62rebel

gregg highlighted the damper on the air intake; you've id'd the battery cover just to the right of it respective. perhaps the overprint is not clear on your image? just behind and to the right (looking) at the "catalyst" label in white.

DID YOU SAY... REVELL? i did not know they had one in the works. if it is of the same standard as the new '40.... i'll kick the AMT kit to the curb. if it has ANY vintage speed equipment.... excuse me while i drool.

my neighbors back home in amherst va had some old roundy-round cars down in the woods that us kids messed around in (oh those bad old 1970's before lawyers ruined everything!) and i remember how crude most of them were, with 1/2" re-rod welded into the wheels and home-made roll cages; school bus drivers' seats; and pieces of chain welded around the door pillars to keep the doors shut. big holes cut in floorboard to see the tires, all the trim knocked off and numbers painted on with house paint. man; we were all Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough in those days. i think there were three of them, 2 '55 or '56 fords and one 1957 ford. the '57 was the best built of the three; it had better fabrication workmanship than the other two, but it still wasn't a "factory" job like a Woods brothers or Holman-Moody car.

i agree with dave; our VW's use "dampers" to cut down the drone of intake air and provide a "buffer" effect. it's just an air chamber, and removing it gets that "moan" noise some are looking for.

curious if anyone knows when/if AMT is going to reissue the venerable '49 ford coupe and the goldmine '53 f100 kits? got to be two of my all-time favorite AMT kits. seems like they've done 2-3 shots of the '57 ford and the old '57 chevy (and lost the new tool?) since the '49 last graced hobby shop shelves. of course, it would be SO NICE if they happened to do them as the thrill show issue '49 multi-kit and the diamond in the rough set... hey, i can dream, can't i?

i seem to be utterly unable to do one with nothing but parts from the box; even if i make an effort to use only those parts i end up putting more accurate tires or ? else from the parts stash into it... i dug up an AMT 53 vette kit and it went from a half completed box-stock to early '60's sports racer just by takingthe lid off the box. there was a book (real hardcover book!) in my school library in the '70's that was probably printed in the early-mid '60's that dealt with all the types of model cars at that time; slot cars in 1/32 and 1/24 scale, gas cars, and "static" models. converting box models to grand national spec was a big thing then and a long chapter was devoted to this. customizing was fading in popularity and only a few pages dealt with it. i remember checking it out many times but unfortunately i do not recall the name of the book or i'd try to find it through archives. the school disposed of it several years ago and the dewey number was deleted. anybody else remember this book, or who compiled it?

your only remaining mistake.... was leaving the keys in the ignition! VROOOOOm.... see ya! mr watson; you are much too hard on yourself. and an inspiration, to boot. thanks!

thanks chris; the firefighter is a re-issue of an older MPC kit and is a representation of Dyno Don Nicholson's ProStock car. in it's day this was a detailed kit! the suspension is very complete given that most kits from the '70's were on one piece chassis with MAYBE a half-mold rear axle. take your time cleaning the flash away and detail painting and you'll be pleased with the resulting model; those big slicks look RIGHT for this kit!

got to do something about MY server; most of the time i don't get pics on any forums. great to read your review and look forward to reading more.

i'm always crossing over between military and automotive models and have been a history buff for decades (it must be a modelers' disease) so it was great when i found the LRDG site with great pics and explanations. i'm a sucker for the under-weaponed, under-armored, underdog who can nip at the better armed enemies' heels and run away. (or stand and make a fight of it, for that matter, as they sometimes had to) sort of like a certain Virginia gentleman named Mosby from the 1860's.... reading about the LRDG exploits and techniques was enlightening. putting read knowledge to use in building accurate models is what it is all about!

slightly out of context, maybe, but has anyone contemplated using the blitz chassis to convert the revell '41 chev pickup to a LRDG truck? the LRDG trucks were 2 wheel drive, cut down one ton trucks with modified aircraft wheels and tires for loose sand driving. i've built a tamiya 1/35 but i'd prefer a 1/24-1/25 version to go with the rest of my stuff. i also started but never finished an RAF/RCAF 1941 ford woody conversion. it is languishing in a box, deep in the closet.

i think a '63 could pass for a '67 with a little fabrication; mine was titled as a '67 but was a holdover '66; the real '67 was more "falcon" like in appearance (i had a '69 GT;same body as that) but i liked the mk1 version much better. wonder if anyone has one of those old kits available?

i just hate chucking stuff out (if you saw my modeling room you'd believe me) and i try to save or find uses for this kind of stuff. i got a "lifetime" supply of styrene sheet from autozone when they changed endcards on their gondolas(shelves). they just chuck 'em, and they're great stock, all you need to do is sand off the ad paint. or not, depending on what you're using it for. one side is plain white styrene. cards are probably 1x2 1/2 ft, think they're .030 thick (no mikes) and FREE if you ask the right guy.

