Modelmartin

www.rpmmodelclub.com It stands for Racing Plastic models and our focus is on racing and high performance, sports cars but we take all comers. We try to be more of a builder's club. We have an annual contest, swap month, seminars at meetings, etc, It is a good club. We meet 3rd Saturday of each month at the Edina Library. Come to a meeting!

You have got to lay off of the Faux Noise, Harry! It will make your brain bleed. My entry in this category would be the Henry J. Kaiser spent their whole budget on it when they should have been putting a V8 in the full size line. A footnote. Studebaker helped preside over Pierce-Arrow's death also. They merged in the early 30s but separated a few years later. They were doomed ebven before the merger, though.

I have sold off a lot of kits in the last few years. I am down to about 400+. I do know one guy who has about 2500. He just likes to have them around! If some is good and more is better, than too much is just enough!!!

I remember the Dukes Of Hazzard Charger selling over a million kits when it was originally out. I remember seeing huge stacks of them at the big chain toy stores and I even remember an article about it somewhere back then. Of course, I was a "serious" builder and wouldn't touch the kit.

When new, the Mercedes K series cars had painted wheels. The hubcaps and those short little studs poking out of the rims(I believe they are wheel balancers) were chrome or polished stainless. Too many classic cars are restored with chrome wires when in reality most were built with painted wheels. Even cars with wooden wheels were painted. I see lots of restored cars with clear varnish on the wooden wheels. Wrongo.

1924 Alfa P2. Oops. Wrong week.

My goal is to finish a model! Any fool can start a model but the completion of said model is what separates the men from the boys! I don't think in terms of perfection. I pay attention to detail and am always trying to build a better model to please myself. I still build multi-year contest builds that are 90% scratchbuilt and also some nearly out of box builds to keep the fundamental skills sharp. I enjoy both. I know a few actual perfectionist types and the problem they have is they rarely finish a model. They get hung up because if they feel they can't do the next step perfectly they box it up and start another model!!

Tamiya's recently reissued Mclaren is a clinker as a model. It looks to be a kit for a toy. Aside from a very few early kits like that, Tamiya is the best and like Art A. said - even the electric motor kits have excellent curbside detail. I love them!

I have shipped a lot of items to Canada via Airmail and it costs about the same as shipping Priority to the US. Even $11. shipping that this guy was charging to the US is exorbitant.

Your SMER kit actaully is a re-release of a 1950s Merit kit from England. That is why it doesn't seem as good. It was great in it's day. The Revell 510 is from early 70s and was a good kit in its day, also.

Henry's Father moved to Ireland when he couldn't make a go of it in England. They are English. The only people on Earth who are truly indigenous are some East Africans. Everyone else migrated at some point. We are the original invasive species!!

Henry Ford and the Dodge Brothers were English descent, David Dunbar Buick was Scottish, The Duesenbergs, Walter Chrysler were German. Chevrolet brothers were French. They are all foreign cars!!

Model building sure does affect my purchase of a car. After spending so much on models I have to buy a cheap car!

Now.... Wisconsin is a foreign country!

OK guys! If nobody bought cars new, there would not be any used cars for poor slobs like us!

Nothing wrong with decalling over a polished surface. Make sure you clean it well with soap and water. Do NOT wax it. Decals and clear go over a polished surface just fine. I actually only go to about 3600 or 4000 grit on the polishing kit before I decal and clear.

We are all living on one planet here! Kumbaya! Does it matter if your space cruiser was built on Earth , the moon, or Mars!

That is from the 50s. My dad had that and I think they had an old BMW too. They were about1/16 or 1/20, I think.

They have flash on diecasts! They just paint over it!

Mold wear doesn't really affect flash that much. Warpage does, though. Really old tooling like the older Jo-Han stuff was made differently than today's molds because of the advent of CAD/CAM techniques. The old molds are made up of many pieces fitted, pinned and shimmed together. Over time corrosion sets in and starts pushing the pieces apart and warping the unit. The flash seeps out between the two main mold halves. Newer tooling is made from a solid block and is water cooled most often and really wouldn't warp. How often do you see flash on new tooling versus old tooling?

Bugattis, Minis, and VW buses! Duesenbergs, Olds Limited, and American Underslung, too!

The Lindberg kit does have some issues. The skirting of the fenders is inadequate. It really needs to be extended to look right. Also the kit exhaust system is really odd. It needs to be redone. The rest of the kit is pretty good but it does represent the car after Chayne rescued it. To make the original version you would need to use the wheels from the Italeri kit and the engine. The Lindberg kit has the mods that Chayne made on it including the 4Stromberg carbs!

Fiat! I was thinking French but didn't have time to search online.

I hardly buy any kits any more! Like most people, I want value for my buck so I shop around on some items and rarely will I pay retail for a kit. I always pick up paint, supplies, tools, decals, whatever at the LHS. I always buy my Model Cars mag at the LHS but that other mag not so much!

All of the Monogram/Revell classics build really easily and look good. The Jo-han kits are trickier but look great when done. The Italeri kits are very nicely done but not for beginners. They have multi-piece bodies. The MPC Imperials and Lincolns are fairly good but need some tweaking and lots of dechroming! The Hellers are a quirky bunch. They range from pretty buildable (Bugatti, Hispano) to utterly unbuildable (540K). Start with the Monograms and work your way up the food chain!