Mike999

I had the same idea and picked up a few, along with a couple of the REVELL Crown Vics, which are slightly different from the LINDBERG version. The REVELLS are also really cheap with a Michael's or Hobby Lobby coupon. Here's Chuck Most's comparison of the LINDBERG and REVELL Crown Vic kits: http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2015/04/28/Crown-Vic-Smackdown-Lindberg-Vs-Revell

And all those tiny little hinges! Some years ago at a kit swap meet, I found a giant Zip-Loc bag full of unglued, unpainted REVELL '31 Woody/Sedan parts in somebody's "junk box." It was cheap and I mostly wanted the wire wheels and other stock parts. No instructions, but I had a re-issued Woody kit to take care of that. So I sat down with the re-issue instructions and giant bag, and started counting parts. The final tally was a complete Woody/Sedan kit as originally issued, plus a second Woody body with its unique cowl/windshield/doors. etc And all the hinges were still there! Amazing. I promptly separated all those hinges into smaller Zip-Loc bags so I could keep track of them. And someday I'll actually do something with them...

Also a standing joke in Model Military World. You want to build some rare tank. So you spend $50 on a long-discontinued Dragon base kit. Another $50 on the resin conversion kit that was only produced for 2 hours in Uzbekistan back around 2005...which has to be improved with several packs of Grandt/Tichy rivets, nuts and bolts and ARCHER weld beads. Add a few $25 sheets of EDUARD photo-etched brass for some parts that sorta look like they might work. Another $40-50 for Friulmodel metal tracks. Oh, and add in the only known reference on this tank, a long out-of-print book of blurry B&W photos privately published by the Dnepropetrovsk Military Model Club in 1993. And after you do all that, next week MENG or TAKOM will release a plastic kit of the tank. Some things in my own Resin Graveyard that are probably safe from a plastic release anytime soon: REJI-MODEL 1/24 '77 Skoda 130RS, Monte Carlo Rally 1/25 Checker Cab full kit 58 Chrysler Imperial and 59 Mercury 2-dr station wagons SSB Resins Ford Ambulance vans - 2005 New York Fire Dept. and 2006 Los Angeles F.D.

Great collection! Drooling here. But your Cadillac resin collection seems to be missing one very rare kit - the 1948 Cadillac Coupe de Ville from TKM Resin. I just happen to have one of these vintage, rare, HTF, unobtainium kits in my own resin collection. I'm sure we can work out a trade or something...

Whoops! OK, thanks. Here's a T/A under restoration, hopefully with a Poncho engine. Same idea, the engine by itself doesn't take up all that much room:

Bought the latest release and it has all the fit problems everyone has mentioned. The fit of the nose to the fenders is especially gruesome. One minor thing I do like about this kit - it has a well-engraved console for the automatic transmission. You can actually read the "P-R-N" letters. The old AMT '78 Trans Am had a manual console, and not a very good one. So you can do the foil-and-epoxy trick on the '79 and copy its console. Or just hack it out with a razor saw, if you get frustrated enough at the rest of the kit. Long as I'm here - people often comment that the 400 engine in all these kits looks "too small." I thought so too, until I started looking closely at photos of wrecked Firebirds. I think part of this is just that the model-kit engine is not buried in smog equipment, A/C, hoses, etc. so it looks smaller than the real thing. But the real thing looks pretty small too. Here's a '79 Trans-Am with the engine visible:

I have 2 fairly local Hobby Lobby stores here (Anderson and Easley, SC). The Anderson store has always had the '29 roadster on the shelf and still does. I found one '30 coupe in that store, back in September 2016, but none since. Never saw a '30 coupe in the Easley store. I suspect because it sold out very quickly and never got any more. That store is further away from me, so I don't go there as often.

Santa was late bringing my package from Japan. Putin fired air-to-ground missiles at his sleigh and he had to take evasive action... Anyway, from Tokyo-Hobby on eBay: got the old AOSHIMA 1/24 Subaru Sambar "Post Office Van." These old Sambar kits have no engine/chassis detail (formerly motorized). But the bodies look great, all lights are separate, and these goofy little "kei" vans are just plain neat. This kit comes with some great accessories - roof rack, surfboard and SCUBA gear. Plus a stereo and TV set for the interior. Also got the EBBRO 1/24 Citroen H Van, the corrugated wonder. Recently caught an episode of "Wheeler Dealers" where they restored one of these and converted it into a Roach Coach. If you've never dealt with Tokyo-Hobby, I've ordered from them on eBay several times with no problems.

