Ace-Garageguy

I slipped the leash and went for about a 4 mile hike after lunch. It's hard to get away from the urban sprawl, traffic, and constant background droning in this county anymore. When I came here decades ago to escape all of that in Atlanta, it was mostly rural, clean, and traffic-free. Farms. The county cops drove pickups. Now there's trash everywhere and rush-hour lasts from 06:00 until 19:00. Ticky-tacky McMansions and malls and car dealers and parking lots and 4-lane roads to nowhere are where rolling green fields used to be. And wherever you go, there's no quiet. Except for the very middle of Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield National Park. It's still just possible to get far enough away from developments and roads to find a little peace, to hear to the bees humming, the small stream playing over rocks, and not be bombarded with mindless urban idiot noise. Yes, you still hear the odd airplane fly over, but I've always liked that anyway. It was a perfect afternoon, low humidity and an occasional breeze to ruffle the treetops. Wildflowers are beginning to bloom, the air smelled fresh and new, and wild roses seemed to be around every turn of the trail. I must have heard 20 kinds of birds, watched a woodpecker hammering a dead trunk looking for bugs, and spent a few minutes waiting for a 4 foot black snake to cross the path. I felt like a little kid walking in the woods, not hurried, interested in everything, reborn. It's times like this that keep me going.

I kinda have a thing for the '50s cars that I remember being around when I was a kid. I've picked up several early AMT kits and rebuilders, and filled in some of the holes with diecasts, but there are still just a lot of cars that were never offered, or are way more expensive than what I'll pay. I usually stay away from early promos, as the deterioration and shrinking of the acetate plastic they're made from is universally pretty bad by now. So I was surprised to come across this genuine AMT '57 Buick Roadmaster 2-door promo in pretty decent condition. The little car is shrunk and warped less than anything I've seen in years, has zero rust on the stamped metal chassis, looks to never been been played with, and the friction motor works just like new. It's a real time-capsule find Yes, it's acetate, and it's going to keep on shrinking and warping, but if I pull molds from it SOON, at least I've got something to start with, and the bumpers, porthole inserts, and quarter cladding are made from a non-shrinking plastic.

I'm real late to this party, but it sure is nice to see an oldie reverse-engineered and brought back. It's probably a better business case doing an expensive kit, like this, that's most likely going to appeal to adults, but there's still a buncha graybeards out there who'd happily pay to get reverse-engineered repops of unobtanium kits from their yoot. Fewer every day though...

I'm sure everyone appreciates your expense and effort to test and post the results. It's nice to have options, but I won't be buying the AK.

...that doesn't give that great a "chrome" finish anyway, turns into streaked silver-paint-looking stuff if you try to polish it, fingerprints, takes a long time to dry, and can't be cleared. Hmmmm. Or you can buy enough pro-grade stuff (that actually works very well) to do a whole lot of "chroming" for $170. 6 oz, by the way, is twelve times what comes in a ModelMaster glass bottle. That's a LOT of chrome if you use it right. My advice, kiddies: save your lunch money and get the good stuff. Unbiased Alsa test by a guy who get's it right after several tries...

Do the authorities know with certainty what or who started it? If it's a "who", I vote for squeezing the water out of him and throwing it on the fire.

Parlez vous Francais? https://lesminisdemarc.fr/le-tres-exclusif-vw-t1-renntransporter-porsche-par-schuco-presentation-de-cette-version-inedite-au-143eme/

Cool project. Flares look great on this body.

I'm pretty late to this party, but that sure is a sweet conversion.

Nice work, Mr. Grumpy...and thanks for bringing this kit to our attention. Interesting. First thing I thought of on seeing this build was doing just that.

Great project, nice work on the hinges. I got one of these a while back to do an old forest-service truck I remember from my yoot, so I'm very interested in your work here. Looking good.

I could see using this body as the basis for something pretty cool on the street...

Exactly. Real world results please.

I'd wager no changes will be made. Only modelers who take their hobby seriously enough to frequent sites like this one will have any idea that the engine is badly underscale, and most builders aren't going to care anyway. It's curious to see the devotion to scale fidelity in the model railroad, military, and aircraft communities, but not so much in cars. I'd guess it has something to do with model cars being more attractive to casual kit builders. Most static aircraft/military modeling is of older "past it, no longer relevant" subject matter, with minimal appeal to largely math-free we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-history generations, and model railroading requires significant space for a layout and so tends to attract more affluent (usually older) participants with a higher degree of commitment and deeper interest.

That would explain a lot. In many ways, the new-tool kit is indeed much better than the original, but it's as though in the middle of the project, everyone went to Tahiti, got drunk, and phoned in their work...but capriciously replacing the design team seems a more likely scenario.

Good luck.

And once again for the record, I've actually measured a real Dodge Red Ram hemi engine, divided by 25, and compared the scale dimensions with both kits. A real Dodge Red Ram "small hemi" is almost exactly the same width across the heads as the bigger early Chrysler hemis, but a bit shorter in overall length, and that's the reason Barris used it. The original kit engine is very close to correct (contrary to often rebleated opinions). The "new tool" engine is a tiny little joke of a thing...and it's hard to understand the kit designer's reasoning for it, as the original correctly-scaled engine fits the new-tool engine bay like it should. One more thing...the new-tool kit has about the only "dropped and filled" front beam axle (for any old rodders who know what that is) available anywhere, as far as I know.

Ancient Monogram Mercedes 300 SLR in a crushed box, cheap. Kinda a roll-o'-the-dice, as it was sealed, but it's fine inside. Second one of these now, first one slated to be a reasonably accurate model of 722, and the new one to form the basis of a W 196 streamliner, the forerunner to the 300. Nobody makes a 1/24 196 'liner to the best of my knowledge, save the Franklin Mint version. There appear to be nice 1/18 representations, but most of the models I've seen...and even a full-scale insanely expensive alloy-bodied "re-creation"...come out looking bulbous and fat rather than svelte and aggressive. It's apparently a difficult shape to get right, as voluptuous race car bodies often are, but anyone familiar with my Revell Challenger 1 backdate will see what it takes.

Stripping is going to be your best bet. Yes, it does appear you've gone through the clear and exposed the substrate, so when you shot additional metallic color over the area, local differences in thinner absorption caused the metallic flakes to lie down differently on that spot. Stripping will eliminate the issue. You could possibly let the paint harden fully, clear it again, let that harden, and then shoot more color and clear...but I've always found that taking extra time and doing repairs the "hard" way (stripping) works best and takes less time in the long run.

That squirrel is me after two pots of coffee. Same sentiment, just faster.

Pretty sure I know heem.