Mike999

I really like this simple, clean box art of the Silhouette. This kit was a tie-in to a TV special back in the 1960s, "Wonderful World of Wheels." I've only seen box photos of the kit, never the real thing. But it looks like it was identical to the standard AMT kit except for the box art. It included the trailer and had 3 building options.

At a contest once, somebody built that 1/24 scale Huey helicopter beat-up and weathered, with broken rotor blades. And put it on a 1/24 scale flatbed truck. It looked great. With that in mind, I bought this Hughes 500-D cheap at a show once. It's a very simple kit, from the Japanese IDEA company, but it is 1/24 scale. It would also fit in a "police vehicle" category, since many agencies across the country used these. Academy did a California Highway Patrol version of the 500-D in 1/48 scale.

It sure doesn't look good. A brand-new Michael's opened near me just a couple of months ago. Shortly after it opened, I went in to check the kits. The model shelf was nearly empty. The newest car model they had was the Starsky & Hutch Torino.

TCM is showing a classic film-noir with some great dialogue, at 6 PM EST tonight: "White Heat" from 1949. Fave line: when one of James Cagney's gunsels has been sitting in the car, playing the radio. Cagney: "If that battery's dead, it's gonna have company." The answer to the 2 lines I posted above is "Who'll Stop the Rain" (1978). Or for Europeans, "Dog Soldiers," the name of the Robert Stone novel the movie was based on. Great cast with Nick Nolte, Tuesday Weld, and Anthony Zerbe as the slimiest crooked drug agent ever...complete with an amazing collection of leisure suits. The plot is sort of like "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," replacing the gold dust with Vietnamese heroin.

"A sense of unreality is not a legal defense." "Could've been worse. Could've been a body in this sleeping bag. The big ones eat the little ones up here. Welcome to L.A.!"

Nobody answered this in EIGHT years? Wow. OK, I'll butt in for the still-curious and other fans of zombie threads: both of those Bell 47/H-13 kits are 1/35 scale, to fit in with military kits. Despite what you may read on the internet, these 2 kits are NOT "made from the same molds" or "a copy/knock off." They are totally different kits. The MRC kit was released around 1993, the Revell around 1996 in a series of licensed M*A*S*H kits (jeep, truck, "The Swamp" diorama scene, etc.). As the OP noted, the MRC kit is the version with a single fuel tank, the Revell has dual tanks. Around 2002 Academy got the MRC molds and tooled up a set of floats to make the US Coast Guard HTL-4 version. I think these kits are all out of production right now. But all 3 versions are pretty easy to find, so don't fall for any "rare/collectible!!!" hype. You'll mostly see that hype around the kit in the M*A*S*H boxes. Revell has re-issued its kit in other boxes, like this gunship version:

Seen on eBay just now...

Yes, thanks for that heads-up. I got a few bucks off on a 1/35 scale Voyager photo-etched set. It will go on this monster, my Christmas present to myself: the Trumpeter BTM-3 Russian High-Speed Trench-Digging Vehicle.

Hobby Lobby sells a BIG (12" x 30") roll of K&S Engineering aluminum for $5.99. It's .005 thick, or 36-gauge. As for making fenders, I've seen people "form" metal sheet over plastic fenders, then carefully cut away the plastic and glue in the metal. I haven't made that work yet but I have 10 thumbs. I did buy one of those K&S rolls long ago and have used it on smaller projects, like 1/35 scale straight fenders, shell-holders in tanks etc. HL also sells very thin brass sheets. https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbies/Wood-Crafting/Hardware-Tools/36-Gauge-Aluminum-Roll/p/21909

Probably mentioned already but I'm too lazy to go search: Elmer's also makes a clear "school glue." Like the white glue, it's pretty thick but crystal-clear. That stuff is very useful. It bonds pretty well to nearly anything, but can be easily removed. I use it to attach accessories, like water coolers or toolboxes, where I might change my mind later. For dioramas, it could even make mud puddles and such.

