Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) I found some good pics of a built model of the Charger. It seems there are a lot more listed. I hope this link works as it's a google translate. http://customrodder.forumactif.org/f106-aurora-hot-rod-and-custom-cars-model-kits Edited March 20, 2018 by Psychographic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisBcritter Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I did a quickie Photoshop on a photo of a gluebomb Meat Wagon Packard (which is a '42, not a '37) to see how an unchopped roof would look: I think with some serious work this could become a master for a resin Army/Navy ambulance if anyone wanted to tackle it. You'd need a second set of the stock front wheels to replace the oversized rear ones (not in this photo). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THarrison351 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 I know some of you guys must remember these kits different than I do, but I recall building and quickly destroying these toys as a kid. They were poor representations of Hot Rods and or the cars they were supposed to represent. Molded in one color, no chrome, and multi-piece bodies that were difficult to assemble, but they were cheap and it was what was affordable at the moment. I'm guessing they are collectible only because someone said they are, just like some of ridiculous prices the weird and funky Palmer or Lindberg kits show up with. And just like those kits, the best parts were the box art. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike999 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 Interesting old thread about these kits at the Coffin Corner. It has many large photos of 1/32 Aurora box art. But the thread is from 2014, so the Photobucket Monster killed a few pix. http://coffincorner.proboards.com/thread/18855/old-aurora-boxes This comment goes along with THarrison351's post above: "For kids in the early 60's these kits were the ones you would get as starter kits, small size, cheap, few parts, easy to put together. They were found in drug stores and 5 and 10's like Woolworths, Grants, Ben Franklin, etc. Lots of them were 79 cents, way cheaper than their 25th scale counterparts. In this same crowd were 32nd scale kits from Palmer, Pyro, Renwal, Hawk, Lindberg and Monogram. If you were a serious minded larger scale kit modeler and you got one of these it was usually deemed too simple and out of scale to build, and didn't have proper scale parts for scavenging. Probably why a good number of them survived, just getting tucked away intact. Surely the rest of the many hundreds of thousands produced were quickly turned into one night build glue bombs and disposed of with the next cleanup of the bedroom! Beside the box art cool there was serious tooling effort in some of these kits as accurate scale replicas, even the ones from Palmer in this scale. There was also a sales outlet for slot conversion in 32nd scale that helped keep sales up during the slot craze." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 Yes they are crappy models. But seeing as the ones that interest me were released in the early mid sixties, I doubt if any of us were serious modelers back then. I'm as old as water and I was just 6 yrs old when the one I'm about to build in 1/25 scale came out. I love the box art on most of these! I will admit after finding the pics of a built version of "The Charger" it's very disappointing. But this will be the fun of building a larger scale version using the skills I now have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 I remembered having a Paddy Wagon glue bomb and got the saw out. If I think I can dig up enough parts, I'll start a build thread. The original Charger, The start of my Charger' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 3 hours ago, Psychographic said: I found some good pics of a built model of the Charger. Don't forget, slicks in the front and back. The Charger's side cab opening curvature is none too pleasing to the eye, so I like what you have started above using the Paddy Wagon's cab. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 30 minutes ago, Casey said: Don't forget, slicks in the front and back. The Charger's side cab opening curvature is none too pleasing to the eye, so I like what you have started above using the Paddy Wagon's cab. I'm not going to do an exact clone of the model. I will modernize it a bit, but it will be recognizable. According to the site I found the pictures on, this is the truck the model was based on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Minarick Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, Psychographic said: I remembered having a Paddy Wagon glue bomb and got the saw out. If I think I can dig up enough parts, I'll start a build thread. The original Charger, The start of my Charger' Dave , I was messing around with something that yours reminded of yours . The Revell rat rod roadster pick-up and a beer wagon roof. If you shortened the door and got rid of the 29's body line on the cowl , just an idea I Edited March 20, 2018 by Pat Minarick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 (edited) Thanks for the idea Pat. I do have a Cola Wagon (?) cab left over from my Insani T build. I was happy to finally find a use for the PW glue bomb. Decisions, desicions..................... Another member told me to look for a Fruit Wagon kit. Judging by the box art I wouldn't have to do anything to make the body but what fun is just gluing a kit together, if I'm not cutting something up I'm just not happy. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, part of me says make it as close to the box art as possible and part of me want's to modernize it a bit. Edited March 20, 2018 by Psychographic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat Minarick Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 23 minutes ago, Psychographic said: Thanks for the idea Pat. I do have a Cola Wagon (?) cab left over from my Insani T build. I was happy to finally find a use for the PW glue bomb. Decisions, desicions..................... Another member told me to look for a Fruit Wagon kit. Judging by the box art I wouldn't have to do anything to make the body but what fun is just gluing a kit together, if I'm not cutting something up I'm just not happy. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet, part of me says make it as close to the box art as possible and part of me want's to modernize it a bit. I'm sure you would cut it up too. This was a Fruit wagon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 It seems the Fruit Wagon doesn't match the box art. The bottom of the "C" on the box art meets the the top edge of the door, while the kit has it above creating a notch. I think the best way to make a recreation is your idea of the BW and the rat rod kit. The other thing about the FW that I don't like is the top of the "C" is too thick for my taste. The more I look at my PW cab the less I think it will do a good job of making a clone, the cab is too long. To shorten it I would have to take a chunk out out of the top of the "C". I think if I'm going to do a faithful reproduction of the Charger, the BW cab is the best bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 14 minutes ago, Psychographic said: It seems the Fruit Wagon doesn't match the box art. The bottom of the "C" on the box art meets the the top edge of the door, while the kit has it above creating a notch. Right. But it can be modified to work. I know the "meat" to do it is there, because I did drawings a couple years ago. Don't remember if I scanned them or not, maybe I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 47 minutes ago, Psychographic said: I think if I'm going to do a faithful reproduction of the Charger, the BW cab is the best bet. The top of the "C" does look flatter on the BW piece, and better matches the Charger/Modern T, without copying it directly. The body shapes and proportions on the Charger are so funky that you could really go just about any direction and have it look similar. I mean, fenceposts as bed rails? Come on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psychographic Posted March 20, 2018 Author Share Posted March 20, 2018 49 minutes ago, Snake45 said: Right. But it can be modified to work. I know the "meat" to do it is there, because I did drawings a couple years ago. Don't remember if I scanned them or not, maybe I did. The notch part would be an easy fix, but I really don't like the chunky look above the "C". I'm sure I could trim that down too. I'm going to take a ride to Ollie's today to see if by chance either of the stores close to me have one. 15 minutes ago, Casey said: The top of the "C" does look flatter on the BW piece, and better matches the Charger/Modern T, without copying it directly. The body shapes and proportions on the Charger are so funky that you could really go just about any direction and have it look similar. I mean, fenceposts as bed rails? Come on! I kind of like the funky shape of it, what I really like about it over the PW body I'm working on is how short it is front to back. I do agree the "C" part of it isn't so nice looking. As I progress on the PW body, I really like it and I'm sure it would be a lot more comfortable to drive in the real world. Unfortunately it just doesn't look as cool as the stubby shape of the original kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reegs Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 15 hours ago, Mike999 said: Surely the rest of the many hundreds of thousands produced were quickly turned into one night build glue bombs and disposed of with the next cleanup of the bedroom! Or with firecrackers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snake45 Posted March 20, 2018 Share Posted March 20, 2018 8 hours ago, Snake45 said: Right. But it can be modified to work. I know the "meat" to do it is there, because I did drawings a couple years ago. Don't remember if I scanned them or not, maybe I did. Found the pic on my hard drive. A is a drawing based on a number of photos of C-cabs I studied. B is a tracing of the Fruit Wagon cab sides. C shows what needs to be removed from B to get A. The scale is inches and lets you print it out at correct size. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 1, 2019 Share Posted February 1, 2019 (edited) Let us not sleep on the early-mid '70s 1/32 scale Aurora hot rod type kits, either: Edited February 7, 2019 by Casey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike999 Posted February 2, 2019 Share Posted February 2, 2019 4 hours ago, Casey said: Let us not sleep on the early-mid '70s 1/32 scale Aurora hot rod type kits, either: I mentioned those about 100 posts ago, or so it seems. Only 6 1/32 scale kits were issued like that, with photos for box art: the '32 Ford Sedan, '22 T Sedan, T Dragster, '24 Buick Touring, '32 Ford Pickup and the Dune Buggy. The Dune Buggy was just a re-issue of the earlier Hurst Baja Boot, without the roof and spare tires. On eBay, those 6 kits seem to sell for slightly lower prices than the originals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted February 3, 2019 Share Posted February 3, 2019 On 3/18/2018 at 7:38 PM, Casey said: I doubt any of them still exist. Not much from the Aurora purchase seems to have survived, which IMHO isn't too surprising considering how off-the-wall some of the subjects were -- I mean, '37 Packard and a '39 LaSalle hot rod hearse kits? If you want them, buy originals now. Yep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xingu Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Lets keep this focused on the subject of the thread, 1/32 Aurora kits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Myers Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 Reading is fundamental. Casey said : " IMHO isn't too surprising considering how off-the-wall some of the subjects were -- I mean, '37 Packard and a '39 LaSalle hot rod hearse kits? " "Hearse kits" just saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gray07 Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 the butterfly catcher looks like it started out as a 50s international. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xingu Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Greg Myers said: just saying. Me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamsuperdan Posted February 6, 2019 Share Posted February 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Greg Myers said: Reading is fundamental. Casey said : " IMHO isn't too surprising considering how off-the-wall some of the subjects were -- I mean, '37 Packard and a '39 LaSalle hot rod hearse kits? " "Hearse kits" just saying. Both mentioned by Casey are 1/32 Aurora kits. Not sure how 1/25 Johan are relevant. Just sayin' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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