Mike999

I remember the decals in Tamiya's Opel Astra V8 as being very thin. They'd fold over on themselves easily and I had to be really careful with them. That kit also dates from around 2001. Earlier than that, Tamiya did some stand-alone 1/35 scale military decal sheets. Generic Desert Storm ambulance markings and other subjects. They were just the opposite: very thick, and it took a lot of time and effort to separate them from the backing sheet. I had to soak them in water for longer than usual, then let the wet decal sit on a paper towel until they loosened up. That was probably an issue of old age more than a problem with the decals themselves. But it sure was tedious. I recently used some really ancient ESCI decals, from the early 1980's. They behaved perfectly well. Came off the backing paper after a few seconds of dipping in water, laid down flat and didn't give me any problems. Conclusion: decals are weird and unpredictable. Like many things in this hobby.

A note about that '66 442 hardtop kit, for those who might not know: the earliest run of those kits had a wrong (standard) front bumper, with the parking lights in the corners of the bumper slots. The box art shows them in the right place, moved inwards to make room for the W-30 air scoops. But the box art was re-touched. That's the famous Wal-Mart "checkerboard" box, but the regular kit box has the same red car on it. AMT-ERTL caught the goof quickly and fixed the bumper. But there's no indication of that on the box. With a "red car" kit, the only way to know for sure it has the right bumper is to open the box. The later reissue with a blue-and-white hardtop on the box always had the correct front bumper. The hardtop and convertible kits had some differences. The hardtop engine has Tri-Power and the W-30 ram-air setup. The convertible has a single 4-barrel carb and a nice air-conditioning unit under the hood. These are worth picking up cheap just for parts. In one of its big kit sales, Ollie's had a pile of the blue-and-white box hardtops on sale for $7.99.

Whenever the subject of those ex-ERTL kits comes up, people post to say that Round 2 never got the molds for the ERTL farm tractors, Backhoe, and related kits. Those molds stayed with ERTL so the chances of a re-issue are not good. Maybe somebody who knows the whole story will post the info again.

Seeing that AURORA 1/32 scale Porsche is a real trip back in time. And it's not even too expensive (yet).

Great work so far! And a LOT of great work! I like obscure aircraft too. The Bombay is so obscure I'd never heard of it, and had to do a search. A combination transport/bomber. Reminds me a little of the Vultee V1, originally built as a single-engine airliner. When the FAA banned single-engine passenger planes, a few V1's were sold to Spain and used as bombers in their civil war. AZUR makes a short-run 1/72 scale kit of that plane. VALOM makes a lot of weird aircraft kits, all of them...challenging to build, like your Bombay. One of the world's best modelers, Steve Zaloga, took on their 1/72 scale Bell YFM-1 Airacuda. He got it done and it looked great, but he gave it a one-word review: "crappy." Still, for weird, it's hard to beat a twin-engine pusher "heavy fighter" with 37mm cannons in the front of the nacelles.

Heh! Long ago, I did a tour as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor at MCRD San Diego. The only part of the job that ever really scared me was taking recruits to the pistol range at Camp Pendleton. With a rifle, even the lightweight M-16, people tend to hold it with both hands. But with a pistol, everybody thinks he's Jesse James. Our M1911 Colt .45's were only used for training. They were old, loose and often jammed. We gave the recruits strict instructions: if the weapon malfunctions, keep it pointed downrange at all times. Raise your hand and we will come help you. Well, they usually didn't do that. Instead of pointing it downrange, they would swing the .45 so the muzzle was right in my face. Or try to clear the jam themselves, by shoving the barrel into their crotch and vigorously yanking on the slide. According to legend, when Camp Pendleton built a new pistol range, the very first round fired went into a recruit's foot. I had no problem believing that. And yep, that diorama is awesome. Very junky and cluttered, just like real life! (That's a compliment.)

