What non-auto model did you get today?

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, atomicholiday said:

I’m a sucker for a good deal on old aircraft kits.  Brought these home yesterday...

Cool stuff.  

[Ace-Garageguy]

Couple more interesting diesel locomotives in HO scale. These were listed as "EMD EF-7" locos (?) but are in fact AHM-Tempo Fairbanks-Morse "C-liners", another of the somewhat obscure designs (to non-RR people) developed to compete with EMD's market-dominating "cab-unit" E and F series diesels. A side note on these...the passenger version had a very unusual 3-axle rear truck to carry the weight of the steam generator, used for train heating. The freight-hauling version had 2-axle rear trucks.

   

This model was, again, in production for many years, beginning in 1954, and the separate wire hand grabs on the nose (can't see 'em in the photos) identify these as relatively early versions made prior to "cost engineering" cheapening. They've been "worked on" over the years, mostly bodged (like the ridiculously unusable too-close Kadee coupler mounted on the LH unit), but there's still enough there to restore.

A little history: Fairbanks-Morse was a major player in the railroad industry going well back (tracing its heritage to an 1823 maker of plows and stoves), manufacturing all kinds of heavy RR infrastructure, including wooden, steel, and concrete coaling towers for steam locomotives (a cast-concrete version shown to the left of the F-M diesels below), and even marine diesel engines used in submarines in both WW I and WW II. 

Both of these models are powered, in kinda rough shape, but run. They need work, but I'd rather spend a week and a few bucks making a well-detailed, good running engine from something lotsa folks would throw out than buy a brandy-new one for several hundred. One immediate drawback I noticed is that these early ones have very deep flanges on their wheels, much deeper than RP-25 specs, and hit the spike-heads on code-85 or shorter track. But hey...I have a lathe. 

Lotta "experts" say these cheap old locos are trash, run poorly, etc., but there are still RR modelers who, like me, enjoy making something really nice from "trash". It's kinda like building hot-rods used to be.  

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[atomicholiday]

Found another one today.

[Ace-Garageguy]

I'm pretty stoked about these. I've been collecting old "craftsman" kits for a few years now, and recently scored several more Ambroid wood RR car kits manufactured between 1957 and 1962. Eight car kits in all (one double kit), beautiful condition, and almost entirely complete. The only one I've carefully inventoried so far is the H-22 AT&SF caboose, and it's missing one end panel.

Miraculously, Northeastern Scale Models, the company that designed and manufactured these kits for Ambroid way back then, is still in business. Though they have no pre-cut parts, they do have the exact scribed basswood siding I'll need to make a replacement.

Ambroid made two series of "One of Five Thousand" multimedia (wood, wire, and cast-metal) kits from '57 through '62, as an advertising vehicle for their tube glue. The subjects were primarily unusual and interesting RR cars that no mass-manufacturer would have even considered. They consist mostly of milled basswood strips, shapes and scribed sheets, and are as close to scratch-building as you can get with anything in kit form. Many of the kits included a lead tube of Ambroid glue, and the ones in these kits are still sealed and entirely usable.

                            

The prices marked on the boxes, by the way, were what they cost new, not cheap by any means in the period. Today, they're usually many times more expensive. I pretty much have all the ones I'm really interested in now, and multiples of my favorites. The "US NAVY helium car" is among the most fascinating to me (not my model).

                                       (yes, it's a model of a real car)

Of course I had nowhere near the requisite skills to even attempt one of these when they were new, but I remember longing for the time when I would, as I read about them in Model Railroader Magazine. So these kits were bought with the intent to build 'em, not save 'em.   

Edited December 9, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[NYLIBUD]

Another vintage HO scale restaurant for my city diorama that I’am going to start building soon.

[Ace-Garageguy]

6 hours ago, NYLIBUD said:

Another vintage HO scale restaurant for my city diorama that I’am going to start building soon.

Pretty cool. I have a lot of fond memories of stopping at HoJos as a kid, during road trips with my parents.  

[RSchnell]

On 12/2/2023 at 7:12 AM, atomicholiday said:

I’m a sucker for a good deal on old aircraft kits.  Brought these home yesterday.

 

 

Seeing that Comet P-38 takes me back. I built one as a teenager and got it to fly pretty decent on rubber power. Haven't built stick & tissue in a while. Those old Comet kits built well and most of them flew well without too much adjustment. 

