62rebel

i'm reminded of Filipino Jeepneys.... slightly... those are definitely over the top!

the windows in our shop at VW were a good 12 feet or more off the pavement/ground, for security. i do see where Ed would find this questionable if the shop were a converted service station; they were all about high-visibility for advertising media and product placement like oil can racks, wiper blades, all that equipment. change out the strip styrene door and window frame for channel, and see if you can cover the inside surface to block the translucency of the plastic material somewhat. looking like a good start and i like the parking lot as well.

that would help... at least, if they would indicate in the box-side text that "this kit was originally issued as..." or maybe a retro-style pic of the original issue art..... i wasn't a big fan of Monogram 1/24th kits myself but they do have a place in the history of this hobby AND a place in it TODAY. my "bone to pick" with them was lack of building choices in the kit itself; if you were a Monogram builder you probably had lots of spare parts to work with, but i wasn't, and the difference in scale dimension between 1/24 and 1/25 was too evident in my opinion at the time. i do recall that a Monogram kit went together with almost no issues regarding fit; their instructions were easy to follow and concise; and their decals were colorful to say the least. top it off with plastic in various bright colors that didn't necessarily need painting, and Monogram was a kid's (parent's!) dream.... if Revell would simply keep the brand labeling indicative of the original issue, regardless of the retools, it would make things easier to manage IMHO.

hmmm. apparently my comment that old annual bodies with screw posts would have a new lease on life was premature, since looking at Gregg's chassis, i see no such attachment points. it looks like the sides of the chassis are adjustable to take up room between the rocker panels and you're supposed to add styrene strips to the body to lock them down? that doesn't necessarily rule out annuals as much as it ALLOWS any other body that will fit the adjustable wheelbase and track!

THAT'S the way.

it stands to reason that the molder (of whatever they produce, sporks, kits, no matter) does whatever they can to extend the life of their molds; to make as many different products as possible with those molds, and to avoid comebacks for ANY reason. the machinery itself has set parameters for mold sizes and complexity; the kit designers work within those limitations. i understand the frustration many of you feel when you keep seeing "ancient" versions of kits on the shelf and you'd like to see those cars redone with more accuracy, but the kit makers can only budget so many completely new kits every season. we had to plug along for how many years with the AMT "Old Pro" Nova kit before Revell released several different versions of that same type car? patience pays in the end.

so; which Evergreen strip will it take to recreate the drip rail? i'd like to have a couple of Vans for the collection, great California rake and big-n-little Cragars with full length showpipes and panel paint jobs....

this was the one kit with opening doors and raisable windows where those features worked well LONG after the kit was done. i'm going to grab one or two before this issue ends.

behemoth? park an Expedition beside it. THAT'S a behemoth.

that's coming along really nicely! if they ever reissue the Cameo i might grab another.

excellent subject! serves to remind us that the streets were not filled with Mustangs, Camaros, and Chargers back in the day!

yup. drive-in theaters. i fondly remember the Fort Drive-in in Lynchburg, VA... as well as the Amherst Drive-in in Madison Heights. "let's all go to the snack bar, let's all go to the snack bar..." all-night horror movie marathons and spaghetti western nights..... fireworks on the 4th of July. tire spikes in the driveway to the ticket office; "DO NOT REVERSE" on the ticket window. my buddy Jeff backed over them one night. that was a cold walk home.

"clean" to me indicates neat, careful and accurate work. not "fussy" or confusing to the eye; my meaning being that some models are overhwhelming in complexity and, while they're beautiful works of the modeler's art, they lack simple grace in some cases.

in case of Rapture, please put your car in park and shut it off before you go. roll up the windows as well, please.

they look like they're a complete kit, my Finn friend.... and yes, 60 bucks seems kinda dear, but i've no idea what the current pricing is on other slotcar stuff. now there's new life for all those old annual kits that still have screw posts molded into the bodies!

we carried a Dodge MaxiVan to Diego Garcia in 1983... by the time we got there, it was so rusty that the windows fell out of it and the Bo'sun refused to lift it back onboard with the ship's crane..... so, we transferred it to the shore installation. hope they enjoyed it.

pics would be great, wouldn't they?

i remember the article, but all the older magazines i had went to recycling a couple of years ago. had to go by memory... WOW... dusty in there.

it was probably a paperback that the school library had bound themselves. we had a bookbinder in the city that did that for all the local schools and colleges. i borrowed a pile of old Rod and Custom "little pages" books from a customer and they had a lot of model cars in them.... lots of building tips and contest pics. not to mention scads of real 1:1 '50's and '60's cars to draw ideas from!

can you believe that? 35+ years in this hobby and never chopped anything but a Model A top (pretty straightforward, that one..) ..... decided to rebuild one of my approximately 36 or so shoebox Fords, and found one that i'd already done a scale 4 3/4" section job on. figured on about the same amount of chop, but the amount of chop was actually determined by another variable. i cut the roof across the top at the door cut line and quartered it. i cut the back window loose about 1/8th inch above the window opening and straight along the crease around the body. i cut a donor body across the roof at the front door WINDOW back edge line and the rear window edge line, to make a filler in the roof. this piece was cut at the center, and each side cemented to the front and rear sections of the roof from the first car. by lining up the door cut line on the filler panel to the cut line on the body, the front and rear pillar cut lines are determined. the center pillar cut lines are established at this time also. it's fiddly work; it's a test of manual dexterity to fenagle ALL the bits and pieces into what looks like a car again, but it's really not that hard to do. i used some happy words because i tend to drop stuff... but it's coming along. i took the opportunity to redo some of the less-workmanlike stuff i'd done to the car the first time, like properly dropping the rear wheelwells instead of just chopping the tops off them.... cleaning more flash than i thought it had... find a better engine for it.... better wheels, since NOW it's not a sectioned stocker.

dredging up more dusty memories, i recall there being a LOT of slotcar info in it, as well as building with cardstock and using shellac to seal plastic (styrene) bodies so that automotive lacquer could be used on them. Nascar was gaining a lot of ground at the time and there seemed to be a lot of tips on converting annuals into realistic stock cars.

when i was in High School (1975-1980) our HS library had a small, hardbound model car building guide, that showed a lot of the current techniques of the time (real cloth upholstery, index card bodywork, restyling using other kits parts -kitbashing- before it had a name) and i have TRIED many times to locate a copy of it. trouble is, i don't know the exact title, whether it was a compilation by a magazine, or really, anything other than the subject matter. the newest appearing model in the book was, IIRC, a Johan '63 Fury being modified by the owner of a 1:1 car to show the body shop what he wanted them to make his car look like. so... you other dinosaurs out there... remember this book? got a copy?

what are the other two cars they're supposed to be putting out?

i'm sure MPC saved a penny or two using the same basic chassis plate... the Duster/Darts and the Volares probably did it as well, despite the Aspen/Volare using transverse torsion bars instead of longitudinals. of course, i never got around to a Volare kit back then. in those days we were a little less nitpicky.... well, i was. lots of models got wild transplants in those days.... whatever would fit under, in, or on top of.....

silk purse from a sow's.... well.... you get my drift. that FM was well and truly horrific...