Mike999

Same here, but I'm wondering what it could be. My cynical and suspicious side guesses a '65 Chevelle wagon with Coke decals and coolers. AMT didn't do that many station wagon kits back in the day, so let's do some guessing. I'm a geezer, so somebody help me fill in what I missed in this list: 1. 1960 Chevy Wagon: Craftsman series curbside snap kit, no engine. (Oh I wish!) 2. 1961 and 1962 Buick Special Wagons: curbsides with no opening hood. Included a vintage Chrysler Hemi with 3 building options. Also lots of extras like gas/oil cans, tools, an engine hoist and a very nice U-Haul style trailer with working tailgate. 3. 1963 Nova wagon: Craftsman series snap kit, no engine. 4. 1963 Nova wagon: full glue kit with opening hood and 6-cylinder engine; includes the trailer and all the extras from the Buick Special kits. AMT released this kit in several different versions. Modified into the "Boss Nova" altered wheelbase funny car, which still had most of the extras from the Buick Special kits. Except for the engine hoist and that nifty trailer, which seem to be gone forever. 5. 1964 Chevelle wagon: full glue kit with 6-cylinder engine. That engine also seems to be gone forever. 6. 1965 Chevelle wagon: that one you know about. Starting the rumors now about an Olds Vista-Cruiser or Buick Sport Wagon...

That was a steal! In Sept. 2019 I put one of those Backhoes on eBay, also open but sealed inside. It sold for $63.00 + shipping. The other half of the story: at a local flea market, I found a Backhoe kit for $10. It has some minor assembly and painting, but everything is there. I don't want to build 2 of those kits, so the partly-built one will work for me.

That looks all kinds of awesome. Time to put the ex-Aurora coupe and Revell roadster in the eBay Sell Pile. Or maybe build them as junkers. The coupe as a rusty roadside relic missing its rear suspension (to put under a hot rod). And the roadster as the unlucky Jag in "Vanishing Point."

That doesn't just happen with resin. Maybe some industry insiders can verify this, or not. I heard it from some sort-of insiders, like distributors and hobby-shop owners. A kit that everybody said they wanted for years finally came out in the 1990's: the Galaxie Ltd. '46-48 Chevy Aerosedan. And it was a fantastic kit. Which figured, since the owner of Galaxie was Gary Schmidt, the creator and original publisher of That Other Magazine. So people bought cases of that kit and they flew off the shelves, right? Not according to what I heard: it took TEN YEARS to finally sell out the original run of those Aerosedan kits.

Good find! The builder did a nice clean job on the ramps. Not that I want to tempt you or anything...but there's an AMT #T447 ToT Transporter kit on eBay right now. $189.99 or best offer.

Thanks everybody, misery and company etc. "Can't be reached" has been happening all day today on my laptop. Sometimes a refresh worked, others I had to back out and reload Edge again. I was afraid I'd been hacked by the '68 Coronet Revolutionary Brigade or something.

One of the best things in that combo kit is the decal sheet, with "Shelby American" and other useful markings for the Cobra and the truck. I wish Round 2 would release that sheet as a separate item, like their Coke and other decal sets. I'd buy several. I already have the kits and trailer in that set, so don't need any more of those. The decals from that kit sometimes turn up on eBay, but not very often.

Whoa! Somebody's doing a Mercedes 600 "Pullman" 6-door limo in full Dictator Spec! Anybody have any other info on this thing? I've wanted a model of that monster for years. But depending on the scale, I suspect the price might be close to that of a real one. Wonder if it includes a set of scale microphones, so Dear Leader can rant at the adoring masses.

You're welcome. And thank you for the box of neat accessories!

That looks great! Nice clean work.

Don't know if you've seen this recent thread, but it has some info on the Golden Eagle. It's the old ESCI kit. Italeri is re-issuing it along with the ex-ESCI Jeep CJ-7. Curbside kits with no engine but good chassis and body details. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/148837-italeri-2020/

That's a great build on that 170V roadster! The last time the Lieferwagen was available I grabbed a few of them.

