DaveM

After looking at the new ones I have, I have to say the '49 Mercury Wagon looks the best of the new kits. It has a couple of small warts, but it's a pretty nice looking kit. I think I am going to start building mine this week just for kicks. Still not sure if I am going stock with it, or just giving in and building a surf wagon. I should be able to get sanding and gluing pretty soon.

I want to do this too. No other model builders up here to team up with, so I will fly solo. I have just set up an unused upstairs bathroom as a paint shop for the winter. I still have to go easy when the weather is really cold, but as long as it is above zero, I should be able to participate. No dehydrator though, so I will have to use Tamiya Laquers, and Createx with hair dryers instead. Looking through the stash for the right kit for this build. Is anything okay for this build? I was thinking about something like the Slingster, or half of a Double Dragster kit. Maybe a '25 T kit. Otherwise, I have a '72 Cutlass and a 66 El Camino that would both be fun builds.

I wonder if the lower hose was a casualty of trying to design a "stock" setup for a non-flathead in a flathead based car. A "Stock 49 Merc radiator wouldn't have a fitting for the same hoses that are required for this model.. I still like most of the stuff in this kit. It even has emblems on the hood! (Although it is pretty shallow.) It should build into a really impressive model.

Great video! Someday, before I die of old age, I would like to scratchbuild an old steam engine, or a Rumley Oil Pull as a load for an old truck (Maybe a 1926 Mack?) I do think that the angle of the tow strap was helping the steamer too... Still would have beaten it with pretty much any setup, though.

I have bad chrome on a couple of the hubcaps too. I will either build it as a custom or send them out for rechroming. The kit is pretty close to stock other than the engine. As mentioned above, there might be a slight channel. The interior engraving looks nice. I will probably just end up rechroming the wheels, grabbing the engine from an AMT '49 and building it stock. It's a fairly nice looking kit.

Here's a quick and dirty photo of the two axles taken with my webcam

I am opening mine right now. The front axle is 2.030 from the outsides of the flanges. The Revell '32 Sedan one is 1.950 to the outside edges of the larger, inner part of the flanges. With a little tweaking of the hub and wheel offset, it could probably work well for the '32. It would be a fantastic starting point for somebody to make a nice drilled beam with the spring mount from the '32... and cast in resin or pewter. I will try to get some pics of the two together this evening. Otherwise, the kit looks okay. It is a bit simplified for that nostalgia vibe, but the parts look pretty nice and crisp. This isn't just going to be a trip to the past. It will build up in to a pretty nice model by today's standards too. Heck, I might even wire mine. I am thinking of starting this evening if I get a chance. I will post if I do.

Just opened one. Not sure if I can do pics with the new laptop yet, but it looks really nice out of the box. The box art car has the visor over the windshield. This may be the cure for the funny looking "forehead" over the windshield. It looks like the kit is pretty accurate at a first glance. No stock flathead, but I have several leftover from my AMT kits. I will try to post pics of this and the Slingster later on if I can get the camera and computer on the same page. Who is going to be the first to build one of these as a custom or surf wagon?

Scale Finishes has both Vintage Burgundy and Wimbledon White in their catalog. They also have the Poppy Red for the Russ Davis Ford car , the Gold for the Bob Ford car, and the Platt Guardsman Blue. I have not tried their paints, but I intend to soon. They are pricy, but where else can I get some of the Hudson colors.

Yep, stock. No pro street parts.

