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Showing results for tags 'factory'.
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Here is my 4th build of a 53 pickup. I really like this kit - not the flip version (even though I did build one), but the 3 in 1. I love the custom parts and the Desoto engine in it. I have plans for another custom, a 4x4 and a COE. here are the other 3 I've built so far: This one will be the stock version. A couple of good things that should go well for me on this build. I've built two 3 in 1s so I'm fairly familiar with the kit. Although this is the first stock, for my 53 ford wagon, I built a stock engine so I also have an idea of how that goes. Cleaned up some parts the last couple of days and laid primer and some base flat black on them. Using a resin spare tire fender. Not sure on the color yet. Here are some pics:
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This is the Pro Shop version of the AMT '57 Chevy that was released in 1998. I know some of you will probably agree with me when I say it's such a good kit it's almost hard to believe it was made by AMT. It has over 160 parts and includes a photoetch set, ignition wire, a small sheet of BMF (which doesn't look like it would be enough to do the whole body, but it doesn't matter because I used the Bare Metal Foil brand Ultra Bright Chrome, which I found surprisingly different from the regular chrome), and a sprue of hoses, which also containes the bumper bullets, molded in soft vinyl, which I think is awesome! I think that's about it for extra goodies. I know a lot of people complain that it doesn't have any custom parts, but I really don't care since I think they looked too good out of the factory to customize. I actually started this about 3 weeks ago, but just now decided to put it up here.
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Since my club is in New Jersey, we had a discussion a while back as to where exactly in Union, NJ Pyro was actually located. Note that on their kits, they merely listed their address as "Pyro Park", which obviously doesn't exist anymore. Dave Wood is a long time resident of Union and started to ask around. Consensus was that the factory didn't exist today, and it was "somewhere off of Route 22". Recently I found this image, which is from one of their instruction sheets.. that peeked my interest so I was off in search of Pyro... I found the site Historic Aerials.Com and pulled up Route 22 in Union. It's not a big town so I thought I stood a good chance of finding it. I knew the plant existed back a bit, so I went to the 1954 maps, before the area was populated. Bingo! There she was. I matched up the roof elements from the factory sketch to those on the roof in this photo. Next step was to lay in all the then current and future roads to get my bearings. By 1966 suburbia exploded! Note all the houses that were built in the later part of the 1950s and everything else that popped up. I used this 1979 view since it was in color. Note that by 1966, Pyro had added onto both sides of the building (the white roofs). This was also the last year (of the provided pix) that the factory building exists. And he we are today... Costco! You can see the three smaller buildings in the upper left corner are still there from the Pyro era. Nothing like progress. I thought you all might enjoy that bit of history. A bit more history... was we thought of Pyro as a minor player in the model field, the owner William Lester actually was a pioneer in injection molding technology back in the 1930s. Pyro's main business was selling molding equipment, and in the early 1950s they were the largest seller of military toys in the country. They also did sci fi stuff, and their ray guns are big collectibles today. Bill sold the company back in the early 1970s because he wanted to pursue an emerging technology, blister packaging! He was truly a plastics guy!