Only for the old Peerless-MAX/Italeri 1/35 scale Dodges. And we'd have to scratch-build the rest of the engine compartment. The WC-xx Dodges released by Skybow/AFV Club come with very detailed engines. This one was built by a guy on the FSM forum, who said: "I just wired the spark plugs and that's about it." http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/3/t/137792.aspx

Here's a new one on me - a snap-together MPC '69 (?) Grand Prix, with metal axles/bearings for slot-car racing. It does not have an engine and the hood is molded into the body. I've never seen one of these kits. Looks like MPC was copying the AMT "Motor City Stockers" idea. An eBay vendor has TWO of them up for sale right now. $125 + $10.00 shipping, so I'll keep looking. Link to the auction with more pix: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MPC-FAST-PACK-GRAND-PRIX-SEALED-INSIDE-1-25-G2/123488069309?hash=item1cc07666bd:g:u0oAAOSwo3Fb61Yp

Sounds like a safe bet! I was in a Hobby Lobby just today. (Anderson, SC, for anyone passing thru). Near the model aisle, I saw a cart full of Revell '67 and '69 Camaro kits, Snap '06 Mustangs and some others. They all had regular-price stickers on them. I got excited and thought they might be headed for the Clearance section. Asked a woman who was re-stocking. She said no, those kits had just come in and were headed for the model shelves...at the regular price.

Some fun Tamiya Trivia about the Alpine A110 and its paint. From the Internet, so you know it's 100% correct...cough: When the Alpine kit was first released, Tamiya also released a special color of their TS spray paint for it. Unlike every other Tamiya spray paint, that one didn't have a number. It was just called "TS Alpine Blue." Tamiya eventually took it out of production for a while, and builders had to mix their own. The Alpine Blue is back now, but Tamiya gave it a number and changed its name: TS-54 Light Metallic Blue. Tamiya also does TS-19 Metallic Blue, but it's noticeably darker. And nowadays, Zero and other paint brands also do an "Alpine Blue."

The aircraft buff books like "Air Classics" magazine bear that out. The vast majority of the aircraft on the cover are WWII. As for "special and magical," I sure saw an example of that yesterday on TCM. They showed the movie "Air Force." It was filmed in 1943, in the middle of WWII when few aircraft could be spared for movie-making. So we got a lot of awesome footage of early-model (and by then obsolete) B-17C's. Including the star of the show, the B-17 "Mary-Ann." Also lots of P-400's - the P-39 Airacobra equipped with the 20mm cannon in the nose, not the Oldsmobile 37mm gun. A T-6 Texan fitted with the rear gun. And a real rarity - some "Japanese" fighters were Republic P-43 Lancers! Only 272 of those were built, according to Mr. Google. And those were only built to keep the Republic production lines open for the upcoming P-47 Thunderbolt.

We seem to have a lot of film-noir fans lurking around here...probably with bad intent. Plus fans of old L.A., which is seen in so many noir movies. Here's a link to a great blog: "Deranged L.A. Crimes: True 20th Century Tales of Murder, Mayhem, Political Corruption, and Celebrity Scandal." The author is Joan Renner, former archivist at the L.A.P.D. Museum and all-around expert on her subject matter. With writer James Ellroy, she helped compile the 2015 collection of vintage crime-scene photos, "LAPD '53." She often appears on the ID Channel true-crime shows like "Deadly Women." Every week her blog features "Film Noir Friday," showcasing a different crime movie. You can spend many fascinating hours at this site! http://derangedlacrimes.com/

When it rains heavily! I lived in Los Angeles for many years, and have seen that river almost overflowing its banks. L.A. overall wasn't designed for heavy rain, and when it happens, it's not unusual to go thru an intersection with water up to the bottom of your car doors. Back in 1994, if I'm remembering the year correctly, during some very heavy storms National Guard helicopters were rescuing people from the tops of their cars. Ironically, that was around the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin in the San Fernando Valley. The Basin worked the way it should, it just got swamped with all the rain.

