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Well the adventure has begun. I've taken a 4 year hiatus from model building but the bug has bit again after dusting off my neglected ones recently. My re-entry is a 57 Chevy nomad which I first built as a young kid. I loved that car so much I used to take it everywhere with me. Eventually it met it's end when I left it on the dash of my aunt's car during a hot summer day. Back then I just assembled the kits without paint but was still deeply upset when I found the twisted/warped remains after a day at the zoo. So off to fleabay and I found this opened kit for a good price and pulled the trigger. For the past 20 years I've built primarily tamiya and fujimi kits because they are straight and require little work to get them to piece together correctly. Having started on this nomad I'm reminded how terrible these older kits are in comparison. Some of the injection molding did not take completely and the chrome is awful with satin mottling everywhere as well as excessive flashing. Then there is the molded trim which is uneven and blends into the body at places. Fortunately I've been able to correct most of the body issues but the engine which suffered most from the improper injections is going in the garbage. Instead I've order a resin kit of a 400 small block chevy from BNL resins. I'm also going to try my hand at re-chroming the trim parts with molotow and an airbrush. I've never used that stuff before so this will be an experience that I hope brings satisfactory results. If not I'm going to black out the car so I haven't yet decided what the paint will be yet. I'm also going to try my hand at building leaf springs for the rear suspension using styrene strips and am pulling out the stops for all the other detailing items I typically skip over. This means it will be a slow build. So far I'm happy with the shell after 12 or so hours of filing, sanding and fitting parts. As a kid I recall it was tricky to get all the opening parts to line up so this time I've spent extra time to ensure I get the gaps even. Getting the headlight trim to sit flush has been a challenge. I'm going to have to fill and my 15 year old tube of model putty is no good so back to the hobby store. Going to toss the hood and get a resin high rise with chrome delete instead. This will allow me to toss the hood hinge and fill in the firewall where the hinge openings are currently. Finally I need some wheels. Don't want to go 20" low profile but would like to get something a little more updated. Haven't decided on anything yet so if there are suggestions please let me know your thoughts. Anyways this is the start of what I hope to be my best build yet.