Bob Turner

Yes. Stevie Wonder could see those are two entirely different kits & he's blind. If he couldn't see that for some unknown reason, Ray Charles could see it & tell Stevie, & Ray is both blind & dead.

Considering both kits are still in Revell's catalog, & each kit has multiple version choices, (with part & decals variations in the kit), I'd say they are selling well. If they weren't, Revell wouldn't keep them in the catalog. It was established in this thread that they spent over 10 years in limbo, not in development. Forget doing the math, try to do some basic reading & comprehension before spouting off illogical & inaccurate comments. Also you might consider keeping in mind that during that 10 year time period, Revell was sold twice, first to Jody Keener, (who later bought Lindberg), in a highly leveraged sale that left little/no money for development or new tooling, (remember all the reissues during that time period?), followed by a sell to Revell's employees as Jody ran out of money, with the same result. It wasn't until Hobbico bought out R/M that there was money for kit development again, & we started seeing some newly tooled kits, some that had been in development limbo for a good while. Some of us can indeed do the math, & read & understand things, & have some actual knowledge of the hobby outside of our own focus.

What irked me today? People that prowl around my neighborhood at midnight. The heartbreak of psoriasis. Trekkers. People that get called out for the things that they do which annoy others & then get upset about being called out for their actions & lamely attempt to call out the people that confronted them with their own shortcomings. The waxy build up on my living room floor. The latter is especially perplexing since that floor is carpeted.

True on the AMT 57 Ford kit parts being incorrect, but look no further than the often reissued, & currently available AMT Avanti kit for the parts needed to complete the Paxton blower for your Ford, likely along with the blower belt part from the AMT Ford. Best of all, you can still built the Avanti with the ultra rare R-5 dual blower Bonneville option if you chose that route. Carl's advice is also good, both as to the solution itself & as to finding a solution overall. You've now been presented with several different options to solve this, & here's another; perhaps someone may want to trade the Paxton parts for the 4 BBL parts if they're seeking to build the Roberts car post ban. You might even find someone that doesn't need/want the Avanti blower parts & has them available. Sitting around complaining that the manufacturers didn't do something this way or that way, (whichever way you wanted them to, & this doesn't excuse inaccurate kits, which is a whole different matter), is merely wasted time & effort that can be better used solving the problem.

Actually yes there is a reason, though it may not be one that you, I, or others like. Revell knows that by offering certain specific parts in certain specific versions, that they can actually increase overall sales by creating a market for buying the multiple versions. This way if you want to built three different factory stock versions, (well, almost three, more on this in a moment), you're required to purchase three separate. kits, (technically more, but I'm keeping this fairly basiI). You see, Revell, (& Round2, & all the model companies), are only interested in how many units they can move to the various distributors, retail outlets, etc. They don't care if you purchase the kit at full retail price, with a Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon, at a contest/swap meet, or however else you purchase it, once they have sold it to the "middleman". They also know that the more variations they can put out, the greater the shelf space they can command & the more kits they can move to the various outlets. A side benefit of this process is that they create a market for people to buy multiple versions in order for them to build the model the way they want to. Since NASCAR outlawed the superchargers & FI units partway through the 1957 season, a builder can use the Paxton blower from the NASCAR version on the street car, & swap the single 4 BBL from it to the NASCAR version & still build accurate versions of both cars. My only minor quibble with them over this kit is the fact that the street version is lacking the proper single air cleaner for a correct factory dual 4 BBL "E Code" variant, meaning I had to rob one of my old AMT 56 Ford kits for the proper air cleaner, but I didn't waste my time complaining about that; I simply took the correct part from another kit to build an accurate version. However, including that one piece in the kit would have required less tooling money than all the Paxton parts did. Expecting them to include the Paxton blower in a kit of a car that wouldn't have had it installed anyway, (as in the police version), is a bit ludicrous as it is. BTW, that's also why this is a limited edition. To Revell, it wasn't worth the extra cost to tool up the needed parts to do a police car version on their own, but with Dave Burket paying for the limited run, it was more cost effective to do it that way. The number of police car versions of the kit Revell would have had to move to show a profit likely means it wasn't worth it to them to do that. The Model King can pay them upfront for the limited run, as well as footing the bill for the extra tooled parts, as he has done in the past with other limited runs from the manufacturers, & till turn a profit, & Revell has the additional tooling paid for & in their possession if later on they decide to do a police version themselves.

Interesting. I'll be watching this as I want to learn more about doing body mods.

There's an "amazing" device called an optivisor that you wear on your head, which has magnifying lenses. Get one. I paid $30 or less for mine at Hobby Lobby, It has the set in lenses in front, flip down lenses behind those that click in place to increase magnification if needed, plus a third single lense on the outside that can be moved in & out of position as needed. I would say "isn't modern technology wonderful", but these have been around for many, many years. I'm surprised you weren't aware of them already.

