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Here is a full write-up on my most recent build. https://notboxstock.info/kustom-creeper/

So the last thing I need is yet another WIP Thread... or Project.... but this one hit me as something I had to attempt. The Web/Internet theme for the 2020 NNL east is this newly re-issued 63 impala kit, this kit has the "advanced custom parts" and asymmetrical front and rear treatments. Upon seeing these currently and in past reissues, I have heard myself and others go "ewe, well there are parts no one will ever use" .. well... I decided to challenge myself to make something out of this for NNL East. My first though was an offset cab surf board hauler.. but then when I cut the roof off and set it back on in a Cab-Forward layout... something clicked... ShowRod Hauler! What if Ed Roth was given a 1963 Impala to customize as he wished to haul his various vehicles to shows... Maybe even keep the surf theme and toss a couple Surfites on there... Im not sure yet...but the ideas are flowing. Here is the current progress, A couple days into the fun... Front and rear treatments installed... roof removed... I shifted the asymmetrical portion of the grill/hood over approximately 1/4" to match the rear treatment.... it bothered me it wasnt the same. Then onto the roof.... removed 1-1/8" from the roof, reassembled and re-installed.

MY wife got me this for Christmas (good wife!!): Make a little start on it this week - tidying up some parts for primer, and so on. Started with the engine, as is tradition: Modified the intakes a tiny bit to make room for a resin distributor mount from RMCoM: Assembled the chassis (which wasn't a huge job seeing as this step is only two pieces ) And re-made the floor part because the kit one had some HUGE ejector pin marks in it...it was easier just to cut another one out of some styrene sheet: Anyone built one of these? Anything to watch out for? More soon!

The Coffin Corner showrod board is having a group build for the recently-reissued Rommel's Rod kit, whereby you have to build a modified version of the kit. I had an idea in mind, and after I finished restoring an original a few weeks ago I was eager to get started on this second version. First up, hacking up the body. A LOT All I'll actually be using from the stock body is the cowl, but I wanted to use the remaining pieces to mock up what I had in my head before making it again from scratch. I'm thinking something like this: Not pretty, but enough to get me started with mocking stuff up anyway...my idea is to keep the long wheelbase of the original, but to have a stretched out front and that little tub body on the back, like so: I wanted to add some detail to the engine, but the kit block has most of that stuff molded in, so I scratchbuilt a new one from styrene sheet, along with a new oil pan: I picked out some wheels and tires so that I could start to make frame, and separated the kit trans so I could use that with my new block: I wanted to use the kit front wheels, but modify them to be skinny little drag style wheels, so I needed some tires: Found this pack of o-rings at the Chinese 99 cent store, which should work great! Then, I used my hacked-together body to make a tape template, which I transferred to brass: Bent it to shape over some round bar to get nice rounded corners: And then attached it to the kit cowl (which I wasn't about to attempt re-making with my limited brass-working skills): And that's about where we're at right now...more soon!

