Mike999

Many people suggest using metal tube, and cutting bezel rings by carefully "slicing" off a piece of the tube with a metal-cutting saw. This has never worked well for me, because I have 10 thumbs. You might want to check the "Tips & Tutorials" forum, this question has probably been asked before. When I needed bezels recently, I cheated and used some old photo-etched bezels from either Detail Master or Model Car Garage. MCG still sells them, link below. These will look great as long as your gauge holes are the same size as the MCG bezels. If not, you may have to custom-make some bezels. http://www.modelcargarage.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=397

Last year rumors were floating around that Revell was doing a new-mold Aston Martin DB-5, for release in Sept. 2017. It apparently died due to licensing issues. Link below to the discussion about it on Britmodeler. Besides the Unobtainium Airfix and Aurora Bond cars, back in the 1990s Doyusha did a DB-5 in regular and James Bond versions. The 007 kit had the tire slashers, rotating license plates, trunk bulletproof shield, machine guns etc. It also came with 2 figures, Bond & Oddjob. Plus the famous briefcase and AR-7 sniper rifle. It was a simplified curbside kit with no engine, but people who have built it seem to like it. The Doyusha DB-5 was re-issued by...of all people...Airfix! Why not reissue your own 007 DB-5, guys? (Because the molds no longer exist, probably.) https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235014575-new-124-db5-from-revell/

I do that sometimes. Walking across a parking lot recently, right under my feet I found a roll of very thin, soft copper wire that also works well. I've also used Steven's suggestion of using wire. But IIRC, the best wire for radiator hose is 18 gauge. The copper wire inside that is sometimes too big to drill a useable hole in the radiator. So I'll pull out the wire core and replace it with something smaller that will still hold a bend. That's what I did in the photo above; the Pony Lacing has a very thin copper wire inside it.

Resurrecting this zombie thread because a few days ago, I ordered the Corvair Rampside via eBay. Mike Hanson of bestmodelcarparts sent me a nice email, and mentioned that he will soon be moving from Calif. to Oregon. Here's part of his email. I thought the inmates here might enjoy it: "I consider this kit (the Rampside) to be my magnum opus, I hope I can get future kits to have the popularity that this one has had! For four months I had a two week wait for shipping because I had that many orders. I can still sell just about as many as I can make so that is good...Once I am moved, I will be doing the model business full-time so there will be many more products to come."

Flea Market Day! Who can resist a bright yellow 1/24 scale '74 Maverick? Not me! Maverick models are hard to find in any material, and this one from Motor Max will look great in the Malaise Era collection. Once I get it out of that water-logged box, anyway. Ditto for the Motor Max 2015 California Highway Patrol Ford Police Interceptor Utility. I like to collect CHP vehicles, too. Those bookends aren't really bookends. They're diorama bases! Or potential rubble in a Monte Cassino or other WWII Italy diorama. Hmmm, Monuments Men... And the Testors 1/72 scale SR-75 Penetrator? What can I say, it was weird and cheap. And BIG. I'm getting up an eBay sale right now and that one might be part of it. Or maybe I'll turn it into a 1/25 scale Land Speed Record car...

Know what you mean. I have a resin '58 Cadillac 2-door hardtop that I got cheap at a kit swap meet. Both rear fender tips are chipped. There's not much surface area to glue anything on, or even form epoxy putty around. It can be done but, as you say, it will be a pain. It might be better to sand back the chips, they're pretty small. That 58 Cadillac came in a package deal with the ARII '58 Eldorado Biarritz convertible. The seller told me he wanted to use the ARII chassis/engine etc. to detail the resin kit. But after some measuring and studying, he gave up on that idea. The ARII kit is 1/24 scale. The resin kit was mastered off the Johan 4-door. It's allegedly 1/25 but looks a little smaller, like all Johan Cadillacs of that era. So he couldn't make it work. A weird thing: whoever mastered the '58 2-door did a good job of extending the front doors and filling the back door lines. But they left the Johan "Fleetwood" lettering across the trunk. IIRC, the only Fleetwood in 1958 was the Sixty Special 4-door, like the Johan promo. The 2-door hardtops were the entry-level Series 62 and the fancier Coupe de Ville.

