Ace-Garageguy

I feel about auctions much the same as I feel about sports and racing...if I'm not playing, I have very little interest in watching.

Guess I'll have to have at least a couple of these. It's a truck I'd really like to have in reality (after having had a '67 Wagoneer that was pretty much indestructible).

I seriously doubt that the FTC would look askance at R2 acquiring the tooling assets and Revell name after a bankruptcy. It's good to have some understanding of the law prior to making legal pronouncements. From the Federal Trade Commission's own website https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/competition-guidance/guide-antitrust-laws/single-firm-conduct/monopolization-defined : "The antitrust laws prohibit conduct by a single firm that unreasonably restrains competition by creating or maintaining monopoly power. Most Section 2 claims involve the conduct of a firm with a leading market position, although Section 2 of the Sherman Act also bans attempts to monopolize and conspiracies to monopolize. As a first step, courts ask if the firm has "monopoly power" in any market. This requires in-depth study of the products sold by the leading firm, and any alternative products consumers may turn to if the firm attempted to raise prices. Then courts ask if that leading position was gained or maintained through improper conduct—that is, something other than merely having a better product, superior management or historic accident. Here courts evaluate the anticompetitive effects of the conduct and its procompetitive justifications." As far as the other point goes, R2 has spent money restoring tooling to close to its original condition, replacing deleted parts (which has been well received by many modelers, me included) and the AMT label has had new releases recently, but the reissue strategy makes perfect economic sense when there's still a thriving market of old guys who are more than happy to be able to buy NEW versions of kits they had when they were younger. If R2 were to actually acquire the assets of Revell, that would presumably include the above referenced "in development" projects, and we'd likely still see all-new kits in the not too distant future. But when a company's debt-to-asset ratio is what has been referred to above for Hobbico (who knows how correct THOSE numbers are, however), there's something very wrong. Those figures are not representative of a company that would seem to be "profitable" and well-managed. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/totaldebttototalassets.asp

Probably not any time soon, anyway.

I'm NOT "blaming" Revell. I'm simply stating that corporate bankruptcy (Hobbico) results from poor management. One of the SMALL companies I work with just realized they had a $100,000 operating LOSS for 2017. Why? Because nobody WHOSE JOB IT WAS was watching the company hemorrhaging money all year. I knew it, but as a services contractor, I'm not management. This kind of stuff doesn't blindside people who are doing their JOBS. Hobbico should have seen it coming and taken appropriate measures to stay in the black...and that doesn't mean just borrowing more money to keep going until the creditors shut the doors, either.

Disappointing but not surprising in a world where manual skills are rapidly disappearing, and helicopter parents discourage a generation of fake-reality-obsessed wuss kids from doing anything involving "dangerous" sharp tools and chemicals, and very possibly part of the reason for the oh-so-mysterious disappearance of the Revell '29-'30 Ford kits....no payee for kitsee, no shippee, wee keepee moldsee. Hopefully someone like R2 is in a position to acquire the model car tooling (what little of it is even still IN the USA) rather than allowing it to be sold for its scrap value and melted down. There are plenty of other corporate entities out there who could benefit by picking up model-kit injection-molding tooling and good-will (like the names Revell and Monogram) for pennies on the dollar, so let's all hope someone with vision steps up...or that a reorganization plan that keeps the model manufacturing divisions of the company intact can be put forward. But remember this...corporate bankruptcy results from poor management, period.

It's a neat old kit and can build up into a fine model, but it does have several significant problems. The big ones: 1) The frame bears absolutely zero resemblance to an actual '32 Ford frame. This makes it a poor candidate for a fenderless car unless it's channeled. 2) It also suffers from the not-tall-enough syndrome at the cowl that all the AMT '32 Fords have. In the case of this one, it's about halfway between the way-short AMT kits and the close-to-correct Revell '32 Fords.

