RickRollerLT1

Been a while since posting here, lets see what gains traction and what doesn't. Began as a rebuilder shell MPC SM4 with an MPC 87/88 GT nose and rear bumper adapted to the MPC supplied widebody kit. The SM4 IMSA kit was not made for the 85-88 GT nose and bumper, so the front and rear portions were expanded and modified with sheet styrene and parts from a Revell/Monogram Lotus Esprit and Rain-X Camaro. Front hood and rear trunk fitments are truly, shockingly bad on these kits, and with them being slightly warped 40+ old red styrene I did the best I could in the placement. As the MPC SM4 rebuilder only had glass/body/trunk/interior bucket/frame to work from, everything else including suspension and exhaust are all from various Revell/Monogram and AMT/MPC Kits. Highlight of this build is a twincharged (supercharged and turbocharged!) DOHC LS V8 that was inspired by the Mercury Marine motors and would troll everything on the streets in 1:1. This motor was created using a C6 Z06 block with parts from a Ferarri V8, and ZL1 Camaro. Everything else was sourced from other kits and some scratch built. Exterior is Tamiya Mica Blue Metallic cleared with Quick Shine Multi-Surface Floor Finish (a satisfactory replacement for the now discontinued Pledge/Future Floor Wax).

At one of the NNL Easts i went to, i asked the guys at the Round 2 table some tooling questions. As i was leaving the table i overheard someone ask about the Ertl tractor tools and one of them replied something along the lines of "we have all Ertl model kit tooling but the tractors are controlled through Ertl-Tomy under exclusivity from John Deere". That means they likely have the tools but would have to do an expensive licence between the two parties or produce them for Tomy.

I remember that was Ron Bradley of "Bradley's Car Collectables" and he used to have that spot with all the boxes at the back end of the vendors and NNL East. I heard Ron retired back in early 2020 and because his inheritors chose not to continue the business, they supposedly sold the remaining inventory off somewhere (prolly eBay no doubt).

I bought two of these brand new sealed ($20 ea) at a show. One had a giant short shot on the rear glass, the other was missing the clear parts tree and tires bag (which I can replace anyway, along with an extra taillight from a scrapped gluebomb that had unsalvagable glass). These kits on evilbay go for way more than i'd like to gut just for the glass parts. Revell AG won't replace them as they've been OOP for too long, plus vendor was a local joe selling off stuff and I probably can't return them as I was looking forward to building them. If anyone has 1x front windshield and 2x rear glass, PM me and we can work something out.

I've had the same issue as the Purple Challenger. Was the TS applied on bare plastic or with Duplicolor primer base? A major thing to consider is with many of todays kits using cheap "thin" plastic, that many "hotter" paints like lacquers and acrylics, and yes even Tamiya, will attack the styrene and cause what is called "crazing" or "etching". Fogging or "blushing" is caused by extremely high humidity over 70% and is evident by brighter "flat" spots in parts of the paint, which is not what I'm seeing here. Its possible the Duplicolor primer (if indeed used here and is very hot on modern styrene) was applied too thick, which caused the crazing to travel to the Tamiya layer. I even had this happen with Tamiya TS Grey and White Primer on Revell and AMT bodies with weak cheap styrene batches. Best case scenerio for cheap styrene is to do a very light primer coat so it "bites", then after 5-10 mins hit it up with a heaver coat to seal it up. It should be relatively smooth enough to sand down for another coat or apply the base color coats.

Where's this at? Looks like ether Marshals or TJ Maxx as their décor and layout looks familiar.

Fresh off the bench! Started out as a AMT Ford F-150 Lightning, final product reflects the 350 because of lengthened and extended frame, among other changes. Several modifications and parts from other kits, beefy rear tires come off a Revell Pro Street Thunderbird. Major mods include stretched frame using Evergreen tubing and scratchbuilt ramp bed from Evergreen Styrene sheets. Cab is Tamiya TS-45 Pearl White and bed is in TS-52 Candy Lime Green, all cleared with Pledge Pared with '93 F-150 Shortbed in simluar color schem Pared with '93 F-150 Shortbed in simluar color scheme. Its own thread

Vintage AMT kit crica 1994. Built mostly OOB with supplie d custom body kit (that's what originally grabbed my attention and knew I had to have this one). Only additions are custom wheels/tires/brakes from the Revell Custom Silverado, custom air filter, and seats and intake from the Lightning F-150 (of which supplied itself to a bigger, more ambitious piece coming up next). Exterior is Tamiya TS-52 Candy Lime Green cleared with Pledge.

I believe when Round 2 finalized the AMT/MPC purchase, they only got the Ertl non-tractor molds. I believe the reason was companies like John Deere had exclusive merchandising contracts with Ertl/Tomy that couldn't be transferred to R2. Not sure what are of the Tractor tools now or if R2 got them later, but I do know many of them haven't been reissued since 2007 and currently go for stoopid money in the marketplaces. In addition to the all styrene trucks and 4x4s that have been recently reissued, Ertl also did various trucks and kits with die cast bodies. '65 Mustang '80 Trans Am '80 Camaro '81 Bronco '75 Corvette Peterbilt 359? Mack DM Series? It's possible the tooling still exists for some of these, but the odds are unlikely since R2 had to remake the International Transtar tool from the ground up.

