Mike999

Another great write-up! Looking forward to the build. Not long ago, I came SO close to building one of these. It's weird and ugly, so right in my ballpark. I found the kit at a local flea market for $10. The box was dirty and water-stained, but the kit inside was complete and in perfect condition. For some reason I changed my mind about building it. Like you, I went and researched the real cars. Maybe that killed my enthusiasm. I don't know, but I put it back in the box and recently sold it on eBay. I asked $34.99 "Buy It Now" + shipping and a buyer grabbed it right away. Mint, shrink-wrapped examples seem to go for about $40. The Corvette America kit doesn't come up all that often on eBay.

Sorry to hear this. If I still lived in your area, I'd be at your house with a U-Haul truck! ? I hope you find something else to enjoy in your spare time. Or you might even want to hold off a bit. I've considered giving up this hobby more than once and changed my mind.

These aren't the 1/25 scale car kits we know and love. They're usually aircraft or 1/35 scale military kits. I ordered 2 of the 1/35 scale kits in the pic below, a UAZ-452 van and the UAZ-452D pickup truck version. Also in the same order, a 1/48 scale P-63 King Cobra and some other stuff. The UAZ bodies are multi-part, not one piece, so the body parts are on the trees and can be stacked along with everything else. I guess it saves on shipping because the flattened kits and boxes take up less vertical room. And it was pretty easy to separate the parts trees. Not even I could mistake P-63 parts for those belonging on a Russian truck...

Something weird from foreign eBay sellers, especially Ukraine and Russia: to save on shipping, they flatten the kit boxes and put those boxes, along with the parts, into a shipping box. That's not too bad, unless you order several kits at once as I have done a few times. Then you end up with a big jigsaw puzzle, and have to figure out what parts trees go in which box.

Flea Market Day! Pretty slim pickings for model cars. The usual clutter of overpriced NASCAR kits and diecasts, offered by wishful sellers. I did pick up an old AMT-ERTL '32 Ford Vicky cheap, with all the parts bags still sealed. Its chassis and Flathead engine are useful for updating original AMT '32 Fords, or back-dating the chassis of the Revell Deuce kits. And when I say "old..." The kit box also had a small bottle of Testors Thinner, on the original bubble card from Toys R Us. The price was 69 cents. Also stuffed into that box: a big old square bottle of Testors Liquid Cement (fortunately it didn't leak); small square bottles of Flat Black and Gloss Gray Testors paint. And a big pack of 24 cheap paint brushes. I can use those as disposables, for weathering and such. BUYER BEWARE: this Vicky is AMT-ERTL kit #6573. In most issues of this kit, including the original and the latest "Lil Viky" re-issue, the alleged 427 Ford engine has 6 2-barrel carbs with chrome velocity stacks and ball plugs for the stacks. This kit #6573 does NOT. It has a single 4-barrel carb and a round, non-chrome air cleaner. The chrome tree has a lot of open space in it, where the original parts were. So at some point AMT-ERTL de-contented the kit, and Round 2 re-contented it for the re-issue. Something to be aware of, if you see kit #6573 sealed at a swap meet or flea market.

In my latest eBay sale, one buyer bought 2 kits and eBay charged him $20.80 for shipping. The real shipping price at the Post Office was $9.90, so I refunded him $10.90 thru PayPal. I always do that. eBay buyers, especially new ones, need to be aware of that Stupid eBay Trick with shipping: if you win more than one item and pay instantly, you will be charged the full shipping price for EACH item. I warn buyers about that in my eBay listings. If you win more than 1 item at an eBay auction, or do "Buy It Now" for more than 1 kit, don't pay for the items immediately. Put them in the "Cart," then send the seller a message and ask for combined shipping.

I ordered my LR's from "shop4megastore" in the UK. Does that ring a bell? I was also digging thru eBay and old emails...then the Law Of Serendipity struck! The outfit sent me a new email. Here's their home page: https://www.shop4megastore.com/sale/clearance/collectables-and-hobbies If anyone is interested, Hobbylinc here in the USA currently has the Revell Land Rover for $27.59.

