Fat Brian

I usually open them in the parking lot just to make sure nothing is missing before I leave the store. I used to open the bags of the regular plastic parts too but I've stopped doing that to help the resale value if it ever comes to that.

The AMT Sock it to Me Vette that's out now. I bought it and opened the box and was so disgusted with it I had it traded in a week to someone who knew what was in it. I'm not the biggest early Vette fan anyway and that box full of mishapen plastic blobs just wasn't worth my time.

Once stripped those engines are really great, they actually make perfect sources for some interesting diorama pieces like the bellhousing in the pic you posted. I believe the 283 has some very neat cylinder head detail if you wanted to have the head on a work bench or something.

Probably the best truly Buick engine to date is the 425 from AMT's 66 Riviera kit but it's a little past the glory days of hot rodding.

I want one of the Raider kits from AITM one day. http://www.aitruckmodels.com/pages/ck78raideraxleforward.html

Some are things I've seen in person, some are customs I've researched, but most are just the way I would build it if I had the money.

I've built the Monogram and AMT Challengers, both are pretty straightforward. You are right about the 340 being vastly out of scale, it's almost as big as the 440 in the 70 GTX kit. The good thing is that the Hemi from the 71 Cuda and the aforementioned 440 are easy swaps. The AMT kit seems more true to scale and is an equally easy build, the only drawback is having to glue the top on for a hard top version.

You can build the frame from Evergreen strips and make it much stronger than kit parts. The C-channel they make is too thin but you can make your own to the height you need.

They didn't use the chassis from the Monogram 71 Cuda for the new 70 kit or any parts from the 69 Camaros or 68 Firebird in the new 67 Camaro kit. I can't imagine them using old parts for a new kit, especially 1/24 Monogram parts in a new kit wearing the Revell name.

These remind me of an American version of the Japanese bosozoku cars.

Wow, I can't imagine building all those that way.

I'm not really as surprised by that as I thought I would be.

This might be the first ever that looks better after you've crashed it.

That's really incredible. Where did you get those little round lights from?

Jay that looks great, that's the same car I'm going to do. What chassis did you use?

None of those were particularly inspired but the black 27 W-409 posted, the pewter-goldish 32 truck, and the gold 27 with the Hilborn hemi were all better choices than the winner to me. The winner doesn't stand out or have any degree of special styling, it looks like totally off the shelf parts painted and assembled. Its got no personality.

If I was to throw my hat in the ring now what kind of wait would I be looking at?

I want to see the actual built kit. I can come up with my own ideas for building it, what I need is to see if it's even worth buying in the first place.

I'm planning on doing something similar with one. There aren't a lot of body mods, mainly the front bumper and a mild chop, and the engine could be borrowed out of Challenger kit but I'm putting a Viper engine in mine.

They put out a 58 Edsel Pacer at the same time the Starliner kit was released in the mid 2000's, it shouldn't be hard to find and is a very nice kit.

Keep in mind it comes in two versions, stock and custom, but both are easy to find.

It's been years since I've bought a carbon fiber decal sheet, who makes a good one now?

If I remember correctly that kit has a metal axle through the engine.

Any Ford NASCAR kit from the eighties or nineties will have a Cleveland. The Boss 302 from the 69 Cougar mentioned above isn't bad either. Outside of those it's really hit or miss, a lot of seventies Ford kits have some variation of a Cleveland but most aren't very good and some are unusably bad.

This site gives all of the engine and transmission combos from the straight six manual to the 429 four barrel auto. http://www.automobile-catalog.com/make/ford_usa/full-size_ford_8gen/full-size_ford_8gen_galaxie_500_2-door_hardtop/1971.html