Darin Bastedo

The horn rings and linkages that you mention aren't structual pieces. Take a .5mm styrene rod and have it hold up the hodd on your model. in a week's time it will have warped like crazy. Remember model parts don't have to hold once, they have to hold for years. take a look at many of the 1/8 scale Monogram Big Dueces after aten tears. many have warped and broken suspension parts.

Yeah they could be molded a lot thinner, but at the same time they would be mor brittle and not as useful. a lot of models I've built over the years have had some really nice thinnbly molded parts only to be broken down the road by clumsy contest judges or just in normal handling. If the thickness of the part really bugs you you can minimize the thick look by filing down the edges and by painting them a dark color. and if you feel ambitious they would be simple to scratch-build out of aluminium. lets face it there is no way they could have molded them to acccurate scale thickness and make them strong enough to handle, so the next best thing is to do what 90% of the buying public wants. strong parts that won't warp or break over time. look at how many kits have no hood hinges at all.

Tractor trailer trucks are 10 feet tall.

Perpetual motion is easy. Take an ordinary house cat, and attack a piece of peanut butter toast to it's back peanut butter side up, then toss it in the air. we all know cats always land on their feet, and toast always lands peanut butter side down, in theory the cat/toast combintation should spin in mid-air forever.

as far as having the battery die, the last solenoid system I intalled had a capacitor installed inline with the wiring so that in the event of a loss of power there would still be enough juice to open the car once.

No need to turn this into a flame war. The scary thing is Mark was so mad he did this by just glaring at it! In the future use you powers for good!

Tools. A lot of them. you will always find money here or there for a new model kit, but when to have a large sum of money to blow, investing in tools that will make your model building easier or better is the way to go. Some suggestions; Dial caliper pin vise air brush / compressor files sprue cutter tubing cutter tubing bender

Angry at a model? Never. The model is an inanimate object. This is a fun hobby for me, but it remails fun because I do a lot of test fitting of every part. By the time I have everything prepped painted and I'm reaching for glue I must have test fit every part 50 times. I tend to know how well it will go together. the day I get angry at a model is the day I quit building them.

It's from the movie "The Jerk" with Steve Martin. "Navin R. Johnson: The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! Harry Hartounian: Boy, I wish I could get that excited about nothing. Navin R. Johnson: Nothing? Are you kidding? Page 73 - Johnson, Navin R.! I'm somebody now! Millions of people look at this book everyday! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity - your name in print - that makes people. I'm in print! Things are going to start happening to me now."

Unless like myself you are interested in that then it is a treat. There are many facets of the model car hobby, not just 1/25 scale plastic.

Nope, not in plastic. I don't think they even did promos of one.

I'm really glad to see MCM starting to really get a sense of what it wants to be. Rather than trying to mimic the look and content of their no longer "enthusiastic" competitor, they are branching out and offering us coverage of aspects of the hobby not before seen. To me SA is the Hot Rod Magazine of the Model world, well established and very mainstream in it's target market. Lots of red 69 Camaros and Mustangs. MCM has started to blossom into the Rodder's Journal of the model car world, with interesting stories of vintage kit subjects, stories on box art, and other interesting but obscure subjects. The Editorial style is much more intimate often giving a nod to what is going on here in the forum, and adding personal details to the event coverage. I'm a Subscriber to MCM, and rarely if ever even buy SA off the newsstand. Too often there content is either similar to material I already have in back issues, or is something already covered in MCM.

what is it about this thread that has everyone so confrontational? Let the guy build his model the way he wants and keep all the other ###### to ourselves. The guy just wants to share his build with us and those of us who aren't rabid Dukes of hazzard fans or spelling and grammer cops, just want to be able to follow along with out having to wade through a whole lot of bickering.

