Mike999

Not strictly a restoration. But I just learned something that may help others doing restorations: some old AMT promos are built to survive nuclear war. Another board member needed some parts from a '62 T-Bird hardtop. I've had that promo for a long time, to part out so I can build a "mainstream" hardtop. Using the newer AMT '62 T-Bird kit and a resin hardtop body, promo hubcaps etc. Collectors may have heart attacks, but '61 to '63 T-Bird promos are plentiful and fairly cheap, even on eBay. I thought it would be simple: just remove the 4 screws and everything will fall apart, right? Wrong! Those promos were mostly put together by heat-swaging; melting the plastic together. Getting the interior out required cutting thru 4 plastic "washers" that were melted to it. The rear bumper/tail lights were a real challenge. The tail lights pass thru the back bumper, into round tabs molded into the body. Then they're heat-swaged to that tab. The tail lights are pretty delicate parts. I carefully scraped at them with a knife until they released from the round tab. The dashboard is also heat-swaged into the interior. I want to save the swing-away steering wheel for the conversion. Some good news, I guess: the engine isn't molded as part of the chassis. It's an insert, so if you can remove it, you basically have a kit chassis you can drop an engine into. It appears to be heat-swaged AND glued in. And some weird news. Even though this was a promo, the 4 custom headlights from the kit are on the glass. You can see them in this shot of the back window:

Most big online vendors carry at least some Italeri kits. MegaHobby, Freetime Hobbies, HobbyLinc etc. If all else fails, you can order directly from Italeri's website. I've never done that, but I think other people on this forum have. Here's a link to their 1/24 car kits: https://www.italeri.com/en/category/8/37

There's not much difference in price. Hobby Lobby has the "Calif. Wheels" '68 VW Bug for $29.99, but the 40% off coupon will knock that down to $17.99. The Tamiya '66 Bug is available from online vendors for about $24 and sometimes goes on sale.

Saw it, thanks. That's another possibility I'll look at, since I once owned a '71 with a vinyl top. I'm probably a minority, but I really like the '71 and '72 GTOs. They look great with that aggressive Endura front end, twin hood scoops, etc. I bought the '71 years ago in Los Angeles, from the original owner's kid. It had been sitting for a while and needed a little work. But once I sorted out the minor quirks, it was a great car.

A little of both, I guess. Thanks for asking. I thought I would replace the broken rear bumper from the MPC kit, polish out the plastic and display it. It's molded in a bright yellow color. Then I saw the warp and couldn't un-see it...

Good finds! I zoomed that Camaro pic. I may be wrong, but it seems to have the same problem as a beat-up '72 GTO promo I found at a flea market. Take a close look at the middle of the roof. In your pic, it looks slightly warped, with a dip. On the GTO that's so subtle I didn't notice it at first. But the GTO roof is definitely warped. The warping is exactly where the rectangular hole is, in the glass piece. This surprised me. I thought the promo-warping problem was fixed by the early 1970's. But I guess any plastic will warp if it gets hot enough, over a long enough time. The GTO was cheap, which is good because there isn't much I can steal from it. Mostly the wheels and nice pre-painted black grilles/front bumper. The interior may be a little sharper than the MPC '72 GTO kit that's as eternal as Count Dracula. But it has the warped roof and a busted rear bumper. Maybe a convertible...

The original ESCI Jeep Golden Eagle had a hardtop. But it's not shown on the pic above, so I'm guessing it's not included. Which brings up the mystery of the missing ESCI tops. Different versions of the original ESCI Land Rover had a soft top and a hard top. So did the Toyota BJ-44. The Land Rover has been re-issued with its hardtop, but the nice soft top hasn't been seen since the original issue in the 1980's, AFAIK. When Italeri re-issued the BJ-44 a few years ago as the "Armed Pickup," it didn't have either top. That's a problem because the doors are molded to the body and it looks goofy with doors but no roof. Cutting out the doors makes the body very fragile and easily broken. Don't ask how I know this... Even worse, the BJ-44 interior is sparse, lacking pedals or even a firewall. The last Italeri re-issue didn't even have the instrument panel decal with the speedometer, though earlier versions did. With no top all that missing stuff is very visible (or invisible). I've never seen inside an ESCI Jeep kit, so I don't know if it has the same lack of interior detail. Somebody in here probably knows.

