62rebel

i was rummaging through my stored models this evening trying to determine exactly WHAT i have, other than a literal PILE of 49 fords (my favorite kit!) in varying styles... i found that i have several near-duplicate builds going on! not to mention left-over donor kits that aren't QUITE ready to scrap. for some reason i have four GT500 kits in one box, sans engines and wheels... don't know WHAT that was about. found my old Watson roadster (wonderful kit!) that i ruined the decals for... and my oldest surviving build, a red Johan 64 Polara... sadly, the chrome is fading and i don't want to disassemble it to repair it. i must have modelers' ADD.... wow that's pretty. gotta build one of those....

this is your casting or one you bought? if yours, how much for a copy? if not, who/what/where? i have a vision.... Quincy's Medical Examiner ride, in shiny black, with a bodybag in the back..... yeah... macabre.

i think real based on the various items that would look "thicker" or "chunky" on a model of any scale unless built by Gerald Wingrove. it still COULD be a model... those details could be that well done!

being a Modelaholic beats the daylights out of being most any OTHER kind of "holic" and the "enabler" doesn't USUALLY have to come bail you out of jail at 3:00 am because you stayed up building models all night! BTW: i almost had a heart attack when that maranello pic came up.... then i realized it was a metal body kit! (WHEW!) i stripped and repainted a couple of well-enjoyed Matchbox cars a few years back; whatever paint Matchbox used was very good while it lasted! (yeah, i know that ruined the collector value...)

you're experiencing one of the many drawbacks to 45 year old tooling. it's a matter of filling and filing,sanding and filling to get ANY of the early 'vettes grilles to fit right. i personally haven't tried vaseline or similar products to keep parts from sticking until i want them too, and IMHO vaseline seems to me to be too hard to control and keep where you want it. the majority of builders use tape IIRC to isolate parts like this. putty, used to fill out gaps, tends to chip and flake at the edges; i suggest cutting a fillet of sheet styrene and CA-gluing it in place, then file and sand it to the contour you seek. my only caveat regarding CA is that it makes the plastic hard as a rock where it soaks in. i have several early Vette kits and all of them have fit issues around the grilles and valances. patience!

it's an AMT 1941 Plymouth coupe. one of the few good things done at AMT during the "Matchbox" era; it looks like somebody was in the process of doing opening doors for it. i wish it would be reissued.... it's a good kit IMHO.

the only out-of-the-box kit i ever did with opening doors that worked A-okay was the Classic Monogram '40 Ford pickup. and although i usually build only 1/25, i love that kit. was extremely disappointed with Monogram when they changed the wheels from Americans (? brand?) to those nondescript CenterLine style wheels. they did NOT look right on a pure '60's street custom truck. i think ONLY Monogram had decent working hinges, and the shortage of kits with them tells a great deal of how much trouble they are to engineer into a massproduced kit.

at least when pushing that car you won't get frostbite from the pushbar. which is why Yugos all came with heated rear windows standard...

thanks for all the info; those are impressive builds BTW; and i happen to have an unfinished Cobra that WILL be going into this kit. i'd rather have the Mad Max version than the Road Warrior one, so the rest of the torino kit will go into it too.

those are interesting; i got a soft spot for professional cars.

you could use '63 Avanti headlights turned on their sides to recreate Lincoln headlights; that front drop bumper is available in the AMT '51 fleetline kit. the hood accent could be done with sheet styrene. the grille i don't know about but i'm sure there's a source for one like it.

it wasn't AMT that did the Scout originally; the old Ertl company did it along with a couple of very nice IH big rigs and a bunch of farm tractors and equipment. AMT has the molds now and those of of who think the Scout is unique are happy to see it again. sure, it's pretty simplified but with just a little added detail from the ol' parts box it looks good. i did one as a volunteer fireman's rig with tool boxes, fire extinguishers, etc in it. the other is still in progress but i'm leaning toward a rural constables' car.

