Mike999

Good news, but not sure I'll go for this one. I might, if Aoshima had thrown in the roof rack, bull bar and other accessories these Range Rover kits have included over the years. This kit was also released in a Revell of Germany box (kit #7373). As others have mentioned, all versions of the Aoshima Range Rover have been Unobtainium for years due to the licensing hassles, and fetch high prices. I have 2 that I got at kit swap meets over the years. Both have American SATCO resin left-hand-drive dashboards in the box, so they date back to the 1990s. If you're looking for one of these, here are the kit numbers. If they have the LHD dashboard, they will have a little sticker on the box saying so, and an American SATCO instruction sheet inside: AOSHIMA kit #01392/RV-10: black Range Rover on box AOSHIMA kit #019887/17: white Range Rover on box Both kits are multi-color, as the re-issue will probably be: white bodies, gray interior parts, black chassis parts.

HEADS UP! If anyone is looking for that ICM Model T Speedster kit, Freetime Hobbies has it on sale for $25.79 right now. Also the Revell Porsche Diesel Junior tractor for $17.99. If you like 1/12 scale motorcycles, they have a bunch of AOSHIMA Kawasaki & Honda kits for $10.49 each. Their 1/12 scale Honda Z50 J-III Gorilla mini-bike is $7.99. Also a couple of big motorcycle kits I haven't seen for a while: the ITALERI (ex-ESCI) 1/9 scale Triumph 3HW and Harley WLA-45 WWII military motorcycles. Those are $36.84, which is less than some eBay sellers are asking. (No surprise there...) As always, I have no connection with Freetime other than occasionally sending them money.

I recently got the Commercial Roadster too, and have weird plans for it. Apparently I couldn't have enough 1/32 scale Model T's. I've hoarded a bunch for years: the Airfix, its MPC clone, and the Pyro and its Lindberg clone (the last 2 have engines). Most of those will be flogged on eBay soon. I planned to use them in 1/35 scal-ish dioramas. No need for that now: just like in 1/24, ICM has done many different 1/35 versions of the Model T: WWI ambulance, machine-gun scout car, supply truck etc. The Polish company RPM did an armored T, MMGS car and supply truck in 1/35, but the less said about them the better. Fun Fact: the highway leading into Egypt's Western Desert once had a road-block, manned by Sikh troops. Only 2 makes of vehicle were allowed thru that road-block: Model T Fords or Rolls-Royces. Based on experience, they were the only vehicles likely to survive in the desert. I read that in one of the books on local history I collected while living in Alexandria, Egypt.

Once I worked the annual F-16 user conference at Hill AFB. I think every F-16 operator in the world came, which was a little...strange. Israel was there, along with Egypt, Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain etc. I worked in Egypt for nearly 4 yrs. Along with their F-16s, they still had MiG-21's as reserve aircraft. We saw those oldsters flying around pretty often. Also older French Mirages.

Same here. As I remember, there was a LONG spell when the '25 T kits were hard to find. At swap meets I used to paw thru parts boxes, looking for pieces of those kits. The unchopped "Tall T" coupe body seemed especially hard to find. I remember being real happy when I found an unpainted Tall T body and glass in one of those swap meet parts boxes. I still have it, in a giant Ziploc bag crammed with other '25 T parts I hoarded over the years. And like you, now I have bunches of the re-issued kits. One less thing I have to look for at swap meets.

Looking forward to the build. Your write-up was great. A MiG-29 story for you: back in the 1990s, as part of my job, I worked a lot of aerospace/defense trade shows. At one show in Washington, DC, a guy came into my company's Hospitality Suite and headed for the open bar. He was in civilian clothes, but his nametag identified him as a Defense Attache with the Russian Embassy. While standing around socializing, he suddenly went off on a rant about the greatness of the New Russia, and how we should fear their military. Especially their cutting-edge hardware like the MiG-29. One of our guys pointed out that NATO air forces had recently, and pretty easily, decimated the Serbian Air Force. And its MiG-29s. The attache got red in the face, and said: "Those were downgraded aircraft. With VERY BAD PILOTS!" Then he left. Fortunately before he could drink all our booze.

