'55 Chevy Bel Air A/GS -Finished!-

[DynoMight]

Hope it cools down a little so you make way on this! Excited to see this with color on it! Keep it up.

[slusher]

Some excellent work on this kit Niko, your taking this kit to a high level of building...

[Ratrodtommy77]

Should have left it in a dark primer and made a two lane blacktop replica great work mate!

[W-409]

Thanks Peter! It means a lot, you're a very talented builder.

Thank You, Glenn! It was a bit colder yesterday after it started thundering and raining, so it was a good time to sit on a bench. So here's a little update.

Carl... Thanks! This kit needed lots of more work than I originally thought, but I like how it's turning out too. At least it should be better than the one I built from this same kit years ago.

Thomas: Actually I was thinking the same when I sprayed that spray filler on. Well, that's a good reason to buy another '55 Chevy kit and this time it would be the Revell version. It should be fun to build that replica.

Well fellas here's another update for this one. I was working yesterday with the rear end and I made a good progress. Earlier I added a brake line on the rear axle. It was made out of copper wire. Now I built a brake hose (?) that connects to the brake line in the rear axle and to the floor. It is made out of Scale Dreams' spark plug wire and painted with silver. The rear axle is glued on and I installed the Ladder Bars, too. They needed a little modifications, though. From one side the edges were round and good looking, but from another side they were sharp edged. I had to file them a lot to make them round from both sides. Then I removed the chrome plating (Or what was left of it) and painted them silver.

I also added a little black wash to the rear wheel centers. They turned out okay. I also had to add valves on them, so I took some wire from MIG welding machine and painted it silver. I drilled holes to the wheels and glued little pieces of that wire on place. Really simple, but good looking detail.

[1 bad55 stan]

Niko,i just love your work skills.Awesome details all the way.I The fuel tank straps are very cool,them brake lines are ....well sweet,The valve stems work for me as do the rear rims and tires,I do have 1sugestion though,paint the diff housing all black.Those old chevy diffs from 55-64 had a diff head that came out from the front like a ford 9"inch..Not picking at your work, but your detail is so good you may as well do that too!

[W-409]

Thanks so much, Stan for the kind words, and especially thanks for pointing out my mistake! I completely forgot about that, after working with a GM 10 Bolt rear end from a '74 Chevelle. I should have remembered that, as we have a '60 Impala in the garage, too, and it has a rear end like this... Thanks!

So I fixed that problem by painting the rear axle completely black and after that I glued the rear wheels and tires on. I decided to do a little mock up to see if the tires fit nicely in the fender openings, and they did. However, I found another problem... The firewall in this kit consists of two pieces. There is an upper part molded in the body, and lower part is in the interior. As you might guess, the fitment is not so great. So I had to scratchbuild a new firewall. I took some styrene and made a new firewall from two pieces and glued them together. When making the firewall from two separate pieces, I could add the little bend in the middle. I haven't mocked it up yet, as I left it drying yesterday, but I will test fit everything today and see if the firewall fits. It should fit nicely, as I took lots of measurements and used them as a quide, but anyway I can't be completely sure about that.

If it fits nicely, then I need to smooth out the seam in the middle and then I can spray final Primer coat and move on to the paint...

Here is the original firewall from the kit...

And here's my version.

As you probably can see, the firewall is still in rough stages and it will need work before it's smooth and ready for paint.

[Dragfreak]

The stance looks spot on Niko, very period correct!

[1 bad55 stan]

Great work,the firewall will look great when done..

[am73grand]

Looks killer!!!

[bisc63]

Really fun build to watch! I agree with you about building the kit if it interests you, and fixing the flaws as you see fit. I've built this kit before a couple of times, as well as its 57 and 56 hardtop stablemates, and the 57 Nomad also from Monogram. With a little planning and scratch-building, they can make very nice display models. Yours is progressing beautifully!!

[W-409]

Thanks Gents! I really appreciate your kind comments!

Rusty said it really well, I agree completely. These are good kits to build even a fast and simple Box Stock build, because these kits have few parts compared to some of the newer kits. But then with some extra detailing and a little scratchbuilding, these can be turned out into a very sharp models.

Well, I haven't posted an update in a while. It's because I've had absolutely zero time for modeling after the latest update. I've been busy now when the schools started again and also the Finnish Championship Drag Race Series Finals were last weekend. I finished the 6th at Finnish Championship points, BTW.

Anyway today I had a little time and I started smoothing out the firewall with Squadron's White Putty. I would have liked to use a proper two part putty, but it is in the garage and I must go outside to get there. The problem is that it was raining like crazy today, I mean really... That was a very hard rain! So I used this instead. Hopefully I'll have some time to sand it smooth soon.

