Darin Bastedo

Nice build. I've always thought that one was one of AMT's best kits.

It always amazes me that when ever a new kit with flaws comes out there is always this long thread about how much the new kit sucks, where is sucks in particular, and how it shouldn't suck due to current technology. Why not, here are it's flaws, if you can live with it fine if not don't buy it and move on.

I agree there are a lot of obviously substandard kits out there, like this falcon, but I'm not going to cry over a glitch as small as the taillight panal on Revell's 69 Nova

Ok so we should boycott inaccurate kits? Ok at what point do we start the boycott? what level of accuracy sould we expect? Is a missing or slightly misplaced emblem cause for boycott? thickness of the grillbars? oops the angle of tumblehome on this one is off one degree. Frankly the people who car about this level of accuracy in a kit is a very small minority. Just look at the number of serious modelers who like un-realisticly sized wheels and go to great length to include modifications that from an engineering stand point don't work I'll continue to buy inaccurate model kits of subjects that interest me, and fix them

It should be the standard, and I believe that the designers often reach for it, but I'm afraid that just like in our own lives sometimes we simply miss the target.

I don't think they are doomed so much as there has to be a cuture change to meet the new challenges. The importance of getting it right the first time has to be stressed. look at the new Revell Midget cars. they were done under the new cuture, and were fantastic. Excellence can be achieved the companies just have to want it bad enough.

Actually, the cars did exist, and often according to bud anderson AMT often got access to early poroction cars. Plus the dedlines were not hard to meet as the money flow from the big three was enough to pay for plenty of workers. Back then Model production was big money, and they were selling millions of promos, and kits every year. Flash forward to today, the total design staff of MPC, AMT, and Revell, would barely be enough to adequately staff a McDonalds. I'm not defendinding Trupeter as much of there stuff has had serios flaws, and the falcon may be the worst of the bunch, but financial resources are what made the sixties models better. They had the dough to hire enough eyes to spot the mistakes. Now today model companies don't have "all the time they need" to get it right. Once they assign a new project to their staff the money clock starts ticking. The longer the project takes the more it costs, not just in the wages they pay the designers but also in opputunity cost in what those designers could be doing instead. If a new tool takes twice as long to tool than usual then they could have had two new tools for the same payroll spent. These days just a few pennies per unit cost overun can kill a project. They have very tough deadlines and and much stricter finacial limits than AMT did in the 60's. That is why you see many more comprimises today. it's because when the money clock runs out, you either put the model in the box or forget it. That's why Revell has done so many special editions, and "California wheels" and other releases that take an older tool and update it with newer parts. It freshens up their product line with much less expedature than tooling a new kit, or making magor changes to an old one.

Don't forget, in the W's these cars were new and the models were commissioned first as promos for the automakers, thus, they had the full support of the automakers wick included access to the blueprints and such. Flash forward to today, Of is doubtful that even ford has the original blueprints for a 40+ year old car

Wierd and obscure huh? well I did a list a while ago with my mainstream wishlist filled to the brim with chevys fords and pontaics, but I guess I can do wierd and obscure. Here is my list of cars I'd like a model of that I will never get. 1. Tatra T-87 2. Porsche 356 zagato coupe 3. Michelotti Jaguar Lemans 4. Lamborghini GTV prototype 5. Stock Delorean DMC-12 7. mercedes 450SL

That number was "regular customers" guys I saw at least every week or so, then there was the occasional buyer, who came in every few months, them there are guys I only saw a few tims a year. Add to that mine was not the only place to buy model kits at the time. there were three other hobby shops in the area, three walmarts, two miceals, a hobby lobby, and multiple drug stores and other types of stores selling models. so my numbers were likely only my share of the business, I would say that there were quite a few model builders in the area.

Within days you should see it gleaming in Porsche Areba Red Paint.

When I was a hobby shop manager in Columbia SC there were at least 200 regular customers of mine that built models. of those 8 belonged to the local club. there are over 300 million residents of the USA. if only 1% did at least some model building we would have 3 million Model builders in the USA.

The 100 per cite was just a for instance and was an average. Your town might have five but a city like NYC or LA would make up the difference easily.

I know #14 is Tom Carter of Spotight Hobbies (formerly Hobby Heaven)

So much for "smart" phones

I am a huge fan of the 1996 Porsche Turbo, Tamiya kitted a 993 body style GT2 instead, so using parts from the Italari Turbo, I'm converting the GT2 to stock 1996 Turbo styling. I had to reshape the fenders, fill in some race only holes in the body, and swap in the turbo front clip and wing.

that would have to be extremely low. that would mean that half the cities and towns in the contry having no model builders at all, and the other half having but one. For that number to be any where close to accurate, it would be rare to live in the same city as another model builder, yet every city I've lived in I've known dozens. I have troble believing that I'm lucky enough to have lived in the only cities with multiple model builders.

he also had the rare talent of being able to whistle and drink beer at the same time.

They are no more dangerous than the front mounted moon tanks on hot rods or the rear mounted tanks on 32 fords. How about the danger of having the gas tank right behind the dashboard on a model A ford, That would be fun in a side collision.

while this is not a scientific approximation, it makes sense to me. there are currently about 35,000 cities $ towns in the USA. if you average things out, I would think it would be safe to assume at least 100 modelers per city or town. that would give you a minimum of 3,500,000 modelers in the USA. another way to calculate it would be to take the number of kits on the market and multiply that by the number of kits needed to be sold to make a profit, and that would give you probably pretty close to the same kind of number. either way the number of people who post on the boards are just the tip of the iceberg compared to the number of model builders.

I would ask you why is she regulating your hobby spending? did you spend too much in the past? did you leave the household budget short, or is she simply not supportive of the hobby? If it's strictly bugetary reasons talk to her and work out a fair hobby budget that doesn't take food off the table. If it's that she doen't support the hobby, try to find a middle ground. Going behind her back and getting caught will give a much bigger problem than you have now. It's like I always say, if you are doing something that you don't want your wife to know about, you shouldn't be doing it.

I've been researching the AMX/3 for a few years. It's on my to-do list. As a resin kit I would think it would have to be a curb-side as there isn't a good platform on which to base the mechanicals on.

I actually kinda like the fuel tanks on this. It's a little out there but at least it's different.

Sweet, but at $78 dollers it's a little steep, but probably worth it to a diehard rally fan. I probably won't get one but I wish them well. the more subjects available the better.

The Body looks god except for the wierd dogleg in the door cutline near the cowl. this should be straighter. This should be an easy fix at this stage though. Here is a shot of the correct cutline on CSX3112