niteowl7710

What's that old saying about taking the splinter of your own eye before taking the plank out of your fellow man's? Perhaps the one about people in glass houses and their propensity to throw rocks?

Ed Sexton was at NNL East, and I know he goes to several other large shows throughout the year. So they have their ear to the ground, and from the looks of things he had his bent nearly off from the line of people that were there speaking with him. I took a peek at the legal notepad they had out with "What Do You Want to See Revell Make", and the ideas ranged from the ridiculous not to do it, to the ridiculous that someone actually wrote that down.

What I don't understand is the "Buy American" mantra. Who cares? They're all made in China anyway, other than the Revell AG stuff that is made in Poland then packaged here. I understand what you're saying, but trying to somehow link what kits are made now, to what kits will be made in 2032 is specious at best. Presuming we don't all have personal 3-D Printers that run off whatever kit we want instantaneously. But you have said multiple times that you aren't interested in this kit, and that kit, and the other kit and entire release schedules because they aren't what YOU personally want to see made. As as a correlation since they don't make what you want made RIGHT NOW, well then we're all doomed because if they just listened to you and a few other people who are on this kick then everyone would be making money faster than they could deposit into their bank. When you complain that things aren't being made that appeal to people in your generation, you therefore presume to speak for everyone in your generation. Do I expect Moebius to make a Tucker Torpedo in 2028? No, but I don't expect anyone to make a '76 Camaro either.

Those last two kits aren't old cars the same way the Hudson and Chrysler C 300 are. Let's be honest here, you have posted quite a bit in multiple threads about cars that are older than you are holding no appeal. I respect your right to hold that opinion, but it doesn't hold true for me, which is why I bought those two and you didn't. My point was if Company A doesn't make what I want to build, then I will spend my money with Company B, C, or D. I just don't get the jist of harping that American companies don't make new cars. There are Charger, Corvette & Camaro kits from AMT. Revell offers the Charger, Camaro, Mustang (in 2 recent generations), Magnum, Audi A8, and a slew of Ferraris. There are just certain subjects...like the Toyota 86/Scion - Subaru BRZ twins, Lexus cars, Nissan GTR and the like you're never going to see American kit makers cut molds for, and why should they, when the kits are already out there, and lets face it, they're probably better than anything we'd get simply because American builders are (of course not ALL, but most) not willing to step up their spending to get those kits. Nor are they willing to by and large to accept curbside kits...OUR KITS MUST INCLUDED ENGINES DANG IT!!!! If you think back AMT/Ertl had a massive line of annual kits from the late 80's into the late 90's, which along with all the Camaros, Mustangs & Corvettes included such steller vehicles as the Ford Probe and Chevrolet Beretta. A good chunk of those kits were sales abominations, but were funded by the 1:1 manufacturers who wanted promotional models of those kits cut. That business model doesn't exist in 2012, and I'm not really sure where I see much of anything of current modern U.S. vehicles I would want to see made into a full detail model. So long as a I get more variations of the current generation Camaro & Mustang, and we see a new kit of the 2013 Viper, I'm good with it.

I guess my biggest comment from BOTH your post, and the posts of the "older folks" that hate anything after the Beatles White album is...vote with your wallet. If you don't want to build an old car, well then don't. Go spend your money with Tamiya/Aoshima/Fujimi/Hasegawa. If the thought of a Ferrari 599 GTO makes you gag cause it's not a '48 Ford, well build the Lead Sled, and stop bashing everything assembled after the oil embargo. Revell/AMT & Moebius are here to serve. I don't understand what difference it makes whether or not Revell exists tomorrow to any of you. If they (or any of the kit maker) makes stuff you have absolutely zero interest in, well who cares if they survive, it's not like you were going to buy anything they make anyway. I'm 4 years older than you (presuming your MCM age is correct), and I just bought a C 300, and I have my Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ from Tamiya on pre-order. Both of them are of equal interest to me. If the classic 50's car don't float your boat, so be it, I don't think anyone should be told to build something they don't want, it is after all a hobby. You can't interest me in classic drag racing, midgets, most race cars, or any of the show rods. But at the same time I don't think it's fair to pin all of your "rage" on the "elderly", they have the cash, and as such they rule the world right now. I was at the NNL over the weekend in NJ. I saw for more people barely capable of walking unassisted, than I did people our age and younger. In 20 years kit manufacturers will have to make what "we" want, as "WE" will be the cranky old folk complaining about new technology, the current guys will all be...well if not dead, at least incapable of building (and before the venom spews I mean mostly failing eyesight, shaking hands, etc). If nothing from AMT interests me, there's Revell, there's Moebius, there's Revell Germany, there's Fujimi, there's Aoshima, there's Tamiya. Somewhere, at some point one of those 7 companies are going to kit something I want to buy. In the mean time I have about 300 model kits in the basement of things I just had to have to tide me over. As far as asking kids what they want to build...well there's a double edged sword. What do kids want to build, and the fact that kids (and here I presume you're speaking of minor children, not Gen Xers) don't actually have any disposable income, or ANY income at all come to think of it. Is it really a realistic expectation for Revell to spend a few hundred thousand dollars developing new "kid tested, mother approved" kits, when you then have to depend on mom or dad taking them out to the store with their birthday money to buy said kits. While there are teenagers that never drop off the hobby surface in their twenties, lets face the fact that most all of us DID, so developing kits towards older teens also has the same pitfalls. Once your customer base hits 18 and goes off to college, or gets a real job, and has bills, rent, women, etc they're going to disappear until they hit their late 20's/early 30's if they ever come back at all. When they do come back it will probably be with a completely different (or at least more mature and developed) taste in automobiles. Man that's a narrow gate to shoot through... Everyone needs to take a deep breath and stop wringing their collective hands over things that while they can influence, they ultimately can't change. If you spend all your time worrying about the future, you're completely missing out on the here and now. Now back to the workbenches with the whole lot of you!