Another handy deal is the alligator clips in the smaller sizes available at Radio Shack. (The type that may have been used back in the '70s for roach clips) I stick them onto the end of small cheap dowels, and cut them to about 8"-12" in length. Then I drill a bunch of holes in a piece of wood. Instant holders for painting parts. Keeps my fingers from getting painted with the part. Make a few dozen and you can just leave the parts in them to dry. I use flocking and embossing powders from the local hobby store to texture surfaces and make carpeting. I also use fine automotive sandpaper. (600 to 2000 grits usually) I wrap it around pencil points to sand inside radii, and I shave sprues into different shapes to make sanding blocks for small spaces. Dice are square, so they are great for holding parts in a vertical position with a small dab of duct tape. Rubber cement is still good for tacking parts together while fitting. Ziplock bags and a small set of storage drawers or Plano flat tackle box inserts will keep all of your like parts and projects together. There is a lot of stuff out there that can be used for model building, and much of it is really cheap or even free. Welcome back to the hobby and have fun with it.

Is this going to be from the stock 1965 Galaxie tool, or was there a racing version in the past? Will we still be able to see the 1965 Galaxie in stock form again? Either way, I am in for a couple of these. I wonder what other decals will be available for this. There were a lot of these running in '65.

I am looking forward to this reissue. While we hated most of the '70s cars at the time (and with good reason) they stubbornly have become parts of our lives and histories. The skinned knuckles and putrid performance has been long since forgotten, along with the recurring service nightmares caused by these cars. Now, we seem to fondly remember the cars as being part of the best years of our lives. My main memory of a Pacer is riding up to Higgins Lake in the back seat of one with the cutest girl in my class (Who was wearing a bikini) on a perfect summer day for a big picnic with all of our friends. (And getting baked by all of that glass, while Alice Cooper played on the 8 track) Hopefully, we will get some other '70s reissues in the future. Vegas, Monzas and Pintos would be naturals, as they were all extensively used in drag racing and street machines. In the AMC camp, the Matador would be sweet if the tooling for the factory stock version still exists. (I remember a hideous custom version that might have trashed a lot of the stock trim) It would also be a lot of fun to get some of the other Jeeps back, like the Hombre and Honcho.

Thanks to the board for saving me the bucks. I work across the street from a craft store that is a preferred dealer. Most releases, I get the first day they are out. I am often the one checking out the kit and describing it to others. I wasn't able to get to the store to pick up the Mustang right away because of my schedule. Now, I am glad I didn't buy one. Revell has had several decent kits recently, so I have been picking them up on the first day of release without worrying about getting a total dud. Now, I think I will wait until I read the boards before buying a kit, for a while at least. I would have bought two of the Mustangs right off the bat if I had not seen the problems with the roof. This board and its honest conversations about the kit saved me $50. I have built a lot of models with little flaws. Some of the flaws can be easily corrected with basic modeling tools, and others can be lived with. Unless I am building a contest model, or a really major pet project, I can live with these flaws. As long as the basic look of the model is correct, I can be happy with it as a shelf model. I am not a purist who condemns a kit because an emblem is off by a scale mm. This kit misses the basic look. I am really grateful I don't have two of these kits sitting in my stash.

Cool project. I grew up riding in the back seat of a 1968 Fury 2 door. Ours was frost green. I can't wait to see this one built up!

I just got mine on the way home from work today. It looks pretty good for a first glance. I am on the way out in just a few minutes, so I won't be able to take pictures until late tonight. (Hopefully somebody with a better photo setup can take some decent pictures of it.) It looks really nice for the most part. The F O R D letters in front of the hood are molded in, but they are pretty fine. very thin laquer paint jobs are the only way to go with these newer models I guess. The chrome is fantastic. The grill is molded open, and may be the nicest thing I have seen in a kit in a long time. The motor parts look good and crisp, and I didn't see any real obvious warts in my five minute glance at the kit. The decal sheet is pretty nice, but it has the wheel cover trim. Luckily this is already cast into the wheelcovers, so all you need is a really steady hand and a fine brush. The oither really interesting thing on the decal sheet is the upholstery pattern for the interior. I am not sure how the real car was done, but the seats in the model are smooth with no surface texture (But all of the details and piping are nicely molded in. ) There are decals for the panels and seat parts with the textures. At first, I thought that this would only work for silver/grey interiors, but I have just looked for pictures, and I see a red interior with the silver and grey panels on the seats and doors. Did all of the interior colors come with the same contrasting panels in the two tone interiors? Lots of really fine and fragile looking parts for the chassis, engine bay and interior too. Everything looks to be very well molded and detailed. There is a very fine parting line running across the curved part of the trunk lid, but it is nowhere near any details and should be easy to remove. I don't see any real cleanup problems with this kit. It should build up very nicely. At a first glance, it looks like a major winner.