"Gangster Squad" (2013) is set in 1949 Los Angeles and is chock-full of great vintage cars. Ryan Gosling drives a gorgeous blue '41 Ford convertible. The flick features a pretty epic chase between vintage Cadillacs and Fords, done with CGI, pic below. More movie magic: the epic shoot-out at the end of the movie really was filmed in MacArthur Park. But the big water fountain only existed in the movie. The movie was very loosely based on Paul Lieberman's book "Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles." That's a great read, covering a true and complex story. As usual, Hollywood dumbed it down, throwing in a mandatory love story and other unnecessary glurge. The movie also plays fast and loose with the facts. The real Jack Dragna wasn't the Sad-Sack goofball shown in the movie. He was the head of the L.A. Mafia and a very dangerous character. Another movie covering the same subject, the LAPD "Hat Squad," is "Mulholland Falls" (1996). In that one, Nick Nolte and his squad tool around in a gorgeous black '49 Buick Roadmaster convertible.

SoryTurd sure is real! I found it while looking at eBay "Ending Soonest" items one night, and grabbed that pic. I just checked and it's not on eBay now, so maybe somebody actually bought that thing. If you do an eBay search on "ARII 1/20 off-road car series," you might find some others in the same series. Like the "Hurrycane."

Just watched a good one that played on TCM earlier today: "Crime Wave" (1954), directed by film-noir master Andre de Toth. Cast includes Sterling Hayden as a tough cop, and a very young Charles Bronson as (guess what?) a crook. And as a nice bonus, the always manic Tim Carey.* Great shots of early Fifties Los Angeles, when the entire police department still fit into City Hall and the Red/Yellow streetcar lines were still operating. Speaking of City Hall, Los Angeles residents will LOL at some of the geographical goofs: one scene supposedly takes place in San Pedro. But we can clearly see the iconic L.A. City Hall a couple of streets over. City Hall wouldn't be visible from San Pedro, about 20 miles away from downtown. The movie ends with a chase thru "Glendale," about 10 miles from downtown, but again City Hall is right down the street. One of the nicest cars in the movie is shown below, a beautiful hot-rodded '30 Ford roadster. Check out the neat line of chrome fasteners on the firewall. *TCM sometimes shows the one and only movie Tim Carey made himself, "The World's Greatest Sinner." It took him many years to finish, and is completely bizarro. With music by a then-unknown composer named Frank Zappa.

Truth in advertising! This is the old-tool Revell '56 Chevy with opening everything. According to a poster who had one, this version built a custom low rider only with a non-stock engine. The body was molded in that lime-green metalflake on the boxtop, with the chassis molded in white.

Flea Market Day! Where it was a balmy 28 degrees F or so. Found an Eldon Bob Reisner Sand Draggin.' No instructions, partly built and appears to be missing one wheel back. But it has an extra set of rear tires. And it was cheap, so I couldn't resist.

"Thunder Road" definitely! This '36 (?) Ford is only seen very briefly, but it sure looked like a neat car:

Watch the Elvis movie "Viva Las Vegas" and you'll see about a billion dollars worth of cars, at current prices. In the garage pic below, the blue car #7 is a '62 Elva Mk. 6 Maserati. The Ferrari is a '58 250GT Berlinetta. One of the several Cobras used in the movie is in the background, along with a C2 Corvette coupe. In the outside pic, the little white car is a Daimler Dart SP 250. It had a Hemi V-8, but it was a really SMALL Hemi V8.

"Fireball 500" was the big American-International car movie for 1966. For 1967, it was "Thunder Alley." That one also had a MOPAR theme car, the Thunder Charger, that was also turned into an MPC model kit. My favorite car from both movies is a 1960 Dodge Seneca 2-door sedan. It starred as a moonshine car in "Fireball 500" and as a stock-car racer in "Thunder Alley."