Mike999

Thanks for the heads-up! Saving your notes. I wondered about the assembly, since it can be built as a "short" city trailer or a standard "long" trailer. And it looks like I can build that resin '63 Nova wagon in the stash now. As I understand it, Round 2 will be doing their Nova wagon later as a full kit with an engine. I may wait for that one. Like everybody else, I sure wish they'd find that neat little U-Haul trailer from the Nova/Buick Special kits.

From Hobby Lobby, the AMT (former IMC) Big Rig Semi Trailer. With bonus pallets! Also from Wal-Mart, a can of Rustoleum Matte Clear spray paint.

On the subject of those Revell Classics, I'd like to see this German beauty again. I think Revell-Germany has released it twice, but a long time ago. It's hard to find and goes for big bucks on eBay.

I got garbage! GARBAGE! A pair of working 1/24 scale garbage dumpsters, that is. These go for about $15 on eBay, with FREE shipping. Here's the link, if anybody else wants some. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dumpster-model-1-24-1-25-scale/223412866737?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

That's a real beauty! I really like all those 1960-63 AMT pickup kits, Ford and Chevy. They had so much interesting stuff in the box. The wooden push bumper, tool boxes, fuel cans, fire extinguishers, etc. And those great "Road Service" decal sheets.

LOL! Note to self, always check for photos before snarking. Now I'm trying to figure out the Terrible Box Art for the AMT '70 Monte Carlo. Is that a banked dirt track? An outlaw drag strip? Our driver is wearing a helmet and mask but his Monte doesn't have a roll bar. It does have a big hole in the hood to show off the side-draft Weber carbs. "Curiouser and curiouser," as old Lewis Carroll would say...

Great work so far! From what I've read, the smaller, earlier experimental Vought V-173 was usually called the "Flying Pancake." The later, pre-production XF5U-1 was called the "Flying Flapjack." When Vought was testing the Pancakes and Flapjacks, they caused some of the first "flying saucer" reports from people who lived near the factory. If you ever want to move up in scale, Sword does a 1/48 V-173 and Kitty Hawk does a 1/48 XF5U-1. With fictional but awesome "in action" box art!

? I've also wondered about that goofy "Bird of Paradise" theme. Maybe it was just an attempt to be eye-catching by any means possible. And it ties into the general "psychedelic" vibe of 1971, I guess I did a quick search on AMT box art for 1971. Another big "personal luxury" car, the '71 Chevy Monte Carlo, was shown on the drag strip doing a wheel-stand. That seems about as likely as the paint job on the B.O.P. '71 T-Bird. And here's another wheel-stander from 1971, the "Wonder Pony" '71 Pinto with a 429 engine. It'll be a "wonder" if it doesn't explode into pieces halfway thru the quarter-mile...

If you're thinking of trying a Tamiya aircraft kit, AFAIK all of them are little jewels of kit engineering. The Tamiya He-219 "Uhu" kit even has the cockpit walls and nosewheel well molded in metal. No tail sitting and no need to add weight! I have this Me262 A2 version, with the Kettenkrad tow vehicle. Another sneaky way to avoid tail-sitting without adding weight.

A relative took advantage of the Hobby Lobby 40% off sales and gave me an AMT '55 Chevy and a Revell '68 VW Beetle. I have the old "Millennium" '55 but getting another one is great, for the new whitewalls and decals. I already had the Beetle but you can do so much with that kit, I sure don't mind having another. Thinking of a Spahn Movie Ranch diorama with some of Charlie Manson's stolen Beetles... I see 2 aircraft kits up there that I bought at HL, purely for nostalgic/fun reasons: the 1/48 B-25 and P-61. They date back to the '70's but both are still nice kits. They have such good detail, right out of the box, that they would make great "Hangar Queen" dioramas with missing panels to show off the interior, engines etc.

Great work, especially the subtle weathering. Creating subtle weathering is something I often struggle with. I found the die-cast model below (cheap!) at a local flea market and had to have it. For one thing, it's a 1922 Studebaker truck in 1/24 scale, which is not likely to ever be released as a plastic kit. And for another, it has that big Lennox furnace sitting in the bed. It's made by Crown Premiums and is pretty easily found on eBay, if anybody wants one.

Great work! Especially on details like the scars and ripped pants, and the painting overall. Another big Aurora fan here. I remember getting "The Wolf Man" kit for Christmas (after much begging). The only Aurora monster kits I didn't like were the "monsters in hot rods" series. Dracula's Dragster etc. I thought they were disrespectful to the monsters. ? I was in the minority on that one. Way back in the 1980's, those kits were selling for hundreds of dollars. Then Moebius/Polar Lights re-popped them, making a lot of modelers happy and old-kit dealers very unhappy. Monsters In Motion is a great site for us Aurora fans. It sells the (in)famous Aurora "Hanging Tree" kit. That was supposed to be the second kit in the "Chamber Of Horrors" series, after the Guillotine. But the Guillotine caused so much outrage that the Hanging Tree got cancelled. Somebody bought the original Aurora molds and used them to cast a really nice resin kit. Aurora Hanging Tree Model Hobby Kit (True Lost Prototype) Aurora Hanging Tree Model Hobby Kit [05APP02] - $124.99 : Monsters in Motion, Movie, TV Collectibles, Model Hobby Kits, Action Figures, Monsters in Motion

Also please, issue it in WHITE plastic! I have an MPC '29 Woody-only kit. No Hot Curl, stock only with no rod parts, molded in black plastic. According to the box it originally came with paint and a brush inside, which were long gone by the time I bought it. That's probably a good thing. It was cheap, because the driver's side of the hood is "short-shot" and missing some plastic. If I ever build it, it will probably be a semi-junker. Weathering and sun-blasting all that wood should be a fun project.