[NYLIBUD]

HoJos had the best late night ice cream sundaes.Just saying.?

Edited December 10, 2023 by NYLIBUD

[Ace-Garageguy]

4 hours ago, NYLIBUD said:

HoJos had the best late night ice cream sundaes.Just saying.?

And shakes, and cones...just the best ice cream...period...the way I remember it.  

[atomicholiday]

So without even knowing, I bought more models!  My family plays a lot of board games during the holidays when we’re all together.  I bought this game called Storm Vault at Ollie’s and upon opening the box, lo and behold, the character pieces are all Games Workshop fit!  They look pretty cool too.

[JollySipper]

1 hour ago, atomicholiday said:

the character pieces are all Games Workshop fit!

Those look really neat! Figure painting is a completely different animal from model cars..... You should do some type of WIP with them.

[stitchdup]

When I found this I knewI had to get it for my sister. She'll probably never build it but i know she'll have it on display as these are important planes in our lives. every holidays we would fly on these to our grandparents. theres nothing like as soon as the tyres touch the ground, all exterior vision is lost until the pilot pours the bottle of water he carries on the front window. this is because we didn't land on a runway, but just a farmers field that doubled as a runway. when there were no planes it was used for beasts and shups (cattle and sheep) so when the tyres hit the cow pies.... well I'm sure you get the picture and if you think this isn't crazy enough, if it was wet and windy the plane would be landing more sideways than forward still with no outside vision unless it was really chucking it down. these are sure tough planes, i saw one go through the fence on landing yet nothing important got broken so it flew back for repairs. another time there was a tourist who had never flown before before sitting nervously behind th pilots seat (its not got a partition cos then a stretcher wouldn't fit as these were also our ambulances) and the guy next him started getting more and more impatient next him (yet sounded really familiar) and after the pilot was 5 mins late declared loudly "well this idiots obviously forgot about us, but I've sat ahint (behind) hem (him) fur (for) a giuey feuy (a great many) times and hid disna luk yin herd (it doesn't look that hard)" and proceeded to climb into the pilots seats and start the plane before eventually turning around and declaring he really was the pilot and asking the nervous bloke if he was calmed down yet, lol. the same pilot was alleged to have landed the plane on one of the churchill barriers another time, yet could navigate to the islands during fog by spotting the various lighthouses. he was a highly skilled pilot in these planes and responsible for saving many lives with his skills

 

[Dave Van]

I picked up the AMT 1/200 Moonraker Space Shuttle kit at Ollies for $11.  Kit looks OK for a 1/200 scale kit.....but decals are Army Green and not the orange they should be. Waste....

Edited December 18, 2023 by Dave Van

[Ace-Garageguy]

Arrived today...a NIB (barely started) HO scale Bowser UP 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotive kit. Out of production only a few years now, the kit was originally introduced in the early 1950s, and with a careful buildup will rival high-end brass models costing thousands in appearance and performance. It is predominantly high-quality die-cast zamac with brass and steel parts, and requires substantial mechanical skill, particularly to rivet together the tiny, functioning valve gear. A reviewer once said it was one of the strongest pulling loco models in existence, and that it would "pull the rear bumper off of a '57 Chevy".

Only two of the 105 real engines remain in existence. One is on static display, and the other, ex-UP 3985, is being restored to operating condition for the second time as I write this.

    https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/3985/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The same company, Bowser, manufactured the HO scale Pennsy T1 locomotive kit I bought a few years back, from tooling purchased from Penn Line...another kit that dates from the 1950s. Sadly, not a single one of these fantastic machines escaped the scrapper's torch, but there is an ongoing project to build a full-scale functioning replica from original blueprints.

    https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

Edited December 21, 2023 by Ace-Garageguy

[Earl Marischal]

4 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Arrived today...a NIB (barely started) HO scale Bowser UP 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotive kit. Out of production only a few years now, the kit was originally introduced in the early 1950s, and with a careful buildup will rival high-end brass models costing thousands in appearance and performance. It is predominantly high-quality die-cast zamac with brass and steel parts, and requires substantial mechanical skill, particularly to rivet together the tiny, functioning valve gear. A reviewer once said it was one of the strongest pulling loco models in existence, and that it would "pull the rear bumper off of a '57 Chevy".

