The Parts

Hobby Design makes detail parts for automotive subjects. They offer a wide range of products from metal parts, to resin wheels, and photo etched detail sets for a wide variety of modeling subjects.

Here I review their HD07-0002 0.5mm Rivets. They are all metal and come 40 pieces per pack.

Assembly

It’s pretty straight forward I remove the molded plastic rivets from the part with a #11 blade. Then I used a #80 drill bit in the spot for the rivets to be placed that’s it pretty simple.

Conclusion

I highly recommended these products for anyone who wants to add realism to their models. Hobby Design makes a wide range of rivets to fit into all different application. Thanks to Hobby Design and IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review these excellent products.

In this review, we have the sister kit to Revell’s other Kurtis Kraft Midget racer, the V8-60. The Ford V8-60 Kurtis Kraft model and trailer is reviewed by Jim Stratton elsewhere on the IPMS website. This subject review is the same Kurtis Kraft race car fitted with an Offenhauser 4 slug motor. Jim did a great job telling the history of Frank Kurtis and the racing success of his Kurtis Kraft cars. I will give you a little background on the Offenhauser engine part of the story.

Monogram’s venerable ’58 Thunderbird kit---first released in 1964---has been updated and re-packaged under the “Car Show” banner, meaning it can be built stock or with extra customizing parts in the kit---including a double-bubble clear top of really heroic proportions. Moilded in white plastic, the kit has just a couple of fit issues, but is generally an easy build, and despite its age, can hold its own with today’s releases.

Since I grew up “back in the day” with these classic cars, I opted to build the kit stock. I had some questions with the instructions’ colors for the engine components, so eventually consulted a website for “Squarebird” enthusiasts (www.tbirdranch.com) and though there was a bit of conflicting info there too, I decided to paint mine per the website’s Concours table for ’58 Thunderbirds---Ford light engine blue block with black valve covers. (Great site, by the way.)

Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s Beatnik Bandit was introduced to the automotive public as the May ’61 cover of Car Craft magazine. The second in his series of show cars, it became popular as it toured the custom car show circuit in the early 60’s. In the next years, “Big Daddy” Ed Roth continued to improve the breed of custom show cars with his creations. The “Fiberglass Wonder” is now permanently housed in Reno, Nevada in the National Auto Museum.

This kit was originally released in the 60’s and has been re-released multiple times. In this incarnation, there are 128 parts, some of which are not called for in the instructions. The kit includes a detailed chassis and suspension, with a blown V-8 engine. The bubble top is hinged and the front wheels are positional. Molded in solid white and clear plastic, there are also numerous chrome-plated parts and soft black tires. The decals are for the authentic Ed Roth designed paint scheme.

Monogram’s re-released their 2002 Camaro kit as a two-in-one offering in the “Motor-City Muscle” series, with decals and extra parts for a stock SS or Z28, or optionally, the 35^th Anniversary SS Edition. It’s molded in white plastic, and for the most part is a pretty easy build, though scraping mold lines from parts as well as cleaning up edges and mating surfaces will go a long way to help things fit better.

Planning the build: on my sample, dry-fitting things at the beginning of construction revealed that both the front clip and rear bumper were a little too wide for the body shell, so rather than waiting to attach them until final assembly as the instructions specified, I glued the front to the body shell first and faired it in so the parts matched. I reasoned that I could still assemble all the interior stuff later….turned out I was almost correct (read on).