Hypermung

... I'm not sure Mike. That would depend wether the GT championships go over with the V8 boys as well. I was lucky enough to attend last years Townsville 400 in early July & even got to do a lap of the track in my 59 Dodge with the drivers parade just before the main race........ The V8 supercars were awesome, but the one car that really caught my attention was the AMG SLS. It had a beautiful chromed paint job & really looked the part, but the sound this thing put out was absolutely amazing. Whilst the Ferarri's & Lambos sounded almost like sewing machines with all their little pistons moving @ a million revs, & the Vipers just growling & barking along, every time that Merc came past the crowd just stared in amazement. The note that that 6.3 liter V8 put out was pure ear candy & would put a horn on a jellyfish. The only way to describe it was 'pure torque' & you could feel it on your chest (like a top fueller). An absolutely incredible car to see going around.

My avitar is my 1:1 ride & the handle is a combination from 2 sources. When I first started as an apprentice they nicknamed me 'Mung' & it stuck. I found out years later it was short for 'Humungous'....... I guess they must have snuck a peek in the shower room.... lol.. The hyper was added later when I was racing 1/8 scale nitro buggies... ie: Hyper 7, Hyper 8

Hi Guys. Some of you may already know that 2013 will see the first ever full round of the V8 Supercars held in the US. Austin TX will be the lucky destination, so I guess everything is now REALLY bigger in Texas. So hang on Guys for some REAL racing like we've been enjoying over here for years.http://www.v8supercars.com.au/newsarticle/everythings-bigger-in-texas!/tabid/70/newsid/11406/default.aspx

As of this weekend I'm officially Single again (Yee Ha & loving it), so I guess I won't be wrong ever again. Probably be more time for builds as well (WHY didn't I think of this years ago?)

.... This was one of my points from previously (though I didn't go into it in too much detail). The previous auction (won by the ebay newbie) was 'Fluffed Up' by the other bidder ('Phantom') 3 minutes before the auction ended, & then nothing. Now if YOU were bidding on something, & there was exactly the same thing ending 15 minutes later for half the price, wouldn't you have a couple of goes at the cheaper one, then switch to the other (now) cheapest one?? But this sort of thing happens all the time on ebay. I personally know of people who have 2 or 3 ebay accounts (fairly easy to do), & to ebays credit, they don't allow this sort of thing to happen (if they know about it), but what's to stop someone who has a couple of ebay accounts from padding their own auctions? If I EVER found someone who was doing that, I'd call them a lowlife mongrel bastard & probably dob them in (Rat on them, for all of you in the US). That's where the 'Sniping' mentality comes into it & it has a permanent place in my ebay action to enable me to get what I want for the lowest possible price. Go hard or go home!!

..... AND a stopwatch is free!

I don't use a programme that snipes for you. I prefer the old fashioned method Harry. I tune in to the auction around 15 minutes to go if I can & watch it down to 10 minutes. Then, with my trusty stopwatch (on my iphone), I synchronise the stopwatch at the 10 (or 7 or 6 or 4 whatever) minute mark & count it down, checking my time is still in synch at every minute mark. I won't go to the place bid page untill around 40 seconds to go. That way you can see if there is a bid placed at 1.01:12 to go (for example) & adjust your high bid accordingly. For that last 40 seconds though, you're flying blind as you wont see any bids made after you enter the place bid page. More often than not ,you will win the auction If you have bid high enough for the minimum amount of dollars & don't give the sellers friend (phantom bidder) the chance to cost you any more than necessary. I've been using this method sucessfully now for many years, but I will say again, it dosen't always work. If you REALLY want that particular item, my general rule of thumb is to DOUBLE the current highest bid & add 10%.

Hi Guys. Some ebay users really don't know how the system works I think. I have a re-issue 'Groovy Grader' in the mail coming over to me thanks to the understanding of a fellow modeller on this forum (THANKS Jonathan) that I've been after for quite a while now. Well, only last week, another 3 turned up on ebay (isn't that always the way!). I just had to bid on the one that turned up first starting @ $29.99. Then another appeared starting @ $19.99 & I was kicking myself for bidding on 'the dearer one'. As it turned out, the 'cheaper' one had a new user bid on the first day & was winning @ $20.50, only to have someone chip away @ his lead little by little with only 3 minutes to go, & ended up winning the item for $61. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/330680225840?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649This auction ended 15 minutes before the one I bid on, so I was expecting a last minute assult on the price, so I upped the price with seconds to spare. Now I'm the classical 'Sniper' & if I want it, I'll wait & place a high bid with only 6 or 7 seconds left to go, but this is a double edged sword. By going in high with seconds to spare you don't give the current highest bidder time to react & you get it for his highest price + $1... BUT, by the same token, if you haven't gone high enough, then you don't leave yourself time to bid again. The outcome of the story here is that I was waiting for an assult that never came & won the auction for my opening bid of $29.99, whilst the new user (who dosen't understand the ebay system yet) paid twice as much by bidding early & being hacked away at. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/160723928784?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649Ebay discourages 'Sniping' saying that it 'Rarely works' & encourage you to bid high early, but I expect they're only interested in the higher profit margin. I'll tell you that 'Sniping' works well if you do it correctly, & I sure hope the 'New user' follows through with his commitment & dosen't leave the seller high & dry because he paid top dollar.

Australia Post won't even accept anything labeled 'Fragile'..... Same 'Careful' service for everything.

How do parts break off 'In transit' & end up arriving packaged in the back?.... Let your 'Stars' do the ebay talking.