Only two of the 105 real engines remain in existence. One is on static display, and the other, ex-UP 3985, is being restored to operating condition for the second time as I write this.

    https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/3985/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The same company, Bowser, manufactured the HO scale Pennsy T1 locomotive kit I bought a few years back, from tooling purchased from Penn Line...another kit that dates from the 1950s. Sadly, not a single one of these fantastic machines escaped the scrapper's torch, but there is an ongoing project to build a full-scale functioning replica from original blueprints.

    https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

Those two will keep you going for a while.

I knew a chap with a built version of the T1. It looked amazing and was very heavy! Didn’t like negotiating curves very much though.

steve

[Dave Van]

5 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Arrived today...a NIB (barely started) HO scale Bowser UP 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotive kit. Out of production only a few years now, the kit was originally introduced in the early 1950s, and with a careful buildup will rival high-end brass models costing thousands in appearance and performance. It is predominantly high-quality die-cast zamac with brass and steel parts, and requires substantial mechanical skill, particularly to rivet together the tiny, functioning valve gear. A reviewer once said it was one of the strongest pulling loco models in existence, and that it would "pull the rear bumper off of a '57 Chevy".

Only two of the 105 real engines remain in existence. One is on static display, and the other, ex-UP 3985, is being restored to operating condition for the second time as I write this.

    https://www.up.com/heritage/steam/3985/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The same company, Bowser, manufactured the HO scale Pennsy T1 locomotive kit I bought a few years back, from tooling purchased from Penn Line...another kit that dates from the 1950s. Sadly, not a single one of these fantastic machines escaped the scrapper's torch, but there is an ongoing project to build a full-scale functioning replica from original blueprints.

    https://prrt1steamlocomotivetrust.org/

I have the T1 kit.  My father in law gave it to me back about 1985 before any decent RTR versions were made. It's built and runs......but just not real well. The two BLI Pennsy T1 locos I got when my father in law passed run much better.  

Those old Bowser kits are cool and a real piece of history.  Hard to think how many different kits they made and how many of each!!! 

[Moparman18064]

This one will take a while. I always wanted to build this.

[Earl Marischal]

British Railways Prototype diesel from early 1950s. OO/4mm UK scale. Xmas present from Mrs EM.

steve

 

[Richard Bartrop]

I picked this up from the LHS.  Love these speculative designs because someone actually tried to figure out how to make a spacecraft.

I got these off the clearance table.  I have no idea what the story is on these, but they looked interesting, and the price was right.

[Can-Con]

22 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

I picked this up from the LHS.  Love these speculative designs because someone actually tried to figure out how to make a spacecraft.

 

It's from a series Revell did in the late '50s designed by Krafft Ehricke, who worked in the nazi missile program during WWII and then brought to the U.S. after the war.  , , An actual "rocket scientist". 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krafft_Arnold_Ehricke

Edited January 6, 2024 by Can-Con

[Richard Bartrop]

Oh, I'm well aware of its origins.  It was just nice to be able to get one without having to pay speculator prices.

[Can-Con]

19 minutes ago, Richard Bartrop said:

Oh, I'm well aware of its origins.  It was just nice to be able to get one without having to pay speculator prices.

They are interesting. I'm kinda into the retro-futurism vibe of the series and '50s/early '60s si-fi in general.

[Snake45]

13 hours ago, Richard Bartrop said:

I picked this up from the LHS.  Love these speculative designs because someone actually tried to figure out how to make a spacecraft.

 

When I was a small child--maybe 6?--I had a book that had all kinds of stuff like this in it. I MIGHT even still have the book somewhere, if somebody didn't throw it away. I remember the name "Wily Ley" associated with it in some way. Wow, now I have to get one of these kits. 

[Richard Bartrop]

1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

When I was a small child--maybe 6?--I had a book that had all kinds of stuff like this in it. I MIGHT even still have the book somewhere, if somebody didn't throw it away. I remember the name "Wily Ley" associated with it in some way. Wow, now I have to get one of these kits. 

Sounds like this, Maybe?

 

Edited January 6, 2024 by Richard Bartrop

[OldNYJim]

Model kit of a billboard…not a very complicated or detailed one, but not I have almost the complete set of this company’s products to build…

Edited January 9, 2024 by CabDriver