THarrison351

Thanks for the compliments! It was fun build!

I'm placing this here because it's technically a truck, even though the chassis was a cars. I've had this kit since it was rereleased in 1990. I started it soon after and never finished. Kit is based on Darrill Starbird's Ultra Truck. Don't know why the name change. One of many bubble-top cars from Starbird. Body was a '62 Chevy P/U and chassis was shortened '55 Chevy passenger. The rear inner fenders had huge gaps that I filled and smoothed before painting. I opened up the hood scoop and airbrushed a white area in the center. All those thin strips of chrome were a bear to foil. Engine is an early Buick nail head with lots of chrome. I added a pre-wired distibutor. There's a tiny magnet in the carburetor and one in the scoop so I can take it off. The headlight covers were frosted, so I painted them white. I lost one of the taillight lenses. Found that a tape dispenser had the correct curvature, and cut it to fit. I used Tamiya clear red to color them. I think the real car was black underneath, but the instructions called out the chassis to be white. I added a little pearl clear. Oh yeah, it has working steering too! This is how it was found. Easy kit to build right out of the box. Chrome is pretty bad though. One side of the tree was shinier than the other. Freshly painted, Testors competition orange, flat white, silver, and black. I used Tamiya pearl on the orange

I have this release too. It's on my hit list of need to complete soon. So I'll be watching to see your ideas.

Not current, but you get the gist

Yes sir!

Danbury Mint 1962 Thunderbird Custom. eBay BIN $30+ shipping. Was only missing sport tonneau cover, but I like the hard top anyway.

This was a super easy build. It's a curbside designed for slotcar racing. I should have deepened all the panel lines. It's 1/24 scale, has probably 40 pieces in the kit including the parts for the slotcar conversion. It captures the look though. One big change I made was the wheels. the originals looked marginal. many years ago I built a Fujimi Porsche 356 and I kept the leftover wheels and brakes. Parts box tires look OK. Used a gold gel pen for the lettering. looks purple in the light. Four parts for the interior. I added some generic gauge decals. Not much here. This paint was unfortunately hotter than I hoped, it ate right through the Tamiya White primer. Not the first textured model I've finished. Mocked up in about an hour.

When they were racing, it was great. When they were overdriving and intentionally causing cars in front of them to spin or wreck it was poor sportsmanship. NASCAR should have reviewed the incident penalized the aggressor and sent them to rear and returned the ones spun to their position. If someone was only knocked out of line, that's racing.

Very nicely done!

Looks great! I still have a drawer full of those House of Kolor paints, including the Hot Magenta!

Yeah, it's unfortunate that they've never corrected the mold. I have the first release 2000 Baldwin Motion Camaro that the Z-28 was cloned from, and it's RH headlamp bezel is just the same.

Thanks Alan! I have to agree. AMT, MPC and Johan for the most part had the body proportions nailed down on their kits in sixties and seventies, especially the promo based ones. The details of the engine and chassis is where it sometimes had compromises. Then there's the kits that where modified into some other subject and then returned poorly to the original or decontented to save a few pennies. Thank you Zippi! Thanks Chris! Thank you Ismael! Yeah, it was hard to find other completed stock versions for reference, I found two Cabriolets, and one Coupe. Anything else was a gasser or street rod. Thanks Jim! Look forward to seeing it completed. Thank you Dave! I liked the idea of the two colors over the standard solid tone. Looking through the Dupont 1937 paint chips showed swan grey and regatta red were two I could color match pretty easy Thanks Slusher! Thank you Ulf! AMT did capture the look! Yeah, sometimes I wish I had all the kits I ruined when I was a kid, but then again I have too many kits as it is. I find medium CA glue with accelerator fills a lot of problems, and I have used Evergreen sheets like I did on the hood hinge.

Looks grreat evenn with the deccal dissaster. The right headlight defect has been there since day one.

