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Not for much, but I won two auctions from same seller; when I sent a request for a combined invoice I instantly received an red eBay announcement that stated this seller doesn't offer combined shipping. That's fine, but if that's your policy then state that in your auctions. This one will go on my "Do Not Deal With Again List", they got my first and last business. Seems like most of the time when I hear buyers complaining about getting bit on eBay it's almost always over shipping charges, combined shipping or something else to do with shipping like hefty handling fees or something like that. I've both bought and sold on eBay, so I don't understand the no combined shipping thing especially when it saves both parties a dime or two. Just one more thing to watch out for on eBay.

I'd love to get my hands on a few of these, that Hemi would work great to replace the crude motors in Roth kits, Wierd-Ohs, and other fun builds!

My last order from May arrived in mid December, it struck me too that it was a lot like losing a friend. My last Modelhaus Kit is the '57 Mercury (Canadian Ford) Pickup. I've been haunting eBay for a '60 Ford pickup at reasonable price but never found anything reasonable that was rebuildable without tons and tons of work. Modelhauses price was far less than a glue bomb off of eBay so it was a no brainier. I also ordered a bunch of wheels and tires like always. Quality was just as good as ever.

Glass that doesn't fit the opening. Accuracy Issues - Scale pieces from same series engine as Bill mentioned same scale parts should fit from model to model and if the molding was the same from one kit maker to another. Accuracy in shapes of bodies, parts.. I guess this is more noticeable now that many of us are whipping out the digital calipers to measure with. Chrome Parts - Heavy syrupy chrome/undercoat, Heavy Flashing, Poorly Designed Attachment Points on Sprues like really thick attachments or extremely visible on the part. Poor Ejector Pin Placement - Especially in areas which are difficult for the modeler to rework, lazy design issue. Don't mind ejector pins when they are placed where rework is a snap, when you have to mask off body lines, chrome lines to do the rework that's uncalled for. Sink Marks - The ones that seem to line up with a fender crown or body line, as above not just a fil and sand issue. Generic Tires and other tire issues - heavy flashing, sink marks,out of round, tread depth that nearly goes away when you try to fix the other issues, loose fitting rims in tires from same kit.

Although this isn't a subject that I'd typically build, I am happy to see it being produced and equally happy to see others are interested in it. I see a ton of research and development going into this project, the masters that went into producing the molds must be real beauties looking at the castings that came from them. The price reflects the amount of work that went into producing something of this magnitude! I can see someone taking one of these bodies along with parts from a semi truck kit and building something truely amazing. If this is typical of the resin castings that Robert Burns turns out, I can't wait to see what else lurks in his mind!

The hobby will go on, just as it once did before the rise of the cottage industry phase in the mid to late eighties. It was also about that time that AMT began releasing realistic tooling beginning with the '66 Nova SS both Stock and Pro Street versions. Then the beginning of decent NASCAR tooling which like it or not brought a great many model car builders back into the ranks of adult builders. Next came the Pro Street and Pro Stock kits from both Revell and AMT, some of which preceded the AMT Nova. As long as AMT, Revell, Möbius and the rest continue to keep a hand on the pulse of the hobby it will thrive bringing with it the same cottage industries that the first resurgence that brought a great many of us back. When we see the producers of photo etch, aluminum doo dads, small resincasters and especially Replicas and Miniatures closing shop because they can no longer afford to remain in business due to diminished sales, that will likely signal the last slowdown before the final end. Even then, there will be a great many who will go underground, just like many did when we all figured the hobby was dead only to discover the great revival we know today. We've lost resin casters along the way, many of them pioneers of that black art; no one figured the hobby would die as a result of their closing. Our hobby for now is pretty resilient in part due to some of the same cottage industries that attracted us back in the first place. Maybe more will come as they find a niche, others will go either because the didn't follow the hobbies ever changing trends, then others will retire just as Carol and Don are hoping to do in the near future. It's not the deathnell yet.

