Mike999

That looks great and I see plenty of stealable ideas! Brings back memories, I spent much of my childhood in a '62 Galaxie 500. Also a 4-door, Wimbledon White with that spiffy red-and-white interior that looked sort of like tuck-and-roll. My best friend's family had the same car in tan. Like yourself, I've been trying to find a resin 4-door body for years. I have a resin 2-door hardtop and occasionally think about converting it.

I was all ready to glue together some major assemblies for a modified ICM 1912 Model T Commercial Roadster. Then after a close look, realized the paint had worn thru in a few tiny places, and I missed a couple other spots. Drat! So I fixed all that, letting it dry now. The ICM kit is a great start for all sorts of vintage service and commercial vehicles. Ford didn't make a pickup truck yet in 1912, but the Commercial Roadster was the closest thing to it. The storage box on the rear and its attached "mother-in-law" seat were both removable. Many owners did remove both, and added their own custom-made pickup beds or delivery bodies. Here's an original Commercial Roadster body, left in a warehouse for many years buried under a bunch of junk. If you want all those rivets on your build, you'll have to do what I did and add them yourself.

? Or if you're a GM guy, a "Trans-Maro" will work. Example shown below. For the more mature meth dealer, a Crown Vic or Impala from the 1980s or early 1990s.

Here's an old motorcycle kit I'd love to find. The ITC Harley-Davidson with sidecar. ITC was Ideal Toy Company, more famous for its line of toys but they did do some model kits. Some have been re-issued thru the years, but none of the motorcycles as far as I know. As a kid, I had the solo, non-sidecar version of this Harley. I kept that thing around for years, re-gluing parts that fell off. According to the internet these were 1/9 scale, the same as the ESCI bike kits. Though I suspect they were "box scale" when first issued. ITC also did a BMW racing motorcycle, which, like the Harley sidecar, I've never seen in the flesh, or plastic. There's a partly-built ITC solo Harley on eBay now, with a starting bid of US $75.00. Here's a link to the ITC page at Old Model Kits. I never knew they made a 1/25 scale '56 Lincoln Mk II. The listing says the model kit may be even more rare than the real car: only about 10 have publicly changed hands over the years. https://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?manu=ITC

Good luck! When anybody mentions the Monogram Land Rover, I post Chuck Most's excellent article about it: http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2015/04/07/The-Sad-and-Sordid-tale-of-Monograms-Land-Rover#!

? Thanks. I'm sure I didn't pay that much either. And didn't even realize they were in that price range now. I just did a quick check of eBay. The cheapest one I found sold a couple of weeks ago for $255.00.

That may be the EXOTO 1/18 scale 999. It is really nice, and they also did a limited-edition "diorama" version with a figure of Henry Ford. I have the basic, non-diorama version, bought long ago. I remember it was expensive, but I don't think I paid $200 for it.

Same here! Early race diorama! I've always hoarded anything from the MPC Stutz and have a box full of parts from glue-bombs and wrecks bought over the years. I mostly wanted that Wisconsin "Beaver" engine. It was used in many Brass Era cars and trucks, and the frame is a good starting point for some of those too. The kit also has a ton of useful vintage parts, like toolboxes and fancy artillery wheels. And 2 sort-of Maxim machine guns in the TV version. I have one mint kit of the TV show version and another of the "Connoisseur Classics" Bearcat. I'm old, so I remember when those kits were not very popular and cheap at swap meets.

Some time ago, I did a quick check of the 1/24 scale Monogram '66 Mustang chassis under the Trumpeter Falcon and Ranchero. IIRC it looked like nearly a drop fit under the Falcon. That chassis was a little short for the Ranchero but looked like it wouldn't take much work to fit.

Thanks, those would look great in the bed of a work truck. Will have to track some down. As for the brand names, Chinese companies have done that for years in 1/35 scale military kits. For example, tires marked "Continentau." A quick flick of the hobby knife, and they turn into their real name, "Continental." Along with its non-Land Rovers, a few years ago Italeri released a generic "Armed Pickup." Which was the old ESCI Toyota BJ-44. At least they didn't remove anything from the actual kit. It still has the "Toyota" letters in the grille, "Land Cruiser" hood emblems, and even the small "4x4" badge on the rear.

Agree! The photo below was taken at the Santa Monica road race, circa 1912. That dirt road is Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles. Lindberg gave us early Mercedes and Stutz racers, but in 1/16 scale and they're pretty simplified/clunky kits.

Bumping this, since the show is only a week away. This is a great show, I've been to it several times. You might even meet some of the people from this board in person!

Nice work on an old kit that's not easy to build! If you need another 1/48 scale P-61, Great Wall Hobby from China does several versions: glass nose, solid nose and a special edition of the P-61 that shot down the last Japanese plane in WWII.