I just finished this up. It's an old ProShop release from a couple of decades ago. Comes pre-painted for easy assembly. Yeah, right. Well, I had built a bunch of the other ProShop cars in the past and thought I'd try this one. Bought it off eBay around 10 years ago. Started to build it and it wasn't great, but sometimes AMT kits made in the sixties were more difficult than others. It wasn't until I started on the body when I knew there were issues. The parting lines were terrible and they'd painted over them. I was going to look past the dark brownish-red color not matching, but when I tried to assemble the hood and it would not fit without a splice of plastic, I just gave in. So it went back in the box. A couple of weeks ago I resurrected it and realized it really needed a color change. It's not factory, they never offered two-tone, but the colors are close. I find very few example of this kit completed on the internet. It's not an easy kit to finish stock. The best part of the whole kit is the Stove Bolt six! H Here is what I found in the box after hibernating for about ten years. You can see the fenders and wheels do not match. I added a strip of styrene to help make the hood fit. Also, those terrible parting lines. There's a large one on the rear roll pan too. It's not really visible in this photo, but the track width has the tires sticking out past the fenders. I narrowed all four wheel backs to tuck the wheels inside the fenders. The engine is nice though! Color change and my first tire painted with a whitewall Not many stock Cabriolets to get information on the Net. The one I picked was right hand drive, so I mistakenly put the fender steps on the wrong side. No holes drilled for taillights or the rear license plate. Some things have location divots on the inside for drilling, but not these. The hood needed opening latches. Not even a lump, I made some out of bent wire. I pinned the headlights to locate them and make them stable. I pinned the spare tire too Comes with an up top too There's no upper radiator hose, but it has a pin in the water neck and radiator, I slipped some wire insulation in between Very simple interior That's about it. I built the coupe version a couple times when I was a kid back in seventies. I recall purple and metallic blue. I built them as gassers and don't remember having issues, but Testors tube glue fixed many problems

I think his engine blocks at this point were the same dark blue as his chassis components. I have seen them in Petty blue to though. Here's a link I posted from another source with lots of photos from the time period

Thank you Carl! Thanks David! Truthfully, I've had this piece of fine stainless screen floating in my scrap parts since the early nineties. I think it came from an old hobby shop in Greenville, South Carolina, long gone at least twenty years. I've used it on several NASCAR builds. It was getting kind of bent up and wrinkled, but fortunately there was enough straight area to do this. I have know idea where I'll find more. Thank you Ray! Thanks Gary! Your welcome, I enjoy this! Thank you Jim! Thanks Trevor! I do too! I grew up watching racing at an old oval now gone in Las Vegas, Nevada in the seventies, and the historic Langley Field Speedway in the later seventies and eighties. The newly appointed NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition Elton Sawyer, was one of my favorite local drivers to watch. The color I used was Tamiya TS-23 light blue over their grey primer. Thank you Jimmy! Thanks Scott!

Another kit from my son. Not a bad kit to build and from what I can find, mostly accurate. I made a few mods to please my eyes. Paint and decal scheme I was shooting for. I have a window net ordered First mock up. I narrowed the front suspension a bit All painted, ready for detailing and assembly I like it once it's getting close to being finished A couple more steps. There's a coil in the cowl plenum intake area. I added a wiring even though you can't see it once it's built. Added windshield bars too Added a grill screen and made a new spoiler. Also sanded off all hood pins and added these photo-etch ones. Yes, the windshield bars were added offset to the right, just like his car was Made a new fuel fill quick disconnect. It's just an aluminum rivet drilled and trimmed to fit The spoiler I made is held on with double sided tape. l need to adjust it a bit It's funny, the engine has no distributor, but in the area for the air plenum intake below the cowl. they molded in a coil. I added a pre-wired distributor and drilled all the holes for the plug wires. Ypu can't see much, but it was fun. Added my first hinges too. I have tiny magnets to keep the trunk lid on and I think the oil tank has a cooling air intake extending out below the floor The exhaust fit is terrible and I added an oil filter. The rear end should be a quick-change, I don't know what this one represents. The other AMT kit cars have a quick-change rear end. Overall, I'm very happy with the way it turned out and on to the next kit

If your building the recent Petty Dodge Chargers or Plymouth Satellite/Road Runner/GTX from Salvinos JR, here's a good source for photos. check under the album tab to narrow down the time period Flickr

Nice dog!

