Mike999

FWIW, I've been using the same 3 bottles of CA for a year now; 1 each of Thin, Thick and Medium. This is the "Extreme" brand, sold at Hobby Lobby. All seem to be still working good without any special handling. I just keep them on the workbench in my basement. The biggest problem I have is the one that everybody probably has - hardened glue build-up on the applicator, so the top no longer fits tight.

We did that too, with almost as many Secret Formulas as using Future on model cars. That was a long time ago, but I remember melting the solid boot polish and applying it with a soft rag and water. The Future was just a finishing touch to give the toes a real mirror shine. I sometimes laugh at still using Future for my hobby, all these years later. I also remember experimenting with Brass-o to polish plastic model cars back then. Which worked pretty well, as long as you cleaned out the residual "grit" from the stuff. On edit: I should have said "Brass-o to polish UNPAINTED plastic model cars." It's about as abrasive as sandpaper, and seriously stinks as well. I was remembering when I was still in the Corps and won a ribbon at a local contest, with the MONOGRAM '30 Packard Boat-tail. The coral/brown colors of the bare plastic looked really sharp, and polishing them with the Brass-o worked well. Though as I remember, it took a lot of polishing.

When I was a Drill Instructor at MCRD San Diego about 150 years ago, we used Future on just the toes of the boots, to make them really shine. And we only did that for special occasions, like the Drill Competition at the end of First Phase (the third week of Boot Camp). Along with another DI, I learned the hard way that putting Future on boots was technically a violation of Marine Corps uniform regs. I found that out when we were merrily Futur-ing boot toes and the Officer of the Day walked thru our squadbay. He was a Second Lieutenant (naturally!). He didn't say a word to us directly. But went back to the office and made an entry in his log book about the Future. A few days later, our Company Commander (a Captain) called us in and said he had to put some kind of response in the record, since our crime was officially recorded in the logbook. So he gave us an "unofficial reprimand." Meaning he just told us not to do it again, or at least not to get caught doing it again. But he was nearly LOL'ing the whole time he reprimanded us. And let us know that he thought it was a really nit-picking thing for the Lt. to do.

Heh! Now I find myself wanting a 1/25 scale MilSpec '70 Ambassador wagon. From "U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles" by Fred W. Crismon (Crestline Publishing, 1983): "Purchases of military vehicles are usually done on a low bid basis. Occasionally this leads to a less than desirable product, and this AMC Ambassador station wagon of about 1970 is a prime example. Known to private buyers as the most luxurious of the AMC fleet, these military "Ambassadors" should have been a total embarrassment to the manufacturer. Sheet plastic upholstery, minimal insulation, black rubber floor mats, a black painted instrument panel and a high noise level provided by the 232 cubic inch 6-cylinder engine gave an impression of total austerity. Although technically "just what the Army ordered," the cars were noisy, harsh riding when loaded, and not very reliable. They encouraged many a military member to never own an AMC product."

The fe-mail carrier dropped off a big box from an online retailer. Including the AMT "Blazing Bison" Puller Tractor. I had this one years ago in the original "Meisterbrau" version and stripped it for parts. I have zero interest in Puller Tractors. But I am interested in the 3 Arias Hemi engines and the great accessories, like the wagon, ice chest etc. So I may strip this one down too. Not sure yet. Those rear tractor tires should be useful for something... Also grabbed an interesting "police car," even if it is in the Wrong Scale of 1/35: the ITALERI 4x4 IVECO Tactical Vehicle "Lince." As usual, ITALERI's box art is underwhelming, but this is a really well-done kit. The interior safety belts and harnesses are done in photo-etched metal and all 4 doors are separate parts:

Some great builds in here, thanks for the inspiration! And I do love that MONOGRAM '30 Ford Coupe kit. Just checked the spreadsheet and I have 4 of them. Will buy more if I see them reasonably priced. Along with fantastic rod material - they're a great source of stock parts for the '30 Ford Phaeton and '30 Woody, which haven't been released in completely stock form for a long time. I also have a couple of Herb Deeks' resin 4-door sedan bodies that were made to fit the MONOGRAM kit. I'd also like to see the very attractive '30 Cabriolet reissued too. It hasn't been available for a long time either. Even better, put all the Coupe/Cabriolet parts in one box and give us the original 6-in-1 version. In a nostalgic long box with a nostalgic instruction sheet, as long as I'm wishing.