Just to clarify, the Rolls in the pic is not my work. It's the new Warslugs kit. I'll try to get ambitious and take some pix of my Roden build, for the "All The Rest" group. If anyone gives us a 1/24 Rolls armored car, it will probably be ICM. They've done Model T's, the Mercedes G4, Opels and some other cars in both 1/35 and 1/24. If they did the Rolls armored car, maybe they could also give us a stock pre-war 1/24 Silver Ghost. Yes, I'm dreaming...

For anyone thinking of building an ICM 1912 Model T, those kits have a similar problem. The headlight posts are nicely done and in scale. Which means there are only TINY gluing surfaces for the posts, located in a very hard-to-reach spot under and behind the radiator. The instructions tell you to glue the posts on early in the build. But the posts need to be painted brass, nearly impossible once they're glued in. And they're flimsy, so almost guaranteed to break if you follow the instructions and add them early. They also must be aligned perfectly, or they'll have the Goofy-Eyed Look with the headlights pointing in different directions. I'll probably attach the headlight posts last. Maybe using 5-minute epoxy to glue on the posts and let them dry very hard, making sure they're aligned. Then hopefully slip the headlights onto the 2 tiny mounting pins on the post.

It's been raining Rolls armored cars the past few years, but all in 1/35 scale. Starting in 2009, Roden released a 1920 Pattern (steel disk wheels), WWII desert version with balloon tires and Boys anti-tank gun, and a 1914 Pattern with photo-etched wire wheels. Just last year MENG did one with optional parts for all 3 of those versions in the box. It also has photo-etched wire wheels. The latest entry, released just recently, is a 1920 Pattern from a company named Warslugs (no, I'm not making that up). Pic below. It has complete interior detail. I built a Roden Pattern 1920 Rolls, as used in the Irish Civil War. It has a basic interior, but very complete engine and chassis detail. In places the parts were kind of "thick" and needed careful prep. Especially the multi-piece turret...which has a raised coaming under the hatch that shouldn't be there. Of course, I only discovered that after I finished the kit. A neat conversion for a 1914 Pattern would be the "roadster" Rolls armored car seen in photos with T.E. Lawrence. The turret and the armored decking under it were removed, making it look sort of like a prehistoric hot rod.

Gol-lee! Sha-zam! Stopped in a local thrift store today and found the complete collection of "Gomer Pyle USMC" on DVD. 3 disks for only $5. The special features include the episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" where Gomer first joined the Marines.

Got these 2 today, at the Hobby Connection in Easley, SC. I don't know if it's Hobbico fallout or what, but that store had several of the same Revell kits in both "American" (small) boxes and "Euro" (large) boxes. The AAR Cuda, Porsche Jr. Diesel farm tractor and some others. Also the re-issue of the Revell '55 Chevy Convertible Indy Pace Car, in a large Euro box. I wonder if Revell corrected the decal sheet in that one. IIRC, the original issue was missing some of the text on the trunk. Also stopped by the Hobby Lobby in Easley, which has some car kits displayed on a rack in the main aisle. I hoped those were discounted, but nope, full price. One that surprised me was the "Mr. Speed" '53 Studebaker. That kit was in the stores several years ago and not seen since. They must have found it stuck behind a pile of boxes in the storeroom or something. So if you're in the area and need a '53 Stude, there you go.

? On the Chevelle Modified Stocker: "You can kinda see some of the COOL stuff that comes with it, like the 454 engine..." OK, I'm just an old grump. But I suspect Chad wouldn't recognize a 454 engine if he tripped over it. Isn't that '77 Pinto the same as the one released not long ago, except for the Coke machine? Another one for the Coke collectors, I guess. I might go for the Chevelle to fix the Revell kit, though the idea of slicing and dicing those roofs is scary. I still have a Snow Plow from the last re-issue. Had two, sold one on eBay. Nice to see the trike kits back.

I watched "Shelby American" right after seeing "Ford v Ferrari" too. It was a good combo. The documentary includes interviews with Ken Miles' son and other interesting subjects. Here's the imDB write-up. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10922508/

If you need a good post-holiday read, try "The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World" by Sarah Weinman. It's a great combination of a true-crime story and a history of how Nabokov wrote the novel. Nabokov always denied that real life had anything to do with "Lolita" (or any of his fiction). But he dropped a mention of the Sally Horner case right into "Lolita," so go figure. https://www.amazon.com/Real-Lolita-Kidnapping-Horner-Scandalized/dp/0062661922

That reminds me of the story about baseball great Ty Cobb...Georgia native and one of the first investors in Coca-Cola of Atlanta. The story goes that the elderly Cobb was driving across the desert once, probably headed to or from his house in Lake Tahoe. He was low on gas and stopped at one of those "Last Chance" service stations. While the attendant was raising the hood to check the oil, Cobb asked for a Coke. The attendant said no Coke, his station only sold Pepsi. Cobb said, "Well, to Hell with you!" He slammed the hood shut, peeled out in his '56 Chrysler Imperial, and kept driving.

Now I'm really impressed! I thought that was maybe a resin garage kit in a much bigger scale. Not 1/35 scale parts Frankensteined together.

Glad you finally found your Seafox! I know it was one of your Holy Grails.