Aaronw

Nice job, the fastback Mustangs are my favorites.

Oh well I was hoping for an interesting engine option. A big Lincoln motor like the Ford / Lincoln 337, Lincoln Y block 317 or one of the Lincoln V-12 flatheads would have been neat.

One of the resin casters did do the Rubber Duck parts a few years ago. He was quite disappointed in the actual interest after taking the time to do it. One of those things where lots of people said they wantedthe parts but then didn't buy when they were available. I don't recall which caster it was, as this was about 5 years ago.

I wonder how old that price guide was, 10 years ago you might have seen those kits selling for $200. Model King re-issued the Mack R a few years ago. New those were $60. With the way Round 2 is bringing back the truck kits for less that $40, someone would have to be pretty desperate to pay $40 for a started, bad paint job kit that may or may not be complete. If it is represented honestly you probably already gave him a better offer than he will get with ebay. Give it back and wash your hands of the whole thing, when he gets $10 for the kit he should see you were not trying to take advantage of him.

No problem, just hook up a gooseneck trailer to the local college bicycle team. It would be like a dog sled with less hair.

Does anyone know more about the engine options? This isn't really my thing, but sometimes these custom kits include neat optional parts.

In the mid 90s I was paying $1.50-1.80 / gallon, in 2000-2001 I was paying $0.89 / gallon a quite significant drop. I agree that the raise was just to make people more willing to pay higher prices but I also think they manipulate prices to encourage larger less efficient cars. Just like a drug dealer get them hooked with low prices, then raise the price after their consumption increases. If you prefer think of it as a sale, get them in the store with low prices then interest them in the higher priced stuff that isn't on sale.

We hit $5 / gallon here in 2005, now it is back to $3 ish. gas prices go up and down all the time. Personally I think when too many people are buying economy cars the oil companies flood the market to get people back into big fuel guzzlers. the 70s brought us high prices and the first real push for economy cars. The 80s and early 90s saw the auto makers move from cheap econoboxes to nice sporty cars that got good fuel economy. Many sedans in the 80s - 90s were getting 20-30 mpg or better. The small cars targeting fuel economy challenged the numbers you see on hybrids, Honda had CRX and Civics getting better than 40 mpg, Toyota had several getting high 30s. The late 90s brought us $1 gas and mpg dropped even with the car makers that made their impact in the US market with their fuel economy. Toyota and Honda both dropped from 30+ to 20+ avg mpg. Toyota's pickup went from the Tacoma in 1996 getting 25 mpg, to less than 20 in 2002. I doubt we will see $1 gas the next time, but I bet we get $2 gas again when the, alternative power plants (wind, nuke, natural gas) really start to get built, the economy improves and too many drivers are driving hybrids and other high mpg cars. They will sucker people in with cheap gas for a few years to, diminish interest in alternative power and get drivers back into their big fuel inefficient cars, then a year or two later they can fabricate another crisis so they can "temporarily" jack up prices again and get a few more years of record profits. It might sound like tin foil hat time, but just look at the last 40 years af oil prices.

Three years into a global economic recession will do that. Luxury and performance cars are something of a niche in good times, in bad times only the very top of the line seem to find buyers in quantity to make them attractive to car makers. When the economy turns around and gas gets cheaper again I'm pretty sure the less practical fun cars will also make a return.

Sorry for the double hijack, but does that lawnmower come with the Speccast Ford? I don't need a lawnmower but I have ideas for its motor. To get back on topic the rollback looks great, I hope you do well with these kits.

I'm kind of surprised there are not more (any?) cars with the extracab pickup truck style suicide doors. It seems like that would really be worthwhile. It could provide the looks of a two door and still give good rear seat access like a 4 door (also sounds like a mullet joke is hiding in there somewhere).

Hawkeye's Hobbies has SNJ polishing powders, the aluminium sounds like the same stuff you guys are talking about. Hawkeye's is located in Wisconsin so no international customs or tsunami issues. He has some other flavors too for other metal finishes, gold, steel etc, plus both acrylic and enamal metallic paints similar to Alclad. I've used his SNJ powder on aircraft models and it does a nice job of replicating a bare aluminium finish. http://www.hawkeyeshobbies.com/

Unfortunate name, but I kind of liked the car. I worked with a guy who had a 4 cyl and it seemed like a nice little car, kind of sporty looking, decent on fuel and could get out of its own way.

That would be great. I'm not positive but I think the only real difference important in 1/25 is the fuel injection. I have a technical drawing showing the injection system, but without the context of it on the motor it is hard for me to make sense of it. Also if that 1140 happens to be in a Ford C cab, I would be very interested to see where the air compressor is located. I was swapping the 3208 from the Louisville into a C-cab, but the air compressor must be located in a different spot in the two trucks since the cab won't come down with it in the location shown in the Louisville instructions. Thanks

I actually tend to prefer in box reviews for much of the same reason. In box reviews usually stick to the facts, objectively stating what is in the box. Many full build reviews tend to lose sight of the big picture and get very subjective. Maybe they get too close when building and their frustrartions come out in the write up, while an in box review tends to just let the sprue shots do most of the talking.

