Mike999

AHA! Thanks. That cleared up a question I had - are some of these Ollie's sales only in certain regions? Yes they are. When I clicked that link, it asked for my ZIP code. Entered ZIP and it came back with the response "No Circulars Available." I'm a member of Ollie's Army, so I get their usual e-mail circulars. I had not received a circular mentioning the model kits, but others on this board did. So it looks like this current Big Kit Sale is only in certain states/stores.

This is also weird: I'm in "Ollie's Army" and on their e-mail list. But I didn't get that flyer in e-mail yet, either. Got one a few days ago, but it was pushing boring stuff like bed sheets and towels. I wonder if this is a regional thing, and not all stores will get the models? I might run down there tomorrow or Wed. At the same time I can see if the nearby Hobby Lobby has re-stocked yet. Over in Trading Post, I'm thinking about starting an "Ollie's Trade" thread. Where those of us who didn't get the good stuff in the last sale can trade other kits we found at Ollie's.

Here's an example of the neat stuff in the Crestline books. On top, a spiffy Marine Corps 1937 Ford 4-door sedan used as a staff car. It belonged to Headquarters, Fleet Marine Force in Norfolk, VA. (Nowadays known as Fleet Marine Force-Atlantic, or FMFLANT.) Bottom pic is the rarest 1938 Ford made, the 4-door convertible. This one was driven by the lucky G.I.'s of Headquarters Co., 2d Battalion, 66th Infantry Brigade at Ft. Benning, GA. It has a front brush guard similar to the one used on the 1/2-ton Ford trucks converted to 4-wheel-drive by Marmon-Herrington. Both photos are from "U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles" by Fred W. Crismon. Posted for discussion only etc.

Thanks, but I've been trying to find that kit for years at a decent price. I'm hoping I can find the hood when I go back to visit the seller again. I'm old, so pretty soon you might be able to buy it from my Estate Sale. :-)

Heh! Asian companies have been doing that stuff for years, probably to avoid licensing issues. One of the neatest tricks was on some Dragon 1/35 scale WWII German armor kits. The tires were made by Continental. Dragon spelled it "CONTINETAU" on the actual tires. So one flick of the X-acto knife and the tires have the right name.

That 57 Chevy Black Widow kit always reminds me of a favorite movie, "Thunder in Carolina." Rory Calhoun drives a white-over-blue '57 Chevy that looks like a hardtop. But in close-ups, we can see it's really a sedan with the "B" pillar hacked out (and pretty crudely). That movie was finally released on DVD in 2010 and is worth catching, if you've never seen it. Filmed at short-oval dirt tracks all over the South, with some filming done during the 1960 Darlington 500. I think Calhoun even drove a few laps in the real race that were filmed for the movie. On DVD, you can fast-forward thru the Mandatory Love Story that just slows down the action. In that big tub of Weird Stuff I got yesterday, I was happy to find some of the Plastic Performance Products Goodyear truck tires used on the Black Widow. Also some of their 6-bolt truck wheels, but those are already in the kit.

Verified! I made several trips to Japan in the 90s and saw that. Especially in Roppongi, the late-night Tokyo party district. It would have been weird to see a Japanese person wearing a shirt with Japanese on it. Like The Junkman said, best not to read too much into anything. Japan is its own unique culture, and I goofed just about every time I tried to translate anything in it over to Western culture. As far as just walking around Tokyo, I really liked the ultra-modernistic Shinjuku district. Place looks sort of like a giant spaceship landed and covered several acres.

Got a stack of grungy but complete unbuilts. An even grungier bunch of built-ups. And a big tub full of detailing goodies and Weird Stuff. The built-ups look like 4 resin kits: 60 Ford wagon; 63 Plymouth 4-door built as a NYC police car; 67 Chevy wagon (missing hood) and a 68 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door police (also missing hood). The other 3 are old Johan stuff: the 64 Dodge Polara hardtop, 68 Plymouth Fury 4-door and a 65 Rambler Classic 770 wagon, which I think is a promo with full interior (but missing wheels/hubcaps). I got all this from a local guy today. He recently cleared out a two-car garage stuffed full of old kits, built-ups and parts, including quite a few resin kits from Modelhaus, AAM, R&R etc. The lot also included enough paint and paint racks to stock a hobby shop, most of the paint unopened. He sells on eBay as "ourmagictoybox." He's open to offers on just about everything, but he and his wife have done a lot of research and have a good idea what the kits are worth. I got his permission to mention him on this board.