The MPC kits are different than the AMTs. AMT's started with the '65 year which was completely different tooling with molded in front suspension and exhaust, and then they did a new tool for '67 that was updated up to the 1970 year (the current form reissued to this day). The MPC tool started in '65 and underwent cosmetic/body changes throughout the years. Unlike AMT, MPC did annuals up to 1976 with the Caprice being the last and the most recent form reissued today. I doubt they'd modify the 1990s tool '67 again since they had difficulties converting that to the 4 door "Baby' for Supernatural.

Anybody know what happened to the tools for them? There were 6 in the line, Chezoom, Aluma-Coupe, Boyd's Coupster, Boyd's Vantastic, Boyd's Hauler, and Boyd's Smoothster. I know Lindberg got the 37's (Vantastic, Coupster, and Smoothster) as they kept reissuing them and reside with Round 2, but I heard Testors/Rustoluem corp kept the others like the '06 Charger tool. They also reportedly have the Johan tools they repoped in the '90s like the '72 Cuda, '70 Olds 442, AMC Rebel and AMX, and the Mercury Comet. Hopefully Round 2 has or can acquire them, as the Testors side aren't doing much aside rehashing paint schemes to make a buck.

Since you have essentials to the '61 year it might be wise to pick up a reissue AMT '65. I believe the windshield is the exact same piece plus the windshield frame and all should graft on cleanly.

Nice work! Love the color scheme. Not to hijack, but I built one of these not long ago and one of the issues I had but forgot to mention was the ride height. Turns out the side tops of the firewall were causing it to make the frame stick out and the interior tub not fit. Had to trim lots of the firewall mainly the sides that curve up inside the front fenders, and glue it to the engine bay. That mostly solved the frame sticking out and lowering the height to where I wanted. Also, if the issue you built is the recent 2 in 1 release, I believe it had a custom front suspension option that had the spindles lower than the stock one.

Regular Rustoleum primer can be used on Styrene, maybe the 2x Primers. Depending on how strong the molding and styrene is, use a light mist coat and then go heavier otherwise if you go heavy at once you'll def get crazing. Ether washing the body/parts in solvent or light sanding between 800-1200 grit will also make the primer coat stick better and lay out smoother. Regular Rustoleum gloss and flat/satin sprays can be used, but a PRIMER barrier coat is a MUST or YOU WILL GET MAJOR CRAZING. Rustoluem 2x Flat, Gloss, and Satin colors have Paint+Primer built in and it's combined solvents WILL ATTACK primered base coat, even one primed with 2x Grey/White oddly enough. The 2x Flat and Satin colors are OK to use on bare styrene parts like frames and components and the crazing is almost non-existent or minimal. Some Krylon paints also have paint+primer versions and the same methods apply. All paints, even Rustoluem, can have bad batches (powdery spray with solvent not mixed well enough, ect.) so it'd be best to test on a scrap piece or object first. I hear many use Tamiya primers (which are formulated for plastics), but I had bad experience with a brand new can of the Fine Grey primer. Had two 82 Night Rider hoods from the same kit, same 2012 R2 issue. One was sprayed Tamiya Grey and the other True Value brand Grey. The Tamiya crazed and rippled like mad, while the True Value paint was a little coarse but smoothed out after the last 2 heavier coats. I assume the molding of the R2 kits wasn't so good, but I have a suspicion ether the Tamiya Primer was a bad batch produced during COVID or they silently reformulated it (for the worse) to comply with US regulations and reduce costs. I personally think the latter because the new Tamiya color spray cans I've bought dry much faster than the ones I used between 2013-18, so they're probably using more thinner/solvent in place of pigments to make it seem like there's more spray for less color, but also hotter than it was for some plastics.

Fresh off 'da bench! Built from the 2011 issue of the pre-RC2 era AMT kit. Very nicely detailed kit for the time, and better than the original 1962 annual in the interior/frame department (the body is said to be better on the annual, but who has the monies to spend on a gluebomb/beater 1962 original era kit). However with recent Round 2 quality control issues, nothing is ever a "shake and drop" as several parts were severely warped and torqued. The windshield especially was an absolutely twisted mess and required lots of careful bending and sanding down joints to hold in place, not to mention lots of glue. Interior had serious fitment issues come lining up to the body and lower frame. Dashboard had to be shaved on the sides and the front of the door panels had to be shortened to fit around the firewall. Some of the body lettering had super weak molding and the folks at Round 2 gave decals for everything but those. Only changes were the custom wheels/tires/brake from the Revell '66 Chevy Stepside and exhaust tips from the spares bin. Exterior is Tamiya TS-92 Metallic Orange cleared with Pledge.