Thanks! There's some good news, especially that ESCI CJ-7. I really wish Italeri would re-issue the Toyota BJ-44 again..., er, I meant the "Armed Pickup." I'll try to get un-lazy and scan a photo of Francois Verlinden's Bandama Rally Mercedes. Can't find it online. Some pics were in the 1983 book "Model Cars." He did a great job. IIRC, he didn't even paint it, since it was heavily weathered/damaged in post-rally condition. I wonder if Italeri will correct the Bandama Mercedes decal sheet. The box art is correct and shows the decal over the windshield as "Swede." But the decal sheet is wrong and spells it "Suede," as you can see on JC's built-up. Also the driver's name should be "Thorszelius," not "Thorzelius."

Here's the box art for the Otaki 1/24 scale Maverick. I've never seen one so don't know how good or bad it is. That photo linked to an eBay listing for "Otaki 1/24 Car Kit Collection." But that listing was long dead and eBay couldn't find it.

My little town has at least 7 big thrift/resale stores. Along with Goodwill and Salvation Army, 5 are run by local charities. And 4 of those are on the same street, within a couple of miles. An employee in one store told me that, on weekends, people drive here from a couple hundred miles away just to hit those places. I've found a few cheap kits, like an untouched Revell '68 Corvette L-88. And an AMT '67 Mustang, with minor gluing but a great parts source. I keep hoping to find a Holy Grail Box, full of built AMT and Johan kits from long ago. One of my best finds was a lighted display case, about 6 feet tall, for $35. I also found some great paint racks. One is a tall, rotating "lazy Susan" kind of thing that freed up a lot of workbench space.

There's a sedan kit in the box, even if it does say "coupe." At least I never heard of anybody getting a '40 coupe in that box. Though it wouldn't surprise me if that happened.

A couple of the most fun & useful Detail Master sets are "Interior Junk" #1 and 2. #1 shown below, with wrenches, cassettes, pine-tree deodorizers, keys and keychains, sunglasses, X-ray specs (for the drive-in?) etc. Set #2 has a clipboard, fly swatter, and multi-part police handcuffs, among other goodies. Some of these parts can be adapted for other, non-junk uses.

? Well, that's embarrassing! I'll bet some clueless, non-model-building eBay sellers are already hawking it as a "RARE!!! Collectible Misprint Box," starting bid $99.99 or Buy It Now for $One Kajillion Dollars. For VW collectors or occasional military builders in here, Rye Field Models recently released a new 1/35 scale "German Staff Car Type 82E." No mention of Volkswagen anywhere, of course. Before this kit, the only WWII-era VWs were done by the Czech company CMK. They were OK but pretty clunky.

I haven't seen Freetime Hobbies mentioned, but they're another great online vendor. They usually ship very quickly and sometimes have free shipping deals. They're still having their moving sale, which I posted about last week. It has some good deals on car kits and detail sets. Freetime also has a retail store in Blue Ridge, GA (that's in Fannin County, up in the mountains). Because they do so much online business, the store is only open 1 Friday per month. AFAIK, they haven't said where they're moving to but I'm guessing it won't be far away. Get on their e-mail list and they'll notify you when the store is open to visitors. https://freetimehobbies.com/

If you want to make incredibly realistic flat windows that are bullet-holed, broken or shattered, take a look at Uschi van der Rosten's glass kit. It uses real (and real thin) glass. Check out the Ford Woody on his page. https://www.uschivdr.com/products-in-detail/the-bullet-hole-kit/

For years I used a homemade spray booth knocked together out of particle board, with a bathroom vent fan and furnace filter. Then I bit the bullet...or the wallet...and got the Artograph 1530. So named because it's 15 inches deep and 30 inches long, so it's BIG. It really needs a dedicated space. It has 2 hi-speed bottom-draw fans, a 3-stage filter system and a clear Lexan panel on top to let in light. A small under-the-kitchen-counter light fixture from the hardware store can sit on top for more light. When the Lexan gets dirty from paint overspray, the local big hardware chain store can cut a new piece. My basement work shop has sliding windows. So to vent the booth, I cut a piece of plywood to fit exactly in the window. Then cut 2 holes in it with a 4-inch hole saw and ran flexible vent hoses from the fan exhausts to the plywood panel. Also put a drawer handle on the plywood, so I can easily lift the wood into the window frame and take it out. The 1530 is discontinued but Micro Mark sells a direct copy of it. Yes, it's expensive. But so is a long hospital stay. Here's an old review of it from Cybermodeler and a link to the Micro Mark page: http://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/tools/artograph/tool_artograph.shtml https://www.micromark.com/15-Inch-x-30-Inch-Large-Spray-Paint-Booth

Thanks! You did a great job with that fix. Grabbed those photos. You made it (almost) idiot-proof. Which in my case, is a good thing.

