MrObsessive

Jeff, ya gotta finish that! That flathead is too cool to not have a nice body like that wrapped around it! Excellent work as usual!

Gregg, that's a good point about what kids may be learning about the car culture today. Growing up in the '60's and '70's there were all types of cool cars I got to ogle at on the streets. You still had some of the finned '50's beasts roaming the roads, as well as the super powered muscle cars which were becoming nice cheap used cars by the late '70's. That started to change by the '80's when boring and undependable American junk started populating our roads being put out by the Big Three. Couple this with Americans getting tired of buying American junk and buying Asian............no wonder the Toyota Camry is the #1 car sold today, where in the '60's it was the Chevy Impala, which came in an array of bodystyles-----from a pedestrian 2 dr sedan to a rip snorting convertible. This has translated into not a whole lot being offered on the domestic front in the way of models. Who can get excited about a boring minivan?...........Or a Camry?? And don't get me started on the Prius! This is starting to change now on the domestic front as GM in particular has some really snazzy cars now and more to come in the next few years. I just wonder if it's too late to recapture some of the passion in younger folks into cars and models today as we had in the '60's and '70's. It would be nice if the domestic automakers commissioned promos like they did in the old days. There are a number of cars that would make nice promos. That went a ways towards getting youngsters years ago interested. Mom and Dad bought a car (or ordered one) and Johnny got a model of said car to play around with! Bill, I totally agree with you about todays litigious society! Heaven forbid GM build a four door hardtop today (another sore subject with me) and someone sue because the car got t-boned in an accident and there were injuries. Don't blame the driver who t-boned you.....blame GM for building a car without a B-pillar. Or model companies offering "safe" glue..........lest Suzy or Johnny get zonked out for sniffing glue fumes and their parents sue. So sad.

Harry, that was the case with me-----while my dad was a car guy he had no influence on me as far as starting model building. Not to mention, I was a bit older than most kids that got started building as I was a senior in high school about to graduate. What I'm getting at is the breaking up of families today affect kids a lot more than them wanting to get into model building. Undoubtedly due to the stress that kids go through when a family has broken up (and sometimes long before) and the upheaval that can take place long after the breakup. It's sad to hear some of the stories I've heard from kids who've been shuffled back and forth due to a custody battle or shared custody or whatever. If I were put through that situation.........having no sound home to come home to, I couldn't keep my mind focused on model building long enough. I'm not coming down on those who've gone through or are going through this situation..............there's a myriad of reasons why families break up. Just something I've observed over the years.

Hey! Is that a hint of '57-'61 Hawk tailfins I see? Nice custom Stude!

I think the problem underlying the shortage of kids in the hobby can be traced to a number of things. There are a LOT more things taking the up the activities of a kids life than years ago. You've got computers, video games, music systems and whatnot determined to fill in the space of what used to be model building. Not to mention 1247 channels on TV to take whatever time is left over. I think another reason (albeit subjective) is the fact that a LOT of kids are not being raised in whole families anymore. Let's face it. With the divorce rate as high as it is, and many children living with mom, or being split up between two families, it's no wonder they don't take to hobbies such as model building like we did in the old days. Now mind you, I come from a divorced home..............but I got into model building rather late in life considering (17) and I lived with my dad at the time who was (and still is) a real car guy. I was working then, and found model building to be a nice quiet diversion from the mundane activities of having to work part time and going to school. How many youngsters who live solely with their mothers even have contact with their dad? This isn't to say women can't be into cars, but more often than not, it's the dads who get their kids into things automotive. I don't mean for this to be down on marriage or families..............Lord knows I've never been married, but can empathise with kids who come from a broken home and maybe don't have the influence (be it male or female) to encourage them to get into things automotive. Be it model building, or tinkering with old cars, or going to a local race. Just my 2¢

I wish! My mind says YES!.............but the wallet and bank account say NO! With vacation also comes a bit of poverty with house payment, car payment, etc, at the same time........maybe next year! I might try to make it to Birmingham in the spring since I get an extra week of vacation starting this coming year! Stay tuned Chris..................maybe, just maybe, along with a long lost project to be continued...............

