Modelmartin

Epiphany? e⋅piph⋅a⋅ny  /ɪˈpɪfəni/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [i-pif-uh-nee] Show IPA –noun, plural -nies. 1. (initial capital letter) a Christian festival, observed on January 6, commemorating the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles in the persons of the Magi; Twelfth-day. 2. an appearance or manifestation, esp. of a deity. 3. a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience. 4. a literary work or section of a work presenting, usually symbolically, such a moment of revelation and insight. I would guess #3!!

Stig Blomquist -famous rally driver of the 60s????

That's like saying that Formula One racing is a bad idea because it is only the top teams and drivers. This contest was meant to cater to the very best builders. I don't see the problem with that. There are lots and lots of contests at every level below that and then we have NNLs for those who don't want to compete. There were a number of people on the invite list who were not capable of being competitive but were invited because the organisers were trying to be inclusive in their own way. In hindsight the invitional aspect was a bad idea P.R.-wise. The $100 entry fee and the entrant limited to one model would weed out all but the most serious.

I have no issues with you, Dave. Also, I am on no one's bandwagon but my own around here. The two of you are having a heckuva peeing contest here. Too bad. There was no need for it.

It's kind of hard to start it back up since it was never held! They did have a full set of rules all written up. I don't know exactly why they cancelled it so early in the game. It's a shame. I would have been there with bells on!

I see Mr Thibodeau deleted his post but J. Sauber was only the third to lightheartedly call Zoom-Zoom a hack, the first being Bob himself!!!!! Talk about getting all excited about nothing!!!!! Jim was merely starting a discussion that was interesting and a bunch a people got their undies super bunched up. OY!

This one illustrates perfectly what this thread was about. It's a great paint job but what now? Unless you are building a "Slammer" or "curbside" type model, this type of technique makes no sense to me. ( I don't see any chassis or interior so I am making an assumption and I am NOT criticizing Juergen.) I guess ultimately it depends on how serious a build it is. Casual builders who build out of the box or nearly out of the box can get away with that technique but more complex and higher level builds simply can not be done that way.

It was called "The Master's Challenge" The rules were pretty basic - automotive subject, 1/24-25 scale, one entry per person, $100. entry fee. I sent my money off right away but it got returned about 6 months later. It is a shame so many people were so negative about it. All it took to get an invite was to have someone who was already invited invite you! It couldn't have been easier! I never thought I would have had a chance to win but I just wanted to participate and be there. It was obviously for the highly skilled model builder. They are plenty of contests and NNLs for the less skilled and less ambitious model builder to go to. I was really disappointed in some of the people who were going around bad-mouthing it. Most of them weren't competitive builders anyway. I don't know the actual reason for the cancellation but I was bummed out, Man!!!

Buy the thing, re-pop the lights in resin, re-install them and send the thing down the road to an unsuspecting collector!!

I love the way you cut stuff up! You are a fearless model car builder. You have no inhibitions when it comes to getting what you want out of some styrene.

There were '37 V-12 kits in 1/16 and 1/43 but no '38 models that I know of. They are obsolete now and can be found once in a while on Ebay.

I did that kitbash and had no issues with the Jo-han part of the project. It is no contest model but it is one of my faves. I considered using the Monogram but that was 1/24 and I am not usually a scale bigot but it wouldn't look right sitting next to the S&M GTX and Road Runnermade from AMT/ERTL kits. This is a weird case of me thinking that the Jo-han and AMT kitbash combo is superior to the Monogram kit!

No problemo!! I used to like it, too despite the awful guts of it until I laid a ruler on it. It looks like it was shortened in the quarters and the tail so lengthening it out would be a major undertaking. I will pass on that project!!

For Nostalgia I am an AMT Trophy series kit kind of guy. I love them! Great kits, great boxes, great subjects. I like to collect the original issue boxes for them. I have about a 500 or so big pile of kits and it would be tough to say what my favorite is. How can you pick out your favorite child out of so many?

Bob F, Have you tried applying some Superfilm over the decals? I have done that and it works wonders. It turns skanky decals into good ones. You just brush it on and it flows out perfectly and dries quickly. It is compatible with setting solutions, too. I have saved quite a few old sheets using the stuff. I highly recommend it.

Bob, You have not lived yet! Seriously though, they are extremely variable. The Bugatti T50 goes together pretty well but has crappy wheels. The 540K is a conceptual nightmare. The Porsche 917 and 330 P4 are really dodgey. I built the Renault Gordini rally car and it was quite easily built but mechanically it was inaccurate. It looked nice when it was done. The kit designer for those older Hellers just made stuff up where he didn't have the info he needed. The Renault rear suspension is just halfshafts and springs! No suspension arms or links at all! The 917 and P4 engines are the correct configuration(flat 12, V12) but that is all that is correct on them. The mid 70s and newer kits are much more accurate but some can't be built like the 540 and some are not too much trouble like the BMW Dixi or the many Citroens. I even built the 1/16th DS at one point and it wasn't easy but it went together OK. The problem with that one was that 10 years later the door skins warped off the frames and the fenders popped off because they were so thin and the paint finally dried and straightened out the curves! It was lacquer, too! Despite all of the "issues", I still like my Heller kits! By the way, I am building the 540K just to prove a point. I don't know what that point is. I am thinking of offering a resin conversion kit for it so that it can just be built!

