Mike999

True. I found this built-up '60 DeSoto 2 days ago, at a local flea market. Along with its buddy, the '60 Plymouth Fury. (I posted this pic elsewhere, but the board moves so fast it's easy to miss things. At least it is for me, but I'm old.) The pair appear to have been built by an adult back in the day. No glue blobs and the painting is carefully done, even the trim and nameplates. Look closely at the Desoto, and you can see its missing hubcap in the back seat. Got both of them for quite a bit less than $119.

Interesting 2003 article from Automotive News, "Lee Iacocca's Pinto: A Fiery Failure:" https://www.autonews.com/article/20030616/SUB/306160770/lee-iacocca-s-pinto-a-fiery-failure

Thanks, that was a boneheaded error on my part. The kit boxes say "1/25." I always thought the Trumpeter Novas looked a little bigger than 1/25, and so did their Falcon/Ranchero. But I haven't measured them either.

That seems strange, if I'm reading it right. The Trumpeter Nova was 1/24 scale, the old AMT 1/25. So it seems like a resin top made for the AMT kit would be narrower than the Trumpeter body. But scale weirdness abides in this hobby, so nothing much surprises me. At a kit swap meet once, I found a resin re-pop of the '63 Nova hardtop cheap. It was a nice kit, with chrome bumpers and separate hood, and cheap because the top was warped. I thought it might end up as a convertible, but straightened it out with heat.

N/A for a dragster, but I remember one complaint with the Trumpeter Nova kits: the convertible windshield is too tall. The experts said for a better convertible, use a hardtop kit and cut off the roof, then adapt the convertible-specific parts. I almost got a convertible done years ago, but lost it in a move. I remember it going together pretty well, and some parts were really impressive. Like the tiny, separate chrome ashtrays for the rear armrests. I picked up several hardtops and converts over the years, before they became Unobtainium. They will be available at my Estate Sale.

Do you mean the condition? Box is open but everything inside is still sealed in the plastic bags. Except for the box, it's exactly the same as the 1995 re-issue. That one was Revell kit #1270 and came in a long, flat box, like the original kit from the 1950s. The one I found is the 2004 re-issue in a regular square box. It's Revell kit #85-7696.

Found 3 of those mags at a flea market today! All from 1955-1957. I really like the "little" magazines from that era. Two of these got bigger later on, Car Craft and Rod & Custom.

You're the only other person, besides me, who's mentioned finding that Mack at Hobby Lobby. My nearest store only had one and I grabbed it. I've always liked the brutal, old-school look of that truck, but didn't want to pay full price. $11.99 made it a no-brainer. Especially with the original price of $45.99 still on it! Flea Market Day here! All these kits were reasonably priced. I've been trying to find a stock '34 Ford coupe for a while. The "Daisy" Road Runner has some minor gluing, engine and interior, but it's neatly done. The real prize today was the 2 Jo-Hans, a '60 Desoto Adventurer and '60 Plymouth Fury. The seller thought they were promos, but I'm pretty sure they're built kits. No warping at all. The Desoto is missing a hubcap but the seller still had it. It even has the rear-view mirror, still glued to the dashboard. Another indication it's a kit - under the hubcaps it has stock steel wheels. The "USA Oldie" re-issue of the '60 Desoto and Plymouth wagon had engines, which these models don't. But I'm not sure when Jo-Han added the separate hood and engine. The Plymouth has a crack in the roof, easily fixed, and a couple other minor dings. Both kits look like tail-draggers. But that's only because the rear lowering blocks have come unglued. Both should look pretty good on the shelf, with a little cleaning and re-work. They weren't exactly cheap, but they weren't priced eBay-Crazy either.

Figure this one out. eBay seller is offering a "Jo-Han #C-4660 1960 Desoto Adventurer, missing tires, no box." It seems to be missing a lot more than the tires. The only part of a Jo-Han Desoto kit in his photos is the instruction sheet. Everything else belongs to a '65 Mustang hardtop. Which looks like a die-cast model, with the opening dog-leg doors , flat firewall with hinge cutouts, etc. I have no idea who made the Mustang and the seller doesn't mention it. ERTL did a die-cast '65 Mustang coupe, but it didn't have separate door handles like this one. Just another eBay mystery, I guess... https://www.ebay.com/itm/JoHan-60-Desoto-Adventurer-Hardtop-C-4460-Model-Car-MISSING-TIRES-/113805836113?hash=item1a7f5b3f51%3Ag

