Modelmartin

They push really well!

Why don't you two hook up and do a 1/8th scale Sox & Martin Superbird!!!???? Great idea, Huh?

and here is a customized version of the same car! C'mon Harry! It took me ten seconds to get this one!

My memory board in my brain may be fried but I thought the very firt release of this kit had a painting on the cover. I thought it depicted the car in a street machine mode. I could be wrong. I think the box you have is either the second or third version. That model was released during Revells "Bad" period. It is a tough kit to build well. To make a stocker just stuff the guts from an AMT/ERTL 51 Chev under it. Those are plentiful. Also the real car is known as a "Sedan Delivery" despite Revell calling it a panel.

Let's see! Tweed jacket with elbow patches, cordurouys, wire rim glasses, bushy mustache, and smokes a pipe, often mistaken for a college professor.

Love the tree growing through the frame!

Those are really nice SMALL CARS. The rest of us build models of cars.

Sounds good. I would use epoxy putty to fill holes but if you use a catalyzed putty you should be good. You don't need a machinist to modify the body. You can file off what you don't need. For the holes I would use a punch to mark where you want the hole to be and then use a small drill or a moto-tool to drill your holes. I am a machinist and that is how I would do it. It isn't hard to do. I know you can deal with it if you can do all of the other things you have planned for this model. Good luck. I am a Bugatti guy, too. If you need any reference material I have over 35 books on Bugatti and would be happy to scan anything you need. Are you doing a specific car? Bugatti only built 7 of the things if I remember right and they did change from race to race and especially year to year as they aged. Nuvolari even raced a red one!

There are a few other late 50 Studes that do not look at all like Studebakers. The Packard version was a good choice. Some of the badge engineered British cars from the 50s are fun ID quiz subjects.

Steve, Those are the ones. Seems Old Georgey B. dug those Woodlites!

Ah! The old art and craft conundrum. There are a lot of people doing these shape "impressions" of different cars for a while now. I think they are kitsch for rich people. They are ok but they don't do much for me. I have seen art that I found to be so crappy that that it is offensive to call it art and I have seen model cars that are so profoundly artful that they to my mind they are "art". It isn't really the form of the object - it is how the creator goes about conceiving and making that object that determines its artfulness. That, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.

If you have ever actually seen the Tamiya Mclaren kit, you wouldn't be anticipating it. It is very toylike and was meant for motorizing. It has little detail. I wouldn't bother with it.

You really have to reach if you want to find post WW2 American cars that few enthusiasts can identify. You almost need to use prototypes or show cars. You even had a number of people who knew the Powell you used several months ago. Foreign cars and pre WW2 oddball makes offer the most fun and frustration for car ID enthusiasts.

It's the MPC Bed Buggy kit that has them. I would gladly make a mold of them and cast up copies for anyone who needs them. The person who loans the originals to me gets a bunch of free resin goodies!!!!

Thanks, Gary. Great pics.

You can just make out the Dodge lettering on it. It was a Dodge Red Ram Hemi. I believe it was the only one ever kitted. It's a very cool engine.

Since I always color outside the lines and never liked any of the brands of buffing metalizers, I decide to use the non-buffing and then buff it! It works really well for a bright aluminum - almost polished look. For well polished I use Alclad Chrome with a lighter color basecoat. I agree with several others that you can't clear over any of the metallizers with anything! It ruins the polished look and ends up looking like silver paint. The primer underneath the metalaizer is a problem. You need a high gloss/well-polished finish underneath any metalizer.

If someone calls themselves a "Master Modeller", they are probably not!!!! It's not like we have a formal ranking system like they have in chess. Then you have the amateur/professional question which has little to do with skill and results. Wingrove was quite good but there were better, although not too many. Tom Kirn who won GSL with his Deusenberg Murphy coupe was better but he only built a few models for himself. Wingrove built 5-10 models a year depending on complexity. The late Manuel Olive Sans from Spain was one of the absolute best. His 1/10 scale Maserati Birdcage was so incredible that one car collecter who saw it stated that collecting Sans models was better than collecting the real cars. His models could run up to $50,000. each. Then there is the lunatic from France who built the 312 PB which was actually a small car rather than a large model! Jim Drew and Randy Derr are also amongst the most awesome builders out there. Some of their models have a basis in a plastic kit. The results are at odds with the humble origins but compare favorably to the best in the world. Making masters for resin casting is no big deal. Lots of people do that. To scratchbuild one is a step in the right direction but would anyone call Tom Mills of TKM a "master Modeller"?? He is more like a Folk Artist. The results do not display very good craftsmanship but have a charm and artistry that can be appreciated in a certain way. It is an amusing question but there is no answer to it. I think most of the people mentioned above would be happy to be called simply a "model builder".

Protar produced several Racing bikes in 1/9th scale like a Raleigh, Colnaga, Legnano and a Bianchi. Never saw one built, likely because the spokes were molded in the same rubbery material that the saddle and tires were molded in! MPC did a Schwinn Sting Ray and a 10 Speed Continental, both in 1/8th. MPC also had a Sting Ray in the 29 Model A woody kit. I think it is in the newer AMT releases of the same kit.

I second the Wah! Wah! Wah! comment. Are we not model builders? Are we cows and need to have everything done for us? Are we going to end up being a bunch of mere Tamiya assemblers and die-cast collecters? I know you're just venting, Harry. I had to tease a little bit. Have you built any Protar 1/12 cars or 1/9 bikes? That would learn ya!

Weiner Dog Winternationals. Peed my pants. I think it was Miller Light - Can your beer do this?

I say model. Look at the tread on the front tire. They got the ejecter pin lined up wrong!

Very cool! Thank you.

I want accurate, well sized, well detailed tires. I do not care what material they are made of as long as they end up black. White for really old cars is good, too. I do not have a need to be able to squeeze model car tires!

This thread is cracking me up already! Ed Roth was an original, a one-off. He was the Beatnik car builder and a man of the times. He was just applying his imagination to 1/1 cars. It was not about practicality or performance or "Design". It was a personal statement of his. Some would call it art. The car his sons have built doesn't have the flair or originality that Pop's work did. They are trying to recapture something but that doesn't work, usually. It's just nostalgia. The Aztec is pretty ugly, I agree. It was a popular car at the time but it is really poor design. If you look at it in the context of car culture at the time, it is pretty successful. It is a cool car but I don't consider it well designed. Something like the Hirohata 51 Merc or the Matranga 40 Merc are beautiful well-designed customs. Custom cars through the years are fascinating. The big wheeled Donks are just the next generation of the same desire that people have to personalise their cars. I chuckle whenever I hear someone disparage a certain era of customizing. Whether they are the clean customs of the early 50s, the scooped and scalloped late 50s-early 60s, the wild showrods of the 70s, customized vans, or low riders, donks and wildly painted tuners, they are all expressing the same desire to personalise a car according to the owner's tastes. They are different chapters of the same book and all deserve the same respect.