Subscriber. The fe-mail carrier brought my copy yesterday (Sat., 9/17).

Michael's sent me a 50% off coupon and I used it for the REVELL '83 Hurst Olds. Intended to wait for a stock version, but decided to take the plunge for $13.99. I'm thinking about building it as a well-used work car anyway, so I can probably whack down the hood scoop etc. This week's Hobby Lobby 40% coupon went toward another MPC '60 Corvette. My second. I really like all the extras in that kit, like the skis/rack, driver figure, different tops, tonneau cover etc. Thought I might use some of those parts on other C1 Vettes. Hobby Lobby had a few kits on Clearance sale. These are sitting on an "island" near the model kits in my store. Not on the usual Clearance wall/aisle. Only saw a couple of cars. The Piranha/Super Spy was about $19 and the AMT Li'l Hot Dogger about the same price, IIRC. They mostly had aircraft kits discounted: AMT 1/48 Stinson Reliant, REVELL 1/72 Twin Mustang, and the MINICRAFT 1/72 Martin Mariner (a very nice kit).

Link to the discussion on the Missing-Lynx armor board. With some sad pictures of Verlinden dioramas, molds and other stuff going into the Dumpster. Verlinden didn't do many 1/24 items but they did turn out a few good ones, like the 1/24 CHP figure shown below. If you want one of those, better start looking right now. eBay prices for Verlinden stuff will no doubt be hitting the stratosphere soon. http://www.network54.com/Forum/47211/thread/1473968626/last-1474034391/View+Thread

Happy dance! Just double-checked to make sure the pay phone is in the newest Sunbeam Tiger release. It is. Makes me happy because I have an IMC "Touch Tone Terror." That's the old Dodge A100 pickup/Little Red Wagon kit with Bell Telephone service truck option. It included a complete vintage phone booth. Bought it at a swap meet years ago and it had all the clear parts and decals for the phone booth, but was missing the pay phone and receiver. So now I can build a complete vintage 1/25 phone booth...just in case I ever need one. Speaking of the "Touch Tone Terror" - if you think modern kits have a lot of flash, you should see this thing. Mine is an original, first-run issue from the 1960's. I had to literally carve some parts out of flash just to get them off the sprue. And the white plastic is translucent/transparent in many places. It's in progress, I'm replacing the body with a Jimmy Flintstone resin van body. Will probably make it a TV service truck. Which was actually an option Dodge offered for that van. Found a brochure showing it on the internet.

That kit is also a gold mine for anyone doing a 1950s-60s 1/48 scale aircraft diorama. It includes a maintenance stand, a Caterpillar-style tracked towing vehicle, and no less than 9 - NINE - crew figures. Though most of those poor little guys suffer from the dread Sink-mark-itis. Other interesting parts that might be modified for car kits include the JATO bottles, external fuel tanks and J57 jet engine. And as you mention, the whole Snark missile itself as a potential LSR car. The LINDBERG Snark was one of the kits in the big Ollie's model clearance a few months ago. At least my local Ollie's had a bunch of them. Checked a couple of weeks ago and didn't see any left. This Ollie's did have a few models left, mostly LINDBERG 1/48 aircraft and armor kits. And some Tennessee State Patrol Crown Vics.

MPC Raiders Coach - I'd grab that one just for the rock-music accessories - electric organ and amplifiers, and speaker cabinets with a "Vox" logo. Handy for a 1960's band vehicle, maybe using a LINDBERG Dodge van or Ghostbusters 59 Cad ambulance. GLENCOE Piasecki ZV8P - Interesting, simple little kit of an early air-cushion vehicle. 1/32 scale. The decals include PIASECKI factory markings for the test vehicle and US Army decals for a fictional in-service "Geep." Also comes with some really bad military figures.

At my closest Hobby Lobby last week, I only saw 2 new kits priced at $39.99 - the "Lawman" Plymouth and the LINDBERG customized '37 Ford convertible. FWIW, both kits had the sticker touting Cartograf decals, so maybe that's part of the big price bump. I didn't pay attention to the '16 Camaro since I have zero interest in that kit/car. Not long ago, I did notice what other posters have mentioned - all regular car kits at Hobby Lobby are $29.99 now. I'll probably only buy HL kits from now on with the 40% off coupon, or from the Clearance sales. Even with shipping, prices are better at online vendors. Especially if you buy several kits and spread the shipping cost. I've seen the "Lawman" kit online for $21.99.

VCG Resins seems to make - or made - exactly what you're looking for. "1/25 Tach With Shift Light." Unfortunately, the page link below shows it as "Currently Unavailable." Detail Master makes a couple of different tachs. Model Roundup carries Detail Master, and shows DM-3225 " '60's Style Tachometer" as currently in stock. http://www.tedsmodelingmarketplace.com/tach-with-shift-light-1-25/

Flea Market Day! Slim pickings today. I did find a very cheap LINDBERG #72776 Crown Vic, Illinois State Patrol, still shrink-wrapped. A good find because the kit body is pre-painted, but it's painted plain white. No stripping/re-painting necessary. (Unless I decide to add a second color.) One guy had a whole box of car kits. He was asking $10 each, or a package deal on the whole box. I must be getting old, turned them down. The more I looked at the kits, the more I realized they were all from the big Ollie's blowout a few months ago - 1 REVELL 37 Ford Sedan, 1 LINDBERG Crown Vic, 2 LINDBERG '64 Dodges, etc. etc. Already have multiples on many of those, including some bought from the Ollie's sale. It just wasn't worth the aggravation of finding room for them. I need that shelf space for new releases!

Exactly. Several companies make 1/35 Explosive Ordnance Disposal figures and equipment. Perfect for a diorama with that booby-trapped Mercedes. As someone who builds military and car kits, I'd like more weirdness in 1/35 scale AND more mid-1960s Ford Trucks, please! Here's MENG Kit Number HS-993 - 1/35 scale EOD Team and Robots:

I have the first issue of that Dio-Park "Anonymous German Sedan" from a few years ago. They are very nice kits. No engine, but all 4 doors and the trunk can be posed open. The retail price was pretty high, IMO. But you can find deals on them by looking around online. That first issue was called "German Civilian Car And IED Equipment." The IED equipment for the trunk included a gas cylinder, plastic container, two RPG rounds, 122mm shells (5), a couple of mines. And even a 1/35 cell-phone, to trigger the IED! Another big Mercedes sedan in 1/35 scale - the NZG company made several die-casts that often show up on eBay. I bought one years ago because it was cheap and the only one in 1/35 scale, at that time. I compared the die-cast to the body shell of this Dio-Park kit and they are very close.

The local Hobby Lobby (Anderson, SC) FINALLY got the REVELL '30 Coupe. Picked one up today with the 40% off e-mail coupon. Plan to buy another...but only with another coupon! I noticed something about those $39.99 prices - along with the '64 Plymouth Lawman, the latest reissue of the LINDBERG customized '37 Ford convertible was also $39.99. And just like the Lawman, the Ford had a sticker on the box touting the Cartograph decals. So I'm guessing that Cartograph deal had something to do with the $10.00 price bump. Though I am just guessing, and don't know for sure. As I mentioned above, online dealers show the MSRP of the Lawman as $31 and change, and both sell it for quite a bit less. But with the HL 40% discount, the kit comes in at $23.99. So there really won't be much difference between the online price and HL with the coupon.

Sorry, one missing. I'll probably keep the other in case I need a Cyclops look on a street rod. Or something. Two of the red bullet taillights were also missing, which was irritating. Along with most of the chrome side trim and some other small parts. Like the driver side door handle, also annoying. I need those in pairs! Grrr.... The woman I bought the Chrysler from recently got a huge lot of Danbury & Franklin diecasts in an estate sale. She's bringing them to the Flea Market a few at a time. Of the ones she brought this week, most were slightly damaged and missing parts. She has the original "Owner's Certificate/Bill Of Sale" for most of them, but none of the boxes or paperwork. If I see a '53 Skylark cheap, I'll buy it and let you know. I'd like another set of those wire wheels.