I just don't understand what some people expect of the model companies anymore. You have to take a step back out of your own wish list and deal with the cold reality of what would actually be marketable. There is a tiny, albeit exceptionally vocal, group of people here that for whatever reason want to see 1970's land-yacht barges kitted. O.K. fine after you 7 buy a '77 Caprice, what is Revell supposed to do with the other 49,993 of them? With the exception of the current line of Revell Ferrari kits, and the two Audi R8's nearly every current supercar kit out is Japanese. Why would Revell bother to kit up a Nissan GT-R, when three of the four major players there kitted up multiple variations? The main reason Tamiya can afford to release an Aston-Martin DBS or a Lexus LFA is because they charge you for it. They can afford that licensing fee when the model costs $50-75. If Revell decided tomorrow to kit a Bugatti Veyron but then told us it would cost $65, everyone on this forum would be in Illinois with pitchforks and torches. Bottom line is, American automotive modelers are notoriously and pathologically cheap. You get what you pay for, and Revell isn't going to kit something they aren't sure with their multi-variation tooling policy that they're not going to get back their investment return. Even though the false Wal*Mart price ceiling isn't there, a lot of people act like it should be, and that models should still be $12. Therefore it sets up the inevitable Catch 22. Model Companies on one side saying "We can't make that for the xyz price point", and modelers on the other side claiming "Well if you made xyz we'd buy it!". Moebius caught a lot of static when they announced the MSRP on their new kits was closing in on $30, but even though none of their kits have been homeruns (somewhere between fielders choice and ground rule doubles) people seem to be willing to pay more for the subject matter being offered. (It should be noted here that I paid all of $18 for the C 300 I bought at the NNL on Saturday, and $19 for the Hudson when it came out.) I'd like to see what kind of numbers Moebius is selling once the initial rush wears off and their stock lingers on the shelves at that $22-28 range. I know my LHS hasn't moved any Hudson kits at $22.95 since the first case came and went.

Yes and No. The Aerosedan and Sedan Delivery are available directly from Galaxie Limited, but this NEW Coupe kit isn't out yet, hence the "First Test Shot" note on the NNL entry form.

By this time NEXT Saturday NNL East will just be a memory, however I will have one of these in my hands come THIS Saturday. NNL East is a mere 83 1/2 hours away.

There is a "Best Offer" button on all of those auctions, no one is being forced to submit to the BiN price he's set. Clearly the guy got a collection or part of a collection when he got some set of baseball cards (which he's clearly more familiar with), and he's just set a BiN for his auctions since he has no idea what he has, or what it's worth. Offer him $15 for it, and see what happens.

The end joke here is that Lindberg, presuming they can concoct another "warehouse fire", is supposed to reissue this kit this summer. Now as a few people have mentioned, my LHS still has one of the 2nd issue gray car on the box version languishing on the shelf. But then again he also has several past issues of things Revell has recently decided to reissue as well, so that's not a direct indication of the popularity of that '66 Chevelle I suppose.

Whoa whoa whoa, you can't bring up the "F-Book" word around the parts, let alone an app for it. People here are technologically backwards old fuddy-duddies that if given their way would probably prefer the threads here to be done via pen-pal written correspondence. *censored* book represents a social media outlet that actually forces people to...ya know...be sociable with one another, which a vocal minority of people who inhabit this board would rather have anything but(these are also the same members who refuse to shop online, but that's another issue for another day). The terrifying prospects of developing closer interpersonal relationships with people they only know casually, along with reconnecting with pasts they'd rather forget gets everyone all a tizzy. Like every great thread here where a bunch of people wail and gnash their teeth about the topic at hand, none of them actually possess a ****book account, they just heard from a guy, who knows a lady, who read an article, about a news report, where some guy's brother's uncle's dog was stalked by an old girlfriend. Now I find out that apparently Zuckerburg who only has about 10 bajillion dollars, and I imagine swims in a vault full of money like Scrooge McDuck is out to repossess the personal information of people with inadequate virus software...

Actually at the moment shipping things from HLJ is the 2nd most expensive way, for some reason right now EMS is clocking in $5 more expensive than FedEx which is $4 more than SAL. IMHO the extra $4 is worth having a live real-time tracking number, getting the shipment in 3 business days, and having it delivered with a signature required. I've seen some SAL stuff that looks like it was used to play soccer with as it was shipped overland backwards from Japan based on the nearly month-long waits. I've seen some people charging $17 for SAL and $31 for EMS on eBay, so the $15 for FedEx is a bargain and 3-8x faster.

