MrObsessive

My advice is if you see ANY Johan stuff for a "reasonable" price (that's subjective from person to person), GRAB IT!! The Chryslers and other Mopar stuff especially can go for some crazy money as I've sold a few on eBay. What I have now I'm hanging on to probably forever, and will look to get more if I can find them! As far as accuracy, you can't get much better than the Johan bodies, but as someone mentioned, a few might be scaled a bit out of whack, but the body lines are IMO dead on accurate. No, we'll never see the likes of a 1961 Chrysler New Yorker kitted again (that's one of the BIG $$$$ ones!), that's the reason prices can only go up steadily over time, until those of us that remember these cars as kids and young adults are no longer walking the earth. Those born in the '00's on up won't have any idea what a 1965 Chrysler 300 was or even care.

I'm not a truck guy by any means, but this has my attention! In fact, I might just break down and get the shortbox version of this it has me so tempted.

Interesting video, but UGGGH-----the fellow narrating says the first Corvettes were equipped with a "V6". NO! Get it right! It was a STRAIGHT six!

Ha! You got that right! That's one thing that stopped this right in its tracks! I absolutely hate the kit glass as it's way, way too distorted, and cars like this scream out for glass to be as clear as possible. I did since get a vacuform machine, and I was able to mold a fairly reasonable windshield. Need some more practice though as the plastic I used wasn't quite the right type I like. Then there's that rear window to deal with..........................

Naturally, everything you see on that page was still under construction...........on the finished model there are no gaps.

As a big believer in Future and what it can do, I'll echo the sentiments of others here and tell you that Future will NOT hide cracks! Slight scratches yes, but not full on cracks. As Snake said, making your own windshield is not difficult, and if you click here (scroll down a bit), I have a mini tutorial on how I made the glass for a '63 Chrysler Turbine Car. Some patience is what's really needed, but it can be done.

Well Scott, they say styling is subjective...........I happen to like this though! 1958 Packard Hawk

I've built a couple of Modelhaus's resin in the past, and yes, they'll require some work to make them look nice like any kit. Here are a few pics............. Their '61 Cadillac Series 62 Coupe....... 1959 Buick Invicta As Richard said, you'll need to take the time to do some pre-fitting to make the glass fit with no huge gaps, and in the case of the Cadillac, a bit of filing and trimming was needed for the interior, for it to sit properly in the body without making the whole car appear to sit too high. They say "Patience is a virtue"------in the case of any resin kit, you'll need patience to make them display well. Some resin kits a lot more than others. Modelhaus kits are at the top of their game IMO as a lot of the work is done, but some work needs to still be done by the modeler. BTW, embedded in the first pics of the Caddy and the Buick are links to the photo album of the in-progress work to these. Hope this helps!

I would LOVE to have that Olds!! I've always liked the '74-'76 Delta 88's (LOVE that roofline!), and they were the last of the really big Olds as they just shrank after that.

Excellent review Tim! I left a comment on one of the pics regarding the glass and the roofline. DEFINITELY a home run kit for Moebius, as I'll certainly be getting one!

Weren't the front fenders wider as well? That's what prevented me from ever building that kit-----the body's not quite correct to me to represent a Gulf car. Just hasn't struck my fancy to want to sink the work into it-----------yet!

Ahhhh Man that looks sooo nice!! Reminds me so much of our Driver's Ed car (a '77). I was really disappointed when Pontiac shrunk those for '78. It lost something and that was when the car started to lose a lot of it's appeal till the really sharp '88's came out. Of course, and unfortunately, it was front wheel drive by then.

Thanks! I get a LOT of looks (and compliments) over this car! Perfect strangers will come up to me at the gas station, or in a parking lot and they always have something nice to say about it. I've even had young kids who obviously wouldn't remember the original give me hoots and shouts as I've driven by. I haven't got this much attention over a car since I had my '69 AMX in the late '80's/early '90's. I still miss that one, but this is world's better than that AMX as I can drive on a long trip in complete comfort, and still burn up the road when needed. I thought I'd mind the automatic, but it shifts well on it's own and the manumatic shifter is a nice compromise. Just goes to show you that a well styled car will sell itself! Sales have been steadily increasing year after year if I read correctly. The biggest thing I like about the car is the proportions. Plenty of real estate between the front wheels and the doors for my long legs, and how Chrysler cleaned up the lines of the old Challenger, and brought it into the 21st century. I truly missed having a rear wheel drive car, and now I don't think there's any turning back!

Well sorta..........a while back I bought Micro-Mark's vacuform machine, and had some success with it as I used some old Thermaform sheets for a mold. It still wasn't as clear as I'd like, and I'll have to practice on it to get the best results. I essentially used the old windshield as a buck but did some "enhancing" to it to withstand the pressure of the vacuum. Recently, I bought some .020 PETG sheets from eBay as I was told this is a much better material to use for molding windshields. I haven't tried it yet as time is an enemy of mine right now as I'm still dealing with very long work hours 6 days per week, and with this time of year, Sunday's are pretty much the only day I can do any building-----that's of course after yard/house work is out of the way. The Mustang is the priority right now as it's about 90% done, and after it's finished, the Impala will be back on the front burner. At that time, I'll try go in depth of how I did the buck for the vacuform, as I'll have to make one for the backlite as well. Might be a while though.............. I have a resin Biscayne that came without windows...........you're pretty much going to have to vacuform those too as that glass can't be bent using plain clear stencil sheet. Too many compound curves!

