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1/16 Hudson Miniatures
 1910 International Harvester Passenger Car VG++ Wood_Plastic old | ||
| Very well detailed large 1/16 kit from 1949. Features plastic wheels, grill, headlamps, spotlight, running lights and other accessories and wooden main parts. Although all of Hudson's 1/16 kits have excellent detail, this one has even more detail than usual thanks to Hudson's engineers having access to the actual car owned by Mr. James Melton. This kit has never been started. It is either still in the internally sealed factory bag or has been inventoried 100% complete with all parts and instructions. As a note, few people even knew that International Harvester even made a passenger car. Not many were produced and very, very few are in existence. Jim Melton's car, the car examined by Hudson engineers, was likely given to him as a promotion as he was a popular opera singer and the star of International Harvester's radio show 'Harvest of the Stars'. The car was very solidly built to last and reportedly gave excellent service. Why IH did not pursue production is not known. Hudson Miniatures created a very successful and popular line of automobile kits in a constant 1/16 scale shortly after WWII. The kits sold very well until the appearance of the much smaller and less scale Gowland/Revell 'Highway Pioneers' in 1951. When the all-injection molded Gowland kits proved that they were not a passing fad, Hudson quickly planned and released his own small scale competition for them called 'Lil' Old Timers Quickie Kits'. The kits were of excellent quality, but it was too little too late. Sales of wooden kits faltered in the next few years with the introduction of all-plastic injection molded cars in the mid 1950s. This forced Hudson to discontinue both lines. Today, these excellent kits are often the only model available of these early automobiles. | |||