Thanks, another eBay seller as stupid as me! I have an eBay sale up right now. When kits aren't moving and don't have anybody "Watching," I do one of 2 things: drop the price or offer free shipping. Sometimes both. When I offer free shipping, I'm hoping the buyer lives fairly close to me. Sometimes that works out, sometimes not. I live on the East Coast, and 2 recent buyers who got free shipping were in CA and OR. I'd guess your seller is like me, an individual and not a shop or hobby business. Sometimes it's not about "making a profit," but more about getting rid of stuff that no longer interests you and making room. For new kits! I only ship with Priority Mail. Prices keep going up but it's still a good deal, with $50 insurance and a Tracking Number included. I don't use any eBay "shipping programs." I print my own labels and take the boxes to the Post Office myself. As for the "well-packed and in excellent condition," that's just good business practice. If I send somebody a kit wrapped in napkins and duct tape, they probably won't buy from me again. And for me, that part is personal. I don't like to get badly packed kits that are crushed/damaged, and won't do that to anybody else. It violates my Atheist Work Ethic. ?

Lindberg had/has quite a few of the old PYRO molds. The only "Brass Era" mold they seem to have is the 1915 Model T Coupelet, which is a shame. I'd love to see more of those Brass Era kits, like the Mercer Toy Tonneau and Raceabout, 1909 Cadillac and 1912 Packard touring cars, 1909 Lozier-Briarcliff etc. Also some of the oddball kits PYRO did in their "Table Top Series," like the '34 Plymouth 4-door sedan. A very desirable oddball on eBay is the PYRO '52 Chevy station wagon. Even if it is a 2-door wagon, which Chevy didn't make in 1952.

Anybody who wanted one missed out recently. I sold a Corvette America on eBay at the end of May. It went for $34.99 "Buy It Now" + shipping. You're right, they don't come up very often. I always research kits I'm selling, using eBay's "Completed Items." That gives me a good idea of the prices kits are really selling for. My Corvette America was complete with just a few parts off the trees, but the box was water-stained and pretty beat up. Mint condition shrink-wrapped kits went for an average of about $40, so $34.99 seemed reasonable.

I wish! But somebody in here said the ERTL company still owns the tooling for those tractor and farm equipment kits. They were not part of the deal when Round 2 acquired AMT, and stayed with ERTL. I'm inclined to believe that. The last sighting of those kits was in the 1990's, when AMT/ERTL re-issued the John Deere farm tractor and the Deere 310 Backhoe. Whoever that expert was, please speak up! Here's a LONG thread from 2009 about the mysterious Jo-Han molds. One problem mentioned: they only fit in Jo-Han's molding machines, which were ancient and unlike any other company's machines. Rumor says both AMT and Revell considered buying the Jo-Han molds, but decided they would be too expensive to refurbish. The thread is full of rumor, speculation and ancient history. And a lot of fun!

LOL! I feel the same way about the Gypsy Wagon that many of you do about the Imperial. I want the "Gypsy Camping Accessories" like the fiddle, cooking pot etc. But I have zero interest in the kit itself. So watch the Trade forum! The motorcycle in the Imperial kit is a definite must-get. Another minor but neat feature in that kit: it has a working luggage rack that can be adapted to other classic cars. The rack can be folded up, or opened with a trunk sitting on it. But I already have some parts from the AMT-ERTL release of that kit. So the basic car may end up being traded, too. It sounds like the competition may be fierce to trade Imperial kits without the motorcycle or Gangbuster parts.

Resurrecting another Thread From The Dead! In search of a slump-buster, I just popped open a '59 El Camino in that "vertical" box. Heads up: if you have a kit in that box, you might want to open it. Along with the roof posts possibly being bent, that little box causes other problems. The roof was OK on mine, but the chrome tree was seriously bent. It was jammed in halfway on the bottom of the box and sort of leaning against the side, with all the other parts on top of it. And had been that way since 1997, when the kit was re-issued in that small box. Haven't checked every part yet but nothing seems to be broken or damaged. I'm hoping to build this as a well-used, beat-up handyman's vehicle, with the "big camper" on it. The camper that was issued only once with the '59 El Camino, back around 1969.

I noticed that too. And boy, does that scene skip over a LOT of history. The Willow Run plant had so many problems that it became known as "Willit Run?" The first couple of hundred B-24's off its assembly line were so poorly built they were rejected by the military for use overseas, and restricted to training or other "hack" chores within the USA. A.J. Baime wrote a great book about that, "The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War." That's the same A.J. Baime who wrote "Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans." https://www.amazon.com/Arsenal-Democracy-Detroit-Quest-America/dp/0547719280

The late great Harlan Ellison said when he was writing for the science-fiction pulp magazines in the early 1950's, one kind of story was always guaranteed to be rejected: "cowboys in space." Editors hated those stories and would not buy them. They even spelled it out in their Writer's Guidelines: "no cowboys in space stories." That's ironic, since "cowboys in space" describes some of the most successful sci-fi movies. Including most of the "Star Wars" franchise, IMO.