Thanks guys!! Yes, I had a nice and QUIET birthday............I don't make a big deal out of birthdays anymore as the years pile up. But I did have a nice dinner over my cousins house along with a couple others, and I have vacation for the week to make things even more drama free from work!

IIRC, the red car had hidden headlights (I have the kit but not in front of me.........buried somewhere), and the yellow car had exposed headlights. I think there were model name differences, but I don't remember what right now.

What a beautiful color! I don't think I've ever seen a '57 'Vette model done in that shade of green before! Very clean build too!

Very nice and clean build! Those wheels and tires suit that car well!

??????? I'm not sure what I was seeing other either 'cept to say that might be more suited for a heater hose or something NOT spark plug wires. As Bill mentioned, Detail Master wiring is great, but in case you can't find it where you are..............go to an electronics shop and look for wiring wrapped on a spool. They come in various colors and sizes but I like to go for basic black in my replica stock builds. Barring that, if your local hobby shop is a good one that can order things, you can buy wiring that is already wired into the distributor. All you need to do is drill the holes in your engine block with a pin vise and wire away! Here are pics of some of the work that I've done to give you an idea of the size of wire and whatnot you would need for a scale appearance................. You can see some of the various sizes I use for vacuum, heater, and ignition wires, etc...............I mostly eyeball what "looks" right for my builds, scale appearance is what I count on most, not always the exact size for everything. Hope this helps!

Rob, if you use the roof out of the '71.............the main issue with it is that it's got too much tumblehome (angle of the roof to the beltline from front or rear view) lending the roof a kind of "pinched" appearance. That's the main thing that stopped me from building that one years ago. Other than that, the only other problem is the dual headlights are spaced too far apart. I thought someone years ago made a resin fix for that (was it MPB Detail?), but I could be wrong.

Milt how 'bout a '59 Caddy? If his choice of colors and style of clothes are as outrageous as you say they are..........what wilder car than a '59 Caddy?

You betcha! Best model car forum on the 'net!

Thanks for the heads up Risto! Believe it or not..........I bought one of these the other day (THE WORLD'S ENDING!! ) I'm very impressed by the layout of the kit and what's been posted here so far. I'm going to do mine as a hardtop when I decide to build it (along with some other details) so the door frames would be eliminated just the same. I hope the kit sales can pave the way for some other neat stuff from Revell down the road!

Thanks for compliment Mike!..............And what a cool Firebird!! Yeah it took a moment for me when the new format showed up that you have to delete that "http" from the field before you paste the URL. There's already a "http" in the URL when you paste it so the extra one's not needed lest the pic not show up. It's nicer to do it this way though.................I used to type out the image tags for all the pics before and of course if you miss a bracket (or the wrong one) the pic wouldn't show adding to frustration!

Ron looking at 1:1 photos of the car..........the model's C pillars curves inward too abruptly making the tulip panel too long. I guess you could stretch the roof a couple scale inches rearward to fix it, but the side window shape itself isn't correct, due to that way too high kickup of the rear fenders. From a side profile, the roofline itself curves downward too soon making the roof too short to begin with. It's true that the actual car can change shape from photo to photo.............but in this instance to my view they didn't even come close as far as getting the shape right in this redo. If I wanted too I could fix the roof and "stretch it" much like I did the hardtop on Monogram's '57 Corvette, but the real disappointment is they've struck out twice on this one IMO. The '71's problem is there's a steep tumblehome on the roof.................much more difficult to fix, unless you cut the roof in half and bend it outwards for starters. Along with those incorrect spaced dual headlights. Just for kicks on second thought, I have a good mind to BUY this kit, accurize everything wrong with the body, and send a pic to Revell to show them how it should've been done. This from a guy who has no CAD or special tools to work with.

