a 24 hour soak in BLECHE-WITE. A scrub in WARM soapy water using a tooth brush is the next step. Use Hot water only if you want a warped part. Finally rinse the part(s) in warm water and blot surfaces to be painted with with lint free paper towels or a chamois to eliminate water spots. After you follow those steps there is one more thing that's very, very important. Don't handle your clean parts with your greasy mitts. Use some cheap medical gloves to place them on a paint stand, folded wire hanger or other holder. The rest of the process depends on your skill with a rattle can or air brush and the paint you use. Jerry Koszut resinrealm@yahoo.com 402-387-2882

You can use a drawing program like Adobe Illustrator to create a vector image which can be saved as a .jpg or.png. You can also turn it into a sketch with a paint program like Photoshop but both of those require a learning curve you probably would tire of before you got any results you were satisfied with and you can buy a a lot of resin or Styrene for what those programs will cost you. Quite frankly, the best solution is a sheet of transparent drafting vellum and a pencil followed by a run through a scanner. You can then touch up the resulting .jpg or .png with Microsoft's Paint or other shareware or freeware painting program. You can probably wind up with a presentable graphic in an hour or less depending on the amount of detail you have to trace onto the vellum. Good Luck! Jerry resinrealm@yahoo.com http://resinrealm.net

The interior mods are almost done. I managed to save a 54 salesmans binder from the trash when I worked for Studebaker so it'll be pretty accurate. I will also have the correct colors in Acrylic Enamel taken from a Stude factory color chart. I may offer paint with the kit...we'll see what the bottom line needs to be first. Jerry

Bill, that is one project that needs finished. those fins, the hardest part to recreate from scratch are perfect!!! Git'r Done! Jerry

Bill... I had Hendrix whip that one up so I could build a model of the one I had. Some of the things to watch out for are the thinness of the casting on the passengers side (although the ones I just got in are perfect) and the rain gutter moldings which when trying to cast to scale became fragile. I just remove them since the ridge that's left is close to good. The one from the Resin Realm comes cleaned up (Bleche-Wite 24 hour soak, detergent wash and rinse) with all flash removed. It takes me 2 to 3 hours to get it to the point where all you have to do is the final fitting prime and paint. You can see it here... http://resinrealm.net/-MCM/OTHERMAKES/53St...tudeComCpe.html and here is the paint page which I haven't linked to the Home page yet. http://resinrealm.net/Paint/Studebakers/53...tudebakers.html Hope this helps... Jerry

And worth every nickle of it! An awesome kit to say the least. JerryK The Resin Realm http://resinrealm.net

Steve Kohler of STAR Models has them. You can reach him at http://resinrealm.net. When you get there click on the STAR Models button and select Hendrix from the resin kits drop down menu. Jerry The Resin Realm resinrealm@yahoo.com

I have one from Hendrix in stock, Jim. It's had it's Bleche-Wite soaking, detergent wash, and it's been deflashed as are all the kits I carry at the Resin Realm. Jerry http://resinrealm.net 402-387-2882

Hi Duane, I had someone on line to do a 64 Daytona 2 door hardtop but he passed away before he could even get started. I'd still like to do it and or the Cruiser since I had a 65 in Bordoux Red. Jerry

HI, CLAY... As Andy mentioned, we have the 53 Commander coupe but our 54 Conestoga is getting a correct interior mastered for it and won't be available until the end of May. We are also going to be releasing a 56 Commander 2 door sedan later this year. I'm also kicking around the idea of a Sky Top version of a 62 Daytona Regal 2 door hardtop if anyone is interested. In addition to the 53 Commander coupe we also have factory colors for it and many other cars available in single stage acrylic enamel in one and two ounce bottles. Details are posted on the home page and on our Mason City Miniatures product pages. Jerry Koszut http://resinrealm.net resinrealm@yahoo.com 402-387-2882

