hubley kits

Metal kits with plastic trim. Took some serious filing and fitting, from what I remember. A buddy of mine built a number from the set.

was the box wrapped in cellophane?

In those days (1961 - 1963) it would have been fairly heavy-duty cardboard box wrapped in cellophane. Sorry, I misunderstood.

that's why they put pencils on erasers....so no sweat. some clown on fleabay is crowing about his factory sealed cellophane hubley kit. like some guys do with early revells. i wasn't all that clear either...

Just remember that back in the early 1960s it was heavy-duty cellophane and not modern shrink-wrap which many hobby shops or individuals can put on in a matter of seconds.

Cookie Sewell

By now it's close to yellow, taut as a drumhead and/or brittle as ice. The folds are on the ends.

that's what this looked like, the old school, heavy duty wrap you needed muscle to tear. i emailed the guy, nice like, to see if he knows. i've heard of revell buyers getting boxes of junk sprue. you know how some bastids will do anything for money. thanks, cookie. what's your opinion of the academy stuart? anything i should fix?

in the picture, it looked dull and old.

i think the guy pulled it. he might be looking to see if it's complete. i would hope that he wouldn't knowingly sell a box of spye and junk. they were made in lancaster, sez on the box. or was the company just based there? did you tour them? their kits look pretty cool. next time i have some spare cash, i'll try one.

As I recall, they were sealed at the ends with adhesive label paper. I can't say about the metal kits, just the plastics.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

I don't remember any kits being cellophane wrapped until the late 60s. Mostly it was a fairly sturdy cardboard box, not the lightweight paper crap they call a box nowadays. Only sealing was a piece of tape at 2 places in middle of box. Some weren't sealed at all.

Some boxes had the paper cover glued to the box as a seal, sort of how the jigsaw puzzles are sealed nowadays.

Airfix had their bagged kits with paper hangers. They were always thought of as exotic for some reason.

Nobody ever cared about scale or exact paints, weathering, though all the Japanese hobby shops had models on display built by somebody who would easily win at any modern modeling event. Every mom and pop shop had built up stuff that enticed you to buy more.

i remember a few shows as a teen. but the real killer was living in nurnbeurg 60-64. gues where i went every xmas season? i would even hop the trolley after school. don't remember the name of the square, but the church was the one with the figures that moved and did stuff on the hour. sometimes it would be really freakin' cold but we still toured around for hours. for 50 pfenigs, about 12 1/2 cents, you could get a newspaper cone full of the best french fries. had to bring your own catsup. the germans would always chuckle and shake their heads....amis, they would say. the model tents and the marklin tents were where i spent most time. trains that never seem to get here.

They got a lot right but also a lot wrong. Steve Zaloga said the best thing to do is use the hull and some of the bits from the old Tamiya one with parts from the new Academy kit (turrets mostly and some of the interior) and either the original Tamiya suspension bits or better still the AFV Club ones. The AFV Club tracks are fiddly but work pretty well when you get them together, and they have two styles (flat rubber shoe and three-bar cleat).

Cookie Sewell

thank you kind sir. your advice is always welcome and always good. but do i want to buy another kit for parts....? well, kinda.

Yep, Lancaster was their main factory location. I know of about three locations that had been plants. One's downtown somewhere, the second is about 8 blocks from here and is now a paper tag concern. The last and largest is about 2 miles from here and up until a few years ago the 'ghosts' of the company logo were still seen on the side of the building. Not sure who's in there now but the successive companies that bought them used the building for awhile then moved manufacturing overseas. IIRC, Hasbro was the last one. Never toured the plant but back in the '70s I delivered printing and office supplies to the new plant. All kinds of die-cast was chucked in the dumpsters and I picked up a cap gun that lacked plastic grips and used it as a paper weight in the truck. The plastic packing line was near the truck docks so I could see the women packing chrome-plated parts when delivering.

They certainly made the unusual but the plastics were simplistic. Some of the 'foreign' cars are still made and sold under Minicraft's name. I got one of the Rolls-Royces through Squadron and was surprised to see they altered the window 'glass' moulding. Otherwise the kit is the same thing.

There's an opening hood (bonnet) but the engine is a drop in one-piece moulding to fill the space. Trunk (boot) opens and there's a spare to fill it. Not sure of the accuracy of the appearance of the trunk.

Undercart comprises wheels that push into vinyl tires and onto thick metal axles. These in turn slide into a chassis plate with simple moulded-on detail.

Hubley also made a Renault Dauphine but I haven't seen that one re-released.

Bill Banaszak, MFE Sr.

ah, did you remember we saying we had one around 67-68? i really thought they were better than bug's. we never did anything to it except oil. had it for

60-70 k miles and i don't think we even did tune-ups. cost was split among the sib's, so nobody did anything. i did pack 8 cheerleaders plus me in it after practice once. that was exciting. wish i could find pictures. you had a cool childhood.