I sort of go in-between on detailing. Some is fun to do, too much and my kits end up on the Shelf Of Shame. On this Porsche tractor, the toy-like front suspension annoyed me. So I added MENG nuts and bolts to it. I managed to lose part of the exhaust system. So I built a vertical exhaust stack, using a 1/35 scale tank muffler, an HO scale locomotive exhaust pipe, and a piece of perforated brass for the heat shield. And if I put a tool box on a model, darn it, it's going to have tools in it! Other than that and a few other minor tweaks, this one was straight out of the box and an absolute blast to build.

Stopped by my closest Hobby Lobby today: --lots of new diecasts, including some nice 1/24 scale items. --no new plastic kits, and no kits on clearance or on sale. --the ATLANTIS re-pops are making their way into HL. This store had the ex-Revell 1/92 scale B-24J and 1/64 scale B-25. And the ex-Aurora/Helicopters For Industry 1/48 scale H-25 "Army Mule" helicopter. I couldn't resist that one. Full HL price is $19.99, with the coupon only $12.91. Here's a review of the kit, with some ideas for improving it: https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/atl/kit_atl_a502.shtml

Also been buying/selling on eBay for about 20 years, off and on. Rex covered the basics pretty well. It sounds like you haven't sold on eBay before??? This will get long-winded, but I'm about to have an eBay sale right now. Here's how I get ready, after gathering the kits I want to sell: 1. I make up a Sell List in Notepad. This is the headline and text that will be in the eBay listing. Just a short description of each kit I'm selling. 2. Take photos. For resin kits, I'd shoot at least 1 photo showing the parts. I re-number the photos so they're in sequence with the listings. The first listing gets photo #1, the second #2, etc. If I take more than one pic of a kit, they're numbered 1a, 1b etc. This saves time when I'm posting the photos to eBay. I don't have to search thru the eBay photo browser for "IMG_4679.jpg" etc. 3. Measure and weigh the kits. eBay will ask for the size and weight of each package, to calculate its shipping. I use a tape measure and a cheap postal scale. I put the size & weight under the kit description, in the text file, since it must be posted to eBay. 4. Here's the sequence of what you will have to do on eBay, to list your kits: --Write Headline and Description. I cut-and-paste these from my text file. --Add photos. Use the eBay photo tool to browse to where the photos are on your computer, point and click. --Tell eBay the price you're asking and whether it's an auction, a Buy It Now or both. If you use auction and Buy It Now together, the BIN option will disappear when someone bids on the kit. You also have to tell eBay what payments you accept. I only accept PayPal. --Shipping: you have to give eBay the size and weight of the kit. --IMPORTANT: Shipping Locations. You can ship to the whole world, or exclude certain countries. The default is "ship everywhere." So if you don't want to ship to Bangladesh or Brazil, you'll have to exclude those countries. --Click "Preview Listing" and make sure the listing looks like you want. If everything looks good, hit "List Item." --Save everything you just did as a template, so you don't have to keep filling in the same info over and over. A couple more things: --When researching kit prices, make sure you check "Completed Items." That will tell you what kits have actually sold for in the past few months. --Offer combined shipping. I put the following text in all my eBay listings: "IMPORTANT! If you win multiple items, DO NOT pay instantly. Wait for my invoice after the auction, or request a total. If you pay instantly for multiple items, you will be charged shipping on each item. If that happens I will refund your excess shipping thru PayPal." And yes, some people STILL ignore it and pay immediately, then win 3 or 4 more items. And eBay charges them shipping for every one.

