# Back in the day



## mr-replica (Sep 25, 2011)

When I was very young, my older brothers and I looked forward to getting Auto World catalogs in the mail. Although there were lots of stores in our area that sold plastic kits, none had the accessories to customize that Auto World had back then, or the vast selection of kits either. 

It was a great time for our hobby, and we used to do odd jobs to save up enough money to send orders for plastic kits and supplies. Cutting grass, shoveling snow, you name it, we did it. And, gathering up discarded glass soda bottles as well, worth 2 cents each.


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## mr-replica (Sep 25, 2011)

remember


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## spock62 (Aug 13, 2003)

Ah, Pactra paints, I remember them well. Pretty much all I used back in the 70's thru 80's. I was ecstatic when they released dedicated military colors.


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## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

ah yes, Auto World and Pactra paints. brings back memories for sure.
when I began to drive, I would drive up to Scranton (about 2 hours) to shop there in person.
Oscar Koveleski was often there.
did you know they sold hop up parts for 1:1 imported cars too?


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

mr-replica said:


> remember


My Mom or Aunt must of bought this paint set for me. I dont remember the brand name, but do remember the bottle shape. May even have a few left....


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

That's right - I remember they sold 1:1 parts. I had an MGA in 1969 -72 and remember looking at those hop-up parts and dreaming.................


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## scooke123 (Apr 11, 2008)

I went through a lot of those Pactra paint sets in the day. Loved it when they started selling the military flat colors.


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## mr-replica (Sep 25, 2011)

alpink said:


> ah yes, Auto World and Pactra paints. brings back memories for sure.
> when I began to drive, I would drive up to Scranton (about 2 hours) to shop there in person.
> Oscar Koveleski was often there.
> did you know they sold hop up parts for 1:1 imported cars too?




Yes, I remember Oscar Koveleski, he was also a race car driver as well. His father actually manufactured some primitive kits called old timers, the beginning of Auto World really.


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## mr-replica (Sep 25, 2011)

scooke123 said:


> I went through a lot of those Pactra paint sets in the day. Loved it when they started selling the military flat colors.





Those were great when we kids built tanks and stuff. My experience with model paints was that Testors was usually superior in some aspects though. Pactra paints were sometimes too thin, and didn't cover with one coat, so in the end, that made them more expensive than Testors thicker paint which did cover in one coat. 

Of course, the thicker Testors paints could prove problematic because they could get sticky and not flow as well into cracks and crevices. When it came to spray paints, I did prefer Testors usually, more pigments in the can meant one can could paint more models. I'm not dissing Pactra, but their glue wasn't the best really. Testors was and is. 

I also recall that Pactra was in plastic bottles while Testors used heavy glass bottles for brush paint. That was very important to me because a Pactra light weight bottle would tip over and spill so easily while the heavy Testors bottle did not. I've never understood why Pactra and Testors paints did cost the same, surely those glass bottles and thicker paint that Testors had (and still does) cost more to produce.


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## StarCruiser (Sep 28, 1999)

Pactra bottles were plastic and had 1/3 ounce of paint while Testors were glass and as such, had 1/4 ounce...

I guess the difference in the cost of the bottle was offset by the cost of the paint?!?


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## mr-replica (Sep 25, 2011)

StarCruiser said:


> Pactra bottles were plastic and had 1/3 ounce of paint while Testors were glass and as such, had 1/4 ounce...
> 
> I guess the difference in the cost of the bottle was offset by the cost of the paint?!?





Actually, that is not correct. Pactra bottles did not have more paint than Testors bottles did. I still have some very old Pactra bottles, long dried out of course, but they say 1/4 ounce on them.


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