some of the biggest mistakes can be fixed 3 ways; 1. test fit, 2. test fit, 3. test fit. No models are pefect by a long shot and some aren't even close. But you can correct fit, stance, and assembly issues if you know wverything involved in the assembly befor you put on the shiny stuff and get out the glue. Below is an OOb Revell (perviously monogram) 1978 Firebird trans am. I spent weeks getting the front and rear bumpers to fit the body and to block sand the waves and ridges from the body as well as cleaning up the mold lines and ejector pin marks. the whole model was primered and inspected for sanding marks including the engine and any other su assembly that needed the seams filled and sanded. I then dry fitted nearly 90% of the model together to address any fit problems and aquaint myself with and assembly processes that would possibly mess up the painted model later. At this stage I also was able to address the stance which was way too high in the front, (by nearly 2mm) all the assmbly below is dry fit and now I know how the end result will end up. One of the biggest paint issues I see partly comes about due to not doing the block sanding, and partly because many of us use spray cans to paint rather than an airbrush. Now I realise that an airbrush is a bit costly but so are spray cans at 5-6 dollars each. The problem is the paint pulling away at the door lines and body lines. you can see this most in metallics and candies. The problem is that the plastic is still warm when the body is ejected from the mold. This causes ridges around door lines and seams and if they aren't block sanded the paint will pull way from them. sanding though won't totally fix the problem, but by using an airbrush you can pay special attention to the areas that are trouble spots and start with thin light coats that will help the paint adhere to those ares. After you are done and all the tricky areas are covered you can paint the rest of the car as usual.

Here's the Charger 500 i want to build... This is the one everyone tries to tell me never existed.

I would say that most of my list is comprised of cars that have been tooled before, with a few exceptions. whether they are Iconic is up to the reader i guess.

Here's a list I posted a while back of models that should be tooled up . 1971 Mustang Boss 351 The existing kit of this is far from accurate and takes quite a bit of effort to get even a good looking shelf model out of it. Alfa Romeo Duetto (the car from "The Graduate") Why there has never been a popular scale kit of this car puzzles me It was in production for decades and is possibly the most beautiful if the 60's small sports roadsters 1929 Ford Roadster. coupe and sedan. This would be the logical next step for Revell to follow up thier great success with the 1932 Fords. 1957 Chevy Nomad do we really need another 57 chevy? Yes at least 3 more. include parts to do Sam Hollingswoth's custom with an optional tuck & roll interior, bucket seats skylark wire wheels and decals and you have a winner! 1957 Chevy Convertible Give this one a 2 4bbl set up for Revells already great small block and a nice set of chrome reverse wheels. 1957 Chevy Sedan delivery Add optional gasser parts and a big block that would be adaptable to the other 57s in Revels range and you have a hot hot seller Revell 1970 Ford Torino released as a special edition Add all the optional parts from the Pro Modeler GT kit and you have a sweet 2n1 1972 Ford Gran Torino Give it some pro-touring options and a full sheet of decals to do multiple paint schemes 1975 Ford Gran Torino Can you say "Starsky & Hutch? 1970 Mustang Convertible Make this one a base model with an inline six and poverty caps. sure not many convertibles were ordered this way but they are pretty much the only trim package that hasn't been done yet. 1967 Mercury Cougar Who wouldn't love a new tool of this? add some period mag wheels and perhaps a two 4bbl option 1965-66 Mustang coupe Based on Revell's decent fastback/shelby/convertible model. throw in a paxton set up as an option and maybe some vintage drag parts 1965 Ford Galaxie make it buildable stock, but load te box with enough period Nascar parts that people will buy it just for those. Shelby 289 Cobra With optional dragonsnake parts Shelby 289 Cobra FIA can use most of the tooling of the street car Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe No explanation needed. 1963 Corvette zo6 coupe With street and racing parts, based on Revell's excellent 1967 kit 1963 Corvette Roadster Done as a non-zo6 car so wee can kit bash with the coupe. 1968 Chevelle SS 396 hardtop add some period street machine parts 1968 Chevelle convertible non-SS small block add some different S/M parts and we can kitbash with the coupe. 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge with S/M parts and srtipes to go with different stock colors 1970 pontiac Lemans convertible You could kitbash this with the GTO to make a Lemans coupe or a GTO convertible 1966 Pontiac GTO Convertible Based on Revell's excellent 1966 GTO Coupe 1948 Ford Coupe Stock roof Add parts to make a 48 merc out of it too. Divco Milk Truck give it a load of milk bottles and crates as well as a load of street machine parts. 1963 Buick Riviera Throw in some 60's custom parts and a how-to booklet on custom paint techniques 1971 Buick Riviera GS Boattail Some 70's lowrider accessories would be welcome here 1969 Buick GS 400 could be based on the 72 Olds tooling 1963 Checker A11 W/ taxi parts and some cool street machine parts. 1966 Chevy Suburban Based on Revell's 1966 pick-up. Includs some outdoors accessories like a tent and canoe 1965 Pontiac GTO Convertible The current MPC/AMT kit is a joke. this would be a welcome replacement 1965 GTO Coupe Add some period drag parts or modern street machine parts 1969 Dodge Charger 500 Could be based on the current Revell tooling 1946 Merc Sprtsman Convertible Can be based on revell's 48 Ford, it's the extremely rare woody bodied convertible 1970 Olds Cutlass Rallye 350 hardtop Could be based on Revells 1972 Cutlass convertible 1983 Hurst/Olds Add some optional pro touring parts and this would be a big hit 1954 Packard carribean This would be a nice one for mobius to do 1969 Pontiac Trans AM Coupe Could be based on Revells excellent 1969 Camaro tooling 1969 Pontiac firebird convertible same as above but could be used to kit bash the very rare 1969 T/A convertible 1972 Pontiac Grand Prix Hurst SSJ Could also be based on the 1972 Olds chassis, this was a stylish muscle car and would look great next to the hurst olds.