A fine engine kit indeed, but there was never a "354" Caddy engine from the factory. I've always wondered why Revell never saw fit to correct the label. The first-generation Caddy OHV V8 (1949-1962) represented by the kit only came in 331, 365 and 390 factory displacements.

I remembered the magenta paint on a vaguely Mangusta-looking show car, and the name Monteverdi popped into my head. I used to follow the small manufacturers rather intensely...eons ago.

I will skin, but if it's lacquer, you can just stir the skin back in to the paint, and it will melt completely (if stirred thoroughly enough). That won't work with enamel, though.

Allow the decanted paint to sit in an open container. The more volatile solvents will evaporate out, and it will thicken up gradually. You can also have problems like you describe if the temperature is too low (60F is about the minimum you should ever try to paint in), or if you're spraying too "wet", too close to the surface.

How 'bout a mid-engined Opel GT with an old Allison aircraft engine?

Looks good. I'm in. I really like the option to be able to pay a little and get the board ad-free too. GREAT idea.

Happily for me, I started buying old parts-packs up as fast as I could back in about 2005, WAY before the stupid-money guys got in the game. I've probably got well over 100 engines from Revell and AMT (including the rare nailheads and mega-rare Chryslers), multiples of all the bodies both companies made, and all the frame, wheels / tires and accessory parts as well. I loved them when I was young, learned a TON about how real rods and dragsters were built from them, and learned to recognize most of the post-war American OHV V8 engines well before I turned a wrench on a real one. If Revell even has the slightest notion of reissuing some of the vintage drag and rod parts-packs (assuming the tooling even exists), they need to get on the stick. It's the geezers (like me) who have any idea WHAT the stuff is, and they're most likely the ones who have much interest in building historically-correct rods and drag cars...and who'd spend the bucks to get long out-of-production grail kits today. The prices on the most recent repops of the four engine kits last released ARE creeping up, and the supply does seem to be dwindling. But who knows? The old dragster frames are selling for $25-$50. The 2-car kits made up from parts-pack trees are in the multi-hundreds when they (rarely) come up. When I see a manufacturer release a limited run of an old tool, say 5000 units, I always think to myself "well, that many of the old roadster and dragster accessory packs, and frames, and Bantam and Fiat bodies would probably sell out instantly if they were marketed right". But we all know I'm an idiot.

Here's a link to an article from Psychology Today, published in 2011. It cites results of several studies and polls that are alarming in their implications about the literacy and awareness of the American populace...like the sad fact that more than 40% of Americans DID NOT READ A SINGLE BOOK OVER THE COURSE OF A YEAR...and unbelievably, 18% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the Earth. WE NEED TO DO BETTER THAN THIS. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201103/are-americans-getting-dumber

Yeah, the Hai's engine placement and intrusion into the cockpit makes a Pantera seem like a state-of-the-art exercise in ergonomics by comparison, and anyone who's lived with a Pantera knows that nothing could be farther from the truth. Still, the big Hemi amidships goes to help prove the old axiom that you can stuff almost any engine in any car. It's just not always a really good idea.

The 390 and 406 engines are both FE engines, and as such, are virtually identical visually (other than specific manifolds and valve covers). Some 406 engines had cross-bolted mains, if I remember correctly, but the 390 did not. Of course, that would hardly be noticeable in 1/25 scale. One question is how good is the 390 in the kit you refer to? I have one here, but I don't have time to look. Another source for a "406" is the old Revell parts pack 427 engine kit. The same tooling was used for the twin 406 engines in the Revell Mysterion.

You are 100% correct, sir. ...Which was why I posted the link to the wiki entry, in the belief that the OP could read for himself a little of the history of the car in question, and the company that built it. If there had never been an American Austin company, there would have never been an American Bantam, which was much the same car.

Yup, Pico Elgin is a wizard. He's a member of the ACME club (me too sometimes). He was one of the early-adopters of 3D printing tech for model cars, built a couple of his own printers years ago, and does outstanding work. I'll be following your work here with much interest.