Harry, been thinking about you; good thoughts really! Really, I actually mean it!! We have a guy at work who almost didn't make it through a dismount off his Harley thanks to an elderly couple who pulled out in front of him as he was doing 60 MPH. Yep, they didn't see him until he hit their car. He had about a bazillion (27 actually) broken bones, pins plates, superglue and whatever else it took to scratch build his parts back together!!! He almost died at the scene, but was given CPR and rescue breathing, thanks to a Washington State Patrolman and an off duty nurse on her way home after a long O/T shift. (He met both of them again, later.) Then he died on the operating table twice, second time they almost pulled the plug, but he made a noise and moved so they started in again while the Doctor closed him up on the other end. He's back to work finally, walking slowly with a cane, works half a day for now. Thank God, he's back to work!!! I remember seeing him in the hospital almost a week post accident, he was in a drug induced coma lines and tubes going every which way, I didn't have too high hopes either. The Doctors told his family he might not pull through, then they told him he wouldn't ever work again. He pulled through!! He's working again too!! Moral of the story Harry or anyone else finding yourself in a similar situation; never give up hope or give up on someone. You never ever know what God has planned for the rest of their life. Besides Harry, we all want you back pointing out the missing mirrors, floating generators and alternators, ejector pin marks, seams and other egregious modeling faux paxes!!! Get well soon. Remember there's a whole lot of (us) people who've never met you in person, but are praying for you! God is good!!

The last of the last order I placed with Modelhaus on May 15, 2016 arrived last Friday December 2, 2016 the day before my birthday even!! What a bittersweet box opening, like getting something from a good friend before they move away forever. I knew it was going to take awhile to get the parts when I ordered them, it wasn't an issue in my book. The quality is the same as we've always come to expect, there's a note from Carol to make sure you go over your order to make sure it's complete. (Which mine was.). This was my largest order I'd ever placed with them, probably just like everyone else. As always, Carol was so nice along the way. If you're waiting on an order from Modelhaus, don't forget to email and thank them for all their hard work to get it to you. They've really bent over backwards to get us all our parts after getting slammed with more orders than they ever expected; when someone else probably would have just threw up their hands and walked away! I got everything from wheels, tires to grills and bumpers, plus a '57 Mercury short Styleside bed pick up (Canadian Ford pick up). The pick up was the highlight of the order, nice crisp Modelhaus quality resin! I had been haunting eBay for a '60 Ford pick up forever and finally just decided to get the '57 just to be a little different. I have a Revell Parts Pack Chassis Research type short wheelbase dragster and an Attempt I trailer to go with the pick up; at least that's been my idea for ages. I like to get everything together, at least the major components together for each build, so that was the last piece of the puzzle. Probably be moving that one up,to first in line after the first of the year!!

Nice! You did a great job on those bobbed fenders, most people just hack them off any old place instead of projecting the line of the original trailing edge up as a beginning and fairing it in from there, like it looks like you did. Like they say the devil's in the details, it's just those kind of things that add up to a realy nice model. I like other things besides your fenders too! Good job!

The parts are on the Del Rio sprue, just not in the instruction sheets. To get those you have to go to the Fireball Roberts '57 Stocker or I think it's on the Sedan instruction sheet as well. I was surprised to find those parts included when I bought the first Del Rio kit.

Harry, Jim makes an excellent point, about both paying into the system and being a part of that same system. You've paid into everyone of these programs from the first day you worked your first job, you funded others in their time of need; unfortunately now you are in a time of need yourself. You paid for it, you may as well collect on it. I myself know how humbling it is to have to utilize one or two of the programs set up as a safety net in my own time of need. At 25 years old I was a mechanic in a dealership, I was coming down the stairs from the machine area with a Porsche 911 head in my hands. Slipped on probably the only spot of lubricant grease, hung onto the expensive aluminum head, struck my right elbow on the edge of the stair tread. Ouch! I learned a few hours later that between the bone and tread I'd partially severed my ulnar nerve. That's your funny bone. I was off of work on disability for five years, three surgeries and more poking and prodding than I care to remember because a lot of those pokes were with sharp instruments to make sure I still couldn't feel them like I did before I fell! Long story short, lazy ex-wife refused to get a job while I rehabbed, and went back to college, on my dime after the doctors told me I couldn't and wouldn't be returning to my old occupation. I did end up taking Medicaid to replace the health insurance I lost as well as food stamps after losing almost 2/3's of my take home pay. Was I embarrassed, you're darned right I was. I also had two kids five and under to take care of. Utilizing programs that you've paid into while it may be a blow to your ego (it was mine) you've earned that's right to use those benefits, unlike freeloaders who never pay a dime and use that safety net as a hammock. You unlike so many of those on the lifeline programs are willing to and would work if you were able, it isn't your choice, it is your physician who made that decision for you on the basis of your current health condition. Now, you are a very talented artist. You have a commodity that sells on a stress free and probably stress relieving basis. Not saying you become a poor artist, but it's not a bad way to supplement things is it?