AMT released "roadster-only" versions of the '25 T several times. One was in the AMT/ERTL "Buyer's Choice" program back in the 1990s. But AFAIK, this is the first time they've released a chopped coupe only '25 kit. I may be wrong about that. AMT released this kit in a LOT of different ways thru the years. Seeing the original '25 T double kit come back in 2008 was a shock, and a good one. Even better, it was followed by the "Fruit Wagon" and "Tall T" unchopped coupe, all double kits with stock and rodded versions. The "Fruit Wagon" had some hot rod parts that weren't in the original '25 T, like a neat "beer keg" fuel tank. I grabbed all those kits when they came out, so I'll pass on this one. Saving my money for the "new" '23 roadster. I've never had that kit and am looking forward to it.

All the AMT '32 Ford roadster kits had that 4-cylinder engine, going back to the original issue in 1959. So if you need another, they're easy to find. The neat thing about your '32 Ford is the box. That release was a tie-in with the movie "Bonnie & Clyde," so it's from 1968 and possibly valuable to a collector.

One of my favorite (sort of) Jo-Han Cadillac finds: once at a kit swap meet, a seller had a promo-type white box marked "58 Cadillac 2-door hardtop." I wondered where that came from, since all the 58 Cad promos I knew of were 4-doors. Opened the box and it was a 2-door resin kit, complete with chrome, chassis and interior, obviously mastered off the Jo-Han 4-dr promo. And nicely done. The seller also had an IMEX 58 Cadillac convertible kit. Told me he had planned to put the detailed IMEX chassis and engine under the resin promo. But he gave it up as an impossible job. The Jo-Han bodies were even smaller than 1/25 scale, the IMEX kits are 1/24 scale and look even bigger. He sold me the resin kit and the IMEX kit cheap as a bundle, because he was tired of them cluttering up his shop. So now they're cluttering up my shop, which is OK.

I downloaded the pic and zoomed on it. It looks like 4 clear headlight lenses are on the glass. On the clear "runners," between the windshield and back glass. At least I think those are headlight lenses.

When AMT started the Fire/Police series of kits back in the '70s, it re-issued several old kits with unique fire/police parts. One that got a similar treatment was the '32 Ford Victoria "Vintage Fire Chief." All the hot rod parts were removed and the kit only built a stock Vicky. Just like with the '70 Impala, AMT tooled up some new and interesting fire accessories: helmet and gas mask, boots, fire extinguisher, first-aid kit, bullhorn, siren/lights etc. And the kit is molded in flaming red plastic. The '27 Ford T was released as a vintage police car. Though one just as fishy as a 2-door fire chief's car. That cop car had a lot of extra-cost options, like bumpers and wire wheels, not likely to be found on police cars. But AMT did leave the vintage speed equipment in the kit. And added an up-top with side curtains and windows, which have never been seen again.

Good point. I'm seeing more listings recently with "Free International Shipping," which should help you buyers outside the U.S. Years ago, I used to ship internationally for eBay sales. I stopped after one sale where something like 30 items sold to international bidders, from Hong Kong to Brazil. Just filling out the Customs paperwork took a lot of time and hassle. There was also a much better chance of a package getting lost, which happened a couple of times and I had to eat that loss. Note for old Heller kits: Heller used to put the clear parts in a sealed plastic bag. But they put the rubber tires IN THE SAME BAG. Crazy. I always open old Heller kits and see if they did that. If so, I open the bag and put the tires into a small Ziploc bag. I know it ruins the "originality" of the kit. But I figure that's better than tire-burned glass in an old, rare kit. You can buy packages of different-sized Ziploc bags at Hobby Lobby or Michael's for just a couple of bucks.