That is a winner! Congrats! Looking forward to the pix. I just got back from the big local Wed. flea market. Wed. seems like a weird day for a flea market, but this one has been running for about 40 years. It was very busy, even though a killer storm came thru last night. The storm uprooted some giant ancient oak trees, and you almost needed SCUBA gear to walk thru all the mud and deep puddles. An employee told me they had work crews out at 5:30 A.M. cutting up the fallen trees. Along with some old kits, my big find was 2 built Jo-Hans: a '60 Plymouth Fury and '60 Desoto Adventurer. The seller thought they were promos, but I don't think so. For one thing, they're both very straight and not warped. The Plymouth has a crack in the roof, barely visible and easily fixed. The Desoto has open steel wheels with hubcaps. One hubcap had fallen off but the seller still had it (WHEW!). Both are neatly painted, including the interiors. The Desoto still has the rear-view mirror on top of the dashboard. They weren't cheap, but they weren't eBay-Crazy priced either. This seller recently got a bunch of promos from an estate sale. He had some Banthrico Pontiacs, a 4-door Olds, and several Studebakers, including a '53 2-door coupe (with the window post). I'll post pix later in "What Did You Get Today?"

Re-posting the link to Chuck Most's article about the Monogram Land Rover. It should answer all your questions about the kit. TL;DR Version: the Monogram Rover is the only kit with an engine, and the only 2-door, short wheelbase version ever made. The ESCI/Italeri kits are all 2-door, long wheelbase versions. The kit was a giant flop, and the molds probably no longer exist. http://chuckmost.wixsite.com/madhouse-miniatures/single-post/2015/04/07/The-Sad-and-Sordid-tale-of-Monograms-Land-Rover

For those in the area or passing thru: went to the big Hobby Lobby in Anderson, SC today. It has the kits everybody has already mentioned discounted. I picked up the MPC Honda Super Hawk for $6.74. I have some old Lindberg/PYRO 1/16 bike kits that are missing wheels and other small parts, found at flea markets over the years. So at that price it was worth buying as a possible parts kit.

Inspiration! Nick Nolte's ride in the 1978 movie "Who'll Stop the Rain." ImcdB identifies this one as a 1958 Land-Rover 109'' LWB Series II Station Wagon. I think all available 1/24 kits are Series III. But I don't know much about Land Rovers, and identify them as "headlights inside the fenders" (Series II) or "headlights on the fenders" (Series III).

The best version of this kit I've ever seen done. Nice work on the figures. I also try to build 1/35 military. But the finesse some modelers can put into those tiny figures often makes me want to give up. I found the perfect accessory for your BH truck, and the perfect place to display it. The original Beverly Hillbillies house is on the market, and you're in luck! It was just marked down. When it went on the market in 2017 it was the most expensive house in the USA, with an asking price of $350 million. Recently reduced to only $195 million. Among other amenities, it has a wine cellar that will store 12,000 bottles of vino (or moonshine), and a 40-car garage. https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2019/06/26/beverly-hillbillies-bel-air-espensive-real-estate-drops-price/

Sorry to hear about Drago. He was really good at playing bad guys. I'm currently reading the book "Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago" by Max Allan Collins & A. Brad Schwartz. It's a massively researched and very entertaining look at the real "Untouchables" and their nemesis. On-topic for the board: the first time Ness and his men hit a Capone warehouse, they drove a big truck in reverse, right thru the front doors. They realized the truck wouldn't take much of that. Capone's breweries and warehouses often had multiple sets of reinforced doors inside that had to be busted down. One of Ness' men had trained as a welder, and he designed a large steel "bumper" for the front of the truck, made out of old street-car tracks. https://www.amazon.com/Scarface-Untouchable-Capone-Battle-Chicago/dp/0062441949

Another way to cheat: Archer Fine Transfers makes many different sizes of weld seams that go on like decals. Here's their #AR88005 Weld Seams sheet.

Along with the kits already listed, my local Hobby Lobby had the Round 2 Mack DM-600 truck for $11.49. That's a real steal, the regular HL price sticker on it was $45.99. I couldn't resist grabbing that one, plus a Mount'n Goat and Scout II for $7.49 each.

