Harry P.

Thanks for all the nice comments, guys.

Good to see it's "fully" blown and not "half" blown...

That's true if you're talking about one company buying another. It doesn't apply when talking about a company reissuing it's own old models over again.

Ok... let's get this show on the road. First order of business will be the tires. They are black molded plastic, same as the rest of the black plastic parts, and have ejector pin and sink marks all over them. A little Bondo and a little sanding will take care of that...

I agree. The molded spokes are grossly out of scale. But in this case I'm taking the easy way out for a couple of reasons... first, this model is so simplified (and small!) that I decided not to go crazy trying to make it a contest winner (not that I would ever enter a contest, but you get my meaning). I'm going to make a few basic upgrades, but not to the point where I would consider the time and trouble of scratchbuilding wire wheels. I decided on a dark red for the wheels, and after paint and a black wash, the thickness of the spokes will be somewhat disguised, visually. Edit: anyone know a source of aftermarket 1/16 wire wheels? I'm thinking dragster-type front wheels.

Time for another WIP! As you guys have figured out by now, I don't build models of common or "normal" subjects like NASCAR racers or muscle cars. My modeling tastes run towards "brass era" cars... the odder, the better. I love building models of vehicles that not everyone else is also building. In this case, I'm going to build a 1901 De Dion Bouton, a tiny and weird little French car. This is the kit: And here is a real one: The car was very small; powered by a single-cylinder 3.5 HP engine located under the driver's seat. Not exactly a screamer! But judging by the wacky arrangement of the seats (the passengers sat in the front, facing backwards, while the driver sat in the rear seat!), it looks like this car was designed more for friendly conversation than performance... Even though this is a "big boy," scale-wise (1/16), it's a tiny model... only about 5-6 inches long (the real thing is obviously a tiny little car). The kit is very simplified, with only about 50 parts total. I expect to do a lot of scratchbuilding and detailing to bring this one up to par. Not sure of the color scheme yet... my reference photos show a wide variety of color combinations. So far all I have decided for sure is that the wheels will be dark red.

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72487&page=2

Your cost estimate is waaaaaaay too low. Not even close.

Remember, don't post any hints or answers here! PM me with year, make and model. The answer: 1958 Renault Fregate Amiral

In case you're interested, the full WIP can be seen here. And here is the finished product. Comments, questions, and critiques are welcomed.

This is the 1/12 scale Christie fire truck, issued under various labels (Airfix, MPC, AMT). The model depicts an early attempt to "modernize" horse-drawn fire equipment as the days of "horseless carriages" were replacing horse-drawn vehicles. In this case, John Christie invented a front-wheel driven tractor that could be hooked up to older, horse-drawn steam pumpers, to allow local fire departments to upgrade to self-propelled rigs without buying a completely new vehicle. The old horse-drawn pumper's front axle was removed, and attached to a Christie tractor, resulting in the strange hybrid you see here. The days of these odd hybrids were numbered, though. As the years went by, more and more purpose-built self-propelled fire trucks were offered, and many fire departments simply retired their old horse-drawn steam pumpers altogether and bought new equipment. But the Christie tractor (among several other similar competitors) did allow fire departments around the turn of the 20th century to extend the lives of their old horse-drawn pumpers. But by the 1920s, these Christie-powered pumpers had pretty much disappeared. This particular model depicts a 1911 Christie tractor hooked up to an 1899 Ahrens-Fox steam pumper. The Christie's wheels were propelled by a transverse-mounted four-cylinder gasoline engine. The wheels were driven by a chain drive off the engine. The grille was just for show, as the radiator was in back, behind and below the driver. This is the MPC version of the model... you will see by my photos that I went for a much more "de-blinged" look.

Just proves what I keep saying... people ignore pinned topics. Pinning topics is basically useless. There is a pinned topic in the very first forum section regarding the forum rules. One of the rules is to post your full name, either as your screen name, under your avatar, or in a signature line. Guess how many "full name in signature" PMs I've sent? Hundreds. HUNDREDS.

You need to take your X-acto and slice the decals where they cross over the door panel lines. Use some decal setting solution on the cut to get the decals to snug down against the body. There's no way that the graphics could cross over the door lines like that in real life.

Nice to have another member from Africa aboard. Welcome!

There is no mention of "mass production" on the book cover. The cover states that AMC was "America's last independent automaker" Not true.

342 were delivered in 2001, and 20 in 2002 (with nine more in 2004) before production ceased.

New builders don't care whether a kit is new or a reissue... they're all new kits to a beginner. The reason for reissues is $$$, plain and simple. Once a kit sells enough units to recoup its initial costs, all further sales are gravy. If they can keep reissuing a kit many times after that kit's initial investment has been paid back, it's pure profit. And if you can put an old kit in a "collectible" box and actually raise the MSRP to a point way higher than the kit would normally sell for, even better. Like I said earlier, good business sense.

Ok... here's what I did. Look at the photos in post #86. You can see those two little "pockets," one on top of the dash/firewall and one on top of the grille... those pockets accept the plastic pins that are molded into each half of the hood. But there was no external hinge detail on the hoode; the real thing has a piano hinge along the length of the hood. So I just faked a hinge by adding the "leaves" of the hinge to each half of the hood. Then I cut the molded-in hinge pins off of one of the hood halves and left the pins on the other half. I glued the fake hinge barrel (made of aluminum tube) onto the half of the hood that I removed the plastic hinge pins from. Those missing hinge pins will be replaced by new hinge pins created by sliding a thin brass rod into my fake hinge barrel: So when the hood is closed, it looks like a real piano hinge, but actually it's only fake... yet both halves of the hood still open.

Oh yeah... the blizzard of '67! My dad left work the afternoon the blizzard started. He got home three days later. No joke. Lake Shore Drive, 1967. Hmmm... I know I left my car here somewhere...

A "no reserve" auction means that there is no minimum price the seller sets that the lowest bid must top in order for the item to sell. In a true "no reserve" auction, the bidding begins at the smallest possible monetary unit (one cent).

Regardless... AMC was definitely not the "last" independent auto maker.

Hobby Lobby and other craft stores sell the same stuff. Rustoleum, Krylon and many others make similar "stone" spray paints in many colors. http://www.krylon.com/products/make-it-stone-textured-paint/

Another favorite trick the kitmakers use is to reissue an ancient kit in a new "collectible" box and slap a ridiculous MSRP on it. Again, way cheaper to manufacture a new box to hold an old kit than to manufacture a new kit. Yet another gimmick they use: an old kit with a new decal sheet. Again, it's far cheaper to print up new decals than tool up a new kit. BTW... I'm not criticizing the kit manufacturers for doing these things. On the contrary, it's good business! As long as the old kits disguised in new boxes continue to sell, hey, why not keep reissuing them, right? Ultimately it's the consumer who is voting for all of these reissues.

Because the tooling for those reissued kits was already paid for by previous sales. It's a lot cheaper to print a new box and throw in an old kit vs. tooling up a brand-new kit... especially with kits that already have a track record as good sellers. Reissuing an old kit is almost pure profit; tooling up a new kit is expensive up front (the design, engineering and tooling costs). Like jb said... if you can sell the same old stuff with a "new and improved" box cover, why bother creating new product? As long as consumers keep buying reissues, the kitmakers are going to keep reissuing them. Over and over and over again.

Very nice duo, Cliff!