64Comet404

One version of the Monogram Bugatti kit to keep an eye out for is the European release of about 20 years ago. It came with TWO chrome trees: one was vacuum-plated, and the other one was in silver styrene. Have the Airfix Bug as well. Their late '60s to mid '70s car kits had some great detail for 1:32 scale kits.

It will be good to have these kits back without the "Luminators" plastic. I had the Luminators kits (since it was difficult to find the original kits at shows), and the plastic was so brittle, all my built kits shattered over time!

Pioneer kits are crude, but where else can you get a 1/72 Bugsmasher (Beech 18 Expeditor), apart from the badly pantographed version from Hobbycraft Canada. If you want to talk crude, bring out the Merlins and the other short-run kits. Whittling them out of wood may be easier! BTW, nice build-up on the Japanese kamikaze plane. How can that magazine get all those Eastern European names down in print, but can only write 'A', instead of Adam? ?‍♂️

I was hoping you were going to build this one, just to see what could be made of this kit. It's always amazing to see those first early examples of the art of tooling up plastic model kits.

Good work on cataloguing, but one small correction to the timelime. The Corvette received a 3-speed manual trans late in the 1955 model year (easily found in a number of Chevrolet passenger car kits). The 4 speed was not introduced as a factory option until the spring of 1957. Hope this helps!

I picked up the race version (1979 Daytona 24 class winner) of this kit recently, and it is really well done. Compared to some kits I have built in the past, the fit of the fender flares is amazing! No gaps, and the cut-outs are easy to trim.

Here's hoping that this is the case; would love to have some Canadian cars in the collection. I will probably get one of these, and hopefully the company will come out with other Australian muscle cars (the Ford Falcon GT and the Chrysler Charger six-cylinder Hemi come to mind...)

If you have emblems which are too small to easily paint, you can apply the Bare-Metal Foil (or equivalent) prior to painting the body. Trim the foil close to the emblem so the line doesn't show, and burnish the foil down. After the body is painted, use a bit of fine polishing compound to remove the paint, and you should end up with really small chrome details. Hope this helps!

Not many I need to pick up in this current round of releases, but I will definitely buy a Toyota Supra. Hopefully these ones don't come with the "AT laidaR hcirdooG FB" lettering embedded in the windshield and back hatch...

The Talledega looks as if it is a replica body over a later chassis. I know the original Marty Robbins and K&K Insurance cars still exist, but I don't know if these cars are as advertised. Thoughts?

Tamiya even made a limited-run TS paint for the Grand Cherokee, to replicate the dark green metallic. I still have a couple of cans of the colour ready for decanting and airbrushing.

The trucks and SUV kits were well detailed, but 1:20 wasn't the scale which builders were clamouring for at their local shops. I did find one of the Blazer kits (the one moulded in aqua styrene) at a collectibles store recently. Unfortunately, the body had shattered in a few places (very much like some of the old Monogram kits), so I didn't bother. One small correction on the article: there was a 1:24 kit of the Grand Cherokee, which was produced by Tamiya. Nice enough kit for the time, but you don't see them too often at shows anymore.

Most likely the NAPA car. The Hooters car won't be available to ship for a while.

Revell had some great prize competitions at the time. My cousin entered the competitions to try and win a new Jeep CJ-7, but ended up with one of the first BMX bikes. My dad bought it from him, and gave it to me as a Christmas present. With the chrome tube frame and mag wheels, it was a stunning looking bike, but it was a HEAVY bike to pedal around (especially with only one speed available!).

There is a light metallic green available in a Tamiya spray can. Paint code is in the TS-58 to TS-60 range, may get you where you want to be in your build.

Looks really nice, and captures the look of those old Toyota trucks. There were quite a few around when I was young, but many succumbed to rust. The colour choice reminds me of the HiLux that the presenters tried to kill in the original Top Gear. At the end, it was battered but was still able to drive in to the studio under its' own power!

For many low-budget teams, it made more sense to update the bodywork on their Galaxies than it did to purchase a brand new 'half-chassis' racer from Holman-Moody or other fabricators. It wasn't until more used mid-size cars made their way into the system that you saw the move away from using the Galaxies. Most of those cars which started life as a '66-67 Fairlane ended their racing careers as -71 Torinos or Cyclones. As an example, the '67 Fairlane in Andretti's paint scheme is a recreation of the original car. The original chassis ended up under a '71 Cyclone, which was driven by Darrell Waltrip in 1972-73 (I believe DW still owns the car). The picture of the #26 Galaxie from 1966 is the extreme version of body mods. Other 1966 Galaxie NASCAR racers were much closer to stock appearance.

Over the years, I have been able to get a full set of the Airfix 1:32 cars, and the asking prices are incredible! For the Ford Zodiac kit, the price was almost $100, which was painful to contemplate paying (especially since I remember buying these kits on close-out for 49 cents back in the mid-1980s!)

Really nice haul, Adam. I would like to have gone to Heritagecon, but couldn't justify two weekends away in a row (was at the Group 25 show last week). I have one of the regular Fairey Battles in the stash, but a Trainer version would be fun to build: I have pictures of those aircraft in the yellow and black stripes being used as instructional airframes...

I went to another store while on a weekend trip, and they had the Dragster for $27 CDN! Bought it, and had no issues with the frame rails.

I saw the Dragster kit on the shelves at the LHS yesterday. However, at $40 CDN I will be waiting a bit to make a purchase.

Thanks for the mention of Apoxie Sculpt for filling in the limb joints, Adam. I picked some up to use on my current project, and it works amazingly well!

Does anyone offer the BFG tires in resin? The original MPC tires are, IMHO, some of the worst for causing tire burn on parts (not as bad as vintage Revell tires, but close!)