I bought the plastic jars shown below from Hobby Lobby (which I know you don't have in Merrie Olde England). But I'm guessing you're buying something similar. These jars are 1 ounce, or 30 ml (OK, 29.375 ml). Hobby Lobby also sells a package of assorted sizes, but I think the 1-ounce is their biggest. The lids fit very tightly, which is good. But as a warning, these plastic jars are sort of fragile. I broke a couple just by applying too much pressure when trying to get the lids off. The plastic jars do seem to work really well. I have some TAMIYA acrylics mixed with TAMIYA thinner that have been sitting in those plastic jars for quite a while. They still look OK and haven't dried up or anything. Sort of off-topic, I guess. But I've had good luck recently with gloss finishes by mixing TAMIYA acrylic paint with TAMIYA's own lacquer thinner (not the acrylic thinner). By cranking the air pressure down to 15 psi or so and getting close to the model, the paint flows very well and gives a nice gloss. It dries much quicker than enamels, though I still let it dry for a couple of days just to be on the safe side.

Thanks everybody! You Reverse-Jinxed me or something. Saw a JOHAN 70 Eldorado on eBay yesterday, Buy It Now/Make Offer with free shipping. Made an offer, seller counter-offered for a few dollars more, and I grabbed it. It's open but looks complete. And molded in white plastic!

Forgot that I do have a '68 Eldo in the stash, with the unusual "custom" box art. Saw it while looking for PowerPlant's '67 hood (that I unfortunately don't have). The box looks like this:

Same here. If I'm lucky enough to snag another, it will hang around until the pickers are fighting over my estate sale. Had one years ago where I tried to duplicate the "halo" vinyl roof. That...uh...didn't work out, to put it kindly. I still have pieces of it. And those pieces are easy to find in the ol' parts bin - it was molded in that bizarre "Lifebuoy Soap Orange" colored plastic.

Flea Market Day. Found 5 of the MAISTO 1/24 Harleys for a decent price: '36 EL Knucklehead, '62 FLH Duo-Glide, '68 FLH Electra-Glide, '00 Street Stalker and '00 Screaming Eagle Road Glide. Already had some, but a few more don't hurt. These seem to be getting harder to find and make great fillers for dioramas. And pickup trucks.

A classic Hollywood joke was Starlet #1 at a party, introducing herself as "Portia." And Starlet #2 asking why her parents named her after a German car. Hollywood's treatment of Southern accents has annoyed me for decades. I was raised in Upstate South Carolina, Baja Appalachia, where most people are descended from the Scotch-Irish and some still use phrases straight out of Elizabethan times. We don't talk anything like the people in Charleston, SC or Savannah, GA. But you wouldn't know that from most movies. And the one actor who absolutely cannot do a Southern accent is John Travolta. He always sounds like a brain-damaged descendant of the bad guys in "Deliverance" (which was filmed not very far away from where I'm sitting and typing this).

Another vote for that '56 Cadillac. Complete with 1/25 figures and dog! I noticed differences between 1/25 and 1/24 back when I was a little kid and wanted to swap MONOGRAM wheels/tires onto an AMT kit. They just didn't look right. Same goes for most engines and other useful parts. Sometimes there's even a battle between 1/25 and 1/25, in the same company. Try this comparison - the Thompson submachine gun and other weapons from later MPC kits, like the Dodge police cars or Jeeps, with the similar weapons in the old "Gangbuster" series. The Gangbuster guns are noticeably smaller. I always thought the Gangbuster figures were like 1/27 scale or something, since they seem small too. But I guess you could pass that off as "people were smaller in the 1920's." OK, but their Tommy guns weren't. Military modelers have this same problem in 1/35 scale, where weapons/equipment from one company is visibly different sized from others. Even though they are all supposed to be the same scale.

Great find! I love reading about these kind of scores. And I promise to only hate you a little bit.

What I heard - the Chinese govt. is holding the Model A molds hostage. They want to force REVELL into a partnership with the Chinese kit company TRUMPETER. The new company's first release will be an updated version of the old 1/24 scale TRUMPETER kit shown below. The Red Flag limo was released in 2 versions already - solid roof and the "Dictator Spec" version shown, with open roof and microphones so Dear Leader can harangue the proletariat. So a REVELL/TRUMPETER 2-in-1 kit will be easy. The original kit had an engine insert but not a very good one, so REVELL will be helping with engine/chassis/interior detail. This will be a Special Subject Retro-Vintage One Run Limited Issue kit, sure to increase in value whether sold complete or by individual parts on eBay. So get yours early! (Yes, I made all that up. It's all lies, including the commas. If you've never seen the TRUMPETER Red Flag limo kit and want one, they're always available on eBay for low prices. The kit actually has a pretty nice limo interior, complete with a piece of red adhesive fuzzy carpeting like AMT kits of the early 1960's.)