I'm pretty sure I ordered 2 LR kits from that same outfit. They arrived in the same kind of flimsy cardboard, and one box end was badly crushed. The kits were fine but I won't be ordering from them again.

I also stopped by two last week, the smaller HL closest to me and a bigger store about 20 miles away. No '67 Impala 4D in either one. Weirdly, the bigger store seemed to have fewer kits than the smaller one. Lots more open slots in the shelves. The newest kit in both stores was the Revell '69 Boss 302. I don't have one of those yet. But I'm thinking about getting one and trying to build a "mainstream" non-Boss Mustang fastback.

I'd like to see the rest of this one too. Until I read this thread, I never knew the Bronson kit was (partly) re-issued. And until just now, had never seen or heard of the 2 other Harley kits descended from it. I learn something new every day on this board! Since Ace's pix disappeared, here's the Scalemates entry for the Bronson Harley and its siblings: the "Baja Burro" off-road racer and the "Dream Machine" stock Sportster. The Bronson kit was released in 1970, the Baja Burro in 1971 and the Dream Machine in 1972. And that was the end of this kit. It would be great if Round 2 found the molds buried somewhere. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/mpc-413-bronson-motorcycle--1245450 EDIT TO ADD: a "Baja Burro" recently sold on eBay for $76.00. The listing shows all the parts: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8-Scale-Harley-Davidson-Baja-Burro-Off-Road-Racer-MPC-418/303552521006?hash=item46ad23e32e:g:w04AAOSwE0pepyZG

I goofed, "Ford v Ferrari" premiered on U-Verse 2 weeks ago. Last week the big Sat. night premiere movie was "Doctor Sleep." I checked HBO On Demand, "FvF" is available on there until 9/13/20. It's also playing about 40 times on the various HBO channels, in the next few weeks. That "ending date" trips me up sometimes too. Not long ago I was watching a long cable series on a Thursday and got sleepy, figured I would catch the last 2 episodes the next day. Well no, it ended on the night I was watching. But it will come back around...

You can also get a .50 caliber machine gun in 1/24 scale from 2 Italeri kits: kit #6351 "Jeep with M2 Machine Gun" or #6352 "Armed Pick-up" (a/k/a Toyota BJ-44). Both kits were released in 2010. Unfortunately, Italeri's .50 cal is not very good and missing many details. I re-worked one for the Toyota kit. One of its biggest problems, like every other scale model .50 caliber: the bottom of the gun is molded solid. It should be hollow, that's where spent shells fall from an M2 machine gun. I hogged out the bottom and added tiny rivets plus other details. Still not all that happy with it. This looks like an outstanding 1/24 scale .50 caliber. Available on eBay for about $46.

Here's the Eegah-Mobile.

Jon Bernthal played Iacocca. One of my fave actors was the unctuous Ford exec, Leo Beebe: Josh Lucas. He played a very scary psychotic criminal in another reality-based movie, "Wonderland." It's about the 1981 Wonderland Ave. murders in Los Angeles. Automotive Connection: the LAPD called them "the Four-On-The-Floor Murders," because 4 dead people were left on the floor. Val Kilmer plays John Holmes. Yes, THAT John Holmes. HBO premiered "Ford v Ferrari" last week and the 2019 "Midway" last night. So it's been a rare good week on HBO, among the usual rom-coms and Teens Save The World dreck.

Shapeways has some. Also, Blast Models makes a set of 60 resin hydraulic fittings, useable in 1/24 and 1/35 scale, or so they say. Do a search on "BL35360K - HYDRAULIC CONNECTORS." The only place I've seen the Blast set is on eBay, from foreign sellers. https://www.shapeways.com/product/KMEZQFBEE/1-24-scale-fittings-pipe-hydraulic-straight-t

The substance to fill the cavity is usually 2-part clear epoxy, like the Bob Smith stuff sold at Hobby Lobby. It hardens in about 5 minutes, but it's best to leave it alone for several hours. Then you can flip the emblem over and trim it with a very sharp blade.

That's a new one to me, thanks. Lots of possibilities: pre-WWII or early war American, Lend-Lease British or Russian, etc. For building ideas: MiniArt did a whole series of Bantam BRC-40's in 1/35 scale, some with figures and some without. Their Russian version even included a female traffic cop.