Absolutely Stunning!! One of the nicest Shelby's I've seen built! I've only ever seen ONE of the actual cars on the road..........a real head turner for sure!

I wanna play too! 1963 250 GTO 1961 250 GT SWB (Stirling Moss '61 winner owned by Rob Walker)

Ron, you did a great review of this car...............but the body is just too way off IMO for me to even think about trying to fix it. If this were a first time effort for Revell, I might overlook it and give it a shot------but this is the second attempt at this one and they still didn't get it right! What gets me kinda irritated is the money spent on trying to fix this one could have been spent on all new tool of the car. To my eyes the whole rear end of the car (from quarter windows rearward) looks "Big Butted" due to the fact that the quarters themselves appear too long------probably due to the roof being so short. True that the '71 'Cuda had it issues with body proportions...........but ya gotta remember when that one was tooled..........early '80's? A number of Monogram's stuff was ill proportioned then but in this age of CAD and tons of reference, there's no reason for a bad proportioned car. This one can probably be massaged into a decent looking car, but once you fix the fenders, you won't be able to use the decals------maybe find a set of Fred Cady decals-------maybe........ Then there's fixing that too short roof! Oy Vey! As time goes on, I'm less inclined to do major surgery on models like I once did...........one reason is cost. They should be correct right out of the box. I think the bigger issue underlying the problem is too many beancounters and not enough passionate car folks in the hobby biz today. I'll do my part and simply not buy one. Just my 2¢ worth Ron.......... Sorry...........

Earl, you need to copy and paste the URL of the photo for it to work here from Photobucket or Fotki. You can do this...........[ img ] your url here [ /img ] (No spaces however)............ Or you can click on the image box (7th box from the left above the text box) and paste the URL there. Make sure when you paste the URL you delete the "http" from the field which shows up when you click on the box. Otherwise the pic won't show. It should show instantly in your message box when you hit the OK button if the URL is correct. You also need to make sure the image URL has a .jpg suffix at the end of the URL for it to work. As far as Fotki is concerned, you need to have a PAID account for the pics to show up here indefinitely. Free account pics will show here but for so long, before Fotki yanks 'em. When posting pics from Fotki, it's best to use the "Share Photo" URL which is located near the bottom of the pic your trying to show--------NOT the thumbnail pic. Simpy click on that to get the proper URL to post 'em. I've learned from Fotki that simply right clicking on the fullsize pic and copying and pasting the URL will result in the pic not staying on the message board. It's Fotki's way IMO to save money on bandwidth cost to the dismay of others who haven't caught on to this latest scheme to save costs. Hope this helps! I would email you, but I want other newbies to see the info here in case they're having difficulties.

Thanks for joining us Jeff! 5 already going on?? I have trouble with just getting one to keep plugging along!

Very clean BMF'ing!! I'll bet those wheelwells were a pain in the *(&%^#!! At least they are for me!

That's the same way I've been feeling lately Steve. I've recently have had some folks I know wanting me to build something for them. I turned them down simply because I HATE deadlines! Even though they've offered to pay me-------it still comes down to a deadline and then what do I charge? I have enough deadlines in my own job to deal with and a hobby shouldn't be full of deadlines unless it's hurrying to finish something for a show or whatnot. The only exception where building a model for someone might not be that big of a deal is building something for eBay where no one's expecting you to have a finished model done at a certain point. As far as charging someone a price...............I'd say in the $200 range thereabouts + materials. I figure most paint jobs I can finish within a 8-16 hour period including rubbing out and polishing. Of course maybe more for custom stuff such as two tones or candies!

I get mine from a couple places....foremost from my club meetings (Ron Bradley)----and then from my LHS's. There seems to be only a couple good ones left. Kranzles RC and Hobby here in the Harrisburg area, and Hobbytown are the only ones around now. I don't even think about Walmart........ There's a train shop in the Gettysburg area where I get all my scratchbuilding stuff (Tommy Gilberts). I was just there this afternoon getting some things to finish up the Magnum.