Mike999

Flea Market Day! Some cheap stuff... The '63 Watson Roadster/Parnelli Jones is from the MPC Indy 500 Hall of Fame Set. Bagged but complete. No worries about tire burn, the tires are 2-piece plastic. Ugh! Revell M-35 Truck is 1/40 scale. It has 7 figures and some good stowage like duffel bags. I do have a few old 1/40 scale missile and military kits, so it might be useful there. The Van Conversions book is from 1985 and cost 1 whole dollar. It's great seeing 1:1 scale versions of all that stuff in the old MPC van kits. Like the oval tables and couches.

I've had fun experimenting with Future. Mixing 70% Future and 30% alcohol thins it out so it flows thru the airbrush better. (I use 91% isopropyl alcohol.) Mixing in a little TAMIYA Flat Base will knock off some of the gloss. I always try the mix on scrap plastic first, since TAMIYA Flat Base is a little touchy. Use too much and it will "frost" the finish and ruin it. Just like TESTORS Dullcote does when its applied too heavily. Of course, it's not always easy to figure out how much is too much... And after years of enamels, I've been using a lot more acrylics in the past few years. I had always like TAMIYA acrylics, now using Citadel and Vallejo as well.

Those Maisto Harleys are very nice. I have some bought at Wal-Mart years ago. Found them at the end of a close-out, when not many were left, and wish I had found more of them. The packaging says 1/24 scale and they look like it.

Their kits are generally OK but sometimes very fiddly IMO. I've built HELLER car and 1/35 armor kits. Another modeler once said of HELLER - "They never use 1 part when they can use 5." That doesn't always mean more detail, sometimes just more complexity and frustration. Though not sure, I believe this tractor is from a brand-new mold and they may have changed their ways. Their older kits like the Citroens and Renaults date back to the 1960s or 70s.

They also copied quite a few 1/35 armor kits - the TAMIYA T-34/76 and British Challenger; the ACADEMY and ITALERI 1/35 Humvees; the ITALERI Leopard 2 tanks. Probably others that never made it to eBay. In most cases, LEE was brazen enough to even copy the box art and instructions exactly. I guess there's a chance that LEE bought a license from those companies to copy their kits. But I doubt it. TRUMPETER is highly respected in 1/35 armor today. But when that brand first appeared in the USA back in the early 2000s, they were infamous for their bad copy of the TAMIYA 1/35 Russian T-72 tank. The commander figure looked more like a melted blob than a human. TAMIYA provided etched-metal grilles for the engine deck, but TRUMPETER left those out and used chrome stickers! Not even close. The T-72 also appeared boxed as other brands, like Wasan Plastic Co. (Trumpeter's producer, according to armor expert Cookie Sewell) and Mini-something-or-other. There's also an equally awful copy of the TAMIYA 1/35 U.S. M-60 tank lurking in kits with those names on the boxes.

Anderson, SC, 10/29/16: Ollie's had 3 of the LINDBERG Dodge L-700 with Box Trailer. Other than that, almost no car kits. Still lots of old LINDBERG dreck like the German armored car and ancient 1/48 aircraft. Though if you need some 1/48 bombs and underwing weapons, the LINDBERG "Firepower Series" aircraft kits have a bunch. Those kits even include the small hooks that hang bombs from the bomb-racks. Also some AMT 1/48 F9F Panthers. Hobby Lobby: still had one AMT Piranha in the Clearance aisle for $10.79. And an MPC 1/8 scale Trail 70 marked down to the same price. No new kits that I noticed. I picked up an AMT 32 Ford Victoria with the 40% discount. Michael's: nothing new at all, same car kits they've had for months. I was packing a 50% coupon on my email, but just didn't see anything I wanted or don't already have. Left empty-handed.

At a flea market today, found 2 of those "1/25 scale-ish" Hallmark Harley-Davidson Christmas Tree Ornaments: the 1936 EL and the 2011 Street Glide Trike. Since others have asked about them, this is what they look like. Not bad, except for the obvious hanging-ring that will need to be cut off.