This stuff is called "Pony Bead Lacing" and looks just about perfect for 1/25 scale radiator hoses. It's in the aisle with the bead-making stuff (duh!). A package contains 5 yards, which should last a while. I bought this package some time ago, and you can see that the Hobby Lobby price then was $1.27. I checked my local HL yesterday (a brand-new store) and HL still has Pony Bead Lacing, in exactly the same package. But the price has gone up to $1.99. Here's a pic of the package, and another showing it used on a work in progress.

Thanks to the reviews on this board for inspiring me to get a Revell Baja Bronco at Hobby Lobby yesterday. Thereby hangs a tale... I ordered one of the original, stock Bronco kits on-line when it first came out. Then HL got it in stock, and I bought a second one with the 40% off coupon. But as we all know, the original kit had undersized tires/wheels. I could fix that for one stock kit - found a set of Moebius F-100 wheels and tires at a kit swap meet. But then the Baja Bronco version came out, with the bigger wheels, fender flares and other improvements. Fortunately I'd left the HL price tag on the second stock kit, though I didn't have the receipt. A new Hobby Lobby just opened near me a few days ago. Yesterday I took in the stock kit and traded it in for the Baja version. Had to pay a price difference of $5.30, which was OK since I got the kit at 40% off.

I only have 2 Nichimo kits. The other one is the 1/48 Kawasaki Ki-45 Toryu ("Dragon Slayer"), U.S. code name "Nick." The twin-engine heavy fighter. Given your P-51 pain, thought you might like this review of the Nick from Modeling Madness: "I like Nichimo kits. But they run a full spectrum from accurate to toy-like. Some, like their Ki-51 Sonia and Ki-43 Oscar, are extremely well done. They are accurate and build well, and have cockpit detail that is a few decades ahead of their time. Others, like the Aichi Jake, SBD Dauntless, and TBF Avenger are more toy-like, with features like movable control surfaces and were designed to include a small motor to spin the prop. For that reason the cockpit on these are severely lacking. I don’t say toy-like like it’s a bad thing though….it depends on your perspective. The Nichimo SBD Dauntless has moveable flaps and a droppable bomb, which is considered the ultimate in cool by my 7 year old son." https://modelingmadness.com/review/axis/j/jaaf/rannick.htm

Another enjoyable review of an obscure kit! Thanks. Here's one of my favorite obscurities: the Nichimo 1/48 Mitsubishi Ki-51 "Sonia." Japanese Army WWII attack/recon aircraft. The kit has optional parts for both versions. Obscure? AFAIK, this is the only kit of this aircraft in any scale. Even though the Sonia was a popular aircraft that stayed in production for all of WWII with very few changes. No other Army aircraft could do what it did as well as the Ki-51. And under that fine "in action" 1970's box art, what a kit! This one was way ahead of its time. Fine recessed panel/rivet detail. A full Interior with radios, control panels etc. (and different interior parts for the 2 versions). Optional ordnance loads. Plus an engine complete with firewall, mounts, exhaust collector ring etc. Despite all that, it seems to get very little respect. I bought mine at a kit swap meet long ago for $10. The Nichimo Sonia is often available on eBay. One recently sold for $14.22, getting only 2 bids.

The Los Angeles PD also used Chevies in 1956 (and '58). The '56s were 4-doors and several companies make resin bodies to fit the new Revell Del Ray. Some conversions include the 4-dr. body, corrected interior door panels and non-split front seat. For those who like to build police cars, here's a bunch of photos and a list of all LAPD vehicles used from 1956 on. Including non-fossil-fuel powered vehicles (horses). http://www.policecarwebsite.net/fc/capdcars/lapd.html

Sounds like part of the bankruptcy liquidation. Here's what Dave Van had to say about that back in 2012, and a link to the whole thread: "These kits that Revell is selling are re-boxed Accurate Miniatures kits. These were in the warehouse when AM went under. MRC got the planes and Revell got the Vette. The molds....who knows. I had two family members that worked at the last AM in Concord NC and I packed a few kits there myself. These are 2nd gen kits with many of the fit issues corrected. A pretty decent kit IMHO.....I built a few for the original AM back in the day!"