This forum grow anything!?! From the reactions made by the "grumpy old men" in the 3D printing thread, (something i do find interesting & know is going to be here soon, no matter what neanderthals like to think), & from the reactions in this thread by people who don't want their little corner of the forum changed, the likelihood of this forum growing anything is about the same as Ted Nugent becoming a member of PETA.......... With the insistence of the majority here on cheap models, cutting corners & a refusal to accept that things do change & are doing so, the only thing this place grows is moss. I think Harry's idea is a good solution, even with the minor differences he & I have had, but you can see how the denizens of the tar pit view & are threatened by it. If implemented, the amount of griping & whining that would ensue would produce enough energy to power a small city.

Just because somewone gives me a kit of a subject I have no like for or interest in doesn't mean that I'm suddenly going to develop a desire to build that kit. That's like say that "ice cream is ice cream, no matter the flavor, so eat it".

This is the correct answer, all of the rest are just speculation or incorrect information. I thought this was common automotive knowledge. Now, that being said, if someone used a Ford 9" in say a rod project, they might well paint the part any color they chose. The info applies to car as they left the factory or after being correctly restored.

Perhaps one thing we need to address in this fount of misinformation regarding the "low quality" of MPC kits, (from what people have been told), is that besides that 67 GTO kit coming from tooling cut for the 66/67 annual kits, the fact is that MPC, AMT & Jo-Han's annual kits all tended to be simplistic, based as they were on promo tooling in many cases. In addition, most annual kits, while featuring multiple building options, had to be compromised for that very reason, in order for the parts to fit the standard box, as well as keeping the general cost down. For a look at first rate, high quality MPC kits, unencumbered by said compromises, simply check out these links. 1968 Lotus Indy Turbine: http://public.fotki....otus-stp-indy-/ Dan Gurney/Denny Hulme 1968 Olsonite Eagle Indy car: http://public.fotki....an-gurneys-ols/ "Winged Express" Fuel Altered: http://public.fotki....ild-willie-bor/ Young American AA/Fuel Dragster: http://public.fotki....oung-american-/ And finally, the soon to be reissued 1/16 scale Richard Petty STP Dodge Charger: http://public.fotki....etty-nascar-ch/ That last one is 300+ parts, precisely engineered, & the instruction booklet is as close to a set of blueprints for building a 1/1 Nascar racer of that era as you're likely to find. Look through those & tell me that all MPC kits were poorly detailed &/or of low quality. A few people in this thread knew what they were talking about, the rest just parrotted half remembered & inaccurate information.

This site may be of some help. It seems to have a lot of contemporary articles on the firswt Indy 500, so there may be some technical information in them that could be of use. http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/

Reading the title & all, if you want to build the first Indy winner, you've got a bigger task in front of you than anyone has realized. You do know that in order to accomplish building the first Indy winner, you're going to have to build a time machine first, then go back in time to 1910/1911, design & build a car according to the rules of that first 500, hire a driver & a crew, get the car qualified & then hope the car holds together for 500 miles & beats the other cars & drivers in the race, don't you? Ahh, you want to build a model of the first Indy winner, I read that wrong. Never mind. Still, if you really want to get technical about it, the first event ever held at the speedway was a helium filled balloon competition on Saturday, June 5, 1909, more than two months before the oval was completed, so building a replica helium filled ballon might be more appropriate. The first motorized competiton was motorcycle racing on 8/14/09 & the first auto race was on 8/19/09, so the first Indy winner is a bit hazy & open to debate if one chooses. For the humor impaired among us, the above comments were meant in jest, or as Foghorn Leghorn says, "It's a joke son!! A joke!!" I know Harry means a model of the first winner of the Indy 500. I think it sounds very interesting Harry & will present quite a challenge, I do agree with one poster that in the scale you're looking at, the two Lindberg kits mentioned, while not accurate representations for any Indy car known of, can provide some basic fodder to start with, if for nothing else to give you some perspective as to wheelbase, dimensions etc. Also IIRC one of those kits had replicas of the wooden artillery style wheels & the tires in it. At the very least those kits should provide a basic starting point. Good luck with this project.

Good question & though I'm not Harry, I will try to answer it. While the flashier paint job on the OOB custom might get the most attention at first, (which is to be expected), if the judges know their stuff, they should be able to go further in looking at the builds to see which one is truly better. Of course, we've all had run ins with judges that were, shall we say, less than qualified for the particular category they were judging?

