1959scudetto

About 1985 or 86 I built 2 Monogram '56 Thunderbirds: one was built stock out-of-the box, brush-painted with Humbrol light blue directly onto the red plastic. The other was robbed of its Continental kit (I needed this for a slightly customized '56 Ford), so I tried to make a '55 lookalike out of it (front bumper from a 3rd one was used at the rear, portholes of the hardtop were closed with sheet plastic and putty), steering wheel and some other details are wrong, but it got the look - inspiration for the white paint came from the movie "American Graffiti" - I know Susan Somers had a '56, but who cares? White paint is from rattle-cans, hardtops of both cars, too.

Well, I would say not bad for 50 yrs. old - golden oldies !

Thanks, Carl - expecially the Barchetta is a bit toylike looking, but I think these are workable...

Exactly - is this the Italeri re-issue of the old Protar kit?

Thank you Dave, this was a leftover part from a '56 T-Bird I just backdated to a '55 and therefore deleted the Continental kit.

Thank you for the nice compliments, Josh - very appreciated!

Looks great, David - I don't know how you do it but you always manage to build conversions that look as natural as they came out of the factory !

Thanks for the hint, David!

Thank you Bob! Interesting Info, David - but as I have no airbrush, I'm depending on the available spray-cans.

Thank you Tony ! Merci, Philippe - all the originals (except one that was white for a movie production) were painted in a similar color .

Very nice Chevy, Josh - this is not an easy kit - it gave me a lot of troubles (it has a few issues - or was it me?) I tried mine with a stock ride height and it came out as if it is doing an emergency stop. I should have gone for the lowered option as you did - very nice interior and engine wiring!

Thanks, Rich - indeed it was not easy !

Nice representation of batman's nicest vehicle, David - did you use BMF for the edges of the glass canopy? (When I was a 7-year-old boy, all of my friends wanted to have the Monkeemobile and the batmobile - a few years ago, I bought a diecast Batmobile in 1/24, but I have to detail it a little bit - your model certainly helps.)

Fantastic model, Brian (I was thinking about doing the same with my XKSS model for years)

Thank you, Kurt. Thank you, Anders !

Thanks, Chris ! Thank you, Mike ! Yes, the red color is brush-painted with Humbrol enamel which had excellent characteristics back in the day (not any more today, as I've learned in this forum). Thanks, John, I had a lot of fun assembling these two. Thank you, Al ! Thanks, David - I wanted to build them a bit differently (not only the colors). I have to find a way to tint the glass roof (maybe with Tamiya smoke clear from the can ?)

Thanks. Lee ! Thank you Keith - I like that kit too (also the amt '57 Ford), especially for its posable wheels. Thank you, Ray ! Thanks, Larry ! Thank you, Anders, but all of my builts are nowhere near the quality of your models.

old (1985) old-school builts: red is brush-painted, cream, black and white are sprayed from the rattle can, whitewalls are brushed with Humbrol matte white, trim is painted Humbrol silver. The black one is a bit lowered, grille is a Canadian Meteor (?) amt custom part, fender flares cut from sheet plastic, continental kit comes from Monogram's `56 T- Bird (though 1/24, it fits quite well). Wheels are steerable, all doors open.

Very nice, Rich !

Thanks, Rich - as reference material I had an issue of Collectible Automobile which had a few color photos of that car.

Thanks, Danno - if built today, I would have wet sanded the primer and the colors and polished the clearcoat and applied BMF. Thank you. Dan! Thanks, Carl ! Thank you, Benton - I think the color is ver similar to the real one.

Looks good - would it be possible to create a (Phantom, maybe) 1960 Plymouth HT using the remaining parts ?

Excellent models, Clifford - hard to believe that you built them 40 years ago....

Very impressive model, Mark - and a believable story behind it !

Excellent, MIchal - one of the iconic NASCAR racers!