For those of you who asked how the 56 Studebaker President Classic was made...this is straight from the horses mouth. I thought you might be interested. Jerry The '56 President Classic Model began life as an old Revell '56 Chevy 2Dr Sedan (Box Art was a Green Chevy with chrome wheels) ........anyway, we started sawing, re-shaping, adding door lines, and of course all the side trim,(boy was that a job) headlight eyebrows, etc.....grill assy., tail lights, hood ornament all carved spruce. Interior is modified from a Jo-Han Lark with correction for the dash, including the famous cyclops speed odmeter which set on top the dash in front of the driver. I used the same paint, from when the Full Size '56 was painted, filled into some spray cans and shot it on the model.......I believe that is best color for the '56 President Classic,.... Doe Skin & Mocha. The car was built, gosh ........probably 16-18 years ago, and as I said......if I were doing it again I would do a few things a little different............wished I would have had the '56 Commander kit back then, it would have been a lot easier............thanks, Pat

Not yet, but they will be starting with the 54 Conestoga. It'll come with one of my color & detail guides listing all solid and two-tones taken from an original Studebaker color guide, interior colors and photos from an original dealers binder and gobs of other photos...figure at least 4 pages and maybe 6. I try to use large pictures since many of us are way past needing bifocals.

Here be a real 54 Conestoga and a finished model. The model is a Regal the 1:1 is a Deluxe. Only the Regal could be two-toned (From the Factory). The other is a one off of the 56 President Classic top right.

That's what I was thinking too, Bill. I like the wagon myself and was really lucky to come across this pair. I believe the masters for both of these came from a certain wizard in Finland. The guy I got them from has a 54 Conestoga he claims was the 1:1 used for the master. I'm (hopefully) getting some photos of it for the builders guide sheets. The other one is a 56 Commander. I know you've seen the original painted in an authentic Stude two-tone green combo at shows out your way. Both of these have a chassis of the proper wheelbase included. As for a 58 Packard Hawk, I'm afraid it's been years since I've had the eyes and hands for that. If someone came up with a master I'd be happy to have it cast though. Would you settle for a lesser 56 Hawk...Flight, Power or Sky, perhaps?

...now which one do I do first?

Phil... I didn't get to see the episode you are referring to, but in the course of photographing the kits for the STAR Models galleries I had the chance to get my mitts on both versions of R&R's 54 Ford Hardtops. Having had a 1:1 Victoria along the way I gave it more than a casual glance and can say I'd build it in a heartbeat. Proportionally, it was good enough to fool my eyes into accepting any dimensional inaccuracies it may have. If you compare it to photos, you'll see it's pretty close to the real thing. That being said, from what I remember of it, it seemed slightly larger than 1:25th. I didn't have a 53 Lindberg to compare it to at the time so that is just a gut feeling. Jerry

Hi, all... I just received this message and thought I'd pass it along. Regardless of your opinion of the war, it's the right thing to do. If you go to this web site, www.LetsSayThanks.com <http://www.LetsSayThanks.com> you can pick out a thank you card and Xerox will print it and it will be sent to a soldier that is currently serving in Iraq (or Afganistan I think). You can't pick who gets it, but it will go to some member of the armed services. How AMAZING it would be if we could get everyone we know to send one. This is a great site. Please send a card. It is FREE and it only takes a second.

Larry, the "Production" 55 is being cast as we speak and I should have them available in 7 to 10 days. By the way, thanks for the many mentions of the Resin Realm in your magazine. We appreciate all your help and hope we are providing needed and useful info to your readers.

Thanks for posting that Dave. I've seen a few T-Birds so modified and they all wear that trim well. Thank GOD they never tried to two-tone it though, that would have been a bit much. :?

Hi, All... Here's something that's never been done before. The pic below is from the first 55 T-Bird ad published just before announcement day 10/22/54. Check out the kit at the Resin Realm. http://resinrealm.net

If you get a chance, stop in at the Realm and check out all the new kits that have been announced during the past two weeks, and see what's in the works for the next couple of months. As soon as I figure out how to post pix here I'll share some of the on the come items with you. A special thanks to all of you who've helped keep the Realm going by supporting our kit sales. And a special thank you to Model Cars Magazine for the many plugs they've given us. We really appreciate it. http://resinrealm.net