Thanks a lot, Man!! Like us drag racing guys aren't into accuracy. We can count rivets as well as anyone! I know you are joking. I don't think that Revell Mustang F/C body is that bad. It is a later version when they started distorting the shapes more. I have seen several built and they look fine. The Jo-Han M/T Mustang was a '71 and they were not cutting up the shapes nearly as much then. I know that only 3 years separate them but things were evolving quickly then. In this whole thread (aside from differing opinions on the Turbine car)I don't think Jo-han has been mentioned once! That is striking.

The Henry J is severely short! The wheelbase is a scale 8 inches too short!! The Austin body is better but the Willys is dreadful. The frames are crummy. As you mentioned the engines are junk. The rear axle is not too bad - a beefy looking quickchange which ironically is not accurate for a gasser of that era. Seeing the great disparities of quality that Revell displayed over time is interesting. Shortly after their junk period they came out with all of their mid- '70s funny cars and dragsters in 1/25 and 1/16 which despite some issues are pretty good kits. I just remembered those two early '70s ultra-cr@ppy funnycars they had. A Pinto and a Camaro I believe. One was sold as a Mickey Thompson Revell laser and the Camaro as a Jungle Jim car. They were excrement. A rich vein of crummy kits are the Showrods which were not copies of real cars. As much as I liked the Revell Moon Mixer, Meter Cheater, etc conceptually, they were horribly engineered. How about the Hardhat Hauler, Gridiron Grabber from MPC. I wretch when I see the AMT Royal rail, Depth Charger, etc. Tom Daniel stuff is OK because it is based somewhat on actual automotive practices!! I see a number of people hating on the old Revell multi-piece bodies. They are not that bad. I have seen a number of them built well. I would never put them in the same category as ...say.... the Pyro Lincoln which dates from the '50s. The Beetle kit Revell produced was pretty lousy too but then they made a Very Nice Empi Imp as long as you used the Corvair Motor because the VW motor was terrible.

Thanks for the comments, guys. I have another copy of this kit and the idea of a well-detailed VW powered street version highly amuses me. Using a Tamiya VW pan and drivetrain and suspension and then opening the doors, adding poseable steering, etc. would make for a really cool model. I doubt I will do it because I have too many other projects going on.

I did a little more reading in my Bugatti book collection(35 and counting) and there is some dispute about whether 4 or 5 were built. Four showed up at Tours for the race. Hugh Conway who was considered one of the leading Bugatti authorities claims 5 based on serial numbers he found in the Bugatti archives. I am sceptical because cars were often renumbered when they went back to the factory for a rebuild from accident damage or Bugatti wanted to sell a used car as new so they gave it a new number. The Juneks only kept their Tank for a year and returned it to the factory because it was ill-handling. Their car sure looks a lot like the surviving car at the Museum in Mulhouse. Here's a pic for your amusement.

The US Postal Service no longer ships anything overseas by surface mail. Everything is airmail or it doesn't go!

So what do y'all think of Jimmy Johnson winning #4 Championship in a row? I was rooting for Mark Martin. I can't believe that he has been Second in the championship seven times now! Holy cr@p.

Some of you guys are LIGHT! Try a Heller Mercedes 540 K or Porsche 917! Those kits separate the model builders from the assemblers! Those old Palmer and Premier kits were bad but they did go together. I guess we need to name the kits that are worst in appearance and accuracy and then those that were impossible to build. There is a big difference between the two. That awful Monogram 69 Camaro went together easily enough, it just looked terrible. The Heller 917 looks good when done but was nearly unbuildable. The only way I could do it was to glue the body into one piece and make it curbside. The assembled engine was nearly as tall as the entire car so I had to leave out a lot to get it under the body work. Besides the engine was supremely inaccurate. Personally, I don't think there was anything put out from the Little 4 (AMT, MPC, Monogram, Revell) that was bad enough to be top of the list. The exception is some of the toy tooling that got styrene shot into it and packaged as a kit. Some of the IMC kits were murderous to build. The Pyro Lincoln, Cord, Auburn, and Beetle were pretty tough but they do go together after a fashion. Some of the 60s Revell stuff was real tough like the Challenger I and Orange Crate but I don't think bad enough to be considered the worst. The 70s Gassers like the Henry J, Austin and Willys PU are real bad and in my opinion the worst Revell kits ever. It's an interesting debate and opinions here are like bellybuttons.

Pre-verbal? You mean UGHH! Grunt! etc. ? I am verbal so I can't participate in your discussion. Sorry.

That is looking really good, Curt. What is really interesting about the body shape on the Tanks is that they are an airfoil section. If that car got up to any serious speed it would lift off! Gentle correction: It was Tours that the race was held and there were four cars built. That race had the most interesting field of cars besides the Tank. Also entered was the Voisin Laboratoire (google image that one)and a Miller! After the race one of the tanks was sold to the Juneks in the Czech republic. They cut down the cockpit opening a little and added a horn that poked out through the lower part of the radiater opening and painted it yellow! They drove it on the street!