I got this gift for my birthday from my Mother In Law back in the summer, and I've been thinking I wanted to tackle a (mostly) box stock showrod build for a while...so here goes! I'm going for a straight replica of the box art - I think it'll look great with the miniature display box that comes with this kit: This is really nicely done kit, for the most part - a huge sheet of decals, the miniature box, an AMT toolbox sticker and 4 (!) sets of glass in various colors First up, was ordering some supplies, so I got some Tamiya rattle can black for the 'body' and chassis, and spent some time looking for a yellow/gold candy that would match the box art nicely. I think I found it!! First up, gluing the engine halves and prepping the engine parts You can't see the engine in the box top art, but it's on the side of the box so I'm going to replicate that. Candy yellow block with plenty of chrome. Whilst I'm working on the yellow parts I figured I'd prep all of them and paint them all in one go - especially as they're going to be a multi-coat process. Next up was the pontoons - I smoothed out some little imperfections with some putty, and added some thin styrene strips to help locate them good and square One of the pontoons has a little red and white flag on, and the other a chromed speargun. Fun thing to note - the instructions show them reversed, not that it makes any difference to the build. The flag has a locating hole, but the speargun doesn't, so I drilled some holes in the back of the gun, carefully so as to not mark the chrome on the top, mounted pins, and made a couple of holes in the pontoon to help locate it when it's done. Excuse the wonky pin - it moved when I was photographing it as the glue was still drying. Next up, the rear aqualungs. I clamped them together overnight to dry, smoothed them out and primed to check them. Then, I assembled the regulator valve and some of the pipework The headlamps have some little shark fins to attach to the top of them. I was trying to think of a decent way to be able to keep the parts separate so I can paint the lamps black and the fins yellow like the box art easily...but they're too small to pin really and there's no holes or pegs or anything to locate them so I decided to glue them now and mask later. A harder painting job, but it'll look better in the end With them done, I glued up the 'body' and used a bunch of rubber bands to keep it in place overnight. As this will be gloss black, I really want to make sure that seam doesn't show so I'm going to prep this part carefully Whilst I was looking at the body, I came up with the idea of having a little working interior light in thereto illuminate it - kinda like a fish tank has! There's not much interior detail, but I figured it could be a cool detail to have the windows glow a little. I spent some time researching LED lighting kits for trains, dolls houses and stuff like that but couldn't find anything cheap enough or small enough. Then, I was getting off the train the other day and walking past a local grocery store and they had some little 50 cent light up keychains. Perfect! That little light, in the bottom of the pic, will work perfect! Small enough that I can hide it in the 'lid' of the body, but bright enough that it'll look cool and I can mount it in there with some poster tack or similar so that I keep this thing basically box stock. And a quick test...excuse the blurry photo... Perfect! You can see a little filler showing through the body here - there were some sink marks that I cleaned up in there before gluing it. Whilst I was messing with the interior, I decided to mock up the floor (which incorporates a seat and the pedals) with the periscope that also acts as steering in this design. The fit of the periscope to the floor wasn't great - really sloppy...so I found some plastic rod that gave a nice snug fit, drilled out the floor and inserted a short length of bar in there Worked perfect! Now it fits without even needing any glue, although it'll get a tiny drop when it's assembled anyway. So, with most of the candy yellow parts prepped and test fitted I'm just racking them all up ready for primer, then silver, then candy yellow Need to wait for the snow to clear here though, its way too cold to do any painting at the moment. Plus, I ran out of room on my turntable pretty quickly, so I need to find something else to mount them on. More soon though!

Hey I have had this fun little project in the past few days. this 1969 showrod kit went together very nice. the plans was missing so I built it from pictures not really a problem with this one. but I also had my first encounter with Waterslide decals on this kit. but I was really surprised how good that turned out. only struggled with the one inside the sink. but they where also 48 years old but they still went on straight (and no silvering ) i did break the Horn so had to leave it out . i then wired up the engine and added a distributor , it also has custom wheels ill explain them further down. The Rims and Tires. i want to use the originals for another project , so i had to make / get some replacements . the front pizza cutter wheels are from a old Meccano Engineer set. And the rear Slicks are Actually 6 wheels put together . 2x 1:32 scale Siku diecast Terra style Rear tractor Tires. with the thread grinded off with a dremmel and then sanded with sandpaper . and inside those (for rims) i have 2 metal wheels with rubber tires (from yet another engineers set) in each side . this was my second build and i enjoyed the time with it over a couple of days it turned out pretty good. its a wacky thing for sure ..

I have always been enamored with the 60's Showcars... So I thought I would give it a shot. Using the Kosmik Outcast as partial inspiration.... thinking something like this, but with fenders. Im gonna buzz threw what I have been up to the last month so i can start giving you guys regular updates here is the start: Using a 1962 Thunderbird, Lil Coffin and (2) 1950 F-1 kits as donors. Rough Mockup added about 1/2" of width to the fenders, T-Bird bed and smoothed firewall: Body to bed attachment: Sculpted upper door: Roughing in the 51 Style grille opening and chopping the top: Stressfull removal of bulkhead: