Biscuitbuilder

If there were any Willys Americar US Army staff cars, they would have been, most likely, the very scarce 1942 Willys--of which perhaps no more than 10,000 or so were produced. Staff cars during WW-II were actually pretty rare, that is, sedans and such. Unlike today, where the US General Services Administration contracts annually with Detroit to procure a supply of ordinary civilian sedans for government (including military) use, no such system existed prior to the early 1950's--each government agency or department ordered from their own budgets and appropriations. The buildup of the US Armed Forces didn't really get into gear until late 1940, after President Roosevelt signed HB1776, better known as the Selective Service Act. At the time the SS law was passed in Congress, the US Army stood at a massive 275,000 enlisted men and officers--staff cars weren't a high priority, yet. The Army and Navy were making do with a rather eclectic stock of civilian vehicles purchased throughout the 30's, mostly Fords (US Army) and Chevrolet's (US Navy), and almost all of them were either 4dr sedans or station wagons (Yup, the military had their share of woodies!). The Army also favored phaetons for field use, until the beginnings of the Dodge WC-series 4wd trucks and converted panel deliveries (made into "Suburban" type vehicles). With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the War Production Board pretty much locked up the production of 1942 cars and light pickups, placing all that were not already paid for by civilian purchasers, in a vast motor pool, from which the military got first dibs on what they saw as necesary, other government agencies having next choice, followed by civilians with a demonstratable need. Such as Packards, Cadillac's, Chryslers, Buicks were in high demand from those stocks for commissioned officers, primary Generals and Admirals, befitting their rank and status. Those were for rear area use only, however; in the field, it was Jeeps, and Dodge WC-57 4WD field staff cars (such as General Patton preferred). At any rate, civilian style sedans were in pretty short supply, there being only a couple of hundred thousand civilian 1942 automobiles assembled between mid-December 1941, and the final cessation of all automobile production in late February 1942, when Oldsmobile produced the last of theirs, all from parts and components already in stock in the factories. But at any rate, it was officers who used them, and almost always having an enlisted man as a driver--and almost all were 4dr sedans. Biscuitbuilder

AFIK, the Willys Americars were never used as staff cars--those duties went to Ford. GM and Chrysler. Biscuitbuilder