I doubt any of these are available even in resin, but I'm hoping maybe someone knows a bit about them. I've looking for info on the following Detriot Diesel 6V53 Detroit Diesel 8.2L "Fuel Pincher" Cummins CF-160/C-160/C-180 Caterpillar 1140, 1145, 1150 and 1160 Ford of GB Dagenham and Dorsett Perkins 6.354 If it exists in some form great, otherwise anything would be great, even just a short history of the engine. There really isn't a lot out there on the internet for most of these. I'm making a last gasp effort here before hunting down shop manuals on ebay (kind of expensive just to get some good drawings). Suggestions for a starting point (similar engine that could be tweaked), history of the engine (and relationship to others) diagrams etc. Whatever might be useful. The Cat is probably the easiest, I understand the main difference between these and the 3208 is the fuel injection system, so it is probably just working with the engine in the AMT L series Ford. The Dagenham, Dorsett and Perkins are probably the least common over here being British (but offered in Ford & Ddge trucks). I understand they were also used in tractors and marine applications so I'm hoping to get lucky and find out there is a diecast, toy or some such with a decent replica of the engine. The Cummins and the two Detroit engines don't seem to have been very popular with their builders as I can find little info on them. Thanks

Actually they vary, you find sellers who think they are "rare" with crazy prices, I've seen them buy it now for $100+, but there are many out there for far more realistic prices. I picked up several last year (2x Packard Boattail, Cord, Rolls Royce Towncar and an AMT Chrysler Roadster) for $20-25 each including shipping.

Testors decal film is very thin. This makes it a challenge to apply, but it conforms very well and nearly disappears on the model. If it curls on you it is almost impossible to salvage so you have to be very careful when putting the decal on.

I've considered making a GMC V-6 by loping off 1/4 of a 454. I don't know that it would be very accurate to the more knowledgable but it should at least provide the basic size and shape (340 ci instead of 305 but it was supposed to be a beefy motor) so should be close enough to fake it with a little cosmetic surgury.

Based on old sales brochures I've seen they were offered with the same gas engines as the Ford F and C series 330, 361, 391, 401, 477 and 534. I assume in the later 80s they were available with the 390 and 460 when Ford dropped the older engines.

Feller bunchers remind me of the hunter killers in the Terminator movies. I had a pair of them assigned to me on a fire a few years ago, really cool to watch them work. They would make a neat lowboy load.

I've been building the Packard Speedster, it is a nice kit, pretty good detail and no real fit problems so far. These Monogram kits turn up on ebay at decent prices quite often. I was asking about these kits last year and put this list together with the help of many on the site. Monogram 1934 Duesenberg Model J Weymann Torpedo Phaeton 1934 Duesenberg Model J Rollston Disappearing top Coupe (convertible) 1934 Duesenberg Model J Walter Murphy Town Car (actually 1930) 1934 Duesenberg Model J Walter Murphy Disappearing top coupe with boat tail (metal body, fenders, hood) 1930 Packard Model 734 Boattail speedster 1930 Packard Model 734 Speedster Phaeton 1931 Packard Super 8 Dual Cowl Phaeton (metal body, fenders, hood) 1931 Rolls Royce of America Phantom II Henley Roadster 1931 Rolls Royce of America Phantom II Sport Phaeton 1932 Cadillac Model 452 Fleetwood dual cowl Phaeton (V-16) 1927 Bugatti Type 35B 1937 Cord 812 supercharged convertible phaeton 1941 Lincoln Continental Convertible MPC 1927 Lincoln V-8 Roadster 1928 Lincoln V-8 Locke Sport Phaeton 1931 Chrysler Roadster 1932 Chrysler Imperial convertible sedan Johan 1931 Cadillac Model 452 Fleetwood Cabriolet (V-16) 1931 Cadillac Model 452 Fleetwood Sport Phaeton (V-16) 1931 Cadillac Model 452 Fleetwood Canework Town Car (V-16) 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Sindelfingen Cabriolet 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Special Coupe Lindberg (Pyro etc) 1929 Mercedes SSK roadster (decent kit) 1931 Bugatti Type 41 Royale Convertible Victoria (decent kit) 1937 Cord convertible 19xx Auburn 1948 Lincoln Continental Heller Alfa Romeo 1750 Zagato Bentley 4.5 Liter Blower BMW Dixi BMW 328 Bugatti T50 Citroen 5CV Citroen B14 Torpedo Deluxe Citroen B14 Landaulet (can be built as a taxi) Citroen B14 Normandie Citroen 15 Six Delage D8 SS Delahaye 135 Hispano Suiza K6 Mercedes Benz 500K Special roadster Mercedes Benz 170V Mercedes Benz 170V delivery van Renault Vivastella PG7 Citroen C4 Hotel Taxi Citroen C4 Pompiers Citroen C4 Waterman van Delahaye Type 103 Bonneville fire engine Renault TN6C Bus Parisien Italeri 1933 Cadillac V16 Town Car 1933 Cadillac V16 Phaeton Mercedes Benz 540K Cabriolet B Bugatti T41 La Royale 41.150 Berline de Voyage Bugatti T41 La Royale Coupe Napoleon Rolls Royce Phantom II All weather cabriolet

Another Photobucket user, I've been using it for 8-9 years with only minor issues. I only use it to post photos online, so can't really comment on all the other functions since I don't use them. It does seem like a lot of the new features they have added slow things down, but it's free and I know how it works so I just deal with the little quirks. I have a seperate website for posting groups of photos and other misc stuff.

I'm finally starting to make some progress. The 1950 USFS fire engine has the cab started and as a bonus I've started work on a Hummer fire engine using the Revell snap kit

The engine looks great. Any chance one of the British engines is a Perkins P6.354? They were an optional engine in the Dodge L series and would make a neat option for the Lindberg kit.