can't recall if Monogram did a '73, but AMT, MPC, they both did in great annual series; for exact years that's your best bet. maybe somebody else remembers more?

welcome aboard; i'm a recent joiner myself, and there's great info and ideas all over this board. and wonderful folks to share it with!

i was looking at those thursday night and realized i could have gotten 2" scale drop by simply turning the spindles upside down. also realized how badly green stuff putty shrinks.... time to strip and repaint those customs anyway!

so, with AMT's current kits offering the venerable goodyear polyglas GT hollow 60 series tires... it seems that whoever is cutting out the webbed centers and trimming the flash is doing it too well! none of the recent TRIMMED tires fits snugly into the kit rims, and i've had to plunder my tire box for old issues that fit. i'll run out eventually, and be stuck with all these new tires that won't snug up on the rim. idea i've played with in my mind is to fill tires with epoxy filler to get a flush surface for the rim to glue to? use coil of waxed paper to hold putty into tire until cured? what are you guys doing for too-large tires? (checking my stash, i see this problem with lots of hollow tires, not just those GT's)

while bemoaning the loss of half a tube of green stuff, i had the idea of splitting open the tube and scooping out the still pliable remains and putting them into an empty testors 1/4 oz paint jar and adding testors thinner to it to restore plasticity. not sure of how much thinner to filler ratio, i added too much (or i thought) and stirred it up until it was smooth and realized it was thin enough to brush on. since i was mucking about with trying to redo a failed '58 impala custom, blending in altered edsel front fenders to replace the rears; (visualize the fenders narrowed by pie cut from front to back, headlight pods for taillights) i was trying to resolve the many contours together and needed to smooth it all out. keep in mind i only applied the stuff last night (thursday) so it will have to cure for a few days. SO; we'll see, i'll keep you posted on whether this actually works. i know green stuff shrinks badly, but i like it, silly me.

Bob, do you recall what configuration the Cortina was? what scale? maybe how much model there was; detail wise? i had a 1:1 1967 2dr sedan plain jane but i made it look like a lotus....

this kit became one of my new favorites due to platform body pan and sep frame etc; easily sectioned and great detail. my stumbling block with it has been trying to lower front suspension; i did the 1:1 scale thing and trimmed one coil from each front spring but this did nothing to get front down, even when glue points slightly enlarged to let them move. silly me; i wanted it to look prototypical. lowering rear was easy just pieces of styrene sheet as blocks. so..... what to do to lower that front end? two finished customs with nosebleed front ends waiting for an answer....

it may be that the paint was leaching out its' pigment into the topmost layer you were finding easy to remove leaving the binder behind to rest on the surface? this sounds very frustrating and i'm thankful not to be faced with this dilemna. i seldom prime kit bodies unless the molded color is too far from my desired scheme, so i was curious to read you had not primed this one either. disclaimer: i do use flat white under some metallic colors to give a better reflective surface but not as primer per se. it seems that your best bet now is to let the paint solidify and carefully scrape it off, as i have done with old builtups that had questionable paint. seeing as you're in th UK i don't know about the availability of shop-type chemicals to the hobbyist, but have you tried WD-40? it takes a long time to work but it almost NEVER causes reaction with styrene, and washes off with dish detergent, and can be strained, saved, and re-used. the brake fluid based product i tried from the model train community was just that; DOT-3 brake fluid, at several times the cost. and it caused a reaction on nearly every styrene part i tried to strip with it. no fun.

since i build mostly rep stock and such i usually take what i'm given as far as tires in a kit, but there are situations which call for fairly wide tires and i have a method for widening (vinyl!) tires which is fairly easy but does require a lot of patience and caution. i'm often trying to get a heavy duty tire from AMT Firestones, both supremes and the late "plain" offering. since the "plain" tire has well-defined tread ribs, i slowly work my way around the tread between the first and second rib with a box cutter blade.(this is the extreme caution part, and i MEAN this!) If you're really patient and careful, you'll end up with a narrow slice and a wide slice. pair up two of the wide slices so that the outer tread is flush and the center hole is well; centered, and cement together with CA glue. extra tip: use the black colored CA and the seam will almost disappear. you'll be left with some thin outer sidewalls, don't throw them away! i have used the thin slices from nice supreme tires to fake wide supremes out of the "plain" tires. this trick also works well with the "ancient" old school slicks from AMT; by cutting out about 1/8" you get a good representation of old 9" slicks.

yup; that's the setup. so ross gibson has them; cool; now a plan is coming together....

and off to a good start. thanks for the response!

are they being cast up by anybody here? i had no luck on the parts swap forum and don't really want to buy whole johan '68 chrysler kit just to get these since i don't have a use for the model they come from.