The link below will take you to the 1-hour documentary "Grand Prix: The Killer Years." Not your track racing, but the 1950s-60s safety gear was probably the same - nearly non-existent. In the movie Jackie Stewart says his car had 1 piece of safety equipment, and he had to buy it himself: a wrench tied to the steering wheel, so somebody could remove the wheel and get him out of the car if he crashed. https://archive.org/details/CPZ-0041

Fujimi's 1/24 scale kit #11004 "Drivers" has 2 driver heads with "old fashioned" racing helmets. Unfortunately the helmets are molded to heads. So you'd have to grind out the heads, or use the whole driver. That set is out of production, but has been replaced by kit #11636 "Mechanic Figures & Driver w/Car Interior Accessories." It has the drivers, mechanics and other accessories. It's currently available for less than $20 at some online vendors. The old Monogram Indy Racer kit has a nice period driver figure, but same problem as the Fujimi guys; his helmet and goggles are molded to his face.

That's amazing, both the craftsmanship to produce those kits and the fact that they survived all these years. I really like to see these early examples of our hobby. Here's another one that will probably never be seen again: the NITTO New York City Horse Car, in oddball 1/30 scale. A very early version of a city bus. The car body is pre-painted red with gold trim, and the 2 horses are also painted: one white, one brown, with their harness gear pre-painted in black. But no figures. I saw this on eBay for a low price. Part of the NITTO "Transportation Series," which seemed to only consist of 2 kits: this one and a 1/10 scale Japanese rickshaw.

That's a really nice find! I'd also be tempted to leave it alone. If you run into anything in the same scale and want to experiment: the old HISTOREX figures and accessories were 1/30 scale. They're often listed as 1/32 or 1/35 but are visibly bigger. HISTOREX is long gone, but NEMROD re-issued some of their stuff. And original HISTOREX kits are pretty common on eBay.

I ordered 2 of those F-100 Service Trucks from Model Car Mountain on eBay. After a few days, the seller e-mailed me and said the kits were stuck in a warehouse, and there was a delay in shipping them to him. He offered to cancel the order and refund my money immediately, or I could wait for the shipment to get unstuck. Told him I would wait. It only took a couple of more days. The kits arrived last Friday. I was very pleased with the seller's honesty and quick response to the problem. I don't usually buy the "HOT NEW KIT!!!" right away, but I make an exception for those Model King/Moebius special issues. They seem to only be available for a short time, then you have to deal with re-sellers marking them up for an even higher price. For the curious, the MCM price on the Service Truck was $29.88.

Thanks! I found one of those at a flea market, cheap. With...yes, a warped roof. I thought about doing the same thing you did. It really looks sharp as a convertible. If I'm remembering right, we don't have to worry about a top boot. The Continental Mk II was supposed to get the retractable metal roof that went into the '57 Ford. I think FoMoCo dropped that idea because the Continental hardtop already cost so much; about $10,000 in 1950s money. Even at that price, Ford said it lost money on every Continental sold.

Somebody in here may have a top boot they'll give you, free. This board has many old threads about these '58 Caddy kits, and some may be lurking half-built and abandoned in closets or under work-benches. If you have to buy a kit for the top boot: those ARII/IMEX/MicroAce '58 Cadillac kits were also re-issued by Lee and Heller. The Lee and Heller versions were motorized, with the rear axle molded in place and a battery box/motor. According to various internet posters, quality slipped quite a bit on those 2 re-issues and they look pretty blobby. One poster said the Heller kit includes both the boot cover and the convertible up-top. The original issues did not. You got either a top boot, an up-top or a hardtop, and the box art showed exactly what you got. The up-top on the original issues was a vac-u-formed part. All these kits are pretty common on eBay for reasonable prices, especially the Lee/Heller re-issues. Here's an example of an unreasonable price, included for entertainment only: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-Ace-1-24-58-Cadillac-open-type-model-kit-From-Japan-F-S/152749260475?hash=item239090bebb:g:a74AAOSwZC1Z6B1K

Long before "Top Gun," the U.S. Navy used Hollywood movies to showcase its cutting-edge technology. One of the best examples turns up on TCM from time to time: the movie "Dirigible" from 1931. Airships were the weapon of the future! The movie is pretty amazing for its shots of the real dirigible USS Los Angeles landing on an aircraft carrier, the "parasite" fighters that hung under the airships, etc. A major plot point involves an Arctic expedition. The Arctic scenes were shot in the frozen wastes of Arcadia, CA, in northern Los Angeles County. You can find pictures of the sets on the internet. The actors chewed dry ice to create frozen breath. That had a pretty gruesome outcome: one crew member did it wrong and lost most of his tongue and jaw.