If you're willing to spend a little more HLJ offers FedEx International shipping and I get my orders in 3 business days after it ships from their warehouse.

Am I cheap? No. Am I frugal? Yes...kinda. I bought this heap at the show in Columbus yesterday (Sunday) But I didn't pay anything resembling retail, heck I didn't even spend what the stickers say on a couple of those. So in a sense I was frugal as I got a mound of stuff for far less than I could buy it for at any LHS or online retailer. But at the same time if anyone has priced the London Bus, the ALF Eagle or any Tamiya kit knows that the MSRP on those is far from what anyone would consider cheap. Incidentally if you want one of those London Buses I suggest you RUN, don't walk to the nearest place that has one in inventory that isn't going to jack the price up just to save face. Revell AG and/or the importer, or both in collusion, have decided to jack the MSRP price on those kits to nearly $150. Which means if you suffer from a LHS or online source that sells at/near retail mark-up this has turned into a triple digit kit. Even Tower Hobbies is sporting a price north of $130...I deal with an honest vendor who is selling (or may have sold the one of two he didn't sell to me) for what he actually paid for them (plus his profit mark-up) rather than jack the price up to reflect the increased price. My London Bus was two retail Revell kits and a can of Tamiya paint cheaper than the T.H. land of mystical, magical, all powerful online retailing. So maybe I am cheap AND frugal after all. Sometimes it pays to get out of the house once in awhile!

I know, I know there are some people's hair I'm going to make stand on end by mentioning this...and yes I understand it's a mock-up, and not in anyway reflective of the final product...buuuuuuut.... What you have attached to the front of that truck appears to be an interesting amalgamation of the older bumper and the newer one. The top picture is my personal truck I drove, it was a 2010, the lower was one of the trucks we got right before I left to take a local position with another company. It appears you have the correct shape and proportions for the 2013 bumper, with the inset/indents for the old bumper. The other thing that stands up and screams at me is the fact the grill (it may just be the angle of the photograph) needs less grill and more grill surround. It appears too tall and doesn't seem to swoop down like the 1:1. Again that may simply be the angle, and the fact that it's hard to distinguish the separation of parts in gray primer combined with the franken-truck nature of the prototype. Stuff you're probably aware of already, but I spent hundreds of thousands of miles behind the wheel of one of these, and it's near and dear to my heart. This is the kit I always hoped Moebius would do when the announced the LoneStar.

I'm not happy to see the prices climb, but in reality I work reasonably close (1 tank of gas a week) to work. I'm fortunate that my job is high-paying, in a growing industry. I know many here are unemployed, or on a fixed income (which has effected my parents in recent years) and so any spike in fuel costs which effect the price of everything can be damaging. I have to say the many years I spent paying off every penny if debt I had (other than my current mortgage) was a little pain and "suffering" back then for the ability to do what I want, where I want now was well with the effort now.

No they are the same kits, except 10lbs of Ferrari shoved in a 5lb sack. Their kits really are designed to fit in those long, thin boxes, and to get them in our North American specific boxes they have to really wedge 'em in there. This can lead to warped bodies, and especially chassis plates. The Revell USA re-boxes also include re-drawn, bi-fold directions (Revell AG directions are large 8 x 11 sheets like Japanese kits without the fold, and usually an American license plate our two added to the variety if European plates. They cost more money initially, but they are also released a few months before we get the North American re-box. Also for some kits like the SLS AMG, 2CV Charleston, and London Routemaster bus you either but the AG kit or you go without.

The 1960 Corvette is an old multi-piece body tooling from back in the day, and doesn't anything to do with/shares no parts with the "new" tool '58/'59.

It was my understanding that they acquired the old stock of this kit, and are re-boxing the kits with the Revell label on them, as opposed to running another series of the kit.

Yes it does.

If you don't have a bunch of dust and junk in the paint, I'd start at 6,000 or maybe even 8,000 (if you have one of the old.school Micro-Mesh kits that included that in-between grit. You always want to start at the highest number possible, as you can always drop down a grit if necessary, but once you cut through the paint accidentally from starting too low...well... You can't use too much water, but you can use too little. Every so often dry the part off to check your progress. Make sure you alternate directions with each grit (aka back & forth, then up & down), or you'll just wind up with a lot of scratches facing the same direction. Pressure is a learned skill, and there's really no way to describe it other than "as light as possible to get the job done". Remember you're not block sanding a plank of wood.

Probably to early to tell with my work, but it's probably 60/40 that I'll go. I've never managed to get out there before when I was traveling extensively with my job as my daughter's birthday is two weeks beforehand and I doubt I would have stayed married if I missed that for a model car show!

My haul from the SHMA show in Pittsburgh today.

I'll be sticking my head in first thing in the morning. I don't have anything quite ready (maybe the IPMS show in 2 weeks...), and in any event I can't spare the night off work if I were going to come in after working all night, and then work the next night...I would fall asleep at some point. But a couple of hours of catching up with friends and seeing what deals can be dealt