Motor City Resin Casters has 4-door sedan and Sedan Delivery bodies for this '41 Plymouth. I'd like to do this... http://www.motorcityresincasters.com/mcrcc.htm

Is that a new release of the Heller 1928 Citroen Fourgonette? Those Amora and Heller decals look fantastic. I'd like to have some myself. I have the much older "Borden" and "Waterman" versions of that kit.

It was also "just the flu" that killed 50 million people around the world in 1918. Here at home, that flu pandemic killed more Americans than WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam combined. At Fort Devens, MA, so many young, otherwise healthy soldiers died that the morgue ran out of room, and bodies were stacked everywhere. A good book about it that I'm reading right now: "Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It" by Gina Kolata. On edit: I have a sort of personal connection to that 1918 pandemic. My paternal grandmother lost so many of her relatives, including her parents, that the family doctor worried she might go insane. He told my grandfather it would be best to get her completely out of the area. He did. They were cotton sharecroppers and moved from north Georgia to SC.

It sure was significant. And bizarre. I walked around the neighborhood afterwards. At Northridge Mall, the parking structure collapsed. One very lucky guy was trapped in the debris and they dug him out about 3 days later. An apartment building with underground parking pancaked, with the 3 floors falling right onto the tops of the cars underneath. Across the street from Northridge Mall, a Tower Records building split right down the middle and the 2 halves fell in on each other. L.A. lost 2 major freeways in that quake. The 118 collapsed and killed a Highway Patrol motorcycle officer who rode off the edge, right into the abyss. That freeway was the main commute for people who lived in Palmdale/Lancaster. And the Santa Monica Fwy/I-10 fell, another major commuting route for people going and coming to West L.A.

I remember somebody building a stock Flyer, using the fenders from the MPC 1914 Stutz Bearcat. Maybe another memory in here is better than mine.

Yep. Especially considering what happened to the famous dancer Isadora Duncan: "On the night of September 14, 1927, in Nice, France, Duncan was a passenger in an Amilcar CGSS automobile owned by Benoît Falchetto, a French-Italian mechanic...Her silk scarf, draped around her neck, became entangled around the open-spoked wheels and rear axle, pulling her from the open car and breaking her neck." (Wikipedia)

I was living then at Sherman Way & Corbin Ave. in the Valley, about 2 miles from the epicenter in Northridge. Since both the gas and water mains broke, one of the weirdest things I remember seeing was burning natural gas floating on top of water in the street. Everybody mostly pulled together in the aftermath of that quake. There were many little Mom-and-Pop delis and cafes in my neighborhood. All of them were giving away food, since it would just spoil anyway.

Yep. Last year on eBay, I sold both Gangbuster Lincolns in a lot: an original '27 Roadster and re-issue '28 Phaeton. The lot sold for $34.33, or about $17 each. AMT- ERTL didn't release the '27 Roadster with the other kits in the 1980's "Connoisseur Classics" series. So the only way to get one with the gangsta parts is to buy an original. It's a nice kit. One of the gangster figures in the kit is a female, which is unusual. And the kit comes with a working golf-bag door in the passenger side. Complete with a golf bag and some individual golf clubs to go in it. Ah, the good old days!

That MPC 1914 Stutz Bearcat is often available on eBay for reasonable prices. I just searched for it in "Completed Items." One kit sold recently for $9.50, with only 2 bids. But since this is eBay...another one sold for $80. I have a couple in the stash myself. But I hoard them for the Wisconsin T-Head engine and other antique parts.

Absolutely. I've had people ask to buy built stuff of mine that was displayed in a hobby shop. But I would never take on commissions. Yesterday, along with working on an eBay sale, I got some work done on a 1/24 ICM Model T, a big project that's taking a lot of time because I'm slow. And doing quite a few mods to the kit. Then I decided I wanted to do something simple that could only be built one way, right out of the box. Or the blister-card, in this case. No mods or re-working. I went into the stash and grabbed an Airfix 54mm figure from 1975 (the French Foreign Legionnaire 1908). So far I've done the parts clean-up and some assembly. It was an absolute joy working on that thing. I got so wrapped up in sanding, gluing and filling that little figure that I nearly forgot to eat dinner.