I'm too lazy to print it out. I signed up for Hobby Lobby e-mails, so the 40% off coupon comes to my cellphone every week. When I get to the HL check-out, the cashier scans the coupon code right off my phone. No paper, no printing! Michael's is different, or it was the last time I used their one of their coupons. I had to have the paper coupon, which the cashier printed at the check-out counter. After that, I would go to the Michael's website and print the coupon myself, then take it in to the store. But I haven't bought anything at Michael's in quite a while, so they might be paperless now too.

Doozy (AK Interactive) makes this neat set with 2 well-detailed extinguishers, some oil cans and boxes. It's resin and sort of pricy, around $28. ScaleHobbyist and other online vendors often have it for a few bucks less.

"1917" was great. The whole movie was shot in one continuous take, which I don't think had ever been done before. Except maybe by Ed Wood, accidentally. ? John Le Carre just passed away, so I'll probably watch "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" again soon. Great book, great movie. For those who like real-life spy stories, I'll make another pitch for "The Assets," which reminds me of Le Carre. It was an 8-hour ABC miniseries that ran in 2014. It bombed in the ratings when first shown, but gets high scores now. "The Assets" is about the hunt for real-life traitor Aldrich Ames, a CIA "legacy" thru his Dad. He got a lot of people killed, mostly Russian "assets," including their top expert on stealth aircraft. It's not a James Bond kind of story. More like LeCarre, about the hard work of digging thru financial records etc. to ferret out the turncoat. The CIA team who finally nailed Ames was made up mostly of female CIA agents, which also made it more interesting.

Trumpeter also makes a 1/24 scale P-51D Mustang. I found one at a flea market, with a lot of glue-bombing. But it was cheap and I bought it for the parts, decals etc. So anybody wanting to build the Mustang-Mobile might get lucky. Some reviewers love the Trumpeter Mustang, and others hate it. One interesting thing: it comes with 3 1/24 scale resin figures, all of them molded in one piece.

The Hobby Lobby 40% off model kits sale is back on for the coming week (12/14 thru 12/21/20). I got their e-mail this morning. The e-mail also mentions 50% off, but only in certain categories of stuff. Wall decor, candle-making supplies and other boring junk. Model kits aren't in those categories. They're mentioned separately.

One of my favorite "WKRP" lines: "I will not be lectured on the meaning of life by a man wearing a white belt!"

I have several of those "World's Worst Cars" books. One had this line that cracked me up: "Triumph Stag owners stood by their cars. Usually because they couldn't get the doors open."

And that's a 2-in-1 kit! Builds a stock Wallis Autogyro or the James Bond version with guns and rockets. This one came today. On-topic for cars, off-topic for scale. MiniArt, from the Ukraine, has done a bunch of Mercedes 170v kits in all different configurations: WWII military staff cars, civilian cars complete with passengers and luggage. And this one, the 170v sedan delivery or "Lieferwagen." All 3 doors open and it includes decals for the medical vehicle on the boxtop, a camouflaged truck, or a German Reichspost delivery truck. The roof rack is photo-etched metal. These kits are insanely detailed, with engines and chassis that are complete right down to separate coil springs, etc. Heller did a 1/24 Lieferwagen, but I think it was last re-issued around 2006.

Y'all made me curious, so I checked the J-Okey-Han Plymouth Police Car in the stash. Got it at a kit show a long time ago. It's molded in bright blue plastic and has the green-tinted, regular plastic glass. The decal sheet is just like the one in the original Jo-Han kit, as is the instruction sheet. The back of the decal sheet has what appears to be a hand-written note: GC-1300 2/92. The first note is the kit number, I'm guessing the other one means Feb. 1992. Which might indicate when this kit was packed/released. Or it's not a date at all, and just some weird code. While looking at that kit, I remembered a glue/paint-bombed Jo-Han Plymouth police car in the stash. I was hoping it had the original clear glass. No such luck. It has the green glass, so it's also one of the Spaulding re-issues.

The MPC Thunder Charger! You don't see those very often. AFAIK, the '67 Charger in that custom configuration was only released once, in 1967. For younger visitors, that was MPC's 1967 movie tie-in kit, tied to the American-International movie "Thunder Alley." (The 1966 movie tie-in kit was the Fireball 500 Barracuda, from the movie of the same name.) Here's the original kit and a still from the movie.

Kit Form Services has some 1/24 transporters and recovery trucks, mostly British Army. They're all in resin. KFS also has conversions for many plastic big-truck kits. Now where can I find room for a 1/24 Alvis Stalwart... temp (kitformservices.com)

Barn Finds.com is another fun place to hang out. It features cars for sale from eBay, Craigslist, local ads and other sources. https://barnfinds.com/