Harry, glad to hear that things are on the upswing. (Haven't been around for a week or so, finishing up a project at work; all of this was a real shocker to hear). I've been concerned over the cancer, now this; you're a survivor and with God's grace you will make it through. Yes, God has a plan for your life, sometimes he has to bring us to a point where we will listen for sure he got your attention this time. Now get back on the Chemo regime and wipe out any remaining cancer (if there is any), my Dad went through a bout with the same type of cancer with the help of God some great doctors, supporting family and a positive attitude lived another 25 years. Now for the really bad part, prepping for the colonoscopy, (isn't that just a treat) you get to do that more frequently from now on. I think my Dad was on a three year cycle, had to drink a gallon of that horrible tasting stuff that gets you all pooped out. First two I had done I had to drink the gallon of sodium somthing-or-other, cleans everything out that's for sure. Just had another colonoscopy done about three weeks ago, they gave me something to mix with 64 ounces of Gatoraide, to not make it taste like Gatoraide! Drank half the night before, half the morning of, that alone was an improvement! The found three polyps ranging from 75 to 13 mm, so now I'm on a three year cycle to have my exhaust system checked out too!! This getting to be a seasoned citizen bit sure ain't for sissys is it!! God bless you Harry, you definitely have something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving this year! May God give you more to be thankful for many years to come!

Gary, that was exactly my point, since this tooling is so new it's gonna get fixed. Revell hasn't even seen a full year of amortization on it yet, they're going to get their money back, so you will see the kit back on the shelves too.

Having worked in a tooling shop (for a large formerly Seattle based aircraft company, maybe you've ridden on one of their planes.) for a few years. I can already say without a doubt the hard tooling (molds) are nowhere as big an issue as would have been in the 60's or even 90's. Now if the real proprietary item (the digital files) were damaged or corrupted, that would be a huge loss. In industry, Tooling gets lost, damaged, destroyed and just plain wears out all the time most companies plan for such incidents with hard tooling knowing that they can only pull so many units of anything off a mold; especially tight tolerance injection molding equipment. With the digital files in hand, the hard tooling can be recreated either from scratch and or damaged portion(s) of the tooling restored. In this day of four and five+ axis machining fixing or recreating a damaged is sometimes weeks away versus months away (years ago). The real time consuming part of any type of Injection molding tooling is the hand work required to bring the tool to production, this is getting less and less as machining technology advances along with digital technology. My point, don't believe everything some guy in your local hobby shop tells you and never believe the line some scalper on eBay trys to use to sell an overpriced anything. I totally agree with time to bring production back to the USA where there is better control over it.

The other thing that I have started buying a couple I of years ago is resin parts from, B-N-L, olmandowntheroad - AKA Altered States Models as well as a few others. I like this format for buying resin, much of the time you see the part you're buying, it arrives quickly a it's already cast before the auction began. Once or twice I have had a seller/caster who cast the parts after the auction, but the wait wasn't much longer than an extra day or two. There is a ton of Jimmy Flintstone's stuff there as well. So far I haven't got bit on any of the resin I've bought on eBay, hopefully that trend continues.

Another nice one in the works! Model T, A and B four bangers, their early speed secrets and parts are pretty cool any way you look at them. What's not to like!!! From my research on Model T Speedsters, I found that the Model A engine swap into the earlier Model T car and especially the trucks was a fairly popular swap (after enough Model A's had been wrecked and were in wrecking yards). Whenever the subject of Hotting Up a Model T comes up, the subject of Bootleggers is frequently mentioned. They were amoung some of the earliest Hot Rodders. One of the posts that I ran across on the Model T Club of America sort of implied that it was the Bootleggers who came up with the A into a T swap, probably shortly after the first Model A ended up wrecked. Though they wondered about the "wisdom" of said swap, in part due to the T's somewhat wimpy frame which was usually compounded by the extra leaf or three added to the spring stack front and rear. Their point was that when the "buggy sprung" suspension was stiffened up for the extra weight that the frame itself then became in part a torsion bar flexing back and forth, especially if they added hot parts to the Model A engine! From our perspective today that doesn't make as much impact; especially considering that double and even triple the horsepower of the Model T engines would have been possible with the right parts.

