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One of the kits that's driven several generations of modelers insane with its fit, symmetry, and accuracy issues is the AMT '36 Ford roadster, 3-window, and 5-window coupe series. When originally released in 1961 it could be built as a chopped 3-window or, by changing out the cowl door and top section, as a roadster. What AMT conveniently chose to ignore was that the roadsters have significantly shorter doors than the 3W! Nevertheless, if you want a '36 Ford in 1/25th scale, this kit is still the only game in town. And I've always wanted to do a '36 roadster with a chopped top in scale, so ignoring the 20 other projects I've got started, and this week I decided to fix the doors and chop the top on the '36 using bits from a couple junk original issue kits, and yellow and grey parts from a couple later issues. The result looks a little like a crazy quilt at the moment but here it is in mockup stage.
The windshield is chopped three scale inches. The top was chopped by eye by shortening it lengthwise in front of the middle bow while the sail panels were piecut so the rear window could be leaned forward, keeping the stock window height. The side opening was reprofiled to echo the curve of the fenders and rear deck. To keep the flow going along the lower body I made a set of skirts with a curved lower edge that follows the curve of the bottom edge the running board. The lower trailing edge of the rear fenders were modified to follow the same curve.
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’61 Ford Starliner: Obsessing Over Vent Windows!
13 March 2013 - 10:26 AM
One of the things that bugs me about many old annual kits is the out-of-scale and, more often than not, inaccurate shape of the vent windows. It might seem like nit-picking but fixing these issues goes a long way to enhancing the appearance of a model and making a funky old kit look better than it really is.
In the case of a kit where the shape of the opening is right (AMT "old tool '57 Chevy, for example), all that needs to be done is to cut a new window glass out of some clear packaging material, acetate, or styrene that’s has a more correct scale thickness, outline it with a BMF “frame” after removing the ridge the kit maker used to represent the frame for the vent window glass and gluing some sheet styrene inside the opening for the new window fit against. The new window is installed from the outside. In some cases, such as AMT's '59 and '60 T-birds, the shape of the existing frame and opening may need to be corrected with some careful knife and file work. Sometimes it's easier to cut the frame out to reshape it, then reinstall.
In some cases the frame is best replaced entirely. All of AMT’s 3-in-1 annual Ford Galaxie hardtop and convertible kits from ’60 through ’62 (and Mercury, ’61 and ’62) suffer from an inaccurate vent window shape that’s too triangular, too “pointy” at the top, and too thick overall. On the real car, the vent window frame and glass have a small flat section at the top and the rear vent frame and window channel, rather than being vertical, is angled back a bit at the top. Additionally, none of the hardtop kits have any representation of weatherstripping or window channel for the rear quarter window.
On my rebuild of this original ’61 Starliner I decided to make new scratch vent window frames and add some strip styrene to represent weatherstripping and the channel for the rear quarter glass. Using available photo reference and a pattern taken from the model after the old vent window was carefully cut out, a new frame was cut out of some sheet styrene and carved, filled and sanded to shape. The ridge inside the frame was made by cementing thin sheet styrene to the back of the frame and cutting out the opening, leaving the thin ridge for the glass to sit on. The rear vent window channel is a separate piece.
Some refinement is needed, but here’s the driver’s side thus far. I'll try to add more pics of the process when I work on the passenger's side and finish up the driver's side.
SMP '59 "Candy Corvette": A Virgin No More!
03 March 2013 - 03:08 AM
Finished my build of this previously unmolested original '59 issue kit as a sort of tribute to the first version of the '58 that the late, great Larry Watson painted for Lavonne Bathke. This one kinda kicked my butt a few times but I'm happy with the end result.
SMP '59 Corvette 3-in-1 Kit ala Watson, Paint Phase 2!
11 February 2013 - 09:18 AM
I was fortunate to acquire this nice example of AMT's first Corvette kit from a member of our model club for a fair price. Because AMT's '60 kit has been re-issued so many times over the years, the price on first-issues of the '59 and '60 aren't nearly as crazy as those for the other vintage annuals that saw only one issue.
For my purposes, the virtue of the original '59 kit was that it didn't have an engine or opening hood, in addition to being different from all the reissues of the '60 (including the one labeled as a '59) in that it had a correct '59 interior (however crude.)
Here it is mocked up after quite a few hours of mold-line cleanup, fit, and stance adjustment, including moving the left front wheel forward about 1/16" and the right rear wheel back a similar amount! It also takes a lot of work to get the windshield to fit properly in this kit, and like many AMT/SMP kits from '59 and '60, the clear parts suffer from internal stress cracks (so, the windshield may get replaced with some clear sheet before final assembly.)
The little dummy spots are from a '62 Ford kit, and the Lancer caps are from a 1960-vintage AMT kit. The lakes pipes are scratched from styrene rod, strip, and hex rod -- they'll get a coat of Alcad. The paint job will be similar to a '58 Corvette Larry Watson painted for LaVonne Bathke in 1959 or '60 -- candy red, silver insert, with off-white panel outlines. I'll be skipping the red and gold flames Larry did in the coves!
