Rambler Ambassador Station Wagon

[peter taft]

That's a nice looking vehicle ! great design and build.

[Vermin_King]

I noticed some more requests, but my old request for an International Scout still stands.

This model really does the car justice. With all the 'retro' cars being built these days, it is a wonder that no company is doing a 50's retro. I guess the Thunderbird a few years back didn't go over very well ...

[Fishcarver]

Nice model!! Reminds me of my "Beaver Cleaver" youth.....

JR

[papercruiser]

Originally Posted by Don Boose

I had not checked your site when I made my post, Jesse. We have very happy memories of that red Toyota Landcruiser with a white top, front bumper winch, air conditioning by way of a roof hatch taken from a Seoul bus, and a rear rack that held three jerry cans. For three years, we drove all over the back roads of Korea in that vehicle, which we had named "Matilda" (as in waltzing). Our Korean friends called it the sobangja (fire truck) and our youngest two children can tell you stories about the long trips we took.

The coincidence of you designing models of both the 1959 Rambler Ambassador and the Toyota Land Cruiser is cosmic. At your web site, my Matilda is the one on the left.

Don

Don,
That's great, it was an FJ 40 I'm guessing, it's still a popular classic!

[Cami]

Originally Posted by Vermin_King

I noticed some more requests, but my old request for an International Scout still stands.

This model really does the car justice. With all the 'retro' cars being built these days, it is a wonder that no company is doing a 50's retro. I guess the Thunderbird a few years back didn't go over very well ...

We should ask Roman Vasiliev about the Thunderbird, but from what I see here, the big things in paper modeling seem to be planes and ships. Those are subjects that may be hard to find in plastic kit or die-cast form at an affordable price I think. Could that explain why they are so popular in paper model form?

On the other hand, plastic kits and die-casts of cars are available in a wide variety of scales, models and prices. You can virtually find any model you want. Of course the fun of paper modeling is to build the thing, but Revell-Monogram and AMT-ERTL already offer many interesting and realistic subjects for the handy people. Paper kits may end up as an interesting alternative to the raising cost of plastic kits, but only if the offer is there and hobbyists know about it. Papercraft seems to be far more popular in Europe, Asia and South America than it is here in North America though. Fortunately, this Ambassador (that has probably never been considered by the plastic kit makers since the promo era) is a reason to hope for american car fans. Keep doing what you do Papercruise!

Cami

[Don Boose]

The coincidences in this thread continuing to catch my attention. The Vermin King mentions the International Harvester Scout. That the third in the trilogy of Boosemobiles in which my family explored Korea between 1974 and 1978. When I arrived at the Foreign Area Officer Detachment at the Embassy in Seoul in 1974, the "squadron hack" was a black Chevy sedan. After the second time I brought it back with the muffler scraped off and the shocks damaged, we persuaded the powers that be to trade it to Eighth Army for a four-wheel-drive, high wheelbase vehicle. The Chevy was swapped for an IH Scout, the maiden voyage of which was a 2 1/2 week circumnavigation of South Korea during which we had many adventures. As I recall, dansls1, was keen on IH Scouts, too.

Don

[ARMORMAN]

Love it.

[rockpaperscissor]

Beautiful looking model. I'm glad to hear you are thinking of doing a version with 3D tires. I think they make for a more realistic model, even when they are just a half circle on the inner side, the width of the visible tread makes a huge difference in the overall appearance of the model. Great job!

[Vermin_King]

I have scanned in various treads from models I have made in the past. When I find a model I like that has 2d tires, I just go to the file, pick a tread that looks right and print it off. Since I did not do any of the texturing on any of those, I shouldn't share the file, but maybe the idea of a tire tread file will find favor with some of those who read this.

[Don Boose]

This is such an appealing model that I definitely intend to build one and plan to roll simple cylinders with disks on the back to give dimension to the tires. I was planning to just use plain black for the treads, but I like the Vermin King's idea of a Tread Library.

papercruise: I presume Matilda was some variation on the FJ40. That's what it looked like and the time frame is right (it was old when I bought it in 1975). It had a short wheel base and a four-cylinder gasoline engine that ran like a top after I had the blown head gasket repaired (there is a story there that involves coasting down Namsan, the prominent hill that overlooks Seoul, from the United Nations Command Mess in the company of a PPCLI Canadian friend, the oldest major in NATO, and an Air Force buddy, a former Air Commando who as an eight-year-old, on 26 June 1950 after the North Korean attack, had been evacuated from Korea with his mother on board the Norwegian fertilizer ship Reinholte while F-82G Twin Mustangs of the 68th Fighter All Weather Squadron - model available from GreMir - provided overhead cover, but I digress).

And if you ever produce a two-toned gray (maybe originally gray and white) Rambler Ambassador sedan, I would like to have one.

Don