Bob, I think this falls in the category of "Urban Rumor". unfortunately. A short history of Mickey Thompson's Indy Cars might help: 1962--first effort. 3 rear engine cars, designed by John Crosswaite, built by Mickey Thompson, powered by Buick aluminum stock block V9's (engine that was used in the 61-63 Buick Special compact cars. One car made the race, driven by Dan Gurney (Gurney's rookie year), DNF due to transmission failure. 1963--Harvey Aluminum Special. This was the so-called "Roller Skate" car, which chassis had its fuel tanks outboard of the tube frame construction, almost like side pods, but faired into the bodywork, and a very wide nose, giving "wind splitting" to the front wheels. Wheels and tires were 9:00-12,, Halibrand making the magnesium rims, Firestone building the tires, which were branded as "Allstate", for Sears & Roebuck associate sponsorship. These were the smallest diameter wheels and tires ever used at Indianapolis. I believe 5 cars were built, but only 2 qualified, powered by hopped up small block Chevy stock block engines. While they were neat looking, they were not particularly successful, both cars going out of the race with blown engines. These were, however the first cars to make the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race using stock block Chevy engines. 1964--Sears Allstate Specials. These were the 1963 cars, hastily modified with revised bodywork to allow for the use of 8:00-15 front tires, 9:00-15 rear tires, by Firestone this time. These wheels and tires were the result of USAC (based on the great tire availabilty controversy at Indianapolis in 1963) mandating a standard, one-size-fits-all tire size for all entrants at all USAC Championship Series races. These cars were, for 1964, powered by the new Ford 4-cam Indy V8 engine. It was one of these now very ill-handling cars, driven by Dave McDonald, which spun into the inside wall at the north end of the pits, triggering the HUGE fiery crash at the end of the first lap, taking the lives of both McDonald and Eddie Sachs, taking some 9 cars out of the field, and injuring several other drivers, including Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser, both of whom suffered serious burns. These cars never again raced at any other USAC race. 1965--Harvey Aluminum Special. This car, built around a section of titanium tube (a leftover piece of stock from one of the many military ballistic missile programs) which served as the chassis and fuel tank. The engine was a highly modified Chevrolet small block V8, and the car was front wheel drive, the last front drive entry ever at Indianapolis. The very ungainly-looking car was driven by USAC sprint car driver Bob Mathouser, and failed to qualify, its engine disintegrating completely on the front stretch of the Speedway at about 3pm on the afternoon of the last day of qualifications in May, 1965 (Bump Day). 1966--Wynn's Specials. These were more conventionally designed rear engine cars, using Chevrolet small block based engines, having an odd 3-valve setup, two intake valves, and one large exhaust valve. Neither car qualified, and Mickey Thompson never again returned with cars, to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As for any model kit, there were none. In those days, just as with today, it took a minimum of one full year to get a new model car kit from the idea stage to production, and almost no Indy car was known about until perhaps 3 months or so before the 500. If a car had won, and had been particularly famous in doing so, it would have stood a good chance of being kitted as a plastic model--if not, then not. The only model kits of Indianapolis cars in 1963 were the 6 older kits from Aurora (the Famous Race Cars series), and the 1955 Kurtis KK500C kit from Monogram. For 1964, Industro-Motive Corporation issued their '63 Lotus Ford kit, with markings for both Jim Clark and Dan Gurney. Also in 1964, AMT Corporation introduced their 1963 Lotus Ford kit, along with Parnelli Jones' 1963 Indianapolis Winner, the Agajanian Willard Battery Spl Watson/Offy roadster. In 1966, IMC revamped their Lotus Ford kit to represent (rather crudely, BTW) Jim Clark's 1965 Indy 500 winner, revising the color and markings in 1967 for Clark's 1966 2nd place finisher. In 1968, MPC issued their famous (and highly desireable!) 1:20 scale STP Turbine Car #40, Parnelli Jones' famed and ill-fated "Silent Sam". In 1969, MPC went further, introducing 1:25 scale kits of the STP Turbine Lotus 56, and Dan Gurney's Eagle, done both as Bobby Unser's Rislone Spl Turbo Offenhauser powered car, and as Gurney's All American Racers Ford powered Olsonite Eagle, with two versions optional (Gurney's Gurney Weslake stock block car, and Dennis Hulme's 4-cam Ford powered entry). And that is it for Indy car model kits of any significance introduced in the 1960's. On the slot car side of things, in late 1963, Indianapolis native and modeler par excellence', Bob Clidinst, mastered a series of USAC Championship car bodies in 1:32 scale, and molded them in resin for use as slot car "club racer" body shells for a fairly large group of Central Indiana slot car racers, who met weekly, to run oval track races, using USAC rules as adapted to slot cars. One of these body shells was that of the 1963 Mickey Thompson Harvey Aluminum Specials--the only hard-bodied slot car body of that car I've ever seen (got one in my stash still, somewhere!). Buzco, I believe, produced a clear plastic 1:32 scale slot car body shell of the same car, likely pirating it off a Clidinst body. Other than that, I know of know other Mickey Thompson Indy Car slot car bodies. I believe this clear plastic body came and went in 1964 (clear slot car bodies were being introduced and discontinued almost daily back then). Biscuitbuilder (who built Indy car models almost exclusively 1966-83)

No reason why not! I have an excellent book on Ford Woodie station wagons, and their history, with a lot of pics of '40 and '41 Ford station wagons prepared for service with the Canadian Army in North Africa. My notion for one of these is doing a Marmon-Herrington 4wd conversion for it--MH simply used a standard Ford rear axle & torque tube, modified to put the differential off the the right side of the engine oil pan, parallel front leaf springs to support it, and a transfer case built to take it's drive from the PTO on the side of a Ford truck transmission of the era. The only thing that has held me up is those huge balloon tires--but I will solve that problem one of these days. Biscuitbuilder

