Question for the car modellers on preferences.

Did anyone ever make a kit of the 1974 Ford Pinto? My first car. I don't think anyone makes a kit of my second car: 1983 Alfa Romeo Spider.

Gary,

Absolutely! Model Products Corp. (MPC) did both the 1974 Pinto hatchback and the station wagon. AMT produced the "Cruisin' Van" custom sedan delivery.

Art Anderson

Gary, I'm not sure what years or models were made but Heller has made several Alfa's in 1/24 and 1/43 scale. Sam

Wm,

You ask the perennial good question! Of course, speaking of all those cars of the 60's which, like the AMT/Ertl '63 Galaxie 500XL, those cars were done as top-of-the-line for a very simple reason: Kids seemed to want the car(s) they wished Dad would buy, instead of the mundane 4drs that most of our fathers came home with. In addition, most of those old annual series customizing kits were spun off promotional models, again, the high-end cars seem to have been the ones the automakers wanted for promo's.

Not to say there weren't some station wagons, and even some 4dr sedans done: AMT did a 63 ChevyII 4dr wagon, a 62 Buick Special wagon; Johan kitted a '60 Plymouth 4dr wagon and a '62 Olds F85 wagon, AMT also did a '60 Chevy Nomad 4dr wagon in their Craftsman Jr. series of snap kits. Hubley (!) did 1960, 61 and

62 Ford Galaxie 4dr sedans, and 4dr station wagons in 1:24 scale. Interestingly, AMT also did their '63 Ford Galaxie Promo as the first of the year "squareback" hardtop, but keep in mind, by the time the 3in1 Galaxie kit rolled around, it was the 63 1/2 Sports Roof. Johan also, mid-year in 1968, convert their Plymouth Fury hardtop kit tooling into a 68 Fury 4dr sedan, their perennial police car model. Of course, the SMP 1960 Corvair was a 4dr sedan, SMP's 1960 Chrysler Valiant was a 4dr sedan as well, and the AMT 1960-61 Falcon and Comet kits were 2dr sedans (but that was because there were no HT's available in those newly introduced compact cars yet. In the last couple of years, Revell revised their '56 Chevy Nomad tooling to issue a '56 Chevy Delray 2dr sedan also.

Is there a market for the low-line cars? Yes and no. There is always a small, niche market for those cars, but unfortunately, most manufacturers seem not to find much consumer (and perhaps more importantly, retail!) market for the plain-jane cars of the 50's-later. There are, however, any number of sedans and wagons available on the resin aftermarket, albeit a bit more costly, and that does turn off some modelers.

Art Anderson

cars are made in

brethren of the over

brethren of the over

Mostly but there are various wagons and sedans out there. In particular, if you look towards the Japanese kits you'll find a little more variety.

Heck, I have a Suzuki Wagon R kit. Yes, it's a performance version of what's an otherwise bland little people mover. Remove the "R" decals and it's moms shopping trolley.

Base engine thru to

I would love to

alongside the venerable

Not familiar enough with the subjects mentioned.

Even if the AMT

collection of Sheriff

Isn't that the kit Hobby Heaven had reissued in special boxing some years back?

resplendent USAF blue

brethren of the over

Without going to 4-drs one can remove enough trim to get some of the lesser models. One can, in some bodies, put a door frame into a hardtop and get a reasonable sedan.

As Art mentioned, the '63 Ford came in promo form as the square roof model. A little filling and scribing can turn it into a 4-dr. hardtop. To make it less costly, look for one that's damaged anywhere but the roofline. I picked up a banged-up promo that I hope to use the fastback kit to improve.

Nope, that one was the '70 Ford Galaxie. Modelhaus does offer a 2-dr. sedan body for the '65 Ford Custom along with the appropriate taillights and interior in resin.

I haven't heard too many car modellers dying for those. ;)

Not a loner as much as a member of a small fraternity. Unfortunately it's probably too small a fraternity to encourage the manufacturers to spend tooling dollars.

Yes, the '56 Dodge Coronet low-line sedan with the 6 just like my dad had. Then there's the '55 Buick Special 4-dr. sedan I started driving in or that '49 Buick Super fastback my uncle had up on blocks by his barn. I used to fantasise about getting my hands on it and turning it into street machine. Or the '48 Dodge 4-dr. that was the first car I remember riding in. Or the '56 Packard, the last REAL Packards ever built. I could go on but you get the idea.

Bill Banaszak

True Bill. There is many ways to achieve the lower spec models by starting with an "up spec" subject.

Silly me, I should pay more attention.

In my opinion one of (If not) the best model kit makers is MPC. The variety of model kits that they offered is unmatched in my opinion.

Mangry

Jon,

AMT Corporation did every year of Lincoln Continental from 1959-1968 or 68. AMT also did every year of Thunderbird through the 1960's as well. However, for the 67-70 years, AMT did only the TBird 2dr HT in kit and promo form. If you can find two of whichever year of TBird your dad owned, they can be used to stretch one to the correct length for the 4dr. Virtually every shape and contour is the same, just the longer body.

Art Anderson

Bill,

Modelhaus has a '49 Buick Sedanette (fastback 2dr) and F&F Resin Cast has a '56 Packard convertible.

Art Anderson

AMT's Lincolns run from '59 to '69. Ford changed some of the body statistics for '70 and AMT dropped the cars for that year. (:() The Thunderbirds ran to '71. I wish there had been a kit for the Torino-sized ones of the mid-'70s. (Sigh)

Bill Banaszak, MFE and 'bird fan.

I can think of a few subjects with a personal connection that are 4dr or wagon that I could get pretty excited about, but I bet there wouldn't be the critical mass of demand for most of these subjects. I'd especially like to see the '55 Dodge my grandfather had-it had a real elegance of line to it.

Mark Schynert

Well said Mark!

Now, if your grandfather's car was a '65 Dodge Coronet 500 hardtop, it's coming in '04! (Ooops! a high-performance 2dr ht!)

Polar Lights is doing it. Check out the Polar Lights web page:

If the car you remember was a sedan, well a bit of conversion will get you there.

Art Anderson

Mine was the (fortunately 2-door 'performance' model) '61 DeSoto hardtop that Modelhaus rendered beautifully in resin. It sits in its case above the TV now.

Holy Dynaflows, Batman! *You too*? My Old Man's '55 was a 4-door Special *hardtop* (green & beige Tu-Tone, of course)! I remember 'sneaking home' for 4 blocks one night with my temporary when there was *supposed* to be someone with me. Not an easy task with Dad's Buicks' usual exhaust system (rrrrrrRRRRRRR!).

Yeah; we're *both* old!

-- C.R. Krieger (Been there, built that)

Is it me or is the grille just a bit *too* rounded?

Ever seen photos of the Ramchargers' first (only?) non-AWB '65 car? Definitely a '65 clip on the '64. Weird, but, with the Lindberg '64, it ought to be an easy conversion ...

-- C.R. Krieger (Been there, seen that)

in article snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, C.R. Krieger at warp2 snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote on 11/5/03 12:20 PM:

OOoooo! '55 Buick. Ah the memories. My dad had a 52 Buick Special, 4-door. That's what I got my license in. It was two tone gray. Very "sporty."

My freshman year in college, in the Spring, my folks came for a visit. I was shocked dumb when they drove up in a brand-new 55 Century, 4-Door Hard Top, Red, Cream, and White! Power everything! What an eye catcher. And what a power house compared to my 53 Plymouth. I could hardly wait to get home for the summer and maybe get to use it for a Saturday night.

That old Buick was still going strong 111 thousand miles later when it was replaced by a Pontiac Gran Prix. By then, I was long gone but my dad in his later years drove some nice cars, although they were all domestics.

MB

CR,

Keep in mind this is the first review of the mockup. However, what dimensional corrections needed are, in no place on the mockup, more than 2-3% of correct (and, the mockup, by the way, is 2:1 for 1:25 scale.

As for the grille, I believe it checked out extremely close. Nearly every line of the body is at least a slight curve, the exceptions being in the shapes of the side windows, and the obviously straight vertical grille bars (when viewed from directly in front), and such things as the ribbing in the taillight panel out back.

But, this is what mockup reviews are for, to ensure the accuracy of the mockup before tooling (time to make corrections is in the mockup stage, not in the steel tools).

As for the mating of a '65 front clip to the '64 body, I haven't seen the car you mention, but I suspect there would have been some serious panel-beating, otherwise the mating of the two designs would have looked pretty crude.

Art