Mike999

Along with the MPC '28 Lincoln, their '27 Lincoln roadster kit had a seated female figure; a "gun moll" or getaway driver. I think Preiser makes some of the best figures, and they come in all scales from N up to G (1:22.5), including some 1/24 and 1/25. All their human figures are based on real people, including the faces. Somewhere around here I have a German magazine about Preiser . One article in it shows a real woman posing for their sculptor, then being turned into a plastic figure. That's kind of neat to see. Preiser also makes a bunch of 1/25 scale animals, so if you need a 1/25 turkey or pig, they have it.

Anderson, SC Ollie's, today, 5/19/2017: same old tired Lindberg load. After reading the posts in here about other Ollie's stores "resetting," I was hoping to find the good stuff. Nope. Oh well, maybe next time... The Hobby Lobby in Anderson had the Molotow Liquid Chrome markers. 1mm and 2mm ($11.99 each) and 4mm ($12.99). So I picked up a 1 and 2mm. That HL didn't have any newer kits and no kits were in the Clearance aisle.

Good luck! I moved from West Coast to East Coast in 2015. I used a pro moving company, but did all the packing myself to save some money. That packing took nearly a solid month of running to U-Haul and Home Depot for boxes. Every time I thought I had enough boxes, I was wrong. If you're moving near Fargo, you'll want to get that TruCoat.

Me too. Back in the 90s, Gunze Sangyo did several 1/24 kits that included anime girls. In the VW pic below, the girl on the left is wearing eyeglasses. The glasses were done in photo-etched metal, along with the VW emblem and a few other parts. Gunze's Fiat 500 got the same treatment, and had engine detail. With an anime girl mechanic!

I'm in the Southeast (unless you meant "Southeast Pennsylvania" :-) ). Upstate SC. Been to 2 Ollie's recently: Anderson, SC and the huge Ollie's in Greenville. Mostly Lindberg ships, planes, armor, and Weird-Ohs. Almost nothing in cars, except Speedwagons, Lindberg Bugatti/Mercedes, and the like. No '48 Fords, Showboats or other good stuff I'm seeing in these threads. But...last year when Ollie's had one of these big model sales, the good stuff eventually showed up in those stores, after a month or so. The first few weeks, the stores had no '72 Novas or '77 Monte Carlo Snaps. Then all of a sudden, they did. So we'll just have to keep stopping by...

There are several eBay sales up now for the Hasegawa "Early Version," which seems to have regular tires. It also has different rear fenders, skid plate, etc. These are not only nice kits, but they include a great selection of 1/24 WWII accessories like a jerry can, weapons, ammo boxes, etc.

RIO Models did a 1/43 VW Beetle with figures of Hitler and his dog. They were available in several different configurations - top up, top down, etc. I couldn't find one in a larger scale.

That happens to me sometimes too, here and other sites. Page slows way down and I can't scroll. Sometimes when this happens, I get a message - "this page is not responding due to a long-running script." This usually comes with a "Stop Script" button, which may or may not work. Most times I just close the browser and re-open it. I always guess this happens because some marketing pest is running outdated JavaScript or something similar in the background, for data-mining purposes.

Ollie's in Greenville, SC on Tues. May 9: the same. Mostly Lindberg Union Artillery and lots of ships, 1/24 ancient PYRO Bugattis and Mercedes, etc. This is a very big Ollie's store, housed in a former K-Mart. So I really expected to see some of the Good Stuff I'm hearing about in here. Nope. (Helping cure my disappointment - I was in Greenville for a Steve Winwood concert, which was great.)

A friend in Los Angeles once managed an old-time toy/hobby shop. He always had a rack of those "cheap toys by jobbers" near the cash register, which he called "Shut 'em Up Toys." When I was a kid, Palmer/Premier were eye-roll material - the kits well-meaning but clueless aunts gave us for birthdays and Christmas. One exception was the Premier 1/32 scale 1907 Mack truck. That was a very nice kit, complete with the barrels. I still have a very old Kodak snapshot of the one I built back then. They turn up on eBay occasionally at pretty stiff prices:

Has anyone else thought of just putting on a big model sale some weekend? Or have you actually done it? If so, I'd like to hear about it. I've thought seriously about doing something like the Kit Collector's International sales in Buena Park, CA. I loved going to those sales when I lived in Los Angeles. Bob Keller started the KCI shows in 1975 and his family still runs them today. They are held in March, July and November and if you ever get a chance to visit one, don't miss it! KCI is on Facebook and elsewhere on the internet. KCI shows are buy-and-sell only. No contest or anything else included. Putting on a show like this looks fairly easy. Which is what I always say, just before I step on a land-mine. First, it would take a suitable place like a hotel convention room or similar: a big room with plenty of free parking, and easy access from outside for vendors to unload. Then some rented 6-foot tables and chairs for the vendors. Hire a couple of workers, I'd guess, to help out. Biggest problem I have now is the same problem many of you have: I live in mostly rural Upstate SC. There are lots of available hotels. But I'm not sure how many people would be willing to spend a day (or weekend) driving here just for a model sale.