Odd as it may seem, I really like our local NPR radio station, WBAA-FM at Purdue University--Indiana's first broadcasting station, and a radio station that actually beat KDKA-Pittsburgh to the airwaves by more than a year. My favorite music for building models? Well, nothing beats classical, followed by impressionistic. Biscuitbuilder

Steve, Anyone can collect old model car kits, but it takes a real man to cut one up! Go for it, this one is interesting! Biscuitbuilder

Well....... I do think the Olds Truck will be done in plenty of time for IPMS/Roscoe Turner in February! :mrgreen: Biscuitbuilder

Back in 1976, when I was doing freelance builtups for AMT Corporation, they came to me for suggestions as to their '37 Chevy coupe kit. I worked one up very quickly for them, using the crazy 2-piece Firestone Indianapolis tires they were putting in their reissued Watson Roadster kit--used the front wheels all around--they grabbed that idea, and ran with it in a kit. Firestone supplied their Speedway Special racing tires for Bonneville, with the shoulders of the Speedway tread ground off, for several years, from the mid-1950's through the middle of the 60's, and those can be found, not only in the older AMT Watson Roadster kits out of the 70's, but can also be found as the front tires in the old Monogram Indy Roadster kit, mounted on early Halibrand solid mag wheels. Biscuitbuilder

Steve, Odd as it may seem, given the popularity of the 37-41 Willys Americar in drag racing, the actual, stock Willys wasn't at all a hot selling car in 1:1, no more than 35-45,000 units were sold in any one year (as opposed to say, 600,000 or more Ford V8's, even more Chevrolet's). So, it's not surprising that no kits of stock Willys cars were ever done. But, if you have some kit-bashing and scratchbuilding skills, all is not lost! As the Willys "gassers" of the 60's used basically stock chassis, the old Revell SWC coupe and their '41 Willys pickups, along with AMT's '40 Willys pickup and coupe gassers have the basic frame, along with the stock front axles and leaf springs. The basic Willys dash is in there as well. The famed WW-II Willys/Ford MB/GPA Jeeps used the same Willys "Go-Devil" flathead 4cyl engine, as did the postwar CJ2A Jeep--and those engines abound in 1/24-1/25 scale (Italeri and Hasegawa Jeeps in 1:24, and the MPC/AMT Hogan's Heroes Jeep in 1:25 all have this engine, perfectly replicated). A decent 3-speed transmission can be had from a number of sources, close enough for government work--I'd use one from a Revell '37 Ford pickup, frankly. The stock rear axle can be represented by one from an AMT '37 Chevy, using that kit's rear springs as well. For that matter, I suspect that the '37 Chevy kit could also provide the front axle and springs--Willys used parallel leaf springs and a beam front axle through 1942, and they look pretty much just like the Chevy unit. The wheels were pretty much like those used by Ford in 1940 as well, with 6:00-16" tires, so I'd give the Revell '40 Ford coupe a look there. A Willys coupe was only a little bit smaller than a Ford coupe of the era, so the seat, perhaps even the interior tub can come from the Revell coupe as well, with a bit of resizing to fit the Willys body shell. All in all, while it would be a bit of a project, it's not insurmountable, I don't believe. Biscuitbuilder