I've been wanting the Coronet ever since it was first hinted years ago. Gives me hope for the Demon. I built that Datsun turd when I was a kid and immediately blew it up with a firecracker. Won't be trying it again fifty years later

By far the most plastic kits I've produced in years

I only have one vehicle I owned that I've replicated in my possession. A 1993 Ford Ranger Super Cab

Thanks Slusher! Thank you Bill! I'm thinking about getting the second rerelease and doing the movie version. I figure I can get the PPP Firestone NASCAR tires for the movie version. Thanks Tom! Yeah, I had know idea of this kits existence prior to its issue in 2002. I've never been to a model or trade show. My research to build it led me to the information of it's origins and the first issues values. I too wonder if the guy ever got what he wanted for his "valuable" kits Thank you Larry!

For the 1966 movie "Fireball 500" a custom car was created by Barris Kustom for the main character. It started life as a stock 1966 Barracuda with a 273 4 barrel. The body modifications are a love it or hate it kind of thing. The kit was based on the 1965/1966 annual barracuda kit modified to look like the show car, not the movie car. It comes with a sad excuse for a tandem axle trailer too. From everything I've read, at one time this kit because it was only issued once in 1966, was very highly coveted and valuable. That changed in the early 2000s when the molds were discovered and it was reissued. That's the kit I have. It looks like they changed the decals a bit and swapped out the the tires for lower profile versions. Around five years ago, Round2 issued it again with a new expanded set of decals. These have the original movie, and two new corrected fireball sets for the sides. However, they didn't correct the RH side USA shield for some inexplicable reason. As far as I can see everything else in the kit is the same as the 2002 issue. It's not a bad kit to build considering the age and it based on an annual 3n1 promo style kit. The annual kit was only offered with a slant six or a 426 hemi for the engine, so they opted to use the hemi as the SSXR's power. Someone could use a later AMT Duster kit and update the chassis and engine to make it correct, but I'm not up for that this go around. On to the pictures! (Barris Kustom) Movie car, looks like it has Firestone NASCAR gold stripe tires on it. Headrests are different too. You might be able to tell from the picture the steering wheel was "wood" rimmed in the movie. (Custom Rodder) How it looks after the movie and when it was kitted originally. Paint changed, headrests changed, hood pins added, side windows added and all tinted orange. Currently running lower profile white letter radials The model is issued with only one racing mirror. I scrounged two like ones from the parts box and pinned them on I didn't realize until after the USA shield was on, the fuel filler was going to be a problem. There's a raised circle for it's placement. That USA shield is so wrong...It's supposed to be like the left side with the USA forward, and for some odd reason the Plymouth stickers were not placed equally on the front fenders on the show car There's hidden Cibie euro lights behind the tube grill The taillights in the back of the headrests and tail fins appear metallic on the show car. I left the red plastic showing cause I like it. License plate should be recessed You really can't see inside the interior. More pics at the end. I didn't know Tamiya clear orange would craze windows. I'm glad I taped up the outside. I added a simple pre-wired distributor You have to love those early annual promo chassis... Air brushed with decanted Tamiya and Testors Lacquer. Testors white, Tamiya gold, clear orange, and clear red. I painted the back 3/4s gold, the middle orange, then added red Ready for final assembly Only five pieces

Thanks! You're correct about the the decals blue color, but that's what's available. I believe it's close to the same dark blue they used on the chassis parts and wheels and somewhere I read it was called equipment blue, but I've also read Kyle Petty called it Ford dark blue. I used the same thing I've always used for tampo prints and that's cotton balls and acetone. You have to be careful because it does remove some base paint. Edges will become bare if worked hard. I've tried non-acetone nail polish remover too. It works, it's slow, expensive comparatively, and in the end will remove some base paint.