I guess they never got the 1/24 scale Renault Estafette van issued. A search on the Heller website doesn't show it. Even though it was announced in 2016, but one vendor is showing it as "new for 2018." Too bad, I would have really liked that police version. Guess I'll build the Airtrax resin Estafette I bought a few years ago. My skills should be up to it around 2097...

Maybe there's a stash of McLaren M8 kits sitting in a warehouse somewhere. Though as Casey said, the M8 kits aren't hard to find right now. That's how Revell re-issued the Accurate Miniatures Corvette Grand Sport a few years ago: found a bunch of bagged kits, printed up boxes and sold them at a good price. There were rumors that Revell had acquired the molds and re-popped the kits but that was not true. For anyone interested in the man and his cars, check out the 2017 documentary "McLaren," directed by Roger Donaldson. It mentions that McLaren came to the U.S. to race Can-Am because there wasn't enough money in Formula 1. It has interviews with Mario Andretti and others who knew McLaren, including family members. It's too short, at an hour and a half, but McLaren's life was tragically short. He was only 32 years old when he died, testing a car at Goodwood. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5031332/

Nice work on a real oldie! I've been reading Robert Forczyk's book "Case Red: The Collapse of France." He goes into a lot of detail about specific weapons: the Char B and other tanks, German self-propelled 105mm guns on the Panzer I chassis, artillery, rifles etc. The Breguet 693 is mentioned a couple of times, here's one quote: "The two French assault groups equipped with the Breguet 693 ground-attack aircraft were probably the best available tactical resource, but they were not enough to be decisive."

Yesterday a brand new Hobby Lobby opened just a few miles from my house. Since it was Grand Opening day, the place was really busy. The store had all the newer kits that should be available in any HL right now. I used the 40% off coupon to get the MPC '86 El Camino with trail bike. Might build a beat-up Elky to experiment with my other purchase: the Vallejo "Rust, Streaking and Staining" acrylic paint set. You can never have too many rust paint colors... EDIT: I just opened the El Camino. The box says "injected in Black Pearl" and I wanted to check that out. It's molded in a color I would call Dark Anthracite Gray (or something like that). The pearl flakes are nicely in scale and this might be a kit to just polish and clear-coat...if you can live with the sink marks in the body. The ones that jumped out at me are along the upper sides of both front fenders. The Trail Bike is molded in red plastic (as the box says).

If you're using Tamiya acrylics, their X-21 Flat Base works very well to dull down their acrylic paints. Be warned that a little of that stuff goes a long way. Use too much and your flattened paint will have chalky whitish streaks in it. It also has to be mixed very thoroughly with the paint. And you'll want to test it beforehand. Since Tamiya acrylics dry very fast, you might also want to pick up some Tamiya #87114 Acrylic Paint Retarder. That will give you more working time.

I've ordered those figures from a couple of different online vendors: HobbyLinc (the U.S. vendor, not the Japanese, though Hobby Link Japan probably has them too); Free Time Hobbies; MegaHobby etc. There was an earlier MasterBox 1/24 female series called "A Short Stop" (pic below). M-B also does a set of vintage 1/24 scale women mechanics, working on a Model T.

Nice coincidence! I was just checking out eBay "Ending Soonest" and one of the Palmer budget kits popped up, a '32 Ford Roadster. The Palmer name is nowhere on the box top, so maybe they knew their reputation wasn't so hot, even back in the 1960s. Notice the "Suitable For Slot Car Racing" pitch on the box top. The name Palmer only appears in small print on the side panel. The other side panel got my attention: the list of other Palmer kits available includes a Cooper Ford, Ferrari 250 GTO/LM, Porsche 904 GTS and Lola GT. Don't think I've ever seen any of those in a Palmer box.

