mr moto

It started when VHT paint came out and you'll notice that many of the early drag cars with white headers also carried VHT sponsorship decals. It came in a number of colors but if you want to draw attention to your product paint the headers bright white!

Holy Moley! That's paintin' it! You say you have a long way to go but I think you did a great job. Nice work.

First, thanks to everybody for the compliments. Feels good to be appreciated! The nerfs (and the side molding) are made from half-round Evergreen styrene. Very simple to do! The side molding is there mainly to emphasize the horizontal for the center section of the body. I've noticed that on a lot of 1:1 sectioned Fords the overhangs look too shallow compared to the center section of the body so I used the molding, the flares and the paint fade to emphasize the horizontal in the center and the vertical at the ends. I do have some WIPs of the build that I can post later. Didn't take as many as I often do, however.

This is the AMT '49 Ford coupe (great kit, I think) sectioned about 3/16". Back in the 50's, the shoebox Fords were probably the most frequently customized cars and definitely the most often sectioned. It turns out to be a lot of trouble - even in 1/25 scale but the low look is worth it. Paint is Duplicolor Metal Cast decanted and shot through a Grex. The grill is from a '57 Chrysler 300C and front turn signals are actually the stock taillights re-purposed. Hope you like!

WOW! That's thinking outside the box. I just love it!

Really excellent work. Did you scratch build the airbox on your Stude R3 or is there a source for that part? It looks very authentic. I built an R3 replica a few years back and scratch built the airbox but mine didn't capture the look of the real thing like yours does. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/111013-1964-studebaker-avanti-r3/

That is excellent work and the most amazing thing is that there actually was a GAZ promo. I never suspected!

Another superb build! I wish Round2 would use the AMT Chrysler 300C tooling to create a De Soto.

Beautiful work as always! As far as the high stance, you are absolutely correct. That's how they looked. Many sports cars of that time were simply "jacked up" by the manufacturers as the easiest way to meet new federal bumper height regs. More sophisticated solutions were left for later re-designs. As I recall, MG's a really bad case of it.

The box art may be BAD but it looks like a Rembrandt compared to kit that was inside!

I call that many levels above "decent". That's beautiful work and I'm looking forward to seeing more in the future!

Beautiful build! You make it look a whole world better than the box art does. Of course, I was really hoping to see the soap box racer.

That's a great build and a great idea that had never occurred to me. Even though we started from totally different sources your statements about the problems of box art building exactly mirror my own experience. I was totally surprised by how many changes were needed to build the box art from what was in the box! Beautiful job!

That's a great looking build! However, as something of a wooden boat geek, I am required to add this bit of trivia: The Robt. E. Lee, the Robert E. Lee, and the R.E. Lee are three separate and different vessels. So it's not correct to say that you've built the Robert E. Lee!

Most early styling prototypes use different styling treatments on each side so that they can be easily compared while keeping the costs own. Sometimes they're even done as a two door on one side and as a four door on the other.

Actually, I agree with you, Sam. There are a number of little issues that I have with it but, hey, it displays pretty good!

That is a really fabulous build for 1959 and it still looks good today!

No illusion there! The car actually had a cutaway panel!

I totally agree! Nothing against wire wheels but those wires on that car just don't look right. Now that's a very sharp and much improved model.

Nice, nice!

The Hydro Hawk is a combination of the AMT 1959 vintage speedboat kit and a Jimmy Flintstone '51 Stude resin body. It helps that I know a little bit about boatbuilding and was able to plank up the transition from one to the other pretty much like you might do in 1:1.

Thanks, everybody, and I'll try to answer the questions without actually quoting them. First, I plan to hang on to the up top for possible future use. The taillights are the customizing parts from a '53 Studebaker kit just laid down horizontally. And as Spex84 said, the rear passengers would use the steps and grab handles to just climb right in. It's kind of a rumble seat arrangement.

Based on the recent Round 2 release '50 Ford convertible. It was conceived as a tow vehicle for the "Hydro Hawk" boat that I built a while back. Engine is the stock flathead with the 2 carb manifold from the kit.

I just picked up a Surf Woody at Hobby Lobby for $7.50. I had no interest at all in the actual car and bought it because it's such a treasure chest of parts like the tube chassis, Paxton superchargers, and some very cool double stripe white wall tires. Definitely pick one up if you see it on clearance.

The Berkeley kits are an interesting bit of history but they had carved balsa bodies and that wasn't unique. It was really the "state of the art" before molded plastic came along. On the AMT '58 Edsel box, note that while the other kits are identified as "Ford Fairlane", "Pontiac Bonneville", etc. the Edsel just says Edsel and the kit itself doesn't have a model name script on the front fender. 1958 was Edsel's first year in existence and I'll bet that the kits were tooled up before FoMoCo marketing settled on all the model names. It appears to be a Pacer, I think.