Etzel Speed Classic kits?

I thought Cris stopped offering kits a while back. His stuff is really nice. I built one of his midgets. It's a great kit. Is he back in business????

They are probably the best ever kits of the subjects he did. Far better than Jorgenson, better than Lance Sellers or FrontMotor.

I was talking to him one time and he said he was a pattern-maker by trade before he started making kits. His molding detail is better than anything I have seen, and his kits are dead on accurate. Was sorry to see him go out of business. The high prices commanded on eBay for Etzel kits are an indication that others feel the same way.

Not to be stupid but do these kits in any way compare with say Pocher as far as accuracy goes? I'm assuming that the subjects that Etzel did were totally different than say the Pochers am I correct on that? Thanks for the input, jim

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@d27g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Much better. Of course, the scale is much smaller, so it is harder to compare. But in my opinion both the detail and the overall accuracy are better on old Etzel kits than on Pocher ones.

Because of the fineness of the detail, the suspension on some of those Etzel kits is a bit fragile. One has to take care. But the results are well worth it.

BTW, the kits are not absolutely complete. In some cases they require fine brass or steel wire, that do not come in the kit. However, most of us keep that stock on hand, and a quick visit to local hobby shop supplies it in any case.

Somehow my reply got sent before I was actually finished writing. I was going to add that a couple of Etzel models are on my car modeling page at

Somehow my reply got sent before I completed it. I meant to add that photos of a couple of completed Etzel kits are on my car modeling page at

Somehow my reply got sent before I was actually finished writing. I was going to add that a couple of Etzel models are on my car modeling page at

Somehow my reply got sent before I completed it. I meant to add that photos of a couple of completed Etzel kits are on my car modeling page at

Don,

Can you give any recommendations as to Etzel kits to be on the lookout for? Hopefully the prices are more reasonable than the Pochers which have appeared to have gone really nuts. Thanks for you advice, jim

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@d27g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

Don,

How long did it take you to build your 1/8" Sprint Car? Wow what a beauty! Did you teach yourself to work with fibreglass so you were able to fabricate the body of this car? How long have you been scratchbuilding these kinds of beautys Don? jim

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@l16g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...

messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@d27g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

The Miller is an absolute jewel. It has a photo etched grill that is beautiful. I think it is the best of the bunch. The midget is the only ACCURATE KK midget. The Monogram 1:20 kit is NOT a KK.

The Duesenberg is another great kit with a super engine that shows in some of the versions you can make it as.

The Kuzma has a super Offy engine. It is so nice he even offered it as a seperate kit.

A friend of mine has the Frontenac. I am sorry I didn't get one before he stopped production. If I ever see one for less than about 75 or 80 bucks I'll buy it. Maybe not as nice as the Miller or Duesie, but still very nice.

BTW, the Midget is pitside, no engine, which is why it sells for a bit less than the miller, duesie, etc.

I started building a Vari-Eze homebuilt airplane many years ago that really taught me to work in 'glass. But I had done an airscoop for a customized Ford when I was a teen and glass and resin first appeared in auto parts stores- that was about in 1957.

The sprint car took about a year, but some of that time was waiting for more photos from the car owner. I had taken a bunch at a vintage racing meet, but found I had not taken enough, so had to have the owner take some pictures and send them to me. BTW, the engine block and heads are from the old Big-T kit. Everything else was scratch.

I;'ve bee scratchbuilding for a LONG time. I learned the secret of racing car bodies from an old line of kits from a place called Ace products- I think they were in Pasadena. All other bodies in those days were completely solid. If you wanted to hollow out the cockpit, fine, but the kits did not come with hollow interiors (these were solid balsa wood in those days- late 40s, early 50s). Ace models had a built up body from blocks and sheets, which, after you glued the stuff together, you then finish carved it. I usually work in 1:12 scale (which is what the Ace midget was) and leave them in wood, but the sprint car was larger and called out for thin body panels, so I decided to do plaster molds from the carved body and lay glass in the plaster molds.

I hate to be stupid Don but what is a Miller exactly? Thanks, jim

Sounds to me like you have a background in tool and die or something similiar. jim

It also had around around 20 parts total IIRC. It wasn't as much a model as a toy. It was also Monogram's first plastic model kit. This brings back a memory... was it Hawk who did the Bonneville Salt Flats speed record racers that were very simple kits? (they were driven by wound-up rubber bands). My older brother had a model of the Goldenrod when I was a kid that had all the innards (all four engines) in it; was that Revell or AMT? The one I wish I'd kept unbuilt was the AMT (?) 1967 STP Indy 500 turbine car kit - this was some model; it came with a transparent section of the body over the turbine engine, and rested on a base that was a pen holder (pens included!).

Pat

Miller was first a builder of engines, then complete cars. The Duesenberg and the Miller were the only real contenders at Indy in the twenties and early thirties. The Miller, like the Duesie, was a straight 8, but DOHC. Miller also built racing boat engines, derived from the race car engines, and were 4 cylinder engines. When Miller went out of business his shop foreman, Fred Offenhauser, bought the tooling and patterns, and the 4 cylinder engine became the famed Offenhauser that ruled Indy for decades.

BTW, no, I have no professional connections with tool and die. I am a physicist that spent most of my career in aerospace engineering. But I have been modeling now for over sixty years continuously. You pick up some skills in that much time :-)

Speaking of the Miller, I acquired this one several years ago (:>

I think the kit your brother had was Mickey Thompson's "Challenger" the great four engined beast. The kit was by Revell and they still turn up on eBay now and then....hmmm, I think I have one around here somewhere! The STP Turbines are still around also and they turn up too. Cliff