64Comet404

It's a Fujimi mold. I think most of the modern (for the time) Road and Track series were sourced from Fujimi.

Picked up these pieces at the LHS today.

I would say that the wood on the Hupmobile was probably polished. This was still an era in which these cars were considered 'luxury' items, rather than mass-produced transportation, and painted wood would not convey the fact you had spent some serious money on your new-fangled horseless carriage.

When I was younger, there was a distributor who was a bit more...liberal, shall we say, on what constituted damage to a returned kit. They would place a bilingual sticker on the sides of the box, re-shrink the product, and send it back out to the shops. You would open up boxes and find everything from assembled engines right up to fully assembled and painted glue bombs. I always opened these kits before I left the mall.

The V6 engines can be found in certain old Revell ASA series kits. All the Fords had the V6 engine included, but the only ASA Chevy with the six was the # 52 Camaro. The 17 and 84 cars came with a V8.

I can get to within 30 miles of my 'local' Ollie's, but unless someone wants to float kits across the St. Lawrence, I'm completely out of luck...?

Gorgeous build. As a rider of an R-series bike, I always love seeing builds of boxer-engined Beemers.

About 30 years ago, a friend and I went into a clear-out shop where they had a bunch of Pochers they were selling for under $100 apiece. I didn't buy any that day, but I think my friend went back later to buy some to sell at shows.

The "King T" also had a long string of changes over the years, though the changes have tended to be ...more aesthetically pleasing, shall we say, than what happened to the Wild Dream. Changed to the Carl Casper Paddy Wagon (much different than Monogram's), then the Fire Truck, then the Outcast, then back-dated to the Fire Truck. The Outcast was the least attractive, but it still wasn't that bad for the era.

I have had some of Palmer's anatomical models over the years. They do look much more accurate than the car kits ever did.

Good eye for the era of chassis. The MPC B-body chassis started life with the 1965 Coronet kit, and has been moved from kit to kit ever since. It may the most produced kit chassis in modelling history, based on the number of popular kits it has been found in.

Wasn't the Monte Carlo promo produced by AMT? I can't remember seeing a stock MPC Monte, but anything is possible in modelling.

The later Cougar models from Revell dropped the supercharged V6 and provided a 5.0 EFI engine. The 3.8 was a good engine, providing the head gaskets stayed intact. I bought a '90 LS from the wholesale lot at work, and one of my salesmen bought a similar '91 at the same time. I paid $200 more for the '90, because the '90 came with Michelin tires, and had been maintained by our service department. A week and a half after the purchase, the salesman's '91 ate a head gasket and needed engine repair. I drove mine without any mechanical issues for two and a half years, and only sold it when rust became an issue.

Having owned both the kits and the real cars, you have done a great job in capturing the 'look' of a '64 Comet. Great job!

Great colour choice. I should get back to work on my Fujimi 356 Speedster at some point in time.

Mike, in the series, did Gibbs ever describe it as a '71? The only character I remember describing it as a '71 was Fornell (right after he grounded the chassis when driving into a gas station at speed!). All the R/T badging, stripes, and front and back treatment mark it as being a '70. Just curious...

Always nice to see someone doing something with a Bugsmasher! I was happy to see that ICM tooled up a nice 1:48 Expeditor kit (now offered by Revell), because the 1:72 offerings were pretty weak in detail and accuracy (esp. the Hobbycraft version, looks like a straight pantograph of the PM molds). I still enjoy building aircraft, even though my completion rate has shrunk to (maybe) 1-2 kits per year.

I almost bought one back in 1990, an '85 SE with the V6 and stick. Nice car, but it drove like the clutch was always engaged. Still like the look of them, though.

I have the Airfix DC3/C-47 in the stash. Great detail, the nose has the right contours to my eye. Haven't decided whether I will build it in civilian or RCAF colours yet.

I never noticed it before, but the licence number on Gibbs' Challenger is the same as Jim Rockford's Firebird!!!

Part of the issue with these kits is that they were not tooled by Monogram, but by Aurora. Aurora's kits were not tooled in-house, but by companies who would not have access to the 1:1 cars (from what I have read, I believe the tools were crafted by HMS Associates in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. There were some neat features to the kits, but there were details which would have been caught quickly by a look at the 1:1 prototype. Revell, being located in the Los Angeles area, would have had better access to imported cars (both through owners and dealerships), which probably accounts for the greater fidelity on the XK-E roadster. having written that, I still have a Maserati and Ferrari in the build pile, because I remember how exciting it was to build these kits back when they first were reissued by Monogram in the late 1970s. Opening doors, trunks, and the level of engine detail were impressive to see at the time (even if the front of the 250GTO reminded me of a goldfish...).

The T-Birds and Cougars are great cars. Owned one of each back in the day (non-supercharged, unfortunately), and they would just cruise all day. I have the models, just need to build them.

I have some etched fencing material that replicates that pattern. It's made by Scale Scenics, and you should be able to find it in the train section of your LHS.

Looks great! Great job on the '92 taillights.

I have had success with the CA de-bonder, but it can affect the clarity of the windows. Not a problem if you are replacing the glass, but still. Sometimes you can get lucky. I once bought a '65 Barracuda from the pre-NNL sunrise trunk sale. Heavily glued, but I figured I could save it with the glass from a Hemi Under Glass. Placed it in the sink at the hotel to clean off the dust and dirt. Shortly after the car began its soak, the whole car disassembled itself! It had been assembled with lots of white glue, and was pristine underneath.