'70 Grande

Interior pics:

These are some in-progress shots of my 1961 Chevrolet Impala USAC race car project. Building this fictitious race car at the end of its racing career in 1965, weathered and worn after having battled on the USAC dirt & paved tracks of the Midwest like Milwaukee, Indianapolis Raceway Park and others. Next steps are removing trim and applying battle-damage to the body. Appreciate any build-suggestions you might have to improve this build.

Wow... that is very cool!

Since this project has been announced by Revell so early in the process, this would be a great opportunity for Revell to post the entire process on Facebook to educate model builders about everything it takes to bring a kit from concept-to-finished production!

Looking at those reference pics of the 1:1 with all of those image registration spots attached makes me extremely curious how the entire scanning process goes to get from that 1:1 to a ready to use 1/25 mold that styrene can be poured into to pop-out kits.

I've longed for the MPC '71 Mercury Cyclone Spoiler kit for 25 years now and still can't give-up my hope. I remember back in 2007/08 when it was announced, but then heard the story that they poured styrene into its molds and out came the Hemi Dart so they reissued that kit! The molds were mis-labelled... but I still hang-on to that everlasting hope of a '71 Spoiler reissue!

Any thoughts about using the chassis and suspension pieces from the 1/25 '66 Chevy Nova Pro-Street kit as a chassis-upgrade for this Vega reissue? (Understanding, of course, that you'd have to cut a section-out of the overall-length to get down to the Vega's shorter wheelbase, and probably have to narrow it as well).

One additional thought here; to my eye it looks like the kit's tailight bezels/frames and lenses are about 10% to 15% oversized in those kit parts; the tailights just look too big to me which can "push' things out-of-place pretty quickly.

One thing that I think might help; notice the gap between the rear bumper's corner and the top-edge of the bumper opening on the endcap, (on the built-up). Looks like that built-up's rear bumper is mounted too low; snugging it up will help but I don't think it'll completely solve the issue. This "solution" leads to a host of additional mods tho.

What is your process for creating those excellent-looking body dents? Really like this build and want to steal your dent-making methods for some of my in-progress builds!

Really nice. Would love to see a side-view-pic of both builds nose-to-nose just to better visualize how these cars changed over 20+ years of time.

Really nice diorama here! Makes me think something fishy and/or illegal is going on at the Boxing Club in the late, late evening! Cuda looks excellent too!

Beautiful build! Everything about it looks so "right"! How did you get those Impala emblems on the front fenders and Chevrolet emblem on the deck lid to look so incredibly crisp... outstanding!

A stunning build! That paint color and its application look excellent! Makes me want to dig out my in-progress build of this same kit and return it to my workbench.

Casey... have you ever heard the phrase: "Pouring gasoline on a fire."

Both look outstanding! Really like to see some engine pics of each!

Beautiful restoration! Paint color is outstanding as well as its finish! Any idea where you got those excellent-looking wheels from?

I can't remember the last time a post on this forum made me belly-laff but this one sure has!

Spare tire well would need to be cut out of the wagon's chassis and dropped into the sedan's chassis, but shouldn't be tough to accomplish.

This build is "spot-on"! Looks terrific; you should be extremely proud of it!

I messaged Kevin at Missing Link about 6 weeks ago; he was sold-out of that resin-cast rear bumper piece and casting a "test" one to see if his mold would still cast a quality piece... haven't heard back from him yet as he needed to send it off to be chrome-plated to make a final determination.

Stunning build! Your custom work is outstanding and the paintwork is incredible as well! I keep coming back to this post and see something new each time I do!

Awesome build as all have posted! Sure would like to have a 1:1 of this build parked inside my home garage!

Great job on this build! I'm curious how you achieved that long-running-dent on the passenger-side door?

Phil, If there are any detail-photos of the 1:1 that you might be seeking, please PM me with a list. About 15+ years ago, I researched one of these 1:1 Jim Hall '70 Trans-Am Camaro's and found it was owned at that time by a California gentlemen that owned and vintage-raced the original, #1 Jim Hall car. Somehow, I found an email address for that gentleman, and I emailed him with a request for some detail-pics as I've planned this same 1/25-build since way-back-when. A few days later several emails came to me with all the detail-shots I requested. He was gracious enough to go out into his garage and shoot the pics himself, and answered some questions I had about the 1:1. Now granted, the pics are of the car 30 years past its "racing days", but the car appeared to have had very few revisions and/or modifications made to it since its racing days. I'd be happy to share any of these reference images with you, (or whomever might be interested in them), just PM me.