AMT & Revell Parts Packs Engines

[Greg Myers]

How hard would it be to cast this up in resin ?

[southpier]

that's quite a bit of detail for - when? - 1963/4?

I remember buying AMT styline kits just to get the little tube of putty. much better than the plastic wood we were using, and LePage's liquid solder was .. well, let's say "not effective".

Edited May 16, 2014 by southpier

[ChrisBcritter]

There were no photoetch or cast resin parts (though somewhere here I do have a 1963 Model Car Science issue with an article on resin casting).

Here you go - August 1963, p.37:

http://www.modelencyclopedia.com/magazines.php?MagId=77&PageNum=37

[southpier]

great find. I can't imagine dealing with a three part mix.

somewhere back in time I remember an article using Silly Putty for the mold part and autobody tube putty for the casting. obviously not a production process, but if you broke or lost a kit part it would get you back in the game.

[PatW]

I have an AMT Competitions parts pack and recently built the Allison engine and built an installed the Corvair 6 in my Meyers Manx 4X4 as seen in the 'Under Glass' section of this website.

Superb packs, good detailing and easy to put together!

[Church Key]

Very true...BUT, how much $$ is, say, a Ross Gibson engine kit these days? In comparable bucks, the Revell kits are / were much cheaper. And the price of today's resin front end for a hot rod doesn't compare favorably with the about $7.00 that a parts-pack "Roadster Chassis Speed Equipment"" parts-pack would sell for in 2014 bucks...and you got 2 front axles (with hairpins and radius rods), 2 complete rear axles (two different widths, one old Ford banjo and one quickchange center-section) plus buggy springs for both ends of two cars, and miscellaneous brakes, shocks, brackets, steering boxes, torque-tube driveshafts, 2 Moon fuel tanks, and 2 cool steering wheels (one dragster-style semi-butterfly and a 3-spoke).

Here is another vote for the Roadster Chassis Speed Equiptment. I think these are the best I beam and straight axles ever produced in 1/25 scale, every part on this parts pack tree was perfect. I have several stalled drag car projects cause I can't find a realistic straight axle.

[Draggon]

Seems to me I once saw the roadster chassis speed equip having been done in resin by Replicas and Miniatures.....they do the motorcycles, so this is certainly do-able in resin.

[Pete L.]

Fellas,

I vote for reissuing Roadster Speed Equipment !!! :D

[jbwelda]

Replicas and Miniatures do not do the "motorcycles"...what they offer is the AMT Triumph that was included with the 63 chevy pickup truck I believe it was. I don't think they ever offered the roadster speed equip either.

personally I much prefer the stuff on the dragster speed equipment parts pack to the roadster one. though the roadster one does include that kool little master cylinder with handle for a hand brake...not sure if it was with the dragster one or not.

jb

[jbwelda]

>The bike kits were always designed to be sold separately never together in one box...I designed all of the kits when

>I was at Revell in the early sixties....any other questions?

you do realize I was talking about the early 2000s for this release of all the motorcycles, or at least four of them, in one box. I know for a fact that I followed that possibility mentioned in most car model magazines as of imminent release, and also I believe advance flyers were sent out to hobby shops because I believe I recall seeing one at my LHS. then suddenly the project was shelved and I remember distinctly reading it was killed because some believed it would not sell.

I of course was not referring to any such scheme in the sixties when I first started building and using these parts packs.

more recently:

and yes I do have another questions, possibly more. could we start with why exactly connection points were chosen the way they were? what I mean is a sprue connector directly in the middle of a hairpin radius rod pretty much spoils it. Another one: why exactly the inner detail of the motors, crankshafts, cams, lifters etc? were there plans for a garage diorama set for them to be displayed in? I always wondered why all that extra detail that was going to be buried in 99.99% of the cases.

thanks again

jb

[Draggon]

Ok thx for clearing that up for me William. I went searching for the info I knew I had regarding the speed equip packs, and found out I was the one who started that rumor.....

[jbwelda]

>I've bought nailheads from as far away as Finland

you do realize that most of the parts pack for this engine is available in many kits, the four of 'em style of the Tommy Ivo Showboat for one place I can think of right off hand. now of course you don't get the transmission from the PP, nor other accessories or intake manifolds, and it might not be chrome plated (most would strip it anyhow), but the basic engine is available in many places. right now I am building one I sourced from the old Fumin Fiat which was a PP based kit, but it is identical to the Ivo engines, and also I believe one of the mills in the Tony Nancy twin car kit. My point is only that its not that rare actually, though of course the actual PP is rare. Those build up into nice nailheads, all of them.

jb

[jbwelda]

So...

<crickets>

jb

[unclescott58]

Have to pull this tread forward again. A lot of cool stuff here. The only sad part is that Jim Keeler wrote some great stuff here. And never more. I wonder what happened? I hope Mr. Keeler is okay?

Again, like I say in most of my postings. Pictures help a lot. I'd like to see more things people have built using parts pack parts. By the way the links to the one web site showing all of the known parts packs is great. This is the kind of stuff I love see on these forums.

Scott

[Snake45]

I'd love to see the Revell Parts Pack Fiat body back. The Double Dragster Fiat body has been stretched, and while it can be chopped and modded back to stock, it would be great to buy a ready-to-use body that doesn't require this. It's also more crisply molded than the AMT body, too.

[afx]

Ace-Garageguy has been banging the drum on these engines for a long time so I finally decided to build one - the Ford 427. These engines are dismissed I believe because they are smothered in chrome. However once you strip the chrome away the detail is reveled. If you could get the clear undercoat off they would be even more impressive. If Revell would issue them in bare plastic these engine kits might finally get the respect they deserve.

[Fat Brian]

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.

[southpier]

i've had some luck getting the undercoat on stripped chrome parts removed with a brass brush. but i agree unplated is best.

[Crazy Ed]

Odor Free East Off removes the undercoating after a few minutes with a bit of running water and a tooth brush.

[Mark]

For me, Super Clean seldom fails to remove both the plating and underlying lacquer base coat. I'm still using the Castrol-branded product, but from what I have heard the newer stuff still does the job. I'll be using Dawn Power Dissolver on most paint (until my closeout store supply runs out), but Super Clean has always been my go-to stuff for plating.

[Erik548]

i use Coke, it takes 2 days but no need for gloves

[Ace-Garageguy]

For as long as these things have been around, the tooling still seems to be in excellent condition. The most recent runs I have are every bit as crisp as the first ones, with no flash usually. Some of the more recent runs do seem to have deeper sink-marks, as though the plastic shot was cut off just a fraction of a second too soon. Other than that, they look great.

One rarely sees a chrome engine in reality, so doing a run of the tools that are left (I've never seen the Buick or the Hemi re-released, or the non-Potvin-blown SBC) in an opaque plastic (the originals are translucent when stripped) would get money out of my pocket.

I hope the recent re-runs of the excellent AMT engine trees will be successful enough to prompt Revell into doing a non-chrome run of engine kits.

[Snake45]

I wish I'd bought a few more of these when they were available. I got one, now I'm saving it for some "special" project of some kind.

[chunkypeanutbutter]

What's the usual going price for these packs?

[Jantrix]

It depends on the engine. I've seen the 289 and Ford 427 for $10 at swap meets, but the more desirable hemis/409's and what not can go as high $20-$25.