Round 2 fixed that in this version of the Dodge Monaco, and got rid of those crazy deep-dish wheels. I have the older "Joker/Gotham Police" Monaco with the wheels you're talking about. Thanks but I'll probably build it out of the box and use the decals. They look pretty good, from the online reviews. If you need CHP decals there are some on eBay. Or Lindberg did a CHP version of its Crown Vic with good decals. Those kits are easy to find and fairly cheap. Or somebody may have a set they didn't use. Also, thanks for the nice comments from everybody on the "haul." I really lucked out.

I'll be watching this for ideas I can steal. Thanks for the tip on cutting off those locating pins. All those ESCI 1/9 motorcycle kits were real jewels. One of my favorite ESCI builds was long ago in a British model magazine. The builder started with the ESCI Harley WLA-45 military bike. He dumped all the military parts and built a close copy of Lee Marvin's ride in the movie "The Wild One." For younger builders, ESCI did do civilian versions of this Triumph and the Harley. They're hard to find now. ESCI also released a BMW 75 with sidecar and a Zundapp. And the real monster of its motorcycle line, the 1/9 scale Kettenkrad half-track motorcycle. I just wish ESCI had done a 1/9 scale Indian!

Which, the '27 Ford or Ashley? ? The '27 T has hot rod parts for its 4-cylinder engine - a nice Frontenac dual-overhead-cam conversion, exhaust header, etc.

CabDriver said: "Slightly off topic I know, my apologies ." No need to apologize. Now we all have another build idea for those Lindberg or Revell Crown Vics we've picked up over the years. One version of the old Revell Police Caprice even came with taxi parts and decals. Hmm...a back-seat floor area half full of empty paper coffee cups and fast-food wrappers...some random police gear from MasterBox 1/24 scale figures, like the "Ashley" figure shown below...who could even be converted to a plainclothes undercover officer...drat, I just went even more off-topic...

General question for everybody: what's your favorite chemical for dissolving that 50-year-old tube glue? When the freezer trick and others don't work? Here's a discussion on another board. It's from 2016, so Photobucket repo'ed the pictures. But he seems to be talking about Testors Model Master Paint Remover, which I think is the "ELO" (Easy Lift Off) stuff for paint and decals. Other faves mentioned are nail polish remover and its cousin, pure acetone. I've had some luck with super glue de-bonder, even though it's not meant for dissolving tube glue. I apply it around the glued area, let it sit for a while and sometimes the part will pop right off. I just did that with a '64 Vette that had the tonneau cover and driver side headrest "fin" glued on. I ran some Hobby Lobby Debonder around the seams, waited, and the parts came off pretty easily. Last night I was fooling with a '61 Tempest. The builder glued side exhausts on it with wood glue. That peeled off pretty easily. But under that was a layer of tube glue that will have to be sanded off. He also glued a parachute on the trunk...right on top of its 2 ribs/character lines. So far that has cleaned up pretty good, after some careful work with sanding sticks. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/scale_racing_lobby/old-glue-debonder-t269.html

Thanks, Tom! Just lucky. This show had a lot of vendors selling old built-ups. No, sorry I don't know those guys personally.

Suddenly it's 1961! My haul from the SCMA show yesterday. Found some Grails, including that '61 Corvair Monza hardtop in its original box w/extra parts, and the built '61 Corvair convertible. The '61 Tempest had side exhausts glued on with Elmer's, that'll buff right out. And the rear valence panel is missing, but that's findable. The AMT '63 Vette is an original with working headlights, and its brother is an AMT '64. The '60 El Camino has a clean bed with nothing ever glued into it, which is very hard to find. The red monster is a Revell '62 4-door Dodge Dart that looks complete. And the yellow monster is a '69 Firebird convertible, price one whole dollar. The Jeep Commando box, as the sticker says, has a mint-condition older Jeepster body inside plus parts from 2 or 3 more Jeepster kits. Since I have "Ford v Ferrari Fever" like everybody else, I was happy to find that Revell (ex-Aurora) early GT-40.

Anybody need inspiration/source material? Here's "Great Mobile Homes of Mississippi." https://www.drbukk.com/en/content/great-mobile-homes-of-mississippi-17