You're making me very happy I'm an only child, long divorced, with no heirs. I'm a grumpy old loner and plan to stay that way! I've helped people sell kits on eBay before, but nothing on this massive scale. I hate to add to your problems, but keep this in mind with shipping multiple kits: USPS calculates its prices based on Weight AND Size of the package. That's why the USPS website calculator asks for the package dimensions. A few years ago USPS charged by Weight only. A Post Office employee told me that changed after a rise in fuel prices (though nothing changed back after fuel prices fell, as usual). The USPS decided it also needed to charge by the amount of room a package occupied, as well as the Weight. This means the one of the most expensive things you can ship is a big box that doesn't weigh very much - like a big box of model kits. A Post Office employee told me that, too. You may have been venting in your last post, but I think you're on to a good idea there. "They seem to be opposed, thinking that an auction, even down in Lansing MI, would not get the sheer interest that Ebay would." Well, then I suggest all these experts go read the eBay Tutorial and start listing stuff themselves, especially if they're so worried about being cheated. This reminds me of the old saying: "All jobs are easy, to the person who's NOT doing them."

Thanks! That sure was interesting. Yep, it looks exactly like that "metal rot." Looking over the model, I noticed a few other problems. The bottom front edge of the hood has broken and looks like it's disintegrating. Oh well - the car was dirt cheap, and I can harvest a lot of good parts like the window cranks, seats, wide whitewall tires. Hmmm...a street rod with a Chrysler Straight-8 engine... At the same Flea Market, I recently found a Danbury Mint '53 Buick Skylark with quite a bit of damage and missing trim. Bought it for $3, mostly just to get the fantastic wire wheels. I was worried about the humidity angle, since I live in Upstate SC where it gets very humid. But that doesn't appear to be the problem. I have quite a few diecasts, some loose and some still in the original box. Haven't seen the Rot on any of them so far. Not even cheapies like the Jada '53 Cadillacs.

Flea Market Day! I got a mint LINDBERG '53 Ford hardtop cheap, because you can't have too many of those. Also a started but complete REVELL '67 Chevelle SS396, a great parts source. The Steal of the Day was the die-cast 1/24 Franklin Mint '24 Hispano-Suiza Tulipwood Sportster for $10. Always wanted one of those, but not at their regular prices. No box or paperwork, but I don't care. It's complete and looks great, with all that wood and copper trim. Also got a dirt-cheap 1/24 Danbury Mint '49 Chrysler Town & Country woody convertible. Part of the windshield frame is missing but fixable, and the paint has some weird bubbles in it on the right front fender. It looks almost like rust bubbling up from underneath on a real car. I might fix the windshield, throw a surfboard on top, and make it a beach car. A different kind of Woody Wagon, you might say...

Keyser's advice is probably best in this case. I've been buying and selling on eBay since about 1999, and I wouldn't try to sell a lot this big on there. But if you do, USPS Priority is probably the best shipping option. Go to the USPS website, and you can order free shipping boxes delivered right to your door. Some bidders will probably win multiple auctions, so you'll also need some bigger, odd-sized boxes. I've had the same bidder win as many as 8 separate auctions in one sale, and some of those auctions were for multiple kits. If you can't round up enough Dumpster boxes etc., you can buy cheap, strong shipping boxes at U-Haul, Lowe's and Home Depot. (Trust me on that - I moved cross-country last year and personally packed up all my approximately 2 billion kits.) I recently talked to a vendor at a weekly Flea Market here. He just bought a collection of 1,000 kits and die-casts from a new widow. He paid her $1.00 each, so $1,000 for the lot. The catch - they were all NASCAR. He said he was having trouble selling them for $2.00 each.

I'm out of breath myself from chasing those. They tend to be REALLY expensive on eBay. I have 2 Range Rovers bought at kit swap meets. Neither has the roof rack, bull-bar and running boards of yours. One of them does have a resin left-hand-drive dashboard in the box. Probably from American SATCO, since it made LHD dashes for a lot of those Japanese kits.

If anybody is thinking about doing this one as a weathered beater...here's a long (32 pages) thread at Corvette Forum on that subject. How Vette paint weathers, patinas, etc. Lots of photos: http://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/c1-and-c2-corvettes/3621641-patina-corvettes-old-paint.html