blunc

I like this, it's outrageous and over the top! It's kinda like an SS version of the Batmobile.

it looks to me like it may have started life as a sedan delivery kit.

2 days ago I saw a set of BRM 1/32 scale PE wire wheels with tires go for $81....you can buy them new for $25

Mr. Anderson, you are a treasure trove of information. I hope you live at least as long as I do.

nice build on a very basic kit. If you feel like putting an engine in it Lindberg makes a ZR1 Vette that has a decent engine for 1/32 scale.

what if he just glued a piece of hair down instead of trying to paint a pinstripe that small...

OMG, he put The Stig into a walker... another amazing creation by Ira.... "The Dahm-inator"

well, it has too much chrome for it to be a Scripps-Booth Mosquito...

Excelta brand tweezers are totally worth what you pay for them, their cobaltima line are great. I use them when soldering surface mount components thru a microscope. check electronics parts suppliers like newark, digikey or mouser... or go straight to their web site.

I agree with Harry, that is beautiful work on a kit that needs work to look this good. I do think that this kit suffers from the same dimensional problems their Auburn kit suffers from, the front fenders appear too short compared to the height of the body, some of the bright work appears either too thick/large (windshield frame) or too small (the side exiting flex exhaust) as compared visually to a real Cord. IMHO Monogram produced a better Cord kit the "looks" more like a real Cord.

this was an excellent effort on a kit that is a pain for the average builder and (IMHO) a challenge for an advanced builder. I have one of these in my stash to build and after comparing the built kit to a photo of the real car it looks like Pyro / Lindberg could have used some more research or tweaking of their design specs for the kit. The main body is too tall and the fenders seem to miss the voluptuous nature of the real car. I will have a real task to make my build assume the character of the real car.

I second what slusher said, nice progress.

The grilles on my bird were actually two colors with chrome accent lines plus the horizontal chrome bar on each side. The vertical grate part which has the headlight holes was matte black with chrome edge accents, the rest of it was matte silver (or aluminum). This doesn't mean yours is incorrect since I haven't researched all possible variants for Firebird trim levels... and a brief google image search is just more confusing. here is a link that matches what my grilles looked like: http://www.jbp-pontiac.com/images/FeaturedCars/dSparta/68%20firebird%20completed%20021.jpg I guess getting better reference material is the trick if it really matters. As long as you're happy with your results that's all that matters.

that's a nice refurb. I think the way you had the grille painted the first time is more correct (based on my experience with my own 68 bird). Some day I will build a replica of my 68 bird but I need to find a way to have the mural on the trunk turned into a decal.

I second this suggestion, and caution against using plastic grocery bags because plastic bags tend to generate static electric charge which will attract dust particles which may then end up in your paint. in the tips thread/section on this forum you will find that some people use food dehydrators which have built in filters and the paint dries much faster.

really detailed the krap out of this one...

I have a suggestion for your wire looms (I do them myself also), try strips of evergreen instead of sheet evergreen. It will save you some time cutting them out.

plastic shoe boxes can be had cheaply at places like Costco or Target also.

well...back in the olden days...a few of us in the scorching bowl called Arizona would get hard-side cases used by airlines for transporting delicate items. I bet you could find some hard-side cases at Harbor Freight relatively cheaply then use soft materials like foam or plastic trash bags to imobilize your models inside the case. it's always the finicky things like mirrors and antennas that seem to get broken, so remember to bring spares and some glue for emergency repairs.

the Palmer kits usually build up looking like their box art, unfortunately their box art only approximates what the real cars looked like.

with a few exceptions, the lindberg/pyro/lifelike kits usually yielded a fairly accurate representation of the real car they were labeled as. The 49 Ford, and 53 Chevy look like they were manufactured from the box art without adjusting for the artists "perspective" . Their other more classic car kits build up well with proper care. I have an old thread with a '34 Ford 3 window here which I can't seem to find so here's what was in it: I have a Pyro '34 Vicky that's going to get similar treatment but with better wheels.

that is a lot of great work, I would like to ask if you have any more work left to do on the driveshaft/u-joints. My experiences with late 50's universal joints (my first car was a 57 Ford Town Victoria) didn't have the molding lines present on the ones in your photos (but that doesn't mean the ones you have chosen to replicate don't have them).

that's a real purdy garnet red you painted, excellent work.

Awww, poor little broken Z-key. was it broken from over use or did it run away to find some friends?

back to the thread topic, I would buy a mid 50's Merc if they marketed one, a mid 50's mopar would be nice also... we need more subjects for customs, rats and cruisin cars.