If you "start your own store out of your garage or rec room," you should probably keep it quiet, depending on what you're doing. Years ago, I got ripped off in a model deal by a pretty notorious con artist from the Chicago area. (But eventually got my money.) The internet was just starting up then, and I posted about him on the Usenet rec.models.scale forum. Other victims responded. He had ripped off quite a few modelers in old-kit deals. Several people in his area mentioned this: he had convinced some big hobby distributors that he owned a real brick-and-mortar hobby shop. That let him buy new kits wholesale, in case lots. But he didn't have a store. He sold the kits out of the trunk of his car, and at shows/contests. That seriously annoyed legit store owners, who had to pay overhead, taxes etc. They reported him enough times that distributors quit selling to him. So it might be OK if your "store" is a small operation by modelers and for modelers. But you should probably be careful about going into the local Hobby Lobby and bragging that you can get it cheaper at Joe's Garage Hobby Shop. :-)

Don't think I would part out an expensive diecast. But I sometimes find junked ones very cheap at flea markets or yard sales and grab them. I bought a '53 Buick Skylark that was beat up and missing some parts, just for the gorgeous wire wheels and wide whitewall tires. Think I paid $3 for that one, and thought the wheels/tires alone were worth that price. Also harvested the nice blue carpet and some other stuff that should come in handy. Some of the best parts from the high-end diecasts like Franklin and Danbury, IMO: individual door/window handles, outside and in the interior.

I don't know if this matters to you, but I have the latest "Car Show" issue of the Revell '36 Coupe/Cabriolet. The chassis has dual exhausts and mufflers molded in, so it's not 100% stock. I'm not sure if the chassis has been that way since 1962 or not. A builder on another forum was annoyed by that, because he wanted a completely stock chassis to use under the Monogram 1/24 '37 Ford body.

Just today, hit the Ollie's in Anderson, SC. No Showboats, SW&C Willys or Mustangs. Drat! Lots of Lindberg "Robt. E. Lee" steamboats and the 1/16 Civil War artillery piece/caisson. Some Lindberg Bull Horns and Ramcharger '64 Dodges, quite a few Fink Speedwagons, a couple of the Lindberg '38 Ford Sedan Deliveries. But one thing I've learned at this Ollie's store - sometimes they don't put all the kits out at once. So maybe there's still some good stuff in the stockroom. During the last big sale, I couldn't find a couple kits people mentioned. Then a week or two later, suddenly they showed up. In further news from the same town, Michael's had no new kits. I think their newest car kit is the Revell Starsky & Hutch Torino. Hobby Lobby had done a minor reset, with the "AMT" 53 Ford and 23 Model T Delivery "Coca-Cola." No Clearance kits I could find this week. A couple of weeks ago they clearanced the '70 Impala "Heavy Chevy" and I got one. For inspiration on that kit - this month's Hemmings Classic Cars features a '69 SS-427 Impala.

Very good advice. A few years ago in my rural area, a con artist claimed to be setting up a local toy museum and solicited donations. Some lifelong friends donated their late son's toys, dating back to the 1950s and loving preserved because their son died in an accident at age 22. They believed his stuff would be on permanent display etc. But after gathering items from many families, suddenly the con artist vanished. Probably to pull the same trick elsewhere and sell all the stuff for his own profit. I go to many estate sales, yard sales and flea markets. The term "bottom-feeder" would be an upgrade for some of the greedheads I've met at those places. So as others have said, make sure your Dad's incredible models go to someone who will appreciate them. I only met your Dad here on the internet, but always valued his comments. When I saw his name on a post, I knew I would learn something and be entertained at the same time - a rare knack. He will be badly missed.

Same here, in Upstate SC. Michael's always has the same few kits: Revell Snap Crown Vic and a few other snap cars. AMT-R2 Petty Late Model Sportsman, 70 1/2 Camaro, Lindberg Little Red Wagon. The last kit I bought there was the Revell '83 Olds. And that was in Sept. 2016. One useful thing I found at Michael's, with a 40% off coupon: the small battery-powered, gooseneck Ott Lite. It doesn't take much room on the bench, comes with 2 magnifying lenses, and is really great for examining tiny details under a bright light.