[W-409]

Well, I still have had very little bench time, and it took me four days to sand the putty and spray a Primer coat over the body. I used flat white Primer, because the another color will be white, which wouldn't probably work with grey Primer. Hopefully there will be no surprises when the paint is dry, because now it looks pretty smooth. Anyway here are a couple of pictures and hope to have it painted soon.

[1 bad55 stan]

That body looks nice now,your prep work has paid off!

[Speedfreak]

That looks great Niko, you say you used 'white' primer? It looks gray. Any how, the body looks very smooth and good detail remains. The panel lines look very 'real' even around the filler cap door, should look great with paint. Nice work.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Speedfreak

[W-409]

That body looks nice now,your prep work has paid off!

Thanks Stan! I highly appreciate it, and I agree that the bodywork is starting to pay off. It looks really smooth now, so I'll let the Primer dry for a couple of days and then I'll do some masking and painting. I can't wait to have some color on it...

That looks great Niko, you say you used 'white' primer? It looks gray. Any how, the body looks very smooth and good detail remains. The panel lines look very 'real' even around the filler cap door, should look great with paint. Nice work.

Thanks Gene! Yep, it's actually white, but it's a very thin coat over grey spray filler, so that it would not hide the details. Especially the rear window chrome trim might get easily covered by paint. That's why it looks like light grey, especially in the photos. I like how the panel lines look, too. I think that's one of the good things (Probably the only good thing actually) in black plastic. Let's see if there is actually need to black wash them when it's painted or not...

[Davewilly]

Very cool...Nice job on the firewall!

[W-409]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate it!

Well I was almost going to throw some paint on it, until I realized that I had forgotten to add that little piece of side chrome trim that separates the Two Tone body colors. Well, I cut those little chrome trims from sheet styrene and glued them on place with Super Glue. After a little putty and sanding, I was able to shoot another light Primer coat on the body today. It looks pretty smooth now, so hopefully if I have time on the weekend, I could paint the first color on the body.

[1 bad55 stan]

All that body work you have done makes a "not so good kit" look great.Nice work Niko!!

[W-409]

Thanks so much, Stan!

Today I had some time to mask the white areas from the body away and paint the blue. The masking isn't that beautiful, but it has always worked. I was painting with Tamiya Sprays and I sprayed a couple of lighter coats and two wet coats of paint. I think it turned out pretty good...

...Until I looked at the body a couple of minutes later. The paint had cracked from everywhere, on some areas it's worse than somewhere else, but it might be just enough so that I can't sand it smooth and repaint. I think I will try to sand it smooth anyway, if I can make it so that I won't sand through the paint, I will try repainting it. But if I go through the paint, my only choice is to throw it into the paint stripper.

[Speedfreak]

Bummer, really bummer. Niko, do you paint outdoors with spray cans?

[W-409]

Well, if it's warm enough and the weather conditions are good overall, I like to paint outside with spray cans. But if the weather isn't that good, I have to paint inside the garage. What comes to the results, I've actually found no difference in painting outdoors VS indoors. I don't know what happened this time, but hopefully it won't happen again with the white!

Luckily, I was able to fix that paint job. I sanded it smooth very carefully and I didn't go through the paint. So today I decided to spray a very thin coat of blue on the body. Just so little that it's single colored and nothing more. Of course it has some orange peel right now, but luckily these Tamiya Sprays seem to smooth out a little while they dry. It's not shiny, but I hope a good clear coat will take care of that.

[CHEVY2MUCH]

did you by any chance get the fenderwell headers built for the grumpys toy 66 nova?

[Daddyfink]

What primer are you using?

[W-409]

did you by any chance get the fenderwell headers built for the grumpys toy 66 nova?

Actually, I've built them already . Only the collectors are missing and I should make them soon, as I know how to make them now. Here's a picture of those headers:

But it's true that I should get back to that Nova really soon.

What primer are you using?

I use grey (or sometimes white, like this time) Primer from Maston. It works really nicely and so far I haven't found a single paint paint color that would get somekind of a reaction with that Primer. I don't know if it's available in the USA, though.

Well I got the tapes removed. Luckily my masking worked and I don't have to remove the blue paint from the white areas. Here is a picture of the body only, and then a couple pics of a mock up with the body on the chassis. I'm going to a local Model Car Show tomorrow, and I'm taking this one with me to the "Primer Table"...

[Greg Myers]

Lookin' good