Great looking 200. I've heard a lot of good reports on these. I hope you enjoy it for a long time. I'm in Michigan. There aren't many Sundances or Shadows left up here because the last ones were made about 19 years ago. (Replaced in early 1994 by hte 1995 Neon.) We had a Sundance. Totally bulletproof car, and nice to drive. Probably the best front wheel drive I have ever had. They were great cars, but there was a bit of a rust problem. There might be a few more in Southern states where road salt wasn't used. The first generation Neon was a total disaster, and probably the reason that Chrysler is now owned by Fiat. I had a first year Neon, and Chrysler had released the car to the public without doing enough testing first. Absolute junk from top to bottom. Motor was junk, Transmission was junk. ABS failed, electric problems galore, computer glitches, radios died, were recalled and died again. Windshields leaked and ruined the front of the headliner. Batteries would be killed after a few months due to drain and charging problems. It was America's version of the Yugo. (And that statement may be unfair to Yugos!) They managed to fix a lot of these problems as the Neon matured, but the damage done to their reputation by the first year cars never healed. (And admittedly, I never missed an opportunity to tell anybody how bad the car really was.) When the warranty ended at 36,000 I only spent another few grand on repairs before scrapping the car at 40,000 miles. Interestingly enough, every few days I see an old box shaped four door Omni driving down M-55 in almost perfect condition. It looks like it has always lived in a garage. I think it is an early '80s version as it has the earlier style chrome grill and lights. I had a 1981 Omni, and it was a total brick. I sold it at 115,000 miles, and should have hung on to it, as the next owner doubled that while driving a paper route with it! Hopefully these are the cars that the 200 takes after! Good luck, and enjoy the new car.

There is lettering on the nose of the car. The Corvette lettering and emblem are both present. That's the good news. The bad news is that they are both pretty shallow, and there is a mold line running right between them. It will be a bit of a challenge to pick them out after a coat or two of paint. (Good reason to use laquers) They are also on the decal sheet, so if you can't paint or foil them, you can stick the decal over them. I just got home and opened it, and I am leaving early in the morning, so I can't post pics for a couple of days. At a first glance, it looks like some pretty crisp molding. Interior and chassis look nice. Lots of little parts. Hope it all goes together like the 50 Olds seems to. They might have another winner with this one. I need to see if I still have an old Countdown series AMT '62 so I can adapt the hardtop to this one. Overall, based on a 5 minute glance after a 16 hour work day, It looks like it should build up into a great model. Tires have bare sidewalls, which are something we just have to learn to live with, unless we buy aftermarket tires for every kit we build. Instructions look great and Decals are extensive. Now where's my can of Honduras Maroon Paint???

Thanks for doing these photos, Len. I don't have the setup to do the nice photos right now. My good camera is on vacation with Cathie, while I am working a bunch of 12s this weekend! (Paying for said vacation) The springs are in two halves. They look good. Can't wait for the buildups. I am debating between a factory stock, and a NHRA stock or gas racer. A mild custom or a taildragger would be fun too. (Yes, I know a true taildragger is a '48 or earlier car, but this one could pull off the look with it's bulged quarter panels. (It would look great as a 'vert with a carson top?) I am looking forward to your builds.