I might be interested in another Barracuda.......I have one but a newer release would be nice. Sigh...........I really wish that Vega could be turned into stock without going through a lot of hassle. I'd love to build one of those stone stock just as I saw them in the late '70s on the streets brand new. Nothing else unfortunately interests me.............

Steve, looks to be an interesting project! I'll be tuning in 'cuz any birth year model being done gets my attention! FWIW, I like the '61's a little better than the '60's---------the fins look a bit better to me how they sweep into the doors, and those perfectly round taillights in the rear. Jet age! Edit: BTW, I have this same model on my shelf! I bought it as a flawless unpainted buildup off of eBay, but haven't done a thing with it. Yours may give me some inspiration!

Steve, what you're looking to do is a telescoping antenna. I did something like you're looking for on this '59 Buick........... Also on this T-Bird, but it's a little hard to see............ M.A.S. sold tubing in various sizes like you mentioned in a single pack. I still have some of that tubing, but I have no idea what particular size I used in these models as they were built years ago. I just went with what looked "right" and rolled with it. The Buick probably could have had a size smaller to go into the larger tubing, but I think I ran out of it at that point, and just put the guitar string in. The base was a small piece of aluminum tubing turned on a dremel and the rubber "gasket" was a thin slice of plastic rod drilled though for the larger stainless tubing. Hope this helps!

Hmmm........I've always wondered if the Revell-Monogram Jeep kits had the correct AMC V8 block in them? Anyone know?

Thanks Nick! That was an interesting article, and it's the first I've seen of it! One factor in all of this is pure patience! I've had to rework and reposition gears and whatnot a number of times till I got it right. One window for instance might take me a week or more to get right, working a couple hours at a time.

Thanks Greg! Actually it was more into this................ I was copying mostly a car that I had seen in Road and Track magazine back in the late '90's. It didn't represent any particular race car, thus no numbers. The ROG Jaguar XK-SS kit is another one of those fiddly kits that you need LOTS OF PATIENCE to be able to build right. We owe a lot of thanks to the D-Types and XK-SS's-----if not for those cars, we would have never seen the gorgeous E-Types that followed.

This is the Gunze kit I have............with all the fiddly bits and pieces.

Snake last I knew, the MPC '66 Bonneville lived on in the '80's reissue of Hasagawa's "1966" line which included a Chevy, T-Bird, and Cadillac IIRC. Of course you didn't get an engine or the correct dash, but they weren't bad kits nonetheless. I have the Poncho, and it certainly looks like MPC's body to me of which I once had one of those too, but sold it on eBay years ago. The box says 1/24th, but I can remember comparing it to the MPC kit I had, and the bodies were identical!

I built a Heller E-Type coupe many years ago in the '80's, and to my eye has much better proportions than the Aurora kit. I currently have the Gunze multimedia kit as well as the Heller roadster, but I've touched neither of them. Given a choice I do believe the Gunze is the nicest out of all of them, but be prepared to..... 1) Pay a LOT of money for one! 2) Give yourself PLENTY of patience as this kit is NOT for the faint of heart! There's also the Airfix kit that's out there, but I believe Gunze repackaged that a number of years ago, and it's not the same kit as I mentioned above. Very nice however, and proportions are quite accurate. The Revell kit IMO is the worst............terrible mold, and you'll spend LOTS of time to get things to fit right on that one. I hear that Heller is reissuing the convertible-----any word on the coupe if anyone knows?? BTW, if you ever build either the coupe or the convertible, the trickiest part is building the kit without that seam on the side! The 1:1's never show that seam, but the model manufacturers molded it that way for building expediency.

Yeah Art, I've got the '59. It's a builtup, and it's too nice to hack up! Thank goodness for Don and Carol's resin repops as I have two of the roof sections. And yes, they're very hard to find these days in good shape without a lot of junk tacked on to 'em!

Frank, you're going to have to create some kind of "border" or channel that's very close to the window frame to achieve the look you want. You'd still need to use the type of plastic I used, but if the glass has compound curves such as those found on late '50's/early '60's cars, you'd have to most likely vacuform it. You're trying to get the glass as flush as possible to the surface, and I can tell you, you can be in for some rather frustrating work! I did this one time on a Ferrari build pictured below, and it was not without trying several times to get the rear glass particularly to appear correctly. This is Sterling Moss's '61 Ferrari as I saw it restored in the late '90's. The rear window was nearly flush with the body and that's the look I wanted for this build. While not absolutely perfect, it was MUCH better than the kit glass which had that tunneled look that you're trying to get away from. To get the glass to "stay" you'd need super glue or some very good patience holding the glass in place with 5 min. epoxy till it fully sets. Edit: I want to say that Moebius is doing just as you've described with their new kits. I've seen up close and personal the new '65 Plymouth Satellite, and its glass is 'bout flush with the body. Moebius will have you mount the glass on the outside while you would BMF and detail paint the weatherstripping and frame. Hopefully the glass won't be terribly distorted------one of my biggest pet peeves with model kits with most manufacturers.