Got a home-made pickup bed for a 1912 Model T done, out of real wood and some Evergreen "angle iron." Which is pretty much the way real ones were knocked together before Ford made factory pickup trucks. The tricky part, as always, was getting it to fit precisely the way I needed it to. Lots of measuring, staring, cursing, careful sanding and general fiddling. Now for the gun mount. I'll say no more about that, yet... Tip: the old "Weather-It" product for weathering wood isn't made any more. You can make your own by diluting India ink in 91% alcohol. The more ink, the darker the stain. You can vary it from nearly black to grayish. Just make sure the India ink is not water-based acrylic. That kind won't work with the alcohol.

Thanks! You're right, I just compared a Coupe body to the Yellow Jacket and they're identical. Just for fun I popped the Coupe roof onto the YJ body and it fit perfectly. I saw the info about the unique roadster body in a couple of places, including the review I posted above. The Internet was wrong! How can this be? ? Oh well, it does have the hot rod parts, those great decals and the box art, which I may display in the workshop. On Jan. 6, an open Yellow Jacket kit on eBay got 9 bids and sold for $142.50. Glad I didn't chase that one!

Thanks! Some interesting things in there. ICM is doing a 1/24 Benz Patent-Motorwagen 1886 with Mrs. Benz & Sons! Heller says it's finally getting the 1/24 Renault Estafette out. Will believe it when I see it. But Heller is also re-issuing the Citroen C4 Hotel Taxi and Mercedes 170 Lieferwagen (Panel Truck). Those haven't been available for MANY years, especially the Citroen. That looks like a good candidate to mate with a Monogram 1/24 Model A, for an American hotel taxi or depot hack. Other scales have some intriguing things too. ICM is doing 1/35 figure sets of "Chernobyl #3 Rubble Cleaners and "Chernobyl #4 Deactivators." Perfect for that post-apocalyptic diorama with a battered Land Rover or GAZ Tiger vehicle. Aircraft fans should go bonkers over the Italeri 1/32 scale Lockheed F-104A/C. They're also doing a 1/32 scale set of "NATO Pilots, Ground Crew & Accessories."

"Yes, a 5-cylinder engine. If that sounds weird, it should be remembered that in North America, not too many makers had embraced the 5-cylinder at that point." I rode all over Egypt in an older Toyota van with a 5-cylinder diesel engine. Our driver told me, IIRC, that he had replaced the engine 3 times and the A/C compressor 4 times. That van rode like a buckboard wagon and stunk of diesel, but it was tough as nails. The poor thing was often crammed with 4 or 5 large Americans and the driver. Plus a roof rack loaded with heavy tools, spare parts etc. we needed for jobs. We sometimes went to places where there were no roads, just dirt and rocks. But the Toyota never broke down and always got us home. An amazing little vehicle. As for the price of these kits: I remember them being costly for a long time. Years ago at a kit swap meet, I saw the Volvo on a table with the Revell Mercedes "Fire Chief" station wagon. The kits were priced at $40 each. While I was standing there thinking about making an offer and haggling, some obnoxious guy swooped in and grabbed both of them. Oh well, as the old saying goes, you snooze, you lose.

Thanks, we have a lot of good people in here! For anybody who wants to improve a Yellow Jacket or any Monogram '30 Ford, here's a helpful build on the Drastic Plastics board. The biggest problem with those kits is no rear wheel wells. The stock kit has wide-open spaces and you can see right thru the body. Also, no lug nuts on the rear wheels. This builder also does a very simple mod that drops the front axle a scale 3 inches, putting the nose down where it should be on a vintage hot rod. http://drasticplastics.proboards.com/thread/5751/monogram-yellow-jacket

It sort of translates. Hobbycraft had to cut different nose "plugs" and other details for its Bf-109 kits, so some of their kits weren't just a decal job. The link below shows how they did that, for anyone interested. Those kits weren't "Hase-miya" quality, but the aftermarket fixed that with resin detail/correction sets, engines, etc. By the time you added all that stuff, the kit cost as much as a "Hase-miya." Except Hase-miya didn't make a P-35 or P-36, so that was a moot point. Sort of like if we want a 4-door or station wagon car model today, we buy a plastic kit and add a resin body. Moebius is doing a good job of "milking the molds" with its Belvedere/Satellites, Comets, Ford trucks etc. I just wish they'd milk them a little more and turn out some "mainstreamers," 4-doors, wagons, police cars, taxis etc. I realize cutting a separate body mold is way too expensive and before that happens, we'll all be vacationing on Mars. But I can dream... https://modelingmadness.com/scott/axis/luft/me/109/hc109e1preview.htm