If you like those old AIRFIX 1/32 cars, you might try to find the "Classic Car Collection" released around 2006. Includes the Ford Escort Mk 1, Vauxhall Viva, and Triumph Herald. One recently sold on eBay for about $25. (Pic below). All I got today (at the Flea Market) was a Revell '63 Corvette Snap-Kit. It's built but can be easily un-built. That's OK, it's a nice little kit and it was cheap.

Interesting question, thanks for posting it. I've been wondering about this myself, since I'm putting together an eBay sale right now with some incomplete kits. I've sold incomplete kits on eBay in the past, generally with pretty good luck. Not sure if this helps you. But I'll usually sell the incomplete kit paired in a lot with a more desirable one. During the big Ollie's blowout last year, I bought several Revell Snap-Kit 2005 Impala Police Cars. I removed the wheels/hubcaps and all the police parts. I'll be selling these as eBay lots, combined with complete kits. Will probably list them as (Desirable Kit) + FREE BONUS IMPALA PARTS CAR!!! Or something exciting. I figure somebody might want to build them as a taxi, beater, grocery-getter etc. All they need is a set of wheels (the tires are still in the kits).

A quick search shows that Hitler figures seem to be well-represented in all common modeling scales. So you can probably find an aftermarket 1/24 Fuehrer. Banning the swastika had nothing to do with the dreaded "PC" or those fearsome "libs." It has been generally done by governments with pretty good reasons. Would anyone like to go to Germany and advocate FOR the public display of Nazi symbols? Even in countries where the swastika is strictly banned, exceptions are usually made for historical displays etc. In Hungary, you can not only get in trouble for displaying a swastika, but a hammer-and-sickle or even a five-pointed, Soviet-style red star. Other than the USA, where swastikas are protected by the First Amendment, there's another country with no restrictions on displaying Nazi symbols - Israel. Go figure. I worked in Saudi Arabia for 2 years, which is certainly not a "politically correct, lib" type of country. In a Jeddah toy store, I found a whole shelf of old 1/72 scale AIRFIX aircraft kits, gathering dust. All the German aircraft kits had the box-art Balkenkreuz crudely blotted out by hand, with a black marker. In other toy stores they were not marked out. I asked a Saudi friend about that. He was just guessing, but suggested that the Balkenkreuz could be considered a Christian cross. And the shop owner probably didn't want it displayed in his shop because the Religious Police might harass him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post%E2%80%93World_War_II_legality_of_Nazi_flags

niteowl7710: "Long story short, it's because things are shipped by weight AND volume." Yep, that changed just a few years ago. The change was adopted by all the carriers - USPS, FedEx and UPS. They started charging by weight AND the amount of space that packages take up in the aircraft/truck. And this just happened in January 2017: "The USPS 2017 rate changes take effect January 22nd across all shipping services. Overall, rates increased for most products, weights, and zones, but USPS has chosen not to increase rates for international services. We’ll go over changes to USPS’ most popular shipping services including Priority Mail, First Class Package, Flat Rate, and Regional Rate." http://shippingeasy.com/usps-2017-shipping-rate-changes-flat-rate-priority-first-class-w-tables/

Thanks so much for the offer. But I found one yesterday in my Tire & Wheel Stash. It just took a little looking. (I needed a back side, with the axle hole.) As it turns out, the kit was also missing the drag slicks, which I somehow failed to notice before. I also found a pair of those, in the "Generic AMT Drag Slicks" Ziploc bag. I've had several of these kits over the years, but really want to keep this one.

Thanks for the info. Dimensions are 9x6 inches. No "Priority" markings, tape or anything else that I can see.

Thanks. Well, that's strange. It is a plain yellow envelope. Here's a scan of the envelope, with addresses and Tracking Number blacked out:

Here's the Wiki entry on the guy who wrote the lyrics for many early-Sixties car songs, including "Little Deuce Coupe." The line about "walking a Thunderbird" struck me as strange, even when I was a kid. I think my Grandpa's Corvair could have probably done that, since the '61-63 T-Bird was a big old luxo-barge, as others have mentioned. A '62 Sports Roadster with the tri-carb engine might have been a different story. Even then the 2 cars had better be running on a very long, straight stretch. A homemade Deuce coupe and boulevard-suspended Sports Roadster on a curvy road would probably be headed straight for "Dead Man's Curve" territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Christian_(songwriter)