That depends. The "Connoisseur Classics" name was used twice, first by MPC, then again by AMT-ERTL. The original MPC "Connoisseur Classics" came out in the 1970s and did NOT have the Gangbuster parts. AMT/ERTL used the "CC" name again in the mid-1980s. Those kits did have the gangster stuff, but did not mention them anywhere on the box. We can tell them apart by the box art. The MPC Chrysler with the red car on the box is original CC with no gangster bits. The AMT-ERTL CC box with the white car does have them.

Easy-Off has always worked for me. Use the full-strength, original Easy-Off in the yellow can, not the "fume-free" stuff in the blue can. People who have used it say the fume-free Easy-Off is not as strong. WARNING: Easy-Off is nasty and dangerous. Wear heavy gloves and a respirator, or at least a face mask. You do not want Easy-Off on your skin, or in your lungs. I spray the Easy-Off into a ZipLoc bag, throw the chrome parts into the bag, then spray a little more Easy-Off on top. Then I seal the ZipLoc bag and let it sit overnight. Wearing the safety gear, the next day I take the parts out of the bag and scrub them with an old toothbrush, using hot water and a little dish soap. This procedure almost always leaves the parts completely de-chromed and ready for paint. For very thick chrome: before doing the Easy-Off thing, use a knife to scrape away some of the chrome plating. This lets the Easy-Off get under the chrome plating and eat away at it.

You might also find that 1/24 scale Hasegawa Jeep lurking in this box. If you find it shrink-wrapped, the "Dragon USA" label/thing is just a paper sleeve with the Hasegawa box under it. This version comes with 2 sheets of Voyager photo-etched brass to make the armor plates, a radio and some other stuff. It also has Cartograf decals. A few years ago, these were being dumped by online vendors at fire-sale prices so I guess it wasn't a big hit. Here's a review: http://www.ipmsusa.org/reviews/Kits/Armor/dragon_24_jeep/dragon_24_jeep.htm

That was fun! I just went to eBay and searched on "Young Model Builders Club." All kinds of vintage Aurora, Monogram and Revell kits popped up. One of the Monogram kits was that 1/24 scale Mercedes 450SL Rally car, recently discussed in another thread. Here's a link to the search: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.Xyoung+model+builders+club.TRS0&_nkw=young+model+builders+club&_sacat=0&LH_TitleDesc=0&_sop=1&_sadis=15&_odkw=ymc&_osacat=1188&_stpos=29672-9125

If you want some humans with your Motorwagen, ICM is also issuing the kit with figures of Bertha Benz and her 2 sons. (Kit #24041). ICM is using this photo to promote the kit, so I guess the final product will look something like this:

Good start! That Revell H-34 kit disappeared for many years, and turned into Unobtainium before they finally reissued it a few years ago. If you have the urge to do another H-34, or if anyone else would like a newer version...not too long ago, a new company named Gallery Models issued H-34 kits in several different versions. I think the "Gallery" name is already gone and MRC is releasing them now. Some of the kits have different options, like early/late landing gear. I picked up the "Operation Deep Freeze" version, which even has 2 different fuselages in the same box. Here's a Cybermodeler review and a pic. One thing Gallery Models sure knew how to do: great box art! https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/gallery/kit_gallery_64101.shtml

I searched eBay for that Toho Nissan President and found it. Wow! $2,086.12. Or best offer. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Mint-Out-Of-Print-Plastic-Model-1-16-Toho-Nissan-President/223937709070?hash=item3423ba440e:g:snwAAOSwW2teYbw-

On the news yesterday, a reporter said the Publix re-stocking system is so good, logistics experts in the U.S. military study it. But he also quoted the CEO of Publix as saying that the current situation is already putting a strain on their transport system. I took my elderly Mom to Wal-Mart today. The aisle with lunch meat, hot dogs etc. was completely cleaned out. Never seen that before. Canned soup, rice, dry beans, tuna and other staples were sold out or nearly so. The store did still have plenty of toilet paper, and people were still buying cart-loads of it.