So...do youse Yankees still use chains for driving in snow and ice like folks did when I was a kid up there? In the sunny South, every time we get frozen precip, the ditches are littered with 4WD vehicles oh their roofs, after their big tires and traction-control failed to compensate for just plain stupid.

Your lower photo IS an American Austin Bantam, 100% absolutely, no question. My own father had one when he was young. The bumper has been replaced with something from a larger car, and the ends bent around the fenders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Austin_Car_Company

I'll be happy to have her going down the road for two years. If I can't find a metal replacement, I may just put a sleeve in the existing one, and wrap it with epoxy and fiberglass. The only failure mode after that would be seals, and most likely whatever I find will be some Chinese garbage that dissolves in hydraulic fluid. Sorry to keep harping on the abysmally poor quality of replacement parts these days, but just recently I got both carburetor gaskets and accelerator pump diaphragms that dissolve in gasoline after a year or so. Pretty special. And when the client asks "WHY did my car quit again so soon?" and I tell them the ONLY parts I can get now for their application are non-OEM-spec crapp, they think I'm lying to cover my own incompetence. There WAS a commercial warehouse here for US-made bearings and seals, and all I had to do was buy them by the dimensions and material, etc. But they're gone now, unable to compete price-wise with offshore made garbage, sold on the web. And now, in this more-better internet world, the listings on many of the websites fail to include relevant data, were obviously put up by dwerbs who've never actually designed or engineered or made or fixed anything, and the "tech" line people are usually an effing joke...salaried phone jockeys who can't tell you anything that's not on the web-page. And to anyone who even THINKS about saying something about "grumpy old men complaining about the modern world", I would suggest that YOU spend several years in MY shoes, trying to build and fix physical-reality stuff in a world that's increasingly run by morons who think EVERYTHING can be done from their dammed smartphones.

Yes sir, and I know that many people have a lot more difficult things to deal with than the little ones I've been whining about here.

I've been asked several times about which epoxy to use with micro, and this is my standard response for now: I've tested multiple epoxies, and the only one I can unreservedly recommend for use with micro is the West System 105(resin) / 205(hardener). MOST of the epoxies I use need to be very carefully weighed on a gram scale for them to work correctly. They also take 24 hours to cure, and need to be post-cured at elevated temperatures to develop full strength. The West 105/205 is somewhat unusual in that the mix ratio isn't super critical (though care still needs to be exercised in getting it as close to right as possible), but still develops very good strength and hardness. It's so good, in fact, that it's approved in structural applications for use on some full-sized kit planes. Rutan Aircraft specifies it in some applications (Rutan is the guy who built the first small plane to fly around the world nonstop without refueling, and the first privately-built spacecraft to actually go into space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne so that's a pretty solid recommendation). The down-side for modelers in a hurry is that it takes 12 hours to cure enough to sand, and for cheap modelers, the minimum quantity is around $50. West 105/205 is available from several sources, including both the aircraft supply sites I posted earlier, Amazon, and others. The smallest quantities available are 1-quart kits. I have several "hobby shop" epoxies to test, but so far, I just haven't had the time. The West stuff works so well, and I usually stock it anyway, that I haven't really had the need to find anything else. Maybe the "other guys" referenced in the thread have developed more info on other resins by now. Bill Engwer

In my experience with the stuff, which spans several decades working extensively with both the phenolic version and the glass version (on real aircraft), I can say say that the glass stuff always tends to go into the air and float around whenever it's removed from its packaging or mixed into a binder. A dust mask and face shield is the absolute MINIMUM protection I use, but lungs and eyes are cheap and easily replaceable, so use your own judgement. Even though it's "non toxic", it can still cause problems. The phenolic stuff isn't as bad, and clumps together a little more. The little things are spheres, too, so when they inevitably get on the floor, it's like walking on tiny ball-bearings.