MrObsessive

It's sad, but even a 100% feedback is no guarantee anymore that you won't run into trouble. If you read my post above, the character I was describing also has a 100% feedback rating, but he's been lucky that he's not gotten bad feedback before from how he describes his auctions.

OK, model related as this is yet another eBay annoyance. I was surfing eBay early this morning and came across a particular model that is rather common. To not give the guy grief (as he did to me as you'll read), I won't mention his seller name, or tell you what model it was. I don't want folks trying to search him out and give him grief. This particular car while offered by two different kit makers, those of us in the know can tell that there are differences in the body shape. In the auction he described the car as an 'AMT' kit, but I could spot right away that it was a Revell. I wrote and (I thought) very nicely tried to tell him that what he has is NOT an AMT but indeed a Revell kit. I even pointed out why that was the case. He wrote back and said "They're all owned by one company now". I wrote back and said.............No not really. You have another car in an auction which clearly belongs to AMT, the other one you have listed is not. Someone that's quick to bid or buy and is not careful looking, might get a bit ticked off that what they bought was not exactly what you described. To add to this, the AMT one was a one year annual and AFAIK has never been resissued, while the Revell one is a LOT more common. Just a little bit ago, I got his response that said in big fat letters "CEASE CONTACT!" OK....I seemed to hit a nerve and I was just a bit peeved at once again the sheer laziness of some sellers as to what they're describing. I see on his other auctions that he has EVERYTHING labeled as AMT. Some are obvious as those of us who know can spot a Johan exclusive for instance. But this particular car because it's so common can fool those that aren't looking closely. Just had to air that as it kinda irked me that he didn't want to hear it. And last I checked because I'm watching the auction, he didn't change the description. It'll be interesting to see what kind of feedback he gets when the buyer gets it. We'll see...............

Yes............ALWAYS! Especially IMO should this be done LAST so you can be sure all things will fit with the least amount of hassle. I don't like to do all that work painting and polishing the body, only to have it all scratched up and nicked because I found out after the fact that something is amiss.

I think you might mean a dehydrator? Either which way, you can only bend a body only so much with your hands before it can disfigure another area. The twist in this is so bad that frankly, I see this as nothing more than a good scrap body to practice paint on or something. I don't know what I hate worse............badly distorted glass which is so thick it looks like eyeglasses, or a twisted body which to me is useless. At least the glass I can replace, but a severely warped body like that I'd sooner replace than to go through all the drama trying to fix it. And then there's the possibility since it was warped that can go back to its warped state somewhat due to the 'memory' that's now in the plastic with that shape. ESPECIALLY after some rather hot paint is laid on it.

Aaahh! Nice site! Thanks for the link and it's duly bookmarked!

That's one of the more crazy making things for me in this hobby and I quit tolerating it! I'd be either dropping them a line or calling them to get a new body, but that's me. Part of the problem is not so much the size of the box (same box as many years ago and this was rare), but their unwillingness at times for the sake of production to not let the bodies cool sufficiently thus the warping. The fact that you got TWO that are warped tells me they've rushed things. Totally unacceptable with the cost of kits these days.

That looks great Dan! Yeah, I lost track of NASCAR many years ago when the cars were no longer representative of what you could actually buy. That '59 Chevy I'm sure may have drove a lot of sales that year despite its radical looks. Racing played a big part and now the cars today are soooo.............tame by comparison to the way it used to be.

Exactly. I do this all the time so those that are following a WIP of mine can see there's something current.

OK, had to do some digging but I got it! This was a bit of a tricky one so watch out!

I have the HRM transkit and it's treasured by me as I won it at an NNL years ago. VERY nice castings as JC pointed out and I too have a couple of those GS kits..........one as a donor.

What if one wants to change their date on a continuous WIP as in an update for example?? That would be sucky! I'll keep saying this until the point is made................why oh why is there not a preview page as there is on other forums?? Seeing what one wrote and to check for grammar, spelling, etc is a bit annoying trying to view it through a 'box' as opposed to a whole page. Especially for exceptionally long posts which I make from time to time.

Aaaaah! I'm DEFINITELY following this one! I've got two '60 hardtops so I'll be very curious to see what you do with this one.

I believe that was a small faux pas on their part. Here are engine bay shots I have of the 1:1............... Note on the fuelie engine there's a slight cutout on the firewall so Revell wasn't too far off. I just wanted to get rid of that extra 'lip' of plastic on the cowl so it didn't appear that much more buried. BTW, if I ever do another '59 Chevy, I'd sure like for it to be this Fuelie I have pictured. That's a VERY rare one for sure!