Turner Classic Movies recently showed both "Macon County" movies back-to-back. They'll probably do that again, so keep an eye on their schedule if you get TCM. I enjoyed seeing both, even though they don't have anything in common except the title. As always, half the fun was seeing all the old cars. Especially that '49 Chrysler Town and Country convertible in the first one. According to ImDB, producer Max "Jethro" Baer wrote the script for "Macon County Line" during his breaks while shooting "The Beverly Hillbillies." One of these centuries, I'd like to build Rory Calhoun's NASCAR '57 Chevy from "Thunder In Carolina." It looks like a hardtop but is not - it's a 2-door sedan with the center posts crudely hacked out. The movie itself is a pretty awful piece of hack-work too, basically love-triangle glop. But it does have racing footage from Darlington in the 1950's, which makes it worth watching. At least worth watching with one finger on the Fast-Forward button...

Ha! That very same one was on eBay several weeks ago. I recognize the rip in the box, and the built model. I grabbed the same 2 pix and posted them in another thread. Maybe the "Bad Box Art" thread.

One night back in January I was cruising eBay "Ending Soonest" and saw the Monster Machines set ending in about 1 minute. No bids. The starting bid was $14.99 so that's exactly what I bid. No snipers were lurking in the bushes, so I won it for that bid plus a reasonable $9 shipping from Calif. to SC. Like others in here, I already had individual kits of the Challenger I and Showboat. But picking up a second one of each for less than $25, all in, was just too good to pass up. Especially to get all those vintage Pontiac and Buick engines. As for ideas, other than a parts bank: I always thought the Challenger would make a great Batmobile "fictional prototype" of some kind. And the Showboat might look interesting with a pair of Allison V-12s stuffed into it.

Story about an iconic '57 Chevy. When I was a kid, my cousin's boyfriend had the '57 Chevy everybody wanted: Corvette engine and 4-speed with Hurst shifter, black tuck-and-roll interior, and deep shiny black paint. I forget the brand, but "mag" wheels and fat tires, jacked up a little in the rear. Beautiful car, and I always wondered what happened to it. At a family gathering this week I found out, and almost wish I hadn't. My cousin married that boyfriend and I asked about the '57 Chevy: "My first cousin had a VW Bug, and he wanted to borrow my Chevy for a double date. About 3 in the morning, somebody knocked on my door. A deputy sheriff was standing there, and asked if I owned a '57 Chevy. Told him I did. He handed me a carburetor, and said the rest of your car is down at Green's Junkyard. Totalled." Incredibly, none of the 4 people in the Chevy was hurt very badly. Just bumps and bruises. They hit a tree. I remembered that my cousin had bought herself a new '69 Road Runner, and asked what happened to that car. It's sitting in an outbuilding behind her house, with about 60K original miles on it. Soon to be restored, though she said it doesn't need much restoring. Not for sale, ever, at any price. And probably not available for loaning out...

Here's a Palmer discussion at The Other Model Car Magazine. One poster mentions that Palmer mostly made plastic food containers, and model kits were only a side job. Comments from poster Jimmy Razor: "I am a regular contributor at scalemates.com, and have additional insight into Palmer. Like AMT and MPC, Palmer offered a series of "annual" kits, featuring cars from the current model year. Specifically, these are the "bad" kits. Palmer's outdated molding process meant multi-piece bodies with shallow interiors. The individual parts were poorly-engineered with terrible fit and often with inaccurate shapes. Again, these were "junk" models, only of interest to nostalgic collectors. Not all offered by Palmer was "junk," though. Through a mold-sharing program with Pyro, Palmer offered a budget version of Pyro's "Table Top" series. These were a selection of 1930's through 1950's cars in approximately 1/32 scale. Price was kept at 29 to 60 cents through the omission of clear or chrome parts. Although these "Budget Pyros" were basic by today's standards, they were fairly accurate in their overall shape and detail. Engineering was fair-to-good with decent fit, in spite of multi-part bodies. The primary weakness of these kits was aging molds leading to excessive flash. I built about a half-dozen of these Palmer cars in the early 'seventies, and really enjoyed them. Most were later reissued by Life-Like and Lindberg, and remain available. An experienced model builder can make these basic kits look rather nice." http://cs.scaleautomag.com/sca/ask_scale_auto/f/11/t/125685.aspx