I'm getting ready to have an eBay sale. So I've spent a lot of time on "Completed Items," checking to see what kits actually sold for. As opposed to what people are asking. Those 2 things usually have nothing to do with each other. The weirdness and inconsistency of eBay never ceases to amaze me. I just checked on one of the kits I'm selling: the old Monogram #2305 1/24 scale 1932 Cadillac V-16 touring car. I think it was first released around 1980 and hasn't been re-issued for a long time. But it's pretty common on eBay. Here are the results of 3 auctions for that kit: 1. Sealed kit, sold for $28.95 "Buy It Now" with free shipping 2. Sealed kit, auction, sold for $6.50 +$10.95 shipping, got 3 bids. 3. Open kit, auction, sold for $9.99 +$9.45 shipping, got 1 bid

Here's a review of that Eduard Mask Set. The builder said it took him about 1 hour to mask all the glass. Figures it would have taken 5 to 6 hours without it. https://www.web.ipmsusa3.org/content/bv-141-masks

I just got a new laptop with Win 10 Home Edition installed. Still using another PC with Win 7, which I've used for years. Windows 8 was just a hot mess. After playing with it on a friend's PC I never installed it on any of mine. No, I don't want my desktop computer looking like my cell phone, idiots. They do different things. I read an internet rumor that the Microsoft exec in charge of Win 8 was fired right after its release. I hope that rumor is true. The worst thing about Win 10 so far is all the integration with that worthless piece of junk, Bing. Every time I try to go to a real search engine, Bing pops up and asks me why I don't use Bing. Because you're not a search engine, Bing, you're nothing but another sleazy marketing tool. If I search Bing for "Manson murders," at least 10 advertisements will pop up offering to sell me the Manson murders. I use several different search engines and, unlike Bing, they actually find what I'm looking for and get out of the way. As part of the clean-up I do with any new computer, I'm hunting down and killing all the bloatware. So far all my old legacy programs run OK on Win 10.

Thanks for posting this. It's even better than I expected, with an engine AND the left/right hand drive options. Amazing! The Land Rover with the soft top is the only ESCI kit that Italeri has never re-issued. Which makes me wonder if they lost the mold for the soft top or something. Now that I think about it, Italeri seems to be missing several ESCI roofs. A few years ago they re-issued the 1/24 Toyota BJ-44 as an "Armed Pickup," or "technical," with a .50 caliber machine gun. It was originally issued by ESCI with either a soft top or hard top, like the Land Rover. That kit body has the doors molded in place and the interior is seriously lacking. Not even a firewall, so it's open from the interior to the grille. No detail on the inner door panels, no pedals, etc. A roof would at least hide some of that. Or you have to do what I did for an open vehicle, and scratch-build it all. Except the door panels. I was building a "technical" and just cut the doors off.

The Accurate Miniatures 1/48 scale Avenger and Dauntless have turned up in Italeri and Academy/Minicraft boxes. Revell bought up the remaining 1/24 scale Corvette Grand Sport kits in a warehouse deal a few years ago. They put the parts in a Revell box and sold them at a good price. $20 in my local Los Angeles hobby shop at the time. AFAIK, Revell does not have the molds for the Grand Sport or any other AM car kits and I wonder who does. For swap meet/eBay research, here's what the Grand Sport box looks like.

Looks like "No." I just opened my Tamiya '66 Beetle kit. No decals in the box, and none are mentioned on the instruction sheet. It does come with a tiny sheet of 2 metal transfers, the "VW" and "1300" emblems.

Thanks for the comments, guys! Tom - HobbyLinc has the Porsche Tractor in stock for $15.92. They also have the Revell of Germany kit, which is nearly $8 more! So be careful if you order. I think the only difference is the boxes; the U.S. regular squarish box, versus the longer RoG box that opens on one end. This link goes directly to the U.S. kit: http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/rmx/rmx4485.htm

Flea Market Day! A couple of sellers had boxes of kits. I try to restrict myself to buying kits I don't have, like the "American Graffiti" Deuce. Or stuff I do have that's hard to find, like the Revell '59 Skyliner. I already have the Lindberg '53 Ford Pace Car. But it was only $8 and the wire wheels and decals are worth that much. When it rains it pours...I looked for that '34 Ford stock coupe for a long time, at a reasonable price, with no luck. This is the second one I've found at that flea market, in just a couple of weeks. I don't mind having a couple of those, it has a nice stock Flathead and other useful vintage Ford parts.