Brian, Do I gotta? Biscuitbuilder

For starters here, the "Old Pro" 71 Nova has separate front fenders for one simple reason--there was a second variant of the kit, a '71 Pontiac Ventura. Now, on to your main concern. To add to what Bob Paeth has very correctly described (and to answer your concerns about the "bean counters"), it may be hard to believe, but developing and producing model kits is a game of pennies, literally PENNIES--sometimes only a fraction of a cent here and there--as profit margins are indeed quite thin in this business. So, yes--sometimes the elimination of extra parts from production comes into the equation (I spent just enough time in product development of both diecast and plastic model kits to get a real feel for such minute cost controls). When a model kit is tooled with multiple variations (believe me, those who develope model car kits can get very obsessed with potential optional versions, additional parts--it's part of the passion those who do this sort of work seem to have been born with!--there comes a "coin toss" situation: Do we include all the optional parts in a kit, quite possibly adding to the ultimate retail price? Bear in mind that the more parts in a kit, the heavier the weight of a carton containing a dozen, and weight is a big factor in shipping. It may also dictate a larger box size, which impacts not only shipping, but also product placement in retail stores, which have only just so much "real estate" to commit to model car kits. More than once when I was at Playing Mantis, for example, we had to face the implied insistence from retail buyers that a model kit box be just a little bit smaller, a blister card adjusted so that more pegs could be used on a hanging display. Yet, as a manufacturer, we wanted a larger package, giving us more "presence", more visibility--so we had to meet somewhere in the middle. Believe me, when Walmart speaks, model kit (and other) manufacturers LISTEN. A lot of product sales hang in the balance there. Also, putting all the potential optional parts in one kit reduces the exposure to a company's product in retail, particularly in the area of being able to put out another version of the kit as something new--shoot the whole wad up-front, what would we have had for a follow-on? Additionally, there has been, for decades, a resistance on the part of the larger market ("larger" denoting those consumers who aren't as dedicated, nor as desireous of having lotsa extra parts to fill up the parts drawers we more serious builders love to have) about having to "pay" for all those extra parts that cannot be used--THANKYOU Ralph Nader (NOT!). So, in the matter of having all those extra parts, "consumerism" plays a big part. Further, in many model car kit tools, some options required the use of an additional mold frame (the AMT '25 T Fruit Wagon, for example, had a complete extra parts tree, shot in a different color--white--included in the standard AMT '25 Model T kit of the day, which was molded in black--separate mold frame--meaning one more mold press and one more mold press operator--more production costs. Just to illustrate all of this: In 1967, Monogram Models introduced a then-fabulously done 1:48 scale Lockheed P-38 Lightning (WW-II twin engined fighter plane). The tooling of this kit could be used to create a P38-J fighter, an F5 photo-recon plane, the P38 "Pathfinder" bomber leader, and the P38M Night Fighter. The initial release of this kit had all the parts for all the variants, down to the decal markings, and sold reasonably well. About 1977 or so, Monogram reissued this kit, not as a total reissue, but splitting things up into the individual variants. Whammo! A HUGE, and bitter argument ensued in the pages of the IPMS Quarterly and its then-companion, the IPMS Journal, as to why not all the parts in one kit--one side screaming that the original kit had all the parts for all the versions, the other side shouting just as loudly that they saw no added value in "paying" for a bunch of extra parts they couldn't use, just to get the variant they wanted to build. The verbal "fisticuffs" lasted almost the entire year--and some of the letters written were pretty ugly (one can only imagine the vituperance had their been the Internet available 30 years ago!!!). So, I think it's possible to see that there are multiple sides to this argument. AMT/Ertl, having produced all their kits in China since the late 1990's, benefits, or is cursed (choose your side here), by having engineers and production people (even product development people on this side of the pond) who really do not understand the whys and wherefores of all those added parts in the older tooling they are working with. So, they tend to take the path of least resistance, and simply open up all the "gates", let the styrene flow where it will, and pack the resulting product. In addition, AMT/Ertl is in possession of literally thousands of tools, which can be measured in thousands of tons of steel blocks, but no budget for anyone to specialize in pulling all those tools together. Would that it were otherwise, but it's not. Biscuitbuilder

Izzy, Now don't get me started! :roll: Biscuitbuilder

Not yet, Jairus, but it is REAL wood--Midwest Products 1/32" 5-ply birch aircraft plywood, with 1/32" basswood stripwood from Kappler Scale Lumber for the framing. Closeups mebbe this weekend, OK? Biscuitbuilder

I ought to get this one done? Well, it's coming along nicely now--although with my work schedule, building time is pretty much limited to weekends (but I am going to be off for 11 days over Christmas & New Year's!). Here's the 1920 Oldsmobile truck project, with some of the wooden cab constructed. For those having not seen this project, I started it in early 1987 from scale drawings in an issue of Mainline Modeler, a model railroad magazine. The drawings are of an actual truck in the Hayes Truck Museum at Woodland CA. The model started out as an original-issue Beverly Hillbillies Car, which was an actual 1921 Oldsmobile touring car, cut down into a makeshift farm truck before Barris found it, refurbished it for the TV studio. Biscuitbuilder

