oldcarfan

I bought 2 original kits years ago and built them, one of them I cut down into a stepside using a 53 Ford kit for the frame and bed. I just got a new release and want to do a shortbed hot rod version with that. I need to look up the small window and see how much work it would be.

Thank you! I thought about buying one of those figurines at the store in the mall, but Fia would probably push it off the shelf. We love her even when she's being a turd.

Our cat has similar markings! Does she help on the workbench?

For Cannonball model kit history, I found something I think is interesting. In an effort to avoid doing work on my actual Cannonballer, I got distracted again. In exploring old model kits I'd packed away, I came across something I'd forgotten. I think I may have gotten it a long time ago at a model show. It's a 1/24th Marui Pantera kit. I've included a picture stolen off the internet for reference. The Ferrari kit may be one I have too, but I got it as a built-up and it's in the to be built someday pile. My Pantera kit's box seems to have been attacked but insects, the only kit in the box that happened to. Must have been extra tasty cardboard! I got curious and checked eBay for Marui Cannonball and it seems they issued at least 5 kits with a Cannonball tie-in. I see the Pantera, a Ferrari 308, a 365 GT, a 512BB, and a Lamborghini Jota. They aren't cheap, that's for sure. I'll probably build mine up later in the year. Now to my point, does anyone know if these were an official Cannonball thing? I don't think these particular cars ever raced in a real Cannonball. Maybe Marui were trying to get sales from the movie release? Other than a Ferrari 308, I don't remember seeing the other cars in one of the movies. My guess is they weren't. The Pantera kit, at least is a curbside and pretty crude, but the body looks accurate. I'm guessing the kits were released in the 70s or 80s. If anyone knows their history, I'd love to know. I'm thinking the kits have probably been reissued by other manufacturers over the years. (Just a note, after getting back to work, I did get a little work done on my entry. I have the body finished and ready for final assembly. The chassis is also just about finished. I'm kind of stuck on the type of wheels and tires to use. Revell's Expedition has big wheel wells to fill and it needs beefy rolling stock. I have a set of 20 inch Porsche GT3 wheels and tires off a Welly diecast that i was planning to use, but I'm starting to think I may go another direction. I ordered some 18 inch police car steelies with wide tires and will try those on for size when they get here.)

A Hobby Lobby in another town had one of the new release AMT 1960 F-100 so I got that for 40% off. I didn't need it as I have a couple of the vintage version, but for the price I couldn't say no. Since we have no actual hobby shops near us anymore, I hope HL will soon be redoing more of their model offerings.

Had to go to another town and since my wife was looking for birthday party supplies, we stopped at their Hobby Lobby. They had just one of the new 1960 F-100 kits on the shelf for $34.99. I didn't know they were going to stock this kit. Anyway I bought it for the 40% sale price. I hate buying from them, but I hope the sale will be a part of encouraging AMT to do more retools of missing in action vintage kits and maybe even to do variations of this kit. I wouldn't say no to 57-59 versions. Since I've already built one of the original kit, I may try to shorten the bed on this one and make a lowered hot rod version.

This is Fia and she's a character. She's three years old and a grey tabby with some orange patches mixed in and if there's a crime in the house she's a likely suspect. We live across the street from a Veterinary office and early one morning I heard a pitiful meow coming and followed it. A tiny kitten was hiding inside a rolled up water hose next to their building. I figured she must have gotten loose from inside so I put her over their fence but she climbed back over and clung to my leg as I was walking away. The next morning they said she wasn't theirs so Fia became ours. She was skittish and a little chompy at first but now she climbs up on me to demand attention.

Looking good!

You're doing some cool stuff here, congrats!

Thanks for sharing the article! To me, the history, trivia and back stories are half the fun of these Cannonball builds. It brings me back to spending lazy summer days hanging out in the junk room as a kid, working through my dad's huge piles of Car & Driver and Road & Track. When it comes to kits, every time someone asks what we think AMT should reissue or retool, one of my top picks is MPC's 1971 Dodge Van with the window option. I'd so love to build the whole first Run lineup and this is one of the major ones. MPC also did a Dodge Challenger that got updated to a 72 so if they were willing to reissue it, we could build this van, Brock's Challenger and even the later ambulance van.

Love what you're doing, these kits build up so nice!

A good deal makes any model more fun to build!

The Wide Sides Ford isn't prototypically correct for a dually, I'm pretty sure. I wonder if the bed could be lengthened to a long bed?

With Round 2 reissuing the early 70s Chevy/GMC trucks, I wonder if they still have the tooling for the Cooter's Wrecker bed? That could make for a fun build.

That's some amazing work!

I think the ARII kit is 1/24th scale, so you might be able to combine it with the Revell Monogram 1970 Challenger to get close to what you're hoping to achieve. The Revell kit has a pretty nice chassis, but comes with a Hemi, if I remember. Anyway, the kit is cheap and easy to find. As for the 318 engine, I guess you could use one from one of the AMT or MPC mid 70s kits. There are been some buildups on this site.

I grew up a fan of the Group 5 and IMSA's Camel GT racing. Those cars were so much more interesting to me than Formula 1 or Indy cars. I've managed to acquire most of the Porsche kits you show, and now I need to search for these other kits! Thanks for bringing back some good memories.

I would look forward to any of these. AMT has reissued the Chevy van many times and it seems about time they bring back the Open Road Camper version. I really hope to see Round 2 backdating or cloning many of the old MPC tools. I'd love to have an early style Pinto in the Runabout and wagon versions and really all the old car, truck and van kits they did would be nice in their earlier versions. Perhaps they could backdate the Dodge van, add the windows back to the clear tree and do a proper Cannonball van?

Could it have been the Olson Brothers or Fireball Models? I think they're both still in business but I don't know how to get in touch with them.

One of my first jobs was as a medical supply delivery driver. I drove an old 82 version of one of these. It was a 300 six with the three speed column shifter. It wasn't speedy, but it never broke down. I have a couple of this kit waiting to do a replica.

I bought several of Revell's other tractor kits, in hopes of encouraging them to do more. Now I hope they'll do a series of American tractors as some of them were either built or imported into Europe and the UK as well. I'd love to have a couple of Ford 9Ns!

I'll get one, even with all the shortcomings. I like seeing these old trucks hot rodded and can see a couple of ways to make this one interesting. What I really hope is that MPC will backdate their Deserter to produce a mid 70s two and four wheel drive version.

I have a nostalgic attraction to Monogram's old 1/24th sports cars. Their Datsun was one of my favorites of the batch. Love your builds.

Until I looked it up, I forgot how small the tires were on older cars and how high they rode. My dad had a 1968 Mustang and he talked about how he had wide tires on it. I found a picture of it a while back and those wide tires were probably narrower than those on a stock Camry these days.

Not sure where the mental glitch happened, I guess I'm going senile. The pack in the photo literally said Evergreen on it and I was still searching under Plastruct.