a good model, or a successful sales producer? the best selling kit of all time was the horrendous Dukes Charger; probably the worst rendition of a 69 Dodge ever committed to plastic. for me, these criteria denote a good model, as follows: an interesting subject. be it a hallmark car or an oddball, no difference. accuracy. proportions, trim, scale fidelity. high parts count is not always a good indicator of accuracy! (Trumpeter...) fit fit fit. i don't want it to be snap-together easy but who wants to spend an hour on each part cleaning flash, filing joints, etc? parts for optional years/versions. in the heyday AMT and MPC kits often had two extra sets of custom wheels in addition to the stock version, and AMT Styline kits were the benchmark for customizing parts. clear and precise instructions (side note: clear PART numbers on the sprues!) that aren't pictograms. tell me what the parts are, and correct colors for painting them! (side note 2: by now, I don't need to know what the distributor looks like, but for new modelers it would be a boon to give names to those detailed blobs of styrene!) decals. (and a real nitpick on LICENSE plates to AMT; seems like every kit in the 80's and 90's had the same WOOO plates) decals need to be ACCURATE, clear, and crisp; and my god they need to be in the appropriate SCALE. what use are sponsor decals in 1/20 when the kit is 1/25? photo-etch parts; i seldom build to that level so i withhold judgment on these. faithful box art! i do NOT want a photograph of the ACTUAL car on the box, unless there's a coupon in the box to get me one at the dealership. show me what i've bought! one thing i keep reading: not ANOTHER 55 or 57 or such and such. i'm not a genius but if the manufacturers looked at the other guy's kit, or their own, and decided it was worth the risk to do yet another version, so be it. lot's of folks are fond of the old AMT 49 Merc, but revell has a winner in their new version. risk taken, bet won, IMHO. sorry about the long winded refrain, but ask a question.... LOL!

i'm going into retrograde... i've been doing 1/25 for so long, and the other day my wife spots OF ALL THINGS repops of the classic GI Joe with kung fu grip..... now i have the same toys i did when i was twelve. i WISH i had a TENTH of the gear i had when i was twelve! and MODELS? here's a story for ya; on my second tour in the Navy a shipmate brings me a HUGE cardboard box of assorted old models he and his brothers had abused over the years. picking through it, i find several old promos, old Johan kits, oddball bits and pieces of about fifty kits i have no idea what were. "here" he says; "thought you might get a kick out of this junk." some of that stuff is still in my parts boxes today, 20 years later!

whenever using Testors' spray paint, follow these rules. warm the can in warm not hot water; it makes the paint flow better and smooth faster. light coats! seal colored plastic (i.e. red, maroon, etc) to keep the color from bleeding through. and give Testors paint time to cure! mild heat will speed it up BUT may cause the plastic to warp or the paint to craze. give it TIME; my rule of thumb is when the odor of solvent is GONE, it's half dry. i have even brush painted some bodies with thinned bottle paint and a GOOD flat sable brush. use painting stands to keep from marring wet paint. mine are usually soft drink cups stuffed with paper (sometimes crappy instruction sheets) or spray cans. whatever works! and now is the best time to buy a storage container for leftover parts; i have a BUNCH of compartmented plastic tackle boxes that i keep extra parts in. you will find that there is NOTHING like a well stocked parts box!

new tools? talk about a wish list. AMT did the promos for the Ford Falcon, and i have two roundbodies ive done to look like my 1:1, but they're literally just promos with paint and swapped wheels. so... i want a 1962 Falcon two door sedan, with a fully detailed six cylinder and correctly sized wheels and tires. i'll pop for the futura to get bucket seats and a console. a later version could replicate the sprint hardtop with a 260 v8 and 5lug wheels. i'd also like to see a 1966 F100 done to revell standard with styleside AND stepside beds in the kit; FE engine so LOTS of hopup parts available. (revell AND amt did the early 60's chevy pickup...) a true Olds Vista Cruiser wagon for all those "that 70's show" fans... and dig through those old AMT bins for all those old tv-show tie-in kits AMT was famous for! was there ever a true Bronco kit; the early version? that would be cool but way impossible.

regarding AMT's annual kits and their simplified construction: many of us started off on these as youngsters and still liked to actually PLAY with them when they were finished; something those metal axles and platform chassis made pretty easy. they were, for the most part, unassembled promos anyway, and the best promos had THICK axles and heavy body shells. those headlights and grilles molded together didn't fall out like glued in clear plastic pieces when handled, and if you think about it, since these old standbys kept kids interested in models long enough to move on to more complex Revell or newer AMT kits, then they served every bit of their purpose. sure, these molds have long since seen better days; every one of them could stand being recut to improve moldings, but that's not likely to happen. that rotten MPC 69 mustang has caused more recent newcomers to the hobby to cry and moan about AMT than any other kit they've made, and sure, it should be pulled off the market but we don't make those decisions. shallow interior buckets were done to allow the use of friction drive chassis for "toy" cars, and simply never got changed. i recall slot car builders prizing promo and coaster shells because they were thick and tough and could handle being wrecked in racing, unlike acetate shells which shattered.