Think of all the MILLIONS of Jewish, Russian, American & German lives that would have been saved if this type of operation were viable during WW2. Good on ya fellas.... Doing an AWESOME job!!!!

Monsters in Motion have some first version Interceptors on ebay @ the moment.http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/380378224266?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649..... They're out of Placentia, California. Perhaps someone should contact them to produce a trans kit for the Aoshima?

....Heavier?.... Not as 'Top Heavy' as this one... Paint her hair blonde & call her 'Dolly'

The Honda ATC 70s, 90s & 110s didn't have rear suspension.... They relied on the baloon tyres for that. I have a friend from the 70's that is a parapalegic because of a Honda ATC 110. I remember riding it before his accident, & I can vividly recall it being VERY unstable thru high speed left or rights. If you didn't have your weight on the correct side, then you were 'off camber' two wheelin thru the corners. Pretty dicey stuff. The later, larger capacity ATCs got the front & rear suspension, but they were still a handfull to ride. Another mate had a new ATC with the CR250 R engine in it. I NEVER wanted to ride that one as you had to weight the inside & break into a power slide to navigate any corner. WAY too scary for me. I seem to recall from the mid 80s (before the first Suzuki 4 wheeler racers hit the market), that the Australian government was moving to outlaw 3 wheelers because it was costing the taxpayers way too much in medical costs & invalid pensions.

Man, I thought I'd seen it all until this............. 3/4 of an Aussie Falcon & an old Millard van thrown onto a truck chassis (F350?... Chevy?). That is just plain butt ugly...

The Lindberg Slant 6

The Ross Gibson offering

Good to see that one Christian. The only mention of the 1957 AMC kit I posted that I could find on the web, made reference to a UK kit that was "Shamelessly copied" by Rosebud / Kitmaster in 1959. I'd say this is the one?http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/amc/kit_amc_7389.shtml

More Pix....

Ok Fellas... I'll chime in here. I don't consider myself a 'collector' of kits although I have around 60 in the stash that I fully intend to build 'one day' (yeah...right). I mean kits were meant for building, RIGHT?. Which brings me to my latest acquisition, (which co-incidently isn't a car)... A 1957 AMC train kit...I thought 'Yeah that'd look nice built up siting on a siding'... BUT , when I opened it my jaw dropped.... It's a 50 year old time capsule! I mean everything is still bagged, all it's metal parts, original receipt for $4.95 from 'The John ******** Company, Cincinnati' (any ideas guys, I can't read it). The original purchaser has also bought 3x9" track sections from 'The Bolles Sporting Goods Company'. They're still there in the original paper bag, along with the still bagged PACTRA paints & unopened glue, as well as the original paint brush. It even included 3 original flyers from the era about the kits themselves. I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to hijack the thread, but after all , it's about collecting vintage kits. I bought this kit with full intentions of building it, but after looking inside, I'm not so sure now. How rare is this time capsule guys?

All's well that ends well Guys. Jonathan's won the kit & it will be on it's way to me once he receives it, but there's lots of encouraging words in this thread that should be mentioned. Whilst it is entirely the sellers decision where & who he sells to, all this could have been avoided if more sellers were to include international postage. I think the problem arises with the sellers when overseas buyers are offered first class postage (@ a third of the cost of priority postage) rather than making priority postage manditory for overseas bidders (as lots of US sellers do). If an overseas buyer takes the cheapest postage option, then it goes bye bye, it's his own stupid fault. Stiff kack idiot, take it on the chin. Priority postage ensures the seller of a signature of receipt at the other end, tracking & some insurance as well (I think, Correct me if I'm wrong). I recently approached a seller in the US about 2 vintage AMC train kits that were for sale to the US only, but he made an exception for me due to my 100% feedback. Well I won those 2 beautiful, old, rare?, complete kits for a reasonable price, but the point here is they cost me US$45 for priority postage (more than the kits price combined). Did I whinge? Not on your life. I wanted tem, & If you want the item bad enough, then expect to cough up the dough. There are so many great / rare / old kits in the US that we overseas will never have the opportunity to see or aspire to own if we can't bid, so to all the guys who won't sell overseas, think about priority postage as a way of broadening your prospective bidding base & giving you peace of mind in the postage department. Your modeling friends overseas will thank you with increased sales, I'm sure.

..... Thanks for that Dave & all you others that have offered to help me. I didn't mean to start an arguement, but the reason I need help is that I can't even bid on it. If the seller checks the box that says 'Sell to US only' then if I try & bid it's blocked by ebay. Only a US ebay registered email address will be able to bid. The item will be posted by the seller to a US address so how does this violate ebays policy? What the 'Buyer' decides to do with it after that has nothing to do with ebay or the seller.

I can't bid @ all 'cause ebay wont accept a bid from outside the US, & it states @ the bottom of the listing 'No International postage'.... When someone underlines a statement they generally adhere to it. Thanks for the offer of help Jonathan, I'll PM you now.

Ok Fellas...Here's the go. Just found my 'Holy Grail' of kits on ebay but (of course) no international postage. Does anyone (in the US) want to bid on a kit for me, then forward it to me in Australia? I will of course pay for everything, & you can earn a 'brokerage fee' in the process. It goes off tomorrow 18th @ 09:54:41 PST & the item # is 300650725257 in case my link don't workhttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300650725257&fromMakeTrack=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:top:en. I don't want to start a bidding war between y'all, just someone who will be home tomorrow morning. Thanks in advance Guys. Glenn

Just on a side note, It was Spielberg's first movie AND he actually has a bit part in it & appears on screen....(somewhere), although I've never been able to find him. But then again, I don't have a video & can't pause to check it out.