Modelmartin

Very cool.

Cool stuff, Tim. Some cool almost original ideas and a lot of copycats. Nothing has changed! Stuff gets recycled and reinterpreted. I had no idea that the Manta Ray still existed. The Pre-war Maserati GP Chassis it sits on is probably worth more than the car as it is now!

I think some of those front "spoilers" are removable. I would guess they put them in place once they park at a show. I read that some of the american custom guys did that with their lake pipes on the more extreme cars. I think these guys have definitely out-weirded the Donk guys and the Hopper guys at the same time - no mean feat!!!

Slot cars are evil. Run away!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away I did sell a handful of 1/43rd coupe bodies. The pattern and molds are gone. I hardly sold any, maybe a couple of dozen. The conversion was very easy. AMT's 1/43rd custom Corvette (it can't be built stock) was identical to the Monogram dimensionally and I think even the door lines lined up. It was spooky that it was so easy. If you do make the conversion cut the entire window section out. Don't cut at the posts.

So if a machinist cut the tooling of a certain kit, could he enter that kit in the scratchbuilt category? Inquiring minds need to know!

Super Bowl? Guess I missed it. I was working on models.

I produced a total of nearly 800 Birdcages over the years and about 450+ were kits. They are out there. Most resin kits don't get built (I am as bad as anyone). The masters were sold to Mini-Exotics a number of years ago and he has folded up. I have no plans to do any more. ABC (Carlo Brianza) also produced a 1/24. I never was able to look at one up close. I have heard of some of the variants of it being produced like the Tipo 63? which was the mid-engine version. Ed at Island is a good source for all kinds of cool kits but I can almost guaranty he doesn't have any Aardvark Bircages!!

It's a McBlob Blandmobile! ES version. Extra snoozey!

A friend of mine used to have an AMT gift set that contained a Garlts dragster, Willard Battery Special and Lotus indy cars, all in their original boxes, plus 3 or 4 cans of AMT spray paint in a box I estimate was maybe 24 inches by 16 inches. It was pretty spectacular and his was the only one I have ever seen anywhere! He sold it about 20 years ago. The individual kits are anything but rare but the gift set was very unique. For a while many moons ago , Mike's Miniature Motors offered a resin copy of the 1911 Chevrolet. That and the ITC Mercury are rare but I have seen them over the years. Also rare is the Monogram 1/20 1956? Cadillac Convertible kit.

Here is a Hot rodded cousin!

Love how you used the Honda motor. It is a very cool and imaginative model.

Whatever you guys decide it is, it looks pretty awful!!!

It only takes the price of 10-12 cans of paint to buy a half decent airbrush!!!

Don't use sandpaper. I would use steel wool or similar initialy and then switch to a polishing compund and cotton cloth. They are other ways to polish it also but those are simple and easy and cheap.

Semi-pro built. Here we go again!!! Did he mean someone who is semi-professional and what does that mean? Or did he mean semi-built which the kit is. I have some pro-unassembled kits that I might be willing to sell. I also have pro-disassembled kits too! Those were glue bombs I bought and took apart. The best ones are my pro disassembled /rebuilt models!

I was surfing Ebay and ran across this vehicle. It looks like a gremlin turned into a 3 wheeler. It is kind of cool in a wild 70s sort of way. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1976-Trivette-3-Wheel-Trike-Motorcycle-LOW-MILES-/270896313962?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3f12adb66a

Finally, after 6 pages of comments someone actually read through the ad. No where does it say PRO. It merely says built. It only takes a cursory glance at the guy's store to see he is a model kit dealer. Talk about mountains and molehills!!! Most "Pro" builders build models and produce limited run kits for sale to collectors. Those who do box-art or movie models are few and far between. Digital effects have been taking over the movie model biz for years. Those guys are going the way of whaling.

Go to the order page. The link to my e-mail works there. By the way, I am about to drop a lot of my line. Most of the funny cars will be going away and the Firebird III is now out of production. The Model T stuff is still in production. I will be focusing on replica stuff in the future and won't be doing any more funny cars or street rod/custom stuff. It didn't sell that well. I do thank everyone who bought from me and I will still provide spare parts if I still have them or the molds for them.

One question. Can I get a job there? I will learn German if I have to.

I like the idea of a Craptastic Kit CBP. I have a Pyro VW Beetle beach buggy half done and need an excuse to finish it.

I love those old VW panel kits and not because they build well! I think you are remembering the California Roller version. That was neon green. They had a Rubber Ducky CB radio version in yellow. The first version of the panel was the Surfing version of which I don't recall the name. Too bad they trashed the Window bus to make the panel. The original version of that kit was a 57 or so 23 window Deluxe Microbus and you had to make all 23 windows from clear flat stock!!!! They modified it to a mid sixties style 21 window later. The new Fujimi and New tool Revell make up for it, though.

How about Corvair?

There are diecast kits available and there have been pre-painted, assembled plastic models as well as pre-painted kits! It absolutely doesn't matter what the material is you start with. A model is a model. For those who have a fetish for categorizing whether or not you start with a kit, diecast, styrene, etc. what do you do with scratchbuilt models? Semi-scratchbuilt? Does it matter if you used brass, aluminum, or styrene. How about enamel or lacquer paint? Hand painted markings, dry transfers or waterslide decals? Superglue, epoxy, white glue or Testors glue? I sure hope not. It doesn't matter if the starting point is zinc alloy, resin, wood, white metal, or styrene plastic. A model is a model! I personally don't think there should be a diecast category at a model contest. It should fit in any of the normal categories, right? NNL shows are a differnt matter. A modified diecast category there is fine.

It was so easy I wasn't going to dignify it with a response! So there. It has a real cool 2.5 litre hemi head V-8 in it that actually looks like a shrunken Chrysler hemi. They fitted the same engine into Daimler badged Jaguar sedans, too.