Visitors entering the front door of the Museum are immediately greeted with a display case on the left displaying vintage models built by John Estlow, and cabinets on the right which display many GSL Best of Show and Master Award winners. Adjacent display cases on the right exhibit the Chevelle Project, models from the Fisher Body Craftsman Guild. Across from the cabinet is the incredible “Mercury in TV” masterpiece built by John Estlow. Just beyond view is the extreme left side of the Oakland Roadster Show diorama, now nearly 30 years old, built by Ken Hamilton and populated by models from three countries including Australia.
The wall on the left is festooned with event plaques, rare images and model car printed ephemera.
The Museum has been fortunate to gather some of the most significant artifacts of the Revell-Pactra and Revell-Testor national contests from 1963-66. Seen here is Augie Hiscano’s top winning roadster from the second Revell-Pactra contest together with several of his specially-awarded models. The Hiscano model sits in the special, original bubble display case that Revell created, as does Richard Mike Johnson’s first Revell-Pactra winning top model – the custom T-bird. There’s also a book underway about these contests.
We also have the incredible, entire surviving collection of 1/4-scale Chevy 285 V8 master parts that comprised the presentation proposal to General Motors fielded by Revell in the late Fifties. These parts are literally all of the parts found in the famed GM small block motor – it’s incredible. We also have two fully-built models from an extremely limited run of styrene parts of the engine. General Motors turned down Revell’s proposal, sadly, and we have the ONLY artifacts on earth of that almost unknown project.
Against one wall in the main room, there are four different display cabinets that emerge from the wall, each featuring a different style of model. In this featured case, vintage and very historic hot rod/street rod models are on display; other cases display famous custom models, competition vehicle, and factory stock models. . Between the cabinets we have placed a complete array of Revell, AMT, Monte and Aurora vintage parts packs that historic builders could purchase from their favorite hobby shop.
The Museum also displays scale dioramas from the history of the hobby. Seen most prominently here is the humorous Riviera/What Should Have Perished in Our Hobby diorama by Ken Hamilton (diorama) and Mark S. Gustavson (restyled ‘67 Riviera). Leaping from the grave, the Riv’s internment cavern is flanked by gravestones that declare things or event that have died in the hobby – or should have! Ken and Mark got in a bit of trouble for this diorama!
In the main room, visitors can hope to take in all of the incredible details of Ken Hamilton’s historic and famed Oakland Roadster Show Diorama that debutted at GSL. The entire 1:25-scale diorama was built from original architectural drawings. Ken spent hundreds of hours building this diorama as did scale vehicle builders from 13 states and 2 foreign countries (Canada and Australia). Miniature lights, lighted display color wheels and other functional detail adorn this most remarkable diorama – a real tribute to Hamilton’s genius!
In one large display case, we have one of the hobby’s greatest examples of 1/25 scale scratch building,. Before his untimely passing, master builder Bob Peeples scratch built parts to build two vintage Cobra roadsters and a Dayton Coupe, all circa 1964. Bob fashioned nearly 200 parts to build what undoubtedly would have been authentic miniatures unmatched by any other builder in this scale. The triumvirate display set up was designed and built by Dan Barker whose efforts were pivotal in securing these great examples of unfinished craftsmanship for the Museum. These models will remain unfinished as a tribute to Peeples