Nothing at all wrong with BMF. However, Jeffb is a resin caster, and is looking to upgrade his kits with chrome bumpers, grilles and the like perhaps--and those parts are beyond most peoples' foiling skills. Not to mention, restoration of old styrene kit parts--so there is nothing wrong with either BMF or vacuum-plating--seems to me they both have a big place at the table in our hobby! Biscuitbuilder

Jeff, There is some "black art" involved, even with the proper equipment, so a learning curve is to be expected. However, it's the cost of the equipment, and the electricity usage that can be prohibitive. Having talked at length with a vacuum plater who has a small unit in his basement, he tells me that it sucks up kilowatts like a vacuum cleaner. Biscuitbuilder

In Usenet News Groups (the original internet, BTW) there is an old newsgroup called rec.models.scale which is primarily aircraft, primarily military, even though there are armor, ship, and even model car posts there. It's not as active as it once was, but still a pretty decent forum, albeit completely unmoderated. To read Usenet, you do have to have a newsreader--many ISP's have them, or you can find them online. Biscuitbuilder

Zeb, Hate to disappoint you, but Dodge did offer the 241cid V8 as a Hemi only, starting in 1953. It was Plymouth who lacked a V8 until 1955. Dodge also offered, in very limited quantities, the D-501 in 1957, which was powered by leftover 1956 Chrysler 300B 354cid Hemi's as well. As for the original Hemi being at first a truck engine, not quite true--it was available in Chrysler and Desoto cars in 1952, and spread from there to Dodge trucks, and even into the industrial engine market--several hundred Civil Defense Air Raid sirens were built using 331 and 354 cid Hemi's, believe it or not--there's one of those sirens, restored, on display at the Concord GOC (Ground Observer Corps--a civilian volunteer group who watched the skies for possible Soviet bombers in the 50's and early 60's) tower, which is not far from me. As Concord is way out in the country, some ten miles from the city limits to the north, their siren had to be heard, and I've heard it, it's LOUD! (although the unmuffled Hemi powering it is almost as loud in full song!). Biscuitbuilder

Well, I've been a part of PSAB chat room since 2002, shortly after it was started. I suspect that most of the "names" in our hobby who have online access have been into PSAB at least once over the past 4 years or so, and even a few have stayed around. Biscuitbuilder

You ask Charlie Kroll...I was on the phone with him when I walked into the room that was in, and said to him "Ismael's going to flip when he sees these!"

Nope, but that shouldn't be a problem! Just combine the grille of the AMT '49 with a '50, a few little detail changes, and you are there (of course, if you want a '51, you will want to consult the Modelhaus website for a '51 Grille and such. Biscuitbuilder

Well, you don't have long to wait--the New Hawk Model Company announced at this year's RCHTA the reissue of both versions of the Lindberg/AMT '34 Ford pickup. Now, for the easy part! The only difference between a '32 and a '34 Ford truck cab is that for 1933, an extra, wide raised molding was added to the back of the cab, above the beltline molding, for the purpose of strengthening the sheetmetal back panel, so that it wouldn't drum and crack at the seat-mounting boltheads. For a '32 Cab, simply file away this wide molding, and you are there! Biscuitbuilder

But, Izzy------- Inquiring minds wanna know--does lacquer make a good mixer with Puerto Rican Rum? Sorry, I just hadda ask! :twisted: Biscuitbuilder

Geez! You mean I can enter, build something, and prove conclusively that "Suddenly, it's 1960"? Hmmmmm, now lemme see....that gives me an idea, and I'm not gonna tell you what it is! Biscuitbuilder

Uhm.............Dan? While of course, I am honored to be invited to this, I must say I am considerably astonished, flabbergasted, awestruck, whopperjawed, and just plain damned scared that I am even considered worthy of being invited to enter such an event! Oh well, I guess if I must, I must, huh? Now, where is that stupid little Hupmobile project hiding??????? Biscuitbuilder