Re the new REVELL Ford Bronco: on the 11/9/2016 show, "Wheeler Dealers" restored a first-generation Ford Bronco. No SPOILERS, but I'll just say it was a very extensive restoration. Here's a link to the show:

Went to a big flea market, very few model kits available and none I wanted. Did pick up a cheap Motor Max 1/24 die-cast - the 1980's Dodge Diplomat, California Highway Patrol. Missing 1 side mirror and the hood ornament. The interior has no police gear, not even a radio. So I'm thinking of adding some details like that and generally spiffing it up. I'm pretty sure the Diplomat will never be available as a 1/24 plastic kit.

Anderson, SC, 12/3/16: This Ollie's got in a big shipment of the AMT 66 Olds 442 W30. Also some REVELL Chevy SSR's and LINDBERG Tenn. and NC Crown Vics. For fans of the smaller scale, the store has a big load of 1/32 scale LINDBERG 1915 Model T Coupelets, a nice kit with engine detail. The store also still has a few LINDBERG Dodge L-700 with flatbed trailer and '40 Ford kits. Other than that, a lot of the ancient LINDBERG 1/48 aircraft, Weird-Ohs and military kits - M-46 Patton and German armored car. At first I passed on the 66 Olds because I already had 2 W30 hardtops and 2 ragtops. But I checked the hardtops and both were early, original issues with the red car on the box. And both had the wrong front bumper - the one with the parking lights at the edges of the bumper slots. Instead of the middle of the slots, to provide clearance for the W-30 air scoops/hoses. So I got 2 hardtops from Ollie's ($7.99 each). They have the correct front bumper.

Got this 59 T-Bird off eBay for $20 + shipping. Don't care about the missing fender ornament or sun visors, since I've always wanted to build a NASCAR 59 Square-Bird (like every other modeler in the world, apparently!). One "air-scoop" fender skirt is still on and one is missing, which may be a good sign. On these built-up AMT oldies, parts often fall right off due to the glue aging. The "Buy It Now" listing for this originally showed the Shipping cost as a whopping $26.95. I messaged the seller and squawked about that. Soon as he fixed the problem I grabbed it. Recently lost out on another 59 T-Bird ragtop that was a little nicer but more expensive. I can work with this one and already have the vat of brake fluid ready to strip that paint...

Shipment from Lucky Model, all in Wrong Scale of 1/35: Tiger Models IDF Nagmachon, Tamiya AMX-13. These "modern highway bridge" kits from Phoenix were on sale so I got 2 of them. Ditto the Phoenix "Baghdad Square," with statue of Saddam on a plinth:

Hope you feel better. If anybody is irreplaceable around here, it's you.

Thanks! I hope ITALERI re-issues the Range Rover Police version. It had really nice Cartograf decals for a British or Dutch police car. Even better, it had dashboards and front suspension parts for both Left-hand and Right-hand drive versions. Good comment about the plastic quality. Somewhere here, I have an old article about Francois Verlinden's build of the ESCI 1/24 Mercedes 500SL "Bandama Rally" car. That was molded in silver-ish plastic and Verlinden didn't even paint it. He just sanded down the few seams on the ridgelines, clear-coated, then weathered it with a really grungy finish suitable to a beat-up rally car. It looked great. But of course, he was Francois Verlinden...

I like to use this stuff, Simply Tacky. Available cheap at Hobby Lobby. For holding small parts, I tear off a piece of Simply Tacky and put it on a craft stick. Or "ice cream stick," also available cheap by the bag full at Hobby Lobby. One thing I like about Simply Tacky as opposed to tape - you can twist/pull it into any shape you need to hold the part. Also unlike tape, you can use it over and over. So it's economical and I'm a cheap old geezer. For bigger parts, I sometimes use double-sided tape with one side also stuck to a craft stick. Or even a long piece of sprue, depending on what I'm painting. I also use all the stuff already recommended here, like clothespins and alligator clips. You can also buy small plastic clothespins, instead of the big wooden ones. They have smaller springs and don't apply as much pressure as the bigger ones.