kentak

I'm looking forward to these releases, don't understand the negativity. Are there problems with Salvino kits? Ken

I talked to the Revell rep at the IPMS Nats about the release date of the '71 Boss and he said no set date yet but usually 6 months or so following the first test shot if there are no issues. It sure looks nice! Ken

If t's not the Sunny kit it's a dead ringer. AMT289/260 chassis, engine, and interior with a 427 Cobra body. Weird hybrid of things. Ken

Got this kit a couple of weeks ago, I think I like the Trumpeter body better than Meng's. The shape of the headlight openings and front hood/trunk opening seems more accurate on the Trumpeter/Magnifier body as well as the shape of the rear curving under to the rear wheels. The Meng engine is way better than the T/M engine; Meng chassis components, rear axles (u-joints), and tires are better too. The Meng interior is better, especially the seats and dash board. Unfortunately for the cost of the Meng kit it's especially sad that they didn't get the body right as it's the most prominent part of the kit. I'm hoping the headlight shape can be corrected as that, to me is so prominent. Just my 2cents worth, Ken

Several Studebakers raced in NASCAR, although two of these were not Starliners. The Starliner appears to be from the Carrera Panamericana.

There's also this: Decalcas (ref. DCL-PAR003) Ford GT - 24 Hours Le Mans 2017 Set of resin parts to be used on the 1/24 scale Ford GT Le Mans kit by Revell, for improving the less detailed areas of the original model such as rims, brake discs and calipers, tyres, rear diffuser, fuel inlets, compressed air intake, steering wheel, etc. All parts have been computer designed with last generation 3D software. This from an ad on Spot Model. I have a set and probably will get another. Haven't tried using the parts yet but they look like good quality.

The car portrayed in this kit is the Cyclone provided by Lincoln-Mercury to its factory teams. They were built to the rules for A/FX at the time and were carbureted with only small changes to the wheelbase. This kit is a pretty accurate representation. The main shortcoming I see in this kit is the lack of air ducting on the underside of the hood that brought air to the carbs from the scoops. It also would have been nice to have the oil filler caps as separate pieces. They did a pretty good job of capturing the front suspension setup, moving the spring and shock towers to the outer side of the engine compartment as shown in the article that Force posted. Good job, that picture showing the front suspension is a great catch, and one I had never seen. These cars went through a lot of changes to remain competitive with their opposites in the Mopar camp. Those that participated in the match race circuit did even more to their cars due to the much higher winnings and thats where you see a lot of the variations such as blowers, nitro, injection, altered wheelbases and suspensions. Crazy when you think that only a year went by before Nicholson's fiberglass body/tube frame Comet Eliminator totally changed the game! Ken

Take a look at Model Master jet exhaust.

Couple of other possibilities include the Matt& Debbie HaysPro-Street Thunderbird and the Revell '41 Willys Street Rod.

The 352 and the 428 were also FE motors and were essentially the same externally. Ken

It will be interesting to compare the Beswick chassis and drivetrain to Revell's Thunderbolt Fairlane kit. They should be pretty similar. Ken

I remember way back when, metal axles were a sign of quality! The AMT 3 in 1's all had metal axles, while many Revell kits and plastic axles that always seemed to snap off because I never had the tools to open up the wheel holes or thin the axle stubs. The AMTs could always be counted on to press on without breaking anything. The priorities of a 12 yr old model builder...

As I recall, one difference is the transmission, one is a 3 speed (with overdrive?) and the other is 4 speed, so probably the 3 speed is meant to be a 352, which was the hi-performance option in 1960 and the other can be a 390, 406, 427 since externally they are nearly identical.

Late to this thread but wanted to put my 2 cents worth. We are in the golden age of modeling. Many old classic kits are still or newly available, new kits, done to superb levels of details have been coming out, and after-market parts are available in abundance. Here in the Denver-area we have the best hobby shops I've ever seen (and I've traveled to many areas looking at their shops). The internet has allowed us to communicate with fellow modelers, look at pictures of each others' builds, share ideas, buy from shops all over the world, and access reference materials on all sorts of modeling subjects. I can't imagine it getting better than this. The hobby may die off if only older people are interested or participate, but I do see some younger (than me) people getting involved and I see kids in the hobby shops so there may be long term hope. I'm just happy to get to build kits I couldn't get or afford as a kid, with tools and techniques that I couldn't afford or that didn't exist. I'm living out my young model-building dreams!

Should have added that he also makes his own Cobra Daytona kit with an engine. He may have the best resin castings of anyone. Ken

HRM also makes a conversion kit to add the weber-carbureted engine to the Gunze kit. It's a beautifully detailed piece .

After reading the various posts regarding Revell's LX Mustang I thought of the book, "Master Modeler: Creating the Tamiya Style", that talks about the Tamiya Company and how it has come to be. He has a chapter called "Models: More Than Mere Miniatures", where he talks about building the wood masters using literal, scaled down measurements but the model never looked right. To get it right they ended up adding to the width and modifying the height away from the actual measurements until it "looked right". To me this implies that producing a good, accurate model can be an artistic as much as formulaic exercise and efforts to get a car looking right can be interpretive effort. When I first saw the 1:1 LX during a test drive I thought the rear roof proportions looked odd and much preferred the hatchback. The Revell interpretation actually looks better to me than the real thing! So I wonder if the kit designer shared my sense of proportions and chopped the roof to get it to "look right"? BTW, this book is an excellent insight into the process of model kit manufacturing and very interesting if you want to know how they do it. Ken

Another source for Gurney Weslake heads is the MPC Gurney Olsonite Eagle Indy car. Ken

As a kid I used to go thru the Ford brochures cover to cover and I remember seeing a listing for those clear headlight covers for the 65 Galaxie. I believe they were a dealer installed option and extremely rare. In fact this may be the first time I've ever seen a photo of them. In those days each state had rules about covering headlights and those covers may not have been legal in all 50 states. The '66 7-Litre didn't have them as standard and I don't know if they were offered. Great build! Ken

HLJ is accepting pre-orders for the Hasegawa Lotus 79 and says that release will be in July. In the meantime, they are also acceptin pre-orders for Tamiya's 1/20 Lotus 79 which is to come out in May! Ken