Harry P built the OCCRE 1/24 San Francisco cable bar. Which is awesome and gorgeous. There are usually a few up on eBay:

Just saw this AOSHIMA truck kit on eBay. The listing has the interesting title "1/32 Eternal first-generation Moon Mochumaru Aoshima Fukusuke model." This looks like one of the "show trucks" often listed on eBay from Japanese vendors. I've seen references to a Japanese fad of Show Trucks but don't know much about them. I'm really intrigued by this description in the listing: "New Full-Half specification Refrigerated bunbody." Other features include "New front grill ·New front panel - New aluminum wheel - New front step ring ·New tail lamp - New rear arm - New shaft guard ·New body harness - New marker lamp - New decal." The listing includes a photo of the box contents, but everything is still plastic-wrapped inside, so not much can be seen. I wondered if anyone has ever built one of these, or knows anything about them. I'm sort of interested. But at a Buy-It-Now price of $272 for a 1/32 kit, not THAT interested. (With free shipping, though!)

This thread is a flood of nostalgia! Toys R Us in the Los Angeles area had models up thru the mid-90s, IIRC. I remember coming home from Saudi Arabia on vacation circa 1991, hitting the Burbank store, and buying the just-released AMT ECTO-1 '59 Caddy ambulance. Also the '41 Plymouth coupe, which hadn't been re-issued for a long time. Two other long-gone California chains were plastic-kit gold mines: K-B Toys and PlayCo. At one time, every big shopping mall seemed to have a K-B Toys. Even better, K-B had 2 huge outlet stores near me where they dumped OOP kits cheap. One at the old Samson Tire plant outlet mall in Firestone, and another up in Ventura at an outlet mall. The mall stores kept old models on the shelf forever, and would negotiate if the shrink-wrap had been removed. There was a PlayCo in walking distance of my house, which was dangerous. I remember them running a 50% off sale on Testors kits one time. Including all the Fujimi Ferraris etc. and all the 1/35 (ex-Italeri) military kits. I may have filled up 2 shopping carts at that sale...

Mini Art from the Ukraine makes this European tram kit in 1/35 scale. They've done several different versions. The one below includes all the figures and accessories shown, so it's really a "diorama in a box." A nice complex kit, with full suspension detail (in case you want to turn it over for a 1945 Berlin barricade diorama). Amazon shows it In Stock for $72.56 right now.

Well, if you need some more black textures... I bought this set of Lifecolor acrylics a few years ago, still using it. It's a really thick acrylic, so a little goes a long way. Mixing these paints give me a huge range of black shades.

LMAO at "Pre-release Custom Version" on the boxtop. Translation: "Since we don't have access to factory blueprints like AMT or MPC, as usual we will just guess (badly) at what the real car might look like. Whatever we imagine, we will then squish down to fit the standard 1/29 scale chassis found in all our fine automotive miniatures."

I'll quote you anyway. :-) I remember that about the Ford Courier too, many years ago in the Other Magazine. It was discussed about a week ago, in this thread. Tom Geiger said the Dodge D50 chassis will also drop right under the 40 Ford: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/125381-amt-ford-courier-pickup-any-good/#comment-1819087

For many years I lived fairly close to the Autobooks store in Burbank, CA. I very rarely left that store without buying something, since it also carried a lot of aviation books, another wallet-trap. Sometimes I check the bookshelf, say "I'd forgot all about THAT one." And then spend some happy hours reading. Or re-reading. Wish I'd gotten more of the Crestline books when they were available. Here's a short 2012 article about them on the Hemmings site: "These books were published from the early 1970s through to the early 1990s, and none, we believe, were ever reproduced. A single print run for each is one of the reasons why each Crestline book is fairly hard to find to today; some more so than others. Thus values vary – from $20 to $400, depending on the book’s title. Only American car companies were profiled, and included: Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, Buick, Cadillac-La Salle, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Hudson, Oldsmobile, Packard, Plymouth & De Soto, Pontiac-Oakland, Studebaker, Woodies & Wagons, International Harvester, American Funeral Cars & Ambulances, American Fire Engines, Steam Tractors & Engines, American Cars 1930-1942, American Cars 1946-1959, American Gas Engines, and U.S. Military Wheeled Vehicles." https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2012/09/14/recommended-reading-crestline-books/

Late on a Saturday night (last night). Took a break from binge-watching "Mr. Mercedes" to check eBay's "Ending Soon" items. Saw this Jo-Han Eldo for a reasonable opening bid and shipping. With NO BIDS after 7 days! The auction was ending in <2 minutes. What's the catch? Photos showed it looked complete, with most parts still on the sprues. No visible tire burn on glass or parts. I took the plunge and bid the minimum, won it. Will let you know if there was a catch when it arrives...