Harry, the day that you get a bunch of model builders, (even in the same club, let alone any sort of larger group), to agree on a logical, standardized set of rules & regulations for contests, please let me know. On that day I'll nominate you to negotiate a lasting peace in the Middle East. After dealing with all the car modelers, that next task will be an absolute breeze! In other words, I agree with you.

Harry, I see your point & it is indeed valid, but I also see where a box stock build of a model that only replicates a custom car once finished can be considered for the custom class, In this case it's as much subject matter as anything else. I do think if a box xtock Revell 49 Merc build were entered into the custom class, that should be taken into consideration in the contest, say if I had entered the Merc, & you had entered a 58 Thunderbird that you customized yourself. If both are built to an equally clean stnadard, then yes, your Thunderbird model should beat my Mercury in that category.

Curt I think it's because even when built OOB, the Revell 49 Mercury kit can only represent a custom car. Much like if it was a build of the Ala Kart or the old Silhoutte show car. Both of those are considered customs in the 1/1 world, thus the models of them can be seen as the same, even when built box stock.

I have to say Dr Cranky that I really like the blue one you took the top off of. The depth of the paint job & the interior detailing are very nice. The other two don't appeal to me nearly as much. Oh, they are very well done, don't get me wrong, with interesting paint schemes. Just not the type of build that makes me sit up & go "Wow!" That blue one on the other hand looks just right.

I agree on using the AMT 56 Thunderbird chassis, though it is a tad bigger, (& as mentioned the 57 might be a tad undersized, AMT had a few kits that way in the so called "Golden Age" of the hobby), & will need some trimming to get it to fit. That's in the plans when I tackle my build of the 57, & I have both kits at the ready for the conversion. I also agree with Chuck on the shortcomings of the engine in the 56 Thunderbird. If you have an AMT 56 or 57 Ford kit handy, the engines in those kits, albeit from older tooling, offer a better alternative to the 57 or 56 Thunderbird engines. Kit bashing the best parts from the 56/57 Thunderbird engines with the 56 or 57 Ford engines will give you an excellent basis for a nicely built engine.

I have to agree with the consensus here. Since the subject matter is indeed that of a custom car, if built box stock, it's likely up to the builder as much as the contest organizers if it is placed in box stock or custom, though I can understand how you came to your point. The real question is, if it is a well done & cleanly built box stock model & is placed in the custom class, how much of a chance does it have, (or should it have), against equally well done & cleanly built custom models that have been modified/customized & detailed by their respective builders, all other things being equal? Points to mull over...........

Harry dating my sister!?! Gad I hope not, & for his sake, not hers! He can do so much better than her. Even I don't like her & we're related. Actually I have made model related posts, perhaps looking them up will be of help to you? As to my opinions, I have as much right as anyone else here to express them. Get used to or get over it. On respect, not what I'm seeking from people in an online forum that I don't actually know personally, but for those that need it as validation of themselves, that's great.

Actually, any time you learn something that is a good thing young Andy. Knowledge is never wasted.

Ah, I see my use of Latin with young Andy has rubbed off on him! That's one good thing. No complaining or whining here young man, merely observing & commenting.

Some questions & some observations here. If you have as many people on ignore as you claim, then how are you aware of their comments? You seem to be reading them, perhaps in hope that you're mentioned again? Next question. How are you able to discern people's motivations, (such as attempting to get a thread locked), merely by the comments that have been made? You may be in the majority of threads posted, but you're not omnipotent, despite what you may think. Now for the observations. In this thread i never said anything about the number of posts you make. I merely pointed out what I perceive as a discrepancy in how different members are allowed different leeway in what they post, which is on the moderators, though I will give Harry credit for his approach in this thread. Though I didn't agree with him, I do admire that he wasn't heavy handed in this, unlike some, who prefer a heavy handed moderating approach when someone's thoughts aren't in line with theirs. You seem to be obsessed with posting in every area of this forum. That's all well & good, & you may indeed have good intentions, but there is also a strong narcissistic streak in your obsession for attention. That's obvious to any sentient being. If you would just own up to that being at least part of the reason you post so much, (you currently have 112 posts in the past 24 hours, the next most after you is Harry with 38, don't tell me that's not being narcissistic). then perhaps people's perception of you would change. Do tell, with that many posts in a 24 hour period, how do you have time to work on models, teach your students, or have a life, as you brought up? I am actually curious about this. Finally, as I told someone else in this thread, I find this place an endless source of Pavlovian amusement & great free entertainment, which to me is a pleasant experience, so I'm getting much of what you claim you wish to give others here by your presence. Mission accomplished! Many of my posts in this thread, (& in others), are tongue in cheek, I'm sorry you couldn't perceive that, but my sense of humor can be rather dry.