Interesting! I never looked at mine that closely to pay attention to that. Just the appearance of the 'too raked' A pillar was what's turned me off all these years. I wouldn't have the ambition at this point to even bother correcting all of that, so in the box it'll stay for the long foreseeable future.

Oh I hear ya! When I was doing the interior on my '59 hardtop, I spent quite a bit of time just on the interior alone! IIRC, I know I spent probably 2-3 weeks just redoing some things and adding things that Revell missed. Add also that the model had opening doors, it was that much more work on the interior such as separating the door panel for instance. The interior looks great as is and this along with the '59 Cadillac was a milestone in Monogram's lineup as far as detailed kits. I won't say that they went particularly overboard, one can say that these were among the first kits to appeal to the 'adult' builder, as they were definitely targeted for those that had been building for some time.

Drew, that looks mighty good from where I sit! If you hadn't mentioned any troubles I would have thought nothing of it! And yes, the finish on that is perfect for that era of race car.

Robert, that is looking mighty nice! Just one teeny weeny detail that you may want to add...........all '59 Impalas that I've seen had chrome detailing on the tops of the seats and door panels like so.............. Tricky to BMF as it's very thin so I can't blame you if you want to let that go.

This is the main reason why I never built the one I have and I've had it since the '80's. Yes, it would be a lot of work, but the car has never tripped my trigger for having the urge to build it. It's not a bad kit overall, it's that I can't get past that incorrect A pillar slope and then there's the overall 'emptiness' of the chassis that I'd have to do something about. Believe it or not, I've got like three of those T-Birds! Two that are built and very restorable and a never touched kit molded in white in its original box. Of the three, I'd restore the one as it's 'complete' while the other one is missing its fender skirts and doesn't have the stock wheel covers. One saving grace of ALL of them is that the windshield frames are nice and straight! More often than not, just about every time I see these turn up on eBay, the windshield frame is woefully bent and there are instances where the sellers tried to 'hide' the bad frame or said nothing about it, but try to sell it as 'new and untouched'.

Very nice and clean job on what can be a VERY tough kit!

Hmmm................

I've got Australia on my mind for whatever reason. I have to think besides the climate and such, you folks probably have different regs than we do. I don't know however if yours are tougher or the reverse when it comes to paints and such.

I second the use of Plastikote T-235 primer. Dries quickly, feather edges well and plays nice with paints I put over it. Of course, I'm a BIG believer in sealing all bodywork before putting on any color coats and with very few exceptions, I never paint the body until ALL is built up first and test fitted. A little tough to find Plastikote here now, but I've found it on eBay. I've never had that trouble as I've decanted Plastikote straight from the can into the airbrush jar. Maybe a different formula for those of us in the US as opposed to Australia? Interesting..............

Paul, you did pretty much what I have in mind when the time comes for me to tackle this. I hadn't paid much attention to the hood cut lines.........I'll look at lot closer at that. And yes, the trunk could stand a bit of a 'lift', but it's not as bad as those rear fenders were. As you mentioned there are other issues with it that stick out to me like a sore thumb, but I don't know if I'll correct all of them. I still to this day cannot figure out how RC2 screwed up what I think is such an iconic (and important design wise) Mopar! This is definitely on my long term project list once I get a couple more WIP's out of the way. Still, yours is super exceptional and I sure dig that color! I'm going to check the '58 color palette to see if that was available then. I'm seriously thinking about turning mine into a Savoy as I really like the side trim as much as the Belvedere/Fury. Besides, I have a Danbury Mint '58 Plymouth Fury now, so I've been sated by that model as far as having a nice one.

1 OOOOH! That is nice! I have that kit too (two actually......one for another project), but the glass on that kit leaves much to be desired IMO. That's a pet peeve of mine------distorted glass which this kit has to my view. I'll build it someday and that is a nice color for that '57.

Only caveat is that with resin, it doesn't sand/cut at the same rate as plastic. Resin can be more brittle and when sanding it, you'll notice that it sands/grinds away 'faster' than your average plastic kit. It also wouldn't hurt to wash any resin pieces, or wipe them down with alcohol. One never knows what kind of process was done to remove the resin from the mold be it some type of mold release, or what have you. When it comes time for paint, any type of action that can ward off surprises is always a good thing!