Lacking accurate reference I would simply put the wrong ones on the car, and enter it in a contest. soon enough some know it all will tell you the right one. truthfully though, I'm a huge Steve McQueen Fan and have thoroughly researched many of his cars. I don't think that info is available lacking a california records search, That said, If I don't know and most of the people on this board don't know, it's a safe bet nobody knows, so i would simply go with the correct vintage of california plate move on. If later the correct Plate # becomes available it's an easy detail to fix.

But if there is traffic and you merge at the speed limit, you will be going faster than traffic. you do want to adjust your speed to the flow of traffic.

actually the faster you go the safer three seconds is. 3 seconds is longer than you think, at 65 MPH you are travveling 96 feet per second. 3 seconds puts you 288 ft behind the car you are following. there isn't a car on the road that can't stop from 65 miles an hour in under 288 ft.

Hey Jon, back in the day didn't you do a model similar to this one?

Meh. I liked the first gen new beetle but this simply doesn't have the same appeal to me. so is this the "New New Beetle", The Newer Beetle" or "The Latest Beetle"?

If you financial situation is truly that dire you shouldn't be spending money on a hobby. I don't mean to be blunt about it, but if $25 bucks is that hard to come by it should be used to put food on the table. If you can spend $25 bucks to build one kit though have you considered other ways to get the models than buying them? My finances are tight as I'm commuting back and forth to Maryland from Tennessee 2-3 times a month for my fiancé's Cancer treatment. A while back I needed a couple of the new Revell 57 Chevys for a project I wanted to do. so I offered to trade for them under the "wanted' section here on the forum. I got the new kits for some kits out of my stash + shipping. total cash cost was about $7.00 for two kits. If you go to swap meets often you can get what you want cheaper. I've found Both versions of the Revell 67 vette for $5.00 or less. combine that with the AMT 63 vette, which I've also found for around $5.00. and has decent body detail, and you have a full detail 1963 split window for $10.00. If there are no swap meets where you live I'm sure there are those on the board with those kits in there stash who would trade also. I hope you can straighten out your financial woes, but until then there are alternatives if you are willing to be creative.

Actually this wheel was manufactured for shelby by Cragar... I assumed when you said GT350 you meant the 1966 GT350 which is the most recent available version, that did not contain these wheels

Don't forget they also did a 65 GT350 with the cragar mags, and the pace car convertible, as well as reissuing the convertible in non-pace car versions too