very nice build of a popular subject. i've done a couple of similar cars with "bundle of snakes" exhausts, and while they look intimidating they go together well. even the old MPC mkVII kit went together fairly well, IIRC. somebody remarked about the Silhouette; i suppose if i were more into show cars i'd have tried harder, but the first one i tried was a gift, and the second and third were bought only for the EXCELLENT wire spoke wheels. besides; to build it correctly as an early version requires swapping out the 427 ford for a Buick engine. and the re-released "current topical theme" kits such as the travolta firebird, the sweathogs dream car, and the fonzie car et al....shame on the maunfacturers for not being honest about what they're packaging. sure, many of us recall the current GMC 4x4 as the old "Fall Guy" truck, but no mention of the kit's history is made on the box or in the instructions.

the IMC/TESTORS 48 ford tops the list; i've tried to build at least three different ones so far. revell's model A kits for the front suspension and hinged doors. revell's 55,56, and 57 kits from the old days.... with all the opening doors and trunks. NOTHING ever fit as it should have. AMT's Silhouette and trailer... good for parts only IMHO. i built a Johan turbine car; it was work to do it well. i don't build a lot of foreign kits, so i won't pass judgement on the limited tamiya or heller stuff i've tried. the main thing about it is it being relaxing; if it turns into real work, it goes back in the box. hence the huge stack of halfbuilt kits in my closet.

not necessarily; the original AirLift was available in simple "you fill it with a tire hose" style similar to HiJacker shocks. when you needed the lift, you added air, and when you didn't, you bled it off. of course you could put a compressor on it if you wanted, but racers were all about making the car lighter by taking stuff OFF. i used to remove the axle locator blocks that MPC and AMT used and now i regret it. i'll be painting those things black and leaving them right where they are!

i say real.

i used straightened paper clips for re-rod when i cut open the roof on my mustang II kit to add t-tops. super glue and sheet styrene after that. as for gluing in the shocks on the 49-50 Fords, they don't add much strength because they only contact the very edge of the spring. i realize now that the despised MPC rear axle design and the old AMT chassis plate was a better design for durability if not for realism. my theory is now that any plain plastic axle needs some sort of support rod added to it for longevity if not the unforeseen mishap. a simple spacer/filler block can be added to any model and hidden fairly easily if necessary.

i've noticed among my vast collection of AMT 49/50 ford models that a lot of them have developed a sagging butt. ditto for any other leaf sprung kits, by and large, due to the inherent weakness of a thin piece of styrene holding up a sometimes heavily modified and HEAVY kit. some have actually snapped the leaf off between the frame and the axle. in future, i believe that to counter this i will add "Air-Lift" bags to any leaf spring model; these are easily represented with a short piece of thick sprue carved to shape and cut to fit the exact space between the axle and frame. painted black and plumbed with wire it should look the part and keep the car's butt from dragging. as for my builtups, it'll be a matter of repairing each as time allows over the winter. one of these days i'll actually finish that 49 coupe i opened the doors and trunk on, and added full structural detail to. now it's just sitting in a box waiting for a better set of door hinges.....

i'll say real.... real good model! i tried to pick out the details but my 'puter barely does ANYTHING i tell it to. the front wheels look heavy in the spokes; i can't see if the carbs have any linkage. the headers look odd BUT and this is a big 'un, the chrome actually looks burnt blue. the seat looks handmade, and if my upholsterer couldn't do a straight line i'd fire him. i'll even go so far as to hazard a guess that it's the Lindberg T rod with lotsa aftermarket parts. the plug wires look good, TOO good; even on my real cars they don't lay down like that!

scored pretty big at Big Lots today; found three AMT '50 Ford convertibles, the Fall Guy truck, a Scout, a Red Wagon, and of all things the '88 Daytona front drive. we all know the good stuff well, the Daytona i bought because of the price and to see what it consisted of parts-wise. it's got the turbo 4cyl and a generic smallblock V8 "improbability drive" engine; matter of fact it has TWO 4cyl block assemblies. haven't determined WHY yet. rest of kit is pretty simple and it might eventually end up as a racecar of some type. pretty good haul; oops, i missed the CAT cougar i got too; eight kits for the price of 3 from hobbytown.