The Oldsmobile lettering on the front and rear of the car and the 88 Rocket emblem on the trunk lid are decals. The globes are on the chrome tree, and look really nice. The rocket logo on the trunk looks like it would be hard to do as a photoetch piece because it is pretty three dimensional. the Oldsmobile lettering would be tough too, as it would have to be done as ten separate letters and applied individually. Really those two items should have been cast right into the body, so that people who wanted to build without them could sand them off. I remember somebody was making metallic transfers that came on a backing sheet once. You laid the transfers on the car while still attached to the backing sheet, so that they all ended up aligned and spaced correctly. That might be the best way to tackle the Oldsmobile lettering. The 88 numbers on the chrome taillight spears are raised instead of recessed, and there are decals included for them as well. I am not sure how the decals will stick to the raised chrome letters, but it looks like Revell had no real way to reproduce that detail in 1/25 scale. I think a little bit of dry brushing with a VERY steady hand will produce nice results there. THere is a parting line doen the middle of the taillight spear, which would need to be cleaned up if you were building this kit for a contest. Then you would need to get it replated, or use Alclad on it. It will still look pretty nice with the parting lines cleaned off of the lens areas, and the lenses painted in. Between the taillights, the globe emblems, the dash and interior and the hubcaps there is a lot of room for a detail painter to show off their work. Break out the 10/0 brushes and enjoy! I am still trying to decide how I want to build this one.

The hood fit is great. If you are painting the kit, you will need to take a light swipe on the sides with a sanding stick to leave room for the paint thickness. There is also a little bit of flash and parting line cleanup on the back of the hood and the insides of the front fenders, but it is minimal and easy to clean up. So far, it looks like a pretty well engineered kit. All of the mold lines seem easily removed, and nothing runs across the middle of a detailed area. I am going to grab a 51 Chevy kit or two from the stash today and hold them up next to the olds to see if it will be possible to kitbash the roofs. I know it will take abit of surgery, including some lengthening and widening of the chevy roofs, but if it is possible, that allows us to do the hardtop and fastback versions of this car too. It might also be fairly easy to make a convertable, using a couple of the Chevy parts as the interior is mostly straight lines. I can see this one being hacked into a four door too. Lucas has a Drag Racing decal sheet, and a few stock car sheets for it. I am sure that a resin caster will do the sedan version, so that we can use the Pan American decals in the kit correctly, and I was even staring at pics of the wagon. It would be a lot of work, but the results would be spectacular. There are seven basic body styles of the 88, plus it could be made as a 76 if the right engine could be found. So many ideas, so little time...

The Foose Firebirds are out. I saw one in the local craft store yesterday when I got my Olds. Anybody know if the only major changes are the wheels, tires and accessories, or has the body been changed too? I hate to buy one and find out that the body or interior are total custom. THanks, Dave

Here's the chrome tree. I will post this, and a shot of the body tonight. The rest, I can get tomorrow, although it looks pretty much like the shots earlier in this thread. (I looked for the photo postin guidlines, but I couldn't find the limit for pictures per day. I hope I am not exceeding it here. If I am, feel free to delete. and a view of the body

I am setting up a tripod, and waiting for the decent camera to return from a talent show. I hope to get some pics of the body that don't get completely wiped out by the built in flash. Until then, I am checking out the kit and toying with different ideas for it. There is no tri power, but the motor looks really nice. There are separate sway bars, the coil springs are two pieces, there is a separate x piece for the frame that is installed after the exhaust system, capturing it so that it passes through the hole in the frame like the prototype. Three separate pedals, and nice looking parts all around. It is hard to tell with bare plastic, but I think the roof will need the very slightest amount of sanding to smooth out the headliner pattern. The whole frame is separate from the floorpan, and there are a lot of small fiddly bits in the suspension and steering to keep the detail fanatics happy. Wipers are separate, and there is a lot of underhood and firewall detail. Overall, this a really nice looking kit, and although we will never know how it goes together until we have actually assembled one, it looks like it should all line up pretty well. If the parts fit is as impressive as the detail, we're good.

Yes, stock is the main option.