Consumer Alert: here's another small-scale VW Polizei car, often flogged as "rare" on eBay. It ain't rare. I won this kit in a raffle at a swap meet several years ago. Which means somebody literally couldn't give it away and donated it to the raffle. This Beetle is made by AEROPLAST in Poland, who mostly do aircraft kits. Note that it's 1/35 scale, not 1/32. It's a very early split rear window Beetle. The box art shows a hardtop, but inside the box, it's the open-top version with a roof insert. The kit has about 80 parts. No engine detail, the rear hood is molded shut. AEROPLAST released this in a couple of different versions, including a racing/rally Beetle. The AEROPLAST kit is very similar to the 1/35 scale CMK early VW kits, from the Czech Republic. But the CMK kits have separate interior door panels and overall nicer detail, IMO.

In a thrift store, found a REVELL '68 Corvette L-88 open but untouched. That one has the hardtop and convertible up-top. The store also had a 1/24 MONOGRAM '87 Corvette convertible, the issue molded in Metalflake Blue. I left that one on the shelf. Just no interest, not even for parts.

Thanks, from the other side of the pond! I've heard rumors for a long time that ITALERI was re-issuing the old ESCI Ford Transit Van. But experience has taught me to disbelieve most release rumors until I actually have the kit in my hands. Your post confirms it and I just checked with some on-line vendors in the USA. They are still showing the Transit as a "future release" but it shouldn't be long now. I have 2 of the old ESCI Transits in the red-and-white "Canon" scheme, but will probably get the new release as well.

Looking around the Internetz, it appears that the Boss-A-Bone was the first re-issue, in the 1970s, of the original "Blue Beetle." Which explains why it has the SCUBA gear, I guess. Blue Beetle had those fine Cadillac valve covers, which as we all know disappeared from later releases. The engine was called an Olds in some re-issues and a Chevy small-block in others. Here's a list I found of the various issues, on That Other Magazine's forums: Monogram: 1929 Pickup Truck (Roadster Pickup) 1/24 scale 1st Issued (60s): Blue Beetle Reissued (70s): Boss A Bone Reissued (70s): Early Iron Series Reissued (70-80): ‘29 Ford Pickup; ‘29 Ford Roadster Pickup Reissued (80s): Pickup Street Rod

EDIT, got the quote wrong. When Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead was talking about LSD, he actually said: "Brain damage is what we were after. Chromosome damage was just gravy."

Yep. Not long ago I found an early 1970s kit at a Flea Market with 2 bottles of 15-cent TESTORS paint inside - 1 green and 1 yellow. Just out of curiosity, I opened them up, stirred them and brushed a little on some scrap plastic. They seemed to work just fine after all these years. I'm really glad the original owner never got around to using those paints on the kit. It was a near-mint, completely unbuilt AMT Chevy Van/Open Road Motorhome.

You guys nailed it. It's from an old MARX Service Station playset. Here's a recent eBay listing for one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1950s-Marx-Service-Station-Playset-Plastic-Accessories-Swirled-Pump-NR-/401208679754?hash=item5d69e69d4a:g:0p0AAOSwpLNYBXI4

I have an old Aztek A470 airbrush that I just repaired using the info in the link below. It wasn't spraying at all, and I suspected gunk build-up around the paint valve. It was worse than that - the valve pin had separated from the valve completely, was no longer even connected to the valve, and the pin had jammed in the airbrush body. Now the old Aztek is working like new again. The hardest part of the job - getting up the nerve to crack open the airbrush body. There are no screws or other connectors, it's just a press-fit together. If you try this, work slowly and good luck! http://forum.largescalemodeller.com/topic/1492-taking-apart-the-body-of-your-aztek-a470-airbrush/

Me too! Along with the MPC Stutz Bearcat. Bonus Points if the Bearcat is the TV version, with the machine guns mounted on the fenders. Speaking of the Bearcat fenders - you can use those fenders and a couple of other Bearcat parts to build a stock Thomas Flyer. I wouldn't even mind if Round 2 issued a Special Extreme Geezer Double Kit of the Thomas Flyer and Stutz Bearcat. Well, I can dream...

Flea Market Day. The Die-cast Lady was there, still selling off her late father's massive collection. Some weeks she's there, some weeks not, but she always comes with a bunch of die-casts. Unfortunately many of them are damaged or missing fragile stuff like the windshield frames and small trim pieces. She gave me a great price on a lot of 5 Franklin Mint 1/24 cars. All are dirty from shelf display but complete with nothing broken: 48 Tucker, Waltz Blue What could possibly be better than a Tucker? TWO Tuckers! She also had the gold 50th Anniversary Edition and I grabbed it. 53 Cadillac Eldorado, with separate up-top. 57 Ford Fairlane 500 Retractable (and everything still works) 57 Mercedes-Benz "Pontoon" convertible I also found an AMT-ERTL #8056 '40 Ford Coupe cheap, still shrink-wrapped. Because you can't have too many AMT '40 Ford kits!

