57 Chev Stump Buster

[Misha]

Having stalled on my current WIPs of the Tall T Coupe for the BOYD build, and the somewhat current build thread of the Corvair exhibition car, I decided to start anew with the Revell 57 Belair snap kit. Having read on the forum that the body had very accurate proportions was a major factor for choosing this snapper. I was pleasantly surprised by the level of detail such as the separate interior door panels and the in the one piece chassis. The one major complaint throughout the early massaging of the body has been a misalignment of the dies in the molding of the driver side of the  body. Perhaps it was just my example, yet the work required on the driver’s side was extensive to achieve a smooth transition to  the body panels. 

I haven’t been able to build a kit SOB for many decades now, and this has proved to be the case again; so much for the idea of a straight forward cub-side build! With the wide expanse of the two door hardtop interior it was difficult to ignore the detail that was missing. Following the great examples of Steven G.’s work, I detailed the interior roof by adding the extensive chrome trim around the side window trim to provide the prototypical window moldings into which the trimmed kit glass will fit. I then added the headliner bows.

 

Upon considering what the final colour combination would be I settled upon a solid, deeper red for the exterior with a black vinyl roof, a seldom seen addition to a 57 Chev. Following the forum discussion on vinyl roof execution I laid down two strips of Evergreen strips following chartpack guides and sanded the sharp edges off the interior side of the strips to represent the folded trim edges of the centre vinyl portion. While subtle it does offer a much better representation of the prototype. 

The body was further massaged in preparation for the initial grey primer to cover the black and red plastic of the interior. The chassis received a base coat of Tamiya semi gloss black.

After wet sanding the body with 4,000 grit and correcting some of the inaccuracies with Valejo plastic putty the body was ready to receive the Tamiya red primer undercoat. This revealed the remaining areas requiring further attention, especially the front fender eyebrows. Before laying another primer layer I masked the side spear with Tamiya tape to preserve the detail for the metallic finish. 

 

Happy with the progress I masked the roof in preparation for the body colour finish. With two coats of TS 8 Italian Red the body was ready, waiting for the vinyl roof and chrome to be applied.

While the paint finished drying I moved on to the interior and chassis painting. Once primed the interior received a coat of Vallejo Red with the instrument panel and upper door edges receiving the body colour. The contrasting colour will be black. The chassis was primed in semi gloss black and the certain details have been picked out with Vallejo metallic applied by brush. The next step was to mask the chassis with Silly Putty for the metallic finish to be airbrushed.

 

This has been a interesting build as I have moved along at a brisk pace without too much extras being added to the basic kit. A real plus is the quality designed into the kit. The molding is sharp, there is excellent detail provided and fit is very good; overall a big improvement in recent snap kits.

Cheers Misha

 

Edited December 17, 2020 by Misha
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[cobraman]

Looking sharp.

[TransAmMike]

I'm glad someone is doing a detailed WIP on this kit. Very interesting Misha.  I'm sure a some folks frown on snap kits and it's good to see you doing this one. I have looked at this kit (being a big 57 Chevy fan) and wondered about it. Will make for a pretty quick build but can be made to look darn good.  I'll be watching.

[Nacho Z]

1 hour ago, TransAmMike said:

I'm glad someone is doing a detailed WIP on this kit. Very interesting Misha.  I'm sure a some folks frown on snap kits and it's good to see you doing this one. I have looked at this kit (being a big 57 Chevy fan) and wondered about it. Will make for a pretty quick build but can be made to look darn good.  I'll be watching.

She is looking great so far, Misha!  Love that work on the headliner....wow!  I quoted Mike in this reply so that you both would see it.  I built this kit about a year ago and posted a WIP thread and an Under Glass thread.  The WIP was in Nov. 2019.  Misha, you may have noticed that the rear bumper extends past the rear quarters.  I bought a second kit, (I cracked the glass in my first one), and I found that both bodies have too much curl in the rear.  I ended up spreading out the bottom of the rear quarters so that they would sit flush with the ends of the bumpers.  I hope that made sense.  I used the tag "Snaptite Max" if you want to see what I did.

[TransAmMike]

John "NatchoZ".  I searched and can't find your thread. Definately want to see it.  I see that the spears on the hood are moulded in. Those might be a bit of a challenge to look good.

[Nacho Z]

Misha, I hope it is OK with you to link the threads I mentioned. I do not mean to hijack your thread. I wasn’t paying attention and actually thought it was you requesting this.

Hope this works.  Not sure why I’m seeing Mr. Burns from the Simpsons...lol.

Edited December 18, 2020 by Nacho Z
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[89AKurt]

9 hours ago, Misha said:

[...]
Having stalled on my current WIPs [...]

I haven’t been able to build a kit SOB for many decades now, and this has proved to be the case again; so much for the idea of a straight forward cub-side build! 

[...]

You suffering from that too at the moment?  ?

I owned this last century, so of course will watch with interest what you are building.  I didn't know about the strips on the roof being an option.

[Misha]

Thanks everyone for the good & informative comments!
 

15 hours ago, Nacho Z said:

Misha, I hope it is OK with you to link the threads I mentioned. I do not mean to hijack your thread. I wasn’t paying attention and actually thought it was you requesting this.

That’s not a problem at all John, it makes the threads much more informative. I especially enjoyed seeing your interior colour combo and use of the P/E, great work. The final two tone is very striking. I checked this morning the fit of the rear bumper and the fender and it doesn’t look as extreme as hours. We are both using the same recent issue of this 20 year old kit. Wonder how wide spread (pardon the pun) this problem may be?

19 hours ago, TransAmMike said:

I'm glad someone is doing a detailed WIP on this kit. Very interesting Misha.  I'm sure a some folks frown on snap kits and it's good to see you doing this one. I have looked at this kit (being a big 57 Chevy fan) and wondered about it. Will make for a pretty quick build but can be made to look darn good.  I'll be watching.

I’d encourage you to add this version to your collection, it’s an enjoyable build overall. It looks like I’ll have three builds for this year, with two of them being curbsides. The second one is the old Monogram Scarab racer from the early sixties.

 

Thanks Ray and Kurt for following along. I’m missing not being down there with the Sunshine, up here it remains warm wet and overcast right through the holidays.

The story goes that Fred, a Korea vet, bought the heavily optioned Belair brand new and now fourteen years later he decided to spruce up his ride with new paint, wheels and to make it more unique, add a vinyl roof! So that is how it originated. The model will be  presented as it was in 1971. 
 

I air brushed the Vallejo shades of steel and aluminum  onto the exhaust pipes and mufflers followed by an application of Tamiya weathering pastels and X23 Clear Blue for the heat marks. Having removed the masking, the shocks and front suspension will receive additional paint details. To replace the kit wheels I decided on the stock Chevy wheels from the R/M 67 Vette coupe and further detailed them with aluminium tone on the steel portion of the wheel and hitting the dustcaps with the Clear Blue.I air brushed the Vallejo shades of steel and aluminum  onto the exhaust pipes and mufflers followed by an application of Tamiya weathering pastels and X23 Clear Blue for the heat marks. Having removed the masking, the shocks and front suspension will receive additional paint details. To replace the kit wheels I decided on the stock Chevy wheels from the R/M 67 Vette coupe and further detailed them with aluminium tone on the steel portion of the wheel and hitting the dustcaps with the Clear Blue.

Thanks again for following and checking the updates. Looking forward to your replies... Cheers Misha

Edited December 18, 2020 by Misha
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[Nacho Z]

Nice job on the chassis! I admire the amount of work that you put into it. It really paid off.

[AMT68]

Looks like you used some type of styrene strips for the headliners bows. Very interesting and something I would look tp apply to a future build. 

[TransAmMike]

Just thought I'd post a picture of the stainless headliner bows on a '57 Bel Air (also have them on Nomads) for anyone interested.

[misterNNL]

I was a little confused when I first started reading this thread. The title reads Stump Buster so I sort of expected to see a '57 with some kind of a huge diesel engine and giant tires ready to pull tree stumps out by the roots. Finally realized this is Slump Buster built to help pull you out of a slump. Silly me!

[Misha]

2 hours ago, misterNNL said:

I was a little confused when I first started reading this thread. The title reads Stump Buster so I sort of expected to see a '57 with some kind of a huge diesel engine and giant tires ready to pull tree stumps out by the roots. Finally realized this is Slump Buster built to help pull you out of a slump. Silly me!

? thanx Tom, that’s the word I was searching for, consider me un-stumped now. Thanks for looking, Cheers Misha

[Misha]

Over the past month I’ve been able to get back to the bench a few times as I race to  New Year’s so I can include this build for a total of three!

On 12/18/2020 at 3:04 PM, TransAmMike said:

Just thought I'd post a picture of the stainless headliner bows on a '57 Bel Air (also have them on Nomads) for anyone interested.

Thanks for the photo of the chrome bows Mike as I haven’t come across them before. Going to see how much work is involved in getting the window surrounds done in foil before attempting  the bows.

Chassis and interior work has moved alongside getting the vinyl top completed. The chassis is now complete with final painting and weathering with various washes and pastels and dry-brushing. The running gear is updated with front discs and stock 67 Vette wheels on all four corners. The chassis represents roughly fourteen years of careful use and maintenance.

The interior contains a lot of detail, along with a few needed ones such as shift and signal levers and a parking brake handle under the dash, left of the column. I’m getting closer to completion, still requiring finer detail painting and chrome! Going to use the kit decals for the seat inserts. Plus will be adding embossing powder to the carpets and rear deck.

The vinyl top came out quite well for my expectations. After having read a number of discussions on the forum I decided on using the total paint technique. I airbrushed Tamiya semi-gloss black at a lower pressure, roughly 18 psi for the first coat to provide the pebbly texture onto grey primer. PThe second coat was applied at normal pressure to unify and soften the first application. While being somewhat shinier than usual, it is a custom top and it gets Armour All regularly...

The only stumbling block I encountered was getting my chosen wheel & tire combination mounted onto the chassis. It required a few tries to get everything to fit, yet so far, so good. Closer to final assembly.

Major work lies ahead with foil and metallics to finish her off. Good measure of detail paint as well, better get to it.

Thanks for checking in, Happy  New Year!

Cheers Misha

[TransAmMike]

Looking good Misha, kinda odd tho with that "vinyl" top.  Certainly will look great after trim work. I have found that the BMF work under the drip rails and the side vent window are the trickiest, but thats probably just me because I'm still a WIP on foiling.

[Danno]

Very nice, Misha!!

Glad you busted your stump. ?

??

Edited December 28, 2020 by Danno

[89AKurt]

I'm still stumped about a vinyl roof on a Tri-Cheby.  ?

[Misha]

Thanks everyone for you looks and comments. I’m not surprised by the overall reaction to the top, I admit never having seen it done. That in itself made it interesting. The story line behind this Belair... 

Fred, a Korean Vet, bought the top of the line Chevy, complete with F.I. brand new. Now, after 12 hears it was showing its age, it was time for an update! The front end received discs with new Vette wheels all the way around. Interior was refurbished with the original scheme, and the original paint was redone. Now Fred wanted to complete the Cruiser in DeLuxe style. The roof was separated from the body with heavy chrome trim making the roof an expanse of its own. To compliment a ragtop look Fred decided to install a vinyl top, a new trend just developing. Now, in 1969 he had refurbished his ride with a modern look.

Cheers Misha

[espo]

I have enjoyed watching your progress on this. You "story" helps with the reason for the vinyl roof. While this was a style treatment that was popular at the time, most of the 1:1 were done on the cheep with spray paint only. They would use almost the exact method you did here on the 1:1 car and they used some kind of tape to represent the stitching running the length of the roof before the color coat was sprayed on. 

[geemoney]

On 12/18/2020 at 6:08 PM, misterNNL said:

I was a little confused when I first started reading this thread. The title reads Stump Buster so I sort of expected to see a '57 with some kind of a huge diesel engine and giant tires ready to pull tree stumps out by the roots. Finally realized this is Slump Buster built to help pull you out of a slump. Silly me!

i thought the SAME thing!

[Misha]

Happy New Year everyone!

I had hoped to get this one done before year end... It will be my first completion for 2021! 

Have the major part of the body colours done with the exception of the dulled aluminium fin inserts that will require masking the rest of the body again, as I’d like to use the Vallejo metallic finishes. After that, major chrome work using a combo of BMF, Vallejo and Molotow pens. The interior is closer to completion with the install of the column shifter and signal lever, along with the wheel to complete the dash. I completed the chrome spears with BMF, leaving the window cranks, door handles and ashtrays (remember those...) to be brush detailed with metallics. The last tasks are to apply the kit supplied seat insert decals and embossing powder for the carpet and rear deck. The chassis is also near completion, awaiting the final install of the rolling stock. Keep forgetting to fix the oil pan drain plug... 

 

The front end chrome is nearly there, having finished the rear with the red lenses, aluminum faux exhaust pots, and blacked out relief in the bottom. The front still requires lenses on the signal lights, already having the yellow applied to it. The Chev emblem has also been detailed with gel  pens. The headlights still require a Molotow touch up on the sprue attachment points.   

Going to call it a .75 completion for 2020... 

Cheers Misha

[doorsovdoon]

Looking good. Snap kits aren't given the credit they deserve. They may lack an engine but they can look just as good as a regular kit, easier to build too.