Art & Inspiration Model Kits that Inspired the young hoodlums

I love it!!!............Bob

 

Great trip down memory lane with this thread. I remember one year for Christmas I got three 40 Ford Sedans, can't remember the make. Hated the car and I had three.

 

AMT made a tudor '40, that could also be built as a '39 Deluxe. I think I used the ones I had to make coach bodies for a couple of the Tobias Modifieds.

 

Jo-Han, Monogram and AMT kits were my favorites. Their detail, quality and scale was really good. I also liked the Hubley metal kits too.

 

Here are my HAMB friendly builds.

 

Yep !

 

Cool KevKo

 

I'm on a model build binge right now. Have two '49 Mercs going, a '49 Ford, '48 Ford chopped coupe, a '32 Ford coupe chopped and a '64 Fairlane resin stock car, which is getting out of hand. These are a couple from a few years (or more..) ago.

 

Not really a model you build but one of my fav drag racing "models" per say, this one is mine too...any other have this one?

 

Managed to acquire much of the inspirational box art of my youth.

 

Ive even managed to cobble together a decent model or two....

 

Not so much a model as in a kit you assemble but a scale model car none the less. It was a cox gas powered tethered funny car. An OT red, white and blue flip top. You nailed a string down the sidewalk, that ran through the car's chassis, had a bead at the end of the 1/4 that popped open the drag chute then the string made a Y to catch the car so it didn't run all the way down the block.
The entry level drug into the hoodlum hobby.

 

I had a Vega panel funny car that was like that... It was brutally fast and loud.... It ran on nitro for fuel.....

 

I had one of them actually two of them the white Pinto, I think , funny car and the gold Vega panel funny car I think that's what they were...also the red Manx dune buggy the funny cars got pretty wild when the teather line would break before the parachute opened up....these pictures are off the net ....wish still had them just saw them on eBay $250.00

Sent from my QTASUN1 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

These Cox stories just reminded me that I had a friend who built balsa wood, .029 powered, free-flight planes way back then. You had to be on your toes when he launched one, because they tended to return to the point of origin One day we decided that the .049 from my Cox plane would be even more fun, and all the extra glue and bracing needed for crash repairs were beginning to weigh things down. My .049 flew off into oblivion that day, joining the Bermuda Triangle of free-flight gas-powered planes. We searched for it for two days and never did find it, maybe some lucky neighbor picked it up out of his yard.

 

Yeah, that's the car. I was pretty sure last night when I typed that post that it was a Pinto. It was a blast to play with. $250!!!!!!???????

 

Not the greatest pic; I just happened to have these out recently. My uncle had these in his attic; uncovered them after 40 years. Most of them were "Dealer Promo Models" that he Kustomized.

 

One of my Sunday coffee cruise-in buddies, Mike Cunningham, crew chief and engine builder, has one of those. He brought it to coffee one morning and ran it thru its paces a few times.

 

One of the big differences between Revell and AMT (back then) was Revell kits were generally replicas of a specific vehicle. Like the Roth stuff, Stone Woods Cook, Orange Crate, etc. They were accurate but difficult. AMT kits were generally fictional. Like the AWB Funny Cars. But they also had some replicas like the Surf Woody, Munster Coach, etc. AMT kiuts were also generally less detailed, but easy to build. Perfect for a kid of the time. Like me.

 

Monogram's Black Widow kit

 

AMT's XR6 model kit




One Christmas over 50 years ago, under the tree from Santa was the Black Widow and XR6 model kits. Next to the table hockey game, it was the best gifts EVER...

 

Another Christmas I got the AMT 1957 Chevy 3 in 1 kit and I wanted to build it all three ways - custom, stock and drag racer... BUT could only choice ONE...

From some allowance money I saved for the Monogram 55 Chevy Badman kit.

 

You're right...the Revell kits back then were detailed but way too difficult for most young modelers to put together. ( Ex. Orange Crate, Challenger, Mysterion, Road Agent....)AMT kits were somewhat less detailed and generally an easier build ( Cushenberrys Silhouette & Dream Rod, Tognottis King T, Wilhelms Wild Dream and all the Barris kits...Munster Coach, mild custom versions of the '57 Ford, '57 Chevy ). Better still were the Monogram kits...particularly the Black Widow, Green Hornet, Yellow Jacket, Blue Beetle, Red Chariot and the Little T, Lil Coffin...plus the Darryl Starbird creations...Predicta, Futurista. These Monogram kits were somewhat toy like in scale but were lot easier to put together than those Revell kits and looked pretty good on the shelf ). The Little T was in my book the best compromise of scale detail and ease of assembly...a classic that still looks pretty good today. First model contest I ever entered was for a hobby shop in Palatine Illinois back in 1964 at the height of the hot rod custom car craze, my twin bro and I customized our own version of the Little T...shortened the pick up bed, gave it a good stance, painted it a gold metalflake with AMT lacquer. The contrast between the gold body ,engine and chassis with the white interior, top and wide white walls looked pretty sharp...it won us 2nd place junior division. Ah the memories...and the smell of the styrene glue....

 

Yup, models.
$2.50 bought dad a few hours of quiet. I had a record player on the desk where I built mine.
I was building the 1/72 scale Spad and Fokker Dr-1.
I played "Snoopy and the red Baron", too many times.
Dad walked in, took the 45 off, broke it and said something like play something else.
I just started laughing and he did too. Maybe over and over and over was too much after all.
All the car kits were purchased by a booming lawn care business in the neighborhood.

 

The monogram 55 chevy Badman and the orange crate were my first two model cars..

 

I just love all that old box art. That AMT 27 T Touring and XR6 is interesting. The Touring has been reissued many times over the years, but the XR6 was a one and done.