If that's Freetime Hobbies in Blue Ridge, GA, you should probably call first and make sure they're open. If you've seen the other posts about this, sorry for wasting your time (and pixels). Freetime recently changed its retail hours. I think they are only open for retail sales on alternate Saturdays now. Their home page mentions this, but the "Retail Hours" link still has their old hours. I live about 100 miles away and want to visit Freetime myself. But before I do, I plan to call and check with an Actual Human about their hours.

Oh yeah. I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia from 1989 to 1992. Saw lots of royal brats bombing around in their supercars. It may have changed, but the Saudi Traffic Police back then were something of a joke. They got cars that were already worn out, like very old Volvos and Mazdas. They were marked, with lights etc., and always sitting prominently at major intersections. Some sat in the same place for so long, we wondered if they even ran. OTOH, if you got waved over by a couple of guys in nice suits, driving a new BMW, you pulled over immediately. However they identified themselves, that was the secret police, and you did not want to fool around with them. One of their jobs was keeping tabs on the kwaji (foreigners).

Big news for those in the Upstate SC area. According to the local paper this morning, a new Hobby Lobby will be opening in the little town of Seneca, SC (near Clemson, which most of you have probably heard of). It's taking over the old K-Mart store in the Applewood Plaza shopping center. According to the paper, the new store is scheduled to open in June 2018.

Here's a weird thing I remember about this kit. I think it was covered in The Other Magazine many years ago: the Courier chassis is nearly a drop-fit under the AMT '40 Ford. No good for a stock build, but useful if you wanted to build a street rodded or custom '40.

The last Italeri issue of that kit was in 2012. It wasn't even called a Toyota on the box, probably for licensing reasons. For those trying to track one down: it was Italeri 1/24 scale kit #6352 "Armed Pick-up." Clearly meant to build a modern Middle Eastern "technical" armed vehicle. It was only available for a short time, I guess, and is pretty hard to find now. The box said "Upgraded Moulds." The only obvious upgrade was the inclusion of the .50 caliber Browning machine gun on a WWII mount. Around the same time, Italeri re-issued its 1/24 WWII Jeep with the same gun and mount. I didn't really expect Italeri to tool up a 1/24 Russian DShK heavy machine gun, but it would have been nice... ESCI originally issued this kit back in the 1980s, in at least 3 different versions. They're all very hard to find these days: #3027 Toyota BJ-44 Land Cruiser, Canvas Top #3028 Toyota BJ-44 Philippines Taxi - one of the most bizarre kits in the history of modeldom. A bonkers Filipino "jitney" taxi with little chrome horses/figures for the hood, extra lights, horns, etc. And eye-popping psychedelic decals. This kit included the hardtop. #3030 Toyota BJ-44 Savannah Master Kenia (sic) Safari - a zebra-striped safari truck, also with the hardtop. This version had a roof rack full of jerry cans, wooden crates, spare tires, canvas bundles etc. I really wish Italeri would re-issue this one. And the other two, as long as I'm dreaming.

"One Adam-12..." A grail kit I've tried to find for a LONG time. The R&R Vacuum Craft 1968 Plymouth Belvedere 4-door resin kit. With stock hood, correct seats and door panels. Got it off eBay. Not cheap, but they don't come around very often.

Michael's has a 50% off coupon going, good only until this Saturday, 9/16/2017. Follow the link below and scroll about halfway down the page to the "50% off coupon" link to get the coupon or print it. There's a 60% off deal at the top of the page; I'm not sure if that applies to all stores. https://www.groupon.com/coupons/stores/michaels.com

Michael's sent out a rare 50% off coupon this morning. They sell Ott Lites, which makes a small, battery-powered magnifying lamp with 2 interchangeable lenses. It's probably not "invaluable," but it sure is useful for showing up sanding flaws and such. Two other inexpensive tools I've found invaluable over the years: 1. Pin vise and set of miniature drill bits. Great when drilling small holes for engine wiring, mounting stuff like mirrors in the right place, etc. Buy some sewing needles, cut them short, chuck one in the pin vise, and you also have a scriber useful for deepening door/trunk panel lines etc. Buy spares of the smallest bits, like the #80. They break if you look at them wrong. 2. Flex-I-File: will sand off flash from round objects, like exhaust pipes, without making a flat spot. Or gouging out chunks of plastic, which often happens when trying to use an X-Acto knife for this job. The sanding strips come in a range of grits, from coarse to fine.