Good points. I build aircraft and armor too. At places like Missing Lynx and Armorama, a couple of missing bolts on a tank and they're ready to bring out the guillotine. Especially if it's a German tank. As for kit engineering/fit, there's an old saying about Tamiya armor kits: "Pour glue in the box, shake it and the built model drops out." Price can make a difference but not always. I'm thinking of kits like the old Hobbycraft 1/48 scale aircraft. They weren't Tamiya quality but they generally went together well and looked good. Most of those kits still go for low prices, sometimes less than $10 even on eBay. Model car companies might learn something from the way Hobbycraft milked its molds. The 1/48 scale P-35 fighter kit begat the Seversky racer. The P-36 spawned a whole line of US, British and French versions like the Mohawk and Hawk 75. I think Hobbycraft was the first company to take on every version of the Bf-109, from the pre-war Condor Legion to the post-war Czech and Israeli fighters. Etc.

A real Grail Kit just arrived, an original Monogram "Yellow Jacket" '30 Ford roadster from 1962. As far as I know, this is the only Monogram '30 Ford with a roadster body. All others are either coupes or cabriolets, and all those came from the original "Six-Way" Monogram '30 Ford kit. Even better, TWO of those hard-to-find bodies are in the box. Along with a bunch of extra parts. Maybe enough for 2 complete builds. As you can see, one is mostly built already. Thanks loads to ewetwo (David Gurga), who saw this kit at The Sales Shack and gave me a heads-up on it. And thanks to The Sales Shack for great service. I only ordered the kit 3 days ago. Their price was MUCH better than any Yellow Jacket kit on eBay. This was my first order from The Sales Shack, but probably won't be the last.

Not sure I can resist that cooler either. Especially if we get the dolly and crates too. Or...here we go again! When R2 released the "Ohio George" '60 Ranchero, I had several of the previous issue '61 Rancheros in the stash. Sold all but 1 of those on eBay to make room for some of the newer kits, with the '60 grille and new decals. Not sure I want to get rid of those, so I may have to do some re-arranging. I can use one to restore a glue-bomb original '61 Ranchero, which came with that goofy camper top. As for Coke machines...some years ago in a dollar store, I found some Coke machine refrigerator magnets. They look like 1/25 scale or very close to it. But with all these Round 2 machines coming out, I may retire those. Or build them as junked/rat-rod Coke machines. ?

Here's 48 photos of Amelia Earhart's Vega, from the Air & Space Museum. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/lockheed-vega-5b-amelia-earhart

An opposite experience, from Ye Olde Anteek & Junque Shop in Los Angeles long ago. The woman running the place had the kit shown below on display. An index card in front of it said "RARE! 25th Anniversary! FROM 1965!" I explained to her that "25th Anniversary" meant the anniversary of AMT from 1948, not the car from 1940. So her kit dated from 1973, not 1965. She was very nice, thanked me for the correction, and wrote up a new index card. She actually made a pretty reasonable assumption with her mistake. Only one of us weirdos would know that kind of history.

I'd like to have a bi-scale Ford Edge too. Maybe for a Suburban Apocalypse diorama. I figured if anybody made a die-cast Edge, it might be the Chinese company and Ford partner Jiangling Motor Corp (JMC). Back around 2008, Jiangling did a very nice modern Ford Transit van in 1/24 scale and 1/18 scale. The bigger scale is still easy to find, but the 1/24 version seems to have disappeared. I had no luck finding an Edge model. Since the real car is being discontinued this year, there probably won't be much interest in a scale-model version. AMT might have learned its lesson about "Mom-mobiles" with the '96 and '97 Ford Explorer kits.

A woman came to a local flea market several times, a couple of years ago, selling off her late father's huge diecast collection. She said the collection was housed in a separate out-building he built just to display his diecasts. None had the boxes or paperwork, but they all still had the little tag and string on the back bumper. I got these cheap: '57 Ford Retractable (my favorite, I like to play with the working roof) FM '48 Tucker x2, one in Waltz Blue, the other the gold 50th anniversary edition from 1998. I'd been trying to find one of those for a long time. '57 Mercedes "Adenauer" cabriolet '53 Cadillac convertible A couple of weeks ago, I found a DM '48 Chrysler Town & Country at the same flea market. It's in the original box with all the paperwork.