Yes, another Revell Porsche Junior Diesel 108! It's been discussed a lot on this board so I'll try not to repeat stuff from other reviews. Here's a simple mod using the fender seats provided in the kit. The kit gives us both a wooden bench seat and a simple "hoop" rail seat to mount on top of the fenders. The pic of the restored tractor below shows another option; it uses only the bottom of the wooden seat, with the "hoop" rail curved around it. My only complaint with the kit is SOME of the decals. Most decals are really sharp, and the "Porsche Diesel Junior" hood decals are in both silver and yellow, to harmonize with any paint job. On the real tractor those are 3-D nameplates, not decals, so I was careful not to chip them during the weathering. My decal complaint: the back of the wooden bench seat is decorated with lots of badges. Farmer Of The Year awards? The badges are decals. Unfortunately, those decals are blurry and soft, not razor-sharp like all the others. This appears to be a problem with all these kits. Chuck Most mentioned it in his review, and I checked a second, unbuilt kit. The decals are the same in that one. MODS: EXHAUST: when I went to mount the exhaust pipe and muffler, it was missing the pipe that connects to the engine. I probably lost it while stripping the chrome. I saw some pix on the internet of these tractors with vertical exhaust stacks, and decided to make my own. If you have a lemon, make lemonade... The exhaust stack was cobbled together from random junk parts: a 1/35 scale tank muffler, an HO scale train exhaust pipe and a piece of perforated brass for a heat shield. And finally, a "flapper" cover on top. The exhaust pipe from the cylinder head is a piece of heavy insulated wire. BENCH SEAT: The planks in the wooden bench seat were smooth, so I carved wood grain into them, using a small needle in a pin vise. I also shaved off the molded-in mount for the rear view mirror, since I opted not to use it. I decided my farmer sometimes carried a lot of passengers, so I also installed the "hoop" seat rail on the right-hand fender. BATTERY: the battery looked too modern for my taste. I replaced it with a parts-box battery that had terminals molded in. I added the BOSCH decal, a blue hold-down strap from tape, and red/black battery cables from the wire stash. And some corrosion to the positive battery terminal. While I was fooling around under the hood, I also added some wiring, terminals, nuts/bolts and other details. TOOLBOX: I used the kit toolbox, thinned down and dented to look more like thin sheet metal, minus the lid. Added tiny HO scale hinges, and a hasp to the front. And of course, a toolbox needs tools so I added some of those. And a greasy rag! I'M GOING NUTS: I added MENG nuts and bolts to perk up the simple, toy-like front axle. This is a little tricky if you want to keep the working steering. Also added big hex bolts to the rear axle backing plates. And finally, 2 small nuts/bolts and a hex bolt to the fender brackets, after sanding off the nearly invisible items on the kit. Most of this stuff can barely be seen, but I know it's there. PAINTING: I used the salt technique, with Kosher salt. The first base color was Tamiya Red Brown for the old rust overall, then a light coat of Testors Dullcote that dried overnight. Then I applied the water/salt mix on areas that would stay rusty, and let that dry. The next paint coat was Tamiya Flat Red, lightened with a little Tamiya Flesh on upper areas that get more sun. When that dried, I used a damp paintbrush to scrub off the salt crystals. The "dark and greasy" areas are washes with Raw Umber oil paint. Finally I did some dry-brushing with Abteilung Brick Red and various lighter oil paints. And the photos show me some goofs I need to fix...g-r-r-r...

Thanks, Tom, that was a great story! Egypt also has some weird laws aimed at protecting its car industry. Only one American brand was exempt from its crippling import taxes: Jeep. And that's only because Jeep had a plant in Cairo, where knocked-down Jeep kits were assembled. According to rumor, that plant was formerly used to build Russian SA-2 missiles.