Scanning eBay for something totally unrelated to this kit - and up popped a 1/24 TAMIYA Mitsubishi Pajero SUV. That kit has full engine detail, and dashboards for both left and right-hand drive. I've wanted one for a while, but they often go for high prices. Plus high shipping, since most of them seem to live in Asian countries. This one was in the USA and still sealed in the original shrink-wrap. Buy It Now of $19.99 plus $9.99 shipping, not a bad shipping price since it will be crossing the whole continent, from West Coast to East. So just under $30 all in. I went for it.

I remember that Matilda van kit collecting dust for years in Los Angeles toy and discount stores. Kit swap-meet vendors couldn't give them away either. The REVELL John Travolta "Firebird Fever" also seemed to hang around on the shelves for years. Another sales flop around the same time - the ERTL 1/25 farm tractor kits. I remember a local toy store having stacks of those kits at deep discount. And I've been kicking myself for years that I didn't buy every one of them! I'd also like to see some of our insiders weigh in on the subject of sales flops. I recently read an old thread saying the new REVELL Midget Racers didn't sell as well as expected. I checked eBay, where I found quite a few Midgets for sale. Many were offered at reasonable prices, others at ridiculous prices from the usual "RARE COLLECTIBLE VINTAGE!!!" gonks.

Couple of weeks ago I found a Piranha cheap. Also not in the regular Clearance aisle or the model kit section - it was on one of the "island" displays in the middle of an aisle. Several other clearance kits were displayed with it, all aircraft. Couple of months ago, some TAMIYA Weathering Kits were hiding in the regular HL Clearance aisle. They were hard to see, buried under other stuff, and I nearly missed them. I guess you just have to look at everything carefully in HL.

There's some amazing history around Mazda and the Wankel. The very first outing of the Rotary, when it was still brand-new and basically a prototype engine, was the 1968 Marathon de Route race at the Nurburgring. That race was an 84-hour - yes, EIGHTY-FOUR HOUR! - endurance run with no stops. The cars ran continuously for 3 1/2 days. Mazda entered 2 rotary-powered Cosmo Sports, driven by 1 Japanese and 1 Belgian team. The Japanese team broke a rear axle after 82 hours, which must have been heart-breaking. The Belgian team finished in 4th place, behind Porsches and Alfa-Romeos. Those little engines were plenty fast and rugged too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_Cosmo

Water-based (acrylic) only. Enamel-based paint will never dry and will create a huge mess. I have the GUNZE 1/32 59 Cadillac, and just checked to see it has whitewalls of any kind. Nope, blackwalls only. Which would look really strange on a 59 Caddy. You might also check the box contents for truth-in-advertising. The box top/sides of my GUNZE Caddy show a yellow 59 Seville hardtop. But what's actually in the box is an Eldorado convertible. It does come with an up-top and a boot. But no hardtop. Oh well - according to the price sticker it was only $6.95. So I can't complain too much. I went to a new flea market today and found the following kits cheap: Revell '56 Chevy Nomad (missing instructions) Revell '59 Chevy Impala hardtop AMT '61 Ford Galaxie "Styline" re-issue AMT '63 Ford Galaxie "Advanced Customizing" re-issue AMT '66 Buick Riviera Lowrider - missing instructions, Wal-Mart checkerboard box. Looks like this one can't be built stock, so it may end up as a junker and parts source. It does have a nice 425 engine. And a bicycle!

Thanks for the clarification. And the honesty! I would've blamed a goof like that on the computer. Or maybe a cat.

OK, glad it wasn't just me. I did everything except search with a magnifying glass for that wagon with the bikes on the roof. I'd like to know more about that one, too.

#3 - with that square transmission, I'm guessing the Chrysler early Hemi came from the AMT '32 Ford Roadster kit. #5 - judging by its size relative to all the others, that may be a Chrysler straight-8 block from the MPC '32 Chrysler roadster/phaeton kit. The only Packard straight-8's I'm familiar with are from the Monogram kits. They are 1/24 scale and look REALLY big. I'm thinking of using one in a street rod and have been playing with that idea a little.