I usually search mostly for the specific parts I'm looking for, per project. There are some parts like specific types of wheels, tires and maybe extra engines that I look for to keep as stock on hand for future projects. Pricing, I try to find the most reasonable, then go with the proxy bid with the most I'm willing to pay for the item. I win some and lose some that way but I won't pay stupid prices just to win the item either. I find in that respect its best to be patient and wait those who gotta have it now out. For me that plan normally works. I don't normally bother with the junk yard sales even if there are a couple of parts I'm looking for. I've already got my own junkyard! Breakers, nope they don't bother me a bit. Most of the time it's cheaper than buying the whole kit for a couple of parts. I sort of have my "favorite" Breakers whom I've dealt with multiple times enough that they're on my favorites lists. If it was a part from some ancient kit I was looking for ID buy it from a breaker as well, as long as I could get the parts needed to finish the project. Parting out kits, I've done it a couple of times with kits I knew were missing parts. I've bought too many "open complete" kits with one or more undisclosed missing parts that I won't pass that mess onto someone else. Seems every time I've parted something out I almost always end up with parts that won't sell, stock seats, weird parts, rear ends,,, I bought a supposedly complete sealed (with tape) Monogram Orange Hauler that was missing most of the body and the hood scoop, seller refused to admit that the kit wasn't complete. So broke it up, pretty much all that sold was the engine and frames, so no from my perspective I didn't make money. I kept the whitewall pie crust slicks tires and wheels; on all the auctions for the rest of the kit everyone asked if I still had the tires and wheels? That's all they wanted too! Didn't make a dime!

Last night as I was perusing eBay I got to wondering how many others here scavenge eBay for extra parts and bits for model projects too. What kind of model parts, bits and bobs do you usually look for on eBay? What kind of pricing to you shoot for? (Yeah we all know there is that one crazy guy who thinks his parts are made of unobtanium, we are Not Discussing Him, at all!) Then there are the "Breakers" you know the ones who buy any kit they can get their hands on, old or new and part them out. Do you buy from them? I know some are bothered by them, does it bother you enough to not buy the part you need for a project or kit missing that piece? While we're discussing Breakers, has anyone pieced a kit out that way, did you make enough to cover your time and the price of the kit? I'm really wondering if most of those sellers actually sell off the whole kit or in the end are stuck with the junk no one wants, plus do they really end up making a dime or two?

Yuk, just looked at that "weld" on a bigger screen, there seems to be more defect than weld! The "welder" didn't even clean or prep the "joints" one can only imagine what is included in that mess. That's not even a sound stick weld, seen better welds on a muffler job!!!

As an AWS Level 3, I don't think I'd even bother looking at that bird poop weld!

It's the Riley Two Port head, looks to be out of the AMT '29 Ford Roadster. Your picture looks different than the Revell '31 Ford sedan, woodie and sedan delivery Riley Two Port Head included in those three kits. So I'm saying it is the AMT, also based on the white unpainted block and transmission. There was a thread asking about the Riley Head Conversion being offered in kit form. See below. Riley started making the Overhead Valve head for the Model T then for the Model A and I think Model B ('32 Ford 4banger). They were a popular conversion with Speedsters, truckers and especially Boot Leggers forcing a few Police Departments to invest in either the Riley or Frontenac (Chevrolet brothers) head conversions just to keep up! In addition auxillary transmissions and two speed rear axels like the Ruckstel and Columbia were necessitated to put all that extra power to the ground! see previous Riley Head Thread below

I've purchased parts from b-n-l both from the website and off of eBay I've got the same great service either way. Parts are always excellent whether it's been a carburetor, transmission or valve cover they always come the same zero to no cleanup required! I've never had an issue with b-n-l, professional, great communication and with a large enough order you might get a surprise goody with it!!! They're one of my favorite resin shops.

Super job! Reminds me of some of the old Hank Borger models he built for his Car Model articles. Low parts count or not, your '56 just has that look that a period correct Ex-Gasser has to have to be credible. With a little tweeking here or there this could have easily been a Stock Class car as well. Every thing about your model is plausible, there aren't any parts or doo dads that don't belong, that's what separates a decent subject related model from a really good one in my book.

Got an email answer from Norm this weekend I added a couple of the firewalls, tops and a roll-n-tuck insert to my current in process order. According to Norm, yes he is running behind schedule for orders placed over the summer, he just said that things got piled up this summer. I highly suspect he got hit with the Modelhaus Hysteria, now everybody is sort of afraid that other resin casters will pull the plug as well. (I have no real idea, that's my theory.)

Statistical Process Control, inspect 1 in 13, find no defect for next 26 lots, inspect 1 in 50, no effects for XXXX, 1 in XXXX,,, The Asian manufacturers bought into everything W. Edwards Deming had to say about quality, they thought Deming's 14 points were the thing the world revolves on, which includes greater and greater use of self inspection procedures. Now couple that with a manufacturing facility in a country where workers are harshly punished for mistakes. Think said worker is going to blow the whistle on themselves, yeah right. Couple that with workers being paid piecework wages and you have a recipe for warped bodies!